: Many people presume that the Fallen indeed were bound to
: Balor. I seek to disprove this. There is really no
: evidence at all in the game. And judging by their
: actions, there is certainly little reason to believe
: they were. I will start bringing this notion under
: question by reviewing each of the Fallen Lords...
I haven't had much reason to post recently, what with Myth III's story being less than inspiring, but what the heck...
First, when deciding whether or not Balor "bound" anybody, it's necessary to recognize that there are multiple possible forms and effects of binding. There's direct mind-control, which is suggested when Balor "bound The Deceiver to his will." There's the binding that results in the Fallen relying on Balor as a power source...since this is meant "to ensure their obedience," it's obviously a way of appealing to their self-interest when direct mind-control doesn't work perfectly. And then, as a sort of variant of the latter, there's the binding where a Fallen creature might rely on Balor for existence itself, just as Baron Kildaer's Stygian Knights deactivate when he dies.
Rather than asking "Did Balor bind the Fallen?", one should ask "What type of binding, if any, did Balor place on a given Fallen under his control?" Remember that "Fallen" is often used to refer to more than just the Fallen Lords. It could be that--just as an example--formerly Light Fallen Lords like the Deceiver were brainwashed, while perma-Dark Lords like the Watcher were simply bribed with a power link, and lesser Fallen like the bulk of the undead depended on Balor for their very existence.
Second, when wondering why the specific mind-control aspect of binding doesn't work perfectly, it's helpful to look at Myth's biggest literary inspiration, the Black Company. The 1337 mega-bad guys of those books, the Dominator and his Lady, bind lesser sorcerers using the process of Taking...a course of torture and brainwashing and so forth that leaves the victim broken and totally loyal. Yet, just as in Myth, the various Taken are constantly squabbling with each other and occasionally even conniving against their masters. Why? Well, for one thing, the Taking effect seems to gradually wear off. The Taken slowly regain their individual motivations; and doubtless this is helped by their exceptional strength of will (being powerful sorcerers and all.) Also, being Taken affects the instincts much more than the intellect; it's not so much a matter of strongly believing that you should do what your master wants, as of being overwhelmed by fear and loyalty whenever you approach them or see them. So it's not as hard for a Taken to disobey his master's plans when he's out on his own and they aren't in the forefront of his mind.
One can apply this to the Fallen Lords in Myth. If they were mentally bound, it was centuries ago, and some of them--particularly those who were powerful sorcerers in their own right long before they even met Balor--have probably worked out ways of ignoring or subverting the binding when they really really want to. In addition, the binding is probably very strongly focused on loyalty to/fear of Balor himself, and less strongly focused on obedience to his exact orders. (In fact, we know it's not supposed to effect perfect obedience or Balor wouldn't need to cajole them with a power link as well.) There's a big difference between putting Balor's orders aside for a while to settle individual rivalries, and daring any kind of direct dispute with Balor himself. We never see a Fallen Lord doing the latter.
: The Watcher has been under the command of several
: levellers and it is unlikely he was bound each time.
: He is truely an evil being...and probably served Balor
: willingly as he has done in the past.
He may be an evil being, but he has his own rivalries and objectives that Balor isn't interested in. Besides, why does his being "loyally" evil conflict with his being bound? One might argue that the very reason he's so purely Dark is that millennia of Leveller-bindings have "streamlined" his psyche; he doesn't have much personality left anymore.
: The Deciever very often acts completely rash...and ends
: up battling the Watcher at least twice during the
: great war (this definately is not the action of
: someone under the leveller's "control"). The
: Deciever even continues fighting the armies of the
: Province after Balor has died...eventually falling
: near the Stair of Grief.
The first is certainly true, but that only shows that the mind-control is not perfect. After all, his actions are a whole lot closer to those of a loyal servant of Balor than to those of the Avatara he once was. (And yes, if you want to bring in Myth III, he served Mjarin when he was an Avatara--but that would be much easier to swallow since Mjarin's apparent aim was political power, not Apocalypse.) Also note that one of those battles is started by the Watcher, not The Deceiver.
As for the second observation...surely, if anything, that's evidence for his binding. With Balor dead and the Dark armies crumbling, Myrdred has no pragmatic reason to keep on fighting. The fact that he perseveres anyway suggests a non-pragmatic motivation; namely, that he's been mentally bound to the cause.
: Soulblighter all but abandons his pursuit of the Legion
: after the Gjol, enabling the legion to reach Rhiannon
: almost uncontested (after the watcher is killed). He
: simply disappears for the rest of the war, even though
: it is obviously not over.
The Legion is small. Battles are still raging over the entire western half of the continent. Is Soulblighter supposed to waste his time stamping out the Legion when he could head back toward the Province and the Zerk lands and confront some serious threats? :-)
Remember, if not for Alric's "surprise," the Legion would have been wiped out easily by Balor's guard. Soulblighter was doing exactly what he was supposed to--herding Alric's army toward Rhi'anon where they could be wiped out by the Dark (and Alric could perhaps be bound by Balor). Once Alric was on his way to clashing with Balor, Soulblighter's job was done.
: Shiver falls early in the war and thus it is hard to say
: whether she is bound or serves under her own will. But
: judging by her service to Soulblighter in the second
: war.....I favor the latter possibility.
Again, that could just as easily be interpreted as her mental bonds being so strong that she stays Dark for good instead of turning back to the Light, even though Balor isn't around to scare her into obedience any more.
: Its also noteworthy that not a single of the Fallen Lords
: actually dies when Balor does. The Deciever and
: Soulblighter both survive...and Shiver is not
: permanently dead.
Nowhere is it said that the Fallen Lords would die. It's said that they would be powerless, and that their armies would collapse. Now obviously that's wrong to a degree...but how wrong is it? Two Fallen Lords are never heard from, except in the M2 manual where it says that "the remaining Fallen Lords were hunted down and killed". For all we know, those two could have had their powers stripped away instantly. Soulblighter...well, Soulblighter spent sixty years in the East learning sorcery after Balor's death, so we don't know how much power he lost at the time. Shiver and The Deceiver reappear in Myth 2 with powers, but both seem to be considerably less powerful than they were in TFL. I would say that Alric simply underestimated the amount of power the Fallen Lords themselves possessed; he was still correct that Balor was substantially adding to that power while he was alive.
As for the lesser Fallen, many of them probably did die on the spot. There were some pretty huge Dark armies roaming around at that time--half a million at Rhi'anon alone--and with a few Fallen Lords still surviving (even with lowered power levels), it's hard to imagine them succumbing to the scattered Light survivors. I would suspect that the bulk of the low-level magical and undead units, like Thrall and Soulless and so forth, simply collapsed, leaving only Lords, Shades, living units and a few undead personally bound to each Lord. (Hence the tiny army Soulblighter has with him at the Great Devoid, and the "remnants of an army" which The Deceiver has when he's defeated.)
: The question remains then...why did the Fallen Lords fall
: at that time soon after his death..? There simply was
: no leadership holding it together anymore.
That is doubtless one factor, whether or not binding also contributed.
: The Fallen Lords, for the most part, acted independently
: throughout the war. Even with Balor's command, The
: Fallen Lords almost never combined forces in the Great
: War (Tyr being an exception...but the Deciever nearly
: killed the Watcher afterwards). One can imagine that
: without central leadership, there would be even less
: loyalty between the Fallen Lords. The smaller armies
: of the remaining Fallen Lords were bound to be crushed
: by the armies of the Province.
This is true, but you can easily strike "central leadership" and substitute "mental binding." :-) And it's highly unlikely that the Dark armies at this point were smaller than the Light ones. The Dark conquest was almost complete--their success in the West was assured. All the major cities of the Province had fallen. I doubt if there was one Light soldier left per ten Dark soldiers.
Of course, if the lesser Dark units were bound and many died at Balor's death, that would change the odds toward what you're thinking. :-)
: Furthermore, who was left after Balor died..? There was
: almost no leadership at that point: the watcher and
: shiver had both died. Soulblighter and his army had
: simply disappeared. That left the Deciever...who
: fought on before finally being overwhelmed.
The Myth2 manual speaks of "the remaining Lords being hunted down and killed," so it would appear that the two unnamed Lords were also active at that time.
: I think that the idea Balor bound his generals to him is
: false. It was never truely confirmed in the game
: anyways....it was merely a rumor Alric heard...
But a rumor he heard straight from Balor, mind. :-) That means it was either an intentional lie--and Balor didn't have much reason to lie at that point--or the truth.
--SiliconDream
