: This seems the most likely option to me. Most of The
: Head's actions either benefit The Deceiver (e.g.,
: allowing him to capture Alric), harm the Light, or
: harm one of The Deceiver's rival Lords (particularly
: Shiver and The Watcher.) And as you say, The Head's
: heavy on secret knowledge and mind-control powers.
That the head was somehow involved with Myrdred also has some merit in the idea that the head says that it was an enemy of Balor and yet also a former lieutenant of Connacht. I once proposed that the Faceless Man (the pre-release name of one of the fallen) may be the Head, and I personally find that theory one of the most intriguing I've heard. That the Head was somehow connected to the Deceiver, though, actually seems to support this. First: the head does indeed seem to be much more, shall we say, amiable, towards the Deceiver than the other Fallen Lords and Balor, for all the reasons mentioned. I would have to say that the Head and the Deceiver being allies is indeed an intriguing, and even tantalizing prospect, and even more so because of this:
We can actually probably believe the bit about the Head being a former lieutenant of Connacht, in fact. First, the game merely says that Alric ridicules the belief of the rest of the Nine that the Head was one of the Avatara of Connacht, first of all, which says nothing definitive, except that the Head himself had probably told them that, as he had also told them that he was an enemy of Balor. However, the Head was known for lying. How do we reconcile this? The Nine had access to the Heron Gaurd, some of whom probably had been living since the time of Connacht, and virtually, if not actually, all of whom obviously knew that Balor and Connacht were the same person. The Head was obviously intelligent, and it would know that, and also that the Nine would likely ask the Heron about these kinds of things; the Head wouldn't have established itself as so obviously deceitful so quickly, because he would lose all of the Nine's trust, which would, in turn, unless he was using extremely blatant controlling magic, destroy any measure of control he could have on them. And were he using a brand of magic to control the Nine as powerful as the Deceiver's, why would he have bothered to wait so long, and use so much verbal deceit? Why not simply turn them against one another at day one? Obviously he was, if using magic, which seems likely, doing something more subtle, gradually working on the various people around him and twisting their perceptions. It's rather similar to what the Deceiver does, certainly, but not entirely the same. But what of Alric's disbelief? Alric, while certainly powerful and knowledgeable, was a newcomer in the field--he was in his twenties. He would have been far rasher than the rest of the Nine, making him much more susceptible, of course, to jumping to conclusions. He could easily have been more stubborn, and, taking into account that he has the potential to become a Leveller (if not in this life, then in the next), probably a few other certain character flaws which could easily lead him to believe in himself over anybody else--including the disgraced Heron. Furthermore, the condition he was in at the time (this is, I believe, shortly after they rescue him) would be hardly conducive to rational conclusions. Finally, for all we know, Alric may not even have known at this point that Connacht was Balor. The Head betrayed him by essentially giving him to the Deceiver, correct? Had Alric not known of Connacht's and Balor's identity at the time (which would likely lead him to the conclusion that Connacht had been an enemy of Balor), it would have been natural to assume that no ally of a minion of Balor could possibly have been an ally of Connacht.
The ability of the Deceiver and the Head both to control people certainly can be interpreted to suggest that they indeed knew each other prior to the Deceiver's being turned to the Dark. They were obviously both ancient, and, as I just explained, probably both lived through the time of Connacht--the Deceiver seems to be too familiar with the pasts of Shiver, Soulblighter, Balor, and the Watcher to not have at least been around during the general time period. They seem to be of similar temper, and, through conjecture, one could say they also seem to be of similar character. They are both obviously very powerful mages, which means that they almost definitely knew each other. Now, I personally feel that, if we accept that the Head was indeed aiding the Deceiver by causing the fall of a Fallen and sowing strife amongst the Nine, he seems to be acting less as a pupil would, and perhaps more as a slightly lesser peer. This is total conjecture on my part, but I think that this makes slightly more sense. I can't explain it, really, but it simply seems that the Head isn't the type who would have kept a lot of respect for a former mentor who in some measure abandoned him, though perhaps he might have for a fellow student who he had acknowledged as better than himself.
Now, there have been plenty of people who have argued that the Faceless man is most probably Soulblighter; and this does make some sense; after all, Soulblighter has only half a face, and he even has only half of one for a reason which is certainly good enough to title somebody over. However appealing this theory may be to some, it's completely and flat out wrong. Why, you ask? Here's an excerpt from the "Names of the Fallen" theory in the Delusions section that explains:
I originally began thinking about this back when Josh & Dan's "Myth's Story" site (the content of which is now part of this site) pointed out the existance of Myth:TFL pre-release info at Eidios' web site (Eidios was Bungie's European publisher). On this site were given six names for the six Fallen Lords:
Soulblighter
The Voiceless One
Bahl'al
The Deceiver
Bonesplitter
The Faceless Man
The first three were listed as "ancient evils", while the latter three were "turned from the light".
This gives us two crucial pieces of information: that (A) so long as one accepts that one of the Fallen Lords is called The Faceless Man (which one ought to, owing in large part to the fact that pre-release information is canon), one cannot also think of Soulblighter as being the same person, unless he believes that Soulblighter can somehow be two people at once (is he schizo? :? ); and (B) that the Faceless Man is, just like the Deceiver, a more recently turned Fallen Lord.
That they list those three together (the "turned from the light" three), and in that manner, and then combined with the information found in the briefing of level 11, "Through the Ermine" (M2) about the Deceiver ("[Alric] seeks Myrdred, an avatara of the Wolf Age whom Balor renamed "The Deceiver" after bending him to his will.") goes on to suggest that Bungie may have been thinking that those particular three were all turned from the light by Balor.
Let me pose a question here: Why exactly would Balor go around searching for people who happen to be extremely powerful he once knew when he was Connacht? There's only one reason, really, and that is that he was looking for allies--and the only time he was looking for allies was during his preparation for his war against the light--a long and arduous preparation, certainly (the Myrmidons were tricked some three centuries prior to the Great War), but it was a single gathering of allies, nonetheless. He found generals for his armies in the persons of Shiver, Soulblighter, and The Watcher; and, or at least, logically, he made generals out of the other three, all (probably) during roughly the same time frame. So we know that the Deceiver and the Faceless man are contemporaries. This would further suggest that they were at the very least acquainted with each other, since they seem to be similar, insofar as that they are both indeed very powerful: so much so that they could later be considered "sorcerer-generals" of the Dark; this kind of power seems to have the same kind of prestige and ideas that go with it that famous and ground-breaking scientists do, and they are generally well acquainted with each other's work, and moderately so with each other. Indeed, the Deceiver and the Fallen Man may even have been friends, or otherwise somehow well-acquainted, prior to their being bent to Balor's will, though I'm not going to be a stickler about this--it is, after all, pure conjecture. Even had they merely heard of one another prior to their being "turned from the light," they would certainly have become allies (even if only so much as any of the other Fallen were with each other) afterwards thanks to the fact that they were more or less in the same boat. The other Fallen Lords weren't going to like them a lot, as they had been until just recently enemies, and they were going to be very resentful towards the other Fallen Lords, and Balor as well. As the tendency to stab each other in the back whenever convenient existed even amongst the ancient evils of the Fallen--though Shiver, Soulblighter, and the Watcher may have been better able to get along with each other than the Deceiver, they were certainly still rather strange bedfellows--, and since there were two natural groups formed by the fact that three were forced into it, all probably at roughly the same time, while three volunteered, also at roughly the same time, it seems natural for the Fallen to polarize into two camps. Even if you take Myth III's basic story into account (discounting their attempt at explaining the Head), then you have a rather natural situation crop up: Soublighter and Shiver, as supposed former allies of the Deceiver, were perhaps unintentionally less on the receiving end of his wrath than was the Watcher, a supposed former enemy.
The two characters of the Faceless Man and the Head seem to have a lot of congruities. Certainly a lot of it is in conjecture, but it makes a lot more sense than a lot of other options. On top of all these I give the explanation that the pre-release name Bungie gave the Faceless Man fits the Head probably better than any and all of the other characters we come across in Myth I and II. There's the Soulblighter argument, of course, but that's impossible. The Faceless Man was, according to pre-release info, a separate lord. Bungie may have been planning never to use the Faceless Man in the Myth series, though they're not known for simply making up names out of the blue where it suits them, even if they are for characters that they won't use, so the argument that they simply took it out of thin air is probably out. The Faceless Man is the only Fallen Lord for whom there is absolutely no Bungie-sponsored material about, and the Head is one of the greatest mysteries that exists in the Myth universe. Yet if you think about it, if the Head was a Fallen Lord, what would his name be? Certainly the Faceless Man is a bit of a misnomer--it isn't the best fit available. But the names of the Fallen, such as they are--the types of names that they're most commonly referred to by--Soulblighter, the Watcher, the Deceiver, the Faceless Man, etc.--these types of names are not those that, say, the Heron or the Nine would give them, these are the names the commonfolk have given them. The commoners would give a headless man/bodiless head the kind of name like the Faceless Man, wouldn't they? Isn't that the kind of thing you would see in legend? I feel that the name fits extremely well, considering this.
The way I see it is this. The Head and Myrdred know each other in the time when Connacht is the great Hero. In fact, they are learning whatever magicks they are together, but Myrdred is the more talented. The person who becomes the Head respects him. They eventually become widely recognized archmages, and are keeping company with Connacht and Damas and the rest. They may even help to overthrow Moagim Reborn. After all of this, Connacht goes into self-exile and everything, and they go their separate ways, or something to that effect. Eventually, Connacht comes back as Balor. He's found Bahl'al, who he wants on his side because he's really powerful, and because it gives him the Thrall. He's amassed a huge army of undead, Trow, Kithless, etc. and needs generals. Naturally the only people he would consider are those who are really powerful, and since he knew a lot of powerful mages, etc., back in the day, he has a good idea of who fits the bill. He goes around and manages to find Damas (now Soulblighter) and Ravanna (now Shiver; I'm not saying that Myth III is necessarily right about Ravanna's past, but she was an ancient evil, so he must have encountered her once or twice as Connacht). All well and good, but he still needs more. He goes and looks up a couple more of his buddies from the day, but they're not so keen on the idea. He can't quite understand why, so he decides that he'll just force them into it. So he ends up bending Myrdred (The Deceiver), whoever the Faceless Man was (also the Head), and the Lurker (whoever that is) to his will. They all hate him and the other Fallen Lords for it, and, thanks to their having been previously acquainted, along with the somewhat close relationship that the Faceless Man/the Head had with the Deceiver, and, because of their situation, they decide to stick together in this. Before the Great War starts, the Faceless Man does something that really, REALLY pisses the first three Fallen off, (most likely with Shiver in the lead of pissed-offedness), and so they behead him before Balor can do anything about it. Fortunately, he's really good at magic, and can keep himself alive. So he gets even more pissed off at them, but Balor manages to keep a general war from breaking out between them. The Great War starts, and the Faceless Man gains his name, thanks to the common folk. But he pisses the other Fallen off again, and they bury him in the desert where Balor can't find him--or maybe he just doesn't care enough at this point to look. Point is, the Faceless Man gets incredibly pissed off at the first three Fallen, and, because of Shiver's leading role in his decapitation, he focuses on her mostly, and probably the Watcher second, for some reason or another. So he waits, and he waits, and eventually the Nine comes and digs him out, figuring he'll be so incredibly pissed off at all the Fallen that he'll help them entirely--they don't count on him still being all buddy-like with the Deceiver though, or on his magic specialties. They don't tell the common troops that he's a Fallen Lord, because they'll be all like "What the hell are you thinking?" kinda thing, and so they just refer to him as the Head, without knowing whose Head. You can figure the rest out from there. Keep in mind, I'm not saying this is exactly the way things happened, but it's a possible scenario; and I'm saying the basics are probably the most likely I've yet seen, concerning the Head's identity and past.
