: The second or the third, to me, with my base reaction
: pulling me towards voting for the second.
Agreed, although I don't like the notion of Connacht having been found cowering and scared. I think he should still be a great warrior and impressive to the Herons... I'm imagining that he's been almost single-handedly holding the Myrkridia off from his village. But he's a simple tribesman and wouldn't have thought to save the world. Maybe the Bruig heard of this one village standing alone in the wilds, fending off the Myrkridia, and sent this patrol to see what the rumors were about.
I've got this image in my head, the patrol approaching through the woods, the howls of the Myrkridia everywhere, fires all about, the patrol trying more to avoid the Myrkridia than to dash in and rescue anyone (nobody can beat the Krids, it's be crazy to try). They're too late, no one can be rescued here, may as well turn back before we get eaten too... but then what's that? A man's voice crying out not in pain or terror but in anger, sheer rage, and the sound of an axe-blade cleaving some poor body apart. They look back to the village and see Connacht in the village square, hacking down Myrkridia as they come at him, chasing after them as they rush for the people's huts...
And then they notice, he's not fending them off on his own. There are archers in the trees and on top of the buildings, shooting fire arrows to barricade the Myrkridia. Other men stand guard at the doors of the huts, giving their lives to hold off the Myrkridia long enough for Connacht to finish them. This whole village is organized around helping this one man desperately defend them from the devils. This is what the rumors were about. Imagine what he could do with an army at his aid...
Basically, I don't want to paint Connacht as weak in any way, just, the victory over the Myrkridia wasn't nearly so easy as it was made out to sound, and Connacht wasn't some hero out to save the world, just some ass-kicking nobody trying to keep his friends from getting eaten.
But you're right, don't start the story here: start it like I said, with some villagers desperately fleeing from their destroyed homes, trying to make it to Muirthemne before they get eaten, though many of them do. They make it to Muirthemne, barely and we witness the city standing up against waves of Myrkridian onslaught. All the Orders of the city are introduced, Avatara and Warlocks, Herons and Bowmen, and so on. After resting a while our main characters are congratulated on surviving to reach Muirthemne all the way from their home, and offered jobs defending the city. Once in the defense force, our narrator is eventually assigned to the patrol that goes to investigate these rumor of some other village managing to hold off the beasts, but this one a small town without Muirthemne's great walls... how could mere men do such a thing? Enter Connacht, as per above.
From there Connacht is brought back to Muirthemne and so on roughly according to Myth 3's plot.
