: Exactly! I just came on before going to bed to say this,
: but you beat me to it. It "set the uneasy
: precedent" that a Leveller can die early in the
: cycle, simply because that was the first Dark Age in
: recorded history. Also, I don't think the Light could
: survive at all if there was a Dark Lord leading the
: forces of darkness for a THOUSAND YEARS. I mean, look
: what Balor did in 50-something years, and extrapolate
: that to what would have happened had the Head not
: messed things up.
Lessee. First, I doubt a precedent would be referred to as "uneasy" unless it was disturbingly unlike things as they were before. Second, to me, a Dark Lord's "fate mirroring that of his cause" means that it prevails when he prevails, and dies when he dies. So I think the Leveller was supposed to survive until the end of the Dark Age he initiates.
With regard to whether the Light could survive--GURPS says that Balor, unlike Soulblighter, was interested in iron-fisted rule rather than total destruction. This contradicts the popular belief in the Province that Balor sought "not to conquer but to destroy," but I would imagine that the people formed that belief in the days when they thought that everything in Balor's path had been completely destroyed. In fact we know now that Gower, which should be a smoking wasteland, is doing reasonably well. So it's quite possible that all the Levellers--perhaps because they were once good--would stop short of total genocide, and content themselves with tormenting the Light races under their heel. After a thousand years, the dawning influence of good weakens the Dark oppressors in the East--whose master is across the continent, where he can least effectively back them up--and a hero is born who can throw off the yoke.
: The thing that really messes up the thought that a
: Leveller would live though a Dark Age, though is that
: if that was the norm, then why would another Leveller
: show up at the dawn of the next Light Age (as did
: "Moagim reborn")? Just to be killed? I don't
: think so. I think the Leveller is usually killed
: sometime in his Dark Age, and then another Leveller
: shows up a thousand years after that one did, at the
: dawn of the next cycle. In other words, every thousand
: years both Leveller and Hero rise (whether that means
: being born, or being turned into a new evil by the
: Leveller spirit), and who wins their inevitable battle
: is all the cycles decide.
The ill-fated 2nd Leveller showed up before the dawn of the Light Age--according to GURPS, it was only then that he chose to attack the West openly. I think the existence of this Leveller was a product of the cycle-aberration. Alric/Moagim was killed before he should have been, so the forces of Fate allowed him to be reborn to continue fighting for the Dark. It's exactly the same reason as why Soulblighter came back. Alric should have lost, so the cycle tried to find another Leveller to finish him off. IMO, probably there will be repeated attacks by Fallen Lords every century or so, as Fate tries to make the Sword Age a Dark one.
: Also, another point: Tharsis, and the comet. Firstly, why
: does Tharsis erupt when the cycles are turning over?
: That's Nyx's creation. So does Nyx have something to
: do with the cycles?
I tend to doubt it. The Trow's indifference to the cycle suggests that Nyx is also indifferent.
: Secondly, the direction the comet
: goes. At the dawn of the Wolf Age, it took up
: residence in the western skies; at the dawn of the
: Sword Age, it took up residence in the Eastern skies.
: We don't know where it came from in the Wind Age, or
: if it came at all in the Age of Reason (though we can
: presume it did). So lets look at the pattern: 2nd Era
: - Comet rises in ????, heralding ???? ??????
: 3rd Era - Comet rises in ????, heralding Evil Alric
: 4th Era - Comet rises in west, heralding Good Connacht
: 5th Era - Comet rises in east, heralding ???? ??????
: So, it seems to alternate east to west, to herald the
: Good when in the west and (presumably) the Evil when
: in the east, and to herald whoever is destined to win
: (despite the fact that Balor lost, he SHOULD have
: won). Thus, to fill in the blanks: 2nd Era - Comet
: rises in west, heralding Good Alric.
: 3rd Era - Comet rises in east, heralding Evil Alric.
: 4th Era - Comet rises in west, heralding Good Connacht
: 5th Era - Comet rises in east, heralding Evil Connacht
: Thus, if the cycle wasn't broken, we could expect the
: next Era to have a comet rise in the west, heralding
: Good Alric's inevitable victory.
This suggests to me that the comet is somehow evil. It always appears on the same side of the continent as the Dark champion. Is the comet's corrupting glow responsible for the pall of evil that slides around the Mythworld?
: And one last thing (I promise). I was just thinking about
: the broken cycle again. It should have gone - Comet
: heralds Connacht's rule; Connacht disappears; Comet
: heralds Balor's rule. Instead it went - Comet heralds
: Connacht's rule; Connacht disappears; Comet almost
: due, Balor appears; Comet arrives on schedule, Balor
: dies.
: So what I'm thinking is thus: Connacht wanted to break
: the cycle. He appeared as Balor off-schedule for the
: cycle, thus forcing Alric to kill him just as he
: (Connacht) was supposed to be taken over by the
: Leveller. In this way, the forces of the Dark are
: defeated IMMEDIATELY as the Dark Age begins!
: Balor wasn't the Leveller - there was none this Era! The
: Leveller took over Balor - still the most powerfull
: sorceror at that moment - just as he was being killed!
: So the Leveller never got to secure a Dark victory
: like Moagim did, even though some terrible ravaging
: was done in the process of stopping him. Connacht
: sacraficed himself and most of humanity in a trick to
: get the Leveller killed before he could do any REAL
: damage!
: It's brilliant! I love you, Connacht! [smooch]!
: (Of course, Alric using an Eblis Stone and throwing his
: head down the Great Devoid couldn't have hurt much,
: either).
A very intriguing theory. I can find only two objections: 1) Why didn't Connacht make his suicide more of a sure thing and less damaging to the Light? He could have fought as incompetently as possible, doing very little damage to the Light armies and just managing to stay alive until the comet appeared, then allowing a dozen avatara and a thousand berserks to jump him. Or he could have not waged a war at all, just sat in a tower in the wilderness somewhere until the crucial moment, then blown his own head off with a time-delayed magical spell.
2) The comet seems to herald the appearance of the champion on the battlefield, not the moment when they first come into existence. Connacht was presumably no longer a child by the time the comet came and he started his war; Balor would most likely have already been possessed by the Leveller by the time the Great War's comet appeared.
And a couple of random questions:
If Mahir are independent creatures, spontaneously and "naturally" created by the deaths of those who weren't ready, how did Soublighter manage to get a bunch and turn them to his service? Or do the Mahir simply happen to lurk around Tharsis, attacking anyone nearby, because they died there originally?
If Nyx is still Wyrd's enemy, might the Trow desire to keep the 49 dreams from being united, so that Wyrd's work can never be perfected? Perhaps the Trow even attempt to destroy whatever dreams they can locate. Maybe this is what happened to the Dream of Unlife.
--SiliconDream
