: That's an interesting way of looking at it. There is one
: problem, though. If one is a J-man and one is a Heron
: guard, that would screw up the myth world. Herons and
: J-men are the same thing at different times. That
: heron guard could be something different, maybe a
: scrael. Hmmm...
Not only that, but there weren't any human bowmen in TFL; it wasn't until the Light won that they started training humans as archers. And while the differences between units are important to us as players, I don't see why people living in the Myth world would really care that much about them. The Nine might each represent some region or race (the "avatar" of the dwarven state, the "avatar" of the human state), and it's certainly possible that they all come from different regions, but I don't think you'd select your supreme rulers specifically on the basis of how well they represent each of the local fighting styles.
I think in the "Gate of Storms," the picture actually shows Rabican, Murgen and Maeldun, in left-to-right order; the text next to them says "Rabican, Murgen and Maeldun have been dead sixty years..." Rabican's not the warlock-looking guy, he's the big mother with the horned helmet and sword. We know this is him because a "White Falls" pregame pic shows him toasting Shiver while the narrator explains.
: The way I've always seen it has been like this: There are
: those avatara guys, all of which are powerful
: sorcerers and can cast these cool spells (called
: dreams) and are pretty good at most other things. I
: just couldn't imagine a powerful wizard coming from
: the ranks of Zerks or dwarves (in the index in the
: back of the Myth II manual, the entry for the nine
: says that they were all powerful sorcerers).
I don't know if a berserk would ever become a wizard, but I do think even if you started out as a nonmagical unit like a berserk, you'd have to learn magic to become as good at fighting as an Avatara. You just can't become a legendary hero without magically boosting your skill and toughness. The greatest berserk or Heron Guard hero hasn't a chance against even a pretty non-violent sorcerer like The Deceiver. So whatever the Nine's origins, they must be sorcerers now. Anyway, we know for sure that Alric, Rabican (who used dreams), and Murgen and Cu Roi (who magically destroyed the Tain) were all sorcerers.
There're some gaps in our knowledge of the Nine that really bug me, and I'd love if anyone would respond to these questions:
Where did the Nine come from? Alric is described as the "king," and apparently he's been king for decades (see "Flight from Covenant" narrative), but he doesn't seem to rule the Nine; they seem to all have equal say. Was Alric originally the only king, and the rest of the Nine worked for him, and then when the Dark came he raised them to the status of equals because he knew they would be equally good commanders-in-chief, or because there's some sort of "martial law" provision in the West's constitution? Or did the other members of the Nine flee to the West when their own kingdoms were destroyed? Or was each member of the Nine king of a small portion of the west, and they merged to better fight the fallen? Or what?
Why don't we see more magicians? We know from the "Shadow of the Mountain" narrative that the Light did possess some wizards, although we never get to see them and obviously they couldn't stand up against the Fallen Lords and their Warlocks. Most of the sorcerers we actually meet in the game got their powers in evil or self-destructive ways, like the self-mutilating Soulblighter and the Warlocks who sold their souls for knowledge. How did the Avatara and the Light's wizards learn good magic? And why didn't Alric start training more wizards after the end of the Great War? The journeymen/Heron Guards seem to have a lot of magical knowledge, but they never actually cast any spells.
Does Rabican have something to do with Balor? Rabican's the most powerful Avatara (the Nine send him out to get Shiver), just as Balor's the most powerful Fallen; they're both huge, they both wear horned helmets and they both summon/channel giant magic lightning bolts through their swords.
Why do so many Avatara mask themselves? Rabican wore a helmet, Murgen and Alric painted their faces, and Maeldun wore an eye-obscuring hood. On the other side, Balor and The Watcher wore helmets, Soulblighter just took his face off and put it in his pocket or something, and even The Deceiver wears an eye patch that he apparently doesn't need (to judge from his headshot). Shiver alone doesn't seem to wear anything over her face (except lots of badly applied lipstick), but then she's the vain one. Is there some sort of rule that a powerful magician can't go into battle with his whole face showing? Please post if you have any ideas.
--SiliconDream
