: Actually, it says "Second Era tradition,"
: doesn't it? Which implies that the hero they're
: talking about was before the Second Era (otherwise it
: would be "Second Era cutting-edge news"). So
: that hero was probably before Connacht no matter how
: many ages make an era. I think they're talking about
: the last successful Great Hero before Tireces. Or
: maybe Tireces himself--Forrest, remind me what the
: evidence is that Tireces came from the West and not
: the East?
I scrapped that theory because of new evidence from GURPS. I used to think that the cycles moved in double-waves - Light from east, then Dark from east, then Light from west, then Dark from west, then light from east... and so on. I thought this because Connacht came from the east, then Balor from the east, then Alric from the west, plus early beta stuff said the tomb of the first Krid king was either near Shoal or Silvermines, in the west, so they probably came from the west too, and thus Tireces must have come from the west before them.
But GURPS threw a monkey wrench into all that with several new factoids. Firstly, Balor didn't have his own age/era, then Alric his own - they were both from the Sword Age, and Balor was supposed to have won, removing the "then Alric from the west" wave from the above pattern. Secondly, it threw a whole new age/era in there; we had thought it was Age of Reason (light), unnamed (dark), Wind Age (light), Wolf Age (dark), Sword Age (light)... but instead it's Age of Reason (light), Wind Age (dark), Wolf Age (light), Sword Age (dark). Thirdly, it turns out the both Hero and Leveller rise once per age/era, so Connacht/Balor didn't come right after Tireces/Moagim - there was another Hero who fought Moagim, and another Leveller who fought Connacht.
Thus Tireces, who was the second-era Hero (so says GURPS), rose in the east. Since Connacht and Balor, both destined to win just like Tireces (though Balor was thwarted), both also rose in the east, it seems that Moagim must have too, since he won. So the winners always come from the east, and their opponents from the west.
(To further complicate things, GURPS says that Alric is likely a reincarnation of Moagim, and thus a reincarnation of Tireces, and that the Leveller who fought Connacht was also "Moagim reborn". So every hero and leveller we know of was either Connacht or Alric. Tireces/Moagim were Alric and their unnamed opponents must have been Connacht, as Connacht/Balor were Connacht and their opponents were Alric).
(Then there's the comet. In the Wolf Age it rose in the west to herald Connacht. In the Wind Age it rose, where is unknown, to herald Moagim. In the Sword Age it rose from the east to herald someone, who is unknown. So it seems to rise alternatingly from east or west, and always heralding the victor, who as shown above always comes from the east. So if you look at the pattern, it seems that it always rises from the same direction as the Leveller. Someone recently postulated that perhaps the comet is the corrupting influence which causes the tides of darkness to cross the world).
As for Second-Era "tradition", remember that an Era is a thousand years, and Tireces *started* that Era, so by the end of it (and throughout most of it), his story would be tradition and not news.
