(whoops! I missed an 's' in 'inconsistencies' in the subject line for my first post...)
:: "The King has sent word to Twelve Motion Jeweled
:: Skull, a Journeyman who served under him during his
:: campaigns east of the Cloudspine, in hopes that he has
:: some knowledge of what became of The Deceiver after
:: Balor's destruction."
:: --Myth II journal entry, "Through the Ermine."
: I'm guessing that all that this means is that, though
: Alric is aware that the Deceiver was defeated, and
: probably knew he had been bested somewhere in the
: Stair of Grief. However, this much knowledge wouldn't
: be enough to find the D. Not that Alric cared up until
: this point--there was no reason to find him.
Yes, but the wording--"some knowledge of what became of the Deceiver after Balor's destruction"--implies otherwise. If it had said "what became of the Deceiver after his defeat [at the Stair of Grief]," I wouldn't be so sceptical. Instead, "after Balor's destruction" suggests that Alric hadn't the foggiest clue what happened to the Deceiver at all! If he had, why would he have spoken vaguely about "after Balor's destruction" instead of being specific and to-the-point and said "after the Deceiver was beaten at the Stair"?
: So I guess my answer to this is that Alric wasn't present
: when the D was vanquished, and didn't ask around about
: what ultimately happened to the body. Only those
: present at the D's defeat saw him plunge into the
: Dramus.
Alric wouldn't think it relevant to ask what happened to the Deceiver? The Deceiver, one the third or fourth most powerful sorceror in living memory, is defeated in battle and Alric, who has been fighting a bitter battle against him and his Fallen Lord buddies for the past eighteen years, and who knows that the Deceiver especially is an extremely slippery character, nevertheless doesn't ask whether the Deceiver was really dead, or even care about the details surrounding when he was last seen? That sounds positively careless!
: Why are you so incredulous that an army could exist
: without the leadership of Alric? Clearly, he was busy,
: or had been, about the time that the D was defeated.
I was operating under the assumption that the Deceiver was crushed _after_ Balor's defeat--which is implied by Alric in the speech I quoted before, "...what became of the Deceiver *after Balor's destruction*" (emphasis mine)--and that Alric was pretty much one of the only leaders left. The West was getting crushed... according to the journal writer there are only about three of the Nine left after the civil war, let alone after the Dark has been sacking and destroying cities like Madrigal. It's true, however, that Alric's presence wasn't necessary. Indeed, it most definitely could not have been, for him to be so ignorant about the events that occurred.
: As for why no one told Alric exactly what happened, that
: is unusual...but more likely a mixup by the story
: writers than anything else.
...that's what I'm quickly beginning to conclude. A story-writer mixup of rather large proportions. You have to admit that for nobody to tell Alric what happened, and for Alric not to care enough to ask, is more than just 'unusual'. It would be practically suicidal.
: Also, Alric probably didn't just "happen" to
: know. I'm sure he was aware of who was leading this
: expedition against the Deceiver--Twelve Motion Jeweled
: Skull was probably one of the commanders of this army,
: so Alric thought to consult with him.
Twelve Motion Jeweled Skull was "fighting alongside the likes of Durak and Turgeis With Burning Steel." I doubt he was their commander if he described it in that way. You do have a point, however, in that he would probably have known that Twelve Motion had been there. The mystery of why he didn't know until sixty years later what actually happened, and didn't think to ask before that time, however, is still unsolved.
: As for why he wasn't finished off, that's another good
: question...I guess Alric (rightfully) suspected the D
: couldn't be rescued unless someone of the Light took
: it upon himself to revive the Fallen Lord. Actually
: killing him, also, would be a treacherous quest--it
: would mean going up mountains so cold they killed
: (mentioned, I believe, in the Stair of Grief pre-game
: text). Alric may also have guessed that the warlocks
: would be guarding the Deceiver, and didn't want to
: have to fight them, or incur their wrath.
What guarantee had Alric that the Deceiver was trapped? Even assuming that he knew that the Deceiver had fallen into the river, he had no guarantee at all that he was stuck there, let alone whether his imprisonment would be more than temporary, or that he could be released only by good guys. As for not wanting to fight the Warlocks, I'm sure it wouldn't have been a fun activity to engage in, but given that they were guarding one of the seven most evil figures of that time, I wouldn't call it an unneccessary risk. Alric sacrificed the whole Legion to kill Balor, because he knew it was necessary. Given the relatively small numbers of Warlocks, how difficult would it have been to send a force up to explore and confirm or disprove the theories surrounding the Deceiver's state?
: Twelve Motion has clearly known for sixty years what
: happened--he didn't find out "all of a
: sudden." Also, how do you know that he and Alric
: didn't correspond in between "The Stair of
: Grief" and "Through the Ermine"? If not
: by runner, some sort of magical communication would be
: possible.
Twelve Motion knew that the Deceiver fell in the river. How could he *possibly* have known that, quote, "The Deceiver has been frozen in a half-death beneath the river, clinging to life through sorcery alone, with no power left to free himself"?
As for correspondence, I suppose it's possible that there was some form of magical communication, although the fact that Alric "sent word" implies sending a messenger. I didn't really consider that a possibility because there haven't been any hints at magical long-range communication devices in Myth... and if there were a World Knot at the Stair then why not just send the troops through it instead of through the Ermine? Still, Myth II introduced a lot of magic, far more than had been present in Myth I... I suppose magical long-range communication devices or spells might be possible, though if they did exist, why Alric did not use his device or spell when his army was being destroyed out East in the 17th year of the Great War (before he was captured) is beyond me. However, magical communication is really the only way to explain it. Even then there are some questions such as why Alric didn't find out everything from Twelve Motion before sending the troops to the Stair...
