: Yes! Somebody else thinks so! Woohoo!
: I've argued this point a dozen times and nobody's every
: said anything about it (and it seems to be a common
: belief that the armor never really existed, but was
: just a ploy by the Head).
: Look at the picture of Balor from "The Ibis
: Crown". He's old and decrepid, isn't he? Now look
: at him in the cutscene before "Pools of
: Iron", fifty years later. He's young and handsome
: (well, if you go for that "dark and evil"
: look). Shouldn't he been even older and more decrepid?
: I think the armor continually regenerates the body of
: it's wearer, making any wounds inflicted heal
: instantly and any fatigue disappear, giving the effect
: of making him "invulnerable to attack and
: tireless in battle". It would also explan how
: Balor got a facelift between the sack of Muirthemne
: and the end of the war.
Just an aside, but Balor seems to be wearing the same armor at the sack of Muirthemne and at Rhi'anon. So the magic armor probably isn't responsible for the change in his looks (and anyway, Soulblighter didn't seem to age--why would Balor?). Most likely, IMO, he looks beat-up at Muirthemne because he just battled an entire city and created a magical inferno which he himself got caught in. This doesn't invalidate your explanation of how the magic armor aids its wearer, though.
And yeah, I always thought that the armor really existed and belonged to Balor. I believe in you, Forrest. :)
: (BTW, the only reason Alric could defeat Balor was
: because he had an Eblis stone, "which for a
: moment made him an equal of Balor").
According to GURPS, all that Eblis stone did was create a very powerful Total Paralysis spell--it didn't weaken the armor in any way. But perhaps it paralyzed even on a cellular level, blocking his armor-enhanced regenerative abilities? Another point in favor of your theory.
Now, why'd Alric get rid of the armor?
--SiliconDream
