: But that's just one particular Shade. I bet Mazarrin
: didn't like being turned into a Shade.
I don't think the Shade is the same Mazzarin as the famous guy. For one thing, if the most powerful Avatara in history got turned into a Shade, he'd probably be the most powerful Fallen Lord in history (after the Leveler). He certainly wouldn't be classed as an ordinary Shade. The flavor text would probably mention such an important event, and not just talk about his death. And in general, those reanimated or transformed by the Dark are either evil guys who stay evil, like the Myrmidons and the Fallen Lords, or completely mindless, like the Thrall. Good guys aren't turned bad by reanimation. I suppose Mazzarin might have been corrupted by the Dark independently of his reanimation, but again, we wouldn't just be told that he died. Sinis is another Shade who started out evil; Alric says in "Out of the Barrier" that Mazzarin killed him, so Sinis was on the side of the Dark before he died and was reanimated.
: But more often than not, a berserk would be the most
: knoweldgable, not Mr. Archer.
: I lied. Fir'bolg and not human archers were part of the
: Nine.
: Back in the days of Nontoxic, I presented this same
: theory. Of course, back then Myth 2 wasn't out so we
: applied it to Myth 1 only. I thought that maybe I
: should present this same theory for critique. Not this
: many people argued with me. As I recall, it was mainly
: me and Forrest.
: And I don't have myth 2 because I am cheap. That and I
: will be buying the Sack, so I need to save.
: 60 years. Very short amount of time to find and train
: someone in the art of magic, swordsmanship, and
: tactics. And he had to wait for a new generation of
: people. There were only 9 Avataras alive during the
: Great War. How are born in 60 years? Probably very
: few.
60 years is plenty of time for training. Alric himself is no more than 30 years old; from the "Flight from Covenant" journal text we learn that Alric was in his teens, and to young to govern, 12 years ago. And there were more than 9 avatara. Mazzarin was killed by the Watcher during the Great War; Sinis was killed by Mazzarin during Alric's lifetime ("Indeed, Alric, I'll wager you thought you'd seen the last of me"). Chances are there were others. The Nine are only the ones who survived until near the end of the war.
: First, the journal doesn't record the time when two of
: the Nine died. See the journal for Sons of Mygard.
: Secondly, the Light probably knew that The Watcher had
: the ability to make Thrall. They probably didn't know
: that the Shade there did. Thirdly, I take back what I
: said about Rabbican being the only person there. I
: recently got a bump on my head. Rabbican is probably
: the second most powerful Avatara. I get that
: impression 'cause it says in Homecoming that
: "Rabbican himself... blah blah blah" as
: though Rabbican is very very powerful and being sent
: through the knot by HIM is something very cool.
: Fourthly, I think the attack by Shiver on Madrigal was
: pretty unexpected, because the Legion was not even
: close. They were still at Crow's Bridge and Shiver had
: already been attacking for 3 days or someting.
I won't argue. My whole point was that Rabican's extremely powerful. 2nd most powerful's fine.
: If the Nine was a council before the war, it makes sense
: that they would specifically have one member per
: class. Therefore, one dwarf, one Skrael, one peasant
: (warrior), one fir'bolg, etc. So when war came, they
: just kept their rank and became the leaders of their
: particular class.
Prior to the War, I don't think all these races were a single political entity, so if the Nine existed as a council (which I don't think they did), they would only have ruled the humans. The dwarves have their own monarchy (King Albrecht, in Myth II), the fir' Bolg are allies but not fellow citizens, the Journeymen/Heron Guards fight for the Light but recognize only the Emperor of the Cath Bruig as their true master, and the Skrael are a completely separate state (which is why we never hear about them.) Alric ruled only the Province. I might think that when the war forced the races to ally, their leaders combined to form the Nine, except that I don't think all the leaders would happen to be magicians. I think it's more likely that the Nine are just the surviving avatara, probably all human because the fir' Bolg and dwarves just don't seem interested in magic. Again, I'm sure the Nine come from diverse backgrounds, and there might be former Berserks and even Dwarves and Skrael among them (although I can't really see the average warrior serving under an amphibious reptile without some misgivings). I just don't think they're each specifically tied to a different unit.
--SiliconDream
