: You could always have had Myrdred's favorite Labrador
: puppy die...never mind. I'll be very interested to see
: how you use Myrdred, of all people, to evoke pathos.
: Kind of like using Durandal instead of Ralph Fiennes
: in the English Patient. But I'm sure you're up to the
: challenge.
Hell, I see pathos in what happened to Damas, but then I'm just a big sap. Seriously, though, the level I've created isn't meant to make you get all weepy about Myrdred as much as it's supposed to flesh out his character a little more, explain some of his motivations and make him seem a bit more human. Gosh, I really want to spoil it, it's some of the best writing I've done in a while... but no. Of course, the pathos might work better for you, since you're one of Myrdred's personal servants... bet you're regretting signing that standard release form now, huh? MWAH HA HA HA HA HA...
: Weeellll...according to GURPS Connacht first dealt with
: the Krids, then the Trow, then the Leveller. So by my
: chronology Myrdred *wasn't* around during the war
: against the Krids. But since my chronology is in fact
: neither masterful (I've never mastered anyone with a
: chronology in my life, I'll have you know) nor
: unassailable, it's not a problem for your scenario.
: :-)
My feeling is that the krids were a problem all over. I'm pretty sure that at the time at least the Province and most likely all of the west was under Muirthemne's control as well, and therefore our pointy-hatted buddies from Madrigal would be subjects of the empire. Why do I think this? Despite the fact that the West is obviously an absolute monarchy, the big cities are called the Free Cities, which means that the rest of the continent was at some point Not Free. The Province could be the Province of any given country--it's halfway between the superpowers, so to speak--but if you have Free Cities you have Not-So-Free Cities, which means somebody was in charge. Mind, I'm not in the slightest bit sure of this, and I make no mention of it in my scenario, but... well, anyway, I can't see the Avataras sitting on their hands while skullmounds start popping up on every farm west of the Cloudspine. Myrdred and buds would have done something about the problem--which means they would have eventually bumped into Connacht, if only while he was mopping up the last of the krids. Very bad joke starts NOW: What did Connacht say when he found Myrdred fighting back the Myrkridian menace with nothing but a cloudkill? "Silly avatara, don't you know tains are for krids?"
: Mmm...remember the pregame picture on Gate of Storms?
: Rabican, Maeldun and Murgen, looking resignedly grim
: as only an Avatara can? Rabican's wearing his armor
: there too. Since this is the closest we have to a
: "group shot" of the Avatara, I think that's
: his standard costume. GURPS seems to confirm this when
: it says Rabican "routinely wore great helm and
: armor." For that matter, Murgen's, Maeldun's and
: Alric's costumes aren't *that* similar, not as much as
: you'd expect a standardized uniform to be.
I think it's supposed to be a composite rather than a group portrait. Rabican appears in his armor because that's how everyone remembers him, fighting Shiver. You're right about the discrepancies in costume, though. Hmmm.
: I think it's likely that the robe/pointy hat thing is
: simply a traditional form of dress for archmages or
: sorcerers in general--look at Merlin, undoubtedly the
: most famous magician in the principal Earth culture
: from which the Mythworld is developed--and since the
: members of the Avatara are archmages, most of them
: wear some version of this costume.
I'm pretty sure Alric's outfit was supposed to be an hommage to French Weird Comics Sensation Moebius, who was always drawing people in big sausage hats with face paint and such. Changing Alric's wardrobe for Myth II might have been out of a desire not to look so derivative, but I miss the old greyface.
: But if the robe/pointy hat is the formal wear, why
: wouldn't he wear something more casual/functional when
: he went with Connacht to fight the Trow? I mean, that
: situation calls as much for armor as does a fight with
: Shiver. Or do only a few Avatara, like Rabican, have
: separate work clothes and dress clothes? (I'm not
: being snide; it's a definite possibility.)
We do know that Rabican had the best combat skills--he was probably the Light equivalent of Soulblighter in this at least. I've always felt it was kind of fishy that you would send your weakest magician to fight the enemy's (arguably) strongest magician, unless this was some kind of elaborate trap, where she was lured into thinking she'd get an easy victory...
Alric, even after he's had a chance to change his clothes (and you'd think he'd want to after spending all that time in the desert without a shower) sticks to his pointy hat. It may be that he needed some freedom of movement to work his various spells--all that gesturing and lifting eblis stones would get pretty tiring in full plate, I suppose. The magic armor he was after would have been an exception, since it provided the wearer added stamina.
Oh, who am I kidding? I've gone way out on a limb here with this point about pointy hats. Obviously you don't need one to be an avatara. Heck, I'm about ready to concede right now. Once again you've bludgeoned me into a corner, SD, you sneaky bastard.
: Also, pretty much every source of info we have on the
: Deceiver's past (okay, so that's a grand total of two)
: says he was an Avatara who fell in with Balor. The
: narrator and GURPS both say this. Granted, a thousand
: years is plenty of time for facts to get lost, but how
: likely is it that they would both forget to mention
: over 3 decades of Myrdred's life in which he served
: the greatest hero in the world, and helped him in all
: his most famous exploits? And wouldn't Soulblighter be
: a little friendlier toward the Deceiver if Myrdred
: shared Damas' strong loyalty toward Connacht/Balor,
: the man himself? I suppose Damas might be jealous of
: Myrdred as a potential usurper of his position as
: Connacht's right-hand man. Somehow I suspect this
: might come up in your scenario...
Now you're psychic as well.
But hey, Myrdred and Soulblighter don't seem to have any distinct animosity in the Great War (I'm sure you'll correct me if I'm missing something, but it seemed like the big conflict was Deceiver vs. Watcher, and SB just took advantage of their squabbling to move his own troops into position). It seems to come from the D's supporting Alric. This I can understand; they were allies under Connacht (whether or not they fought together), they were allies under Balor, but when SB makes his own play the D switches teams. That would bug me a little, too.
You're right, there should be some mention of the D serving Connacht. The fact that there isn't bothers me. The fact that there's no mention at all of what he did during the Wolf Age makes me think I can do as I please. For Asylum purposes I concede there is no proof of a link between Myrdred and Connacht, though I wish there was. I do think he would have fought the krids, however, and probably the Trow as well.
: Concerning Alric--he never really stopped being an
: Avatara. In fact, he's THE Avatara, these days. He's
: just a king as well. Changing your costume when you
: become a king is a bit more understandable, since
: there's big masses of tradition you're supposed to
: uphold. Also, Alric's new armor is enchanted, so he
: had a practical reason to change his outfit.
Stipulated (as they keep saying in the Black Company books).
: On the contrary, knowing nothing about the Faceless Man
: makes him an even better alternative, because there's
: no possibility of conflict with already-established
: facts about him, as there is with Myrdred. And I'm
: pretty sure there's a reason why the mystery
: archmage's face was *completely* hidden. There wasn't
: even a hint of it, as you'd sort of expect there to be
: if Bungie was trying to get us to guess who was under
: the hood.
You have, as usual, a very good point. I still feel kind of iffy about invoking characters who don't exist in the game, however.
: I'm not about to try to prove that that guy was the
: Faceless Man; I'm content just to say it was someone
: other than Myrdred. I agree with your assessment of
: the mystery man's military utility for Connacht, but I
: think that (and his costume) simply show him to be an
: archmage, not necessarily an Avatara as such. I think
: it most likely he was an archmage of the Cath Bruig
: whom Connacht met while stomping on the Krids.
Okay, logic and common sense agree with you here so I'll jump on the bandwagon. Just one quick point: I feel that "Avatara", regardless of what GURPS does or doesn't say, does not specifically mean "powerful magic guy who lives in Madrigal". My personal feeling is that it merely means someone who took the time to track down a runestone and now has control of a Dream. It would make sense that Muirthemne would have access to all the weapons Madrigal would possess and so I think there were probably Cath Bruig Avatara as well. I'm basing this on how the various flavor texts "feel" and "read" rather than direct evidence, but my intuition is that the Avatara were a force to be reckoned with long before Madrigal even had a post office or a traffic light. The fact that the Nine operate out of Madrigal means little, since it's the only city they COULD operate out of by the end of the Great War--even Covenant was ruined and occupied.
: I think you want "fiunt" rather than
: "fit," but the spelling's fine. Spitto,
: spittere, hoctui, splattus!
: She's out now. She's been under a lot of stress
: lately--thanks to the irresponsibility of the teacher
: who oversees the literary magazine she works on, she's
: ended up pretty much in charge of it, which isn't
: really the sort of workload a clinically depressed
: person needs--and on Wednesday she made a half-hearted
: suicide attempt by overdosing on her Zoloft. Thank
: God, she called me an hour later and I took her to the
: ER. She was fine, physically--they gave her a big
: nasty drink of charcoal--but the doctors told her they
: wanted her to stay for a day in the adolescent crisis
: ward.
: Then they proceeded to, basically, imprison her there for
: the next 72 hours.
: Thanks to Reagan's closing almost all the mental
: institutions in America, the ward has to take
: everyone--from attempted suicides to drug addicts to
: anorexics to psychotics--and puts them all together.
: So she spent three days in a place where you're not
: allowed to wear clothes that expose your navel, or
: leave your room except for two hour-long periods each
: day, or listen to the radio, or have any personal
: items made of glass or metal, or talk to anyone on the
: phone, or have visitors for more than an hour a day,
: or turn on the lights in your room after dark, or
: drink more than one soda per meal, or touch anyone
: else without asking the nurses' permission, or...well,
: there was a 3-page list of all the things you couldn't
: do. This is not exactly the best way to make a
: suicidally-depressed person feel better about
: themselves. (I'm not actually sure if there's *any*
: sort of disturbed youth who would be improved by this
: treatment, but let it pass.)
: I was *extremely* angry, not just at the hospital but at
: her parents, whose motivation for forcing her to stay
: there was pretty much that they were pissed off at her
: for trying to kill herself and wanted to teach her a
: lesson. But she's out now, and we're just trying to
: survive the three months until she's 18 and (God
: willing) accepted by UCB and we can get an apartment
: together and she never has to deal with her parents
: again, except of course to ask for large amounts of
: money for tuition. :-)
I went through a similar experience in high school and I can tell you that things get a lot less weird as time goes on. Also, and I never thought I'd say this, try not to get too angry with her parents. I don't know enough to really preach to you, so I won't, but I know in my experience the anger and spite were actually just byproducts of the love and concern the parents felt for their child--this sort of thing scares the snot out of the suicidee's Mom and Dad and since they can't solve the problem on their own sometimes the fear turns into anger, which gets misplaced. It's a situation most people don't and can't understand and so they lash out because they feel something horrible encroaching on their lives.
That being said I don't know the details. I do know your GF will need all the support you can give her in the next few months--she'll need to feel like you don't hate her or blame her for what she did, that she's not crazy, etc.--so I'll keep up the positive vibes. IMHO, it's best not to antagonize the parents, since no matter how pissed she gets she'll still think of them as family and if you drive a wedge in there it'll just make things worse. Your anger is perfectly understandable, but for her sake I'd reccomend not acting on it or displaying it too often. Vent on ghols instead--they make better noises when you hit them.
Whatever the situation (and I'll reiterate: I don't have all the details), remember you've got friends here.
: Have your ears fallen off yet? That'll teach *you* to be
: concerned for me.
What? Did you say something? I'm sorry, my ears seem to have fallen off... I'm sure they're around here somewhere...
: Seriously, I'm very appreciative of your support. You got
: any problems concerning which you want our
: advice/sympathy/hundred dollars in cash?
Not unless you know how to invoke the Internal Game Epilogue tag. I want a postscript on my scenario but it seems that the leveller speech at the end of M2 is hard-coded to only come up when you win level 25.
And hey, since you asked: do you know why the damn game crashes so much? I have five levels, right, and there's a journeyman hero who must be a veteran all the way through--if he dies in the second level he doesn't come back. So the game has to be played all the way through without crashing. Yet for some reason, every time you hit "next level" after level four, the game just gives up and kicks you into the finder. You can play level five just fine if you choose it as a new game, but otherwise, forget about it.
Oh, and do you know what a monster source is?
Hehe, and you thought I would want emotional support... sucker!
: --SiliconDream
