: The short answer to both your questions is--we don't
: know. Don't let the dogmatic responses of certain
: Asylum posters (*coughForrestcough* :-) fool you; we
: can make guesses on both, but there's far too little
: information to claim any theory is unquestionably
: correct.
: Well, he either got blown up and died or he didn't. Did
: that help? :-)
: Evidence for: We saw him get blown up and die.
: Rebuttal: He's a hyperintelligent sorcerer with
: incredible mind-control powers; he could have cast an
: illusion of his death, or used a double, or something.
: Rebuttal to the rebuttal: Yeah, right.
: Evidence against: The narration on "The Forge"
: suggests that he was still alive after the death of
: Shiver, since Soulblighter's crow was still "in
: his possession;" also, Myth GURPS treats him as
: still alive. Also, the postgame "Shiver" pic
: doesn't show anything about the big D being dead, or
: even injured.
: Rebuttal: Maybe the crow just had to be stuck in the
: pocket of his incinerated torso in order to block
: Soulblighter's escape; it didn't have to be held by a
: living being. Also, we know the author of GURPS didn't
: play through the "Shiver" level, so he
: didn't even know the Deceiver got blown up at the end.
: And we know postgame pics are sometimes wrong.
: Rebuttal to the rebuttal: If the crow didn't have to be
: possessed by a living being, why did Myrdred tote it
: everywhere he went? And Bungie oversaw the writing of
: GURPS; if the author's saying Myrdred's alive was a
: mistake, why didn't they catch it? It'd be a pretty
: big error.
: Basically, those are the arguments. Make up yer own mind.
: Oh, and some people think he was blown apart but was
: able to use his sorcerous powers to come back to life
: (see GURPS for how archmages can use the Extra Life
: ability). This view has the advantage of agreeing with
: pretty much all of the evidence I laid out for both
: sides of the "did he die or didn't he?)
: arguement, but it also seems to require that Myrdred
: be incredibly powerful--more so than seems likely,
: even for an archmage of his stature.
: No one knows why they're gone. GURPS says they're still
: in Forest Heart, so apparently they just didn't want
: to help you against Soulblighter. They're pretty
: standoffish and don't associate with humans much;
: there have to be exceptional circumstances to get them
: to help humans in battle. Apparently they didn't think
: Soulblighter was as much of a threat to them as Balor
: (Soulblighter wasn't the Leveller, after all); also,
: as you say, the Trow weren't working with Soulblighter
: and so the Forest Giants wouldn't be spurred to fight
: him by their old hatred, as they probably were with
: Balor. They *certainly* wouldn't fight alongside
: *your* forces once you recruited the Trow.
: Hey, I've got my Trademarked Weapon. Keep yer sword.
: --SiliconDream
I think the author of GURPS played through the shiver level
if he didn't well then SJgames and Bungie screwed up royally
-DS
