: Fang-Grinder: Honestly, who thought up the idea of an
: incredibly powerful, universally feared, nearly
: invincible--Ghol? What's he going to do, throw dwarf
: heads so hard they actually sting? Taunt twice as
: loudly? Ooh, I'm so scared.
Heh. Well, I imagine that the Ghol form is not inherantly weak, but that most of them just happen to be. We have super-powerfull Humans, heroes and the like - and if a Ghol managed to survive long enough, I imagine that it could get rather war-saavy and tough. Plus, he's got some sort of "dark fortune" smiling on him, so, consider him lucky.
: Now, is this Mauriac the famous one? (By the way,
: Forrest, he should have an Encyclopedia entry.)
He does.
: Because if he is, there are some timeline problems.
: The famous Mauriac "was prince regent during
: Alric's adolescence," so he must have been a
: mature statesman and, probably, a reasonably
: experienced warrior when Alric was only a child.
Not neccesarily a warrior. He could have simply been a politician, and a wuss when it came to fighting. When the Dark came and Covenant was sacked, Mauric no longer had a city to rule over, so he took up arms and became a warrior.
: On
: the other hand, this story has it that he didn't
: regain his honor, become a great warrior and rejoin
: the armies of the West until after Alric had assumed
: command and forged his historic truce with the
: fir'Bolg. The only possible way I can see to reconcile
: these two histories (unless they're two different
: Mauriacs) is to suppose that Mauriac, up to and during
: his term as regent, had lived a sheltered life as a
: courtier or politician (I'm not sure which term is
: more appropriate for the Province's form of
: government) and, though a skilled statesman, had never
: actually been in battle. When Alric assumed the throne
: Mauriac finally went to war and almost immediately
: crossed paths with Fang-Grinder. There isn't much
: evidence for this theory, but it's the only consistent
: one I can think of. Any others?
I would tend to agree with it.
: Ground Zero: I think this pretty much clinches the
: argument that Shiver's a Myrmidon queen. In this story
: she looks like a Myrmidon, she sounds like a Myrmidon
: (she actually whispers her whisper dream, whereas
: after Soulblighter retrieves her spirit, she grunts
: like an American Gladiator), and she smells like a
: Myrmidon--what, you didn't know the comic was
: scratch-and-sniff?
Heh. Yeah, I agree that Shiver most likely is Bonesplitter, queen of the Myrmidons. Though how she came to be a sorceress in a warrior culture is beyond me.
: It interested me that the effect of Shiver's attack on
: Rabican was described as "the souls began to peel
: away from his body and his concentration waned."
: Why does Rabican have more than one soul? What exactly
: does "soul" mean here? Does Myth folk
: psychology break the mind down into several parts or
: "souls", like the id, ego and superego of
: Freud or the rational, emotional and sensory souls of
: Enlightenment philosophers? Or do all Avatara (and
: maybe all Myth creatures) reincarnate, like the Skrael
: and the Leveler, so that Shiver can weaken Rabican by
: stripping from him the knowledge and memories of his
: previous lives? Or has Rabican augmented his power by
: absorbing the souls of others? Shiver is spoken of as
: having only one soul. Does this indicate a
: psychological abnormality on her part, some sort of
: incompleteness?
No idea. All good theories, though.
: I think I've worked out the nature of Rabican's vanity
: attack. You'll notice that the only time at which
: Shiver's eyes are visible is when Rabican's attack
: first begins to take effect and the word
: "vanity" first appears, and also when her
: body is almost destroyed. I believe that Balor cloaked
: Shiver's eyes so that she was unable to see herself
: properly, or else blinded her completely and gifted
: her with other magical senses. Either way, Shiver
: never realized that over the centuries she was
: shriveling, desiccating, and in general becoming the
: spitting image of Latoya Jackson. (Assume Balor also
: screwed with her other senses so that she also didn't
: notice that, for instance, she had no nose.) When
: Rabican restored her sight for a moment and she
: actually saw herself for a moment, she was paralyzed
: by astonishment, horror and self-loathing, and she put
: up no resistance as Rabican destroyed her body. This,
: I think, is why the rather curious sentence
: "Shiver lingered in defeat" appears
: (normally, you don't refer to a smoking pile of ash as
: "lingering"); even after the destruction of
: her body Shiver's spirit remained frozen in shock at
: her own hideousness. Her mind likely never recovered
: from this shock, which is why when she reappears in
: Myth II she's become a psychotic, impulsive idiot with
: the strategic skills of a clam.
Hrm... I like that idea.
: Any ideas on why Moagim is mentioned in the battle scene?
: The only connection I can think of is that maybe
: Moagim was also defeated by vanity; maybe that's a
: necessary characteristic in anyone who's good at
: managing Myrkridia, like Moagim and Shiver. (God knows
: why--maybe commanding Myrkridia is bad for the
: self-esteem.) Someone suggested that The Head is
: Moagim, but I don't think even ex-great heroes can
: survive as severed heads unless the power of the
: Leveler is still backing them up, and in that case The
: Head would have helped Balor, not worked against him.
Hrm... defeated by vanity. Yes, both Moagim and Shiver commanded a good deal of Myrkridia, and Shiver likely also managed the Myrmidons. But then why can Soulblighter command Myrkridia as well? And the other Fallen certainly didn't mind using Myrkridia.
Though as for the Head being Moagim - severed heads certainly can survive. Witness The Head himself! And we are warned not to listen to Balor's head on "The Great Devoid". So the Head certainly could have been Tireces and Moagim, though I really don't have any solid feelings on the Head anymore.
: Antero's Bestiary: A hearty handshake to the first
: unitmaker to post an armored, sword-wielding Trow at
: the Mill, like the fellow on page 13 who's
: decapitating 5 Oghres at once.
Indeed, THAT would be a cool unit. Though awfully powerfull. What would you use to counter it? He could cut Soulblighter or Alric right in half with one blow. Only a super-armored Leveller-powered magician like Balor would be able to take one of them on - and two would overwhelm even him!
: What is the relationship between Nyx and Wyrd? I can see
: two possibilities; either Nyx creates all the races
: and Wyrd guards them once they've been created, so
: that their roles are analogous to Brahma and Vishnu,
: or Nyx creates and protects the silicon-based races
: like the Trow, while Wyrd creates and protects the
: carbon-based races like us.
I posted this theory a little while back. I think Nyx is the creator of all, building the world; Wyrd is the protector of life, uplifting the spirits of his disciples and smiting unwelcome aliens; and the Leveller is the destroyer, seeking only chaos and conflict. Wyrd and the Leveller alternate power every 500 years, and Nyx... just kinda sits there. I dunno. What does Brahma do in modern times, according to Hindism?
: Is the naga-like creature in the picture of the ancient
: races appearing (page 12) a primitive Skrael?
Perhaps, though I don't think so, as the Trow annihilated all the ancient races, and the Skrael wouldn't have had time to evolve to their current form. So, they're likely a younger race.
: Why did the Trow cannibalize the younger races? I don't
: see that a silicon-based life form could get much
: nourishment from the flesh of carbon-based creatures,
: and the fact that the Trow live in such barren
: wastelands indicates that, indeed, they don't need to
: feed on carbon-based life. Was the cannibalism purely
: ceremonial, or can the Trow extract energy from
: carbon-based life even though they can only
: incorporate silicon compounds into their bodies? Maybe
: they can use the water. Why am I even speculating
: about this?
No idea. Myth world life obviously doesn't adhere to known science - perhaps eating them gets power from their escaping breath, their life-force, and not any biochemical fuel contained in the bodies.
: Were the Oghres a single species? Their forms seem so
: diverse that it's hard to imagine them all
: interbreeding. Perhaps "Oghre" was the
: generic term for all younger races who had achieved
: civilization by then, and their cultures had merged.
Indeed, I wondered about that myself. Perhaps the Oghres were something like Zebras - a basic lumpy-humanoid body form, but with distinctive teeth, claws, and horns on each individual, like a Zebra's stripes.
: Did anyone else find it interesting that, before the
: younger races appeared, a new race appeared to fight
: the Trow every "thousand years or so?" I
: think the Trow were the original champions of the
: Light. Whatever agent is responsible for the Leveler,
: it started trying to destroy all sentient life as soon
: as the Trow were created. Because the Trow are for
: some reason unpossessable (if there ever was a Trow
: Leveler, the world would have ended pretty damn fast),
: the agent had to create other species to attack them,
: such as the Callieach; and even back then, it only had
: a window of opportunity every thousand years. As the
: Trow civilization declined and humans advanced, the
: agent turned its attention to mankind and, rather than
: create new species, opted to possess the greatest
: human heroes of every age.
Yes, I did think about this. The only hole in that theory is that there was a million-year period of peace. Did the gods just give up with the cycles after the Trow routinely kicked the asses of everything that was thrown at them? Then decided to start a new experiment, with the younger races?
I wonder if the Trow were around for 6,000 years before their enemies started to appear, then fought against those enemies on and off for another 6,000 years. Because the younger races have been around for 12,000 years, and the Leveller has been messing with them for at least 6,000 years.
So the cycle could be, create race(s), wait 6,000 years for them to develop, then start playing with them with cycles of light and dark for 6,000 years - then wait a million years before starting over again with (an)other race(s)
: Who's the guy in the hood behind Connacht? I can't shake
: the feeling I've seen him before (no, really, there
: might be someone else in Myth with a pointy hood?)
Either Mugen or Maeldun had a pointy hood, but it didn't hide his face and wasn't tattered like the buy behind Connacht. Also, the Summoner was hooded, with his face hidden, but it likewise wasn't tattered.
: Why did Connacht attack the Trow in the first place, and
: then work so hard to "erase all evidence of their
: culture?" Did he fear that their violence against
: the Oghres might be repeated against humanity, and
: that beholding their mighty buildings and advanced
: technology would crush mankind's pride? Or did he,
: already tainted by the Leveler, make an unprovoked
: attack so that he could store away the Trow as
: weapons, then remove any indications of their culture
: that might lead people to think his attack was
: unjustified?
The Trow were a mean race when Connacht was around. So, being the Great Hero, he whooped their asses, but was kind enough to imprison them instead of kill them.
: When did the Trow gain the Dream of Unlife? Acerus Malum
: Magnus never mentions his people's magical prowess.
Indeed.
: Inside the Tain: Correct me if this recounting of the
: plot is wrong. The art's a little hazy, so I can't be
: sure.
: Three guys in the Tain come across a strange magical
: portal. One of them touches it and is paralyzed while
: his soul is drawn through. On the other side is a
: fantastic, dream-like world which seems to contain
: many lost or imprisoned souls, as well as buildings
: and monuments shewing (not a misspelling) evidence of
: a mighty civilization. An enormous spider (with eleven
: eyes, no less) appears and pierces the captive's soul
: with its fangs. On the other side of the portal, his
: body is torn open and shrivels up as if the spider is
: sucking out his fluids through his soul. Then a
: smaller spider climbs out through his
: corpse--specifically, out of his brain--and grows to
: about the size of a large spider queen.
Huh. I couldn't really tell WHAT was happening there, but that does make sense.
: Now, I'd guess that this was how the Smiths of Muirthemne
: communicated with those they worshipped: force a
: sacrifice to the portal, let its soul be drawn into
: the world of the spider-gods, and let them enter into
: this world, or send an emissary, through the corpse.
: Connacht didn't seem to find anything like this at the
: shrines in Muirthemne's catacombs; was one of the
: reasons for the creation of the Tain to make such a
: portal possible? Perhaps the Tain exists halfway
: between our world and the world of the spider-gods.
Very interesting. I like this theroy.
