: Since the Leveler survives every cycle, we must assume it
: leaves its host after its host is defeated. However,
: that wouldn't neccesarily send the host back to be its
: old self. The mission-objective text from The Great
: Devoid instructs us not to listen to Balor's head.
: This implies that the heads of very powerful
: sorcerers, at least Leveler-posessed ones, can survive
: being severed.
True, though I assumed Balor's head was still alive because it was still possessed by the Leveler.
: The head has been buried for a long time, yet when it is
: dug up it has all kinds of knowledge about the
: present. It still has a great deal of magic. In this
: respect, it is more powerful than even Balor as he is
: surprised several times.
Quite. This is one of the things that makes me think The Head is probably the incarnation of a Leveler-class entity, not simply a great mortal hero or sorcerer.
: One of the basic questions about the head has always been
: what side it was on. While the information it gave
: certainly is what let the light win, it lied to them
: and turned their own men against them. In this as
: well, it is more powerful than any of the other
: characters. We see dark forces in opposition elsewhere
: in the game, but they all are working toward the cause
: of the dark, so they all are behind Balor. The only
: one who seems to separate the cause from the man is
: Soulblighter. This would certainly seem to boost
: theories that the head is in league with Soulblighter,
: or perhaps in a similar position. That is, an agent of
: the dark who is for some reason not bound to Balor.
We don't actually know that Soulblighter is less dedicated to Balor than the rest of the Fallen Lords. Yes, he seems to pursue his own agenda as soon as Balor's destroyed, but so do Myrdred and Shiver, and the other Fallen aren't around to demonstrate their commitment to Balor's cause. Indeed, of the surviving Fallen Lords, Soulblighter is the most dedicated to carrying out Balor's work of destroying life and civilization. It would make sense, though, that Soulblighter would be less closely bound to Balor than Shiver or The Deceiver, since Soulblighter is an ancient evil but the others were corrupted by Balor more recently. Balor probably doesn't feel the need to bind Soulblighter (or the Watcher or the other "ancient evil") closely to him, since he can be sure that Damas has always been dedicated to the Dark.
: Adding to the confusion, we don't know what happens to
: the head. The good guys apparently win in the civil
: war, but nothing is mentioned of the fate of the head
: itself.
: A side note: the head looks a lot like the journeymen.
: They both have the large cheekbones, and the straight,
: dark hair.
This is so. And The Head was found out in the desert in the East, which (I think) was once part of the Cath Bruig empire, the home of the Heron Guards. So if it was originally a complete person, he was probably a native of the area. It could be that he was once a Heron Guard and discovered how to enhance the immortality ritual so that he could even survive dismemberment (I was going to use this idea in a scenario with Forrest and some other guys once--a Journeyman becomes The Head--but it got shot down very very fast. I wonder why? :)) More likely (from my point of view), since the Cath Bruig empire has been around for several eras, it was probably the focus of the climactic Light-Dark battles at the end of each Dark Age, and so when the Head-controlling deity decided to incarnate, it possessed a body who lived where the action was: Muirthemne. No proof, though.
--SiliconDream
