Myth Journals

Finding Alric, the companions later told me, was the easy part, and breaking the enchantments which bound him the matter of but a few moments consideration. It wasn’t until they turned to escape, leading the barely conscious and unresponsive Alric, that the rescue became a thing of legend.

The companions say that Alric became more and more lucid toward the end, and revealed things that day in the desert which only made sense in the light of later events. He continually returned to the belief that he had been betrayed.

Alric babbled about a suit of armor so powerful that its wearer was invulnerable to attack and tireless in battle. He claimed that it was buried somewhere in the eastern desert, and that he had been sent by The Head to retrieve it.

They say Alric talked about The Head often, ridiculing The Nine’s belief that it was one of the avatara of Connacht. Connacht was the great hero of the Wind Age, who drove the evil Moagim from the earth, and The Head claims to have been one of Connacht’s closest advisors during this time.

Once Alric even spoke of The Head’s defeat by Balor, where it lost its body. But I’ve begun to wonder how one of the avatara of the Wind Age outlived Connacht himself by hundreds of years, to fight Balor in a battle long before the West had even heard of The Fallen Lords.

I have been unable to reconcile this with what I know of history.

1. Alric: One of The Nine, former King of the Southern Provinces. ↩
2. The Head: A severed head animated by its own arcane magic, it was discovered buried under tons of sand and rock and claimed to be one of Balor's ancient enemies. ↩
3. The Nine: Nine powerful wizards who oppose the Fallen Lords. Alric is chief among them, and Murgen, Rabican, Maeldun, Cu Roi, and four others act as his generals. ↩
4. Connacht: Great hero of the Wind Age, Connacht trapped the Myrkridia in the Tain and imprisoned the Trow. Ruling during a golden age of peace, Connacht disappeared from Muirthemne, and was thought to be dead. ↩
5. Moagim: Once known as Tireces, the saviour of the Age of Reason. Moagim was an incarnation as the Leveler. ↩
6. Balor: Leader of the Fallen Lords. ↩
7. Fallen Lords: Six powerful wizards who were suborned by Balor. Among them: Shiver, The Deceiver, The Watcher, and Soulblighter. ↩

«... Alric became more and more lucid toward the end...»