MM6 Memory Crystals and Oracle

[Paviel]

There is certainly a difference between physical and energy based attacks, as evidenced by the fact that the reactor is immune to physical attacks but not energy attacks.

I guess oozes are immune to energy attacks as well as physical and poison attacks.

[tolich]

Never met them with blasters.

[MMXAlamar]

I thought their attacks were physical? Is it actually "energy" and if so, why are oozes immune to blaster attacks?

It's a strange damage/resistance system. There is no "Energy Resistance" per se, but it's a well known fact that energy attacks were used in previous MM games. You can also clearly distinguish energy attacks by the pinkish ball with the blue ring around it that's fired from the blaster, and by some other monsters. Maybe there's more info in the LOD files on energy damage & resistance.

If you go here, you'll find a list of the stats for all monsters, including resistances: Might and Magic VI Monsters Index.

[tolich]

AFAIK noone resists Energy. However either monster or party member can miss due to own low skills in Ancient Weapons.

[XEL II]

Lloyd was Corak's assistant during the time Corak's served as the High Priest of the Land of CRON. When Corak was ambushed by Sheltem, who separated his memory module from his body, Lloyd was the only one left protecting Corak's Cave, which got overrun by monsters. He is said to be an ingenious and valiant sorcere, who invented Lloyd's Beacon teleportation spell.

Considering that Lloyd's Beacon appears as a spell on XEEN and Enroth (and is mentioned there lore-wise by Dark Shade), I'm inclined to believe that Lloyd was the "alien" mechanism/agent from M&M 1 (whom we meet in the desert) that assisted Corak in retrieving Sheltem from Terra.

[bob teh blob]

Man, I wish I could play MM 1-5, I just feel like the games would seem so less evolved in comparison to MM6+ that I'd be turned off.

[Corlagon]

I always thought that it was Agent Orango Seventeen who assisted Corak ("[...]two agents for the Ancients disconnected me from the Wire[...]") but now that you mention it, Lloyd sounds like a very reasonable candidate too.

[XEL II]

Orango Seveteen is only mentioned in the text appearing upon party's release from the Soul Maze. The text itself is barely understandable (and was designed to appear so), but from what I figured out from it I got an impression that Orango Seventeen is something connected to the Soul Maze. AFAIK there is nothing in MM1 which would link it to the Alien from the desert.

[GreatEmerald]

Actually, soul maze... You're thrown there by Sheltem, you escape from it by entering a password into a computer, the walls are shaped in an incredibly non-natural way, it wraps around... Could it actually be some form of a holodeck?

[XEL II]

That is likely. When you enter the Soul Maze there is also mention of "alien being" proclaims that to be released from the Maze party must enter its captor's name (which can be revealed by mapping out the Soul Maze or you could just enter the name immediatly if you know it already ). "Agent Orango Seventeen" is either that being or some sort of Soul Maze's controlling mechanism.

[GreatEmerald]

Heh, if it was released two years later, it would have been awesome if something happened when you entered "Computer, end program"

[XEL II]

BTW, it would be interesting to know when exactly the CRON from MM 1-2* was created.

It is strongly implied in The Dreamwright that it was around since "the beginning of time", but that's rather vague. There is a small possibility that Amonvelle was talking about some other CRON or even a seedship of different type altogether, although I think that the same CRON from MM 1-2 was implied, since Gravel's novel pay a strong homage to MM 1-5 (Green Moth, which can be a VARN, for instance) and CRON (aside from its VARNs) was the only seedship prominently featured in these games.

I suppose CRON was around for many millenia, especially considering the fact that it is part of the Great Experiment.

* I'm not talking about the Land of CRON (setting of MM2), the continent similar to the cargo of VARNs (large continental land) inside the ship that was created by manifestation of the Elemental Planes in corporeal universe (through "ethereal substance", most likely created by the Ancients) and battles between the Elemental Lords. Its creation, as we know from Corak's "History of CRON", started 900 years before MM2. I'm referring to the CRON worldship (that carries its VARNs) itself.

[GreatEmerald]

I'm not sure the land and the ship can be separated. From WoX we see that a VARN is just a flat plane of land. So propulsion might be an internal component of the land itself. That way "since the beginning of time" is right, because the substance the Ancients used to create it has always been around.

[XEL II]

VARNs' exterior (i.e. view of a VARN from space) isn't fully visible in any game. In WoX, there are no VARNs to begin with. XEEN is not a VARN.

The land and a ship are alearly separate. First, there is common sense: a landmass cannot be a ship per se. Second, VARNs and CRONs are always referred to as "ships" and "vessels" and their lands is always stated to be the land. Also, we've seen a small part of VARN MCMIV's exterior and it looks like a pyramid.

History of CRON chronicles the creation of CRON's land, but not CRON itself. Corak specifically states that Earth Elementals (with the help of enslaved other three kinds of Elemental) shaped the "physical land of CRON", and both MM2 and later games confirm that the ship itself was created by the Ancients.

In short, it's perfectly clear from the games that a VARN is a worldship with ecological and biosocial microcosm within it. CRONs are used (at least) to transport VARNs, and MM 1-2 CRON also had the land within it.

What exactly "Nacelle" means in MM universe isn't fully clear. The only thing we know about this term is that VARNs (Vehicular Astropod Research Nacelle) and XEEN (Xylonite Experimental Expansion Nacelle) are Nacelles. There is no transcript for "CRON" in any canonical source. "Nacelle" doesn't necesarily refers to a spaceship as XEEN wasn't a ship (it was referred to as "the XEEN structure", but never as a "ship").

[GreatEmerald]

I don't agree. XEEN is a VARN, because it's astropod; it's vehicular; it's used for research; it's a nacelle. Therefore XEEN is a VARN. CRON is also a VARN.

How else do you suppose they were to refer to it? "The land of VARN" simply means the surface of VARN. And it's not "physical land of CRON", it's "physical land of CRON". Would you rather they said "physical surface of CRON"? That just doesn't sound right.

Yes, it is a ship with a biosphere. But it was never said anything about propulsion or anything. Heck, maybe they even had an external ship to create a warp bubble around a VARN, so it wouldn't even need propulsion to begin with.

Yes, it was never made clear what a nacelle really is. But it's clearly taken from Star Trek, where a nacelle is "an outboard engine housing structure on spacecraft." That would mean that the engine is somewhere inside it, but again, we don't know anything about that.

[MMXAlamar]

I found this definition on Wikipedia; it also says that a nacelle is, when part of an aircraft, a "cover housing" separate from the fuselage.

Here's the Star Trek definition of nacelle: "In the Star Trek series it is used to describe the parts of a starship containing the propulsive components of a ship's warp drive."

I think that all of the flat planets are spaceship parts, and they can be combined with each other to form other vessels, and planets (Terra), or to combine with other planets (VARNs). Maybe the Ancients had more structures that could be brought together to form different vessels/structures/spaceships, perhaps similar to XEEN.

With lands like CRON, it sounds like the Ancients combined their technology with the power of the Elemental Lords to construct vessels that were mechanical on the inside, but appeared to be planets on the outside. I wonder where all the inhabitants of these lands originally came from.

What is XEEN anyway? An experimental new form of technology built by the Ancients? I'd like to know what Xylonite is, maybe that would help understand it.

[Corlagon]

There is no transcript for "CRON" in any canonical source

Nope. Luxus Palace Royale floor 3, draw a map, invert the image.

[GreatEmerald]

What is XEEN anyway? An experimental new form of technology built by the Ancients? I'd like to know what Xylonite is, maybe that would help understand it.

I'd assume that it was an experiment by the Ancients to see if they could have it rotate on such an axis that it could support life on both sides. And Xylonite sounds like an element. But probably is just technobabble.

Also, planets don't work that way, except for XEEN, which is an artificial one.

[XEL II]

I don't agree. XEEN is a VARN, because it's astropod; it's vehicular; it's used for research; it's a nacelle. Therefore XEEN is a VARN. CRON is also a VARN.

XEEN is not a VARN (Vehicular Astropod Research Nacelle), it's, well, XEEN (Xylonite Experimental Expansion Nacelle). XEEN was never implied to be vehicular nor astropod (in fact, it is quiet obviously not a vehicle, but an artificial planet) and was never referred to as a ship. CRON is also not a VARN, but CRON (Central Research Observational Nacelle).

How else do you suppose they were to refer to it? "The land of VARN" simply means the surface of VARN. And it's not "physical land of CRON", it's "physical land of CRON". Would you rather they said "physical surface of CRON"? That just doesn't sound right.

"Physical land of CRON" is (considering the context in which the statement was made) basically "the physical land which belongs to (or is a part of) an object called CRON", which means that there is a thing called "CRON" and that Elementals created its. In other words, the Elementals created not the ship, but the land that is part of or corresponds with the ship. The ship itself, as stated in MM2 ending, was created by the Ancients.
From all the information about VARN exterior we have, it is extremely unlikely that land was separate from or external to the ship. MM6 states that VARN 4 is “buried' in the Dragonsand, and the Tomb of VARN is part of the ship. Besides, VARNs have some kind of “artificial sun” (which could be an artificial source of light of sorts or even an illusion caused by a VARN's systems). It is highly unlikely that the entire “atmosphere” wouldn't be a built-in part of the ship.
Also, in his log in MM5 Corak refers to the entire CRON ship as “CRON vehicle”, stating that VARN from MM1 is “VARN 4 of CRON vehicle”, and generally calling the Chosen Ones of CRON (i.e. a party from MM1 + party from MM2) “natives of CRON vehicle”. We also know that VARNs are released from CRON to their planets of destination.
In other words, it is clear from the games that Land of CRON (the setting of MM2) is a part of CRON ship (not the entire CRON ship itself). It is known (or, at the very least, strongly implied) that VARN's land is located inside a VARN ship.

I'd assume that it was an experiment by the Ancients to see if they could have it rotate on such an axis that it could support life on both sides.

Rather an experiment by the Ancients to see if they could create a normal planet from it There is a great number of artificial planets created by the Ancients, all vastly different, but each having an experiment performed on it.

And Xylonite sounds like an element. But probably is just technobabble.

It's a real world scientific term. "Xylonite" was one of the early terms used to designate celluloid.

Yes, it was never made clear what a nacelle really is. But it's clearly taken from Star Trek, where a nacelle is "an outboard engine housing structure on spacecraft." That would mean that the engine is somewhere inside it, but again, we don't know anything about that.

Well, MM universe is not based on Star Trek (as it is not based on D&D, save several major gameplay features in Book One). The term “Nacelle” may very well have a (ranging from relatively and seriously to completely) different definition here.

Nope. Luxus Palace Royale floor 3, draw a map, invert the image.

*pimpslaps himself*
I'm a dunce, totally forgot about that, even though I knew it for a long time. Thanks for reminding me!

I wonder where all the inhabitants of these lands originally came from.

If you mean the inhabitants of places like VARNs/CRON/XEEN, they are created by the Ancients. The specific details of the creation process are unknown, but races and civilizations that Ancients seed planets with are basically created by the them. Essentially, with the exception of Creators, Elemental Planes creatures, CRONian Megadragon and Kreegans (and, possibly, Mogreds and several other types of animals, and the inhabitants of The Arc and Bright Star), the origins of all currently known (i.e. seen or mentioned in canonical sources) creatures in Might and Magic universe are traced back to the Ancients.

[GreatEmerald]

XEEN is not a VARN (Vehicular Astropod Research Nacelle), it's, well, XEEN (Xylonite Experimental Expansion Nacelle). XEEN was never implied to be vehicular nor astropod (in fact, it is quiet obviously not a vehicle, but an artificial planet) and was never referred to as a ship. CRON is also not a VARN, but CRON (Central Research Observational Nacelle).

"Physical land of CRON" is (considering the context in which the statement was made) basically "the physical land which belongs to (or is a part of) an object called CRON", which means that there is a thing called "CRON" and that Elementals created its. In other words, the Elementals created not the ship, but the land that is part of or corresponds with the ship. The ship itself, as stated in MM2 ending, was created by the Ancients.
From all the information about VARN exterior we have, it is extremely unlikely that land was separate from or external to the ship. MM6 states that VARN 4 is “buried' in the Dragonsand, and the Tomb of VARN is part of the ship. Besides, VARNs have some kind of “artificial sun” (which could be an artificial source of light of sorts or even an illusion caused by a VARN's systems). It is highly unlikely that the entire “atmosphere” wouldn't be a built-in part of the ship.
Also, in his log in MM5 Corak refers to the entire CRON ship as “CRON vehicle”, stating that VARN from MM1 is “VARN 4 of CRON vehicle”, and generally calling the Chosen Ones of CRON (i.e. a party from MM1 + party from MM2) “natives of CRON vehicle”. We also know that VARNs are released from CRON to their planets of destination.
In other words, it is clear from the games that Land of CRON (the setting of MM2) is a part of CRON ship (not the entire CRON ship itself). It is known (or, at the very least, strongly implied) that VARN's land is located inside a VARN ship.

Uh, what? It's a nacelle. It only becomes a planet in the WoX ending. And it clearly flies through space. So it's a VARN.
You could think of VARN as 'vehicle', CRON as 'truck' and XEEN as 'racing car'. Both latter are a type of the former.

No, IIRC it was said that the Ancients harnessed the Elementals to create one for them, not that they created a ship and Elementals came to live there.
...thinking about it, it's quite amusing how VARNs are flat, and elemental planes are flat in a similar fashion.

Yes, the VARN is buried because it crashed there. I don't see how that's a point...

No, they don't have artificial suns. That's why XEEN was starting to freeze over when Sheltem was trying to drive it to Terra.

“natives of CRON vehicle”, there you have it. If anything, they would have said "natives of the land of CRON". Clearly they weren't born in the space station, now were they?