Xel II wrote:I don't see how Mutare can be the King of Nighon.
Neither do I...?
Xel II wrote:And you seriously think that NWC would mention "another female Nighonian conqueror", while having an entire campaign in the same game about Mutare?
No, I do believe it was a reference to Mutare at the time. But since it was not, judging from the overwhelming indications that CotD took place before RoE, I believe that it is now to be taken with a grain of salt.
I seriously think NWC wasn't infallible. Xel II, do me a favour. Take the date of the Night of Shooting Stars and subtract it from the date of the Armageddon's Blade war. Now calculate Xeron's approximate age (as he was the son of a succubus and an Erathian).
Xel II wrote:Besides, in the rumors in that same mission there were references to Armageddon's Blade War, Dracon's quest, Conflux's arrival and Festival of Life in Krewlod.
The only thing this can prove is NWC's intentions at the time. As far as we know, they hadn't even started making the Heroes Chronicles when those "rumours" were written.
I should also go back and answer two other points I missed:
Xel II wrote:So, Dragon Clash was in c.a. 1173 (after AB and M&M8).
It certainly was not, judging from the overwhelming Kreegan presence under Mutare's command starting from the fifth scenario onwards
(no, Kreegans weren't directly mentioned. yes, Devils were mentioned as a description of the race as a whole. yes, there were Infernoes all over Nighon. yes, Nighon was affiliated with the Kreegans before the Restoration War).
By AB the Kreegans had been all but wiped from the face of the earth - unless Catherine Ironfist and her troops were blind enough to totally miss the "fact" that they were now fighting AvLee - and at the time of MM8 their last remnants had somehow left the planet for the Fiery Realm. You may or may not remember that the complete destruction of Colony's Kreegans is a major plot point in MM8.
Kareeah already made this point, and other excellent ones,
here. Having read over the whole debate, it boggles my mind that anyone could still assume CotD took place during or after AB. If we were to do so, there are more than a few inconsistencies either of you have yet to explain.
Xel II wrote:Underworld from HC. There is no proof that it is a separate plane. It was described as "tunnels" and "caverns" in CotU and entrance to the Underworld looks like entrance to the cavern or tunnel (name Cerberus Gate doesn't neccesarily imply it was a portal). It is not impossible for caverns to be vast and deep. Enroth is a different planet from Earth after all. Demons of Underworld appears to be the same kind of "demons" found on CRON and XEEN, vile monstorous race.
I am quite unconvinced. Let's try out a little common sense here:
If we were to follow your assumption that the Underworld is just a mass of tunnels, that would pose the question "Where did the Demons in there come from?" Well, there was only one way they could have gotten there (aside from the use of some sort of portal, though there is no evidence of that and apparently the Cerberus Gate is not one) - the Crossing. We know for certain that the Ancients seed worlds with humans, elves, dwarves and goblinoids (probably halflings too, maybe aka gnomes). But how likely is it that they'd put creatures on their seedship which strongly resemble "the Enemy"?* The odds of that happening are far slimmer than the possibility that the Underworld is just another plane linked to Colony.
*if Escaton's remark in MM8 and Tarnum's beliefs that the Kreegans were the same Demons he had fought centuries earlier in TFM are anything to work with...
Xel II wrote:Another proof? Paradise as a plane contradicts M&M universe's style.
What style? Please don't tell me you believe the entire universe started out hi-tech and will end out hi-tech. There are primal planes, one for each Force of the Dome (plus Chaos). Chaos is Escaton's Plane. Death is visited by Gauldoth. Paradise is a fine candidate for Life.
Xel II wrote:And Terry Ray surely had no clue about general M&M lore. For example, if he played M&M RPGs, he would know much more about the Kreegans than that little information HoMM3 provided.
If he really had absolutely no clue, his stories would have made contradictions. For example, he could have thrown Kreegans all over the place in TSoF or any Chronicle earlier than the Night of Shooting Stars (apart from the Fiery Moon, where it is blatant that the "Demons" are Kreegans). He didn't. Also, don't forget about NWC's "limit the sci-fi" policy following the AB Forge dispute.
The Chronicles were made for people new to the series. Why should they be full of references to the Ancients and Melian and everything else when new players don't even know what those things are? Besides, Mr. Ray was just the writer. What makes you think he came up with the premise for each Chronicle?
Xel II wrote:And tell me how the afterlife (Paradise) can be the Plane of Life?
The entities there seem to be granted "eternal" life and some form of peace. In addition, to bring LotA's lore into the fray, the Forces of the Dome (Ancestors) convey souls to this Plane. One of the Ancestors is Esoterica, the Force of Life.
Xel II wrote:Reckoining was in 1177, because Tim Lang said that Nicolai was around 23 in M&M9
This alone is dubious at best.
Avonu wrote:Please... we also have text about Xex teleported Sleen to so man fighting with fearie dragons. And we know about who he tell. But Dracon isn't specially mentioned - it maybe another dragonslayer.
Avonu. Was Mutare or the events of her campaign mentioned by any of the heroes, in any of the campaigns, by name or otherwise?
Avonu wrote:As you said earlier, Tarnum wasn't to clued about dwarven history. He spent last twenty years in AvLee, so maybe he wasn't also clued about who is on throne in Erathia now?
No offence but I think you are taking Tarnum for an idiot.
I'm quite sure that he would have been keeping an eye on his "extended family".
Xel II wrote:Sleepers form WoX. They were some kind of robots, which were used in the process of XEEN's Unification*. In WoX manual Sleepers were reffered to as the Slumbering Servants and in WoX they talk like robots. Elemental Planes were fitting areas for the Sleepers to reside.
As such, the Elemental Planes were not created specifically for the Sleepers (which is an absurd notion in itself) as was argued earlier.