Questions on the story

[ShadowLiberal]

There's a few things I've always wondered about the story in Heroes 5, and how it doesn't add up with the story pre-Ubisoft.

It's stated quite clearly in Heroes 5 that Nicolai's father was Alexi, and it's implied (though never outright said) that Fiona was his mother/queen.

Yet, it's quite clear in 3DO that King Roland and Queen Catherine were Nicolai's parents.

So which is it then? Who's Nicolai's Mother and Father?

Did Catherine first marry Alexi and get pregnant with Nicolai before Alexi died, and then remarry to Roland?

Was Fiona really a queen/mother to Nicolai, or was she just a family friend/baby sitter who raised Nicolai while his parents were always away ruling their kingdom?

Or did Ubisoft just screw up the story and decide to change big things about Nicolai's past, like who his parents were?


Also, another inconsistentcy I've wondered about in the story is the Academy town.

In 3DO the Academy was clearly Bracada in M&M7, who worshiped the Light and had their own version of heaven with Celeste even. The Light and Dark are clearly labeled two different religions as well in M&M7.

Yet in Ubisoft Heroes 5 it's said multiple times by various Haven heroes that the Academy are godless & atheists. Isabelle even says at one point "the wizards have no dragon Godric, they are godless". One of Isabelle/Godric also mentions that the Wizards of the Academy only worship their magic.

It's also noteworthy that the Academy heroes are never heard talking about their god, or any other god. Compare that to the Haven heroes constantly mentioning Elrath, the dungeon heroes mentioning their dragon god Malsara, and the necromancers constantly talking about the spider godess Asha.

So are the academy heroes really godless, or is it just Isabelle & Godric ranting and making stuff up because they hate Cyrus and how he refused to help them?

Either way, it seems like a pretty big jump overtime to go from worship someone with their religion of the Light, to the wizards all suddenly becoming atheists.

[Avonu]

It's stated quite clearly in Heroes 5 that Nicolai's father was Alexi, and it's implied (though never outright said) that Fiona was his mother/queen.

Yet, it's quite clear in 3DO that King Roland and Queen Catherine were Nicolai's parents.

So which is it then? Who's Nicolai's Mother and Father?

First, Nicolai Ironfist from MM6 and MM9 is different person then Nicolai Griffin from HV.

1. Nicolai Ironfist is childof Roland Ironfist and Catherine Ironfist from Gryphonheart house. Nicolas Gryphonheart (lich king from RoE) was Nicolai grandfather and the person from whom he has his name.
Archibald Ironfist is Nicolai uncle.

2. Nicolai Griffin from Ashan is child of Fiona from Unicorn house and Alexiej Griffin. Godric Unicron was his uncle.

Was Fiona really a queen/mother to Nicolai, or was she just a family friend/baby sitter who raised Nicolai while his parents were always away ruling their kingdom?

Yes. After the events of Clash of Heroes she married prince Alexiej and become queen.

In 3DO the Academy was clearly Bracada in M&M7, who worshiped the Light and had their own version of heaven with Celeste even. The Light and Dark are clearly labeled two different religions as well in M&M7.

Not really. Academy was first introduced in HIV, long after Bracada was destroyed. On Antagarich mage town was named Tower.
Also Celeste was city built on side of mountain (see Castle Lambert animation) and their were allies with Church of Light, but they not worshipped them directly.

Yet in Ubisoft Heroes 5 it's said multiple times by various Haven heroes that the Academy are godless & atheists. Isabelle even says at one point "the wizards have no dragon Godric, they are godless". One of Isabelle/Godric also mentions that the Wizards of the Academy only worship their magic.

Ashan has no connection to NWC words. It is different universum with different rules. So what was before in NWC games is no more in Ashan.

It's also noteworthy that the Academy heroes are never heard talking about their god, or any other god. Compare that to the Haven heroes constantly mentioning Elrath, the dungeon heroes mentioning their dragon god Malsara, and the necromancers constantly talking about the spider godess Asha.

Malassa

So are the academy heroes really godless, or is it just Isabelle & Godric ranting and making stuff up because they hate Cyrus and how he refused to help them?

Some mages in Ashan worship Ylath and some worship Urgash But as faction mages/Academy worship no dragon god at all and they belive in themselves.

[ShadowLiberal]

So they made a new Nicolai character, and made him a King to? That's pretty stupid, and confusing.

Not really. Academy was first introduced in HIV, long after Bracada was destroyed. On Antagarich mage town was named Tower.
Also Celeste was city built on side of mountain (see Castle Lambert animation) and their were allies with Church of Light, but they not worshipped them directly.

Yeah but Tower and Academy are basically the same thing, big towers, very focused on magic, towns full of wizards and magical creations.

Didn't know that Celeste was built into a mountain. I thought it was a city that floated in the sky above Barcada, and that was only accessible through the teleportor.

[Agalloch]

Avonu didn't make it clear, but the Ubisoft games are set in an entirely new Universe, with completely different characters, stories, histories and physics. Any similarity to existing characters is purely coincidental, or an attempt to borrow some of the creativity of the original games.

The Pre-Ubisoft Universe has not featured in any game since Might and Magic IX/Heroes of Might and Magic IV and can be considered either dead (canon), or expanded only by the popularity of the fan content that continues it (fanon).

[Marzhin]

Avonu didn't make it clear, but the Ubisoft games are set in an entirely new Universe, with completely different characters, stories, histories and physics. Any similarity to existing characters is purely coincidental, or an attempt to borrow some of the creativity of the original games.

Many of the character names in H5 were chosen by Nival (Russian developers) so they chose a Russian name for the Emperor :p
That's how there's a Nicolai in Ashan, and that's how the rationale "Griffin clan = Russians" started.

As far as I know, that was not meant as a direct reference to Nicolai Ironfist, but it could have been.

[ShadowLiberal]

And yet Markal refers to Sandro from Heroes 3 as his master & teacher... And there's mentions of Crag Hack from that universe as well.

[Phate]

They are supposed to be homages to the previous games, those names are only mentioned in passing, the characters have no relevance to the story.

In canonical terms, we can suppose that there were powerful men called Sandro and Crag Hack in Ashan's past, but these people are not the same as those from a different game universe.

[XEL II]

Celeste was both on high mountains and in the sky. Bracada's religion was the Path of Light and it was its main stronghold, even housing the High Temple of Light. And the Path of Light in itself isn't theistic, although some of its followers do associate it with deities sometimes.

[XEL II]

Many of the character names in H5 were chosen by Nival (Russian developers) so they chose a Russian name for the Emperor :p

What's ridiculous is that in the Russian version of the game the names were changed to their Western European versions Nicolai became Nicolas, Andrei became Andrias, etc.

[ThunderTitan]

What's ridiculous is that in the Russian version of the game the names were changed to their Western European versions Nicolai became Nicolas, Andrei became Andrias, etc.

That's hilarious...

[BMJedi]

I just started playing Homm5 again after a long absence. I'm not sure why I lost interest before, because it's a beautiful eyecandy game with at least a smidgen of the old Homm strategy tropes present. I probably just got distracted with other games that were released at the same time.

I think this game was meant to be a total disconnect from Homm 1-4. Even Homm4 was only marginally connected to Homm 1-3 and MM 1-8.

Ubi was apparently trying to create a new stand-alone franchise with a totally new universe and story. They used a very few names from the original franchise just to cheat into it a tiny, tiny bit of a connection to the old franchise.

I think it is possible to enjoy Homm 5 as long as you take it for what it is, a reboot, and don't try to connect it too much to the previous versions.

The story and lore of Homm5 have nothing to do whatsoever with the older versions. Prince Nicholai and his bride Isabel are meant to be the progenitors of an entirely new mythos, I think. Much like Roland and Catherine in the old one. In fact, the choice of the name "Nicholai" for the doomed prince may have been entirely coincidental, since "Nicholai and Isabel" are two very Eastern European names, a bit like "John Smith" or "... Nguyen" or "... Kim"

Now, what they were trying to do with Homm 6, I just don't understand. I played the demo, and immediately rejected it the moment I saw "wtf, no town screens? How can they call this a Homm game with no town screens?"