Who or what is VARN?

[Secret_Holder]

Ohhh.... Interesting

But wouldn't be a bit troublesome, if the pyramid was part of the ship? Maybe they built it, to cover up the ship. But I'm still confused about the name "tomb"

[Corlagon]

I don't think it's called the Tomb of VARN because anyone specific is buried in it... but technically, the VARN in question (the continent of Enroth) is below it. The Tomb of the Dragon Pharoah did literally become his tomb after he somehow died (Legends of MM).

You can also see Egyptian-esque imagery in the Nec-Engine version of MM1 (see Marzhin's topic).

Shifters of Might and Magic included an Arabic-style desert, but it too has a pyramid housing a gate to the Underworld. There's also several in Swords of Xeen: the pyramids of Canegtut (Caneghem?), Rettig (Deane Rettig?) and Ascihep.

There's also a (removed) artifact description in Heroes IV - the Scarab of Summoning - which possibly references the Ancients' connection to pyramids on Axeoth:

This is one of our only ties to a powerful ancient society who once ruled the entire world. Perhaps this powerful artifact was one of the reasons why, or perhaps the Scarab was its downfall. No one knows.

It's safe to say the Ancients have some aesthetic ties to Egyptology as well as sci-fi. Perhaps it's a buffer for the idea that they're among the most senior, powerful and advanced civilisations in the known universe. Egypt once was, too

[Secret_Holder]

Ok. So one could say that the devs were big Stargate fans

[Corlagon]

Perhaps for MM6 onwards, but it couldn't have been the original inspiration (MM1-5 came out before Stargate existed)

[Secret_Holder]

Once again I show how little I know about Science Fiction...

[GreatEmerald]

The first games were based on Star Trek. I'd guess that the devs watched Star Gate later on as well.

[Avonu]

Hey, didn't we already discuss about MM, Star Trek, Star Gate, old BSG and other sci-fi movies/serials connections? ;P

[GreatEmerald]

Not that I can remember.

[Avonu]

http://www.celestialheavens.com/forums/search.php

[Noneofyourbusiness]

Ohhh.... Interesting

But wouldn't be a bit troublesome, if the pyramid was part of the ship? Maybe they built it, to cover up the ship. But I'm still confused about the name "tomb"

The pyramid is the exterior part of the ship. It's called a tomb because it's the ship's resting place and no longer inhabited.

But VARN-4 is rectangular, as you can see from the map, same goes with CRON (except that CRON has contact with the Planes). And I never knew Isles were not the surface of the planet... But from the size of it, couldn't they be a single VARN, just shattered to pieces? I don't remember if more than one VARN was or wasn't mentioned in the logs over in WoX, though...

It's game desing Emerald, so don't be surprise that VARN4 and CRON have rectangular shape. Same with Terra, Enroth, Antagarich, Jadame and Chedian. Each (in-game) land has rectangular shape.
But even Xeen is not 100% rectangular- if you visit it corners you will see they are some kind of rounds instead of right angle.

And yes, islands of Terra are created from various VARNs. Before they landed, Terra had no land.

To be precise, we're told the isles were formed from *four* VARNs.