Bored, and on my fifth cycle now, first two were defeats, one give up, one got axed by Barbarian. So far for victories, I've Assembled the Machine, and then Assembled the Talisman. Going for the Keys this time. Anyway, while I'm between maps, I decided to list my thoughts on the Masters, their alignments DnD style, and then ask, what you, the other players think. As I start, I'll list out the real names of the Masters, and what I tend to think of them as, before getting on with the rest. Oh, and this is the order you meet them in too, so that might be a slight spoiler, but nothing too bad. The endings will

Onior, the Wizard

Beleth, the Necromancer

Doh-Gor, the Barbarian

Vianta, the Fairy

Oumm, the Cloud

L'Anshar, the Lich

Stenriya, the Witch

Dariol, the Elf

Ul-Dagan, the Engineer

Herskil, the Emperor

Erdu, the Poet

Dorikos, the Dragon

Ranadil, the Storm

The Nameless....just The Nameless

Adrageron, the Demon

Magnus, the Key Master

As far as I know, that's the whole lot of them, and the order you always meet them in. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but otherwise, let's go forward with our descriptions, and I'll tell you a bit about them, and what I think of them.

The Wizard(Lawful Good)
He's the first master you meet, so the one that ends up with the most time to talk to. Sadly, he gets only a few bits of development, but most of it is interesting. For instance, several Masters make note of the fact that he used to have a large world, and was one of the most powerful of their number. Something happened though, and his world was broken, and he fell from power. Interesting to note, no one makes issue of the fact that he survived his world being destroyed once, something no other Master can claim, and everyone who mentions it says it can't happen.

The Necromancer(Lawful Evil)
Jerk. He's a perfect example of his alignment, always on the look out for advancement and the causes of darkness. He's one of the first, and like the Wizard, this gives him time to advance his story. In fact, he's one of two Masters who you can win the game with by becoming his lackey. If you refuse, or are a good person, he despises you, but once you show yourself to be stronger, either conquering several Shards, or better yet killing some Masters, he becomes polite around you, but never trust him. He'll stick a knife in your back as soon as look at you.

The Barbarian(Chaotic Evil)
This guy's an idiot. No, he's stupid, and everyone will tell you that. He's also the first Master to attack you directly in a scripted event, after which you gain the ability to attack him back if you want. To spoil a bit, most Masters you talk to mention his amulet, which they say is what made him a Master. They are not wrong, and you can claim said amulet for yourself by kicking his butt. You can then either throw it away, show it off to other Masters, or try to use it. Using it can lead to the games only permanent Alliance.(On individual Shards you can Ally with the various races, but the amulet lets you Ally permanently with the Orcs. Not a bad ally, and you have them at the start of every Shard thereafter, helping the early game. Still, it's an Evil aligned race, so you might not like it)

The Fairy(Chaotic Good)
The Queen of the Fae, she's as flighty as her kind ever is. She talks about movement from the heart, and it's not a bad way to exist, and if you're a good person, you can trust her. However, she's not dependable. She wears her opinions on her sleeve, and in Shards she tends to declare war at the drop of a hat against anybody. I can't recommend alliances with her at all, and would caution you to take everything she says about the other Masters with a grain of salt.

The Cloud(True Neutral)
What can one say about something that is a paradox. The Cloud is a thing that literally cannot exist, every Master, Zarr, and most people will tell you that. The Cloud itself has no emotions, and never says anything more than two words, even to a Neutral like itself(I've heard it will in Master of the Broken World, but I play Genesis). It's got Blue and Orange morality, and thus, never subscribes to your versions of what you think the world should conform too. Never expect to get any information out of it.

The Lich(Neutral Evil)
Ah, the classic creature. This guy's really fun to talk to sometimes, and he openly admits his evil, whereas the Necromancer will try to sell you on pretty words. Like with the Necromancer, you can ally with this guy, and win the game as one of his minions, though he's a bit nicer to you, since he sees no real need to assert dominance. He merely wants to correct the mistake called 'Life', and is happy if you join him in that project. Interestingly, he's one of the few 'Evil' Masters I've gotten to give me a Shard after I ally with him against other Masters and the Local Lords. So he's kinda cool in that way. He also has some insight into the other Masters that are quite interesting. Oh, and you can actually trust what he tells you. He literally doesn't seem capable of lying.

The Witch(Chaotic Neutral)
Now her you can't trust at all. Never at all. She lies as a force of habit, and almost anything she tells you is suspect. As it stands, she's literally playing all sides here, and has apparently told Masters prophecies(She does indeed have the gift of future sight, but again, trust nothing) that will get them to turn against each other. Sometimes she uses these to gain power, other times she does it just to amuse herself.

The Elf(Lawful Good)
This one is hard to pin down, since he wavers between the two Philosophies, but I'm going to say he leans more towards Lawful most of the time. He's also very focused, and if you're evil he'll barely talk to you. Interestingly, being good mostly has him talk to you about the battle against Chaos, I.E. demons. He's very vindictive against them for killing his patron god, and wants to destroy them all. If anyone ever tells you otherwise, don't believe them.

The Engineer(Chaotic Evil)
Like the witch, trust nothing he says. You might be surprised to find him as Evil, since his relationship value starts out at Indifference no matter what you are. However, make no mistake, he's more evil than either the Lich or the Necromancer. He does have insights into things, but take everything he says with a grain of salt. Worse, never, ever trade machine parts to him if you don't care about what he's talking about. I don't think he can ever assemble the full machine(You need 6 parts for that, and I only remember him asking for up to 4) still, just in case.

The Emperor(Lawful Anal)
The Paladin of the Masters, he runs an empire of humans, the only normalish human of the Masters too. Sadly, thanks to some events, he doesn't really get the development he probably should, at least to me. As is, you learn his history, and learn he tolerates no evil, essentially, he's that DnD Paladin archetype, who is so devoted to Lawful, that he's not very Good anymore. Yeah, interesting dude, but not fleshed out enough to be anything other than a curiosity.

The Poet(Neutral Good)
The opposite of the Engineer, and quite a character. He talks in flowery dialogue, and hides much of what he is behind pretty words. However, none of that is on purpose. Like the Lich, I don't think he can lie, or rather, everything he said matched with the stories of others. He'll also help you to win the game, assembling the Machine's opposite, the Talismen. Note, however, that that's way harder than the Machine, and takes a while longer, but in my opinion, is a more satisfying conclusion to the story.

The Dragon(True Neutral)
He's a bit of an odd one. A dragon who became a god, and wants the best for his people, but can't get the big lizards to agree on what is best for them. Note that he's trustworthy, to a point, but never says much to you outside of the Shards. You are given a chance to repeat his name back to him, but it doesn't matter much. He gets one line difference to the question, and his opinion of you goes up slightly, but like the Cloud, he'll never really talk to you. Sad too, because I think his story might be interesting, considering you kinda know how the other Masters got their power, but the stories of how he got his vary a bit.

The Storm(Chaotic Neutral)
Jerk. No, that's all I've got on him. He comes so late in the story that he gets almost no development, and since he was central to any of the plots, he just kind of is. He says he feels a kinship with the Cloud, but is basically doing what he does for his own reasons. Also, he's a jerk.

The Nameless(True Neutral)
The Void made flesh. Essentially he's the immune system of Nothing. When Nothing met Something, Nothing always loses. So it made Something from Nothing, to fight against the rest of the Something so that it wouldn't fill the whole of the Nothing. Sadly, like the Storm, he comes too late, and isn't important enough to any of the plots to talk much.

The Demon(Chaotic Evil)
A demon general, with demons being the guys who want to destroy Eador and kill all the Immortal Masters. He's an odd man out. Next to last to come to town, he gets a few scenes of a story, but not a finished one, and seems to attack me every time, no matter my alignment. As with the above, he doesn't really talk to you, and so you can't really get a good feel for his character other than that he wants you dead.

From game files:
Name: Adrageron;
Karma: -100

Name: Dorikos;
Karma: 0

Name: Beleth;
Karma: -100

Name: Oinor;
Karma: 100

Name: Dariol;
Karma: 50

Name: Herskil;
Karma: 20

Name: L'Anshar;
Karma: -50

Name: Oumm;
Karma: 0

Name: Magnus;
Karma: 0

Name: Erdu;
Karma: 50

Name: Doh-Gor;
Karma: -20

Name: Vianta;
Karma: 50

Name: Ranadil;
Karma: 0

Name: Stenriya;
Karma: 0

Name: Nameless;
Karma: 0

Name: Ul-Dagan;
Karma: -50

So, the game agrees with me. Interesting. Also, the Key Master refuses to post. I hit the post my message button, and it just never finishes loading. Oh well.

I had such a bug in this forum before. When I mess up the quote syntax it just loads...you can even recreate it everytime, just remove the slash from the closing bracket. Maybe it is something similar in your text.

Nice writeup btw. Herskill used to be a gangster or something who took power, so his karma isn't too high.

He used to be a mercenary according to the Poet and others. Mind, he took power via a coup supported by the church, and talking to him he hates the undead and evil. Not a nice man. Also, no slashes or anything. I use the word Jerkass to describe him, but nothing too bad.

If we're talking D&D alignments, I think you mixed up the necromancer and the lich, personally. :)

While very capital-E-Evil, L'anshar strikes me as the lawful one : He's very frank about his opinions and objectives, true to his word, and never tries to deceive or hide. He tells you what he wants from you, what will happen if he wins, and doesn't try to pass as a friend. And his final objective is a twisted ideal of order in death. He attacks you just after you declare yourself an enemy (by refusing to side with him). He's the definition of Lawful Evil.

Compare that to Beleth's treachery, his false smiles and oily politeness while he waits for the right occasion to stab you in the back. He has no ideal, no cause, his objectives seem completely self-serving and he'll do anything it takes to get it as long (as it's not too dangerous - he seems cowardly, too). He's opportunistic, and attacks you when you are still weak, but become very obsequious when your power surpasses his. Totally Neutral Evil.

At least, that's the way I would play it at the table I GM ;)

Hmm, possibly true. I like the reasoning of the argument. I was going more by, 'which of these philosophies can build an empire', which is usually what I think lawful evil beings try to do. The Lich's plan results in nothing really. That's the problem with undead like him, they claim to think of only eternity, but really, when you get down to it, they're plans depend on a fresh supply of life with which to make corpses, without which you tend to fail. Still, I will say it has merit.

Now then, who's got a favorite or least favorite Master?

For me, favorite has got to be either The Dragon or the Poet. I love the way these guys talk, and their attitudes are spot on for what they were going for. Arrogant, but for the most part, neither(Yes not even the dragon) is threatening in their arrogance when you point it out to them. Heck, in the conversation with the Dragon, your character gets to talk, something that never happens at any other time in the game.

Least favorite is the Key Master, hands down. He's not nice, manipulative, conniving, and worst of all, he doesn't think morality applies to him at all. You can call him on this, both from an evil and good perspective, and he responds the same way(I refuse to believe this wasn't deliberate, to show his contempt for you as a character) The Cloud, the Nameless, and maybe(A big maybe) the Storm are Blue and Orange Morality. This guy's just being a jerk.

Some random observations on all of the above:


Oinor having fallen in power: I can't help but think that's a fourth wall joke. The default high scores (Book of the Masters) has him in third place. In the campaign, he's in last place.

Nameless: I've never met him in a campaign yet, but from the portrait, he looks like a Master of Magic reference (being a dead ringer for "Mystic X the Unknown"). Mystic X gets around a bit cosmologically because he also appeared as a legendary officer in Master of Orion II.

Stenriya: It's clear that many of the masters don't trust her and are on to the fact that her prophecies seem to be self-serving. It's only the overly proud and ambitious ones (like Beleth) who actually seem to buy into anything she says (because she tells them what they want to hear).

Doh-Gor: I can't help but wonder whether he'd have a better brain if he wasn't drunk on war god power. Still probably not much of one, but considering the story behind the amulet it probably isn't improving either his intellect or his personality. He does have the curious trait of being the only master who ENJOYS having you attack him.

Ancestor of Eador, "Ancient War in Chetraney" was written in 1995, earlier than MoO2.
Take a look at evolution of masters.

Wow. that is interesting stuff. Found a cool link when searching for that game, some sort of tips and explanations and diary article from the creator. If that is him in the picture he obviously designed Magnus after himself!

http://translate.google.de/translate?hl=de&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http://www.lki.ru/text.php%3Fid%3D5707&sandbox=0&usg=ALkJrhhu_C6T3cisngtL0qmy8fmNghF5pg


PS: Master of Magic and Mystic X are from 1993 or so.

Gremlion: Master of Magic predated both, I believe. MOO2 was only noteworthy in that Mystic X managed to make the leap from fantasy to space-fi as himself. With Eador, I don't know whether Nameless is specifically meant to be a sly-wink Mystic X lookalike, but the resemblance is certainly there.

After reading Mystic X description - I think that it is just a lookalike. He have actual face! Though author mention in interview that he loves MoM.

[minor spoiler ahead]

Nameless doesn't have physical body at all.

In translated version javascript doesn't work, on original page you can click images to enlarge.
http://www.lki.ru/text.php?id=5707