Myth: The Fallen Lords

Myth: The Fallen Lords is a 1997 real-time tactics video game developed and published by Bungie Software for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. Released in October 31, 1997 in North America and in February 1998 in Europe by Eidos Interactive, Myth: TFL marked the first game in the Myth series. It was also the first game that Bungie had developed and released simultaneously for both PC and Mac. The game was later included in Myth: The Total Codex on November 15, 1999.

The game was followed a year later with Myth II: Soulblighter.

Gameplay
Levels of Myth, Units of Myth, Special Abilities and Dream Spells, and Myth: TFL Plugins

Myth is a real-time tactics game where players are given a pre-determined selection of units with their own strengths and weakness, without the option to recruit any further units later in battle, emphasizing the tactics aspect of the gameplay.

In both single and multiplayer games, players can utilize units in different way such as combat formations and special abilities and making use of terrain. While some units from the previous Myth retain their special abilities such as the Dwarf satchel charge and Journeyman healing, other past units like the Archers are able to fire a secondary fire arrow that can set the targeted area aflame damaging nearby units and can use a knife as a last resort when in close combat.

The single player campaign is only playable from the perspective of the Light, through a series of both linear and non-linear laid out levels, with end of level stats and individual unit kill counts and prevalence still present, along with the option to play cooperatively in multiplayer through online or local network.

Introduction
''In a time long past, the armies of the Dark came again into the lands of men. Their leaders became known as The Fallen Lords, and their terrible sorcery was without equal in the West.''

''In thirty years they reduced the civilized nations to carrion and ash, until the free city of Madrigal alone defied them. An army gathered there, and a desperate battle was joined against the Fallen.''

Heroes were born in the fire and bloodshed of the wars which followed, and their names and deeds will never be forgotten.

Setting
The basic storyline of Myth involves a war between the human civilization of the world and entities known as the Fallen Lords, a group of seven Warlord sorcerer-generals that arose to drag civilization into ruins. The game opens in the seventeenth year of the Province's war against the Fallen Lords, a war humanity is losing. The principal western cities, Scales, Covenant and Tyr, were razed during the war, and only the free cities of Madrigal, Willow and Tandem still stand against the Fallen Lords. The armies of the west, formed from humans, forest dwelling fir'Bolg and Dwarven refugees are led by The Nine, a group of nine sorcerer-generals called the Avatara. The known members of the Nine include the leader Alric (the former King of the Southern Provinces), Cu Roi, Rabican, Murgen and Maeldun. They've recently found a living severed head buried in the Barrier, which they believe can turn the tide of the war with the Fallen Lords. The Fallen Lords are six powerful wizards enslaved by Balor. The known ones include Soulblighter (Damas), The Deceiver (Myrdred), The Watcher (Bahl'al), and Shiver (Ravanna) - the names of the other two are not revealed in the series. Their leader is Balor, previously the hero Connacht, now the Leveler. The Head, delivered by legendary berserk Truan of Hundred Battles, claims to be an ancient enemy of Balor's, and the Nine intend to use the intelligence it provides to their strategic advantage.

The Legion represents the elite within the armies of the west, and the gameplay centers around the actions of the Legion during the last year of the war.

The Free Cities of the North
The story begins in the village of Crow's Bridge. A small detachment of the Legion has to remain behind to guard a bridge at the request of the locals, who feared for their own safety due to the ever increasing number of refugees coming from the south. After repulsing an attack on the town, the soldiers moved on to the town of Otter Ferry to meet the rest of The Legion, preparing to cross the Meander River. However, the mayor of the town sought to betray them in the hopes that he would be spared once the Dark sacked Madrigal. After a small squad dealt with the traitorous human, the Legion moved south to flank the army of Shiver, who laid a siege to the free city of Madrigal. Every major city in the Southern Provinces were destroyed, and the fall of the free city of Madrigal, headquarters of the Nine, would effectively end the war. Before the main attack began, a small detachment of the Legion snuck near Shiver's basecamp in the ruined village of Comfort with the intention of drawing as much of her army away from the main battle to even the odds. The Legion managed to score its first notable victory as they completely destroyed Shiver and her whole armies with a pincer movement from both The Legion and the Madrigal garrison, saving Madrigal. On the first night of the battle, Shiver is unexpectedly slain in a Dream Duel with the avatara Rabican, a victory owed to the advice of the Head (who alerted them about Shiver's exaggerated vanity, a point exploited by Rabican).

The Nine took advantage of this momentum and attempt to recover the Total Codex, a book containing the past, present and future within its pages, from the ruins of the historical city of Covenant. Rabican personally sent a small taskforce from The Legion into the ruined city in search of the Codex when the expedition they sent before went missing. The force managed to retrieve the Codex from the ruins of Covenant's cathedral, which was where the first expedition made a last stand to deny the enemy the artifact. After doing so, they fled the area and managed to find a few survivors from the expedition with Mauriac, an officer and prince regent of Covenant during Alric's childhood. After a brief rest, they learned that The Watcher had entered Covenant with the intentition on getting the Codex, razing anything in his way. Mauriac told The Legion of a secret tunnel that was used to get Alric to safety when Covenant fell to Balor during the war. They manage to fight their way out of the ruined city and into the tunnel, evading The Watcher.

The Cloudspine Mountains
Despite nearly being buried alive twice in the tunnel, being shaken unstable by The Watcher's rage on the surface, they manage to get to the ruins of the city of Scales, linking up with the Avatara, Maeldun and his southern garrison and handed over the Codex. They soon learn that the combined armies of the north are en route in an attempt to hold Seven Gates and Bagrada, the middle and southern passes of the Cloudspine mountain range respectively, against the army of The Deceiver, who is preparing to cross the range to replace Shiver's forces in the west. They need to only hold out for a few days, until snow covers the passes. First, though, they destroy a World Knot (a means of magical transport) behind their lines, which would have allowed The Deceiver to send his forces directly into their lines. They succeed, and though the army of The Watcher remains behind their lines, if they can keep The Deceiver at bay until winter, they will be able to turn and hunt him down. The Legion is soon sent to investigate the disappearance of scouts in Bagrada and they soon had to repel an attack force led by one of the trow. They manage to repel the attack and heavy snowfall closed of the pass within two days. The Dwarves then take the initiative to ambush a hundred Soulless who had been separated from their masters.

Against all hope, the West had actually pushed the Fallen Lords back to the mountains. With the Watcher still within the province, The Legion prepares for a violent winter.

Around this time, Alric is captured by The Deceiver while searching for a fabled suit of enchanted armor in The Barrier, on advice of The Head. His eastern army is annihilated. Alric realizes that he had been deliberately sent into a trap. However, the army of the west knows nothing of this. They send a small group of best warriors, the Five Champions, east over the mountains in a balloon, and they are able to free Alric. During their escape, which became a thing of legend, Alric dueled and killed Sinis, one of The Deceiver's shade, while one of the champions, bowman ki'Angsi, captures a magical artifact, the Bow of Stoning (which according to speculations might have played a role in creation of a spell against The Watcher later).

During Alric's rescue, the Legion goes to Silvermines in search of the The Watcher's arm, lost when Balor freed him from captivity. The Deceiver also has a force in Silvermines searching for the arm as well, for he and The Watcher were old enemies before Balor bound them to his will. The Watcher was generally acknowledged to be the second or third most powerful sorcerer in living memory, and when the city of Tyr fell twelve years before, He and The Deceiver fought a Dream Duel from which The Watcher barely survived. The Narrator thinks that their rivalry stretches much further then that.

They succeed in recovering the arm and evading The Deceiver's forces, but suddenly the great volcano of Tharsis overlooking Seven Gates erupts, melting all the snow in the pass, allowing the forces of The Deceiver to cross the Cloudspine. At the same time, The Watcher surprises Rabican's army from behind and crushes it, apparently having the avatara killed, and scattering survivors around the mountain range. Many of them are captured by the Deceiver and bound to his will by dream magic. The Legion is pursued by the Deceiver's forces intent of taking The Watcher's arm from them and they make a stand on a nearby hilltop, fending off the undead, their former living comrades under the Deceiver's spell and his trow general, commanding them. After this, surprisingly The Watcher's forces press forward and tear through both what was left of Rabican's forces and through the army of The Deceiver, moving east of the Cloudspine. Using the opportunity, Maeldun positions his army to retake the passes of Seven Gates in an attempt to close the pass to the Fallen Lords. He is successful, both in holding the pass and managing to kill one of The Deceiver's shades, Scaripant, who was trapped by the rising waters. At this point, the Narrator has served in the war for seventeen years.

Forest Heart, The Tain, and Myrgard
The following spring, the avataras Cu Roi and Murgen take the rested and reinforced Legion over the Cloudspine and into Forest Heart in an attempt to regain the support of the Forest Giants, who mysteriously withdrew their support of the west thirteen years earlier, leading to the fall of the Southern Provinces. their mission is disrupted when Soulblighter himself appears with his army. The legion with the Forest Giants' aid manage to repel the undead. In a stunning surprise attack, Soulblighter's personally falls upon the Legion and he traps the Legion within the Tain, a magical artifact used by the hero Connacht a thousand years earlier to trap and exterminate the Myrkridia, a species that had nearly hunted humanity to extinction during the previous cycle. The Tain is small enough to hold in the hand, yet contains a pocket universe of limitless capacity. Trapped within, the Myrkridia cannibalized each other until the last of them starved to death. The Legion came across a skull platform 30 feet high and 100 feet across topped with a battle standard, evidence that the Myrkridia had indeed been in this place. Murgen and the few members of the legion he could find searches for a way to free the 4000 men trapped within, negotiating many of the Tain's lethal traps, forces of the dark imprisoned with them and the giant spiders that infested the tain. Murgen eventually finds the exit and shattered the Tain. Soulblighter flees, startled by the unexpected destruction of the powerful artifact, which occurred only mere moments after he used the artifact of The Legion.

Cu Roi and Murgen, sadly, do not survive the destruction of the Tain and many of the Legion are lost as well.

Messengers inform them that Maeldun has lost the important mountain pass of Bagrada (and was presumably severely injured at this point according to Myth 2 manual) and that The Deceiver has crossed the Cloudspine at the northern pass known as the Stair of Grief - though he is no longer mentioned for the rest of the story. They also learn of a civil war erupting in the west as soldiers rise up unexpectedly in support of The Head. What is left of the Nine attempted to destroy it and as a result two avatara were killed, leaving only three left. The war has taken a terrible turn for the worse with so many avataras dying. However, Alric and the Five Champions rejoined the Legion. A small group of Dwarves, led by Balin the Pathfinder, leaves the Legion at this point and sneaks into Myrgard via balloon and parachute in an attempt to slaughter as many of the occupying Ghôls as possible. This far east, they were the closest to their occupied homeland then any of their race had ever been since its fall. Impossibly, they are able to destroy the ghôls' Godhead during their attack, securing their place in legend and retaking their homeland, killing the thousands of ghôls occupying the city.

The Dire Marsh
At this point, Alric convinced the surviving members of the Legion to head north through the the Dire Marsh towards the fortress of Balor, as the West is going to be lost anyways. Their small force can do nothing to save Willow, Tandem, and Madrigral from the armies about to lay siege to them, but they could win a more important victory instead. During his captivity and interrogation, Alric learned by chance that the Fallen all drew their power from Balor, a measure in which Balor insures their obedience to his will. If Balor were to fall, all of the armies of the Dark would collapse, leaving only the Fallen Lords themselves to contend with (it's strongly speculated that The Deceiver himself may have passed on Balor's secret to Alric). And so they move north. Upon entry into the Dire Marsh, a small band of soldiers investigated the disappearance of a scouting party led by gr'Uman that hadn't returned. They found no one alive, as they expected, but were able to recover the enchanted Bow of Furious Incandescence from the fallen scout leader before it fell into enemy hands. With The Watcher constantly ambushing them from the front and Soulblighter charging them from the rear, like they were racing to see who could destroy the Legion first. Alric performs a daring feint. The Legion's rearguard engaged Soulblighter, holding him at the Gjol River while the rest of The Legion headed north to attack The Watcher. Using arrows tipped with bone fragments from his own lost arm, The Watcher turned to stone. A hundred berserks volunteer to kill the Watcher and despite the resistance of The Watcher's army under command of his shade Cormorant. At this point, The Watcher's ancient arch-rival shade Mazzarin, who once was the greatest Avatara, the keeper of the Total Codex, and then was taken by surprise by the Watcher's thrall, overwhelmed, killed and reborn as a shade, teleported in. The Watcher is shattered and his army is scattered, clearing the way ahead for the Legion. Soulblighter then mysteriously stopped pursuing the Legion at this point.

The Last Battle
As they passed out of the Dire Marsh, they approached the abandoned trow city of Rhi'anon, the oldest city of the Trow's ancient civilization, in which Balor's fortress is located. After securing a bridge within, the Legion passed into the city. Alric has now come to possession of one of the five legendary Eblis Stones, an extremely powerful magical artifact. The berserk who delivered it, having come all the way from Willow 1,400 miles away, refuses to talk about events in the west, hinting on the terrible situation back home.

Alric ordered the 2,200 survivors of the Legion to attack the fortress of Balor in a suicidal feint. An army of undead that seemed to be half-million strong stands between them and the fortress. Alric then prepared to get 100 picked men with him through a World Knot to a spot directly on top of Balor's fortress. With Balor's forces distracted by the Legion's suicidal charge, Alric believed that this small force could sneak up on Balor and assassinate him. During the nights leading up to this moment, the great comet that had been growing brighter and brighter in the sky, becoming brighter than the moon and is visible by day. Many of The Legion took this as an ill omen. As he departed, Alric informed the Legion that Madrigal, the last city in the West, had fallen.

At sunrise, The Legion began it's attack on the fortress, and Alric summons his force to head towards the fortress from the opposite side. Alric then plants a Myrkridian battle standard, retrieved from within the Tain, outside the fortress in an attempt to draw out Balor. Alric believeed that this will work because Balor trapped the Myrkridia within the Tain a thousand years earlier. The men, thinking that the hero Connacht had done this, ask Alric how could that be. Alric revealed to them a disturbing fact, that Balor and Connacht were two different names for the same person. The legendary hero of the the Wind Age, King of Muirthemne and emperor of the Cath Bruig Empire, was reborn as the greatest evil of their world. A new of incarnation of the Leveler. One of Connacht's notable acts after he was reborn as Balor was destroying the city of Muirthemne, laying waste to the Cath Bruig Empire, the greatest empire the world had ever known. And Alric hoped that this old enmity would lure Balor out.

The plan worked. Balor is drawn from his fortress, enraged at the sight of the Myrkridian battle standard. Alric took the opportunity to strike at Balor. He and his force cut through Balor's bodygurads before immobilizing him with one of the Five Eblis Stones, leaving Balor vulnerable to the swords of the Legion. They managed to decapitate him, and plan to take his head to the Great Devoid, a bottomless pit created by the ancient Callieach, an extinct race of powerful magic users. Only by doing this would Balor finally be destroyed. It is believed that by throwing Balor's head into the Great Devoid, the spirit of the Leveler itself would be destroyed, not merely its mortal form. The thirty survivors of the Legion, magically transported to the Great Devoid by Alric, are ambushed by Soulblighter as they carry the head toward the pit. Despite their losses, they succeed in their final task. Balor is destroyed, and the Fallen are rendered powerless, the undead armies collapsing.

Epilogue
The fates of the Fallen Lords after Balors death are varied. Soulblighter, having failed his master fled the Great Devoid, moved into the Untamed Lands. The Deceiver was pursued back to the Stair of Grief by heroes of light, Durak, Turgeis with Burning Steel and Twelve Motion Jeweled Skull. The Deveiver lost his scepter and was trapped inside the Dramus River, using all his magical power just to stay alive. The river froze solid around him as the heat from the eruption of Tharsis faded, forming Angurvadal Glacier. The Deceiver would remain in this condition for more than sixty years. Thus, Balor, Shiver and The Watcher had all been destroyed, The Deceiver imprisoned in the ice and Soulblighter had vanished in the form of a murder of crows, not to be seen again for six decades. The fate of the last two Fallen Lords was not known, though they never again raised their heads.

The fact that the Leveler did not return after these events, in spite of the fact that the world was due a thousand years of darkness, suggests that he had indeed been destroyed, and that the cycle had been broken. This would make Alric possibly the greatest hero of the Myth world. Although his feats are generally not as great as Connacht's, he was able to defeat the Leveler and end the cycle, something Connacht himself was powerless to stop.

Following the events of the game, the remains of the Legion limp home, they and other survivors of the war began the long process of rebuilding their cities. Having reclaimed his throne, Alric was able to act as both King and avatara, aiding the people, and allowing the cities of Scales, Covenant, Tyr, Madrigal, Tandem, and Willow to be rebuilt. The Province recovered, and the scars of war began to heal. Ever after, in honour of the original Legion's sacrifice, the armies of the west are all known as Legions. The fir'Bolg returned to their forest homeland of the Ermine, and the Dwarves rebuilt Myrgard to its former glory.

Sixty years pass, and the armies of the west are well-trained and large. The Legions constantly patrol the Province, vigilantly watching for the return of the undead and dealing with bandits and criminals as they do so. Alric remains King; his powers as an Avatara allow him to remain active, despite his advanced age.

However, this peace was not to last.

Myth: The Fallen Lords by Bungie Software Products Corporation

 * Lead Design: Jason Jones
 * Lead Programming: Jason Jones, Ryan Martell, Jason Regier, Alex Rosenberg
 * Programming: James Osborne, Alain Roy
 * Level / Scenario Design: Jay Barry, Mark Bernal, Jason Jones, Ryan Martell, Robert McLees, Frank Pusateri, Jason Regier
 * Graphics / Artwork: Mark Bernal, Marcus Lehto, Gary McCluskey, Robert McLees, Frank Pusateri, Juan Ramirez
 * Music: Paul Heitsch, Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori
 * Sound: Paul Heitsch, Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori, Dave Sears
 * Production: Tuncer Deniz
 * Cover Art: John Bolton
 * Packaging: Tuncer Deniz, Max Hoberman, Alexander Seropian
 * Documentation: Jay Barry, Tuncer Deniz, Max Hoberman, Juan Ramirez, Matthew Soell, Doug Zartman
 * Writing / Dialogue / Story: Jason Jones, Robert McLees, Doug Zartman
 * Tools: Ryan Martell, Jay Barry, Jonas Eneroth
 * Cutscenes: Canuck Creations, Inc.

Acting / Voiceovers

 * Narrator: Geoffrey Charlton-Perrin
 * Villager: Paul Heitsch
 * Berserk, Warrior, Tutorial: Tony Mackus
 * Balor, Soulblighter: Jeff Morrow
 * Alric: Roger Mueller
 * Dwarf: Bob O'Donnell
 * Shade, Sinis, Fetch: Martin O'Donnell
 * Archer, Warrior: James Schneider
 * Journeyman, Trow: Bob Swan

Multiplayer Servers
Besides using a local area network or a TCP/IP, GameRanger is currently the only gaming service that allows Mac users to play Myth: The Fallen Lords online with other players. It has a much smaller userbase.

Originally, the game was played online using Bungie.net from 1998 to November 2001.

Playmyth.net was a popular server from MythDevelopers that supported all three Myth. It was one of several servers that took over after Bungie.net stopped running. On October 2, 2007, PlayMyth.net was taken offline after it was repeatedly hacked.

Mariusnet was once the only server that supported all three Myth games as well as Bungie's Marathon. However, it shut down for good sometime after early 2014 when the hardware that ran the servers got damaged during a move.

Graphics Rendering
Myth: The Fallen Lords originally supported both software rendering and 3Dfx Glide hardware-acceleration upon its release. A final v1.3 upgrade patch added support for RRedline, the native rendering API of the Rendition Verite line of graphic cards. With Myth II, Bungie introduced larger screen resolutions and Direct3D (Windows) & RAVE (Mac OS) rendering. Thanks to volunteers, an unofficial v1.5 patch was created which added OpenGL support, thus allowing modern GPUs to run the game in hardware-mode. All patches since v1.5 have had OpenGL support

Awards
The first of the Myth series, The Fallen Lords was very acclaimed for its time.

Myth: The Fallen Lords, 1997


 * PC Gamer Best Real Time Strategy Game of the Year
 * Computer Gaming World Strategy Game of the Year
 * Computer Games Strategy Plus Game of the Year
 * Macworld Magazine Game of the Year
 * GameSpot have included the Myth series in the "Greatest Games of All Time" hall of fame.
 * Myth I was listed in the Best of 1997 and Myth II in 98 at Games Revolution.com

Myth II followed with larger sale success and popularity.

Myth: TFL Updates

 * Myth TFL 1.5 (Mac)*
 * Myth TFL 1.5 (Windows)


 * The Mac OS X version of this game does not work on Mac OS X Lion (version 10.7) or later due to the removal of support for PowerPC apps.

Manuals & Guides

 * Let's Play Archive, Myth: The Fallen Lords by Johnny Law
 * Let's Play Archive, Myth: The Fallen Lords by Sevron
 * Myth: TFL English Manual
 * Myth: TFL Polish Manual
 * Myth: TFL Italian Manual
 * Myth: TFL Quick Reference Card
 * Myth: TFL English Strategy Guide
 * Myth: TFL Polish Strategy Guide

The Fallen Levels v2
Project Magma created The Fallen Levels plugin for Myth II: Soulblighter, which allows players to play through the full original solo/co-op levels of ''Myth: The Fallen Lords. Since Myth: TFL ''hasn't been updated in years, this is the easiest method to play the game.


 * Project Magma, The Fallen Levels v2
 * The Tain, The Fallen Levels v2
 * The Tain, Myth: TFL Quicktime Cutscenes
 * The Tain, Myth: TFL Interface
 * uDogs Hotline, Multilingual Project (Incomplete)
 * Myth TFL Multiplayer Mappack
 * Detail Texture Megapack
 * Bungie Map Textures
 * Myth II: Soulblighter ESRGAN Upscale Pack