History VideoGame / Myth

* BoringInvincibleHero: Connacht in the ''Myth III'', up to utterly exterminating a race no other human force had ever fought and lived, because he's just that badass. ''Twice''. The only battle he loses is also the only one where he doesn't fight personally.

* {{Cool Gate}}s: The World Knots are an ancient [[PortalNetwork network]] of portals, which are connected in pairs. Luckily the bad guys can't make use of them.[[note]]Except for the Deceiver who does make use of one, so the Nine blow it up.[[/note]] You can always count on one of them to appear [[DeusExMachina exactly when and where it is needed]].

* EleventhHourSuperpower: The sword Balmung, used by Alric in the final battle, which kills myrkridia in seconds and casts ChainLightning on everything he hits. The only real danger during that mission is getting your own troops fried by accident (the wrecked sword can be seen on the ground in the last seconds of the level, explaning its absence in the finale).
* EliteMooks: Trow, fetch, myrmidons, myrkridia, dwarven mortars, warlocks and the various priest units in ''Myth III'' all far more dangerous than the standard grunts on both sides.
* EnemyMine: The Deceiver.

* EverythingFades: Averted, as you lay permanent waste to the landscape. ''Awesomely''. Bloodstains, craters, heads, limbs, even broken arrows and bits of armor remain until the level ends. This is tactically relevant, especially in multiplayer, as you can see where battles have occurred before you got there. Furthermore, [[OurGhoulsAreCreepier ghols]] can pick up discarded weapons or even [[GrievousHarmWithABody body parts]], particularly those of the [[ActionBomb wights]], and [[ImprovisedWeaponUser hurl them at the enemy]].

* GreaterScopeVillain: The Leveler is always the bad guy, and is invincible, sort of. There's a monologue about it.
--> Although the hero of every age of light is different, every dark age is ushered in by the same beast - a transient divinity that seeks only conflict - The Leveler. And so Tireces returned as Moagim, to end the Age of Reason - and Connacht, the great hero of the Wind Age, returned as Balor, to lay waste to the greatest empire the world had ever known. The Leveler was never killed. He was immobilized by sorcery, beheaded and burned at the stake in the Second Era. A thousand years later, he was drawn and quartered on the plains before Ileum, the tireless horses dragging the pieces of his lifeless body to the four corners of the world. Again in the Fourth Era, his body was destroyed by fire, his ashes mixed with salt and buried under the Mountains of Kor. Balor, Moagim and all those before them wore the Mantle of The Leveler.

* PlotlineDeath: In the first game: Shiver, six of the Nine, and most of the Legion are killed offscreen. In the second game: Cruniac.

* RealTimeWithPause

* {{Rewrite}}: Alric died on-screen at the end of the first game, but returns as the main character of the sequel with no explanation.

** Healing any undead unit will kill it. It's the only way to defeat [[spoiler:Soulblighter]] in the first game. Now actually having the healer survive long enough to finish the spell...

* RPGElements: Nearly non-existent in the original game, though units do improve a bit when they gain kills and survive battles, but some mods have put more emphasis on this element. Particularly the "Mazzarins Demise" expansions, where your units will level up after a certain amount of kills and get significantly stronger.

** Soulblighter also tries to do this in the second game - he continues his attempts to destroy civilization even though the latest incarnation of The Leveller, Balor, has already been defeated. The epilogue even states that he was deliberately trying to force the cycle by not waiting for The Leveller's next incarnation.
** The third game (the canon status of which is disputed) establishes that ''every'' leveler is ultimately defeated, but each comes closer to a final victory. What alternates is what happens between levelers; for instance Moagim ended the Age of Reason and summoned the first Myrkridia into the world just before being cornered and defeated, and they slowly chipped away at civilization over centuries until they were defeated by the champion of the next cycle when only one city remained. In Balor's cycle the Leveler was defeated by literally the last army of the Light still standing after their homelands had already been conquered, and even then only barely; Soulblighter had similar success.
* SealedEvilInACan: The myrkridia in ''Myth''. [[spoiler:Not so much in the second one.]]

** In Myth III, some quotes said by the Heron Guards are:
*** [[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 For the Emperor]];
*** [[VideoGame/ZeroWing For Great Justice]].

** In the first game, played straight with the fetch, inverted with everyone else that uses magic - using magic actually makes a person more hearty and hale.

* TacticalRockPaperScissors: Generally speaking this occurs with the most common units. Dwarves, Wights, and Fetches will demolish clumps of melee units. Archers and Soulless out-range them and can pick them off from a distance fairly easily, but they lack the damage output to take out (and the speed to outrun, most of the time) clumps of melee units. All of this can be alleviated with very good micromanagement however.
* TheStrategist: The Deceiver in the second game.

** The fates of [[spoiler: Fenris and Kyrilla]] at the end of ''Chimera''.

** Soulblighter tries to do this on a global scale after his army is defeated, by forcing a volcanic eruption that would shatter the continent. He might have been able to escape, if he could still turn into a murder of crows.

* TinTyrant: Balor was known for wearing a full suit of plate armor, complete with a [[SpikesOfVillainy horned helmet]]. [[AllThereInTheManual Supplimental materials]] suggest that he did not really '''need''' to wear plate armor, as like most arch mages in the setting he had enough magical protection that such armor was redundant, but he liked to [[RuleOfCool present an imposing image]].
** This is implied to be the piece of artifact armor that Alric was questing for when he got captured.
* TookALevelInBadass: Inverted and then played straight by the Heron Guard. The fall of the Cath Bruig Empire led them to give up their swords and armor in shame. Instead, they wear massive gold tiles around their necks and use only shovels to fight. They're great healers but not great combatants. When Alric re-founds the empire they cast off the tiles and take up their swords again, and for the remainder of the game they're the most effective fighting force you have and still able to heal.

* TreacherousQuestGiver: The Head in the first game sends Alric to retrieve a magical suit, which Balor already has in his possession. After that failed mission Alric is captured and needs to be rescued.

* ViciousCycle: Apparently a basic law of the world - every 500 or 1000 years (it's [[http://carnage.bungie.org/myth/asylum/asylum.forum.pl?noframes;read=25097 hard to be sure]]), a new Leveler appears and human civilization is in turn destroyed and rebuilt - an age of Darkness, followed by an age of Light. The earliest incarnations were just another warlord until the Watcher joined in with his necromancy. The Leveler gets more powerful every time, since he usually takes over the form of the one who beat him last, gaining all his knowledge in the process. Even so the Dark has never won a complete victory, likely because that would break the circle. [[note]]Whether the Leveler is defeated is not necessarily an indication of what age comes next. The first Moagim was throughly beaten and killed ''at the beginning'' of the Wind Age, but he had already unleashed the myrkridia on the world, [[PyrrhicVictory so it was still a Dark Age]] even without a Leveler to oversee the genocide. Also, there is some debate as to whether the 500/1000 years of Dark/Light mean a constant state or a gradual shift.[[/note]]

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The Nine spend most of ''Myth'' being manipulated by a disembodied head, which allegedly belonged to an old enemy of Balor. After it's treachery is discovered, it's never mentioned again, its ultimate fate unknown. Lampshaded in the sequel when the narrator idly wonders that very thing.

** The Watcher is ''the first human to discover necromancy'' and the [[TimeAbyss oldest living being]] we know of from the mortal races, having been alive before the time of the champion of Light Connacht, who would later become Balor.
** This applies even to the Heron Guard/journeymen, the "deathless" personal guards of the Emperor of the Cath Bruig. At the end of the second game, an older one of these guards remarked on the former splendor of the capital city before its destruction 110 years prior, told a new inductee into the order that he may see it return to glory some day soon, and joked that with a little luck, they would be around in another 940 years to see whether or not the cycle of the Leveler had been broken permanently.
* WorldHalfFull: The world of ''Myth'' is a pretty horrible place, full of bloodthirsty monsters and evil sorcerers, its known history is one huge ViciousCycle of war and slaughter, and its prehistory is, allegedly, another. But looks like this time its inhabitants managed to ScrewDestiny. Hopefully.

* YouCantFightFate: The existence of The Total Codex seems to suggest so. Connacht also takes this attitude, as he is both certain of his victory over Moagim and his eventual return as the new Leveler. ''Myth III'' does show that the prophecies are kind of BroadStrokes and things that were not written can still happen as long as the final results are the same.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Soulblighter attempts to do this to Shiver by blowing up a dam, that would wash over both the Legion and her army. Possibly justified, since she had the only major force left between him and Alric and it was completely smashed on it's own. Still, you'd think he'd show her some mercy, considering they were married and had a son back in the Wolf Age. Of course, it is only speculation on the part of the narrator that she was unaware of this plan or would actually perish from this; it takes a ''lot'' to permanently put down a Fallen Lord, and her army was apparently made entirely of expendable undead Thralls.

** That is actually how the Great Devoid came to be. The last of the Callieach chose to blow themselves up along with the pursuing force of Trow. Now that is how you [[IncrediblyLamePun leave a mark]] on the world.
** When [[spoiler:Shiver]] is finally cornered and killed the explosion reduces the killer to paste as well.

* BrickJoke: The narrator from the first game mentions a superstition that dark artifacts call out to evil men, which is why they are always discovered again. In the second game the new narrator, who has read his predecessor's journal, is rather amused that the Deceiver can find a Tain shard by following it's call.

->''"[[DeadpanSnarker Casualty.]]"''

** The AI is generally good with one exception - ranged units don't check that their target is clear of nearby friendly units, resulting in lots of friendly fire. The fun thing? It's not actually a bug - it was actually listed as a feature.

** The same could be said of Soulblighter, albeit not as powerful as Balor.
** Then, of course, there is the Dispersal Dream Spell that Alric and Shades can use to decimate entire forces.

* EverybodysDeadDave: The Legion get completely slaughtered in the final battle in both ''The Fallen Lords'' and ''Soulblighter''.[[note]]This can be averted in the second game on the lower difficulties if you charge ahead with [[OneManArmy Alric]].[[/note]] In the first game even the narrator is implied to have been killed and Alric is pretty much the SoleSurvivor only because he wasn't present for the last level. Even this is a retcon, as you can see his severed head flying past in the ending video. Though, one may argue that it just "looked" like Alric's.

* EverybodysDeadDave: The Legion get completely slaughtered in the final battle in both ''The Fallen Lords'' and ''Soulblighter''.[[note]]This can be averted in the second game on the lower difficulties if you charge ahead with [[OneManArmy Alric]].[[/note]] In the first game even the narrator is implied to have been killed and Alric is pretty much the SoleSurvivor only because he wasn't present for the last level. Even this is a retcon, as you can see his severed head flying past in the ending video.

*** Then, of course, there is the Dispersal Dream Spell that Alric and Shades can use to decimate entire forces.

* ArtShift: The cutscenes from the ''The Fallen Lords'' (provided by Creator/CanuckCreations) to ''Soulblighter'' (provided by Creator/{{AIC}}), with the latter gaining a more {{Animesque}} look as opposed to its predecessor.

* FiveBadBand: The five Fallen Lords encountered in the game.
** BigBad: Balor;
** TheDragon: Soulblighter;
** TheBrute: The Watcher;
** EvilGenius: The Deceiver;
** DarkChick: Shiver.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: Alric looks quite old and decrepit in the first game, but he is in fact younger than Mauriac (who had been his prince-regent when he was a boy).

* GameBreakingBug: A notorious one, found in ''Soulblighter.'' The initial production run of the game shipped with a defect built into the game's code which, when a user attempted to uninstall the game from the root folder of their hard drive, the game would proceed to [[FromBadToWorse eat the user's hard drive alive.]]; as a result, Bungie decided to do a recall of all ''Myth II'' CD-Roms and redistribute an updated version, eliminating most of the sequel's profits in the process.

* NothingButSkulls: The myrkridia totem platforms. Described in-universe as NightmareFuel.

* TrueNeutral: The Trow [[{{In-universe}} are described]] in the [[AllThereInTheManual GURPS sourcebook]] as being the closest thing the setting has to a True Neutral race. [[SuperiorSpecies They simply look down on anything non-Trow]].

->''"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. For sixty 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."''

* GameBreakingBug: A notorious one, found in ''Soulblighter.'' The initial production run of the game shipped with a defect built into the game's code which, when a user attempted to uninstall the game from the root folder of their hard drive, the game would proceed to [[FromBadToWorse eat the user's hard drive alive.]]; as a result, Bungie decided to do a recall of all ''Myth II'' CDs and redistribute an updated version, eliminating most of the sequel's profits in the process.

* GameBreakingBug: A notorious one, found in ''Soulblighter.'' The initial production run of the game shipped with a defect built into the game's code which, when one attempted to uninstall the game from the root folder of their hard drive, the game would proceed to [[FromBadToWorse ''eat the person's hard drive alive.'']]; as a result, Bungie decided to do a recall of all ''Myth II'' CDs and redistribute an updated version, eliminating most of the sequel's profits in the process.

** The AI is generally good with one exception - ranged units don't check that their target is clear of nearby friendly units, resulting in lots of friendly fire. That's not a bug, it's a feature. Seriously, it was listed as one.

'''Dwarf:''' sorry about that.

** The Avatara. [[AllThereInTheManual According to the]] TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} book for the setting, they are required by long standing tradition to be experts with weapon combat, in addition to being magical powerhouses.

** One human city remains unsacked at the start of the first game. [[spoiler: And then, toward the end of the game, [[FromBadToWorse it gets sacked]]]].

** Their Dark counterparts, the Myrmidons, who Balor tricked into fighting for him with the promise of immortality, which he then provided by [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor turning them into]] [[{{Mummy}} mummies]].

* RPGElements: Nearly non-existent in the original game, though units do improve a bit when they gain kills, but some mods have put more emphasis on this element. Particularly the "Mazzarins Demise" expansions, where your units will level up after a certain amount of kills and get significantly stronger.
* SchmuckBait: As pointed out in the first level of the first game, Undead don't need to breath. So going near water is a very bad idea. In any level with water it is a safe bet that Undead are waiting to pounce on you when crossing water.

* TacticalRockPaperScissors: Generally speaking this occurs with the most common units. Dwarves and Fetches will demolish clumps of melee units. Archers and Soulless out-range them and can pick them of from a distance fairly easily, but they lack the damage output to take out (or outrun, most of the time) clumps of melee units. All of this can be alleviated with very good micromanagement however.

* ViciousCycle: Apparently a basic law of the world - every 500 or 1000 years (it's [[http://carnage.bungie.org/myth/asylum/asylum.forum.pl?noframes;read=25097 hard to be sure]]), a new Leveler appears and human civilization is in turn destroyed and rebuild - an age of Darkness, followed by an age of Light. The earliest incarnations were just another warlord until the Watcher joined in with his necromancy. The Leveler gets more powerful every time, since he usually takes over the form of the one who beat him last, gaining all his knowledge in the process. Even so the Dark has never won a complete victory, likely because that would break the circle. [[note]]Whether the Leveler is defeated is not necessarily an indication of what age comes next. The first Moagim was throughly beaten and killed ''at the beginning'' of the Wind Age, but he had already unleashed the myrkridia on the world, [[PyrrhicVictory so it was still a Dark Age]] even without a Leveler to oversee the genocide. Also, there is some debate as to whether the 500/1000 years of Dark/Light mean a constant state or a gradual shift.[[/note]]

* OurBansheesAreLouder: The Lyches in ''Myth III'' are the vengeful spirits of women who were drowned during [[WitchHunt The Great Cleansing]] for practicing magic. They attack with homing skulls that summon ghostly hands beneath the victim ForMassiveDamage.