Posts from Thoughts on the scenario after completing "Hammers of Fate".

I would like to hear some constructive criticism instead of just praising the 5 Heroes! For example, it turns out that Railag and Agrail are the same person. Well, it was clear from the similarity of the letters that it was an anagram. But please tell me, why the hell did he kill Nicholas, only to then save Isabel from the clutches of Kha-Beleth? Let's say he wanted to get rid of a rival, but why did he then unite the Dark Elves, destroy the demons allied with them, and ultimately rescue the pregnant "Messiah of Evil," Isabel? And in the end, it's unclear whether Zehir saved the world from another apocalypse. Did Isabel become the new Biara?
It's all completely unclear. In the "Hammers of Fate" expansion, Isabel appears with a strangely darkened face and an unusual bloody religion. Is this a tribute to the Abyss or Death, i.e., Kha-Beleth or the necromancers? What about Markel, whom Zehir disintegrated? There are more questions than answers.

To everyone who helped with their advice, many thanks!
But here's the catch: after completing the game, I was amazed by yet another example of idiocy from the developers. The game itself is well-made, but the plot is saturated with Hollywood-style nonsense. The hero and heroine indulge in the joys of love on a pile of defeated enemies, and after they finish, they leave together, while the main villain emerges from the pile with a villainous smirk, and... well, let's just say, start over.

And four races, close to the Light or something like that, after killing everyone, still end up being deceived (I just want to express myself in Russian with a curse word). Of course, such an ending justifies the add-ons and the next continuation of the game, but if in Heroes 4 it was clear that the worlds are multiple after the clash of the Ice and Armageddon blades, what strategy will the scriptwriters come up with next?

I would like to hear constructive criticism, in addition to praise for Heroes 5! For example, it turns out that Railag and Agrael are the same person. Well, by the similarity of the letters, it was clear that this was an anagram. But please tell me, why the hell did he kill Nicholas in order to then save Isabel from the clutches of Kha-Beleth? Let's say he wanted to get rid of a rival, but why did he then unite the Dark Elves, kill the demons allied with them, in order to eventually rescue the Messiah of Evil, Isabel, who is pregnant?

And in the end, it's unclear - did Zephyr save the world from another apocalypse? Did Isabel become the new Biara?

Is there anything unclear? In the "Hammers of Fate" add-on, Isabel appears with a strangely darkened face and with an unusual bloody religion?

What about the dedication - to Hell or Death, i.e., to Kha-Beleth or the Necromancer?

What about the marcol, whom Zephyr disembodied? There are more questions than answers.

Rai’lag is not a demon. Tieru performed the Ritual of True Nature on him, and he lost his demonic form. You are completely wrong about Isabel. At the end of the fourth mission for the mages (original), Isabel kidnaps Biara, and at the end of the fifth, we are given to understand that Isabel has already been subjected to violence. Markel Kha-Belekh did not serve him in any way; he was a complete egoist. Regarding the Lords – how do you judge the plot? First, play through the Heroes, and then you will be able to talk about the plot's inconsistencies.

He killed Nicholas first as a rival, and second as an opponent (they were, you know, on opposite sides during the war, if you hadn't noticed).
Demonic principles and the tenets of Chaos.
The developers presented you with an exotic picture of a demon's inner world, his internal struggle, feelings, passions, life priorities, etc. Against this backdrop, he does something today, and tomorrow he won't be able to explain to you why he acted that way (because at this critical moment, his principles (Agra'il's) change almost every hour, and you ask - why did he do this first, and then that...
And don't we always know exactly what we want when we undertake something (intuitively)?
Agra'il/Rai'lag's story is beautiful and realistic, and you (probably based on some templates in terms of game storylines) are criticizing it.
Nothing personal.

Let me disagree with your concept of Argyl. Although he is a demon, he seems rather undemonic. The fact that the Gryphon Heart had no effect on him is already quite telling, as it should create a portal for demons to Shio. In my opinion, Argyl was initially conceived by the writers not as a true demon, but rather as a demonic personality (unless we consider the possibility of his mission being an opportunity for the player to play on the side of Hell). That is, Argyl is not a true follower of Chaos, but only pretends to be one. Then again, we return to the question – who was he originally?

And regarding the logic of Chaos creatures, you seem to have gone too far. Even Kha-Beleth (who seems to be the very embodiment of Chaos) acts strictly logically. And all armies of Hell are subject to strict discipline and subordination, otherwise they would attack the enemy wherever and whenever possible, rather than in battle (although, of course, one must adhere to the framework of turn-based strategy). In general, I think Hell is not Chaos. So many writers have broken their pens writing about the struggle between Chaos and Order that it is wrong to equate Hell (Inferno) and Chaos.

But let's get back to Argyl. After meeting with Tieru's illusion, Argyl, despite all his spiritual quests, acts strictly logically. So accusing him of a lack of logic seems like an insult to Argyl. He is purposeful, persistent, resourceful. This doesn't quite match your image of a confused demon acting under the influence of momentary impulses.
P.S. And this is no longer about the game. Greetings to my neighbor. I only noticed the address today. I am from Bishkek myself.

Yes, it's an interesting discussion! Like the author of the topic, I have a number of questions. I hope it won't be off-topic, since the topic isn't defined by specific boundaries. So:
Let's remember the end of the original game. Isabel is freed. Zehir says that Isabel will be sent to the Silver Cities and isolated, etc., but in the final video, we see that she is with Godric and, by all accounts, is already Biara. So, the question is: how did they replace the rescued Isabel with Biara? When? In Hell itself? But where did Railag get the real Isabel, if she wasn't in Hell? Could it be that three out of the Magnificent Four are clinically insane, and Isabel didn't notice, but Railag did, took her somewhere, and didn't care about the future of the world, knowing that Biara would be on the throne of the Empire, even if in Isabel's guise? It doesn't quite add up... :confused: :eek:

Agrail is ambitious and does not blindly obey Kha-Beleth; the artifact "short-circuited" and did not work. Tieru is in shock - how could this be; he finds Agrail and invites him to his place to calmly sort everything out, especially since at that moment the demon is interesting to him not only for his immunity to Special abilities, but also for his extraordinary actions. And as a consequence -> in a relatively short time, the demonic essence disappears from the guy. AS A CONSEQUENCE! You claim that it didn't exist in the first place, and that this is the REASON for what happened to Agrail later, right? Well, let's go through the scenario with Agrail in "Lords of the Horde," maybe it will open our eyes to some additional facts. I haven't played it myself yet.

Dear ViVoRANDUM, Allow me to disagree again. According to the video, Tieru didn't fall into a stupor, but recognized Agrael, even though he himself is an illusion and therefore limited in his abilities.
He invites Agrael to join him, and as I understand it, not to figure out his phenomenon, but to tell him about Kha-Belekh's plan, which he does upon Agrael's arrival. Therefore, we can conclude that Agrael's arrival was planned by the higher powers of Ashan, or by Tieru himself.

I partially agree with this thesis, but again, only partially. After all, Agrael plans to seize power in Shi'o and overthrow Kha-Belekh (as can be seen from the video of his conversation with Biara), so he needs allies, especially those who send their animated phantoms from who knows how far away. And if he can also save his beloved woman and prevent the appearance of the Evil Messiah, then grateful humanity (and elves and demons and the like) will be grateful to him. So this crazy behavior can be quite understood, especially since Kha-Belekh himself promised Agrael after Vaier's defeat that he would be next. Agrael is forced to flee and, in the process, gather an army and allies wherever he can.

Awesome, ViVoRandum!:smile02:
Yeah, it's all more or less logical. By the way, I want to point out that I'm not criticizing the developers for the scenario; in fact, I really like the artwork... :smile23: And the constant jokes about tank-planes-flying saucers, as well as "You killed Hengy! Bastard!" (a clear parody of South Park and their eternal "They killed Kenny! Bastards!") are also amusing... In general, I think that the plot in the fifth part is exceptionally successful, unlike the previous ones... But some moments were not entirely clear. I like your interpretation!:smile20:

Agrael is fighting the chaos that he himself created. If Nicholas were still alive, the empire would be stable. I apologize for being off-topic, but I want to express my opinion about the lords of the horde. So, after the second part, we see that demonic corruption has penetrated the world of Ashan. Demons or their followers are everywhere in the Griffin Empire, among the dwarves, in the Silver Cities - everywhere. Thrones are empty among the dwarves, among the light and dark elves. Why is Zephyr fighting for the empire; doesn't it have its own heroes, and why are there demon worshipers in its own Silver Cities? Yes, we could play as all the story heroes in the first parts of the game, but states are collapsing in one generation and being restored in another. Moreover, the cult of demons cannot be eradicated so easily. Why not introduce new characters from the Order faction, for example, the son of Frida and Duncan, or even the son of Isabel with the mentor Railag? This would give us a campaign for the demons. So now we have campaigns for the dwarves, elves, mages restoring order in their homes. A campaign for the orcs building their own state. This will take time for a new generation of humans to grow up, because the other races live much longer than humans. And so we have 8 or 9 campaigns instead of a paltry three, not paltry in the sense that they are uninteresting, but in the sense that there are too few of them. We could play for all the races, for all the new creatures, learn about their new abilities, and so on. Well, three campaigns are not enough to finish such a game; I hope that the developers will come up with a final ending, because many questions remain unanswered. I heard that new Heroes will be released in the spring of 2008, but whether they will be related to the fifth or whether they will be the sixth, I don't know; if anyone knows, tell me.