Posts from The Fall of Shanti

Wow! What heroic restraint from magic by a "Wizard" hero!

Hardcore on Veteran difficulty detected ;)

Acknowledged! No further questions.

Can I ask a question: where are those archers that you need to recruit in the side quest? I reached the ritual, but I haven't found them.

At the beginning of the game, a portal is located to the left of the city: it leads to one of the archer towers (they look like the ones from which archers attack during a city siege), and they seem to be guarded by Dungeon lords. Moreover, one portal leads to two towers at once, i.e., to reach both, you need to explore it thoroughly.

Can I ask a question: where are those archers that you need to recruit in the secondary quest? I reached the ritual, but I couldn't find them.

Really? I think I was there, but I couldn't get close to the towers. I'll try replaying it.

Really? I think I was there, but I couldn't get close to the towers. I'll try playing again.

Try to position yourself near the tower. The script works through a region, as the hero cannot interact with the tower itself.

A very interesting map, and the storyline is captivating. But, as I understand it, in the end, everyone still died, right?

The great empire of Shantiri was completely destroyed during the War of the Ancients. Very few survived, the alliance of the Ancient races was broken, the Nagas left forever, and the remaining races decided not to be friends anymore. They reunited only in the Alliance – a union gathered against a common enemy – demons. And such an alliance is created again and again during each lunar eclipse. If I'm not mistaken, the skull of Sar-Elam and its other "parts" were also hidden by the Shantirians for a long time, but I might be wrong.
In general, this empire has a very, very interesting history. And I'm very sorry that its history, as well as the history of Ashan in general, now fits on just a couple of pages.
Regarding Armageddon, I think it's more of a plot device, but the meaning is approximately the same as in this map.

The great Empire of Shantiri was completely destroyed during the War of the Ancients. Very few survived, the alliance of the Ancient races was broken, the Nagas left forever, and the remaining races decided not to be friends anymore. They reunited only in the Alliance – a union gathered against a common enemy – the demons. And such an alliance is created again and again during each lunar eclipse. If I'm not mistaken, the skull of Sar-Elam and its other "parts" were also hidden by the Shantirians for a long time, but I might be wrong.
In general, this empire has a very, very interesting history. And I'm very sorry that its history, as well as the history of Ashan in general, now fits on just a couple of pages. ;(
Regarding Armageddon, I think it's more of a plot device here, but the meaning is roughly the same as in this map.

Well, the Nagas didn't leave forever, as we can see from "Sixth". And not all races reunited in the Grey Alliance. Sar-Elam existed much later than the Shantiri Empire, so it's unclear how his skull ended up in the ruins of one of their Temples.

And what Armageddon (besides my map) are you talking about?

I agree about the history; it's a pity that so little is known about Shantiri.

I haven't played the sixth installment and won't, on principle. (I won't continue further, as it would be a deviation from the topic. All I'll do after finishing this part of Heroes is read a summary – and even then, only for the sake of Ashan's story.) Regarding the number of races in the Gray Alliance – yes, not all of them. But I slightly disagree; I mean not the Gray Alliance, but simply the alliance. During the first Eclipse, humans, dwarves, mages, elves, and orcs fought against the demons. Mages and orcs did appear later, but the rest are indeed Ancient races, i.e., those who lived in Shantiri. Sar-Elam appears later, but not significantly enough for the Shantirians to completely disappear. I think that by "Ash's servants" in the context of Ashan's story, they meant the Shantirians (or I read it somewhere), which is obvious, as the schism among the followers of the Seventh Dragon occurred shortly after, so they couldn't have hidden the skull yet. Then, most likely with the arrival of Kha-Beleth, a brutal hunt began for the remnants of the Shantir, as a result of which they were forced to pass the skull on to others for safekeeping. Well, and then the story of the Skull becomes known. I remembered something else – regarding the Temple, it's quite logical. The Shantirians decided not to risk carrying the skull with them anymore, so they either left it there or gave it to someone for safekeeping (I can't remember who). I'm talking about your Armageddon specifically. Nothing is said about it during the Ancient Wars.

You don't need to play "Heroes of Might and Magic VI" to know that there's a Naga faction there. ;)

I'll clarify right away that in studying the setting, I rely on this article.

If we assume that the Empire of Shantiri is a union of all the Ancient races, then after the empire's collapse, although many representatives of the races survived, they ceased to be Shantirians.

I won't argue about the First Eclipse, but if the peoples had united every time, the Falcon Empire wouldn't have been destroyed during the Fourth Eclipse.

I also read this article – IMHO, it reveals a lot of new information, but overall, it’s written rather incoherently. The history is somewhat… altered. Of course, I understand that this is an official (?) website, but nevertheless, some points are not very well written. I think that the Shantiir Empire consists of a pair of alien leaders + all the Ancient races. Otherwise, how did it happen that nothing is known about its founders, and after the empire’s collapse, the Alliance disintegrated for many millennia and, unfortunately, never reunited. Regarding the collapse, I agree; most likely, that’s what happened. The followers of the Shantiir simply passed the skull down for many years until something finally forced them to abandon it in the ruins of one of the ancient Temples. Regarding the 4th Eclipse, Kha-Belekh chose a very opportune time to attack. He is a great strategist, that’s for sure. Mages, in general, didn’t like helping humans, and there was also a recent war with the undead. The losses were enormous. The Elves have the slow-witted Alaron at their head, who will continue to be slow and destroy human leaders until his own death. Relations with the Dwarves are not good at all, as can be seen in Lords of the North. Perhaps the Dark Elves are involved in this, but I don’t think so. Maybe they just didn’t have time. There are almost no Dragon Knights left, and they cannot appear now because after the third Eclipse, their own existence is under threat. Something like that.

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And in general, the Eclipses have started to happen too quickly – the races simply don’t have time to recover from them, as the history of the fifth game shows.

What aliens?

The same can be said about The Fifth Eclipse and, probably, about the previous ones :).

In the fifth game, there was an unplanned eclipse. The previous ones (two?) were predicted by the Blind Brothers.

Well, I don't know about aliens, but who do you think founded Shantiri? Maybe someone came from Enroth, started an Empire, and then left.

Regarding the eclipses. The fifth one was predicted perfectly. If it weren't for Alaron's sluggishness and Cyrus's arrogance, it might have been possible to avoid the loss of leaders.
As for the rest, yes, Kha is unleashing all his power on humans, and he's doing it more and more often. Cyrus is in power, and he treats them like... well, you know what. The dwarves have Tolgar (?), who is also a somewhat negative character; I already mentioned the elves; and the orcs fled even earlier because of the humans. There's no one to help, and no one wants to.

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if we go back to the origins, then the demons are not to blame at all, but the Angeloffs and the Faceless, who started the war. Who are the Faceless anyway? I suddenly realized that I know absolutely nothing about them...