Journeyman?

The following quotes show that he had extensive access to the Total Codex:

"That he wants the book which now rests at the bottom of my pack is clear." [September 15, Flight From Covenant]

"Against my better judgment, I opened the Codex last night to a random page and read about the life of a man not yet born..." [September 15, Flight From Covenant]

Brian Landwher suggests because of this that he may have been a Journeyman:

1. The author is a personage of enough importance to be entrusted with a relic of considerable power and importance. This means an Avatara or a very trusted soldier. Since Mauriac is referenced in the third person in this same Journal entry, it stands to reason that the next most senior trusted lieutenant would be a Journeyman, one of the Heron Guards.
2. The entry states that the Codex is "at the bottom of my pack" - thus, the author is the carrier of the book as well. In both Codex scenes, a Journeyman carries the book. Some others discredit this by saying that it was expedient for Bungie to use the Journeyman rather than necessary. I find this unlikely, since the majority of the characters can carry artifacts, not just the Journeyman. Why not a dwarf or an archer? No, it must be your Journeyman that carries it, and it seems likely Bungie did so intentionally.

Mark Bassett presents further evidence that the narrator is a Journeyman.

I don't want you to take this too seriously, but we do know from the opening narration of the "Great Devoid" that the Journal was buried nearby. (Probably by the worn rock pillar as I've pointed out before.) And only Journeymen carry shovels...

fir'Bolg?

Jonathan Foster disagrees, presenting a case for the Journal Writer being a fir'Bolg archer.

That is clearly not true.

While it is hard to say for sure the only logical choice for our hero is ... a fir'bolg

Some levels specify that the journal actually takes part in the battle, others leave it open, and some clearly state he is not present. I believe it says on your page that the author might be a warrior. Unfourtunately there are no warriors in Shadow of the mountain, Traitor's grave, or even inside the Tain. All places where there seems to be no doubt the author personally was.

Now in Crow's bridge we learn he is not a journeyman. Fifteen men are to stay, perhaps to fight boredom instead of the Fallen Lords... And there are fifteen men total in the scenario, no journeyman- so it's not possible that he is Five Motion Bloody Paper or any other journeyman. Fir'Bolgs are by far the most common unit. The only places where they are not present are: Sons of Myrgard and Long Awaited Party, The Champion levels. Both of which the author clearly does not attend. Also, the Watcher. It does not say the author attends that climactic day either. I seem to think I'm missing one- but whatever the case, the author of the journal is none other than a fir'bolg.

Jonathan writes in again, against the argument that perhaps the levels are not meant to be interpereted literally:

Why the Author of the Journal is a fir'Bolg

While the narrator of the single player levels in Myth was probably not meant to literally represent any one type of unit, he has an identity outside that which was intended for him.

The narrator is a fir'Bolg. This is easily proved. See my previous message, which states that the only unit in all the battles which the narrator is definitely in is the fir'Bolg.

An argument against this says that the narrator does not represent any one unit because if you play a game of myth straight through you will not end up with any of the units you started with. This is because of Bungie dumping all veterans in some levels. There is also the question of his name. In different games of Myth the fir'Bolg's will have different names. Fine.

My contention is that the narrator represents the possible. It is possible for a fir'Bolg to have witnessed all the events he did, and you cannot say that about any other unit.

There is also the claim that a common warrior would not have had access to the Total Codex as the narrator obviously does "That he wants the book that now lies at the bottom of my pack is clear", and again when he looks at the book. Therefor the author is a journeyman. There are two rebuttals to this argument.

The first comes directly from the Myth story. In the prologue to Shadow of the mountain the author recounts how "I was glad no one asked me to carry the arm"- as if he might have been asked to carry it but wasn't. This also insinuates that the arm was carried by different people as they journeyed, perhaps everyone taking a turn. Secondly, the journeyman at Silvermines had no compunction about carrying the arm. Finally, in the prelude to the Watcher we hear "I had lost track of who was carrying the arm..." once again suggesting that the arm is passed around. And if the arm was passed around there is no reason why the Total Codex should not similarly have been carried by more than once person over the long journey, and there is no reason to suppose that only a journeyman would have had access to it.

One last argument against the Journeyman/Narrator must be said here. The very nature of Journeymen precludes them from being our narrator. Journeymen are all ancient guards from the old empire. There are no new journeymen trainees. All of them have a great deal more knowledge about the world than our narrator, who is a bit naive. A journeyman as a narrator would:

1. Have known about the Tain, or Balor being Connacht. In the manual there is a Journeyman who knows that the Myth world alternates between good and evil. Our narrator does not have the knowledge that these ancient warriors do- or we would not be able to learn the tale along with him.
2. Probably have mentioned the magic- at least healing, he could do. The author simply does not give the feel of having the special powers Journeymen have.
3. Have told about the past from first-hand knowledge. Our narrator only repeats what he hears from others. A journeyman would have seen things for himself.

Loghol sends in more support for the narrator being an archer. In an unreleased pregame graphic for Force Ten From Stoneheim, it appears that an archer is being congratulated for retrieving the Codex. Loghol writes:

In the narrated paragraph before that level,the writer says,"we headed down the coast to the old city of Scales,where we met Maeldun's southern garrison and turned over the codex."

I think the older,more decorated soldier is a general in Maeldun's garrison,and it seems like he is receiving/congratulating an archer for bringing the codex.Since it was mentioned in Homecoming and Flight from the Covenant that the narrator had the codex at that time,this could only mean that the fir'Bolg is the narrator, giving the soldier the codex.

Geoffrey W. Barnett notes this quote in the journal entry for The Road North:

Yesterday I saw iu'Shee, captain of archers, with a fist full of white arrows five feet long and tipped with fragments of bone.

He speculates:

Perhaps he is indeed a Fir'Bolg, as any other of the units would certainly have referred to iu'Shee as a Fir'Bolg, instead of Captain of Archers. After all, the alliance between the Western nations and the Fir'Bolg is probably still new enough that they would not refer to each other with near this amount of respect.

Berserk?

Or neither side, Satan(tm) writes:

I always suspected the narrator of the Journal was a berserker. I know he lacks the accent, but if you listen carefully, the berzerk sitting on the stump at the end of the game talking to the one-armed warrior is the same guy that has been narrating the story. His voice is the same, so it's the same guy.

Jeremy McKean agrees:

The narrator may be a berserk and does sound somewhat like one, but if you remember, he was at the great devoid when it blew up. So the journal writer dies after burying his journal. The only berserk you see in any of the cinematics is Truan.

Warrior?

Eye of the Beholder presents a case for the narrator being a Warrior.

I think the journal writer is a warrior. If you look at the victory screens of both Flight from Covenant and Homecoming, you will see a warrior holding the Codex. He looks somewhat old, which the journal writer would have to be. Also, it proves that he does not have to be a Journeyman to hold the Codex. And in the prologue, he refers to a mad journeyman, it seems unlikely he would use these words if he was a journeyman himself. (perhaps "a fellow heron guard, or something like that.) As for a Fir'bolg, well, perhaps, but I can't really imagine a Fir'bolg living with his grandfather on a pumpkin farm. I've always thought of them as living in a forest, perhaps the Ermine.

Polar K assumes that the narrator is the prologue writer (a pretty good assumption), and uses it to present a solid case for the narrator being a warrior.

In the prologue the narrator tells of his and his sisters' staying with his grandfather, and what is his grandfather? A pumpkin farmer, what else? anyway, this most likely means that in the myth world, the grandfather was a villager, and going along with almost all earth history, in those times the son always takes up the job of his father, so the narrator's father is a villager and so is he. Now in villager flavor text it states that villagers were conscripted for the army, now if the narrator was originally a villager, its obvious that he couldn't be a Journeyman, they're ancient guard types, he couldn't be an archer, they're from another race, and not a berzerk because he doesn't have an accent and doesn't seem to have that "kick-ass" attitude that is found in many berzerk flavor texts. So, the only likely thing for him to be, and the only job for a conscripted villager, is a warrior. And probably an old warrior at that, possibly even a captain. He obviously has a high enough rank to have access to the codex etc. and he even sounds kind of old. But another fact sota makes him seem old, its a time discrepancy dealing with the fall of Muirthemne. In the prologue, which is the seventh year of the war, it says that "Balor and the rest of the fallen torched Muirthemne just a few years ago", but in the definition of the sack of muirthemne it says it was shattered 50 years before present times, 40 or so before the prologue was written. So, either Balor returned to murithemne to make EXTRA sure is was dead 40 years later, or the narrator, as many other old people, have a slightly messed up sense of time.

Avatara?

Tim Inouye goes psycho death weevil and adds:

The journal writer is an avatara! Probably not one of the nine, but who says that the nine are the only avatara living? And, the writer states that he was fighting Myrmidons in Forest Heart and carried the Codex. Would we let a berserk or a warrior carry the Codex? No! And J-men, dwarves, and Fir'bolg don't fight Myrmidons (unless they're suicidal), so the only logical person would be an avatara. Having training in both strategy and fighting, he probably could survive the entire length of the war.

One Sure Thing

Blake Douglas adds one solid fact to this debate:

In Crow's Bridge, the profile of, I believe, some of the villagers states that those as young as 15 are conscripted for the army. Let's assume this was so at the beginning of the war, and the journal writer was at least 15. That means now he is no younger than 32, and is most likely older than that.

So we at least have an age bracket for our nameless, faceless hero.