The Smiths of Muirthemne
This is perhaps the single most complex, convoluted and far-reaching theory in all of Myth's
short existance. But it got off to an innocent enough start, and I wasn't even the one to start
it. As usual, I just make connections between seemingly unrelated topics, and bring all-new
meaning to the big picture.
The picture began when somebody years ago noted that only Dwarves can pick up the tiny Tain
crystals on TFL's "The Smiths of Muirthemne", and postulated that perhaps the Smiths, who built
the Tain, were Dwarves, and made it so only Dwarves could escape from it. Most people didn't
think much about this, because it could easily just be an engine limitation. A few people also
noted that the pillars within the Tain are engraved with images of spiders, and perhaps the
Smiths had some relation to the spiders. This is further backed by Spiders being mentioned in
early Dwarven eddas, and living in their subterranean caverns.
Myth II actually enforced this, to my surprise. The Spider flavor texts speak of the atrocities
committed by the Spider Cults, and that when Connacht went to destroy their shrines
nothing could be found of the Smiths of Muirthemne or their followers. The Dwarven Ghost flavor
text speaks of the masons who built the Mausoleum of Clovis, indicating that Dwarves indeed
did work in Muirthemne. The spider symbols inside the mausoleum in "The Ibis Crown", and on the
walls in "Walls of Muirthemne" and "Redemption", seem to indicate that the Smiths of Muirthemne
were indeed Spider Cults. GURPS Myth tells us, however, that the Spider Cults were human.
Look back at that quote, "the Smiths of Muirthemne or their followers." The most likely
situation here, IMO, is that the the Smiths themselves were Dwarves, who worshipped spiders,
and developed a human following that became the Spider Cults.
The Tain was also reportedly stolen from Muirthemne by raiding barbarians from the south.
I suspect that the Smiths may have fled into the Tain when Connacht came looking for them,
arranged to have the Tain stolen from Muirthemne, and then exited from it when safe away in
Forest Heart of wherever.
The Other Realm
In the official Bungie comic, "Tales from Myth: The Fallen Lords", there is a piece on
the Tain, in which an odd shrine seems to teleport its victim's soul to a twisted other realm,
while a Spider Queen is born out of his cracked skull. Perhaps this is the native realm of the
Spiders, and the Smiths took their victims here to sacrifice them to the Spider-gods?
The Tain itself seems to be another realm, as opposed to the tiny pocket universe we once
thought it was. Because from any shattered piece of the Tain you can enter into the Tain realm,
and then out through another piece. This was how the Deceiver got the jump on Soulbligher in
Myth II.
Now, GURPS Myth mentions that the some theorize that the Great Devoid leads into another
dimension, but the Dwarves dismiss this as nonsense. I suspect that they know the Tru7h, and
just want to hide it. I believe that the Great Devoid DOES lead to another dimension, and that
that is how the spiders first came to the lands of Myth - they crawled up it from their own
realm. Since the Dwarves live around the Devoid, that would explain how they came to know the
spiders, and perhaps how they are so gifted in interplanar magics.
But if the Devoid leads to another realm, why? It was created by the Callieach. Why would they
make a portal to the other realm? We'll come back to that in a second...
The last point about this other realm is, the Fetch. Balor summoned them from another realm.
Balor, as Connacht, sent the Myrkridia to the Tain realm. Perhaps the Fetch are from the
realm on the other side of the Tain realm? They are priestesses of some gods in their dimension;
perhaps of the Spider-gods?
(A weak connection here is the color of lightning: with the exception of the Bow of Furious
Incandescence, nothing in the Myth series has white lightning except Tain devices and Fetch.
Balor's is green, Balmung's is yellow, etc...)
Sovereigns of the Time Before
Back to the Callieach. Why would they create a portal back to the other realm? Well,
first lets put some more facts out on the table. GURPS tells us the creation myth accepted by
most of the races of Myth, parts of which are also told in the "Antero's Bestiary" section of
Tales From Myth TFL. It tells that Wyrd awoke from the One Dream and created the world, but
apparently had some sort of differences with the goddess Nyx over this and they had a titanic
battle. The volcano Tharsis was created in this battle, and Nyx created on Wyrd's world the
Trow. It also mentions that the Dark Gods (aka Old Gods) felt somehow betrayed by this
creation, and shattered the One Dream in retaliation.
But the question arises, if there were Old Gods before Wyrd, Nyx, etc, and Wyrd created the
world, then what were the Old Gods the gods of? It is said that the Ghols alone remember their
names, but the Trow are much older than the Ghols, or any other race, both as a species and as
individuals.
This last, greatest leap occurred to me when I read a passage in GURPS which reffers to the
Callieach, the last and greatest enemies of the Trow, as "Sovereigns of the Time Before."
Time before what? Time before the world? Well what was there before the world? Now we get into
a bit of semantics. Common Mythworlders believe in the "Edge of All", an imaginary line in the
east beyond which nothing really exists. You can walk over there, see and touch and kill things,
but it's not really real because it was not a part of Wyrd's vision. So to common Mythworlders,
"the world" is just the map we see in the games, and nothing beyond it really exists.
So perhaps Wyrd created his "world" upon an existing planet, transforming one continent of it
into whatever vision he saw in the One Dream, from whence he (and perhaps Nyx too?) came -
yet another dimension, perhaps? But what lived there before?
I suggest that the races of the other realm - the spiders, the Fetch, and the Callieach - were
the original inhabitants of this world. There is evidence of relation: on the Tain gate on
"Smiths of Muirthemne" there is an image of a pregnant (and hence female) thing with horns,
that looks somewhat insectoid. The Fetch are priestesses, and hence female, and they have horns,
and they wear human skins so we don't really know what they look like - could these images
be the true form of the Fetch?
As for the Dark Gods, we don't know what happened to them, they just seem to have vanished
somehow, as they have no real effect on our world - perhaps Wyrd banished them and all their
kind to the other realm for shattering the One Dream? If so, then the Spider-gods ARE the Dark
gods...
Now the Callieach attacked the Trow as the last of a series of millenial waves of enemies, who
would appear out of nowhere and eventually come into conflict with the Trow. If the Callieach
were servants of the Old/Dark/Spider Gods - lets just call them Old Gods now - then it makes
sense that these other waves would have been as well. Which means that the Old Gods must have
something to do with the Leveller, and the millenial cycles - though what exactly the connection
is, not even I know. So when the Callieach were all but defeated, they created the Devoid,
leading back to their gods' realm, where they were safe and any Trow who came with them were
doomed.
This all ties back in to the Ghols again. The Ghols live near the Great Devoid, as do the
Dwarves. If the Old Gods live down the Devoid, this could explain how the Ghols, presumably
one of Wyrd's Younger Races, came to know of them and worship them. Further evidence of this
I recently discovered on the level "The Ibis Crown", where it depics images of humans battling
Ghols, and humans forging a truce, with a satisfied godlike face beneath the war scene and an
angry godlike face beneath the truce. I speculate that this face is one of the Old Gods, put
in the catacombs by the Smiths of Muirthemne. It is angry that the humans are at peace, and
happy because the Ghols are attacking the humans. The Ghols are significant because they are
not a major Dark race, and thus likely wouldn't be portrayed in some major battle mural carved
by humans.
In Summary...
The Old Gods ruled over a world of spiders, Fetch, Callieach, and their kin. Wyrd and
Nyx arrived from... somewhere. Wyrd created the world, fighting with Nyx about it, and Nyx
created the Trow. The Old Gods shattered the One Dream.
The Old Gods were banished, or by some other means wound up in an alternate realm. They
initiated or somehow became involved in the cycles, sending new forces against the Trow every
thousand years, climaxing with the Callieach, who created a portal back to their realm. Wyrd
created the Younger Races as Trow civilization declined.
Spiders crawled up from the Devoid, and a cult of Dwarves, whose tunnels wound around and ran
into the Devoid, came to worship them and their gods. The Ghols, also living near the Devoid,
came to worship the Dark Gods as well.
The Dwarves founded the Smiths of Muirthemne, who built everything in the old city. Later, the
Smiths built the Tain, a portal to an intermediate realm where the younger races within would
be sacrificed to the Spider Gods, bringing Spider Queens through to our realm. A cult of spider
worshippers developed around the Smiths. The savior Connacht used the Tain to rid the world of
the Myrkridia, and then turned to assail the Smiths and their followers, who had escaped into
the Tain.
A thousand years later, Connacht returned as Balor, and used his knowledge of interdimensional
magics to summon the Fetch, priestesses of the Spider Gods. The Tain was rediscovered and used
against the Light, only to be shattered in the process. Balor was killed and his head thrown
down the Great Devoid - a fitting fate.
The shattered Tain was later used to ressurrect the Myrkridia, and the Fetch remain stranded in
our world. Perhaps they may someday find a way home through the Great Devoid...
Cunbelin suggests some interesting additions to this theory on the Asylum:
...you mentioned the edge of all but you failed to mention the double sided and constantly spinning
world theory, while it could be metaphorical for the cycle itself, it could also be a way to explain
the spider realm and such in a more simple manner. To extend this further, what if it combines both
the cycle and mutiple dimensions, rather than one side being evil they are rather just one side and
another, one ruled by the old gods and one ruled by Nyx and Wyrd, and the cycles are the extension
of the battle between the two.
To twist it further, what if there is no battle between the gods, but rather another being is being
traded back and forth between the respective worlds, in the form of the leveler, if you think about
it at least two levelers have been effectively sent to the other side, Balor's head thrown into the
great devoid, and "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" sounds
like just as effective a way to send him to the other side, the burying under the Mountains of Kor,
could have been deep enough to perhaps over time send the leveler over the other side.
I do like this concept, it does simplify things a bit. Not sure what I think about the battles
between the gods or trading the Leveller back and forth, but the geography unifies the other realm
and ours together. My only problem with it is that it messes with the geographic theories detailed in
my previous article on the Cycle. Perhaps the spinning-coin is metaphorical of the entire universe, and
the Mythworld is just one planet inside that universe? But that ruins the whole bit about being able
to drag things over the edges of the world to the other realm, or sending them there through the ground.
Also also, if the Mythworld is physically coin-shaped, then the Tain could simply transport people deep
"underground", as the caverns inside it appear to be - midway through the world, an intermediate realm
between ours and the other side.
General Pepper adds his comments on Cun's theory:
....Also have u noticed that Ghols and Mauls are the only two races that are
not ancient (No tro or forest giants) and are not humans (or formaly humans…or
parts of humans) The ghols could be originally from the dark dimension and
thats why they seem to be monsters. and mauls are from the blind steppes
really really north east... so they're forein monsters :)
Another point for the coin-shaped world. Now if only we could consolidate the other geographical evidence
with this...
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