One of the nine Avatara who led the human nations against the Fallen Lords, Alric is a warrior, statesman, and practitioner of magic. He is both ruler of the Province and, more recently, Emperor of the Cath Bruig.

. Paul HeitschSeries,ReleaseDecember 28, 1998 ( 1998-12-28)Mode(s),Myth II: Soulblighter is a 1998 developed by for. Published by Bungie in North America and by in Europe, the game was also ported to. It is the second game in the, and a sequel to. In 1999, an, Myth II: Chimera, was released. Developed by the Badlands mapmaking group, in association with Bungie, Chimera is set ten years after Soulblighter. Originally released as a free download, Chimera was later published by Bungie as part of the Total Codex bundle, incorporating it into the official Myth.

In 2001, a third Myth game was released, set one thousand years prior to The Fallen Lords, and developed by.Set sixty years after The Fallen Lords, the game tells the story of the resurgence of Soulblighter, a supporting antagonist in the first game, and one of the titular Fallen Lords. Determined to defeat the forces of Light who vanquished his master, Balor, and conquer the free cities of the world, Soulblighter resurrects the Myrkridia, a race of flesh eating not seen in over a thousand years. Standing against Soulblighter is Alric, the main protagonist in the first game, and now King of The Province, who must rally humanity to fight a war they never expected.

Chimera is set ten years after Soulblighter, and tells the story of three veterans of the campaign against Soulblighter, who band together to fight a mysterious.Soulblighter was a critical success, with reviewers feeling it improved on virtually every aspect of The Fallen Lords. They cited better, more detailed, enhanced, more varied, better, more intricate and varied, and a more user-friendly interface and control scheme. Critics were also impressed with the improvements made to, and praised the variety of options available to players. They also lauded the included with the game, which allowed users to create their own maps for both multiplayer gaming and campaigns. The game also sold very well, considerably outselling the original, which had been Bungie's best selling game up to that point.The Myth series as a whole, and Soulblighter in particular, supported an active online community for over a decade after the official went offline.

The first formally organized group of volunteer- was MythDevelopers, who were given access to the game's by Bungie. The most recently active Myth development group is Project Magma, an offshoot of MythDevelopers. These groups have worked to provide ongoing for the games, update them to newer, fix, release, create, and maintain online servers for multiplayer gaming. Contents.Gameplay Myth II: Soulblighter is a game, and as such, unlike the in games, the player does not have to engage in resource or economic, does not have to construct a base or buildings, and does not have to gradually build up their army by acquiring resources and researching new technologies. Instead, each begins with the player's army already assembled and ready for combat.

During the game, the player controls forces of various sizes made up of a number of different units, each possessing their own strengths and weaknesses. In, only Light units are playable, but in, the player can control both Light and Dark units. Screenshot of in Soulblighter, showing the selection of a single unit.

The player has selected a bowman named Hadrian (the unit surrounded by a yellow rectangle). The image also shows unselected warriors, who are currently attacking enemy units. At the top of the screen is the Status Bar. The of the battlefield is just below on the right. At the bottom of the screen is the Control Bar.Basic gameplay involves the player selecting and commanding units.

To select an individual unit, the player clicks on that unit. Once selected, the unit is surrounded by a yellow rectangle, beside which is a meter, which diminishes as the unit takes damage. Units capable of utilising also have a mana meter in addition to their health meter. As they use magic, this meter diminishes, and then slowly regenerates over time. Units do not regenerate health, however, and there is no way to construct new units (although in some single-player missions, reinforcements are automatically received at predetermined points). To select all nearby units of a given type, the player on any individual unit of that type.

To select multiple units of different types, the player can either 'shift click' (hold down the and click on each individual unit) or use 'band-selection' (click and hold the button on a piece of ground, then drag the across the screen. This causes a yellow box to appear, which grows and shrinks as it follows the cursor's movement.

When the player releases the button, any units within the box are selected). The player can instantly select all units on screen, irrespective of type, by pressing the.

The player can also assign manually selected unit groupings to a specific key on the, and when that key is pressed, it instantly selects the desired group of units.Once one or more units have been selected, the player can click on the ground to make them walk to the selected spot, or click on an enemy to make them attack. Units with projectile weapons, such as and can also be ordered to attack a specific spot on the ground, rather than an enemy. It is also important that the player have their units facing in the right direction. This is accomplished by pressing the left or the right arrow key or moving the mouse to rotate the direction of the units as they move to the selected location.

Facing the correct direction is especially important when using, of which there are nine available. After selecting a group of units, the player must press the corresponding formation button on the keyboard, and then click on the ground where they want the units to form. The player can also order all selected units to scatter and to. All formations, as well as commands such as stopping, guarding, scattering, retreating, and reversing direction, are also available via a single click in the Control Bar at the bottom of the screen.When a single unit is selected, information about that unit appears in the 'Status Bar' at the top of the; the unit's name, a brief biography, how many kills he has, how many battles he has survived, and (if he is capable of carrying items) his inventory. When multiple units are selected, the names, types, and quantity of units will appear, but there will be no biography or information on their kills or previous battles. The HUD also features a transparent overhead, which displays information about the current battlefield; the player's field of vision is indicated by a yellow, enemy units appear as red dots, friendly as blue dots, and the player's army as green dots. The player can click anywhere on the mini-map to instantly jump to that location.

However, the mini-map does not initially display the entire battlefield; the player must explore the area for it to become fully mapped. The player can also order troops to move to any location on the mapped area of the battlefield by right-clicking on that area in the mini-map.The player has full control over the throughout the game, and can move it backwards and forwards, left and right, orbit left and right (keeps the camera focused on a single spot while making a 360 degree circle around that spot), left and right (the camera remains in the same spot but the player's point of view moves from side to side), and zoom in and out. All movements can be carried out via the keyboard and mouse. Using the mouse to move backwards, forwards, left and right is accomplished by moving the cursor to the top, bottom, left or right of the screen, respectively. The player can also select preferences to allow them to control rotation and orbiting via the mouse, by moving the cursor to the top and bottom corners of the screen, respectively.

Zooming can be controlled by either the keyboard or.Selecting and commanding units only forms the basic gameplay of Soulblighter, however. The battles are more complex than simply commanding units to attack the enemy, with strategy and awareness of the conditions of the battlefield, and even the weather, also playing important roles. For example, due to the game's, objects react with one another, with units, and with the terrain.

This can manifest itself simply in a severed head bouncing off one of the player's units and changing direction. However, it can also have more serious consequences. For example, a dwarf could throw a at an enemy on a hillside and miss, with the projectile rolling back down the hill towards the player's own units. Projectiles in general, both those used by the player and the enemy, have no guarantee of hitting anything; they are merely propelled in the direction instructed by the physics engine., for example, may miss their intended target due to a small degree of simulated aiming error that becomes more significant at long range, or the target may move out of the way, or behind a tree or building.

If archers are firing at enemies who are engaged in melee combat, they may also hit the player's own units instead of the enemy, causing the same amount of damage. This is also true of dwarfs' molotov cocktails. As such, is an important aspect of the game. The weather is also something the player must always bear in mind. For example, rain or snow can put out explosive-based attacks.

It is also much easier for projectile units to hit enemies below them rather than above them, and as such, positioning of the player's units is an important aspect of the game. Single-player In the single-player campaign, the player starts each mission with a group of soldiers, and must use that group to accomplish a specific goal or set of goals. These goals can involve killing a certain number of enemies, defending a location, reaching a certain point on the map, or destroying a specific object or enemy.

The focus of the single-player campaign is on a smaller force defeating a much larger enemy force; in every mission, the Light units are outnumbered by enemies, often vastly, and so the player must use the terrain, employ the specific skills of their individual units, and gradually decrease the enemy force, or attempt to avoid it altogether. Units in the single-player campaign acquire experience with each kill. Experience increases attack rate, accuracy, and defence, and any unit that survives a battle will carry over to the next battle with their accumulated experience (assuming the next battle features units of that type). Multiplayer When it was released, Soulblighter could be used for multiplayer gaming on, or via a on or on. Screenshot from Blue & Grey, an era, created by the community using the Fear and Loathing tools.With the release of Soulblighter, Bungie included two called 'Fear' and 'Loathing', which allowed players to create new units and maps. Both The Fallen Lords and Soulblighter had been created using four tools developed by Bungie themselves; 'Tag Editor' edited the stored in the cross-platform; 'Extractor' handled the 2D sprites and the sequencing of their animations; 'Loathing' acted as the; and 'Fear' dealt with the 3D polygonal models such as houses, pillars, and walls.

Speaking of Fear and Loathing, The Fallen Lords 's producer and programmer explains, 'Loathing is basically the map editor for Myth. You import your map into it, you change the heights, and you place your units on the map in Loathing. Fear takes care of all the models; it is used to import the 3D rendered models into Myth.' Loathing was specifically built around the Myth engine and allowed the team to modify the 3D landscape, apply, determine terrain type, script the AI, and position structures, scenery, and enemies.

The 3D models were then imported into the game using Fear. Bungie themselves strongly encouraged the creativity of their fan base in using these tools.

For example, in April 1999, they issued a regarding the Myth II: Recon, saying 'This kind of was exactly what the Myth II tools were intended to inspire, and is an excellent sign that Myth mapmakers are taking this game world in fascinating new directions.' Technology The Fallen Lords originally supported both and 's hardware acceleration.

Soon after it was released, Bungie released a v1.1 upgrade, which added support for 's, and 3dfx's. Soulblighter originally supported software rendering, all 3dfx and Rendition, and any that supported for Windows and for Mac. The game also supported, specifically 's and '. Later releases In 1999, Bungie re-released Soulblighter for and Windows as part of a special edition called Myth: The Total Codex.

The bundle included The Fallen Lords, Soulblighter v1.3 (Bungie's last official update of the game ), the Soulblighter Myth II: Chimera (developed by the Myth mapmaker group Badlands, in association with Bungie themselves), and official Strategies and Secrets guides for both of the main games. Soulblighter was later ported to by.In June 2000, who had purchased 19.9% of Bungie's in 1999, acquired the and Myth after Bungie was purchased outright.

Take-Two's first Myth release was Green Berets: Powered by Myth II in July, 2001. Set in the, Green Berets is a total conversion of the Soulblighter engine, and includes a copy of Soulblighter, as well as the Fear and Loathing tools. Developed by mapmakers from within the Myth community, in association with, Green Berets also features eight new multiplayer maps, and the option to use Green Berets units while playing the Soulblighter single-player campaign. Take-Two's second release was Myth II: Worlds in October. Worlds includes a copy of Soulblighter, the Soulblighter Strategies and Secrets guide in form, and two disks of fan-created single-player campaigns, multiplayer maps, and gameplay. Community Although the official Myth servers closed in February 2002, the Myth series continued to have an active online fanbase for over a decade, particularly Soulblighter. After Bungie released the Total Codex bundle in 1999, which contained The Fallen Lords v1.3, Soulblighter v1.3 and the Soulblighter expansion pack, Myth II: Chimera, they ceased working to develop the game's, as Microsoft, who purchased the company in 2000, wanted them to concentrate on.

As such, they were approached by a group of programmers, and coders known as MythDevelopers, who asked for access to the code so as to continue its development. With the blessing of Take-Two, Bungie released their entire archive of Myth-related materials to MythDevelopers, including the source code, artwork, all creative files, and documentation. MythDevelopers were also granted access to the source code for, which was developed by in 2001. Bungie also their Myth source code in 2002.MythDevelopers used this material to improve and further develop the games. Although their initial focus was on the bug-ridden release version of The Wolf Age, they also worked to update the first two games to newer on both Mac and PC, fix bugs, and create to enhance both the games themselves and the mapmaking tools. They also developed their own, dubbed the Myth Core Library, which provided networking, input routines, and other.

This enabled MythDevelopers to avoid the necessity of licensing any external libraries, and instead allowed them to develop everything in-house.