The Let's Play Archive

Myth III

by GuavaMoment

Part 6: Journey to Llancarfan





Damas escorts Connacht to Llancarfan to meet with Emperor Leitrim


Blip
YouTube Part 2

Narrator posted:



July 16th, 1432 A.E., On the road through the forest of Talwhyn

The Emperor's fears were justified. Moagim, the faceless terror, had once again been reborn to this world. During the Age of Splendor, Moagim was the most powerful and wicked archmage in all the world. His insatiable lust for power brought war between the nations of humanity and his armies of undying. Even with his great powers, Moagim's army was defeated-his body being drawn and quartered. Yet, even in his death, he was still triumphant. His curse brought forth the Myrkridia into the world, leading to the downfall of civilization, and the end of the Age of Reason.

A millennia of darkness later, Moagim had returned to wage war on the lands of humanity once again. The Avatara of Llancarfan were unsure if this new threat was indeed Moagim Reborn or just an imposter using his name. Some began calling Moagim 'the Leveler'-a name that was understood by a very few at the time. Those that did know the true meaning of the term, shuddered at the very thought...

Traveling through the forested hills of Talwhyn, the contingent of Heron Guard escorted Connacht on their long journey towards the city of Llancarfan.



During the evenings around the camp fires, Damas would attempt to convey to Connacht the importance of his imperial summons. Connacht was always silent and dismissive; unimpressed by imperial titles or decrees. Damas became frustrated with the barbarian's less than civil attitudes and demeanor.

During one night, a distant wolf howled its worship of the moon, and to the guardsmen's surprise, Connacht answered the baying with a howl of his own. Incredulous, Damas stared at the wild man, doubting his sanity. Connacht, grinning a feral smile, only laughed at the astonished guardsmen and laid down to sleep.

A day later, not wishing to walk alongside a mad-man such as Connacht, Damas and a group of guardsmen scouted ahead of the contingent. The rain of the early day had stopped, and sun shined brightly on the forest. Strangely, there were no sounds of birds or animals that morning...




Click here for huge Myth III world map

Here is the Myth I/II map for comparision:



It's interesting to note the changes from the Myth map from the first and second game to the same map from 1000 years ago. The eastern side of the map is basically untouched, with the Trow still centered on Rhi'anon, the dwarves and Ghols still battling over Myrgard and the Berserks still calling Gower their home. There are some changes to the center of the map, however. Myth III features Llancarfan, the capital of the Cath Bruig empire, surrounded by farmland. This is replaced by Muirthemne, and a huge desert between the making of these two maps. But this change pales in comparison to the changes on the western side of the map. In Myth I/II all of human civilization is situated west of Cloudspine mountains in the area called The Province, with many people calling the large cities of Tandem, Madrigal, Tyr, Covenant and Scales their home. In Myth III, the areas west of the Cloudspine appear to have barely been explored yet. Myth III has mention of war with the Fir'bolg who live in the forest called The Ermine, west through the Norn Pass of the Cloudspine mountains. Sometime before Myth I/II, the Norn Pass has been renamed The Stair of Grief.

The back of the Myth III box has a slightly different map that's inconsistent with the map used in the game. Llancarfan's in the wrong place, and The Province is shown more prominently than the game wishes to intend.



aka
The ancient capital of the Cath Bruig empire, Llancarfan/Muirthemne was home to many great sorcerers and craftsmen, whose works included the Tain. Ruled by Connacht during the Wind Age, it was sacked and utterly razed when he returned as Balor during the Great War.

In the Age of Reason, the great city of Llancarfan stood at the heart of the Cath Bruig Empire, symbolizing freedom, wealth and prosperity. After a millennia of strife caused by the Myrkridian horrors, Llancarfan is all that remains of the splendor of that long ago age. The city is surrounded by massive walls and vigilantly guarded against any who would seek to enter without permission. The people of Llancarfan trade with the nearby barbarous human tribes, the cities of the Province, and with the Dwarven cities of Myrgard and Stoneheim. A watchful eye is kept over the farmlands of the Downs, as it is the mighty city's means of food.

Ilanin posted:

Aaanyway, I have something else to talk about. Namely "Lancarfan"

No, this isn't me nitpicking spelling. Lancarfan is how the narrator pronounces it, after all. This bugs me.

"Llan-" is a prefix which has its origins in Welsh and other Brythonic languages, and it means "Enclosed Land" or, more commonly "Church". Carfan means "Cohort"; so the entire city name gives you something like "Enclosure of the Cohort" which suggests a city that began as a fort for a detachment of soldiers and grew in size due to being in a useful strategic location. It is a sufficiently well-chosen name that I suspect the writers may have known what they were doing. (As an aside, there is actually a village called Llancarfan in Wales - not, in fact, all that far removed from the Gower Peninsula - but this is a corruption of the original name which was Nantcarfan; "Nant" means stream and what a cohort was doing in a stream I have no idea.)

Anyway, why does this bug me? Because "Llan-" isn't pronounced "Lan" in Welsh. It's pronounced (roughly) "Thlan". And if you're going to go to sufficient trouble for a city to actually have a somewhat suitable name in a given language, you might as well pronounce it correctly.

edit: Cath Bruig, if anyone is wondering, does not appear to be Welsh. "Cath" means cat, but Bruig doesn't even look like a Welsh word. It looks Irish, and brief Google-fu suggests it means "bottle up" or "push aside" in Irish, and apparently "Cath" means battle. One imagines this wasn't a name given to the empire by its friends.

edit more: If I were to translate it from Welsh, I might assume it was a corruption of Cath Blwydd, which is to say, cat years or Cath Brig (cat hair). Does time pass kind of fast there? Do they stick to the couch?