MagisterCultuum is just the name I chose when I joined this forum. It is Latin for "Master of Civilizations," which could basically be a description of any player of any game in the Civilization game series.
I chose Magister instead of Dominus, as the latter seemed a bit too arrogant. Dominus denotes a slave master or a lord who rules by his own power, and in a Christan context usually refers to God. Magister (which comes from the word "magis," meaning "greater") instead denotes someone to whom some authority over others has been delegated. It does not necessarily imply that the person is in any way better than those under his leadership, although he would probably not have been given leadership unless he had been deemed knowledgeable, skilled, and trustworthy. In antiquity the word was used for many positions, including high ranking military and government officials. The Magister Equitum was the highest ranking cavalry officer, and the second in command behind any dictator. (For Julius Caesar, this was Mark Anthony.) More common Magistri would be slaves assigned to be the foremen of work crews. The same title was also given to the slave who was put in charge of educating his master's children. The term gradually became more and more associated with teachers, and so "teacher" is now its most common English translation. It was used as the Latin equivalent of Rabbi. During the middle ages, it usually denoted someone who had received a license to teach philosophy or the liberal arts in a university. (This is what we now call a Master's Degree. The English descendents of the word Magister include Master, Mistress, Maestro, Mister, Misses. etc.)
Cultuum is the genitive plural form of Cultus, which is technically the perfect participle of the verb colere which can mean to civilize, to cultivate, to till, to nurture, to protect, or to worship. (It is the root of Cult, Culture, Cultivation, Colony, Agriculture, Horticulture, Aquaculture, etc.)
If you want you could chose to translate MagisterCultuum as "teacher of religions," which would be fitting for this thread but is not the sense in which I intended it.
After I had shown myself to be an expert on the lore of Erebus, Kael decided to add my name to the list of Great Sages.
I believe that Chalid, Yvain, Loki and Alazkan were added as characters in the lore to honor those members of this forum who helped develop the game. The first three of those were in the game before I discovered it. Chalid Astrakien was originally the Malakim hero, before the Empyrean was introduced. Alazkan the Assassin replaced Kael Colbane as the Svartalfar hero when Kael became the Council of Esus hero, before his name changed to Gibbon Goetia. I don't remember seeing the name Alazkan in the lore on on the forum until the Shadow phase was about to be released. I'm thinking that Alazkan was not that users original name on this forum and that he changed it only shortly before the hero was added.
Lizardmen are among the creations of the Life mages of the Age of Magic. (So are Lamiae, Centaurs, Hill Giants, Griffins, Minotaurs, Giant Spiders, ect.) They are hybrids, similar to more modern flesh golems but capable of reproducing more after their own kind. There are 3 seperate breeds of lizardmen. The Grey Lizardmen were made from humans, and are the largest, strongest, and slowest variety. The Green Lizardmen were made from elves, and are the kind most commonly found in jungles. The Blue Lizardmen (which have blue bands on their chest only) are the only surviving descendents of the Aifons, and still have their ancestor's ability to breath water just as easily as air.
It is no really clear why the lizardmen allied with the orcs.
Kael did not really want the lore to limit game play, and so the canon is only really firm when it comes to things at happened before the Age of Rebirth. The events of the scenarios are the closest things to the canon of the current age, and they can go multiple ways. Overall though, it does lead to Auric's ascension followed quickly by his demise. He was not slain by the Godslayer, but by the Netherblade. This stopped Auric quite effectively, but may have given Laroth the power he needed in order to overthrow Arawn and become the new God of Death. Laroth seems to have subtly orchestrated most of the major events of the current age, and Laroth Ascended is probably a much bigger threat than Auric ever could be.
It is unclear if Ceridwen caused Gabella's rebellion. Kael has left Ceridwen's agenda purposefully mysterious (as he did for the Overlords too), and not even any of her fellow gods have a clue.
Gabella did not really change her name. "Os" means "the Unbound" in some (probably otherwise non-existent) language, and denotes her refusal to be limited by rules anyone else sets for her.
It does seem strange for Gabella the Unbound to have needed to learn magic from Kylorin, but Kael did clearly sate that Ceridwen taught Sorcery only to Kylorin and that the others all learned it from him or form those who had learned it from him. It is worth noting though that sorcery is not exactly equivalent to magic. Sorcery is the systematic study and conscious control of magic. Kael has clearly stated that men had been using magic unconsciously long before Kylorin was born.
When the magical savant named Henri Ghouls (who later took the name Perpentach) was a child, he dominated his father and forced him to commit suicide. (This was shortly after his father had murdered his mother for defending their abnormal son.) He was then sent to an Asylum run by the Sisterhood of Sirona, where he dominated every nun and every other ward so that they would care for him alone; he neglected to allow them to care for themselves even enough to eat or drink anything, so they all died. This was before Kylorin found him. Before he met Kylorin, Laroth's unconscious power over Spirit magic had already made him an extremely influential evangelist of a fictional deity. It has also gotten out of control enough to drive the only women he ever loved and their son to commit suicide. Before Auric met Talia and received his first magic lesson, he had already navigated by mana, freed a spirit from a necromancer's control, and hurled a bolt of lightning against an attacking goblin. Not one of these acts of magic would be considered true sorcery. No magical savants who happened to live and die before Kylorin's time ever discovered how to control his abilities, and most attributed them to external agencies like the gods.
No descendant of Anesidora was ever born with anything close to the amount of power in all 21 spheres that Gabella was given at the time of her creation. This could very well make her the greatest of all magical savants. She may have turned to Kylorin not to learn how to use magic, but to learn how to stop using magic unintentionally. The pedia describes the vast stores of mana within her as being overwhelming and very confusing to her when she was young. She had trouble distinguishing between her own self and the world as a whole. She may have turned to Kylorin in order to shut things out and gain a measure of sanity. Perhaps Ceridwen preferred her insane, or enjoyed the destruction she inadvertently caused? Perhaps Ceridwen preferred to keep her to afraid to leave the safety of the Bair of Lacuna?
Alexis's pedia entry makes it clear that there was some magical knowledge available when she was growing up in the Bair of Lacuna. I tend to assume that this was during the age of Dragons, since she was born in only the 6th generation of humanity and Kylorin had a whole populated empire to rule. Alexis did not receive formal training in sorcery there though, but had to teach herself. It is also quite possible that the Bair of Lacuna simply does not count as part of Erebus. Kylorin may have been the first man in Erebus to use sorcery, but the immortal denizens of the Bair of Lacuna may have practiced it longer.
