Foreword

"The myth of The Great Man seems to be in vogue in academia of late, with heated debate as to the veracity of the tales in the Great Man cycle.  The argument can be split into roughly three camps; those who decry the myths holding any truth, those who believe that the myths conceal a small, less magnificent truth, and those who believe the events unfolded in our distant past in almost the same manner in which we know of them today.""The first generally argue that the idea of magic is absurd, and that, as is clear by the inclusion of it, the myths are, in fact, a fír suthr origin story, imported to Doma and distorted by time and translation.  While certainly elements of the mythology are indeed very southern, with a great deal of similarities between the mages of the Great Man cycle and the purported abilities of their anu, this can easily be explained by the heavy involvement of the people of the Southern Archipelago in our own history as evidenced by the archaeological record (and no, trade cannot account for the entirety of the fír suthr artefacts and keshal'i sites in the record. More on that later).""Those who argue that the myths perhaps hide a modicum of truth that has been distorted and made more grand by time and endless retelling are, perhaps closer to the truth than the first camp, but still quite wide of the mark.  Bear in mind, the relative populations between the end of the Third Epoch/beginning of the Fourth Epoch until now, at the Fourth Epoch's end.  Battles that might appear small scale to us, in terms of relative numbers, might have been earth-shattering to the ancients from whom we are descended.  So while we might not be speaking of battles with hundreds of thousands of warriors as the myths might claim, the impact of the smaller numbers would be roughly equivalent to that number if the events unfolded today.""It is easy to dismiss the last camp as kooks.  After all, tales of magical flames, necromancy and other mage-craft surely cannot be true. However, it is my belief that if we strip the legends of their magical elements we find there the ancient history of Doma, her neighbours and all peoples of these regions. It is conceivable that the events of the Great Man cycle did in fact happen in the scale and order dictated by the mythology. Not only does the archaeology bear out in many cases (the Sacred Burial Grounds of Ardea and the Mounds of Heroes therein being one such example), but if we look to combine the various traditions from the Southern Archipelago, the continent, and what tales we know from our sammonish'i neighbours, we can, I believe, piece together a convincing timeline of events that are more than just plausible, they are probable.""It is my aim to prove this true. I have delivered my thesis to the patriarch and will soon be called upon to defend it. Herein enclosed in this journal are my research notes, a copy of which I have submitted to the university. The thesis itself, should it prove defensible, will be kept in the university library. With great luck time shall not erode these as it has done with our recollection of the events leading up to and immediately following the ending of the Third Epoch.**"

** It should be noted here that the unknown scholar's thesis and notes were lost when the Great Fire burnt half of Brueia, including the university (now happily rebuilt) down some three hundred years ago. I have, to the best of my ability, attempted to collate the notes and evidence for this thesis from the fragments that remained in the pages that follow and have translated them to the best of my abilities.

Unless otherwise indicated, all the translations are from texts or fragments of texts dating to the end of the Fourth Epoch. Wheresoever I have interjected my own thoughts, is marked with **.

Finally, I would like it known that the author's research does make for a compelling case. They, however, never do quite manage to explain the magical elements of the Great Man cycle, the largest stumbling block to accepting the tales as a matter of historical record.