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Might and Magic as a franchise is a staggering 23 years old. It includes the nine original games in addition to the five main titles of a related real-time strategy series: Heroes of Might and Magic. On top of all this, a number of development studios have taken turns making spin-offs, one of which is Dark Messiah, made by Arkane Studios. For a franchise to have so many titles implies that the Might and Magic universe is deep and complex, and indeed it is.
In fact, there is no single setting in which all the games take place. Dark Messiah takes place on the Earth-like planet of Ashan, which was actually introduced in Heroes of Might and Magic V, a game developed by Nival Interactive. Heroes of Might and Magic V is actually the first game of Ubisoft’s “rebooting” of the Might and Magic franchise. Ubisoft has since been responsible for publishing seven more titles, including not only Dark Messiah, but also a cute-lookin’ DS game: Clash of Heroes, as well as an upcoming MMO: Heroes Kingdoms.
History aside, Dark Messiah was the game that first exposed many gamers to the Might and Magic universe, simply because it was a highly-accessible, straight-forward hack-and-slash action game. There was much work put into the game’s combat elements. It was what probably distracted the developers from fleshing out the game world, much to the disappointment of the more sentimental gamers, who still had several unanswered questions even after beating the game. Indeed, the player only gets to visit three main locations, and even so, is only able to explore only small sections of said locations. There was only so much information a player can obtain about the world simply by playing the game. Answering any lingering questions required additional research.
In the original Might and Magic series, a race of beings known as the “Ancients” (most likely humans in the distant future) deployed self-sustaining miniature worlds across the galaxy. After coming into conflict with another race, known as the “Kreegans”, a small section of the galaxy became isolated from Ancient control. It is here where the original series takes place. For some reason however, Ubisoft, when rebooting the series with Heroes of Might and Magic V, wanted to do something entirely different. So the world of Ashan was created, and from what it seems, it is a unique world in itself, and has nothing to do with the Ancients.
For all intents and purposes, Ashan is just like Earth, and its main inhabitants, humans just like us. Considering the vast scale of the universe, the possibility of such a planet existing is not so unlikely. However, the planet’s physical properties allow the forces of magic to exist and be manipulated by those that possess the talent to do so. At any rate, Ashan is home to a typical medieval, sword-and-sorcery fantasy setting, complete with Orcs and Goblins (Elves exist, but they are only included in the game as a weapon called the “Elven Bow”).
The Orcs are the proud and aggressive, butt-ugly warrior race that speak broken English, but in a unique twist, it is revealed that they were actually created by wizards (specifically the Necromancers), who somehow fused demon blood with human bodies in an attempt to create effective shock troops for the so-called “War of the Blood Moon”. On the other hand, very little is known about Goblins—whether they naturally evolved, or whether they were created. If they were created, it was probably by drunk wizards who fused human flesh with human excrement, because Goblins the ugliest things in all of Ashan. They are vast in numbers and like to live underground. Both Orcs and Goblins live in loosely-organized tribes, each one ruled by a single Chief. Their primitive existence confirms that Humans are indeed the superior race because Humans live in dense, sophisticated city-states and practice the most advanced magic. There is also the Demon race, which shall be discussed after a brief history lesson.
Human religion is centered around the worship of dragons. For the record, dragons actually exist in the game. They are huge, winged, reptilian creatures that breathe fire and spit lightning (and they crap hailstones too, I bet). Such an awesome creature would naturally be deified by humans. It is believed that Ashan was actually created by a dragon. The legend goes that in the beginning, two dragons, Asha (Dragon of Order) and Urgash (Dragon of Chaos) were born from the Void. Asha created Ashan, and then created six other dragons to represent the six elements (Earth, Air, Water, Fire, Light, Darkness).
To make a long story short, all the races of Ashan came into massive conflict and a wizard named Sar-Elam sacrificed himself, and through the release of magical energy, formed the hellish prison world of Sheogh and banished all Demons there. To honor his noble deed, he was made the Seventh Dragon. The human calendar begins at 30 or 40 years before the time of Sar-Elam’s sacrifice (Year of the Seventh Dragon: zero). The events in Dark Messiah occur about ten centuries later.
By that time, the world hangs in a precarious balance as the Demons are more eager than ever to break free from their prison. Aside from that, human factions are war with one another, driven by the selfish desires of the powerful, ambitious few. Ashan is and always has been a setting for conflict, and epic world-changing events occur frequently. As such, it is a highly dynamic world, and will likely continue to be featured in several more of the Might and Magic games to come. Hopefully we’ll learn more about the game world with each new release.
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