Blog: Random Idiot: Gaming Stuff from some random idiot
Owner: ManicMan
Author: Manic Man
Post: Hero Quest – Story and Lore – Part I – Mentor, Morcar & Rogar & Friends
If you don’t know what Hero Quest is, it was a dungeon adventure table top Miniature board game by Games Workshop, in cooperation with MB Games (most of it was GW). It was first released in the UK and the rest of the world from 1989 with the last official expansion coming out in 1991 in the UK, or 2 USA only Expansions in 1992. For some reason, when it was ‘ported’ to the USA, they renamed some characters and changed some of the rules.. There were a bunch of attempts to bring it back and there is a USA based version out now but that is not Hero Quest.. mostly true to the rules and game of the USA version, but with pretty bad figures.. pointless, don’t bother with it really. It’s by Hasbro not GW anyway.
Anyway, any more information you need I’m sure you can find elsewhere. The Storyline and Lore behind Hero Quest was very much self in the Warhammer World of Games Workshop. There are direct references, and in-direct references, and tons of interesting stuff. So I want to go over this and go into some details on bits I feel like. Oh.. I should probably point out this is a spoiler if you haven’t read all the rule/quest books and played the game but… depending on your group, people don’t always go that deep into the story of such a game anyway. You should though..
Mentor – Mentor is one of the main two major forces in the game which…. kinda doesn’t appear or do much. Mentor is described as being an old wizard.. and that’s pretty much it. He has the great book ‘Loretome’ which has everything that was or all that ever will be recorded in it’s countless pages.. though it seams Mentor doesn’t, or can’t read too far ahead in it. He is the one that guides you, gives you quests and tells you about stuff.. There are a couple of HUGE debates on this guy.. the first, is what he looks like. Some think he is the White haired bearded guy show on the rule book, the Screen, the Character boards etc. He wears a red robe and has a stern expression. However, some believe that is in fact the main bad guy who I’ll get to later. Evidence for both is pretty good really. The main evidence that this guy IS Mentor is probably the following:
Story wise, Mentor has some backstory which sets up the game but that’s about it. Mentor was the Great Wizard with the book Loretome. Many Centuries ago, he had Morcar (the evil Bad guy) as an apprentice, but he turned evil (more of that in his section) and after Mentor caught up with him, they found they had now equal power. Mentor works for the Empire (A collection of city states and areas covering a large amount of the Old World and they are one of the two main Human forces in Warhammer). After both being weakened in their battle, neither character seams to be able to directly attack or do much, so they used there ‘allies’. For Mentor, that means you players. And that is pretty much all we know.. He is a very old wizard who is now just able to watch mostly. The Marvel comic shows him being able to teleport the player into a dungeon and out, mostly as short hand for getting people around. He does appear a bit absent minded as at the end of the first quest book, he tells you of the one character escaping even though you thought you kill him.. and then later he claims he just found out the guy is still alive… Well, if you are that old, either you have a oversized head and brain, or you forget things.
Outside of Hero Quest, I don’t believe he was ever mentioned directly.. Probably cause he was just an adviser and they had tons of them, and the name ‘Mentor’, while perfect for the role, is a bit generic. In the Sticker album, it locates Mentor’s Domain as being just outside of Nuln, in the south West of the Empire, bordering on Reikland. It also has him appear as a blue robe wearing elf.
Morcar – Morcar is the other Major force. When he was young, He was the apprentice to Mentor and was a fast and keep study. But he had no patience and hungered for more knowledge too fast. Each night, he broke into Mentor’s study to read the spell books and the secrets therein. After he had learnt what he wanted, He ran away. Mentor found him but he was greatly changed as he had pledged himself to the Great Powers of Chaos (In the Warhammer world, there are 4 Great Powers of Chaos that evolved over the years, Korn the Blood God, Nurgle the Plague God, Slaanesh the Pleasure god, and Tzeentch the.. God of change.. there are also many lesser powers) and was corrupted by them, believing magic was just a short cut to power. In the end, he and Mentor had a battle which lasted many days, though Morcar had allies to help him. Both were undefeated and greatly weaken at the end of the battle. Mentor went back to the Empire, and Morcar ran to the Northern Chaos Wastes.
There, his forces of Chaos include many, not just Chaos creatures but creatures and races from all over the Warhammer world (well, mostly just the Old world. Undead, Goblinoids & Firmir, along with Gargoyles (based on the Bloodthirster of Korn) and some generic Chaos forces. Each time Morcar plans and tries to attack the Empire, some heroes stop him. He later tried to team up with other races, and he had a number of named allies but that’s about it. We don’t know a lot more on him. We do know he has a rocky throne and is able to smile, has a ‘voice like death’ and really doesn’t take failure well as he has been known to just wipe out any one that fails him.
Now, as said about on Mentor, We don’t know what he looks like. Some believe he is the white haired guy. The main evidence for this is
Outside of Hero Quest.. I don’t believe Morcar was mentioned. again, there were alot of Chaos Allies and he was a bit.. weird in that he was stated as Chaos, yet in Warhammer, his army wasn’t really a Chaos faction one. He had a big mix of all types. Story wise, some of the quests don’t even appear to have too much to do with him and he never directly interacts with any characters. It is also a bit vague as to which chaos power he aligned himself because, while Chaos has a general purpose in common and will team up, the powers are always fighting each other for more power to become THE Chaos power. If anything, I would have to lean towards Korn as not only is he the god of war, blood etc, his colour is red, which appears to match Morcar IF you go with the white haired guy is him, and the Gargoyles being Korn’s own lesser demons, the Bloodthirsters. But it’s a very weak link at that.
Story wise, as he is never directly met, he just fills the role of main bad guy behind the scenes who the heroes keep stopping his plans, so he tries something new. So he is never really defeated but kept in check only which is common for such enemies.
The final thing is for some.. weird reason, They didn’t like the name Morcar in the USA so they renamed him Zargon… who was one of the main bad guys in DnD (Dungeons and Dragons, a Roleplaying game which popularised the style of game) since the first edition… make of that what you will.
Rogar – Who is Rogar? well.. very little info exists on him really.
But that said, it’s quite a bit. Cause you need to know where to look. If you ignore the quest book for now and go to the first source, the Rule book!
When Morcar first returned to attack the Empire, Rogar the Barbarian was a mighty warrior Prince from the Borderlands (Which are the border between the Empire, Bretionnia (the other major Human area) and the badlands). He wore the Star of the West on his forehead, a gem worn by ancient Kings of Legend. Many flocked to his side including Durgin, the Fearless Dwarven warrior, Ladril the Elven fighter mage and Telor the Wizard. For years, Rogar trained his army and finally the day of the huge battle came. Many died on that day but while Rogar’s side was victorious, Morcar and his Generals escaped beyond the Sea of Claws (which means they were probably battling in the wasteland between the Empire and Bretonnia, or just the upper edges of the Empire.
In the opening of the original quest book, as Mentor explains things to you he says ‘Morcar’s Legions have threatened us one before. Then it was Rogar who aided me and defeated them.’ which is pretty much what is already said. The next mention of him is near the end of the book when you first go to Barak Tor, the Barrow of the Witch Lord. Rogar wore the ancient Star of the West gem when he battled with Morcar ‘in ages past’, again, repeating known information but does confirm it. The Gem was rested in Barak Tor, which was also the resting place of the Witch Lord, he was destroyed years ago.. though it turns out, not very well.
At the end of the book, the Emperor has gathered a new huge army to head towards the Black Fire Pass towards the Badlands for some reason (probably fighting Orcs who are known form that area), and it is said the army was even greater then Rogar’s Host (his army). However, they pretty much get wiped out.
And that is pretty much all we know about Rogar. Not much is it? but we can say he was a legendary hero from some point after the fall of Morcar to evil and before the current era. He may have defeated the Witch Lord using the Spirit Blade while wearing the Star of the West. Or not. we don’t know. As the gem is found in the resting place of the Witch Lord, it is possible that he died while defeating the Witch Lord. But then someone would have taken the Spirit blade from him (the only weapon which can harm the Witch Lord) but left the Gem behind.. which appears stupid. so.. it’s tricky.
Did he die at the battle when he stopped Morcar in the past? don’t know.. nothing is said about him afterwards, but nothing said that he did die.
The Heroquest Sticker Album, retells alot of the stories from the quest book, and does so with this one too, and doesn’t say that Morcar killed Rogar, however Mentor says to the new heroes to find the Star of the East, captured by the forces of darkness after Rogar’s demise, so that the Second Saviour of the Empire can wear it. Did you notice that one bit that is important? “The Star of the East”.. the sticker book keeps talking about the Star of the East, worn by Rogar, yet the Hero Quest game itself, calls it the Star of the West. The sticker book was released in 1991, so the game was ready out and the Witch lord expansion was out too (it mentions it and has art based on it) so.. they just got a bit mixed up.
Now, outside of Hero Quest.. No mention of Rogar.. Apart from one.. kinda.. After (well, a bit later on) GW released ‘Advanced Hero Quest’ which was a more involved version, without MB, which was closer to Warhammer.. not quite as it was still a dungeon crawler but still. In it, it says not only about how to convert HQ missions and the board for Advanced Hero Quest, but gives 8 example character sheets to use. These are the 4 heroes you get in that game (Elf, Wizard, Dwarf and Warrior) and the 4 original heroes. But they are named after the Heroes of Legend, so you have the Character sheet for Rogar the Human Barbarian (though he doesn’t have the Star of the West or East). Story wise, AHQ doesn’t follow the adventures of Mentor’s team against Morcar at all.
As even less is known about them, I’ll just add a bit here:
Durgin the Fearless Dwarven Warrior was from the World’s edge Mountains (a range of Mountains which mark the edge of the Old world (land side)). On the day of the big battle, he blew his mighty horn to sound the attack. The Marvel special makes note of him as a hero of the Dwarves along with Belorn, Holgar & Garin.
Ladril the Elven Fighter mage from Athelorn (which puts him as a Wood Elf but I’m not quite sure where Athelorn was.. a later Blood Bowl (rugger style game from GW) used Athelorn as a place where the wood elf team was from) was the first to see Morcar’s Army approaching and gave the signal to Durgin to blow the Horn. The Sticker Album calls him Brellif, and has Ladril as a name of the elf player for it’s story version of ‘The Fire Mage’ quest. The Marvel Special describes Ladril as the most famous elven hero, who was inhumanly beautiful (well.. yes.. he wasn’t human) with a light in his eyes that made even the most dread foe hesitate. It should also be noted that despite Athelorn being later connected with Wood Elves, AHQ lists Ladril as a High Elf, but this might be because the AHQ rule book only lists elves as either ‘Elves’ who have no magic or ‘High Elves’ who can cast some magic.
Telor the Wizard used his sorcery to save Rogar many times and probably did something on that battle day but it’s not recorded. The Marvel special doesn’t make a note of him at all.. just comments about generic wizards. Poor guy gets the short end all the time..
Verag & Fellmarg – Verag and Fellmarg are two of these ‘not really a character’ characters. Depending on if you got the very first edition, or the second print run, the first quest in the original book was either ‘The Maze’ or ‘The Trial’. Basically, the Maze turned out to be okay but not really a ‘good enough’ quest introduction as the Trial, so they replaced it early on. In the Trial, you enter the Catacombs of Verag, a Foul Gargoyle. And that’s it.. He is just a normal Gargoyle. He is kinda used as a first ‘Boss’ character to introduce you to such things really. The Catacombs, for some reason, guard the tomb of Fellmarg. Fellmarg was once a mighty warrior and his tomb is guarded by a slightly more powerful Mummy (rolls an extra attack dice). There are also a pair of skeletons there. Why is Verag and the Mummy guarding Fellmarg’s tomb? no clue.. He was a mighty warrior, but was he a Mighty Warrior for the empire, or for Chaos? most likely Chaos with the name really, which would also probably give a reason for being guarded by Chaos.
Next Post on this subject, I will look at a bunch more characters.. Mostly pretty small
Continue reading over on Random Idiot
Owner: ManicMan
Author: Manic Man
Post: Hero Quest – Story and Lore – Part I – Mentor, Morcar & Rogar & Friends
If you don’t know what Hero Quest is, it was a dungeon adventure table top Miniature board game by Games Workshop, in cooperation with MB Games (most of it was GW). It was first released in the UK and the rest of the world from 1989 with the last official expansion coming out in 1991 in the UK, or 2 USA only Expansions in 1992. For some reason, when it was ‘ported’ to the USA, they renamed some characters and changed some of the rules.. There were a bunch of attempts to bring it back and there is a USA based version out now but that is not Hero Quest.. mostly true to the rules and game of the USA version, but with pretty bad figures.. pointless, don’t bother with it really. It’s by Hasbro not GW anyway.
Anyway, any more information you need I’m sure you can find elsewhere. The Storyline and Lore behind Hero Quest was very much self in the Warhammer World of Games Workshop. There are direct references, and in-direct references, and tons of interesting stuff. So I want to go over this and go into some details on bits I feel like. Oh.. I should probably point out this is a spoiler if you haven’t read all the rule/quest books and played the game but… depending on your group, people don’t always go that deep into the story of such a game anyway. You should though..
Mentor – Mentor is one of the main two major forces in the game which…. kinda doesn’t appear or do much. Mentor is described as being an old wizard.. and that’s pretty much it. He has the great book ‘Loretome’ which has everything that was or all that ever will be recorded in it’s countless pages.. though it seams Mentor doesn’t, or can’t read too far ahead in it. He is the one that guides you, gives you quests and tells you about stuff.. There are a couple of HUGE debates on this guy.. the first, is what he looks like. Some think he is the White haired bearded guy show on the rule book, the Screen, the Character boards etc. He wears a red robe and has a stern expression. However, some believe that is in fact the main bad guy who I’ll get to later. Evidence for both is pretty good really. The main evidence that this guy IS Mentor is probably the following:
- He looks like a wizard with a big book
- He is on the Character Cards which introduce the players to each of the Heroes
- The Official Marvel Comics Special shows him as Mentor
Story wise, Mentor has some backstory which sets up the game but that’s about it. Mentor was the Great Wizard with the book Loretome. Many Centuries ago, he had Morcar (the evil Bad guy) as an apprentice, but he turned evil (more of that in his section) and after Mentor caught up with him, they found they had now equal power. Mentor works for the Empire (A collection of city states and areas covering a large amount of the Old World and they are one of the two main Human forces in Warhammer). After both being weakened in their battle, neither character seams to be able to directly attack or do much, so they used there ‘allies’. For Mentor, that means you players. And that is pretty much all we know.. He is a very old wizard who is now just able to watch mostly. The Marvel comic shows him being able to teleport the player into a dungeon and out, mostly as short hand for getting people around. He does appear a bit absent minded as at the end of the first quest book, he tells you of the one character escaping even though you thought you kill him.. and then later he claims he just found out the guy is still alive… Well, if you are that old, either you have a oversized head and brain, or you forget things.
Outside of Hero Quest, I don’t believe he was ever mentioned directly.. Probably cause he was just an adviser and they had tons of them, and the name ‘Mentor’, while perfect for the role, is a bit generic. In the Sticker album, it locates Mentor’s Domain as being just outside of Nuln, in the south West of the Empire, bordering on Reikland. It also has him appear as a blue robe wearing elf.
Morcar – Morcar is the other Major force. When he was young, He was the apprentice to Mentor and was a fast and keep study. But he had no patience and hungered for more knowledge too fast. Each night, he broke into Mentor’s study to read the spell books and the secrets therein. After he had learnt what he wanted, He ran away. Mentor found him but he was greatly changed as he had pledged himself to the Great Powers of Chaos (In the Warhammer world, there are 4 Great Powers of Chaos that evolved over the years, Korn the Blood God, Nurgle the Plague God, Slaanesh the Pleasure god, and Tzeentch the.. God of change.. there are also many lesser powers) and was corrupted by them, believing magic was just a short cut to power. In the end, he and Mentor had a battle which lasted many days, though Morcar had allies to help him. Both were undefeated and greatly weaken at the end of the battle. Mentor went back to the Empire, and Morcar ran to the Northern Chaos Wastes.
There, his forces of Chaos include many, not just Chaos creatures but creatures and races from all over the Warhammer world (well, mostly just the Old world. Undead, Goblinoids & Firmir, along with Gargoyles (based on the Bloodthirster of Korn) and some generic Chaos forces. Each time Morcar plans and tries to attack the Empire, some heroes stop him. He later tried to team up with other races, and he had a number of named allies but that’s about it. We don’t know a lot more on him. We do know he has a rocky throne and is able to smile, has a ‘voice like death’ and really doesn’t take failure well as he has been known to just wipe out any one that fails him.
Now, as said about on Mentor, We don’t know what he looks like. Some believe he is the white haired guy. The main evidence for this is
- He is shown on the Games Masters Screen in a pose that appears to be summoning and leading the evil Monsters
- The official Hero Quest Sticker Album shows him as the White Haired, red cloaked guy
- The Official Computer game appears to show him as the White haired guy.
- Some USA content starts that it is he who sends the challenges (quests) for them to complete and is basically the Games Master.
Outside of Hero Quest.. I don’t believe Morcar was mentioned. again, there were alot of Chaos Allies and he was a bit.. weird in that he was stated as Chaos, yet in Warhammer, his army wasn’t really a Chaos faction one. He had a big mix of all types. Story wise, some of the quests don’t even appear to have too much to do with him and he never directly interacts with any characters. It is also a bit vague as to which chaos power he aligned himself because, while Chaos has a general purpose in common and will team up, the powers are always fighting each other for more power to become THE Chaos power. If anything, I would have to lean towards Korn as not only is he the god of war, blood etc, his colour is red, which appears to match Morcar IF you go with the white haired guy is him, and the Gargoyles being Korn’s own lesser demons, the Bloodthirsters. But it’s a very weak link at that.
Story wise, as he is never directly met, he just fills the role of main bad guy behind the scenes who the heroes keep stopping his plans, so he tries something new. So he is never really defeated but kept in check only which is common for such enemies.
The final thing is for some.. weird reason, They didn’t like the name Morcar in the USA so they renamed him Zargon… who was one of the main bad guys in DnD (Dungeons and Dragons, a Roleplaying game which popularised the style of game) since the first edition… make of that what you will.
Rogar – Who is Rogar? well.. very little info exists on him really.
But that said, it’s quite a bit. Cause you need to know where to look. If you ignore the quest book for now and go to the first source, the Rule book!
When Morcar first returned to attack the Empire, Rogar the Barbarian was a mighty warrior Prince from the Borderlands (Which are the border between the Empire, Bretionnia (the other major Human area) and the badlands). He wore the Star of the West on his forehead, a gem worn by ancient Kings of Legend. Many flocked to his side including Durgin, the Fearless Dwarven warrior, Ladril the Elven fighter mage and Telor the Wizard. For years, Rogar trained his army and finally the day of the huge battle came. Many died on that day but while Rogar’s side was victorious, Morcar and his Generals escaped beyond the Sea of Claws (which means they were probably battling in the wasteland between the Empire and Bretonnia, or just the upper edges of the Empire.
In the opening of the original quest book, as Mentor explains things to you he says ‘Morcar’s Legions have threatened us one before. Then it was Rogar who aided me and defeated them.’ which is pretty much what is already said. The next mention of him is near the end of the book when you first go to Barak Tor, the Barrow of the Witch Lord. Rogar wore the ancient Star of the West gem when he battled with Morcar ‘in ages past’, again, repeating known information but does confirm it. The Gem was rested in Barak Tor, which was also the resting place of the Witch Lord, he was destroyed years ago.. though it turns out, not very well.
At the end of the book, the Emperor has gathered a new huge army to head towards the Black Fire Pass towards the Badlands for some reason (probably fighting Orcs who are known form that area), and it is said the army was even greater then Rogar’s Host (his army). However, they pretty much get wiped out.
And that is pretty much all we know about Rogar. Not much is it? but we can say he was a legendary hero from some point after the fall of Morcar to evil and before the current era. He may have defeated the Witch Lord using the Spirit Blade while wearing the Star of the West. Or not. we don’t know. As the gem is found in the resting place of the Witch Lord, it is possible that he died while defeating the Witch Lord. But then someone would have taken the Spirit blade from him (the only weapon which can harm the Witch Lord) but left the Gem behind.. which appears stupid. so.. it’s tricky.
Did he die at the battle when he stopped Morcar in the past? don’t know.. nothing is said about him afterwards, but nothing said that he did die.
The Heroquest Sticker Album, retells alot of the stories from the quest book, and does so with this one too, and doesn’t say that Morcar killed Rogar, however Mentor says to the new heroes to find the Star of the East, captured by the forces of darkness after Rogar’s demise, so that the Second Saviour of the Empire can wear it. Did you notice that one bit that is important? “The Star of the East”.. the sticker book keeps talking about the Star of the East, worn by Rogar, yet the Hero Quest game itself, calls it the Star of the West. The sticker book was released in 1991, so the game was ready out and the Witch lord expansion was out too (it mentions it and has art based on it) so.. they just got a bit mixed up.
Now, outside of Hero Quest.. No mention of Rogar.. Apart from one.. kinda.. After (well, a bit later on) GW released ‘Advanced Hero Quest’ which was a more involved version, without MB, which was closer to Warhammer.. not quite as it was still a dungeon crawler but still. In it, it says not only about how to convert HQ missions and the board for Advanced Hero Quest, but gives 8 example character sheets to use. These are the 4 heroes you get in that game (Elf, Wizard, Dwarf and Warrior) and the 4 original heroes. But they are named after the Heroes of Legend, so you have the Character sheet for Rogar the Human Barbarian (though he doesn’t have the Star of the West or East). Story wise, AHQ doesn’t follow the adventures of Mentor’s team against Morcar at all.
As even less is known about them, I’ll just add a bit here:
Durgin the Fearless Dwarven Warrior was from the World’s edge Mountains (a range of Mountains which mark the edge of the Old world (land side)). On the day of the big battle, he blew his mighty horn to sound the attack. The Marvel special makes note of him as a hero of the Dwarves along with Belorn, Holgar & Garin.
Ladril the Elven Fighter mage from Athelorn (which puts him as a Wood Elf but I’m not quite sure where Athelorn was.. a later Blood Bowl (rugger style game from GW) used Athelorn as a place where the wood elf team was from) was the first to see Morcar’s Army approaching and gave the signal to Durgin to blow the Horn. The Sticker Album calls him Brellif, and has Ladril as a name of the elf player for it’s story version of ‘The Fire Mage’ quest. The Marvel Special describes Ladril as the most famous elven hero, who was inhumanly beautiful (well.. yes.. he wasn’t human) with a light in his eyes that made even the most dread foe hesitate. It should also be noted that despite Athelorn being later connected with Wood Elves, AHQ lists Ladril as a High Elf, but this might be because the AHQ rule book only lists elves as either ‘Elves’ who have no magic or ‘High Elves’ who can cast some magic.
Telor the Wizard used his sorcery to save Rogar many times and probably did something on that battle day but it’s not recorded. The Marvel special doesn’t make a note of him at all.. just comments about generic wizards. Poor guy gets the short end all the time..
Verag & Fellmarg – Verag and Fellmarg are two of these ‘not really a character’ characters. Depending on if you got the very first edition, or the second print run, the first quest in the original book was either ‘The Maze’ or ‘The Trial’. Basically, the Maze turned out to be okay but not really a ‘good enough’ quest introduction as the Trial, so they replaced it early on. In the Trial, you enter the Catacombs of Verag, a Foul Gargoyle. And that’s it.. He is just a normal Gargoyle. He is kinda used as a first ‘Boss’ character to introduce you to such things really. The Catacombs, for some reason, guard the tomb of Fellmarg. Fellmarg was once a mighty warrior and his tomb is guarded by a slightly more powerful Mummy (rolls an extra attack dice). There are also a pair of skeletons there. Why is Verag and the Mummy guarding Fellmarg’s tomb? no clue.. He was a mighty warrior, but was he a Mighty Warrior for the empire, or for Chaos? most likely Chaos with the name really, which would also probably give a reason for being guarded by Chaos.
Next Post on this subject, I will look at a bunch more characters.. Mostly pretty small
Continue reading over on Random Idiot
