Tonguez said:
Yes thats what I like about it all too - the tech has been adopted but is scarce enough to be controllable. Also as far as I can tell Eternia is very inhospitable (I'm guessing thats something to do with the old war(??)) with various monstorous races (in particular snake men) keeping the people in check and facilitating a feudal system (as the nobles control the tech and also have the heroes). There may also have been demons involved in the old war (ie Skeletors mentor). Does anyone know anything about that War?
Which war?
A rough timeline of Eternian history for the 2002--2004 series:
Clashes with the Snake Men and other forces of evil in an ancient Eternia that's more purely medieval.
The rise of Hordak and his Evil Horde. Hordak subdues the Snake Men and threatens all of Eternia, with spells such as the Spell of Separation that divides the planet into the Light and Dark Hemispheres and nearly tears the planet apart before Hordak stops it.
Hordak invades the Light Hemisphere and is defeated by the great warrior King Grayskull. He and his forces are banished to the dark dimension of Despondos. Grayskull dies but transfers much of his power to his companions, creating the Council of Elders, and binds the rest of his power within his sword. His wife Veela hides the Sword within Castle Grayskull until the time is right.
The Snake Men rise again, and with the aid of the wizard who will become the Faceless One, unleash their god-beast Serpos to ravage Eternia. Serpos is bound by the Elders, and the Snake Men retreat into the newly-created Snake Mountain to lick their wounds.
King Hsss and the Snake Men assault Eternia
again, and are defeated and sealed in the Void by the Elders and the Cosmic Enforcer Zodac.
The Elders rule Eternia for an undisclosed amount of time. It is apparently during this time frame that the technological advancement that will characterize modern Eternia takes place.
The warrior-mage Keldor, half-brother to Captain Randor of the Eternian Guards, studies dark mage and gathers an army of miscreants and evil creatures to overthrown the Elders and seize the power of Eternia. During the last battle at the Hall of Wisdom, the Elders appoint Randor king over Eternia and then vanish. Only the Sorceress of Grayskull (who is a different one from King Grayskull's wife) knows that the Elders combined their power into a Crystal Orb and hid it deep inside Castle Grayskull. Keldor is mortally wounded in the battle and survives only by making an unholy pact with Hordak, who transforms him into Skeletor in exchange for a price unnamed at the time but later revealed to be a demand for Skeletor to open Hordak's way into Eternia. The Sorceress and Duncan create a Mystic Wall to seal off the Dark Hemisphere and keep Keldor and his minions contained. The Hall of Wisdom also disappears under mysterious circumstances.
The "Great Unrest" takes place shortly afterward--a time of chaos and war. Though not stated explicitly, it seems to me that this is the fallout from the disappearance of the major unifying forces on Eternia--both the Elders and Keldor. Petty warlords and civil war rack the Light Hemisphere as Randor tries to unify the good people of Eternia and put down the remnants of Keldor's army. I would guess that the depradations of Keldor's war, the disappearance of the Elders, and the Great Unrest lead to the decline of technology outside the royal court and other isolated locales.
Approximately 16 years later--on Prince Adam's 16th birthday--Skeletor breaks through the Mystic Wall. Prince Adam becomes He-Man, and the new war begins.
The 1980s series is somewhat harder to work out, although valiant efforts have been made. Skeletor alone has about three or four different origins therein.
Matthew L. Martin
