The Heroes IV Story That Would've Become Pluribus
Have you ever watched a movie or TV show and noticed surprising similarities to one of your favorite video games? I certainly have, and I doubt any of you have encountered one quite as striking as this. In this post, I'll explore an interesting parallel I found between the Heroes IV Academy campaign (The Price of Peace) and the Apple TV series Pluribus. Before we continue, be warned that there will be spoilers ahead for both The Price of Peace and Pluribus. But if you don't mind, keep reading!
In the campaign, King Gavin Magnus of Great Arcan builds a device called the Crystal Pendulum, activated by a crystal capable of enslaving the mind of any being to his will. Tired of constant war and mass destruction, he tries to bring world peace to Axeoth by stripping the whole population of their free will. Thanks to the efforts of his former genie servant Solmyr and Queen Emilia Nighthaven, the crystal is destroyed, freeing everyone under his control.
But what if Magnus had succeeded in his plan? What if the heroes weren't able to stop him and joined the rest of the world as his mindless slaves? Then Axeoth would end up in the same state as Earth in Pluribus, in which an alien virus has turned almost all of humanity into an invariably happy and peaceful hive mind, or the "Others" as they are called. The difference is that in Pluribus the Others share a consciousness and want the remaining population to join them, while in Heroes IV they are forced under Magnus' mind control. Though Magnus would rule the world with an iron fist, we can't rule out the possibility that one day someone might come to Axeoth and become the Carol Sturka of this story.
Both stories present the same question: is a world without conflict worth having if achieving it means giving up our freedom and individuality? Perhaps the real price of peace is not the absence of war, but the loss of our ability to choose whether to fight for it.