Talk:Town
...[edit]
In HoMM3, we should have changed the terminology from ‘Towns’ to ‘Factions’, but we were trying to remain somewhat consistent with the HoMM2 convention (Barbarian Town, Knight Town, Warlock Town, etc.). This is the reason the largely human culture was called ‘Castle’ and not something else, like... the Alliance.
Fanstratics Newsletter #03 (November 2020)
HoMM3 Question: It's a widespread idea among fans that the 9 cities of HoMM 3 (counting Conflux) represent 9 alignments of Classical D&D. There's some discussion about which is which, but the general layout looks like...
| Lawful | Neutral | Chaotic | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Castle | Tower | Rampart |
| Neutral | Fortress | Conflux | Stronghold |
| Evil | Necropolis | Dungeon | Inferno |
Are there any grounds for this structure, in your opinion, or is this pure speculation? If you were asked to define the alignment for each city, would you do it this way or somehow differently?
A: I’m well aware of the D&D Alignment system and like it. At its core, it’s a collection of opposites (Good/Evil and Lawful/Chaotic) with a middle ground (Neutral). At its most basic, it’s an expansion of ‘too hot, too cold, and just right’. Did I use the D&D Alignment system as a structure when creating the HoMM3 factions? Not necessarily. Truthfully, I was thinking more about conceptual ‘opposites’. This would be more accurate...
| Castle | >< | Inferno |
| Tower | >< | Dungeon |
| Rampart | >< | Necropolis |
| Fortress | >< | Stronghold |
| Conflux |
With the above in mind, you can fit the HoMM3 factions into to a D&D grid, but honestly... you can do this with most things. As for your layout, the Good/Neutral/Evil portion looks good to me, but who could be identified as Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic is really a matter of opinion.
Greg Fulton, the lead designer of HoMM3 (RoE and AB)