The elven race known as the Sidhe foretold the coming of Armageddon in the form of three Serpent Riders, whom used their powers of persuasion to enslave and then destroy the peoples of the seven nations. Only the Sidhe, with their uncorruptible Elven powers resisted the Serpent Riders, but it wasn't enough.

The Sidhe were branded as Heretics, and when the Sidhe vanquished the seven kings of Earth turned evil by the Serpent Riders, an army of beasts and undead rampaged through the land, killing your people.

You enter the City of the Damned, its air thick with the stench of rot. You ready your staff and Elven wand. You set forth to find and kill D'Sparil, the first of the Serpent Riders.

Technical Notes

Heretic was developed by Raven Software and uses a modified version of the id Tech 1 game engine, which was popularized by the game Doom. Heretic also pioneered the real-time inventory system that has become commonplace in the FPS genre.

Speedrun Categories

Like its brethren Doom, Heretic has an active speedrun community.

Category prefixes indicate the game difficulty: SM (smite-meister) and BP (black plague).

• SM Speed: Exit as fast as possible on skill 4.
• SM Max: Exit with all monsters dead and all secrets collected on skill 4. Items are not required.
• SM Tyson: Exit with all monsters dead on skill 4, using only weapons 1 and 2 (wand, Elven staff).
• SM Respawn: Exit with 100% Kills and all secrets collected on skill 4, using the -respawn parameter.
• BP Speed: Exit as fast as possible on skill 5.
• BP 100S: Exit with all secrets collected on skill 5.
• SM Pacifist: Exit as fast as possible on skill 4, without hurting monsters either directly or indirectly.

Links

• More game information at Doom Wiki