Twitter has been hinting that Strix may have changed sides because of the new champion trailer... any thoughts about that?
For those who aren’t aware, Strix is seen fighting alongside Tyra, who is a known Paladin. They’re both shooting at Vivian and Viktor. This scene is at 0:27 of Corvus’s trailer. Corvus is Grand Magister Karne’s son.
I’d take it. We know Corvus had something to do with the Abyss, so how do we know that Strix is anti-Magistrate and not just anti-Abyss? At the end of Corvus’s trailer, he says, “For I am Corvus. Son of Karne! I will control the Abyss, and save this Realm!”
There’s a bit of a pause (where I assume most people would have already stopped the video and gone to watch something else), before Corvus says, “For the Magistrate.”
So Corvus is 100% on the Magistrate’s side. He’s not just working for them for his own personal gain only to turn on them when they’re no longer useful. And Strix is shooting at Viktor and Vivian who are also known to be hardcore Magistrate goons. So this shows that Strix isn’t just against Corvus and his Abyss-bound ideals, he’s against Magistrate personnel as a whole.
There really isn’t a lot of answer as to what would have made Strix turn against the Magistrate, or why he chose to do it, but perhaps something within the lore might hint towards an answer. Let’s look at Strix’s lore.
Having spent most of his life in the military, Strix was an invaluable member of the Sentinels, tasked with training their elite sharpshooters like Kinessa. He was reassigned after the unit was disbanded — sent to the front lines with the regular army as it prepared to put down the Resistance.
So key point 1: Strix was a Sentinel. Who else was a Sentinel? Viktor. And the Sentinels disbanded for one reason or another. Could Strix have blamed Viktor for the fall of the Sentinels? Let’s look at Viktor’s lore.
The former commander of Sentinels, an elite Magistrate military unit, Viktor lives in shadow of his former glory. He took the blame for what happened during their final mission, was stripped of his rank, and reassigned to a lower position by Grand Magister Karne. Though disgraced, his training and skill as a soldier remains unmatched, along with his unwavering loyalty to the Magistrate.
Seems Viktor took the fall quite well and Strix didn’t receive any punishment if Viktor took all of the blame. So it was likely that Strix didn’t fall out with Viktor and chose to leave for some other reason, unless he has some unknown conflict with Viktor. Since nothing hints that they fell out, let’s leave that point.
Strix also has another contact within the Magistrate - Kinessa. I don’t think she had a part to play in why Strix chose to fight for the Paladins since she struck out from the Sentinels long before the unit was disbanded as stated in her lore:
As the Realm descended into chaos and war, vigilante bounty contracts have been plentiful, earning her all the fame and fortune she'd lacked while in the service of the Magistrate. She still refuses to pick a side in the conflict, however, because there's much more money to be made by playing both sides than by contracting with either.
She did serve the Magistrate and in game, she could be played on the Magistrate’s side during End Times. Still, she was long out before this went down, so I’d rule her out too.
Kinessa and Viktor aren’t the only ones who were involved in the Sentinels before. Tyra and Buck were both part of it previously, though it is mentioned on the Wiki that “When the Civil War started some remained loyal to the Magistrate, others entered for their own reasons, and the rest joined the Resistance.”
Tyra and Buck are both Paladins and likely knew Strix a long time before the Crystal Revolution even began. It’s also said that Strix was the trainer within the Sentinels and trained recruits: Kinessa and Tyra, so Tyra has a longstanding relationship with Strix.
This would give Tyra and Buck a lot of sway when it comes to convincing Strix to fight for them instead, assuming they had a neutral or positive relationship. Strix does have an unused spawn chatter line directed towards Tyra, “You haven’t aged a bit.” It’s not said maliciously so we can assume their relationship was neutral or positive.
Until Corvus showed up, Strix was considered Magistrate, so I think we can say that it was Corvus’s presence that encouraged Strix to leave. Since Strix has been working with the Magistrate for quite some time, it’s likely he knew Corvus for awhile and didn’t approve of abusing the Abyss to get rid of the Paladins. Either it was that, or Corvus had another motive or something he did that disillusioned Strix.
Something super interesting and a little conflicting is that Corvus has a kill taunt line directed at Vivian, which is someone he assisted in his own trailer. This could mean nothing and just be a jab at Vivian.
There’s a couple other rabbit holes Corvus’s voice lines lead down, though nothing directed at Strix or hinting at him.
This one is a little complex because there’s no information about Strix’s motive, and his relationships don’t seem to be the cause of him switching sides. I do conclude that it is a problem with Corvus at the end, and it was Tyra and Buck’s convincing that pulled him to the Paladins’s side.
Strix is still listed as a Magistrate player in his Wiki though so... I’d put a pin in this one and come back to it if we get more information, perhaps in a future event?
