You never had a chance against fate – Mydei’s loathed ascend to godhood
Sooo, as the 3.2 patch is approaching, obviously I had waited so long till writing about our beloved Lion King. It was totally not procrastination, executive disfunction or the fact we played the patch rather late, no no it was planned like this from the get go.
And I will surely not get lost in the trauma or similarities to our boy Jing Yuan, hehe
Lean back, take some snaks, this shall be long ^^
[SPOILERS for the Mydei storyline and the 3.1 patch as a whole]
(Art doesn't belong to me)
Where do I begin? Where it went wrong? Where it began? When it ended? Or when the story throws us in since last patch?
I decide for the latter, as it’s more dramatic for a start. Or so the game devs thought for sure while making this warrior's entire life journey.
So, we are at the most secret place Amphoreus possesses and we conveniently can access from our bath-chamber, before the Titans. Which are still busy with our isekai protagonist, which wants to obtain the coreflame of Strife. Nikador has fallen, therefore a new demigod had to be born.
For a short moment in 3.0 we really thought that Phainon would get the coreflame and become Strife, tilting the whole theory of which (known) character would presumably get which of the Titans coreflames. But he’s ✨special✨, not just in the way that he has a husband with a white lion, no no he’s the Hero. But…I drift away, this is not about the white-blue haired slightly dumb Phainon, but his edgy depressed traumatized counterpart.
And because Aglaea is who she is and Trinnon lost connection to Phainon, it was clear, something had to happen. Obviously, we choose the most dangerous path, or at least this is what it was described at in the end of 3.0 but apparently it’s fine. I mean, they don’t know it but we are far from being truly alive and Mydei can’t truly die, so I suppose it makes sense to send us to fetch him.
In Nikador’s trial a person faces their worst fears, having to fight against them. And in all Mydei-Phainon fashion, his worst fear is connected to Phainon, his loss and his people.
Anyways, we get Phainon, drag him back to safety, or well out of a very possible death, and get a black screen, only to find out we have forced Phainon into resting and bugging Mydei about the coreflame. They haven’t done that for awhile and I’m glad it’s not a big occurrence in this patch but this one was very…hard and random ^^’’
While Dan Heng is having deep thoughts about the black tide and corruption like problems could be a problem of a Stellaron (or a simulation) because, alas we are still in Star Rail and this is kinda the theme, Tribbie is speaking with Mydei since she worries about his worrying for Phainon. He brushes her off and tells her yet again there is no word for “fear” in the Kremnoan language and telling her he knows about the planned idea for him to become Strife, but asked if he could first talk with his people.
I want to dwelve on the fact how incredibly worried Tribbie is and even going so far to say she will be there for him regardless of his decision, especially regarding his crown. But this will be part of a later post about Lady Tribios herself.
Anyways, our prince who does not want to be one, goes around Okhema questioning multiple Kremnoans, from children to elders the answers were all alike, they want to return “home”, hoping for a King and new battlefields. This does not sit right with Mydei, who is only more determined to not become King. Or the idealization of Strife. Or the successor of his late father.
You see, his father was not a nice man. First there was the whole ordeal of splitting Nikador, driving him basically insane as they tried to drag them in a human vessel or simply lock them away, making a god their marionette. Then he got the amazing idea of murdering his one and only child. He does say it’s to end the bloodshed, but he also says it’s because of Nikador. So maybe he wanted to do good…but he wanted to end bloodshed with more bloodshed and by murdering his wife, so I don’t really think that worked out. His son did end it however somehow, so…plan successfully failed?
Mydei was thrown in the River of Souls in which he got his blessing and curse by the gods, immortality. A gift he would often wish he did not possess. Especially because there was no one worth living for.
Here comes a problem tho, it’s a time one. Amphoreus in itself is a fine world, it has the chance to be even amazing, some characters being written just sooo well. But it does remind us a lot of Belabog, and with that time problems are apparently also a thing again. Not as big as Servals, but how old is Mydei?? And how old was he when he was thrown in the River of Souls? Because at first it seemed like he was a baby, but that couldn’t add up since he remembered his mother. We also don’t really know how long he was in the River or where he got out and how he then found his loyal comrades or was taught by Krateros or Verax Leo. HoYo, I plead with you, make sense!
What we do know, however, is that he had 5 very loyal and close friends named Hephaestion, Perdikkas, Leonnius, Ptolemy, Peucesta, which stayed, lived and fought together till the very end.
(Art doesn't belong to me)
We also know that this group of soldiers were relatively rebellious towards the Kremnoan standards and were trying to change what Kremnoan even are. Because they are not just senseless beast attacking and fighting, dying in honor of being a warrior, no they are loyal strong friends who fight for their comrades and live for the fallen. They are so much more but bloodshed crazy fighters, as painted by both many Kremnoans and other natives to Amphoreus.
This is a theme and is quite interesting, since some of the mentioned comrades of our dear crown prince, are not even active fighters, and through the Verax Leo (I terribly want to know if they are all the same or is each one a separate lion, which is a big possibility since the one Lion that was Mydei’s greatest teacher, is insinuated to die) we know this is not a one time occurrence. Kremnoan people were not just fighters, they were as varied as any other people we meet on the planet. They all just were Nikadors followers and inhered Strife in one way or another. And not everything has to be about the brutality. In fact, when we go with Trianne to see the past of Castrum Kremnos many of the people even in the central area at the time of this big spectacle made by the King, not all were fighters.
It's very interesting to see how Mydei is so extremely wanting and wishing to prove the stereotypes painted by his father and just the general public about his home and his people, wrong. He wants to make them see there is nothing heroic of dying or of wishing for war to fight in. He wants them to see that if they do what they have done before they will eventually just die out and nothing will be even left. It’s an honor thing. But the honor is misplaced.
Mydei spends his entire life fighting for those people who are extremely ungrateful for any of his attempts to save them from their own doom. And no one is even…slightly thankful or thinks of his sacrifices made for and only for his people. His friends. His mother. The only thing he ever knew was violence and how Strife works. The only thing to his name beside a title he hated, was the fact he is Kremnoan. He’s proud of being one. He reminds us, as the Trailblaizer just like the other Crysos Heirs, that he is proud of being Kremnoan. But he is not at same time. Because of what it became.
See, no matter what he does, or what he wishes to do because he sees father than those close minded people, his efforts should be considered heroic, but are said to be foolish. Because his so called people, like the stereotypes. Like to go to war. Like to fight. Like to pretend this is a heroic thing to do even tho right now, there are much bigger problems than stupid little conflicts escalating. People want to go home, not because they miss the place, or the memories with it, no they miss the violence. And the praise they got out of it. They miss the slaughter. And they miss being encouraged for it.
The Kremnoan language is vast we learn, but fighting abilities are valued higher than knowledge. Kremnoan have such a big history outside of their so called heroic wars. There are so many words and stories. So many that one could say the Kremnoan language has no words at all.
So of course, the only possible way to safe his people, was, to kill them. Not personally, just end them. Metaphorically, and actually. Mydei takes on the crown, only to end it. He takes Strife, so he can take it away, destroy its bloody claws plastered around his folk no matter how young.
And I think this is the most fitting things he could’ve done. The only thing that actually would work. Make his people listen. Make them understand. Or at least he hopes so.
They might hate him as a King, but they hated him as the crown prince that refused the crown anyways, those who would hate him would do anyways. He does the right thing, he ends the agony being associated with his blood. In his mind it’s a fair deal, he’ll die for his people. Over and over and over till the end. Till the Black tide might consume him. Till the world would come to an end as well. He would die as a true Kremnoan. As Mydeimos, son of Gorgo.
His fate, the prophecy, as he thought he could unrun it, was always ending exactly like this
(Art doesn't belong to me, but I dig the duo/quatro)
Of course this is not the end of the story, there is actually much more to it, like the fact that Mydei was done in mere hours (max) with Nikadors trial (in comparison Phainon was there for days and couldn’t get past them), the fact that Phainon and Mydei are as official as the other very straight pairings, the fact that his former teacher, and biggest opposer to what he did, Krateros wanting to take on the coreflame himself, kidnapping Trinnon and later “repaying” them with trying to save Trianne as she feel because of the Reaper.
Or well…the last conversation he has with Castorice before parting to Castrum Kremnos about death. About her abilities probably even cutting through his immortality. I know this is all foreshadowing so we all drool over the fact we can literally pull her as this post goes up, but, I think most people still underestimate her so I thought to throw that in.
Of course, it’s absolutely heartwretching that he can’t even properly stay for the goodbye ceremony for Trianne, even though he is absolutely loving this small adorable readhead trio. It’s not mentioned with words as much but Mydei and Tribbie (as much as the others) share a bond where they would care a lot for the other. As much as Tribbie, as the teacher, is caring and very affectionate towards all, with Mydei is special and very heartwarming (but more on that in her post, also yes I know she is special with everybody).
If you ask us, I have to say that this patch is by far the better one of the two we had for this world. Of course, I extremely miss Herta, I think it’s very displeasent that the main crew is voicless as it disrupts the experience (especially for the next patch, I fear the worst when they become more relevant than just Dan Heng), but the writing and character building is amazing! I love how they handled Mydei (and Tribbie). I think they portrayed him as a person perfectly and tho we find it more than cheap to shush him to the side with having him fight for an eternity, so he disappears off the visual story line, it kinda fits his being. So, we’re still very happy with this side of the story, at least it was told properly, in a ways to make us understand too.
I mean, how could we not, it’s a beige haired man with a lion and a pretty traumatic backstory, that fights similarly to our Blady just more unpredictable and more chaotic (and less grumpy when being healed).
Anyways, thanks for reading this all, have a cookie 🍪, may beige haired hot lion husbandos be with you ^^
-TakumiHairGuy & RikkaCatGirlbut