In turn, the detective wraps his arms around Elio, gathering him to his broad chest. Propping his chin on the shorter man's shoulder, he smirked slightly. "...Better?"
Alright, I'm going to say something since I know Twt's being godawful as usual: no, I don't think AR counts as proship just because it's implied he initially met Ashveil when YX was young ala that animation. Unless he played a big, foundational role when YX was young as a mentor/family figure like Huaiyan, or knew him for lot longer than spotty meetings over what can be assumed as many years apart, then it's not proship. I feel like we need to be reminded that RH and JR got leveled with the same damn accusations, what with Ren pursuing DH when he's described as a "boy/teen" or adult YX meeting JY as a "boy."
To begin, this meta is built off of a previous one where I not only theorize that Dolly/Isee were the basis of Cyrene/Phainon, but that the Amphorean Experiment, which began in 2147 AE, is off the universe in this specific timeframe.
Of course, as I said there, I'll say here: this won't be a perfect, 1:1 comparison because it's not meant to be.
In As I've Written, δ-me13.exe, Experiment Progress: Era Nova, Underlying Framework, it's confirmed that Amphoreus being programmed to operate at a "classical" level and emulate our Greco-Roman period was not only wholly intentional, but foundational to Irontomb's calculus. Simply put, the aspects of the cosmos at the time it iterated in 2147 AE would encode it in a fashion that wouldn't be consistent with the whole of the cosmos' development.
In saying this, Amphoreus is a snapshot of the cosmos, not a perfect reflection of it. So, when I say that people like Isee/Elio and Dolly are the basis of Phainon and Cyrene, it doesn't mean there will be perfect congruencies. This is also true for Mydei and Ashveil who look and are vastly different from one another. That doesn't mean there aren't parallels I want to explore, though.
Another excellent example would be in their literary coding, as Mydei is based off of mythic figures like Gilgamesh and Enkidu, as well as Achilles. Meanwhile, Ashveil is based on much more contemporary figures like Don Quixote, Sherlock Holmes, and Hercule Poirot. With how Amphoreus and the cosmos were "coded" at the time, this makes perfect sense for both. However, this doesn't fully eliminate the similarities between them.
Ashveil & Tyr
When the gods presented Fenrir with the curiously light and supple Gleipnir, the wolf suspected trickery and refused to be bound with it unless one of the gods would lay his or her hand in his jaws as a pledge of good faith. None of the gods agreed, knowing that this would mean the loss of a hand and the breaking of an oath. At last, the brave Tyr, for the good of all life, volunteered to fulfill the wolf’s demand. And, sure enough, when Fenrir discovered that he was unable to escape from Gleipnir, he chomped off and swallowed Tyr’s hand.
- Norse-Mythology, The Binding of Fenrir
In this first part of dissemination, Ashveil seems to have many striking similarities to the Norse God, Tyr, that go beyond this monumental act of binding Fenrir, especially as it relates to Ashveil and his character.
This myth powerfully illustrates Tyr’s role as the divine legal expert and upholder of the law. In the words of the celebrated scholar of comparative religion Georges Dumézil, when Tyr sacrifices his hand, “he not only procures the salvation of the gods but also regularizes it: he renders legal that which, without him, would have been pure fraud.” The gods had sworn an oath to Fenrir, and the guarantee of their intention to follow through with their pledge was Tyr’s hand (or arm – the percentage of the limb bitten off by Fenrir is irrelevant). When the gods didn’t follow through with their oath, Fenrir was entitled to Tyr’s hand as compensation. By allowing the wolf to claim his limb, Tyr fulfilled the gods’ end of the bargain, grisly and tragic though it was for him.
- Norse-Mythology, The Binding of Fenrir
In Ashveil's 4th character story, his entire motive revolves around justice, much like this old Norse war god. While there is too little on Tyr to fully flesh out his character, he is known as a god of war, law, and upholding justice that fits Ashveil squarely as someone who not only joined a group completely dedicated to pursuing justice against evildoers, but did it to the extreme that he lost part of his body to that selfsame pursuit. While it's not clear exactly how Ashveil lost his right arm (which, coincidentally, is the same laterality as the one Tyr lost), both god and man sacrificed parts of themselves for the same reason to a monstrous being much like a wolf, honorable even to a monster.
Some centuries earlier, the Romans identified Tyr with Mars, their own principal war god. This connection survives in the modern English “Tuesday,” from Old English “Day of Tiw (Tyr)” (Tiwesdæg), which was in turn based on the Latin Dies Martis, “Day of Mars.”[5] (The Romans’ identification of Tyr with Mars also reinforces the point that he was quite a significant god; otherwise they surely wouldn’t have identified him with one of their own major gods.) [...] But Tyr is far from only a war god. In fact, his primary role seems to be that of an upholder of law and justice. Those Roman inscriptions to him as “Mars,” for example, sometimes invoke him as Mars Thincsus – that is, Mars of the Þing, the ancient Germanic legal assembly.
- Tyr, norse-mythology
Mydei & Deimos/Polemos
According to the etymology of Mydei's name and his code name, he's associated twofold with either a Greek god of war (Deimos) or a daemon, Polemos. Deimos, as a god of war, is the progeny of Ares and is often considered the god of war in the Greek pantheon. More than that, while Ares embodies the brutal, bloody aspects of war, Deimos represents the fear associated with it. Deimos also has siblings associated with other facets of war, like his sister Enyo or twin brother, Phobos.
Polemos, as a daemon, represents the embodiment of war and conflict, especially as a divine personification as opposed to just a god.
"Harken! O Alala (War-shout), daughter of Polemos (War)! Prelude of spears! To whom soldiers are sacrificed for their city’s sake in the holy sacrifice of death."
- Pindar, Dithyrambs Fragment 78 (trans. Sandys) (Greek lyric C5th B.C.)
"Many of them [soldiers battling at Troy] dyed the earth red: aye waxed the havoc of death as friends and foes were stricken. O'er the strife shouted for glee Enyo, sister of Polemos (War)."
- Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 8. 424 ff (trans. Way) (Greek epic C4th A.D.)
Polemos and Deimos alone don't encompass the whole of the mythological figures that inform Mydei's design, such as Gilgamesh (or Enkidu), Achilles, Alexander the Great, and so on. But as the representation of the Hunt in Amphoreus, and for the sake of this meta, Deimos and Polemos as concepts relate to the Hunt the most, and especially for Nikador as the Titan of Strife.
Common links in myth
It should be noted that, from the Germanic point of view, there is no contradiction between the concepts ‘god of War’ and ‘god of Law.’ War is in fact not only the bloody mingling of combat, but no less a decision obtained between the two combatants and secured by precise rules of law. That is why the day and place of battle are frequently fixed in advance… So is explained, also, how combat between two armies can be replaced by a legal duel, in which the gods grant victory to the party whose right they recognize. Words like Schwertding [“the meeting of swords,” a kenning for battle], or Old Norse vápndómr [“judgment of arms”] are not poetic figures, but correspond exactly to ancient practice.
- Jan de Vries, Gods of the Ancient Northmen, Dumézil, Georges
Then shall the dog Garmr be loosed, which is bound before Gnipahellir: he shall do battle with Týr, and each become the other's slayer.
- Gylfaginning, Prose Edda
Now Garm howls loud | before Gnipahellir,
The fetters will burst, | and the wolf run free;
Much do I know, | and more can see
Of the fate of the gods, | the mighty in fight.
- Völuspá
Loki spake:
“Be silent, Tyr! for between two men
Friendship thou ne’er couldst fashion;
Fain would I tell how Fenrir once
Thy right hand rent from thee.”
- Lokasenna
To those who may have seen a past meta of mine, one aspect of Ashveil's motifs that I touch on is how his motifs encompass the myth of Fenrir, not just the Fame Wolf himself. Of them, Tyr is the god who fits Ashveil as a person the most. But, what parallels interestingly with Mydei is not only the fact that Tyr is a war god, but that he does bear some ties with the afterworld like Mydei. Where Mydei was once thrown in the River of Souls as a child, who can resist dying because of his immortality and strength of will, Tyr spent Ragnarok in a pyrrhic battle with Garmr, the hellhound that guards the underworld, Hel. Considering how Mydei often defies death, it seems to bridge the gap some.
In addition, in the Lokasenna, Tyr is also accused of begetting strife due to his nature as a god of war.
"[Description of the shield of Agamemnon :] And he took up the man-enclosing elaborate stark shield, a thing of splendour. There were ten circles of bronze upon it, and set about it were twenty knobs of tin, pale-shining, and in the very centre another knob of dark cobalt. And circled in the midst of all was the blank-eyed face of the Gorgo (Gorgon) with her stare of horror, and Deimos (Fear) was inscribed upon it, and Phobos (Terror)."
- Homer, Iliad 11. 36 ff
"As Ares is when he strides into battle and Phobos (Terror) goes on beside him, his beloved son, the powerful and dauntless, who frightens even the patient-hearted warrior : these two come out of Thrake to encounter in arms the Ephyroi or the great-hearted Phlegyes (Phlegyans), but the two will not listen to prayers from both sides, but give the glory to one side or the other."
- Homer Iliad 13. 298 ff
"So he [Ares] spoke, and ordered Deimos (Fear) and Phobos (Terror) to harness his horses, and himself got into his shining armour."
- Homer Iliad 15. 119 ff
As the personification of the very idea of war, Polemos doesn't just mean that it's defined by the brutality and violence that gods like Ares represent. Instead, it can also mean aspects that entail justice and fair trial, which Tyr himself is dominantly attributed to, too.
Parallels in-game
A defining trait that Ashveil and Mydei have in common is defying death, if for different reasons. While Mydei's defiance of it rebels against the madness that gripped his tyrannical father he ultimately went on to slay, Ashveil's is tinged far more with regret and guilt due to his past with regards to Operation Zulo.
In As_I've_Written, Amphoreus' Saga of Heroes.exe, Champion of Strife, and Mydei and Yaoguang's voicelines about Ashveil, the shared theme of self-annihilation is particularly evident in both Mydei and Ashveil. Whereas the former is the administrative notes of Irontomb and the Hunt-coded "electrical signal", the latter is a tacit divination by the very "eyes" of the Arbiter Generals.
Between Mydei's third character story and Letters to the Detective, accusations of guilt are rife in both Mydei's and Ashveil's pasts, especially regarding their failure to fulfil their roles, whether as the would-be king of Kremnos or La Mancha. And because of this aversion, they are derided as kinslayers who expend the lives of others for "selfish" ends.
In The Sun is Set to Die and Tales That Need to be Told on the Boss of the Galaxy Rangers, there's also a parallel between Mydei and Ashveil in how they face a former friend and ally, and how these people still harbor tenderness for their comrade. Though not monumental, the parallel is still interesting.
Outside of that, other similarities between them are interesting to note, such as the animal motifs that figure prominently with them, such as Mydei as a lion and Ashveil as a wolf, two creatures that are commonly foiled across many mythologies across the globe.
Conclusion
My point to this isn't to say that Ashveil is Mydei, but based on my belief that the Amphorean Experiment, which began in 2147 AE, took a snapshot of the universe at the time and based Amphoreus on that specific era. Whether it's Dolly as Cyrene or Isee as Phainon, I don't think it's ridiculous to think that Ashveil--as the most significant named Hunt Pathstrider at the time--may have informed some of the Hunt-based aspects of Amphoreus' story, possibly even Mydei's. Just as the Xianzhou Alliance "inspired" many aspects of Castrum Kremnos as two Hunt-based societies, I don't think it's unrealistic to wonder if the same was true for Mydei and Ashveil, too.
"Y'know, since the TV tower is kinda up for grabs, what do you think about moving the agency there? Pretty sure Pearl might be willing to get a lease agreement, or something."
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