Mithos Yggdrasil (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
antreegonist) wrote2012-03-12 05:32 pm
antreegonist) wrote2012-03-12 05:32 pm
[MEMORY # 43 (SIGNIFICANT NEUTRAL)]
* "My name is Mithos. Mithos Yggdrasil." Meeting Kratos, pleading his case to the Tethe'allan court and failing.
Earned from Game 100: Cohabitation for Cheshire.
This is a longer memory, part implied canon, part headcanon. Fourteen-year-old Mithos and his older sister Martel arrive at the capital of Tethe'alla after a harrowing journey. They've learned that the other major country -- Sylvarant -- is planning a devastating attack on the capital soon, and they basically go in grabbing the first people they see all, HEY YOU GUYS SHOULD PROBABLY EVACUATE OR PREPARE YOUR DEFENSES OR SOMETHING, SYLVARANT IS COMING.
Unfortunately this is a city full of humans, they don't have incontrovertible proof, and they're half-elves, not to be accepted or trusted. Sylvarant just reached out to Tethe'alla for peace negotiations yet again, after all. The war has been going on for nine hundred years, so people are resigned to the negotiations' umpteenth inevitable breakdown, but they're confident Sylvarant wouldn't dare do anything while they were going on. Mithos and Martel are laughed at, called liars, even threatened, but they keep trying throughout the day because these people are going to die if they don't make them see reason somehow.
They reach the area of the city where the castle grounds are around sunset. They've figured out by now their best bet is to get someone, anyone reasonably high-ranked convinced of their story. They bother some folks and nearly get into a brawl, but Kratos, the captain of the Tethe'allan knights, arrives and breaks it up.
Mithos: I beseech you! I understand that I cannot have an audience with his Majesty, but could you not please convey a message to a member of the knighthood? At this rate, all-out war will break out with Sylvarant!
Kratos: What's the commotion?
Mithos: You're a member of the knighthood, right? Sylvarant is trying to launch an invasion!
Kratos: ... who are you?
Mithos: I am Mithos. Mithos Yggdrasil.
Kratos actually listens to them and does his best to help. He's not able to get them a direct audience with the King and Queen Soleille, but he does get the process started and he gives them a place to stay in the meantime. Mithos and Martel are freaking out but Kratos calms them down with some perspective and logistics; bureaucracy sucks and is slow, but this attack they're speaking of isn't going to happen as immediately as they think either. Okay.
They wait and fret and practice and prepare and fret some more; a couple of months pass. Certain key events happen at some points here. Kratos decides to take Mithos on as an apprentice and begin teaching him proper use of the sword. Mithos accidentally learns Kratos is having an affair with the Queen. Kratos falls under increasing amounts of disdain and suspicion for harboring half-elves, but does not abandon them and is able to hold on to his position.
At some point Mithos and Martel take a brief trip back in Sylvarant's direction to see if things have abated/advanced any and meet Yuan, the first half-elf they've ever seen in a position of power (it probably helps that he doesn't have pointy ears and can physically pass for full human better than most.) This briefly makes them hopeful until they realize that he's still treated like a slave by the Sylvaranti military and stuck at a rank much lower than he actually merits. This meeting also goes badly. Yuan is not happy to be called on his race by them; he knows about the planned attack but won't tell them about it because a soldier follows orders, but he finds it despicable; he learns they were sent by Kratos who he has personal rivaldisdainanger feelings towards and that doesn't improve matters. They try to jesus him and get rejected pretty hard. They're forced to return to the capital.
They get their chance to plead with the King and Queen to prepare for the attack somehow. Kratos also stands with them to argue and defend their points. The King and Queen exhibit the same disdain for half-elves as their subjects; the Sylvaranti ambassador who's there for the false peace talks derails and dismisses them smoothly; some personal bitterness also surfaces because hey, the King isn't actually happy Kratos is banging his wife; the Queen also shoves Kratos under the bus to protect herself. Long story short, they fail miserably after all their efforts and are imprisoned. Kratos is denounced and stripped of his rank by Queen Soleille herself.
Mithos and Martel break themselves out of the cells where they were being held and search frantically for Kratos. The Sylvaranti attack the same night because they figure the jig is up so they might as well, and people are getting slaughtered in the streets. They do get to the dungeon Kratos was sent to and break him loose and try to get out. They try to rescue people along the way, both before and after rescuing Kratos, but the three of them are really no match against the soldiers tearing the city apart and they have to abandon a lot of people because attempting to help them would be suicide. Many of those they DO attempt to rescue automatically assume they're with the enemy because, again, they're half-elves; this puts them in even more danger and at some points they have to actually kill the people they're trying to save before those people can kill them. They have very, very few successes, and most are attributable to Kratos directing those folks to a safe place on his own while Mithos and Martel keep out of sight.
They survive to fight their way out of the city and watch helplessly as it burns. The memory ends here, but another memory which Mithos earned a while back is a direct followup.
+ This is one of the defining moments of Mithos's life being shitty as a kid, a massive pileup of rejection and racism and failure and the deaths of thousands of people he legitimately tried to save and felt responsible for. It happened well before he ever had any real power or tried saving/destroying the world and it very nearly shattered him back then.
+ This is also what shoved Mithos onto the 'let's be a lone hero doing things normal people would consider suicidally insane' path -- he was completely unable to make either of the warring countries listen to him, and he was weak, so he chose to gain so much power he could make both sides stop in their tracks and quit fighting.
+ The one bright spot in the memory is Kratos Aurion, and this is also the memory that best defines why he loved Kratos so much that it got twisted and obsessive later -- Kratos is legit the only human in that time period who ever believed in Mithos and looked past his race and gave him the chance to make something of himself.
+ Martel is a more steadying presence/voice of reason in this, and he also learns how conflicted their beginning relationship with Yuan was.
+ . . . gosh this is shareable :'D . . .
+ On the whole, though, it's all backstory memory, so he'll have a lot of feelings about it when he takes it but they should be mostly private and he will keep rolling.
Earned from Game 100: Cohabitation for Cheshire.
This is a longer memory, part implied canon, part headcanon. Fourteen-year-old Mithos and his older sister Martel arrive at the capital of Tethe'alla after a harrowing journey. They've learned that the other major country -- Sylvarant -- is planning a devastating attack on the capital soon, and they basically go in grabbing the first people they see all, HEY YOU GUYS SHOULD PROBABLY EVACUATE OR PREPARE YOUR DEFENSES OR SOMETHING, SYLVARANT IS COMING.
Unfortunately this is a city full of humans, they don't have incontrovertible proof, and they're half-elves, not to be accepted or trusted. Sylvarant just reached out to Tethe'alla for peace negotiations yet again, after all. The war has been going on for nine hundred years, so people are resigned to the negotiations' umpteenth inevitable breakdown, but they're confident Sylvarant wouldn't dare do anything while they were going on. Mithos and Martel are laughed at, called liars, even threatened, but they keep trying throughout the day because these people are going to die if they don't make them see reason somehow.
They reach the area of the city where the castle grounds are around sunset. They've figured out by now their best bet is to get someone, anyone reasonably high-ranked convinced of their story. They bother some folks and nearly get into a brawl, but Kratos, the captain of the Tethe'allan knights, arrives and breaks it up.
Mithos: I beseech you! I understand that I cannot have an audience with his Majesty, but could you not please convey a message to a member of the knighthood? At this rate, all-out war will break out with Sylvarant!
Kratos: What's the commotion?
Mithos: You're a member of the knighthood, right? Sylvarant is trying to launch an invasion!
Kratos: ... who are you?
Mithos: I am Mithos. Mithos Yggdrasil.
Kratos actually listens to them and does his best to help. He's not able to get them a direct audience with the King and Queen Soleille, but he does get the process started and he gives them a place to stay in the meantime. Mithos and Martel are freaking out but Kratos calms them down with some perspective and logistics; bureaucracy sucks and is slow, but this attack they're speaking of isn't going to happen as immediately as they think either. Okay.
They wait and fret and practice and prepare and fret some more; a couple of months pass. Certain key events happen at some points here. Kratos decides to take Mithos on as an apprentice and begin teaching him proper use of the sword. Mithos accidentally learns Kratos is having an affair with the Queen. Kratos falls under increasing amounts of disdain and suspicion for harboring half-elves, but does not abandon them and is able to hold on to his position.
At some point Mithos and Martel take a brief trip back in Sylvarant's direction to see if things have abated/advanced any and meet Yuan, the first half-elf they've ever seen in a position of power (it probably helps that he doesn't have pointy ears and can physically pass for full human better than most.) This briefly makes them hopeful until they realize that he's still treated like a slave by the Sylvaranti military and stuck at a rank much lower than he actually merits. This meeting also goes badly. Yuan is not happy to be called on his race by them; he knows about the planned attack but won't tell them about it because a soldier follows orders, but he finds it despicable; he learns they were sent by Kratos who he has personal rivaldisdainanger feelings towards and that doesn't improve matters. They try to jesus him and get rejected pretty hard. They're forced to return to the capital.
They get their chance to plead with the King and Queen to prepare for the attack somehow. Kratos also stands with them to argue and defend their points. The King and Queen exhibit the same disdain for half-elves as their subjects; the Sylvaranti ambassador who's there for the false peace talks derails and dismisses them smoothly; some personal bitterness also surfaces because hey, the King isn't actually happy Kratos is banging his wife; the Queen also shoves Kratos under the bus to protect herself. Long story short, they fail miserably after all their efforts and are imprisoned. Kratos is denounced and stripped of his rank by Queen Soleille herself.
Mithos and Martel break themselves out of the cells where they were being held and search frantically for Kratos. The Sylvaranti attack the same night because they figure the jig is up so they might as well, and people are getting slaughtered in the streets. They do get to the dungeon Kratos was sent to and break him loose and try to get out. They try to rescue people along the way, both before and after rescuing Kratos, but the three of them are really no match against the soldiers tearing the city apart and they have to abandon a lot of people because attempting to help them would be suicide. Many of those they DO attempt to rescue automatically assume they're with the enemy because, again, they're half-elves; this puts them in even more danger and at some points they have to actually kill the people they're trying to save before those people can kill them. They have very, very few successes, and most are attributable to Kratos directing those folks to a safe place on his own while Mithos and Martel keep out of sight.
They survive to fight their way out of the city and watch helplessly as it burns. The memory ends here, but another memory which Mithos earned a while back is a direct followup.
+ This is one of the defining moments of Mithos's life being shitty as a kid, a massive pileup of rejection and racism and failure and the deaths of thousands of people he legitimately tried to save and felt responsible for. It happened well before he ever had any real power or tried saving/destroying the world and it very nearly shattered him back then.
+ This is also what shoved Mithos onto the 'let's be a lone hero doing things normal people would consider suicidally insane' path -- he was completely unable to make either of the warring countries listen to him, and he was weak, so he chose to gain so much power he could make both sides stop in their tracks and quit fighting.
+ The one bright spot in the memory is Kratos Aurion, and this is also the memory that best defines why he loved Kratos so much that it got twisted and obsessive later -- Kratos is legit the only human in that time period who ever believed in Mithos and looked past his race and gave him the chance to make something of himself.
+ Martel is a more steadying presence/voice of reason in this, and he also learns how conflicted their beginning relationship with Yuan was.
+ . . . gosh this is shareable :'D . . .
+ On the whole, though, it's all backstory memory, so he'll have a lot of feelings about it when he takes it but they should be mostly private and he will keep rolling.