On Argus

Every legend has got its heroes and its villains.
One could not exist without the other. But what is so remarkable about it: Only after all great deeds, wars and battles have been accomplished or fought, and the winners have been determined, it will be decided who was the hero and who was the villain. History is always written by the winners. Who was the merciless killer, who was the brave warrior? Who was the wise and farsighted, who was the blinded fool? Who was the righteous, who was the criminal? If you really want to look at things objectively, it makes no sense to classify the characters in advance as long as the last battle has not yet been fought. So, let's talk about the "movers" then, for these are both heroes and villains.

One of the most active figures on Mitraspera is certainly a man whose name should be known to every child on this continent: Fileas Strongbow. The Sharun'Ar. Argus.
This is his story.

By all accounts, Fileas Strongbow was born in the Midlands, but lost his parents in a fire that burned down the family home when he was still an infant. Miraculously, Fileas and his sister Elizabeth survived. From then on, they grew up with foster parents, the “Verins”.
Fileas showed great enthusiasm for strategy and battles even as a child. His nature was kind, his strength amazing, his mind brilliant. From a young age he was drawn to the wide world and so he embarked on a great voyage of discovery with Paolo Armatio (a captain who was considered a madman and daredevil at the time and is now considered a hero). Fileas was Paolo's first mate and together they discovered the lost continent of Mythodea after many hardships and trails. Whether it was really chance or a higher power behind the fact that these two men found the land of the Elements remains to be seen.

Paolo intended to bring emigrants to Mythodea and settle the continent. But the ancient burden of the settlers' ancestors, the Forsaken, awaited them hidden beneath the seals whose destruction was a prime condition before being allowed to take possession of the land.
The Black Ice was freed first, to the East, near the settlers' landing site. And Fileas was the first settler to be assimilated by the Black Essence, the dangers of which were then completely unknown. But while usually a soul quickly dissipates in the Essence and perishes in the collective of the Continuum, Fileas' endured!

No other mortal before or after him, even the Creator of the Black Ice himself, had ever defied the Essence. But Fileas was not destroyed, nevertheless in strange ways difficult to comprehend he became a part of the Essence, but as an existing person and free of will. Thus, the attention of the Black Ice fell upon him, and he was elevated to the command of the Troops of Perfection. From that day on he was called the "Sharun'Ar". As commander of the enemies of all settlers, he made life difficult for them on the new continent. Why he sought war and what his real plans were remains a mystery to this day.
Time passed, the settlers advanced deeper into the lands, both Void and Pestilence were liberated.

As if knowing they were no danger to him, Fileas immediately allied himself with these two Forsaken, for neither negation nor disease could kill or devour him. His strength only increased, and he became a walking nightmare for the settlers serving the Sacred Elements. Perhaps he even subdued the Forsaken, for through intrigue and treachery he managed to overthrow the Emperor of the Black Ice. The Forsaken, who meant death and annihilation to everyone else, seemed to be only toys or means of power for Fileas Strongbow. At that time, he was the one who united the Forsaken and led them against the settlers. And to this day nobody knows why. But it was mighty deeds that he accomplished.

Then he was hit by the "White Flame", the weapon which destroyed large parts of the Black Ice at the Battle of Shan-Meng-Ray. The flame must have burned him to the core of his soul, snuffing out every Forsaken essence within him. But Filea's Strongbow survived!

In the years that followed, he returned as "Argus," the champion of Undead Flesh, coming like a storm of vengeance upon the settlers. It is said that he gave his heart to the Queen of Bones, but she too failed to consume or enslave his soul with the Nechaton, the power of undeath. In front of the Doerchgard fortress, Fileas fought back the settler’s armies. He had also acquired great knowledge, because at that point he came up with a variant of a seal he had specially built, which banished Terra's avatar.

With the settlers close on his heels he hurried ahead with the armies of the Forsaken to Siegestatt where, in addition to the Undead Flesh, he now also made a new pact with the Amon Karr, the highest personification of the Black Ice. Though Fileas now wielded the power of all four Forsaken Elements, he succumbed to the power of the Xerikan, a powerful machine created by the Ancient Rulers controlled by the settlers, and his body was crushed. But Fileas Strongbow persisted.

While the settlers besieged Doerchgard again with their new weapon and freed their avatar, Fileas secretly moved to As'Shan, the ancient city of the Adamants, where he could access the only Seal of the Ratio, of the Primordial Seceptics, and perhaps he did so to take possession of the seal. Some claim that Fileas' imprisonment of the Avatar of Terra was only to buy him time to complete his dark, unknown plans with the Ratio. But who knows what's going on in Filea's head? The Forsaken strove to keep the last remaining seal closed, though.

In front of As'Shan, however, Filea's triumph was slowed down, for he neither managed to break the will of the guardians of the gate to the Ratio seal nor to open the gate until the settlers arrived and took possession of the sites in violent battles. Gaheris, the guardian of As'Shan and the gate, had been tortured by Argus forcing him to open it, and now plotted revenge. In order to finally destroy his tormentor, he sacrificed twelve settlers, who voluntarily gave their lives for the cause. By now the settlers, too, were using almost every means they had to destroy their hated enemy, Fileas Strongbow. The power of Gaheris annihilated Argus, severing his body and soul, scattering his existence on every imaginable plane. But when the jubilation of victory rang out, Fileas Strongbow arose, stood up in front of everyone, and lived again.

What great mystery surrounds him, how can one who should have died so many times simply deny death and live again and again? How can a mortal harness the Forsaken Creations that came close to tearing an entire world apart in the past?

And what are his plans? Despite his defeat, it was Fileas Strongbow who was the first to cross the "Bronze Gate" to the first seal. There was treason involved, but why?
There is also talk of the appearance of a Ruler of Magica from ancient times named "Estaher de vo Canar" who revealed herself to some settlers, who named Fileas Strongbow as her son, and is said to have said something about the curse of the Edlaphi.

Who or what Fileas Strongbow is, what his plans are, and for whom he is really fighting, will probably only be fully known when everything is over, because his fate and that of all Mythodea awaits us at the first seal. And maybe then you will be able to say what you can only say at the very end about someone who has done a lot: hero or villain?