Who is Mithos?[]
He (Yes, he. I know he looks like Colette in the picture, but bear with it.) and his story is one of the biggest spoilers in gaming, so don't even bother looking at this page if you haven't played Tales of Symphonia yet.
Got it? Good.
You first meet Mithos late in Tales of Symphonia, in Presea's hometown after it is destroyed. Almost everyone thinks that Mithos is a girl when they first meet him, especially given how stupid his voice actor sounds. There also isn't much to his character when you first meet him -- he's just a lost soul in need of some help, and the goody two shoes nature of the TOS cast has no issues taking over and taking Mithos in.
But like so many other things done by the TOS cast through the game, accepting Mithos is another action that has the worst possible effect. It turns out that Mithos only joins and helps the party to get close to them, and though Mithos hints that he isn't what he seems the party is blind to his true nature. It isn't long before Mithos betrays the party (Which happens after they allegedly save his life, though many believe that Mithos almost dying is a staged event.) and reveals his true intentions, and it goes deeper than most players could possibly imagine.
Mithos reveals that he is Yggdrasil, leader of the Desians that have tortured Sylvarant, as well as the leader of Cruxis, the organization of angels that adheres to Yggdrasil's bidding.
As for what Yggdrasil's wishes actually are, one must look 4000 years in the past at the time where Mithos and his three companions (Mithos's sister Martel, Kratos, and Yuan) ended the Kharlan War, which was a war between the worlds of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla. Unfortunately, Martel sacrificed herself to save the Great Tree, which drove Mithos insane. Mithos manipulated the situation surrounding the Great Tree and the two worlds and created a dual world system where Sylvarant and Tethe'alla would always be fighting for one another's energy -- when one world prospered, the other would suffer hardship.
Mithos's biggest role in Tales of Symphonia is misinterpreting his sister's dying wish for a world free of discrimination to mean that everyone should be the same, and he goes on a mad quest to create a world in which Half-Elf Angels would be the only inhabitant race. To do this he created the Cruxis organization as his base, and he, along with Kratos Aurion and Yuan, became the group's founding angels.
So how does all of this relate to Lloyd Irving and company in the game? Simple. The Path of Salvation isn't actually a journey to regenerate the world at all, though it makes for a nice front. It's actually a journey created by Mithos to find a candidate whose vessel (body) is worthy of use for the reincarnation of Martel, and the party is completely blind to the true motives of this journey until the absolute breaking point for Colette. They all think that Colette is the one who is to restore Sylvarant to its former peace, when in fact Colette is slowly sacrificing her humanity to become the new vessel for Martel. The fact that Colette looks almost exactly like Mithos isn't exactly an accident.
This, along with everything else that Mithos does both before and during the events of TOS, make him truly devious. It's a true pity however that Mithos doesn't stay in his Yggdrasil form for the entire game (or that Yggdrasil is his only form), because Mithos's character design and voice acting are truly lame.
"Farewell my shadow, you who stand at the end of the path I chose not to follow..." - Mithos Yggdrasil
Mithos's Contest History[]
Win-Loss Record: 0-1
Spring 2005 Contest - Ruin Division - 8 Seed
- Ruin Round 1 --- Lost to (1) Kefka, 26151 [36.02%] - 46454 [63.98%]
- Extrapolated Strength --- 17th Place [19.26%]
As good as Mithos's story is, he was destined to be another of the many "one and done" characters exclusive to the Villain Contest. However despite Mithos being blown out at the hands of Kefka, many felt that Mithos exposed Kefka during this match given how much percentage he was able to cut off as the match progressed -- though many felt that this was due to Kefka's Strawberry picture. How that picture would hurt Kefka yet Mithos's Colette look would go unnoticed, who knows.
Mithos's real moment of glory came in other matches, namely Kefka/Wesker and eventually how badly Lloyd performed in Summer 2005. Either Mithos or the relatively small TOS fanbase screwed with the stats hardcore when it comes to the TOS echelon.