#athodan

I make note of this.

They are called "hammer keys"

So, I'm sitting there. Episodes pass. I'm thinking about the Aeor arc in campaign 2 for some reason, can't recall why. But I'm thinking about it, and suddenly, I recall something

The Mighty Nein uncover notes about something called the Factorum Malleus project, AKA the God Hammer. We know this to actually be, canonically, what Ludinus has been trying to replicate with his keys courtesy of FRIDA and their memory of protecting one

In those notes the M9 recovered, the project head is noted as a mage named Athodan. It is stated that this mage uncovered a relic, which turned out to be a Luxon beacon, and used necromantic glyphwork to unlock some property from it that pleased the overseers of this mage's work. What this mage was working on prior to (or in conjunction with) the Malleus Factorum project was rejuvenation

I believe that Ludinus Da'leth is an ancient Aeorian mage named Athodan who worked on the original project to free Predathos and kill the gods

When the gods (collectively, Betrayer and Prime) struck Aeor out of the sky, I believe Athodan somehow survived, but lost all of his work

Maybe he wasn't in the city at the time. Maybe he had some sort of contingency. Regardless, he survived. And, in order to survive the Calamity, he made his way to Issylra and hid out in Vasselheim, the Dawn City, the last bastion of civilization left after the Calamity ravaged Exandria

Once people began migrating out from Vasselheim again, he settled in a town called Ivaadel. Maybe this is where he developed his harness thing that allowed him to rejuvenate again, since he'd be approaching pretty old age (depending on what was done with the Luxon beacon and how old he was when he did it)

He rejuvenates and relocates. Can't have anyone back home notice that Old Ass Ludinus is a 150 year old elf again, right?

He settles in Molaesmyr, because in this post-Calamity world, he is working with figurative rocks and sticks when it comes to magic and technology. So, he needs somewhere that will

a) have a natural wellspring of powerful magic, and

b) have access to relics from Aeor. Molaesmyr has both

And we know Ludinus began hoarding Aeorian artifacts as per Team Wildemount's investigationHe attempted something. Either a shoddy replication of what was built in Aeor, or just an attempt at communion with Predathos and that wiped out the city and corrupted the surrounding woodlands

Ludinus then runs off to Bysaes Tyl for a brief time before showing up on the Eve of Crimson Midnight (interesting name, that) and is credited with stopping the violence between powerful Dwendalian and Julous Dominion aristocratic mages. This accord he is able to reach with them is the basis on which he founds the Cerberus Assembly

The Cerberus Assembly is named after a conglomerate of mages from the Age of Arcanum and predates with Calamity

Knowing that Ludinus founded the modern Cerberus Assembly is kinda suspicious considering how little information of the Age of Arcanum survived the Calamity

He also mentions Laeryn in his notes (Abriya's character from ExU Calamity) and literally no one remembers who she is. Him being aware of her is nuts in the first place, even crazier if you think he is just a modern-day elf mage

In summary:

Ludinus Da'leth is a pre-Calamity, semi-immortal mage from Aeor named Athodan who has been using his knowledge of rejuvenation to keep himself alive for, at the very least, 1000 years

both an ira of the feywild and an ira of aeor. athion of the feywild, and athodan, of aeor, both with the prefix ath-. morrigan creating postcards of aeor for fearne. fae like loquatius managing to find their way into exandria pre-calamity, and even integrating into mortal cities like avalir. the general.... everything about ludinus, and theories about him relating to aeor & athodan, and the near-canon confirmation of him being somewhat fae in origin whilst canonically being raised pre-calamity.

Athodan may have been consecuted.

the relic Athodan found was a Luxon beacon, and upon "weaving of necromantic glyph work [Athodan] revealed unique arcane properties" of the beacon. this may have been the ritual of consecution.

if this is the case, Athodan could have been killed in the crash of Aeor caused by the gods but was later reborn

as an elf of Molaesmyr.

the same elf that would survive the fall of Molaesmyr and go on to join a cabal of mages called the Cerberus Assembly, the same name as a cabal of mages from the Age of Arcanum in the Dwendalian Empire

Ludinus Da'leth.

as long as there was a beacon—any beacon—within 100 miles of Molaesmyr during Ludinus's birth, this is entirely possible.

we know Aeor had a beacon and that the elves of Molaesmyr were studying Aeorian artifacts. there is a possibility one of the artifacts brought back to Molaesmyr was a beacon (if there wasn't one already present within the necessary radius).

Ludinus was said to have been one of the mages studying Aeorian artifacts in Molaesmyr before its destruction.

was his interest due, in part, to the memories recovered during his anamnesis as a younger elf? was he compelled to join the Cerberus Assembly because of its shared name with the mage group from the Age of Arcanum?

if Athodan was killed in the crash of Aeor, they would have died close to the beacon they were studying. if Athodan survived the crash, there is a chance their study of the beacon yielded an elongated lifespan that allowed them to simply weather the Calamity before dying near the Aeorian beacon.

this latter possibility is only necessary to ponder due to the potential rate of reincarnation facilitated by the presence of Luxon beacons. there are supposedly thousands of souls inside the beacons, and who knows how quickly those souls reappear in humanoids born within range.

there is also the possibility Athodan was in a stasis bubble like the ones encountered by the Mighty Nein, and the elves of Molaesmyr dispelled it. that killed Athodan, but due to their consecution, their soul was pulled into the beacon, which was then transported to Molaesmyr, where Ludinus was later born.

Ludinus being a reincarnated Athodan also explains why he was able to manipulate the abilities of the beacon in the malleus key in the Hellcatch to bring the solstice to them. Athodan had intimate knowledge of the workings of the Luxon beacons, and therefore, Ludinus knows how to influence some amount of control over the temporal capabilities of the beacons.

yeah, okay. heres my sort of final predictions before we get into the meat of this arc that ive been awaiting for ages. obligatory "i could very well be wrong and i accept that ive just been losing my mind for 3+ years":

-obligatory ludinus is aeorian

-ludinus was part of or close to/looked up to the original cerberus assembly

-ludinus is athodan or athodan's son (far more likely he is athodan as athodan was implied to be like. college age/a prodigy. but sometimes i can see why he would have been a child when the calamity changed him for good)

-alteratively or in tandem with this, one of ludinus's parents was an archfey or at least fae

-alteratively or in tandem with this, ludinus's mother is the raven queen. all 3 of these feel likely to me from a thematic or foreshadowing standpoint.

-frida watched over ludinus and is the boy they saw in their dreams

-i think it is thematically sound if he dies at the end of this arc. however he is so ferally desperate to win & so powerful i would not rule out escaping.... at the very ultimate cost of his physical & innate humanity. expect a transformation of a man desperate to be seen as a gentleman into a cosmic/archfey beast. or at least a man who couldnt recognize himself in the mirror.

(i had written half this down when tumblr glitched on me. thank you so much functional app)

well,

im assuming based on your wording you know the theory, but a quick rundown for any passersby who doesnt have context:

athodan was an aeorian mage who studied rejuvination/reversing & speeding up time's effects, utilized the luxon to do so, and helped formulate the t-dock. ludinus is an arcanum-era mage who knew how to keep himself alive "over 1,000 years" and knows how to utilize the luxon to time travel, a feat deemed near impossible & achieved only in small entireties by essek & caleb, 2 unknown mages (who turned to dust right after or were never heard from again), and artagan (but he is an archfey who could manipulate his domain - so this may be an entirely different idea). and if i shared my sheer amount of evidence for ludinus being aeorian, we'd be here all day.

an aditional little detail i like is ath- means an "absence", ie an athiest, and -dan seems to be an elven suffix in exandria ie vax'ildan. so an atheist elf. by name alone it feels a fun tidbit.

ive long rotated this theory in my brain - since the day we learned about athodan, in fact. with every similarity we get the more feral about it i feel. so imagine my reaction picking up exquisite exandria - a cookbook - and finding THIS:

seems like near nothing at first, im sure, but if you're as obscenely obsessed with this theory & ludinus & athodan as i am, you pick up a few really insanely small details:

-obviously the reiteration of athodan's attempts at rejuvination/reversing aging

-the strange significance of him of all fucking people having a drink. most things named after people in this cookbook are either legacy characters or someone who would reasonably have created food/drink. why athodan?

-the sheer amount of fruity, citrusy shit in this. why is that significant? ludinus obsessor here to tell you - ludinus adores citrus. twice in campaign 2 (in his tower in c2e88, in the wind of aeons in c2e99), he is described beside a set of/serving the m9 a sweet citrus tea (not relevant here but the flavor is specifically mango. not important but). so he clearly has the same taste as athodan.

-(image not from the cookbook as i didnt take a pic of it, but i do have a pic of my mocktail take on it)

....

THE DRINK IS LUDINUS'S FUCKING COLOR BRAND. YOU LITERALLY ADD THE CURAÇAO FOR BLUE.

all of these alone would pretty much mean nothing. but together?....

the elven king of Uthodurn stated Ludinus hoarded artifacts. did he attempt to continue the Factorum Malleus project with scraps of relics scrounged from expeditions into Aeor?

using the natural, heightened magic below Molaesmyr, did he attempt to fuel the cobbled together machine? and during a previous Apogee Solstice, he attempted to free Predathos with a similar ritual, but it failed and corrupted the forest?

The Eve of Crimson Midnight formed the modern Cerberus Assembly, and Ludinus stepped in to stop the carnage between mages from the Julous Dominion and Dwendalian nobility.

Did Ludinus suggest the name? It is stated that the mages named it after the Age of Arcanum group of the same name. It is possible the other mages knew of the original Cerberus Assembly because of their noble ties and potential family history to those who survived the crash of the flying city Zemnis during the Calamity. But it is also possible Ludinus remembered them from his time as Athodan.

"[Ludinus] began a very forthright and functioning member of society. Then, as time went on, he began to become frustrating for some people. There was tension with him and the various temples..."

The approach of an earlier Apogee Solstice perhaps made him more irritable?

The motherfucker immigrated to Molaesmyr! From Issylra! One of the least populated, most isolated, and most mysterious continents on Exandria! A likely story for someone who may have survived the fall of Aeor and was trying to hide his incredibly long history...

Additionally, Isslyra houses Vasselheim. Vasselheim withstood the Calamity. Did Athodan wait out the Calamity there, then move to Molaesmyr? Or did he just lie about his origins?

Regardless, his immigration to Molaesmyr seems to be a mark in the box for Ludinus is Athodan. That seems to support the magically prolonged lifespan theory I originally posited, less the consecution one.

Did he immigrate there because he noticed that was where a leyline nexus would be, much like the nexus over the Hellcatch? Did he attempt to free Predathos then, using the wellspring of natural magic below Molaesmyr (rather than arcane cores?), but failed? Ending up only in corrupting the Savalirwood and the fall of Molaesmyr?

Did Ivaadel befall a similar fate to Molaesmyr? Has Ludinus been nuking cities in his attempts to free Predathos with the relatively primitive technology and arcanum of post Calamity Exandria?