#kephale

Of Khaslana accompanying Stelle into the past as the cycle resets. Except…he can’t turn off the ‘emanator thing.’

Unlike Flamereaver, Khaslana—the blazing sun that he is—can’t do ‘inconspicuous.’ It’s kinda a problem.

…Nikador split apart so why not Kephale and Oronyx?

A series of events happen and Stelle and Khaslana end up impersonating shards of Oronyx and Kephale. Stelle already has the Demi-God of Time thing going on and since this cycle’s Coreflame of Time is still in the temple…shard of Oronyx is plausible. And Khaslana has his whole ‘Sun’ thing going on which fits with Kephale’s thing in Okhema. He’s the easier sell, really, given the sheer power he gives off. Titan is the only explanation within the Amphoreus frame of reference.

Fun new lore drop for the people of Amphoreus—seems Kephale and Oronyx are an item.

Would also mean that Kephale and Oronyx would be believed to be off the table for the Flame Chase—for a time at least. Like with Nikador, a Coreflame can’t be claimed while a Titan is ‘split.’ And currently Kephale is both giving Light to Okhema and galavanting around shirtless. And Oronyx is both sleeping in the Temple of Oronyx and digging through dumpsters for trash and helping citizens with random errands.

So we know it was Chaoz666 that originally drew Nanook's gaze to the Sceptor and made it a Lord Ravager. It's likely that Chaoz666 is an earlier version of Phainon (or at least the string of code that would become Phainon) since Kephale/Khaos is "a particular code [that] was stably inherited across iterations." We know Phainon is Khaos because that is what Flame Reaver/Khaslana calls him, and Kephale is said to always bear a name similar to "chaos" in every iteration. So basically, every Kephale has always been Phainon. It would explain why our Kephale in cycle 33,550,336 is silent, because they've already been reborn in Phainon.

Besides the obviously similar names, Chaoz666's act of Destruction is also very in-character for Phainon. It's a little unclear exactly what happened, but we can decipher Chaoz did NOT like being controlled and therefore defended itself. This lines up well within Phainon's character as demonstrated by his glorious crashout and subsequent battle against Nanook and Their creations.

Chaoz666 being a earlier iteration of Phainon/Khaslana/Khaos/Kephale would explain why Phainon bears a Mark of Destruction from birth, and it would explain why Phainon feels ashamed of his birth name even though we're not given a reason. I noticed that cycle 0 Phainon (Khaslana), untainted by the numerous cycles and coreflames, does not have this issue. He didn't use the name "Phainon" and was pretty open about his trauma. Compare this to cycle 33,550,336 Phainon who's never told ANYBODY his real name or what exactly happened in Aedes Elysiae (other than it has something to do with the Black Tide and Flame Reaver). We also learn in “As I’ve Written” that Phainon is deeply ashamed of his natural tendency towards anger and hatred. I wonder if this is Khaslana/FR and Phainon's codes blending together despite technically being separate people due to the nature of Kephale/Khaos's stable code.

It would make sense that Kephale "the world bearer" is also the one that "bears" Irontomb (which is essentially the world/the Destruction equation). The name Kephale itself means "head, authority, source." Phainon is not Irontomb, but he has merged with it. He will "complete" it by becoming the missing "head" and become a new Lord Ravager.

TLDR: Phainon is Khaslana. Khaslana is Khaos, Khaos is Kephale. Kephale is Chaoz666. Chaoz666 drew Nanook's initial gaze to the Sceptor aka Irontomb.

Kephale is the missing head of Irontomb. Phainon was always doomed to bear Nanook's gaze.