Does anything but his cold manipulation remain of Mythal's influence on his short time in her care as a smol?If so what and does it help him in day-to-day life or in Falon'Din's plans? If not, is there anything he wishes he had learned from her? Any use he sees in her or any of her talents or skills?
send me a topic to write a meta about my muse on
Dirthamenâs relationship with his mother will always be more complicated than he wants it to be - and more complex than heâll ever admit.Â
If Mythal cannot be said to have been a doting mother, thatâs not to say she wasnât an attentive, involved mother. She did teach him how to manipulate people, of course, but she was also his primary teacher in most subjects, which is no small contribution to the childhood of someone who would grow to be known as a god of knowledge. Mythal taught her child magic, including (but of course not limited to) shapeshifting, an art Dirthamen seized on as a means of fleeing from his own form even in childhood.Â
She also taught him how to learn: how to gather information from as many sources as possible, how to withhold judgment until all the facts were gathered, how to draw conclusions and plan responses. How to measure the world not merely as an individual, but as a piece of that world, all actions leading to larger and more complex reactions, and how one small stone may cast ripples, so to speak.
Much of how Dirthamen views the world stems from Mythalâs teachings, albeit through a corrupted lens: he of course places FalonâDin at the forefront of all of his considerations, rather than the larger picture or the world as a whole.
On some level, though he was of course born to serve her practical purposes, Dirthamen is aware his mother loved him. Does she love him still? He has no idea, and has long since convinced himself he doesnât care. She has established herself as an enemy, and no amount of maternal sentiment can change that. He does not regret walking away when he did, nor has he ever regretted being a stumbling block in many of her plans - he is a weapon she created herself, and she let him slip out of her hands; thatâs her fault.
He learned from her what he wished to learn. There is little else heâd still like to know - although if he knew of it, her apparent ability to escape death multiple times would intrigue him. If heâd known his mother could survive the entire pantheon turning on her, he might have tried suggesting a different approach: all that effort, wasted.
