A most beautiful adventure takes place within the main story of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, which is also a direct tribute to the game's title, as its quests are referencing several stages of Homer's Odyssey. The story is titled A Friend Worth Dying For, its protagonist, apart from our lead hero, is the Adrestia's captain Barnabas, and it is one of the Lost Tales of Greece.  

The adventure begins unexpectedly on a lone shore of Skyros island with the quest Odyssey Into The Past, where Alexios notices a group of heavily drunk bandits in a camp, whose attitude is rather strange. They have several civilians locked in cages but they do not seem to care much about their captives, dancing and fooling around without even taking notice of what is happening around them. Meanwhile, Barnabas follows Alexios at the shore and drinks some of the wine that got the bandits drunk, while the bandits, who are gradually recovering, start attacking everyone at the camp. After the fight is over, Alexios notices that Barnabas is exhibiting a weird behaviour, obviously having hallucinations involving a cyclops, a pig and a woman named Leda. As it turns out, what he and the bandits drank was wine made from lotus flowers. 

The lotus wine made Barnabas sick

This is the first reference to Homer's epic poem, specifically it nods to Rhapsody I', in which Odysseus arrives at the land of the Lotus Eaters, an island where the inhabitants are eating the fruit growing from a lotus tree, a plant with narcotic effects, resulting in them being constantly in a stage of apathy. Whoever eats that fruit, becomes idle, at the same time forgetting about their past, their homelands, their families. In the epic poem, Odysseus did not eat the fruit, and had a hard time dragging his companions, who had done so, back to the ship, just like Alexios in the game's story did not drink the lotus wine, but his friend and companion Barnabas did.

Engraving by Theodoor van Thulden depicting Odysseus dragging his men back to the ship

Back on the Adrestia, Barnabas is recovering from the wine's effects and confesses to Alexios that back in his youth he was married to a beautiful woman with green eyes, named Leda. He and Leda shared a love for adventure so they roamed the seas together for years, until one day their ship sank and they lost each other at sea. Barnabas never heard of Leda again, but now, under the effects of the lotus wine, he had three visions of her. In the first vision, she was in a cave, singing with Sirens; in the second she was feeding a young Cyclops and in the third she was drinking wine with a witch. 

Barnabas narrates his visions to Alexios

Although there does not seem to be much logic in Barnabas's words, Alexios decides to play his game and visit the locations where the three visions took place. In spite of being a man of a rather mature age, and with a lot of life experiences on his back (being a sea captain was guaranteed to offer him plenty of adventures, and surely there were bad times among them), Barnabas has a child-like enthusiasm and is always looking at the bright side of things. This is something that Alexios appreciates a lot, and the least he can do for his good friend is to play along. The locations of all visions are insular, so there is a lot of traveling by sea involved, something that our lead hero loves anyway. So together with their loyal crew and their select ship lieutenants, they start their journey following the trail of Barnabas's first vision which leads them to the island of Kos, in the quest Beware The Siren Call. It is where Barnabas saw Leda singing with the sirens behind a painted wall. Before the exploration begins, Barnabas gives Alexios two lumps of beeswax so as to cover his ears in case the sirens are still active in there. After a brief investigation on the island, Alexios locates the Tomb of Polybotes which is a cave hidden behind a wall decorated with a mural. Alexios breaks the rather thin wall and when he proceeds deeper into the cave, he hears weird sounds, like ritualistic singing. It looks like Barnabas's visions were not so random after all. 

There are strange things happening in the dark "Siren" cave

Deep inside the cave, it looks like there are suspicious rituals taking place. There are people lying around, either dead or in a bad state, and some weird women, whose appearance and outfits resemble a lot those of the savage Followers of Ares, sing or, better, scream some distorted melodies of sorts that are more like wild calls. They are also armed, and appear to be extremely dangerous. Those are in fact the "Sirens" from Barnabas's vision, who in reality apparently belong to a cult similar to the Followers of Ares and are ruthless, violent and blood-thirsty. After killing them, Alexios retrieves an old aulos from their chief and frees a man who was bound in the main room, guarded by her.

Alexios is about to attack the chief "Siren"

As it turns out, the man, whose name is Eurylochos, arrived on the island of Kos after hearing tales about the Sirens living there, singing their beautiful songs. He enjoyed being alone, and he loved poetry and music, which is why he was drawn to the cave of the "Sirens", driven by those tales. Soon he discovered that all this was a trap, however. The women would lure innocent people to their lair in the cave so as to carry out their cannibalistic rituals; they would regularly drain the man's blood, then boil and drink it. Then they would scream into the night, in a manic state. When Alexios asks him about the old aulos, the man mentions a woman who was there before, but managed to escape. The aulos belonged to her, and the Sirens stole it; and obviously she left it behind when she ran away. Alexios then decides to take the man away from that place and sends him on his ship.

Eurylochos is in a really bad state

This story references Rhapsody Μ' from Homer's Odyssey, which narrates Odysseus's encounter with the Sirens. The epic hero, having been informed about the dangerous creatures and their seductive singing, had his companions cover their ears with beeswax and ordered them to tie him on his ship's mast, so that he could be able to hear the song without putting himself into danger. This way, he and his crew made it safe and continued their journey. There is one more reference to Homer's epic in this story, however. Eurylochos was the name of one of Odysseus's companions, who was also his brother in law, as he was married to Ktimene, the hero's sister. After their ship arrived on the island of Circe, Eurylochos was the leader of the group of men who went to explore the place. When Circe found them, she turned them into pigs, but Eurylochos, who had left the others moments before, was able to return to the ship and inform Odysseus about what just happened, therefore saving them. Later on, however, while on the island of Thrinacia, he persuaded his companions to slaughter Helios's sacred oxen, an action that cost him his life as he was punished with execution.

Odysseus and the Sirens by John William Waterhouse

When Alexios returns on the Adrestia and informs Barnabas about what he discovered, his good friend gets very excited, certain that the owner of the old aulos was indeed his dear Leda, who learnt to play it while staying with the Sirens before leaving their lair for good. 

Following the clues from Barnabas's next vision about Leda feeding a cyclops in the quest To Be Nobody, Alexios arrives at Anaphi, a volcanic island where only a few people reside, as it is mainly occupied by soldiers, bandits and wild animals. Alexios locates an isolated cave, which turns out to be the hiding place of a strange man. He has an innocent-looking face and his reactions and way of talking are like those of a child, but his towering stature is quite intimidating and rather unfamiliar as a sight. Moreover, one of his eyes is covered with an eye patch. The man's name is Polyphemos, just like the legendary cyclops from Homer's Odyssey, but he is nothing like him.

The Polyphemus that Alexios meets has the heart and mind of an innocent child

The story's Polyphemos turns out to be a man with a heart of gold, who would keep himself hidden in his isolated cave because he was too scared to face all the hazards on the island. Alexios agrees to help him clear the shores nearby so that he will be able to go fishing in peace, as was his dream. After killing some lethal lynxes and getting rid of a group of bandits, a whole beach becomes available for Polyphemos to pass his time as he pleases. The man, feeling grateful, offers Alexios a bowl of spices that, as he says, was given to him as a gift from a beautiful woman with green eyes who once passed from the island - a description that seems to fit Leda perfectly. But Polyphemos is not fully happy yet; as much as he loves his beach, he would love to share it with a friend. This gives Alexios an idea, so he calls Eurylochos from the Adrestia and introduces him to Polyphemos. When the two guys meet, it looks like it's love at first sight, as Alexios returns to his ship and leaves them chatting and playing happily at the shore. Apparently the two men were outsiders in the places were they originally lived, each one for different reasons. They both left their homes because nobody understood them (in Eurylochos's case) or because they were viewed as monsters (in Polyphemos's case), looking for shelter far away from everyone.

Alexios watches Polyphemos and Eurylochos having a good time on the beach

This quest's story references again Rhapsody I', but this time it nods to the segment about Odysseus encountering the Cyclops Polyphemus. During their journey, the hero and his men arrived on the Cyclops's island and, having no idea about who lived there, explored the place and located a cave full of goods. When Polyphemus arrived, he got very angry, trapped the men inside the cave with him and ate two of them. The next day, he ate two more men and left to tend to his sheep. In the afternoon, after eating two more men, he was tricked by Odysseus to drink some very strong wine that he had with him for a previous location. While in a drunk state, and unable to control himself, Polyphemus asked Odysseus to tell him his name, with Odysseus answering that he was called "Nobody". Soon after, the Cyclops fell asleep and Odysseus managed to blind his one eye by plunging a hot stake in its socket. As Polyphemus was shouting that Nobody was killing him, the other Cyclopses thought he was having hallucinations from the wine and did not bother to run to his rescue. The other day Polyphemus, now blind, let his sheep out while feeling their backs to make sure that Odysseus and his men were not escaping on them. The hero however had ordered his surviving companions to tie themselves under the sheep, so the animals carried them safely outside without the Cyclops taking notice. The title of the game's quest, To Be Nobody, references the name that Odysseus gave himself in the epic tale, while at the same time describing the state in which the good-hearted Polyphemos was, being an outsider, a nobody, in the eyes of society.

The Blinding of Polyphemus by Pellegrino Tibaldi

When Alexios informs Barnabas about the spices and what he learnt from Polyphemos on the island, Barnabas gets excited again. He is more than certain that the woman from Polyphemos's story was Leda, who found the cyclops and made an elixir from the spices to help him grow a second eye.

Barnabas's last vision about Leda drinking wine with a witch brings Alexios and his crew to the island of Paros in the quest Wine For The Swine, where, on a small atoll off its port, is a ruined temple occupied by lions, pigs and wild boars who, curiously enough, do not seem hostile. Among them there is a woman who is exquisitely dressed but her mouth is covered with blood. As Alexios approaches her, he realizes that she is eating off the corpse of a dead pig. The woman introduces herself as Circe and invites Alexios to drink wine with her. Curious about where this is going, Alexios goes to fetch the wine from a spot nearby, where he notices a patch of blood, a toy with teeth marks and a tablet with a note, apparently written by the woman, saying that her subjects are hungry. Growing suspicious, Alexios picks and eats moly leaves, which are a natural antidote to poison. When he drinks the wine and nothing happens to him, Circe is disappointed and surprised, but soon after she explains to Alexios that she had to leave her homeland because her wild instincts would always get her into trouble. Her father had killed her mother because she was like Circe, so the woman ran away after possibly killing him herself. To be able to survive on the island without being devoured by the wild animals, she would make travelers and passers by drink from her wine, which she had imbued with a drug; then she would kill them and feed them to the animals which would be affected by the drug and thus become unable to turn hostile. When Alexios asks her about Leda, Circe shows him a bracelet which she took from a woman who passed from her island; it could or it could not have been Barnabas's lost wife. Just like Eurylochos and Polyphemos, Circe was an outsider in her homeland, albeit for different reasons, and she too found shelter in an isolated place, far away from anyone that could cause her harm.

Circe has her own sad story to tell

This story references Rhapsody K' from Homer's Odyssey, in which Odysseus arrives on Circe's island. The witch lived in a palace in the middle of a clearing, surrounded by wild animals which however were under her control and would not attack anyone around her. The hero sent a group of his men to investigate, and Circe offered to treat them with wine and food, both of which were jinxed. While they were under the spell's influence, she turned them into pigs. Meanwhile, Eurylochos had ran back to the ship, informing him of what happened at Circe's palace, so Odysseus went to meet the witch himself and save his companions. On the way, the god Hermes appeared and advised him to eat moly leaves, so as to protect himself from Circe's spells. After meeting Circe, the witch tried to put her spells on him but she failed, and was so impressed by this unexpected development that she fell in love with the hero and eventually turned his companions back to humans. After staying on her island for one year, Odysseus and his crew went on their journey, but not before Circe had given Odysseus valuable guidance about how to proceed.

19th century engraving depicting Circe turning Odysseus's men to pigs

When Alexios returns to his ship and shows Barnabas the bracelet that Circe gave him, his friend is over the moon, absolutely sure that the jewel belonged to Leda. He believes that when Leda arrived at the atoll, Circe turned her into a pig. Then she was transformed into a woman again, and before leaving gave Circe her bracelet to remember her by. As it turns out, all the three items that Alexios found on the visions' locations - the aulos, the spices and the bracelet - were made in or connected with Attika, as their origin is from areas around a cave there, called The Entrance to the Underworld. Alexios suggests they travel to Attika right away, something that makes Barnabas very happy, calling Alexios his best friend.

Barnabas is happy that Alexios believes his story

Their final destination in the quest Daddy's Home is the aforementioned cave, which is around the area of  Eleusis. In its depths, they find several corpses and a young girl who, as soon as she sees them, she gets ready to attack them in an obvious attempt to defend herself. It is revealed that she is Leda, Barnabas's daughter, named after her mother and sharing the same green eyes as her. Apparently Leda the wife was pregnant when Barnabas lost her at sea; somehow she managed to survive and ended up in Attika. There she gave birth to Leda the daughter, got married to a good man and lived happily until the time came for her to die. Having lost her step-father too, young Leda was left alone, in charge of a rich piece of land, something that would regularly attract the attention of aspiring suitors who had their eyes on her fortune. Young Leda however did not want to get married; and most importantly she was not disposed to marry someone who clearly wanted to benefit from her wealth. After she denied their proposals several times, they changed their tactics and started threatening her, even attempting to kill her. Alexios and Barnabas help her get rid of the suitors once and for all, and then Barnabas asks her to leave the farmer's life behind her and follow him on the Adrestia. Leda however refuses, because she feels that it is her duty towards her mother and the goddess Demeter to look after her family's land.

 

Young Leda has her mother's eyes and her father's nose

 

This story references two Rhapsodies from Homer's Odyssey. The first part, where Alexios goes to the Entrance to the Underworld, nods to Rhapsody Λ', also known as "Nekyia" ("νέκυια" in ancient greek,  meaning a magic ceremony to summon a spirit from the underworld), in which Odysseus, following Circe's instructions, descends to the Realm of Hades in order to consult the seer Tiresias on how to find his way back to Ithaca. While in the Underworld, he meets several dead people including a lost companion, heroes of the Trojan War, heroines who had suffered in their lives and his mother.

 

Odysseus In Hades by Wojciech Weiss

 

The second part, in which Alexios and Barnabas help Leda kill her suitors, references Rhapsody Χ', in which Odysseus, having finally arrived on the island of Ithaca, infiltrates his palace and, with the help of his son Telemachus, murders the 108 suitors who had taken over it while waiting for the presumed dead Odysseus's  wife, Queen Penelope, who was already considered a widow, to chose one of them as her new husband. This stage of Homer's epic is one of the most impressive parts with its vivid, detailed descriptions and gory details.

 

Odysseus and Telemachus slay the suitors, by Thomas Degeorge

 

In the end, Alexios and Barnabas say goodbye to Leda but Alexios, seeing how much his friend wanted his daughter to join them, puts a bold plan to practice in the secret quest Demeter's Fire. He sets Leda's farm on fire and when she rushes in despair to find out what happened, he tells her that Demeter herself caused this so as to make her leave and follow her father. Leda takes this development as a sign that she should really put her past behind her, and start a new life by her father's side, this time at sea, just like her mother did before.

 

Alexios hires Leda as a ship lieutenant

Taking the stories from Homer's epic as a base, the questline switches playfully between myth and reality, as we can never know for certain if the three adventures that we go through in the locations indicated by Barnabas's visions really correspond to reality, if they are just co-incidental or if there is a hint of mythology behind them. All three people, Eurylochos, Polyphemos and Circe, mentioned a woman who passed from the places where they were, with their descriptions matching Leda almost perfectly. Leda could very well have arrived as a castaway on those islands, staying in all three places for some time, either voluntarily or by force, before leaving again. The fact that she found herself on the land of Attika, gave birth and created a new family there, clearly proves that she, at least, survived the stormy sea when Barnabas lost her. On the other hand, it could be three different women who passed from those islands, each on a different time. Parallel to all this, the unbreakable bond of friendship and comradeship that Alexios and Barnabas share is highlighted in this adventure, and its title, A Friend Worth Dying For, could apply to both of them, as they would both do anything to make each other happy.

 

Barnabas and Alexios are best buddies

The three people involved in the three stories / visions all have something in common: they were living in the margins of society, being forced to become outcasts and look for a better life elsewhere, in isolated places, without any other people around them. In the case of Polyphemos and Eurylochos, they found sympathy and understanding in each other, and it is clearly a blooming bromance that Alexios made happen there. Cicre's case was a bit different in this matter; what she describes as a wild nature could very well be an allegory for maybe a licentious way of life that she liked to live that was not socially accepted. In any event, the three stories worked as guidance for leading Barnabas to his daughter, although again we can't tell for sure if those were truly signs, or Barnabas interpreted them this way, following his instinct. In the background of these stories, there is always the fancy, the mythology, and Homer's epic poem which, like all heritage, work as backdrop loomed centuries ago, which is always alive, offering the wisdom of the past as a compass for every era's present.

The Curious Case of Aiantides The Proud

So much happens in the Legacy of the First Blade episodes of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, yet everything in its main plot and its connected side-quests is almost completely outshined by the relatively brief but unforgettable appearance of one person: Aiantides The Proud, one of the most enigmatic yet absolutely exciting supporting characters in the whole game. Aiantides makes his mysterious appearance in all three regions that Alexios visits for each of the episodes of the Legacy story, and him showing up co-incides suspiciously with important events in our hero's adventures, where Aiantides appears in big trouble, in stressing situations that are, oddly enough, connected with each other. Alexios and Aiantides seem to connect in an underlying and rather unexpected way, and it is notable that just at the start of the first Legacy episode in Makedonia, Alexios comes across Aiantides before meeting anyone else, even before crossing paths with the main protagonists of the story. 

After Alexios receives a message to take on a mission in Potidaia, he arrives there to find a whole village on fire. While rushing to the heart of the incident, he sees that three people are being held as prisoners, with Spartan soldiers ready to execute them, so he swiftly runs to their rescue. Among the captured villagers, is a very well-dressed man with a rather peculiar attitude, as becomes clear as soon as Alexios frees him.

The strange man does not seem particularly intimidated by the situation he is in

At that point in time, we don't know who he is yet, and we have no idea that this will not be the one and only time that we see him. Alexios frees the other two people, a woman and another man, and the story takes its own course, with our hero meeting Neema and Darius and eventually learning from them about the existence of the Order of the Hunters, a separate branch of the Cult of Kosmos, that operates in certain regions of Greece. After the introductory quests are complete, Alexios locates a message left for him at the place where he set that strange man free. The message sounds a bit impolite, as the sender literally blames Alexios for having saved him from his captors, but given the conditions, this is not something to be judged too strictly at that point; plus the most interesting thing about it is that it is signed "Aiantides The Proud".

Aiantides's first message

In spite of his fury for being saved, the man informs Alexios that he has hidden a package with goods in a forested area nearby, reserved specially for him, as a reward for giving the man back his freedom. Alexios finds the "treasure" hidden near a tree, in a rather dangerous area where several wild bears are roaming. A bit later, and while investigating the whereabouts of an Order member named Bubares with Darius in an area which was under the Order's control, Alexios discovers a farm nearby that has been overtaken by the Order, so that Bubares could assemble and enlist there volunteers from the area, whom then he planned to send off in search of the Eagle Bearer. After Alexios kills Bubares, freeing all the farms in the area from the Order's hold, he locates another message at a neighbouring farm. Again, the message is from Aiantides The Proud, again it is written in a similar manner, and again Aiantides informs Alexios that he wishes to thank him by offering him goods, because one of the freed farms belonged to his brother.

Aiantides's second message

This time there's more treasures, and they are spread around on four separate islets, which makes looking for them quite an adventure. Notably, when Alexios arrives at the first location, there are bandits snooping around, which raises suspicions about them somehow having been informed about the existence of the treasures in that area. Maybe they had read the message, or maybe there is another reason why they seem to know about Aiantides being in the area? Who knows, maybe we will be able to decipher this riddle later. On the two of the remaining three locations, there are again hazards to face: wild bears in the one, enraged chicken in the other (although the latter can be avoided if Alexios sneaks carefully to take the package they are guarding without alerting them).

After the completion of the first episode in Makedonia, Darius messages Alexios to meet him in Dyme, a small village between Elis and Achaia. There seems to be more Order action in the region, and after getting in touch with Neema as well, Alexios is informed that several people have been captured by the local branch and are being held prisoners in an almost inapproachable fortress. Alexios rushes and frees the prisoners, among which is Kleta, a rather well-off woman, who, as it turns out, appears to be a local of some higher status in the area, both financially and socially, as she volunteers to offer those stranded people shelter in Boura, her village, until they manage to find a way to leave. All of them were either locals who were returning home, or travelers from other regions; their ships were sunk while sailing along the shores of Achaia, and they were all arrested and taken as prisoners by command of the Order for an unspecified, for the time being, reason. It is revealed that the one responsible for this specific action is a fierce and extremely feared admiral, who works on behalf of the Order, goes by the name of The Tempest and has everyone in the region terrified beyond belief.

Kleta seems to be an influential figure in the area

While looking for the prisoners at the fortress, Alexios finds out information of great importance about The Tempest, who is revealed to not only be a high-rank member of the local Order branch, but she also happens to be their chief. Apart from her other duties, The Tempest is tasked with getting rid of Alexios, and for this purpose she has hired several high-rank mercenaries to hunt him down and kill him. During a series of follow-up quests with Darius and Neema, Alexios discovers that The Tempest's chief engineer has created a super-powerful weapon for her ships which he calls The Chimera's Breath and which looks like an early version of the Byzantine liquid fire. After a series of dramatic events, Alexios decides to steal the engineer's code books, so that Barnabas, who is an experienced captain, may be able to install the lethal weapon on their ship as well, to give them a fighting chance against The Tempest. Then Alexios goes to Boura to talk with Kleta, and in a dramatic twist, Kleta confesses to him that The Tempest is in fact her long lost daughter, Phila. A child prodigy, with high intelligence and gifted in an impressive variety of fields, Phila was estranged from her mother, left her family home and became a sea captain. After nearly drowning during a storm, she was saved by the Order and gradually became their most valuable high-rank member. Although Kleta hopes that there could be a way to bring Phila back, deep down she knows that her daughter, now The Tempest, is beyond saving, as she had been under the Order's influence for far too long.

In spite of her young age, The Tempest is fear incarnate in Achaia

While at Boura, Alexios finds yet one more message (surprise, surprise) again from Aiantides The Proud. This time the note is way more toned down that the previous ones, as Aiantides expresses his distress for losing all his fortune due to him constantly wanting to reward Alexios for helping him out. Aiantides explains in his note that Alexios killing the leader of the Makedonian branch of the Order was the reason why the innocent civilians were captured in Achaia, as an act of revenge; although his connection to this development is still unknown. Regardless, he informs Alexios that he has left another package full of goods for him at the edge of an isolated row of islets, adding that he will be unable to offer anything else in the future.

Aiantides's third message

Alexios goes to the specified area, which indeed is quite far away from any settlement or camp, and as he is about to take the package with the treasures, Aiantides himself appears, and he is revealed to be that strange man whom Alexios freed back in Potidaia, in the burning village.

Aiantides turns out to be a handsome man of good social status

Now that we have the chance to actually see him, it becomes more clear that he must be of some higher social status, as he is well-dressed, his sandals are more stylish and elaborate than those of most citizens and the fabrics and threads from which his outfit is made of look quite expensive and of very good quality. His whole attitude is also different from most people that Alexios has met so far, as he looks quite self-confident, speaks in a rather sophisticated manner, and even after having gone through all those troubles, he still seems determined and unafraid. This time, he wished to thank Alexios because his aunt was among the prisoners that were freed at the fortress, although he claims that he has no more to offer, as these acts of gratitude left him almost completely broke. Although Alexios insists that he shoudn't have given him anything and he doesn't owe him a thing, Aiantides claims that he is too proud to not reward him for his good deeds, because he can never be indebted to anyone (which is why he is called "The Proud" after all). The questions that are raised here, however, are what was Aiantides doing in Achaia all of a sudden, and in Boura specifically, and was he too on the sunken ships and maybe managed to escape while the Order were looking for prisoners? Or he arrived at the region with other means for some reason? 

Aiantides is suspiciously calm in spite of constantly running into trouble

While trying to make Aiantides stop feeling like he is indebted to him, Alexios offers him the chance to do a series of activities for him, that would work as paying off the so-called debt. The dialogue that follows is quite interesting, with Aiantides's reactions being rather enigmatic and perplexing. If Alexios asks him to kill the mercenaries hired by The Tempest, Aiantides replies, marginally with sadness, that he is no fighter, therefore is unable to take on this task. If Alexios asks him to steal the engineer's code books, he replies with contempt that he is not a thief. When he asks him to kill The Tempest for him, Aiantides's reaction is quite intriguing: upon hearing the fearsome admiral's name, his expression changes temporarily, as if her name means something to him. One could argue that this might be due to The Tempest's notoriety, but if you watch him closely, his expression does not indicate fear but more like a disposition to conceal something or avoid to touch the subject altogether.

Aiantides's attitude is continuously mysterious

His reply is equally weird, considering that when Alexios asked him to kill the mercenaries previously, his excuse for not doing it was that he was no fighter. When the subject of killing The Tempest comes into play, he replies with absolute disgust that Alexios asking him to commit murder is unacceptable. We could say that his reply in the first case leaves some room for further discussion, but in the second he sounds completely adamant. In the end, Alexios asks him to join his ship crew as a lieutenant, but Aiantides refuses again, saying that he has a family to look after, therefore he can't leave. Which is quite strange, since he has already left one place (Makedonia) to travel to a region quite far away, and apparently he did so on his own. Meanwhile, as the second episode of the Legacy story reaches its dramatic culmination, it is revealed that The Tempest is half Isu, just like Alexios and Kassandra, and she had been recruited by the Order exactly for this, so that they could use her as a powerful human weapon. Alexios is forced to fight against The Tempest and kill her; depending on our choices up to that point, Kleta may have survived or not, but in any event, soon after the episode ends with no further sign of Aiantides in Achaia.

Phila snaps out of the Order's brainwashing just moments before she dies

Some time later, after the tragic events that bring Alexios to the city of Aipeia in Messenia to look for his kidnapped son Elpidios, he teams up with Darius so as to locate Amorges, Darius's once best friend and companion and now sworn enemy, who was also revealed to be the head of the local branch of the Order, as well as the leader of the Ancients. Amorges, knowing that Elpidios, being the son of Alexios, shares his demigod qualities, has taken the baby and is keeping him hidden somewhere, intending to raise him himself and train him to be a warrior for the Order, like he did with Phila in the past. Among his other activities in the area, Amorges has several parts of the region under his control, resulting in citizens getting captured on a regular basis and being sent to work as helots in the fields of Aipeia's outskirts. After eliminating all the members of the local Order branch, including Amorges after a dramatic fight, Alexios is finally reunited with his son, but decides it is better to send him away with Darius, so as to keep him safe from the Order. When the story is complete, he finds a message which is not directed at him, but it mentions helot prisoners who may be in danger in Messene, at the outskirts of Aipeia.

The mysterious message mentioning the helot prisoners

Alexios arrives at Messene only to find out that Aiantides is among the helot prisoners. There are a couple more people tied alongside him, whom Alexios frees with no issues, but as he attempts to free Aiantides, angry bandits attack, wanting to prevent him from doing so. Alexios succeeds in defeating them and runs back to free Aiantides, a repetition of their very first meeting in Potidaia.

Bumping into familiar faces is always pleasant

Aiantides is very upset that it was Alexios who actually saved him. He feels once more that he owes a favor to the Eagle Bearer, one that he will not be able to fulfill, because he is completely broke now. He tells a story about how someone persuaded him to come to Messenia, tricked him into giving all money he had left, only to be sold as a helot in Messene. A rather weird story, given that Aiantides always looked quite smart; moreover his profession apparently had to do with commerce, which means he knew very well how to deal with money. To stop Aiantides from feeling indebted to him, Alexios tells him that he, being a messenger of Zeus, can forgive the debt of a mortal, which eventually puts Aiantides's mind at ease. Then Alexios asks him again to work as a lieutenant on his ship, and this time Aiantides happily accepts. Which raises the question of what happened to the so-called family that he had to take care of and could not leave behind previously.

Alexios seems quite amused with Aiantides

On a first level, nothing may seem that strange, but if all facts are combined there seems to be a pattern when it comes to Aiantides's appearances. The obvious part is that he always shows up in Alexios's path as a comic relief element, but at the same time he also appears in places that are of extreme importance as far as the Order's activities are concerned. There is not much evidence in Makedonia, as we do not have the chance to meet him there, but in Achaia things become quite interesting. We know from his second message in Makedonia that he has a brother there, but then in Achaia he vaguely refers to a family which may not be what it initially sounds like, that is a family of his own. What he does mention is an aunt who was among the stranded people whom Alexios freed at the fortress. The prisoners were four: three women and a man. From the three women, the one was the mother of a little girl, and both she and the second woman were too young to be  Aiantides's aunt. The third woman was Kleta.

Alexios and Kleta minutes after she was freed from the fortress

We don't have any clues about Aiantides's age, but judging from his figure, the smooth skin on his face and considering his hair is not even grey yet, he must be in his early thirties or something like that. Kleta, on the other hand, is a beautiful woman who is apparently older because her hair and eyebrows are grey and she has light lines near her eyes and mouth. She must be around forty five years of age, or maybe a bit younger, since Phila looks also very young. Back in those times, people used to marry at a very young age, especially women. My theory is that Aiantides's aunt was in fact Kleta, something that the two of them concealed to keep each other safe, due to the fact they were both related to The Tempest. They also avoided getting in contact in public, so as to not attract the Order's attention. Kleta and Aiantides have quite a few things in common, with their face features being the most prominent: their eye color is exactly the same, a very sweet honey brown. They have pretty similar eyebrows and their mouths have a similar shape. Sometimes they even have the same expressions. Kleta's hair is grey now but judging by her skin tone, and the way her eyebrows have also turned lightly grey, she could very well have had ash blonde hair in her youth, the same hair color that Aiantides still has. Moreover, they both look well-off in a pretty similar way, what with their nice clothes and noble style.

Kleta and Aiantides share the same honey brown eyes and similar eyebrows

Being Kleta's nephew, makes Aiantides a cousin of The Tempest, which may explain why he avoided discussing the subject of possibly killing her himself when Alexios asked him to. The family he refers to could very well be Kleta and The Tempest, assuming that his brother in Makedonia probably had a family of his own, therefore is part of a separate family circle. After Alexios eliminated the Order of the Hunters in Makedonia, the Order of the Storm in Achaia took action. Aiantides knew that this would also mean the appearance of his fearsome cousin in the region. The fact that Kleta was captured together with the other people at the fort is quite suspicious. It could be that the Order were on a spree to hunt down The Tempest's family, like the Cult had done in Kassandra's case. They could be looking for Aiantides too, which partly explains why there was only one man among the prisoners. In the old days, it was not easy to find out how someone looked like; sometimes it was impossible. Maybe the Order was on the hunt for Aiantides, but since they did not know what he looked like, he managed to escape from the ship that The Tempest sunk and get safely on solid ground in Achaia. There were bandits looking for the treasures he left for Alexios in Makedonia, and bandits again attacked Alexios when he attempted to free him in Messene. This may suggest that someone (someone with many spies, like the Order; we already know that they were recruiting citizens to do dirty work for them) was keeping track of him, and had even hired bandits to hunt him down. Maybe the bandits were not looking for the treasures but for hints to Aiantides's whereabouts. Or maybe the Order, aware of his note to Alexios, sent the bandits to look for him, allowing them to grab his treasures as a reward in case they found them. 

With The Tempest out of the picture, and Kleta either safe or dead, Aiantides had no more reasons to stay in Achaia. His story about how he found himself in Messenia may be true, but he may very well have gone there after learning that Alexios had moved further south; so he traveled to Messenia and somehow managed to get himself into trouble again. There is no more mention of his family the last time that Alexios asks him to work for him as a ship lieutenant and he accepts, something that may indicate that his intention in Messenia was to leave with Alexios for good, and is also in accordance with the fact that his "family" (in this case, Kleta alone since his brother is probably safe in Makedonia) either does not exist any more, in the version where Kleta is dead, or is completely out of danger, in the version where, after Phila's and Amorges's deaths and the full elimination of the Order of the Ancients, she stays back in Boura, all alone but out of harm's way.

Medicine, Morality and Religion In Assassin's Creed Odyssey

The science of medicine plays an important role in the story of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, as well as in several of its side-quests. Back in the ancient times, people would not easily trust a physician, as they believed that sickness and recovery were works of the gods. Most healers had to present themselves as practicians who were working on behalf of the gods, so that the people would accept their aid and therapy. Asklepios was worshipped as the god of healing, and Hygeia (meaning Health in greek) was a goddess representing the health of body and mind, also worshipped in shrines and places of healing. In the game, there are several stories, major or minor, where healers and physicians are protagonists, and their stories involve conflicts with religious ideas or moral dilemmas, or both.

The Sanctuary of Asklepios in Argolis

The first time that the theme of medicine comes to the spotlight is during the side-quest "The Blood Fever" in Kephallonia, near the start of the game. A severe plague has struck a small village, infecting almost all the residents, and since there was no authorized physician on the island, a group of priests took control of the situation, resorting to a rather extreme solution: they burnt the village, at the same time killing all the sick people, to prevent the plague from spreading to the whole island. Phoebe, Alexios's little friend, sends him to the village to investigate, because she suspects that a family that she happens to know (she is good friends with the daughter) is in danger. When Alexios arrives at the village, he sees that the priests, having found out that all four members of the family, the sole survivors of the plague so far, are infected as well, are about to kill them. 

Alexios talking to the chief priest

The chief priest explains the situation to Alexios, claiming that there is no other way to deal with the infection; it is more than certain that if the members of the family are set free, they will undoubtedly infect the rest of the island which, for the time being, seems completely unaffected by the plague. Alexios then is called to make a hard decision: let the priests kill the family, or kill the priests and set the family free. Both decisions have good and bad outcomes. If he leaves without intervening, the priests will kill the sick people, but the rest of Kephallonia will remain healthy and safe. Phoebe however will be very sad that he did not save her friend, but this is not the worst part: when, much later, he will have the chance to consult the Pythia at Delphi, the oracle will blame him for letting those innocent people die. On the other hand, if he kills the priests, setting the family free, very soon the whole island will be irreversibly infected, and will remain under the curse of the plague for the rest of the story. This brief quest highlights how much people relied on the gods for such matters: the priests believe that their extreme measures is the right thing to do, certain that they act on behalf of the gods. The moral dilemma, however, remains. Is it worthy to sacrifice a few people for the common good? Or even in such tough situations it is always life that matters above all? Regardless, in this specific case things are quite complicated, because if you let the family live, they will indeed infect the rest of the island, eventually leading more people to death. It is a difficult decision, also foreshadowing similar dilemmas that Alexios will have to deal with later, either with his decisions or with his actions.

The sick family is not an easy case to deal with

One of the important supporting characters in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is the renowned real-life physician Hippokrates, who appears in crucial crossroads during the story's development and has his own brief series of additional quests, which set moral questions related to his profession. Alexios first meets Hippokrates in Argos, during the main story quest "First Do No Harm", after having gathered important information regarding the whereabouts of his mother: after the dramatic events on Mount Taygetos that left her grieving the supposed death of Alexios, Myrrine run away from Sparta with a heavily wounded baby Kassandra and travelled to the Sanctuary of Asklepions in Argolis, in a desperate attempt to save the life of at least one of her children. Hippokrates was a healer in the region, so Alexios went to Argos to seek him out. Arriving at his clinic, however, he saw Chrysis, a priestess of Hera, threatening one of Hippokrates's students, Sostratos, demanding from him to inform the physician that he should stop offering his services to the people, because, according to her, his practices were against the will of the gods.

Alexios saving Sostratos from Chrysis's wrath

In this part of the quest, the conflict between religious beliefs and practical science becomes even more evident, as Chrysis directly accuses Hippokrates of defying the gods by healing his patients. Being a priestess, she blatantly proclaims herself appointed by Hera and Asklepios to offer her clearly suspicious aid to the sick people. Her harsh, threatening demeanor betrays her ulterior motives, however, as her attitude is far from holy. After facing her and saving Sostratos from her wrath, Alexios finally has the chance to speak to Hippokrates, whom he finds in the middle of a healing session. The physician appears collected and calm, the exact opposite of Chrysis, as he attends to his patients.

Alexios finds Hippokrates at a makeshift medical clinic

Back in those times, the "presence" of gods was a standard in everyday life and its activities. Even educated people like Hippokrates or Sokrates would accept the existence of gods without doubting it, at least not to a critical degree. This way of thinking is depicted with great precision in the game, and it is very accurate that Herodotos, being a historian and a scholar with vast knowledge of the past and, therefore, able to look way forward in the future, was the only one to practically realize that people imputing life's events to the gods was in fact an easy way for them to either not take responsibility or deceive others. Hippokrates was somewhere in the middle: he had respect for the gods, he was aware of the power of faith that in many cases would indeed help people get better, but he also knew that practical and actual healing was what a patient truly needed in order to recover. When Alexios sees him for the first time, he is treating a man who does suffer from a disease, but he is also worn out by an emotional wound caused by neglect; and he knows that curing him from the disease, will help him in the sentimental part as well, because he will feel that someone actually cares for him.

Hippokrates and a nurse-in-training treating a very sick patient

This introductory quest ends with Hippokrates asking Alexios to bring him back his notes, needed for the treatment of his patient, that were stolen by Chrysis and were being kept at a nearby fort. During the previous discussion with our hero, the physician told him that at the time when Myrrine arrived seeking help for her baby, he was too young to aid her, so he did not know much about what happened to her there, advising Alexios to visit the Sanctuary of Asklepios and look for the priests who probably had more information to give. Chosing which task to do first is quite tricky, as again picking the one over the other in hierarchy has both good and bad consequences. Going to the fort to retrieve the notes first in the quest "The Doctor Will See You Now", looks like the most logical thing to do, but it comes at a price. Alexios locates what looks like the stolen notes in the room where the fort's physician, Dymas, is treating a patient. The doctor informs our hero that the biggest part of the notes were burnt during an attack at the fort, but thankfully he had studied them before and was able to remember them, therefore he could go to Hippokrates and help him write them down again. Although he expresses his admiration and respect towards Hippokrates, he refuses to follow Alexios back to him, as he has his own patient to look after. At this point, we are given a variety of options on how to deal with him, but the essence is that if Alexios manages to bring Dymas to Hippokrates immediately, independently of how he does it, Hippokrates's patient will be healed, but Dymas's patient will die. If Alexios decides to stay a bit more at the fort and help Dymas treat his patient, the latter will recover but when they go back to Hippokrates, his own patient will have died. The dilemma in this story is not so much of a moral nature, but it rather highlights the struggles that physicians have to deal with, when forced to decide on the fate of their patients. The interesting thing in Dymas's case is that if Alexios offers to pay him a good amount of money so as to follow him back to Hippokrates, the doctor will immediately accept, leaving his patient behind and helpless without the slightest remorse, an outcome that showcases a rather dark side of a character who would look quite honest and responsible in any other case.

Dymas is a healer with weaknesses

The quests involving the Priests of Asklepios, apart from affecting the development of the main story also involve some interesting elements on their own. In the quest "Enough Is Enough" the first priest, Pylenor, sends Alexios to rid off the snakes that have invaded the Sanctuary's bath house, causing the death of a man. As it turns out, Pylenor does not know anything about Myrrine, as he was assigned to the Sanctuary long after she was already gone. But the important detail in his story is that he lets slip off that Chrysis had apparently threatened him to refuse to give any kind of information to Alexios, something that further highlights how worthy the priestess thought herself to be, believing that she was entitled to keep the priests under her control, always declaring that her actions were god-driven.

Pylenor does not look like he takes his role seriously enough

The next priest, Timoxenos, whom Alexios meets in the quest "Written In Stone" has more insight to offer, but he too has been threatened by Chrysis and is not willing to speak to our hero directly. However he leads him to a series or record stones, one of which describes Myrrine's arrival at the Sanctuary. Timoxenos, being an older priest, is far more compassionate than the younger and apparently light-headed Pylenor; moreover he gives Alexios some interesting information about Chrysis and her past; how she used to be a good student at the Sanctuary, but at some point something happened and she became so cruel and authoritative that she managed to keep the place under her control, resulting in everyone being afraid of her.

Timoxenos and Alexios in front of Myrrine's record stone

The third priest, with whom Alexios has the chance to speak in the quest "A Heart For A Head" is the most co-operative of the three, although the brief story involving him sheds more light on the practices carried out at the Sanctuary, as opposed to Hippokrates's medical treatments, as it shifts temporarily to a mini quest inside the quest with one more moral dilemma in its center. The priest is treating a little girl who is suffering from an unidentified disease, and he is planning to perform a series of sacrifices to Asklepios so as to hopefully heal the girl and pray for some other things as well. He sends Alexios to find and bring a specific white bull to be sacrificed for this purpose, but Alexios locates the bull's carcass and brings back only its heart. With just the heart, the priest is able to carry out only one sacrifice, at which point Alexios is asked to choose who will be the one to benefit from the sacrifice: the little girl, a wealthy woman who is afraid that she will die and leave her children behind or a farmer who was the owner of the bull and now that the animal is dead, he can no longer provide for the people under his care.

Alexios has a touch choice to make

After this dilemma is solved, the priest informs Alexios that Mydon, the elder priest, is the one who actually knows Myrrine's story in full and is in fact the only one who can help him in his quest, except for he can't speak because he has cut out his tongue. When Alexios finally meets Mydon in the quest "Speak No Evil", he is informed by the priest's servant that it was Chrysis who made him cut his tongue to prove that he was loyal to her and so that she could make sure that he would never be able to tell anyone about Myrrine. Unbeknownst to Chrysis, however, Mydon had already confessed everything to his servant in the past, so she is able to narrate the whole story to Alexios on his behalf.

The elder priest Mydon and his loyal servant

As it becomes more and more clear that the common denominator in all these events is Chrysis, her role in Kassandra's fate also slowly comes into the light. It is revealed that when Myrrine arrived at the Sanctuary, the baby was almost dead. Mydon was the one that run to help her, but Chrysis, recognizing Myrrine's rare ancestry and her daughter's demigod status, intervened and took the baby, ordering the priest to lie to Myrrine by informing her that they were unable to save Kassandra and she finally succumbed to her wounds. Myrrine left Argolis in despair, and Chrysis took Kassandra in the shadows of the Cult of Kosmos, determined to raise her and train her to be a fierce warrior, just what the Cultists needed in order to dominate the world. During Alexios's final confrontation with her in the quest "Ashes to Ashes", the priestess admits all that she has done, for which she seems to be quite proud. Then she sets an altar on fire and throws a sick baby in it, supposedly to heal it. At this crucial point, Alexios can either stay and save the baby, or run after Chrysis and kill her on the spot. If he stays and saves the baby, the mother arrives looking quite calm; she had entrusted the priestess with healing her baby son, probably after being brainwashed, and she did not mind that Chrysis was about to literally sacrifice him. So the sum of Chrysis's practices was a combination of blackmails, threats and tricks to make the people obey her orders blindly, at the same time obstructing Hippokrates's work by openly discrediting his knowledge and healing practices.

Chrysis is one of the most prominent and most ruthless Cultists

In all this, there is a catch, however, that reveals an interesting fact about Chrysis. If Alexios goes to speak to the Priests of Asklepios before infiltrating the fort to retrieve Hippokrates's notes, a secret quest will become available, titled "Herald of Murder". In this quest, Alexios meets a man called Dolops who is afraid for his life after having been attacked by an unknown assailant. After a brief investigation, leading to the conclusion that the man's landlord wants to kill him, Alexios finds and kills the would-be murderer, who, by the looks of it, was associated with the Cultists. During a revealing discussion later, Dolops tells Alexios that he once was a priest at the Sanctuary, helping orphans there while working with Chrysis. Apparently Dolops was a decent and honest man, who respected the Sanctuary and its protector Asklepios, but Chrysis drove him away. The most shocking revelation however is that he is actually Chrysis's son, obviously illegitimate, for whom she felt shame and for this reason kept her connection to him a secret. This is an information of major importance concerning Chrysis and her actions, as not only it sheds some light on her growing insanity but also Alexios is able to use it against her during their final confrontation. Hippokrates, however, always putting the common good above all as he should, being a healer, will judge Alexios rather rigidly if he seeks the Priests of Asklepios before bringing back his notes, as talking to the priests means filling in the blanks in his own quest, while retrieving the notes would mean a potential cure for several sick people.

Dolops is Chrysis's dark secret

Later in the story, after having learnt enough about the possible whearabouts of his mother, Alexios returns to Athens where a plague has spread. In an nightmarish atmosphere filled with death, our hero comes across Hippokrates again in the side-quest "A Growing Sickness". Although the physician cannot identify the nature of the sickness, he still can offer his valuable services to the sick people, and is aware that, in order to limit any further spread of the epidemic, he needs to burn the dead bodies which are still carrying the disease and are lying in the streets, endangering the citizens who are still healthy. 

Hippokrates getting desperate in the plague-striken Athens

This difficult task however is being sabotaged by a notorious group of religious fanatics called The Followers of Ares, who claim to believe that burning the bodies is sacrilegious and prevent him from burning them by invading the areas where he is trying to work and forcing him to leave. What is interesting about this fanatic group, however, is that although they proclaim themselves as religious and sacred, they are extremely violent, with suspicious ritualistic habits which even include cannibalism. The way they present themselves is also very chilling, as they paint their faces very white, so as to look as intimidating as possible. Although brief, this quest highlights very accurately the recurring issue of the conflict between medicine and fanatical religion. Just like Chrysis, but a lot more blatantly, the Followers of Ares are blindly following orders supposedly given by the gods, disregarding completely the educated, scientific approach of Hippokrates. 

The Followers of Ares are self-proclaimed priests and can be seen carrying sickles

At a later time in Thebes, Alexios finds Hippokrates again offering his services to the locals. The quests involving him there pose a series of very interesting moral dilemmas. In the first one, "The Hunting Party", Hippokrates sends Alexios to find a group of hunters that left many hours ago but hadn't returned. Alexios finds the sole survivor at the hunting grounds nearby, bleeding and nearly dead, surrounded by wild bears. After killing the bears and bringing the hunter back to Hippokrates, the physician seems quite reluctant to tend to the man's wounds. In the follow-up quest "Let My Patients Go", it is revealed that the wounded hunter is in fact a ruthless slave trader, who treats his victims with extreme cruelty. Going through a rather frustrating inner struggle, Hippokrates is facing the moral dilemma of whether he should save the life of a man who has already made so many people suffer or not. It is actually the first time that we see the good doctor having such doubts, which implies that the wounded man is indeed a monster. Regardless, it is safe to make Hippokrates follow the good path and treat the man, as this way he will be at ease with his conscience in the long run. Alexios volunteers to free the man's slaves to further support the physician's decision, advising him also to make the the slave trader understand that it was their good will that actually saved his life.

Alexios persuades Hippokrates to spare the life of the cruel slave trader

When this story is over, Hippokrates goes to see another patient, a very wealthy man named Pentheus, who seems to be on his deathbed. In the quest "Inheritance Insurance", old Pentheus, who is a very influential man in the region and his family is in extreme rivalry with the local powerful leader, asks Alexios to go steal important documents and valuables from the leader's house so as to weaken him and thus make sure that his own young son will not be in danger when he dies. During the dialogue, Alexios has the option to ask the man if he should actually kill the guards in the leader house so as to steal the items, something that results in Hippokrates judging him for bringing cold-blooded murder to the table, albeit he does not exactly express it at the time; the reason is that in the previous story the physician himself considered indirect murder by potentially letting the wounded slave trader die helpless, to which Alexios persuaded him to follow the moral path and aid the man. Now the situation is a bit different, however: since Alexios is a mercenary, essentially a hired killer, it is somehow natural for him to pick the lethal path as a means of action when assigned to a mission. Of course being a mercenary does not mean that he does not have moral values, but many times in his trade murder is part of the contract, so there is no sentimentality involved. Alexios is able to fully control this mindset, as it is part of his training and his job; but for Hippokrates, whose most important task is to actually save lives, suddenly switching to such a mindset would be devastating.

Hippokrates and Alexios discussing Pentheus's case

After Alexios returns to Pentheus with the stolen goods, the sick man pleads Alexios to kill him so as to stop his suffering. It is a wish he had also expressed before, but then his priority was securing his son's future safety. In the quest "Too Much of a Good Thing", Hippokrates is seen facing another moral dilemma, as he knows how much his patient is suffering and that death would mean instant relief for him, on the other hand he cannot bring himself together to end his life. The physician sends Alexios to collect hemlock, a strong poisonous plant which, however, in small doses acts as a temporary tranquilizer and pain inhibitor, so as to make a medicinal mixture with it and give it to Pentheus to help him sleep painlessly for a while. When Alexios brings back the hemlock, and after Hippokrates tasks him with grinding the hemlock, it is his turn to deal with a moral dilemma, of whether he should add the right amount of the herb or apply an overdose so that when Pentheus drinks the medicinal mix he will subsequently die, which was the sick man's wish that he confessed to Alexios previously. Although the choice that Alexios makes at this point is quite crucial regarding his future relationship with the physician, at whichever outcome Hippokrates will realize that he has still a lot to learn about ailments and treatments, and be able, through further research and gained experience, to control both his sentimentality and moral doubts.

Alexios contemplating on whether he should add the right amount of hemlock or not

During the time that Alexios passes with Darius and Neema as part of the "Legacy of the First Blade" story, he comes across a strange case of epidemic in the small seaside town of Potidaia in Makedonia. In the quest "Mysterious Malady", people are getting severely sick from something that is extremely contagious, forcing the local magistrate to kill those who cannot recover. When Alexios arrives to investigate, he is informed that Timosa, the local physician, is missing after having left to collect medicinal herbs to help cure the infected.

The magistrate looks suspicious, but in fact he is desperate

On first look, this story feels similar to the one in Kephallonia, but in reality the situation here is a lot different, as several curious facts are gradually uncovered. Alexios locates Timosa on a remote beach, apparently under attack by soldiers who, strangely enough, work for the magistrate. Then Timosa sends Alexios to sink two ships so that he can retrieve from them two bunches of medicinal herbs that she claims had been stolen from her. In the process of fighting the ships and sinking them, Alexios finds out that the "thieves" were in fact professional bandits hired by someone unknown specifically to kill him. Considering all the facts, as well as Neema's discovery that the drinking water in the village had been poisoned, Alexios realizes that the one responsible for the epidemic is actually Timosa, who not only poisoned the water, but also treated the infected people with unsuitable medication to make them even more sick and eventually cause their death, and she was the one who hired the bandits, orchestrating the supposed theft of her herbs, tasking them with killing Alexios. It is eventually revealed that Timosa is a member of the Order of the Hunters, a sub-branch of the Order of the Ancients which, in turn, is associated with the Cult of Kosmos. 

Timosa first appears as an innocent victim

Although she is indeed a physician, Timosa completely offends against the values of her vocation, ruthlessly leading people to their death instead of helping or healing them. Timosa's case is far more serious than that of Chrysis, because the latter was marginally insane; she did not have any actual medicinal knowledge, and was operating driven by her blind devotion to the Cult, presenting herself as blessed by the goddess Hera. Timosa acts fully consciously and with cold calculation, practically cancelling her quality as a healer and betraying all moral values that she may have had at the early stages of exercising her trade.

Timosa's true nature is eventually revealed when her guards show up unexpectedly

The exact opposite of Timosa is Qamra, a nurse on the island of Lesbos, whom Alexios meets in the quest "Qamra, Medicine Woman". Qamra is treating the sick workers at a rich vinyard, but she misses a few items that are necessary for her work, so she asks Alexios to get them back for her: she has left her tools at a fort's clinic closeby, and her medicinal supplies have been stolen by the evil leader of the Petrified Island and are now heavily guarded in his mansion. Qamra is accompanied by a farmer, who is apparently in charge of the work in the vinyard. By the looks of it, the man is worried more about what will happen to the crop since the workers will be unable to offer their service if they are not healed; unlike Qamra who, being a healer, is more concerned about the people getting well. 

Qamra and the farmer face a conflict of hierarchies

Still on the island of Lesbos, Alexios comes across a woman at a ruined temple, not far from the Petrified Forest where several people have been turned to stone by evil forces, remaining there still like statues. In the mission "The Elixir", the woman presents herself as a scientist who is formulating a special mixture which can reverse the effects of petrification on people.  

The scholar claims she can cure petrification

Alexios agrees to help her by tracking down the three rather peculiar ingredients that she needs, but when he meets her again at her laboratory, he realizes that the supposed medicinal mixture is actually poison, which she makes unsuspecting people drink so as to kill them and then use the bodies as bases for her sculptures. In a humorous note, we could say that the woman is a tribute to the well-known character of the mad scientist who is so popular in fiction. Of course she cannot be judged as a normal case of a healer, because she does not operate as one, even if we assume that there might have been a time in her life when she could have been a true physician.

There are real dead bodies inside the sculptures!

At the Chora of Delphi in Phokis, Alexios meets Lykaon, a young healer whose life story turns out to be very connected to that of our hero's. In the quest "Helping a Healer", Lykaon asks Alexios to collect a bunch of mandrake herbs, which he needs so as to prepare healing mixtures for his patients. After the mixtures are ready, Alexios delivers them to three people who all seem to know Lykaon very well and like him a lot, but all three express their worry because the young physician looks very troubled and restless lately. One of them informs Alexios that Lykaon lost his parents when he was very young, and was raised by his grandmother who, according to the man, is a cursed woman. 

Lykaon is a good doctor with a mysterious aura

A bit later, in the quest "Sins of the Past", Alexios finds out that Lykaon has also prepared an extra mixture with an overdose of mandrake herbs, so as to give it to his grandmother and kill her by poisoning. Shocked at that revelation, because Lykaon is clearly far from being the killing kind, Alexios starts investigating this strange case. As it turns out, Praxithea, Lykaon's grandmother, used to be an Oracle at the Delphi. Following orders by the Cult of Kosmos, she inadvertently ruined many people's lives, even leading them to their deaths. Lykaon, knowing that all her supposed prophesies were deceits, and realizing that she was never going to get punished for spreading lies for so many years, decided to take justice in his own hands by killing Praxithea himself. It is revealed that the Pythia who ordered Kassandra's death years ago, was in fact Praxithea giving one more false prophecy made up by the Cult, a fact that unexpectedly connects the destinies of Alexios and Lykaon in a rather dramatic way. Soon they find out that Praxithea has been kidnapped, obviously by guards of the Cultists; as soon as the Cult knew that Alexios was in Phokis, they took care to rid off Praxithea to avoid a meeting between the two and prevent Praxithea from confessing the truth about her false prophecy to him.

Alexios and Lykaon discuss about Praxithea's fate

In the follow-up quest "The Unkindest Cut", Alexios frees Praxithea from her captors, but then the time comes for yet one more moral dilemma to be solved. Lykaon insists that he has to kill his grandmother, so as to do justice to all the families that she ruined in the past. However it is something that, deep down, he does not want to do, because, as a healer, his task is to save lives, not take them. Moreover, like Praxithea also says, he is a good man; doing something so hideous would destroy his life. There are several ways to deal with this situation, but clearly the best is to dissuade Lykaon from killing his grandmother. Exactly because he never truly wanted to do it, and his only motive was a high sense of moral responsibility towards society, the few consoling words that Alexios says to him are enough to persuade him, so that Praxithea will stay alive and he will be able to go on with his life with a clear conscience.

Praxithea sincerely regret her past actions

It is notable however that if Alexios encourages Lykaon to kill Praxithea, the healer will be unable to do it, something that further highlights that killing her was never something that he really wanted to do. Lykaon's story is one of the most touching and thought-provoking among the game's supporting quests because it proves to have a close connection to the family story of Alexios, as Praxithea's prophecy was the start of all the misfortune that essentially affected the direction that Alexios's life eventually took. As a physician, Lykaon has many similarities with Hippokrates when it comes to ethics and morality. Both men are good-hearted and compassionate, they are healers with the full sense of the word and when it comes to tough choices, they both have a hard time deciding between what is the right thing to do and what their heart truly commands.

Alexios finally persuades Lykaon to not commit murder

Upon arriving on Lemnos on the hunt for a local Cultist, Alexios learns that his good friend Barnabas has a nephew on the island, a young man named Neleus who is a talented athlete but also very lazy. In the house where Neleus is staying for his training, Alexios and Barnabas are informed by Mikkos, the young man's caretaker, that Neleus is very sick, to the point where he cannot even walk; nobody can find out what exactly happened to him, and additionally many other gifted athletes have recently fallen sick with similar symptoms, while a few others have disappeared and nobody knows where they are.

Mikkos is Alexios's main lead for the solution of the mysterious case on Hephaistos Islands

Following Mikkos's clues, Alexios travels to the neighbouring island of Thasos and investigates the local quarry where there are many sick workers, also sharing common symptoms with Neleus. A young but rather sick-looking man named Solon seems willing to give some information, being also the only one there whose mind is clear enough to allow him think and talk relatively properly. During the brief discussion that follows, Alexios learns that the key person in this case is a doctor who has all the sick people at the quarry under his care; the doctor should have been there to give them an antidote so as to heal them from that strange condition which he calls "mind fog", but soldiers came and dragged him away. Alexios finds the doctor imprisoned in a cave at a nearby camp, so he sneaks in and frees him in order to make him talk.

The quarry's doctor is a very interesting, multi-leveled character

The doctor confesses that he formulates a special tonic, but sometimes this "medicine" causes side-effects to the people who take it, specifically the mind-fog that Solon described. To cure them from this, the doctor has to prepare a special antidote, but sometimes it is either too late for the patient or the side-effects are too severe, and the antidote cannot work. Following more leads, Alexios investigates a gymnasium in Thasos City that all the sick or missing athletes had been visiting for their training, and learns from the chief trainer that there a rich man used to visit the place from time to time, accompanied by strange men; this bizarre group would sit and and watch the strongest and most gifted athletes who subsequently would stop coming at the gymnasium. Alexios locates the rich man, Karpos, in a nearby villa where all sorts of entertainment take place, and there is a special wine served there, reserved for the gifted athletes as a reward for their hard training. 

Karpos is a man who easily switches sides to keep himself safe

Little by little, all facts come to light and it is finally revealed that Karpos, following the Cult's orders, either because he was being paid very well or because he was blackmailed (or both), would visit the gymnasium with the Cultists; the latters would watch the performance of the athletes, picking out those that looked stronger and more talented than the rest. Then Karpos would invite those athletes to his villa with promises of wine, entertainment and sex for any taste, the athletes would happily indulge and as soon as they got to the villa, they would be served the special wine which, in fact, was imbued with the doctor's tonic, a special formula that made people superhumanly strong. This was another evil plan by the Cult, to make the already strong athletes even stronger and turn them into fierce soldiers for their army. Some of the athletes however suffered from side-effects, so they could not be used as soldiers; those were taken by the doctor and sent to the quarry as workers. Then the doctor treated them with his antidote, hoping it would help them recover. Neleus was among those select athletes, who additionally had side-effects after drinking the special wine; apparently he started feeling unwell at Karpos's villa and somehow managed to leave and go back to Mikkos's house before the doctor had the time to take notice and lead him to the quarry. As the case is gradually being resolved, the Cult becomes aware that their plan has been exposed; they send soldiers at the quarry, who kill all the sick workers and fatally wound the doctor. While dying, the doctor gives Alexios the antidote for Neleus and expresses his sadness about the murder of his patients, for whom he truly seemed to care in his own twisted way. 

The dying doctor begs Alexios to end his life

The case of the doctor in this story is a very interesting and unique one, as he is a character with a rather quirky attitude and an even quirkier way of thinking. It is not that he does not have a sense of morality; more like, he has a weird view of morality and how it should guide his actions and decisions. Although his supposed treatment caused harm to people, he seemed to form an oddly strong bond with those who suffered from the side-effects of his tonic. It is characteristic that he calls his patients "pets", but in an obviously affectionate way, almost giving the impression that, in his eyes, the affected athletes became his "creations" after drinking his potion. In spite of him looking rather frivolous, it gradually becomes clear that his inner struggle is suffocating him. On the one hand, the scientific facts produced by his experiments are extremely valuable to him; on the other, he feels sorry for subjecting so many people to suffering. Marginally deranged, possibly a result of him witnessing the evil doings of the Cult and eventually realizing that he was actually helping them, he still managed to maintain some clear sense, something that becomes evident in his last moments, somehow making up for the pain he had caused to so many innocent people.