Mithos Yggdrasill

Mithos Yggdrasill (ミトス・ユグドラシル) is the primary antagonist and final boss of Tales of Symphonia.

Past
Mithos's full name is Mithos Yggdrasill, although this is not revealed until extremely late in the story. Part of the character's intrigue is that "Mithos" is known as a great hero, and it is not known that he is still alive until late in the story, whereas "Yggdrasill" is a great villain, an angel with great power who is renowned for incredible feats, but whose past is completely unknown. It is not revealed that "Mithos" and "Yggdrasill" are one and the same until late in the story. In other words, "Mithos" is the true form of Mithos the Hero, whilst the "Yggdrasill" form is just a form he took on to be a "more befitting leader of Cruxis". According to legend, Mithos and his three companions stopped the Ancient Kharlan War and restored peace to the world. Early in the story, it is believed that they had sealed away the Desians. Later, however, the war is discovered to have been between Sylvarant and Tethe'alla; the Desians were completely irrelevant. This group of mythical heroes was composed of three half-elves and one human. Mithos's full name is revealed with the identities of the heroes: Kratos Aurion, Mithos's sister Martel Yggdrasill, and Yuan Ka-Fai. They would later be referred to as the Four Seraphim, the leaders of Cruxis. The group has existed for over 4,000 years by the time of Tales of Symphonia. Although Martel was slain in the war, her soul still exists in a dormant state within her Exsphere.

During the War, the companions went through many great hardships due to discrimination against half-elves, fueled by both humans and elves. Because of this discrimination, Mithos and Martel were blamed for an unnamed misfortune and expelled from their home of Heimdall. They heard of Sylvarant's approaching invasion of Tethea'lla and tried to stop it, only to be ignored because of their race. After the fall of Tethe'alla's capital, Mithos was joined by Kratos, who trained him as a swordsman and a mage. Yuan would complete their party later on. Mithos would eventually go on to become the great hero of legend by single-handedly making pacts with each of the Summon Spirits, although he had Kratos make the pact with the King of Summon Spirits, Origin, in his place. Mithos then had Origin create the near-omnipotent Eternal Sword, which he used to split the world in two to create the parallel worlds of Tethe'alla and Sylvarant, in order to prevent more magitechnology from being created. The Ancient Kharlan War was caused by magitechnology, which consumes vast amounts of mana. By splitting the world in two halves and having them vie for the small amount of remaining mana, Mithos effectively stopped the creation of magitechnology and prevented a second cataclysmic global war. Part of the pact with Origin was a promise that he would restore the Great Seed to the world so that it could grow again; this would restore mana to the land. Instead, Mithos took it to Derris-Kharlan in order to revive and protect his dead sister, thereby breaking his pact with the Summon Spirits.

Mithos had strong ideals about peace and unity, but his sister's death deepened his hatred for humanity and made him lose track of whether the world or her life was more important to him. He took her final words to heart; her wish was for a world without discrimination, which he interpreted as a wish to end the persecution of half-elves. What Martel truly wanted was an end to discrimination between all the different races, as stated by Yuan. Mithos's ideals then became twisted; he came to the conclusion that the only way for discrimination to end was, in his own words: "By using the Exspheres to eliminate the different bloods that flow within elves and humans, everyone will become the same lifeless beings. Discrimination will vanish. That is the grand age I strive for. People fear and hate what is not normal. They are scared of those that are different. Then the solution is for everyone to become the same".

To this end, he began mutating half-elves, using a superior form of Exsphere known as Cruxis Crystals. These Cruxis Crystals turned their subjects into near-immortal, angel-like entities at the cost of the things that made them human. These "angels" are often referred to as "lifeless beings". Even if the body of an angel was destroyed, the Exsphere would also need to be destroyed as well for them to truly die; it was possible to live on in a Cruxis Crystal even after the body of its host had been destroyed. Mithos also founded the Church of Martel and thereafter became the absolute ruler of the two worlds. In order to resurrect Martel, Mithos would need to find a subject whose mana signature was nearly identical to Martel's. Acting as a supreme lord of the angels, he manipulated the bloodlines of the citizens of the two worlds for over 4,000 years in order to create this vessel. Mithos declared Martel a goddess and manipulated history to remember her as a hero.

Life and Eventual Death
Despite the fact that he truly means well and he believes that he is saving the world, Mithos creates enemies everywhere; even his former companions, Kratos and Yuan, turn against him. Seventeen years before the game begins, Kratos escapes from Mithos's grasp and takes a human wife, Anna. They have a son, Lloyd Irving, but due to the interference of Kvar, one of the Five Desian Grand Cardinals, Anna is killed and Lloyd is lost. Believing that his son is dead, Kratos gives up on life, returning to Mithos. Lloyd does not discover who his true father is until late in the story. Yuan, the third of the Four Seraphim, is a scheming and devious warrior. Instead of opposing Mithos directly, as Kratos does, he chooses to become a double agent, using his influence and knowledge of Cruxis's actions to foil their plans with his secret underground organization, the Renegades. Yuan was engaged to Martel before she died. This is the only reason that, when Mithos discovers that Yuan is betraying him, he does not kill him, believing Martel would never forgive him if he did. Yuan later assists the party.

After Ozette is destroyed by the Light of Judgment sent down from the heavens by Cruxis, Mithos appears for the first time in his child form. He convinces the party that he is an outsider of Ozette, and joins the group, befriending Genis Sage. He gives Genis his panpipes, which are later used to summon both Mithos and the Summon Spirit Aska. Mithos next appears in his angelic form at the Tower of Salvation, where he saves Genis' life and drops the panpipes in the process. Genis then begins to suspect Mithos's true identity. Mithos's stay with the party marks his own internal conflict, which he speaks of only with Noishe. For the first time since his sister's death, he considers the possibility that what he is doing is wrong, and struggles with a growing liking for the group, particularly Genis, Raine, and Lloyd. He also says that he is tired of his prolonged existence, and that if he is wrong, he has no reason for living.

Later in the story, in the Hall of the Great Seed, Mithos manages to revive Martel by channeling his sister's consciousness through Colette Brunel. Contradictory to Mithos's expectations, the awakened Martel expresses deep regret and disappointment at what her brother has done. She begs him to stop creating his Age of Lifeless Beings, saying that what he has been doing is wrong. Mithos sees this as the ultimate betrayal, driving him to a state of total denial and insanity and leaving him as the only one of the Four Seraphim who still believes in the Age of Lifeless Beings. Outraged, he attacks the party and loses, his body vanishing into his Cruxis Crystal. Unknown to the rest of the party, it is picked up by Genis, Mithos's only true friend. After the duel between Lloyd and Kratos in Heimdall and the making of the pact between Sheena Fujibayashi and Origin, Mithos's spirit leaves the Cruxis Crystal and tries to possess Lloyd. He is stopped by whichever character Lloyd has the best relationship with, whom Mithos takes over instead, and escapes to Derris-Kharlan. Believing that his sister wanted to leave the world, he moves Derris-Kharlan, which, in turn, separates the world. Mithos and the character are found in Derris-Kharlan, where Lloyd saves the character from Mithos's control.

As the party makes their way through Welgaia, the Holy City of Derris-Kharlan, Mithos's spirit within the Cruxis Crystal reaches out to each of the party members in a desperate attempt to get them to join him. One by one, the party rejects him, pledging to risk everything in order to stop him. Mithos fights the group for the last time in his castle, where the Great Seed appears to be, in an attempt to destroy the world and build a new one on Derris-Kharlan. When Mithos is finally defeated and killed in the throne room of Vinheim, his castle, he tells the party that he feels no regret for the choices he made, and, if given the chance, he would do everything all over again. Lloyd then destroys Mithos's Cruxis Crystal, truly killing him. In the PlayStation 2 version of the game, an additional battle was added in the optional dungeon Niflheim. At the end of the dungeon, Lloyd's group must face copies of Mithos, Kratos and Yuan, who explain that they have been left as guardians until someone who can destroy the world of Niflheim arrives. As they were still on their quest to save the Great Tree, they could not leave their real bodies, only their memories. Before they disappear, Mithos asks if they have succeeded in their quest to make half-elves less hated, and asks Lloyd to help their real selves revive the Tree.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
Although Mithos himself does not reappear in Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, he is mentioned by Lloyd many times during the eighth chapter of the game. After visiting the Tower of Salvation, a skit triggers with Tenebrae, the Centurion of Darkness, who asks Lloyd of Mithos's whereabouts. Lloyd responds that Mithos became the new World Tree himself, or so he believes, without mention of his time as an antagonist. When Emil Castagnier talks to Lloyd in Flanoir, Mithos is also briefly mentioned when Lloyd says that one time he had a friend that he could not save and as a result, he had to kill him.

Fighting Style
Mithos acts in a similar manner in all of his fights. He has devastating magical powers at both melee and long range. While he moves slowly across the battle field, he prefers to teleport around the area to evade his enemies. Like other angel enemies, Mithos is strong against light and weak against darkness. When fighting Mithos's first form as the final boss, his normal attacks do not guard break from the rear. Mithos appears in a total of four forms throughout the story. In his angelic form, he appears as a tall, adult Mithos, complete with angel wings, which he uses to portray the leader of Cruxis. His true form is a short, blonde-haired, innocent-looking half-elf, which he uses to infiltrate the group. His avenger form is similar to his child form with rainbow-colored angel wings, which he reverts to when he is angry. His final form is a giant, fearsome robot-like creature, in which the only recognizable part is Mithos's head inside the "cockpit". The form is the physical manifestation of all of Mithos's sins, similar to those of the previously defeated minibosses known only as The Judged, The Neglected, and The Fugitive.

Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 3
Mithos also appears in his Yggdrasill form in Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 3 as a boss in the ancient city. His costume can be crafted and used by Frio Sven, and it is also worn by Frio's evil self in the final boss battle, along with the evil Kyaro Orange wearing Shizel's costume.

Trivia

 * Mithos's last name is derived from Yggdrasil, a great tree in Norse mythology.
 * In Tales of Phantasia, there is a giant tree providing infinite mana known as Yggdrasill. At the end of Tales of Symphonia, when the Giant Kharlan Tree is revived, Lloyd is prompted to give it a name, but that name is never revealed.