The Most Interesting Character in Vengeance

Hermetic.

This guy is important. And I can't figure out why. Ever since I saw his art proof, my brain has gone crazy thinking of how he fits in the greater narrative and the Scholar in general.

On the Hermetic's actual card, the flavor text mentions that the vials in his dwelling are not poisons, but antidotes. Antidotes for what exactly? What would a villain need antidotes for?

The red stone is, I assume, an attempt to recreate the Philosophers stone. 

In the Sentinels deck, Hermetic makes another apperance. The flavor text here is also very suspect. "Dont you know who I am?" That could just be hot air a bad guy says when he is caught...but flavor text is chosen more carefully than that. There is something more at play here.

The silver creature on Parses Reveal the Flaws has a clear alchemy symbol on its head. How are the Scholar/Hermetic possibly involved with it?

There is no solid connections I can make with any of this, but theres too much little bits and pieces to think its not significant.

I think that Hermetic represents a different aspect of the alchemical sciences, one that is potentially a lot nastier than the Scholar's approach.  

Here is my reasoning...

The scholar is about changing himself (through alchemical means) and influencing other people/events through advice, action, and intervention.  The changes that he enacts are based on helping people better understand themselves, so that they can continue the cycle of changing themselves (if that is their decision).  His place is to start the change and then let the other person carry it along (or not).  He spends a lot of time holding back and thinking before taking action.

I think that Hermetic represents a facet that is about changing other things/people (through alchemical means), and influencing events through them.  He enacts change, and then observes the consequences and gains understanding through the results.  It could be beneficial, it could be decidedly malevolent, depending on what he was seeking to get out of it.  I could see Hermetic providing an antidote... tailored to a poison he brewed up earlier. Or I could see him witholding assistance to the heroes because he gained nothing from helping them.   Or because he had been promised a relic/book that furthered his own ambitions.  I don't think he's a major player- i see him as a relatively nasty outsider who knows way more than everyone else and delights in hoarding such knowledge.  The antidotes could be for poisons, but they could just as easily be antidotes for social/mental traits like complacency or wanderlust or kindness (since there is no reason why they can't also be antidotes to good things!)

I think the this thread of thinking. Scholar influencing change through others while Hermetic changes others to further his influence.

Is it possible that Hermetic transformed Scholar into the silver thing on Reveal the Flaws? Could it be connected to Scholars incap?

He might end up just being a very minor character, but his appearence in the Sentinels deck with the flavor text is very odd indeed.

On his nemmy card, he mentions that none of the vials are poisons. My immediate thought are these are not antidotes for a poison, but for something else. Could he possibly have made Barons "Regression Darts"? An antidote for superpowers? 

Transforming the scholar into a controlled golem would be very, very interesting.  It would also be very antithetical to the Scholar's personality and mindset... It seems like it would take a LOT of power to pull off, and I doubt the results would be stable.  

Wow, that would be interesting.

Yah, that was my impression, that they were antidotes to things that he considered problems.  Could be anything, ambition, self-esteem, personal drive.  It just depends on what his "perfect world" is, and thus, what he needs to "cure" to create it.

Meddling interlopers, the laughter of children…

Maybe the antidotes he talks about are for him.

Follow me here. He is shown trying to create/fiddle with a red stone. Presumably this is trying to copy the Philosophers stone (as that is a very common theme in stories where the PS is present). That false stone, while most likely powerful, might take a large toll on him personally. Maybe there is a Jekyll/Hyde dynamic here. Without those antidotes, maybe he is the one that transforms himself into this Alchemy monster thing?

I could see that!  It also makes his statements much more threatening in a "you don't want to see me when I'm angry..." kind of way.

Couldn’t poison be called an antidote for life?

Hermeticism is an actual philosophy, among other things.  A hermetic seal is also a thing meaning, essentially, airtight. 

Not sure if anyone metioned it yet, still reading some of the new posts, but the alchemy table Hermetic is using is straight out of Skyrim. Even those herbs are hanging from the same type of thing found in Skyrim.

I seem to recall that there have been previous Skyrim references in SOTM, or am I imagining that?

Tachyon used to be a hero like them, then she took a bullet to the knee.

I was wondering about this, too.  It's amazing what a malicious perspective can do to one's choice of words.

Only if you regard life as a toxin or contaminant…

That’s my question. Can the Hermetic regard it that way making his statement literal albeit insane?

He could believe that groups of people were poisonous, and the antidote for saving humanity would be killing them.

like heroes...

ECCH