Midas (pronounced MY-dahs) was an Eretreban hero-god who lived in the early tenth millennium. A master alchemist, he was obsessed with learning how to transform common materials to gold, a feat he finally achieved in a limited form shortly before he was discovered to have transmuted himself in the same manner.
Though Midas has been dead for many centuries, his faith lives on, albeit in a greatly altered form, as Midianism.
Edicts and anathema
- Edicts
- None (hero-god deceased)
- Anathema
- None (hero-god deceased)
Description
Born in Eretrebus in Y8996*, Midas was by all accounts a reclusive and eccentric figure. After a brief stint in his youth as a moderately successful merchant, following in the footsteps of his family, he eventually retreated inwards and secluded himself on his estate on Mount Theumea. There he threw himself into his real interest, alchemy, with a particular fascination with the transmutation of metals.
He labored for years to little recognition, but his fortunes changed after a breakthrough in Y9038*. In a dramatic reveal in Iareios, Midas proved he had mastered the ability to change living things to pure gold, demonstrating his discovery first on a potted plant, then on a butterfly, and finally on a horse. He began to attract a following as a hero-god very soon after, yet he was not to enjoy this status for long, as merely two years later in Y9040* Midas was discovered dead, turned to pure gold, when a relative came to visit him on his mountainside estate.
Those who examined the copious notes Midas left behind were quickly disappointed, as he had evidently never written down in any form his most prized discovery. The cryptic notes and studies he did record, however, provided many secrets of their own, some of which the alchemist had never shared publicly during his life. Gradually these began to take on a life of their own, interpreted in new ways by the first few generations of those who professed to be his disciples. The modern Eretreban philosophy and mystery cult of Midianism is a direct descendant of these interpretations, albeit one that would likely be unrecognizable to the hero-god himself.
Rumors continue to swirl about the circumstances behind Midas' death. The Midianite canon is that he constructed himself an afterlife as the pinnacle of his experimentation, using the vast wealth he had gained through his alchemy to fuel this ritual. The Bank-Temple in Iareios is said to contain his physical remains, in whatever form they may be in, but neither the Grand Treasurer nor any Teller are willing to divulge their secrets.
Location of worship
During his lifetime the majority of Midas' followers were fellow inhabitants of Eretrebus, though he had some adherents amongst the inhabitants of the Ersas city-states and within Halakros. Unlike with modern Midianism, worshipers of the hero-god were found across social strata, including both the common folk and his peers in the upper classes.