What a great game! Really love the mystery and clever lore. My thoughts:
Spoilers
Myrddin is the modern-day version of Merlin - an illusionist, seer, and a shapeshifting cambion (half human, half incubus).
Myrddin is faceless, yet that quickly becomes the least interesting thing about him (he mentions something similar in the “room full of stuff suddenly empty and vice versa” speech). His overall appearance and demeanor are disarming and attractive while also being off-putting and egotistical. He can change his appearance, but it takes effort.
Myrddin’s half incubus side is both why he can change his appearance and why it is not as effortless as it would be for a full incubus.
We are told to “beware the false prophet” for a reason. According to another legend, Merlin was created to become the medieval version of the antichrist. A priest baptized him as an infant so he couldn’t be used for evil, but he was still a “disturbing and prodigious child”.
This explains Myrddin’s reasons for considering himself a genius, for refusing to hide his unappreciated talents like someone wanted him to, and why the powers that be imprisoned a CHILD in a box. (the box ties to a legend where a conniving princess traps Merlin in a stone box to die)
Anyway, they weren’t overreacting. They saw something we can’t, because he wasn’t yet skilled enough to manipulate them like he’s manipulating us. He’s had centuries or millennia to learn encrypted chess while we’re still using our fingers to add 2 and 2.
He’s stated repeatedly that what we’re seeing isn’t real. He is playing us for fools, and the comments that believe him have been super interesting to read.
THE BOX
There are plenty of theories, but I want to stick with the one that made the most sense to me based on limited info.
He only knows what the sky looks like based on pictures…but is it ever made clear that the pictures he sees are in books he’s physically read? I don’t remember learning how Myrddin manifests these books with titles, authors, and places he’s never seen.
He’s reading an unusual amount of fairy tales and fact books; what was fiction in one timeline (technology, science) is fact in this one, and vice versa. The answers he needs could be in either.
Are his dreams, daydreams, imagination, etc. actually visions - and is he exploiting these rare glimpses across timelines to find materials and methods to escape?
How many of his own past, present, and future timelines has he seen? Is the box blocking him from seeing this timeline’s future for a reason?
Oh, and why are there so many of the oddly specific “helpful advice” questions in comparison to other options?
Why are they correlated to strong emotions?
I think it’s because that’s what Myrddin needs. We are the key.
If the dev is using the modern definition of a cambion, I think that he is growing into his full powers. The box is kinda like a surge protector, lightning rod, grounding cable, etc.
(It’s possible an alternate version of Myrddin created it as a trap for himself? Because he saw the future, and it looked VERY bad. Anyway.)
Every answer we give him feeds his power, and he’s using us to expand his limited capacity. Being a kind, listening ear is boosting him.
As the conversations progress, he gets drained because the box is made to keep him at a certain level of power. Enough to function, but not to break free. Our interactions with him cause him to expend more energy than he’s getting right now, but he keeps having growth surges. The box can tell something is off and it’s fighting back. It can’t get rid of us because he used the surge recovery period - when the defenses are temporarily weakened and he can briefly connect to the outside world - to summon us.
But now that we’re in the box with him, maybe we can’t leave either?
We’re supposed to help him “find the key” to escape.
But can we?
Should we?
