I found this video and remembered, that I had similar thoughts regarding Mephistopheles. I know, there was a disscussion about the Emperors invovlments somewhere, but I never thought about Raphaels deeper involvment. But this does make sense imo.
Bullet-Points:
- Gortash and Durge come up with the plan. (book lore in game) - Mephistopheles actually allowed them to steal the Crown of Karsus in hopes to jump in and use it to his advantage (what exactly is his plan? Getting the tadpoled souls, before tehy turn and become soulless?) - Mephistopheles is known to be pretty paranoid and Cania has a lot of magical traps. I always find it strange that some dudes just stroll in there and steal the most inferious artefact in Faerun - Raphael wants to disrupt his fathers and Gortashs plans by making a deal with Vlaakith (Orpheus is bound by infernal chains and Raph has the Orphic Hammer) and having a weapon against teh Absolute) - not sure, if Orpheus was always in infernal chains in that prison or if Raphael approached Vlaakith later. He could just have gotten involved in case, it turned out to his advantage - Gortash finds out about the Astral Prism and sends Empi and Nautiloid to retrieve it (book lore in game) - Emperor tadpoled us after he found the Astral Prism to get helpers against the Absolute
Here is the video, who explains it better, than me (mushy brain today):
What do you all think? Is Mephsitopheles involvment too far fetched here? I think, it is telling, that he is in the background for a lot of stuff (Cazador/ritual, Crown, Raphaels dad) and I don't give Gortash and Durge enough credit for being able to actually break into his secret vaults to retrieve an artefact of this importance without him knowing.
The Youtuber mentions the different eyes from first mindflayer, who tadpoles us, and Empi. But that can be because the first cutscene was there unchanged since EA.
"We are all stories in the end. Just make it a good one."
