The Prisoner, The Thief, The Tower, and the Pursuit of CHIM

I’m a relatively new scholar. I recently discovered that the game I spent so much time on in middle/high school was far deeper than I had suspected. I have been replaying it for the last few weeks—taking the time to invest myself in the texts. It’s truly an example of artistic merit in gaming. This will be my second post on this subreddit, so please feel free to correct me on any mistakes.

Inspired by our own /u/Prince-Of-Plots’ pat-on-the-head encouragement, I’d like to take a stab at answering one of the seemingly infinite questions brought up by even a casual reading of MK’s mythopoetic ramblings.

What gives the mythic archetype of “the Prisoner” so much power? Where does it stand in relation to the King/Rebel/Observer?

Or, straight from the devil’s mouth:

what in the Aurbis makes the Prisoner such a powerful mythic figure?

To understand the importance of the Prisoner, we must understand the importance of the Tower.

According to Vehk’s Teaching, the Tower holds the secret to CHIM. The tower is representative of the barrier we face in our journey to realize our potential to say “I AM” in the face of the alien terror that is God.

The Tower is the fourth constellation, and the Thief is the third. The tower is a place to keep things, crown jewels, prisoners, secrets to apotheosis, all things a Thief would be interested in. The Thief could be any average Joe born under a certain star, seeking enlightenment, trying to break into the Tower.

The Prisoner, however, is born to uncertain stars. The Prisoner is someone locked in the tower with CHIM, whose fate is their own to decide. They have the potential to become a ruling king, due to their freedom from the stars.

If CHIM is a walking path (out of the godhead, into reality), and the Prisoner is imprisoned within the secret of the tower (CHIM), then we could say that the Prisoner is imprisoned within reality.

Escaping the tower means that the Prisoner is seeking freedom from reality. Escapism. Fantasy. We are all Prisoners.

But the Prisoner knows reality exists, and is thus predispositioned to learning the secret of the tower, without being constrained by fate to follow a certain path, other than the one they choose through their actions.

The Prisoner is the Thief, but one step ahead.

As to its standing in relation to the King/Rebel/Observer, I must admit I had to do a bit of research to even know what those concepts referred to!

I believe they are entirely unrelated. The Prisoner may occupy any of those roles or none, due to his or her inherent lack of predisposition.