Diomedes

Diomedes is an ancient Astral researcher who once ranked beneath only the first Astral leader. Bound to the Deep Sea Sorrow tree for roughly twenty thousand years, he becomes the living converter for an unfinished attempt to give Astrals physical bodies and later assists Su Chen with research while remaining an untrusted and self-interested ally.

Biography

The unfinished Spring

Diomedes served as viceroy under the first Astral ruler, Achilles, and revived the Spring of Immortality project around the thousandth year of the Astral era. He hoped that liquefied Origin Energy and the principles of creation could give the bodiless Astrals stable physical forms, restoring possibilities their transformed race had lost. His disappearance halted the work and contributed to the ruin of the Reproductive Temple. When Su Chen finds him, Diomedes appears as an old specter growing from the Deep Sea Sorrow tree, still regretting that he never secured the Origin Bone Scepter for the project. (Chapters 979–980)

Daniel Imbly and the crippled Corniga bound Diomedes into the Spring's apparatus as its converter. Diomedes insists that their actions were intended to help him, even though the arrangement leaves him unable to use the resulting medicine and trapped inside the tree for millennia. Corniga's later control also leaves the Spring's accelerated life creation with dangerous side effects. The precise consent, construction process, and division of responsibility remain incompletely explained, and Diomedes is not consistently truthful when recounting his past. (Chapters 980–981 and 1003)

Research partnership and return

Trapped with Su Chen on an isolated void island, Diomedes studies the Spring and helps refine pills connected to Thought Manifestation. He proposes opening a passage between realms so that missing ingredients can be obtained and exchanges ancient theory for Su Chen's practical resources. Their work also exposes limits in his knowledge: he can explain broad changes in primal energy but cannot answer every question the modern cultivator asks. When Su Chen leaves, he shrinks and carries away the tree, taking Diomedes with him rather than freeing him from it. (Chapters 984–991)

During the assault on Gloom City, Su Chen asks Diomedes for help against the Astrals. Diomedes initially refuses to fight his own race, then accepts their extinction and asks that the Dark Astrals be spared and the converter destroyed. He explains the Ascension process and Vitality Tunnel needed for the final confrontation. His last appearance leaves him alive as a tree-bound specter in Su Chen's custody, not restored to an independent body. (Chapters 1039–1040)

Appearance and personality

Diomedes appears as a spectral old man whose lower body protrudes from and merges with the Deep Sea Sorrow tree. He is first encountered asleep after an imprisonment of roughly twenty thousand years. The corpus does not give reliable clothing, facial, height, or coloring details beyond his aged, incorporeal form and physical attachment to the tree. (Chapter 979)

He is knowledgeable, patient, proud of ancient Astral scholarship, and strongly committed to the possibility of renewing his race. He can cooperate productively when another researcher offers a path forward, yet Su Chen concludes that he has lied several times and never grants him full trust. His final refusal to attack Astrals shows continuing loyalty, while his request for mercy toward Dark Astrals accepts that the old race can no longer be saved. (Chapters 984–991, 1003, and 1039–1040)

Abilities and cultivation

Diomedes is a high-level Astral consciousness and life-research specialist, but the corpus assigns him no conventional cultivation realm or Arcana ring. His former rank indicates authority and expertise, not a measurable current combat tier. Because he remains bound to the tree and performs no sustained duel, his offensive strength and defensive limits are unknown. (Chapters 979–991)

Spring conversion and life research

The Spring uses liquefied Origin Energy and Origin Substance to accelerate creation and physical growth. Diomedes serves as a converter within its tree-based apparatus, helping turn raw processes into usable results and later assisting Su Chen in stabilizing research products. The system can create or transform life, but Corniga's interference produces side effects, and Diomedes himself cannot drink the medicine because he lacks an independent physical body. (Chapters 980–989)

His contribution to the Thought Manifestation pills is intellectual and technical: he analyzes the Spring, identifies missing resources, and helps refine a path Su Chen can use. The corpus does not isolate which steps belong solely to Diomedes, give a repeatable recipe in his hands, or show him producing the pills after leaving the void island. (Chapters 984–989)

Astral knowledge and limitations

Diomedes understands ancient creation theory, Astral transformation, the Ascension process, and the Vitality Tunnel. This knowledge makes him strategically useful during Gloom City's fall and places his research tradition near those of later leaders such as Menelaus. However, long isolation has left gaps in his understanding of the changed world, and his testimony must be weighed against his demonstrated deception. (Chapters 984–991, 1003, and 1039–1040)

His latest state remains constrained by the Deep Sea Sorrow tree. Su Chen can transport the tree and consult him, but no scene establishes that Diomedes can separate from it, receive a new body, regain independent mobility, or resume ordinary Astral combat. (Chapters 991 and 1039–1040)

Relationships

• Su Chen: Su Chen discovers, questions, and researches with Diomedes, then takes the entire tree away. They exchange knowledge, but Su Chen distrusts Diomedes's lies and retains practical control over his mobility. (Chapters 979–1003)
• Daniel Imbly and Corniga: They incorporate Diomedes into the Spring as its converter. Diomedes calls their action help, although its result is millennia of confinement and a system vulnerable to Corniga's later interference. (Chapters 980–981)
• Menelaus: Diomedes will not directly help destroy Menelaus's Astrals, but he eventually accepts that the race is doomed and provides information relevant to Gloom City's final conflict. (Chapters 1039–1040)

Items

The finalized item inventory for Diomedes contains no entries. He sought the Origin Bone Scepter for the Spring project but never obtained it in the supplied corpus.