Talk:King Theodoric
Transcript from Erik
I added a bunch of information from Erik, the historian NPC from the Monk quests. I've tried to integrate this seamlessly into the original text wherever possible. Below is the transcript of his lines, if anyone wants to double-check my work.
Erik: As I likely explained if you have ever bothered to ask me about monks and the Fist of Rhalgr, the King of Ruin, Theodoric, was a ruthless despot and tyrant. It should come as no surprise, then, that he was the last king of Ala Mhigo.
Erik: But the tale of his rise and fall is the stuff we historians live for!
Erik: Theodoric's lust for power was such that nothing less than absolute rule would appease him.
Erik: To counter the political influence of the Fist of Rhalgr, he proclaimed his kingship to be the product of divine will─ordained by Nymeia Herself. What followed was a crusade which sought to exterminate the monks entirely.
Erik: Yet it was the truly depraved acts of barbarism to come that would shake Ala Mhigan society to its very core.
Erik: This ensuing era of terror was what earned Theodoric the title “King of Ruin.”
Erik: After the massacre at the Fist's main temple, religious opposition to Theodoric nearly disappeared altogether.
Erik: He then began purges of the Ala Mhigan royalty, seeing any and all potential pretenders to his throne dead and buried─regardless of house, loyalties, or standing.
Erik: Beheadings were commonplace, carried out daily. Before long, it looked as though Theodoric would have no heads left to take.
Erik: But he then turned his wrath upon any soul with a claim to the throne, no matter how remote. After that, it was to be the empowered nobles and wealthy merchants.
Erik: Fearing for their lives, they professed their innocence to the queen, pleading for her to stay her maniacal husband's hand. She attempted words to assuage his lust for power turned lust for blood, but he was deaf to her appeals.
Erik: Finding no recourse, she conspired with a group of nobles to murder Theodoric.
Erik: Yet before the regicide could take place, one among them betrayed their plot, and for their treason, the king saw them all less a head.
Erik: This only served to compound Theodoric's paranoia and insanity. Distrustful of all, his purges now became little more than random executions, claiming the lives of noble and beggar and all in between.
Erik: It is not difficult to imagine what transpired next.
Erik: The palace became a despicable gathering of sycophants and backstabbers, and the commonfolk scarce left their homes. Seeking heads on which to lay blame for worsening conditions, Theodoric turned the axe upon his most loyal followers.
Erik: When the oppression became too much to bear, the people revolted and stormed the palace. The royal guard cast aside their vows and allowed the Ala Mhigans to pass.
Erik: A noble revolt? For the best, no? False! It was the absence of leadership and solidarity in the wake of this chaos that prompted Garlemald to attack!
Erik: In the end, Theodoric was lucid enough to judge suicide preferable to death at the hands of an angry mob. He ended his own life, and with it, his reign of ruin and his own bloodline.
Erik: Or so it was thought at the time!
Erik: But Theodred, a nephew to the king, was hidden by his mother in a remote temple of the Fist of Rhalgr which had survived the purges, and thus he escaped his uncle's fury.
Erik: And that is the history of the last king of Ala Mhigo. And many a lesson there is to be learned from it! It is only a pity you are too dull to do so.
--ReluctantGrace (talk) 16:04, 24 July 2022 (UTC)