The Dominion of a Mad King
To the northwest of the Kingdom of Zephyria lies a kingdom with a dark and macabre past, one so powerful it forever changed the history of humans—a history that ended with the extinction of an entire race and most living beings in this world. Unspeakable secrets and events are swept under the rug of the Mad King, or rather, King Montesis III, the king… the only human in the world capable of living more lives than two full generations of elves.
In other words, he lived for over twenty centuries. No one knows how, no one knows why, but everyone in the kingdom of Montesis believes he's some kind of god. They all hold an image of benevolence about this king, though he rarely leaves his castle. It's said he went mad; it's rumored that, at one point, he was so thirsty for power that he triggered a genocide. No one understands or knows his motivations, but he remains there on his throne, seated, waiting for something, waiting for a moment to rise, and the reason remains a mystery to this day.
Whispers echo through the halls… murmurs of stories about the Mad King, tales told in private that explain the hatred and persecution of King Montesis III toward the supaibi. Some repeat what the books and walls falsely proclaim.
The alleged reason that sparked one of the deadliest and bloodiest wars in the past was the supposed murder of the Mad King's only daughter at the hands of a supaibi. All that's known for certain is that there was a meeting of all the kings and queens of the world, each accompanied by their firstborn son or daughter. There were many elegantly crafted dresses and suits made by the world's finest tailors for this single occasion.
It's said that, supposedly, it was a celebration to seal agreements and commemorate world peace after so many wars, but curiously, all the companions of the leaders at this event vanished into oblivion.
After this gathering, they were never seen in public again, though it's sometimes mentioned that some of the princes or princesses who attended had made appearances before. The truth is, they continue to fuel this rumor—the rumor of the lost children.
"Ask any king or queen who's lived for decades and decades about the memory of these rumors, and they'll deny it… they'll deny this event with sword and blood. Ask the books that weren't burned, if you're lucky enough to find them. Ask the most fortunate human elders, if some miracle still kindles the spark of life, the faint ember that hasn't yet abandoned the heart of that individual lost among the countless slums of the Kingdom of Montesis," said a voice in the narration, laden with mystery.
Unfortunately, the only living soul capable of recounting that suspicious past better than anyone is Montesis III himself, the Mad King in the flesh.
Montesis III is the king of a frigid and brutal kingdom, a place that bears his name because he conquered and mercilessly slaughtered elves in countless wars waged by this infamous king. But, ironically, his obsession with the dominion of the strongest, which for some reason always led him to win every military conflict, dispute, or rift he himself provoked, made him the most powerful of that era. He was the most feared and hated king on the face of the earth. At the opportune moment, he exploited the weakness of Queen Calginia II. He attacked her, knowing her vulnerability would also be the enemy of all living beings in the world, an enemy that doesn't distinguish between races, motives, or conflicts.
Queen Elenor Calginia II was subdued and murdered during a negotiation visit in Montesis. Her head was brutally severed with the dullest weapon available. Once her bloodied head was picked up from the floor, after several minutes of a senseless, greed-fueled monologue for not getting exactly what he wanted, Montesis III, seated on a throne adorned with multiple shapes referencing a culturally significant beast in Montesis, Varnok, the snow wolf, stood. He let the queen's head dangle, gripping it tightly by a lock of hair during his cold walk, staining the entire royal hall with blood and leaving behind indescribable terror among his subjects. He reached the outskirts of his fortified, impenetrable castle, gathered all his snow wolves, and raised the dangling head before them while his vassals hurled the queen's lifeless body from above to these violent, impulsive animals.
"Nothing to envy the therianthropes," the king declared.
Killing Elenor at her weakest moment, during a war against the advancing corruption, destabilized the kingdom of Zephyria at the time. For months that stretched into years, this king turned a blind eye to the elves on the other side who were relentlessly corrupted, turning into mindless monsters of what they once were.
Eight centuries after this event, he negotiated with Elysia Calginia III to urgently address what represented a common enemy, a hostile invader from another dimension, even more lethal and highly dangerous to all. But this greedy king demanded, in exchange for his aid, the power that made them the world's deadliest army. They refused, promising something even more enticing to his eyes: obtaining what he so desperately craved—power, more power, and an insatiable glut of power. They promised him the gem of power, the Megacryston, a gem born only in rumors and suppositions, lies and tales meant to cultivate unattainable dreams. But, by chance, a psychopathic, lustful king who wielded seduction, power, and fear as weapons agreed to this deal, stating:
"My life spans centuries… longer than a Zephyrian's and each day more powerful than any king in this world. With patience, I'll make that power mine, and when that day comes… I'll exact my vengeance."
That was when his terrifying and bloody empire, built on genocides, murders, silencings, and manipulations, went unchecked for over one thousand five hundred years of this peculiar human's life.
Until peace was declared after the War of the Impure.
His lineage, cursed by an indecipherable seal, a curse that directly rendered him incapable of impregnating a woman, was cut short. With his only daughter murdered and deprived of heirs to the throne, he spent years wreaking havoc. The true reasons for his obsession with destroying everything he touches… only he knows.
His reign began with tragedy, and the consequences of his actions gave rise to immense sorrow and scenes as dramatic as they were horrific, forever traumatizing the Montesis who was once a father. But now, only a Mad King remains. A living being who embraces slavery, the only kingdom that undertakes and carries out the trafficking of races. A man who amassed beautiful slaves he considers trophies and engages in sexual rituals of various forms in his numerous private chambers, throne baths, the Haven of the Nude, filling his soul with feasts and countless orgies.
A human wholly surrendered to lust, greed, wrath, pride, malice, and a violent thirst for vengeance. A madman who believes he alone can maintain world order, in a desperate act to heal past wounds he could never mend, no matter how many lives he lived, day after day. A poor king with immense power, slowly drowning in silent mental anguish, blaming and exterminating a strawman for something he never did, without true reason. Lying… blatantly lying to his entire kingdom to justify his bloody method of salvation, hoping perhaps one day to exact vengeance on the true culprit.
The culprit of all this horror and the hell that befell his life in a single day, altering the course of history.
A story of vengeance and death for the murder of his daughter at the hands of a supaibi who condemned her to oblivion, according to the king's accounts. That wound didn't just scar his soul—it completely disfigured it. It blinded him, not only physically—though his eyes are now covered by bandages, hiding mutated yellow orbits sprouting magical roots like corrupted veins—but also to common sense, empathy, and morality.
All that remains of him is a hunger for power. His skin looks lifeless, white, and cracked. His hair, a dirty white, is tied in a high bun, with a prominent short black beard, perfectly trimmed and sharp along the sides of his chin, paired with a large mustache. He wears old clothes made of chimera leather and griffin fur "in the ancient Viking style." Always dirty, always cloaked in a cold, cursed presence, he only wears his crown for priority events, but beyond that, it'd be easy to mistake the king of Montesis for a lowly blacksmith.
Montesis became a psychopath, an impulsive one, though he always was—a cold king, a rank-7 warrior who kills in cold blood. His heart stopped beating for humanity the day he lost his daughter. Since then, everything he does, he justifies with a lie he repeats to himself: "I need more power."
But he no longer even remembers her clearly. The image faded; only the blind desire for power for power's sake remains. His mind is broken, and the savage strength of a varnok became his path, his tool, his creed.
He massacred villages, practiced, experimented, and used forbidden blood seals with humans, elves, therianthropes, and hydroides to forge a power born from nothing, a power beyond, an uncontrollable power. All he sold were pieces of his soul for fragments of forbidden knowledge. He ordered experiments with magic, something his kingdom banned, fused bodies, created monsters, disfigured his own people through abductions, tasking the Grays division with fulfilling this duty—all to test failed theories. This never came to light; it's a closely guarded secret and one of high risk. Its revelation would merely be the start of the collapse of an entire genetically modified society, unaware of this crime against humanity as we know it. His kingdom became a mix of concentration camp and magical laboratory. That human modification project bore fruit, a complete success centuries ago, but no one has noticed this madness. The humans of Montesis are the only ones capable of being born with abilities without needing to conjure or call upon any seal.
And, contrary to the cold that blankets their lands, which is merely climatic, the inhabitants have nothing to do with their king's or nobles' ambitions or attitudes. His frozen, brutal kingdom, with occasional snowstorms depending on the season, doesn't prevent festive days from being anything but calm. No kingdom on the face of the earth offers more joy and fun than the Varnokians themselves. But if you ask a common inhabitant, they're likely to idolize their king before admitting they fear him. The culture turned martial, tribal, where compassion is weakness, a courageous attitude ingrained in every Varnokian's blood. But when they unwind, there are countless taverns, beautiful women, and a unique way of playing music unmatched anywhere in the world, something exclusive to Montesis… they call it… Jazz.
Moreover, what can't be missing is beer, lots of beer. Everyone drinks heavily, and anyone who doesn't drink offends. All Varnokians are great alcoholics and very horny. Their symbol: Varnok, the snow wolf, a giant white beast, brutal, emotionless. It's the living embodiment of Montesis's reign: cold, savage, merciless power.
Yet, despite this darker side of the king and his reign, for over fifty years, he remains king. No one has overthrown him, and no one would dare… at least not openly. The kingdom of Montesis boasts the third strongest army in the world, with 452,700 Keros of power, behind Astoria. That means Montesis's troops alone number 316,890 warriors. The Mad King has lived for over two thousand years. As a human with an ephemeral lifespan, after his loss, he became greatly feared in the blink of an eye. He gained the ability to live beyond his natural limits, and his magic, brutality, and reputation are enough to keep even the ancient supaibi at bay. They call him the Mad King, but that doesn't make him less dangerous.
On the contrary, it makes him unpredictable, a master of wars, a formidable adversary, a man with immense patience and some self-control, impossible to manipulate, immune to blackmail. He has no limits because he has nothing left to lose.
A human monster who believes he's still a man and strives to do what's right. A king with bandaged eyes who, though blind, seeks to control even what his senses can't perceive… only to destroy it.