AUTOEXEC
When
Eru The One, spoke all creation—the multiverse—into
existence, He placed one Autoexec over each individual
universe. This member of the
Upper Echelons, in responsible
for the enforcement, upkeep
and continual maintenane of all laws fashioned by Eru. The only one
above the Autoexec, other than Eru, is the
Control Character. Below the
Autoexec are
The Powers That Be, and further, the host of
Implementors.
Each of these Autoexecs are believed to have had an active hand in the
creation of
the particular one to which he is assigned.
It
was known only to a few throughout the entire course of
Zork history
that the Autoexec's weakness was darkness—total darkness. This was not
walking into a closet and not turning the light on. The Autoexec could
easily create light. The weakness was absolute darkness, the utter
blackness that is the total absence of light, or any possibility of
light; a quality that is rather difficult to achieve, and so the
Autoexec always felt he was perfeclty safe from attack on that front.
One
of the Autoexec's favorite physical forms was a smiling young man in a
tennis outfit—an open-necked white shirt (which the initials of the
Association embroidered around a large A on the pocket), white duck
shorts, white socks, and low-cut white sneakers.
In the early
years
of creation, many Implementors left their heavenly homes and had
intercourse with any humans that they beheld as lovely, thus producing
hideous half-human, half-implementors monstrosities. These oddities
wrecked so much havoc upon Zork that the Control Character was
instructed to cause worldwide devastation upon the surface of the
planet in order to destroy not only all of these aliens, but to
eliminate all of the wicked mortals save a couple of each race. Once
the disaster had passed, all of the rebellious Implementors were
punished, along with their offspring. But these half-implementor beasts
had only their bodies destroy, while their disembodied
spirits were
free to roam. Bearing extreme hatred for the one who had done this to
them, they went around deceiving the replenishing population all over
Zork by naming themselves ‘
Gods’ and claiming to have ultimate power.
These
evil supernatural beings collected together to rally against those
above. In order to govern and prevent this tremendous population from
corrupting all of creation, the Autoexec and The Powers That Be decided
to delete them all.
Belegur petitioned the Control Character not to
destroy the full number of the spirits, saying, “Let some of them
remain under my control, and let them attend to my voice. For if some
of them are not left to me, I shall not be able to execute the power of
my will over those wicked men that have given themselves over to
iniquity. Let these be for corruption and leading astray.”
And
the Control Character, acting in accordance with the will of Eru,
granted a tenth of these spirits to Belegur, and letting the other nine
parts descend into the
place of condemnation. In order to prevent these
spirits from destroying Zork prematurely, the Autoexec and The Powers
That Be formed for them an organization known as the Supernatural and
Fantastic Wayfarers Association.
In the years to follow, the
Autoexec, who ruled The Powers That Be, had become corrupt. At one
time, being in command over The Powers That Be was enough, but after a
few thousand years, he began to think of advancement. He looked up the
corporate ladder and above him was only the Control Character himself.
The Autoexec refused to continue on putting in a good day's work
millennium after millennium until the Control Character patted him on
the back and gave him his desk in the home office. And he found his
perfect opportunity in the tenth century before the End of the
First
Age of Magic (966 GUE).
The Autoexec would use the temporizer
that had been recently uncovered by
Morgrom the Essence of Evil, to go
back in time and place himself at the top of the
Echelon ladder before
the Control Character had even been created (he apparently had not
taken it into consideration that the Upper Echelons had been created in
the
Timeless Halls). He
suffered from the same problem as Morgrom, that the
Golden Dipped
Switch was missing somewhere within the
Great Underground Empire. Thus,
seduced by the dark side of the Switch, he tracked the party of
Mirakles,
Glorian, and
Spike through the Great Underground Empire with
keen interest, hoping to nab the Switch from them immediately upon its
discovery. Through their quest, he frequently warned Glorian not to
trust Spike the Protector, though his reasons for doing this are not
entirely clear.
Once the Golden Dipped Switch had been uncovered
at the
Dungeon of Zork volcano, the Autoexec, knowing Glorian's
weakness, bent the rules of the physical universe, sending an
ever-darkening blue fog to surround him and prevent him from moving so
much as a single muscle. This fog entrapped Glorian helplessly
within a smooth-sided block of cobalt glass. The Autoexec materialized
into the room, reached into the glass, and snatched both the Golden
Dipped Switch and the
Hot Key from the paralyzed Glorian's possessions.
Upon thanking Mirakles for an excellent job, the Autoexec departed.
Before this moment, there had never been a hint that the Upper Echelons
had been tainted with wrongdoing.
The final showdown against
Glorian, Mirakles and Spike happened when the Autoexec cornered the
three companions at the Scenic Vista at the Dungeon of Zork: Level 3,
near the Shadowland. The battle began with the Autoexec and his entire
horde of
mundanes against the three. During the course of the battle
the Autoexec attempted to hurl lightning-like bolts of energy at
Glorian, but Mirakles was successful at guarding the supernatural guide
with
Redthirst. In a feint to distract Mirakles so that his magical
powers could penetrate through the defenses, the Autoexec hurled the
Hot Key at the prince. Shocked, Mirakles lowered his guard, bending
down to acquire it. Seeing victory now at hand, the Autoexec released
the energy at Glorian once again, but he countered with powers of
darkness. The Autoexec was surprised that Glorian knew of his weakness,
but the battle continued onward. The next maneuver consisted of
simultaneous hurling of both lightning and a cobalt blue glass knife at
Glorian. The force was enough to send the blade deep into Glorian’s
thigh. Spike quickly removed the dagger from the wound and healed it
with an anointing of
Byelbog’s Balm. The final round began when both
Glorian and the Autoexec augmented their supernatural powers in unison.
But it was Glorian who had the upper-hand. For having been made aware
that the Autoexec's weakness was darkness, the supernatural guide had
stuffed his room at the
Valhalla Hilton with as much as he could, then
via
drawer forwarding, acted as a quasi-human siphon to unleash the
darkness upon the Autoexec. The second ranking Upper Echelon was
discorporated. The form which he had taken, without his consciousness
to motivate it and hold it together, merely reduced itself to its
constituent atoms. Thus the Autoexec went down in history forever as
the "Master of Perfidy."
It is uncertain if another Autoexec was appointed upon the defeat of this first one.
| SOURCE(S): The Zork Chronicles, History of Quendor |