DINBAR
At a surpriningly young age, Dinbar became a member on the council of
Zylon the Aged. He and
Hargood of Mareilon, the two court magicians, had been
appointed to their posts by Zylon for their merits as wise and
capable men, and their magical talents which would remain virtually
unnoticed until 398 GUE. The learned young man that history would
come to remember as a famous and powerful mage, possessed only an
incomplete and erratic grasp of magic. Dinbar's many years spent in
thorough
study of ancient mystic writings were still to come, and at the time he
possessed
only one spell. Brilliant but untrained, and often erratic, magicians
like Dinbar
were usually limited to flashy pyrotechnics, and would never be capable
of using their skills towards destructive ends.
Dinbar was just
one of five council members Zylon had appointed at the end of his life; the
other regents consisted of
Zilbo Throckrod (Zilbo I),
General Darborn
Griffspotter, Hargood of
Mareilon, and
Gladius Fzort. When Zylon took
time to visit remote parts of the kingdom, the five were always left in
charge of the affairs of the state and the control of
Largoneth Castle.
In
398 GUE, a servant of King Zylon,
Endeth Belzgar, who was
possessed and
controlled by the fallen
Implementor Belegur, poisoned him. While
the poison did not kill Zylon, it did weaken him significantly and he
lost unconsciousness, although no one at the time knew that it was
Endeth who had committed the wicked deed. Dinbar and Hargood were summoned to
the king's chamber, along with a group of physicians and magicians,
where one after another examined the king, and were unable to
determine the cause of illness. All known healing techniques were
tried, and even new ones were invented. His bowels were emptied out and
cleansed from both ends, and they even dared to try bleeding him. All
was futile. Even the meticulous search of Zylon’s half-devoured meal
had failed to turn up the most basic explanation, the court physicians
being more skilled at treating bad paper-cuts than trying to cure their
immortal king.
Several councils meetings were held. Since Zylon had no heir, the five regents battled over who
would be next in line. Until Zylon could be restored, or name the heir
to the throne, these five were the rulers of
Quendor.
Hoping
to retain Zylon’s life for as long as possible, the magician Dinbar
completed a Spell of Linking, which bound the king’s soul to a magical
orb rather than his body. This force provided Zylon with a certain
amount of safety independent of any damage inflicted to his actual
physical body. If the body did die, the orb would not keep his soul
alive for more than a few weeks, bit it would give a small safety
cushion to fall back upon if needed. In the meantime, Dinbar suggested
that the legendary
Pool of Stasis be sought out. While they were
ignorant of its properties and location, they knew that by immersing
the king within the pool, further permanent damage to his body might be
adverted. Details of this pool were written in the Sacred Scrolls of
Fizbin.
Thus Zilbo and Dinbar planned to seek
Litbo Mumblehum in Galepath to
inquire about them.
The travelers did not leave by the front
gates, by rather by the magical power of Dinbar’s soul as they were
teleported directly to the university library. Litbo Mumblehum informed
the two that the Scrolls of Fizbin had been stolen. Zilbo returned to
Largoneth, while Dinbar stayed behind with Litbo to see if any more
information could be found within the library detailing the location of
the Pool of Stasis. Litbo discovered some prophecies regarding Belegur
in the
Scrolls of Kar'nai and Dinbar teleported the librarian to
Largoneth to tell Zilbo of the news.
Dinbar, having heard of
Galepath's planned attack on Mareilon, went to the city
hall received an audience with
Umberthar Spildo. He told him that
he was on a royal mission on behalf of Zylon the Aged and had orders to
prevent the Galepath militia from marching against Mareilon. He nodded
and thought about it for a few minutes, then had Dinbar thrown in the
bowels of the dungeons. He made the initial preparations to cast a
spell to leave, when a guard walked in bringing a meal. It did not take
much effort for him to figure out that Dinbar had been preparing a
spell. After that they had someone on him day and night. He was not
able to concentrate enough to find his own magical powers, and wasted
away one of the darkest weeks in his life. It would not be until
Zarfil
and the mayor were killed by the
Nezgeth invasion that the magician
would be set free.
Two weeks after Belegur had been defeated and
Zylon recovered, Zylon the Aged, having read much in the Scrolls of
Fizbin, completed constructing the gateway to the
Timeless Halls. The
suddenly blue beam of light that snapped into the night sky from the
southwestern tower easily caught the gaze of Zilbo, Litbo, and Dinbar
who were near the base of
Signal Mount. When the trio arrived at
Zylon’s room, they found the king laying motionless on the bed with his
back resting comfortably on the soft blankets. His eyes were closed and
his arms rested easily at his side, save the beginnings of the blue
tunnel that sprang from his forehead. The spirit of Zylon rose out of
and hovered above his body; it mirrored the likeness of the real king
in every way, down to identical clothing and the smallest insignificant
facial features. And with wordless smile, the spirit of Zylon the Aged
moved into the stream of blue light and was gone, leaving only a
motionless body. Zilbo was the next king of Quendor.
During the summer of 407 GUE, in an ironic exchange of roles, the
former royal advisor Dinbar left the royal court of Zilbo I to return
to Galepath, his childhood home, to pursue, among other projects, the
successful efforts to translate the Scrolls of Fizbin. An
ever-deepening respect for
Bizboz would eventually lead to an intense
collaboration producing works that are still hailed by historians today
as the ultimate advances in the study of the magical arts.
Together, these two students of the mystic arts
thoroughly examined ancient writings on mystic subjects, one which was
formally dubbed
Thaumaturgy. Although the accomplishments of Dinbar
have been obscured by the passage of time, his colleague and close
friend, Bizboz of Galepath has left several volumes of writing that
have utterly revolutionized the way Quendorans think about science,
magic, and the relationship between the two.
Dinbar
also had close correspondence with
Gustav Peggleboz for nearly a
decade, despite the fact that Dinbar himself had no interest in the
Peggleboz game whatsoever. These three, Dinbar, Bizboz, and Peggleboz
gave living proof that the
Dimly-Lit
Era could not last forever, becoming not only key players in the
development of magic which is even used today, but also built the
foundations for the
Zucchini Wars of the fifth century.
| SOURCE(S): A History of Quendor, Zylon the Aged, (a brief mention somewhere in the original infocom games) |