ENTHARION THE WISE

Entharion the Wise united many warring tribes, including the rival city-states of Galepath and Mareilon, thus forming the kingdom of Quendor which he ruled from Largoneth Castle for 41 years until his son Mysterious the Brave took the throne in 41 GUE.


And so Man plunges precipitously toward his Destiny.
                        -Entharion the Wise

This land of my deeds will ever remain untold. My sword, my sheath, my glory, my home; all these await a telling to do them justice, and truth, such a historian will never be born.
                        -Entharion the Wise


ENTHARION AS THE BOZBIAN PRAEFECT OF QUENDOR
Over the centuries, several historians from both Galepath and Mareilon have tried to falsely claim Entharion, later surnamed the Wise as one of their own. By the time war had broken out between Galepath and Mareilon for the last time in 3 BE, Entharion had risen to the position of bozbian praefect, the chief military commander of the city-state of Quendor. The early details of his life are still obscure, but it does seem that he was a native-born Quendoran. Like each of his predecessors to have risen to such a prominent position under the prince of Quendor, Entharion was a man of prosperous background, well-educated and well-trained in the arts of war. Barely past his twentieth year, Entharion’s rise to power had been surprisingly quick indeed, and it is hinted that he alienated some of the senior nobility of Quendor by his unwillingness to defer the important command positions to them.

The prince of Quendor hurried to make his traditional and tired declaration of absolute neutrality. By all reports, Entharion, who was too young to remember any of the previous conflicts, failed to understand why all of his compatriots seemed so bored by the entire affair. It seems clear from the king's later writings that he felt something important to be in the making. He did in fact spend several weeks trying to convince the prince to let him march; it did not seem to matter to him which side he was going to fight for, so much as it did that he actually got a chance to fight. By the end of the summer season, both of the warring parties had sent desperate messages to the prince of Quendor begging for military assistance. With the vague intention of solving the chaotic situation, Entharion's armies had begun to march. Although the founder of the Quendoran nation would insist until his dying day that he marched only on orders from his prince, no such orders have ever been found, and the prince's later actions do not support Entharion's claims.

Entharion himself encountered incessant delays along the way. Forced to fight his way through foreign and largely unexplored territory of Frobozz in his attempt to reach the coast, by the time he had reached his goal, the would-be monarch had defeated and pacified the various nomadic and tribal groups that had attempted to stand in his way. Although the twin pillars of his new kingdom would be the conquered coastal cities, it was these barbaric tribes that would form the bulk of the countryside population of Quendor at its birth.

Within a matter of weeks, Entharion's forces had made the relatively short march to the coastal areas in contention and had come in sight of the two warring camps. The scene as told by Froblivius is a chaotic one indeed. The forces of Galepath and Mareilon, upon seeing the approach of the new arrivals, both withdrew and regrouped their forces, expecting the Quendorans to join their camp and help in the fight against the other. Soon it became clear that neither was the case; Entharion ordered the bugle to sound, and his forces descended with an amazing fury upon the unsuspecting coastal armies, hacking them to bits. The battle lasted barely three hours, and the results were devastating. When the dust had settled, the princes of Galepath and Mareilon, both of whom had been at hand, were laying their arms at the feet of the victorious Entharion, acclaiming his sovereignty. At first, it seems, Entharion had no intention of violating his oath to the Quendoran prince. In a brief letter sent back to Quendor, he informed his overlord that peace had been found, and that both cities were prepared to recognize the suzerainty of Quendor.

Concerned that the situation on the coast might sink back into anarchy, Entharion stayed encamped near the Lonely Mountain, determined to keep an eye on the two defeated powers. For months and months the prince of Quendor stalled, reluctant to reply to his powerful praefect. Perhaps he feared that Entharion had become too powerful, and preferred to see him as far away from the center of power as possible. Whatever the truth may be, it was a full six months before Entharion received a reply: “I don't want those cities. Put them back where they belong. And don’t come home.” Annoyed at the tone of the message, and more than a little resistant to the idea of forsaking his easy conquests, Entharion decided to take matters into his own hands.

Entharion’s personal writings, although potentially very helpful, are in truth highly obscure. In fact, this one passage below degenerates from being unclear to downright unintelligible:
 
"The true dilemma at this point lay in finding a simple way to unify the two bodies. Choosing the half-way point a stronghold, true wisdom. General wrath brings unrest I destroy. Be four kings tyrannized thee peoples it not for bar bar bar."

Nonetheless, Entharion abandoned his position in the Quendoran army receding into temporary isolation within what is today known as Egreth Forest. With his absence, the royal Quendoran army was recalled from the Lonely Mountain, thus relinquishing control over the two conquered city-states. Within a day of this repositioning of troops, Galepath and Mareilon, now bereaved of their watchmen, were once again drawing swords at one another.


DAWN OF THE ENTHARION DYNASTY
When the year 0 GUE finally came around, the people of Zork felt fairly confident that something big was about to happen. This assumption would turn out to be true, for during these days, Entharion at the age of 24 emerged from Egreth Forest on the first of the month and built himself a tiny hut on the beach between Galepath and Mareilon. Stunned by the presence of their new neighbor, soldiers from both sides approached the hut. Unaware that this was the man whom their princes had only three years ago surrendered to, they took turns interrogating Entharion. The Galepathians would poke his left shoulder with their spears and ask him where he came from, then before he could answer, the Mareilonians would poke his right shoulder and demand to know who had sent him. This went on for some time, until Entharion, instead of answering any of the questions, inquired about the apparent hostility between the two groups of soldiers. One of the dozen or so men crammed inside the tiny hut explained that they had been in at war for hundreds of years, noting, however, that it was none of his business and that he better get to answering their questions right away. Disobeying this order, Entharion again asked a question. “Why fight?”

[According to some obscure and doubtful references, it has been said that at the time Entharion had a working vocabulary of less than 75 words, and that his famous questions was actually one of the most coherent sentences that he ever managed to complete.]

From that day forth, the modest, unassuming man who emerged from the woods was known as Entharion the Wise. With a perfectly naïve question, Entharion united the warring kingdoms of Galepath and Mareilon and was exalted as the first king of the Entharion Dynasty. It was a glorious time. The new kingdom was named Quendor after Entharion’s city of origin, and his castle was erected between the cities he had united, on the former site of his hut. This region was named Largoneth. It was from this castle that he ruled for the entirety of his reign, and it would serve the as the capital of the kingdom for the duration of the Dynasty. Our current calendar dates from the first year of Entharion's reign, and the day on which he founded the empire has since been anually celebrated as Entharion Day.


ONE LAST REBELLION
Although the citizens of Galepath and Mareilon had declared themselves one, the Prince Argonel, “rightful ruler of Mareilon,” did not so easily bow to the whims of Entharion’s sovereignty. In public he wore a façade of comradeship and loyalty, but in his heart he despised the forced union. While most of the population of Mareilon, who had grown tired of the conflict, were in no position to rise up against Largoneth and Galepath, Argonel was able to rally enough soldiers to his cause, that when his treason was discovered, Entharion was not hesitant to quell the insurrection.

In the last days of Mareilon’s glorious independence, Mazimar Spildo of Galepath took up arms with Entharion against the city and overthrew the last remnants of its might. The king condemned Prince Argonel to die by the executioner’s axe, but in an attempt (a pathetic attempt as Argonel’s descendants would later recount), he allowed the prince’s wife and son to go free. These two and their descendants were relegated to generations of miserable existence as rope salesmen and mosquito net makers. Barely making ends meet, these descents of Argonel would watch and wait while those around them praised Entharion and spoke highly of the great debt they owed him. They would pass on to each generation tales of Entharion’s usurping of freedom and the cessation of Mareilon’s glorious independence, for subjecting them in an unequal alliance with the vile Galepath, and for making them pay undeserved allegiance to some frail monarch on a throne over two hundred bloits away.

For the rest of Mareilon, they believed that the unity with Galepath and Largoneth had brought internal peace, protection from foreigners, even a great deal of new economic prosperity, while others believed it to be a charade. They saw that the wars against Galepath never ended, that Entharion only tricked everyone into believing they did by lulling them into a false sense of peace. Instead of a prince, a mayor was instituted as the head official, one over Mareilon and one over Galepath. Diplomats from both of these cities played a crucial role in the formation of Quendor, which also included the city-states of Quendor, Znurg, Vriminax, Bozbar, and Frobozz (Duncanthrax would later merge these six city-states into a single province named Frobozz).


BRINGING BORPHEE INTO THE EMPIRE
Thanks in part to the decadent state of the current ruling dynasty of Borphee and the shabby quality of their military forces, the Quendoran Royal Army quickly gained control over a large section of the Borphee peninsula, including the massive port city itself. However, due to internal conflicts back home, the court at Largoneth was unable to press home its advantage during that campaigning season, and utterly failed to field an army the following year. Thus Entharion was only able to absorb half of Borphee into the Empire, while the other half, Mauldwood, would continue to govern itself until the time of Duncanthrax.

This “half province” set aside, the rule of Entharion the Wise brought a semblance of peace to a war-torn land and began a dynasty that reigned over the Kingdom of Quendor and its seven and a half provinces for almost seven hundred years, spanning the majestic reigns of fourteen benevolent monarchs.


FURTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF ENTHARION
Entharion the Wise became the most potent mage of his time, and married Queen Lynpo, a direct descendant of Galepath, and fathered but a single son named Mysterion. According to popular legend, he was also the inventor of the infotater. Although most favor this as historical fact, some point to the writings of Satchmoz, who clearly states, as though he believed it to be truth, that this magical device was derived from Krepkit in the 7th century. It is most likely that Krepkit was not the inventor of the original infotater, but only the alternate pinwheel model. The king also authored his great seminal work, "Sleeping Your Way to Power," linking dreams and imagination to potential for magical ability.

Although the infotater would grow to be a tremendous asset to the magic community in the years to come, Entharion was more known for taking up his legendary blade Grueslayer, and setting about to eradicate all grues from the face of the world. This mass purge was inspired by one of his soldiers, who, using only a piece of over-ripe fruit, fought off a gaggle of grues who were about to devour the King and refused to abandon him no matter how difficult the fight became, eventually hauling him to safety. An elegant lance, tipped with a genunie grue's tooth, known at Terazarg, the Sacred Grue-Slaying Lance of Entharion, was the reward Entharion gave to this soldier. Many thought that the entire devilish race was exterminated at his hands, but remnants escaped. A handful went to dwell within the darkest and thickest forests where no human would dare to venture, but the majority hid in the most obscure parts of the underground, in bottomless pits far away in other lands. One of the primarily places was a huge cluster of these pits in a region beneath what is today known as the White House. It was for this reason that Belegur longed to wreck revenge upon Entharion and his entire progeny to be. But it was not upon this generation that the fallen Implementor would be able to unleash a formidable plan.

According to legend, the huge and misty cluster known as Entharion's Hair is where all the ancient king's hair truly wnet when he lost it in his thirities. Thereafter, Entharion the Wise became Entharion the Bald.

When Entharion's son, Mysterion, was a young child, a halberd used to shine brightly enough to protect him from the grue which he thought lived under his bed. Entharion, eager to dismiss such childish fears, used to have the young prince's nannies crawl under the bed to show that there was no grue in the room. The king lost eight child minders before he realized there actually was a grue, and the young prince was moved to a different room.


THE GREAT TERROR
During the latter days of Entharion the Wise, some unknown practitioner or group of practitioners somehow accidentally awakened a shapeless and formless manifestation of evil from millennia of sleep. This incredibly ancient and malevolent force came to be known as the Great Terror, or the Unseen Terror. Together with its servants, the Terror nearly destroyed all civilization.

But Entharion, by then an old man, realized that the Terror could not be killed, only imprisoned. Knowing that the Terror had power to sense a great work of magic, he conceived a plan to lure the creature into a magical prison by creating the most powerful spell scroll imaginable in those days. Entharion called together the mightiest enchanters and sorcerers and wizards in the land, and together, working day and night, they created a scroll of truly great power—GUNCHO, which was able to open gateways to new worlds and dimensions beyond our own.

Working swiftly and with full urgency, they then constructed a maze-like series of chambers far beneath Largoneth Castle and placed the scroll at the very heart of it. These peculiar rooms, whose cream-colored walls were thing and translucent, were joined by passages that were perfect round and black, seeming to be made of carbon. The layout of these chambers were magically linked to a map, each room and passage distinct upon it.

B       J
!      / \
!     /   \
!    /     \
!   K       V
!          / \
!         /   \
!        /     \
R-------M       F
 \     /       /
  \   /       /
   \ /       /
    H       P

The GUNCHO scroll was placed in a room of living rock that formed Largoneth’s foundations (chamber P). As Entharion knew it would, the Terror came to seek the scroll containing potent magic. Lurking in the shadows of the castle, the magicians waited for their foe to enter the specially created recess deep within the earth where they had placed the scroll. Then, acting in concert with all the powers at their command, they sealed the Terror deep within the room by removing the passage between chambers P and F. There it finally returned to a deep sleep. Concurrently, the seven Servants of the Terror each returned to their own treasure filled lairs in various regions all across Zork (one of which was in uncivilized lands far north of Frobozz). Hidden there for ages, they slumbered until the days of the Terror’s release.

To that end, the Great and All-powerful Entharion the Wise, at the age of 65, renounced the throne of Quendor to his son Mysterion and spent the rest of his days within the estate as guardian of the monster that slept below. After the confrontation with the Great Terror, Entharion himself was active in the suppression of various forms of dark magic. Both he and his successor, the obscure and short-lived Mysterion the Brave, were believed to belong to a secret society dedicated to the guardianship of magical knowledge from the eyes of the outside world. Eventually, however, Entharion died, and his legendary Grueslayer was lost.