Born in 731 GUE, little notice was taken of Leonardo Flathead as a
child. He was shy and quiet, and quite overshadowed by his aggressive
older brothers. It was not until his arrival at Galepath University
that his genius blossomed and the world began to take notice.While at the University, Leonardo wrote several major treatises which revolutionized scientific thought. The most famous of these disproved the hoary myth that the world sits on the back of a giant turtle, proving instead that the world actually rests on the head of an enormous troll. He also noted in his brilliant and revealing essay on the subject of the platypi kingdom and the Anatian Inscriptions that "Random underground caverns, chicken-scratch, two castles and some random platypi do not equal anything worth getting worked up over. Random underground caverns, platypus-scratch, two castles and some random chickens do equal an entirely worthless pile of nonsense.
After his University days were over, Leonardo turned from science to art. He became the most famous painter in the land: noblemen from every province were escorted to his studio by Dimwit's personal militia to have their portraits painted.
Starting with his own self-portrait in 766 GUE, and finishing with his Coronation Portrait of King Dimwit in 783 GUE, Leonardo brilliantly captured the varied personalities of the Twelve Flatheads on canvas over a span of seventeen years. The originals could once be seen on display in the gallery at Flatheadia Castle before it was ransacked in 883 GUE. Reproductions were also made before then for the 883 Flathead Calendar.
Unfortunately, during his later years Leonardo became quite senile, and his painting style deteriorated. He took to flinging paint at his canvases in much the same way that a Borphee baker flings bits of dough into a hot oven to make Frobolli Cakes. His studio became caked with layer upon layer of splattered paint. It was during this period that his famous incomplete work, "Obstructed View of Fjord," was lost. The portrait was later recovered by the First Dungeon Master in 883 GUE.
Leonardo made a final, feeble attempt to recapture his former greatness by moving to other media beside paint, but these efforts led to his tragic end. On 14 Mumberbur 789, while working on a large statue intended for the harbor of Antharia, he suffered a fatal plunge into a vat of molten granola.
While Flatheadia was destroyed in 883 GUE by the curse of Megaboz, Leonardo's studio, though ruined, was preserved as part of the Dungeon of Zork. One of his paintings (perhaps the famous "Obstructed View of Fjord" which may have survived with several other relics of the Twelve Flatheads) was found by the Second Dungeon Master and included as one of the Treasures of Zork.
His corpse was later placed in the Tomb of the Twelve Flatheads and his skull upon a pole outside the same crypt by the "Keeper of the Dungeon." Although dead, the Twelve Flatheads foresaw that some cretin might tamper with their remains. Therefore, they took steps to punish trespassers with a curse. It is assumed that his remains are still there to this day.
LOST WORK OF LEONARDO FLATHEAD (ONE OF THE TREASURES OF ZORK):
