THE GREAT
MONSTER
UPRISING (unfinished entry)
The Great Monster Uprising is a period of unknown duration that seems
to have begun almost immediately at the start of the
Second Age of Magic
(34
Frobuary, 1067
GUE), and certainly ended prior to
the
First Great Diffusion
(1247 GUE), if it was not ended by the Great Diffusion itself.
FUEL FOR THE
UPRISING
Following
the ushering in of the Second Age of Magic,
this return of magic inspired droves of adventurers to flock to the
Great Underground
Empire to scourge its remnants in search of magical
paraphernalia, hidden archaic treasures, and general loot. With the
restrictions of the
Magic
Inquisition loosened, the magical creatures
of the Empire, including
trolls
and
kobolds, began to
venture far from
their lairs unchecked. Their breeding was more heavy and abundant than
any other period in the history of
Zork.
The rapid and dangerous spread
coincidentally prevented the adventurer population from emptying the
Great Underground Empire of all its valuables. In turn, the adventurers
kept the monsters in balance, by restricting them from overrunning
every remaining corner of human civilization.
The
Frobozz Magic
Company was revitalized and hired a new staff to work its
multi-conglomerate subsidiaries. The rise of adventurers ensured that,
for at least a while, the company would have high earnings. But quickly
the stock market collapsed, resulting in an unreasonable
zorkmid
inflation, which led even FrobozzCo International to fire employees
throughout its revived subsidiaries. These lackluster salesmen, who
were only paid redundancy in
burfle
chips, were reduced to donning the
garb of an adventurer and joined the craze of treasure hunting,
venturing into the most exotic corners of the land in search of
zorkmids.
The White House and
other popular regions were
trampled underfoot with these hordes of treasure hungry adventures who
pitched their tents all over the land. The dwindling FrobozzCo survived
this financial crisis only by constructing massive shops at these
locations. The proprietors of the amusement park
Bozbarland set up a
magical arena to take advantage of the fact that the former Great
Underground Empire was crawling with heavily-armed adventurers. From
certain base camps, anyone
was able to challenge a fellow explorer once per day and the two would
be instantly transported to a magical arena. The victors increased
their general fame and the level of exaggeration that people used when
describing them.
In the meantime, the
Fourth
Dungeon Master
would have his hands full protecting the Underground from greedy
trespassers, while also quelling a
Granola
Rebellion.
IMPLEMENTOR ONE
The
mysterious and ancient
Grand
Wizard of the Underground Realm of Zork,
one of the famed
Implementors
of lore, was a direct conduit of the
underlying forces that fueled the Zorkian universe through his
administration of Frobozz Co. headquarters. A benevolent if somewhat
cryptic Wizard,
Implementor
One was famous for his kindness and
goodwill toward all the adventurers in the land and his dedication to
inventing new and painful “incentives” for the Programming
Grues under
his command deep beneath the earth in the
FrobozzCo.
Ethereal Server
Host command center.
An
ancient prophecy was fulfilled when the Great Wizard Implementor One
fulfilled an ancient prophecy by disappearing from The Land of Zork
following the first new moon after the closing of the Frobozz Magic
Company, which further fueled the feeling that a dark shadow was
creeping across the land. And the worried musings were true, for his
disappearance coincided with the Great Monster Uprising of the same
age.
INCREASING AND MULTIPLING
MONSTERS
Word
had spread quickly of the disarray and chaos that were the byproduct of
the shutdown of the ancient and venerable FrobozzCo. The monsters of
the land soon gained knowledge of the many unskilled and vulnerable
adventurers wandering through the forests looking for new customers to
supplement their now non-existent income. Seeing as how these
adventurers killed without hesitation the various types of monsters and
fiends, the creatures started to organize and whispers of a monster
summit was heard in some of the seedier and more dangerous pubs late at
night in the shadows.
Thousands of the monsters that populated
the dark recesses of dank caverns and spooky haunted mansions that
filled the lands of the great underground realm were represented at
this horrible and brutal summit of monster clans. Covenants were made
and many innocent kidnapped villagers were sacrificed that dark and
moonless night, all in the effort to garner the favor of the ancient
and terrible gods of the monsters, the most powerful of the evil and
wicked deities that most Zorkians describe as ghost stories to their
young late at night. And upon that dreadful union of creatures, the
land of Zork was forever changed, for the monster clans had been formed.
And
the whispers grew to the mutterings of traveling merchants and beaten
warriors, complaining of ambushes and monsters wielding weapons when
attacking. Soon, the laments of adventures was a deafening moan in all
pubs across the land—it seemed all were aware that the monsters were
indeed using new strategies and training their armies, producing ranked
soldiers to deal mayhem and leave destruction in their wake.
The
sheer amount of former FrobozzCo employees, large as it may have been,
paled in comparison to the amount of monsters that were roaming in the
countrysides and looming outside the city gates, terrorizing the
citizens and attacking any adventurers that wandered into their
vicinity.
Official
reports of the times state that "During an average day, the average
adventurer will kill an average of 30 foes... [and] loot and average of
30,000
Zorkmids."
CLANS EMERGE
In
order to have a fighting chance for survival in this brave new age, the
adventurers of the Land of Zork started to band together themselves,
forming
clans of warriors
to be able to fight back against the Great
Monster Uprising. And thus, the clans were born, to train and pool
resources and information amongst fellow clan members.
One of
the first Clans to form was the
Order
of the Grand Wizard Implementor
One, also known as the Guardians of the
Coconut of Quendor,
Fraternal
Society of the Old Guard, and Protectors of the Underground Realm of
Zork. They were dedicated to the teachings that heralded the return of
the prophet Implementor One, and the revelation he was to deliver upon
his fated arrival, ushering all into a new age of magic. The Order of
the Grand Wizard Implementor One was the utmost authority in all of the
clans that soon followed, whose opinion swayed the tides of the entire
future of the Land of Zork.
SUCCESSORS OF IMPLEMENTOR
ONE
In
Implementor One’s absence, a new Implementor began to reign, a female
known only as
Implementor X
who took upon the form of a mermaid. Soon
after her arrival, she regenerated into a bearded man. This
metamorphosed Implementor X was responsible for a massive unleashing of
gremlins that ran
unchecked through all known lands until they were
properly subjugated by the massive hordes of wandering adventurers.
THE CONCLUSION OF THE MAGIC WARS
While this Great Monster Uprising plagued a majority
of the era of the Second Age of Magic,
Brog
and the
Fourth Dungeon
Master concluded the
Magic
Wars, an epic confrontation between the
Eastlands (the good
guys) and the
Westlands (the
bad guys). No details
save a fragmentary mention of this conflict have survived.
THE FIFTH DUNGEON MASTER
One of the
most famous and experienced adventurers of this period is an individual
known only by the alias "
Detective
Softly." This human inherited the
staff of the Fourth Dungeon Master, thus becoming the next successor.
Heroes of the
Great Monster Uprising
| SOURCE(S): Legends
of Game (game, zorkpedia), Zork:Grand Inquisitor, Return to Zork, Magic
Wars Trilogy (short press release info) |
