KING HYPERENOR

King Hyperenor, one of the tenth century rulers of the Sunless Grotto, was married to a royal virgin named Desiphae. While having no children of his own, his wife was visited once by Thrag the Dog-face God in the guise of a year’s supply of microwave popcorn. Nine months later, she gave birth to her son Mirakles, as well as to a hideous monster known as Smorma, the great ravenous anemone. King Hyperenor did his best to kill Smorma at the instant of its birth, but it slipped from his hands and fell into the Grotto. The king was understandably distressed and confused by this entire ordeal, and he picked Mirakles up and threw him into the water after the anemone. The queen cried out in anguish and alarm, certain that Mirakles would drown instantly, but a miracle occurred. A magic creature, Akubasimé the Loon of Truth, swam up with the child clutching its long neck. Akubasimé flew away with Mirakles and for many years he was raised by laughing, happy, joyous gypsies in a land far away.

When Mirakles returned to the Sunless Grotto at a later age, he was raised into adulthood by Hyperenor and Desiphae. The king never learned the truth about Mirakle’s bizarre parentage, though he loved him deeply and fiercely in his own somewhat eccentric way.

The great sword Redthirst had been the family’s one great treasure for centuries. When Mirakles was but a stripling, his father, King Hyperenor, passed on to the boy the mighty blade. As the sword was dedicated to both the protection of the Grotto and the Great Underground Empire, the king kept an eye on what occurred in the sister realm during his reign. He watched as Morgrom inherited the tunnels beneath the White House, but unlike his wife, did not see the Essence of Evil as a threat. He tended to think that Morgrom would indeed be the beneficent ruler who would do all the goodwill he proposed in restoring the Great Underground Empire to its former greatness. The king turned out to be wrong, though never lived to know the truth behind Morgrom’s treachery.

After passing on the blade to Mirakles, Hyperenor knew that his son would have to rule in his stead, and what had to be done in order to move things along so that history could happen. The king put on his ceremonial feather headdress and went boar hunting all alone without his courtiers and no weapon but a pointed stick. In the process, he tripped over a wild boar and stuck the stick through his eyes. The king was dead.

Since Hyperenor's death, carvings of him (a tall man wearing a high, feathered headdress, holding out a large sealed scroll in one hand) have been incised in the Engravings Room of the Dungeon of Zork.