GUSTAV PEGGLEBOZ

The birth of Gustav Peggleboz in 399, would lead to one of the only things that kept the population sane throughout the reign of Zilbo Throckrod I and beyond. Sometime before the 430s, this man would invent the popular board game of Peggleboz. Originally designed, and still played, as nothing more than a single-player game of relaxation, the bored and overly-competitive Quendoran population soon turned it into something that its creator could never have foreseen. Highly popular were Peggleboz Speed Races, two players using two randomly arranged boards and racing to clear their board before the other player could beat them. All sorts of derivatives of this sport soon became immensely popular, from Round-Robin Peggleboz Wrestling to the highly amusing Siamese Twin version, wherein one brogmoid with two heads played on one board, against itself.

Although the mysterious Gustav is best noted from the creation of this game that would change the course of history, it has often been suggested that there was more to Peggleboz than met the eye. During his own lifetime he was often accused of attempting to enlist the forbidden forces of magic to cheat at his own game, and it has further been suggested that he put forth Peggleboz, along with so many other influential board games, in an attempt to disguise his real and more delicate magical interests. It is known for instance that Gustav was in close correspondence with Dinbar the Proto-Thaumaturge for nearly a decade, despite the fact that Dinbar himself had no interest in the Peggleboz game whatsoever.

By the time the 430s and 440s had come to pass, all of Quendor was caught in the grips of a Peggleboz frenzy, peggleboz championships and pick-up games often becoming the cause of spontaneous rioting, looting, and civil disturbances of all kinds. Elections and governmental appointments were settled over the peg board, and even a series of emissaries from the northlands to the court of Zilbo II was forced to sit through a round of formal competition before being allowed to depart. A formal league had been formed with the aim of holding annual all-Quendoran championships, and Peggleboz himself, winner year after shocking year, soon came to be seen as the most powerful and important man in all of Quendor outside of the royal family itself.

Immediately, Harmonious issued a warrant for his rival’s arrest and immediate execution. Understandably afraid for his life, Bozbo cut a speedy retreat back to his home province of Bozbar, not without pausing to send an irate letter of appeal to the game's creator and guiding spirit in Mareilon. Gustav, it seems, was sympathetic to Bozbo's claims, himself announcing that Harmonious had violated the spirit of the game and seized the throne of the kingdom in violation of the will of the gods and the by-laws of the Peggleboz International Rules Committee. Mareilon itself erupted in riot, Gustav himself orchestrating the seizure of the local Quendoran garrisons and Peggleboz game halls.

In early spring of 452, Harmonious immediately began to take steps to curb the authority of his rivals. An official proclamation announced the unification of Peggleboz and State, expelling the game’s creator from the official league and stripping him of all peggleboz-related rights and naming Harmonious as the sole head of the only legitimate peggleboz league in all of Quendor. The resulting situation quickly deteriorated into a kingdom-wide peggleboz schism, Harmonious receiving recognition as Peggleboz Champion in the northern four provinces, and Peggleboz himself defeating Bozbo year after year to claim the supreme title throughout the 3 1/2 southern provinces through 455.

This awkward schism in the gaming world came to a violent political head in 456 when Gustav was raised, without royal approval, to the governorship of Mareilon Province. He promptly cut all ties with the royal court, announcing his province's secession from the Kingdom of Quendor and the resurrection of the ancient principality. A brief but bloody civil war ended in the execution of Peggleboz and a royal decree from Fzort naming himself as Quendor's Universal One-on-One Peggleboz Speed Champion.

By the time news of the disaster reached Bozbo's home province, it was all too clear to the rebel that waging a successful military conflict would prove to be a near impossibility, so the claimant to the throne turned instead to the most powerful weapon in his arsenal for economic warfare, ordering the immediate halt of all zucchini shipments to the capital and the other provinces under Fzort's control. Although Gustav was dead, he, Dinbar and Bizboz were key players in the events to follow, the Zucchini Wars.

TRIVIA:
It is possible that the popular dueling technique, "Gustav's Feint" was named after Peggleboz.