The Madness of King Sundlun

            Deep within the Gilian Forest, far back enough that you cannot find it without a guide assuming you could get one willing to bring you, is a statue. It is a statue of a man standing roughly about six feet high and looking very imposing and austere. He is dressed in kingly robes and holds a sword in his hand and a skull in the other. Beneath it, in letters three inches high, reads a plaque, “Here lies King Sundlun, last of the Rowlyn Emperors, whose madness doomed the country.”

            There are few now who remember Sundlun or even the Rowlyn Empire and those that do rarely mention them. But during those early, dim days of history, the Rowlyn Empire stretched as far as man could reach and, at the head of it, stood King Sundlun. To say that the King was a fair and just man would not be accurate but then again, the times in which he lived were neither fair nor accurate. He was a man who governed by fist and the sword whose mercy was nonexistent and wrath was quick. And there was one more thing, he went quite mad one day.

            It was shortly after the final battle with their hated enemy, the K’rgyn. The entire empire was in celebration and the King had been enjoying the company of several of his wives when the palace was awoken with his screams. Rushing to his side, his advisors were quick to try and calm the King but he would not relax.

            “He has spoken to me,” King Sundlun exclaimed, “our God has spoken to me.”

            This troubled the advisors greatly for they knew that their God, Y’Goth, was not a friendly or helpful God and it had been eons since even his priests claimed to have heard his voice. But the King was insistent. “He has spoken to me and commanded that all men must not go about clean-shaven.” The advisors mumbled among themselves and decided, for the sake of their own lives, that it would be so. The commandment was given and all men of adult age would grow beards. The public gave pause to this but, to save themselves, they grew beards.

            A week went by then the palace was awoken by more screams.

            “He has spoken to me again,” said the King, “all men must wear purple shirts.” At this point, even the advisors balked at the request. “Why would Y’Goth care about the color of their clothing,” they asked? For that they were executed. New advisors were appointed and their first, swift action was to declare that all men should wear purple shirts.

            A week later and another night of screaming and a new declaration. “No man would be allowed to live who stood more than 5 feet, 10 inches.” The advisors, all shorter men, breathed a sign of relief as the palace guards went about executing any man unlucky enough to be taller than 5' 10".

            Finally, the King awoke screaming again and declared that any man with hair other than dark brown must die. The barbers were made very happy by this as it meant a great many men tried to have their hair died before being executed for trying to avoid the commandment.

            When another week passed and there were no new pronouncements, the public breathed a deep sigh of relief and the King went out on his terrace to address them. Before him, he saw a vast sea of bearded, dark haired men, no taller than 5' 10", all wearing purple shirts. But, it seemed to him that there were more men there than there should have been. He had, after all, had a great many of them executed previously. With a signal, hundreds of them broke from the crowd and, in one fell swoop, executed the King, his advisors and his personal guards.

            In the great city of Lompor, capital of the K’rgyn Empire, stands a statue in honor of the God Y’Goth who just happens to be shown as a 5' 10" male, bearded with dark hair and wearing purple robes as do all the men in the K’rgyn armies do now.