Listen closely all, while I tell the cautionary tale of King Hadric. Long ago, when the world was young and the gods still walked amongst us, there lived a king who went by the name of Hadric. He was renowned for his legendary cruelty, and cared only for power. The only mistress he had ever truly loved was battle. He was constantly at war with his neighbors to expand his holdings and the kings of neighboring lands grew to hate and fear him. Each day they all lived in fear that a messenger would arrive, informing them that King Hadric desired their lands. Many tried to resist his advance, but the constant warfare had made Hadric’s soldiers quite formidable, and he was as brilliant as he was brutal. One by one kingdoms fell beneath him, swallowed up by his growing empire.

One morning the king was taking a ride through the forest with a few of his generals, when he came across the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. It did not matter to him that she was sitting with her husband, a simple potato farmer. Hadric was a man who took what he wanted, and he was not a man who took no for an answer. He ordered his men to bring her back to his castle and he rode off ahead without them. When the farmer tried to prevent his wife from being taken, Hadric’s men tied a noose around his neck and hung him from the tree, laughing at the wife’s anguished screams. They then brought her back to the castle to meet her new husband.

King Hadric tried his best to please his new wife. He showered her in expensive gifts, threw banquets in her honor, he even named some of his newly captured cities after her. However, she remained unmoved, full of hatred for him and sadness for her love lost. One night she stood on the balcony the tallest tower in the castle and jumped to her death. It is said Hadrik was mildly annoyed by this, as all the money he’d spent on extravagant gifts for his wife had been wasted.

The day after her death a wizened old man, known only as Medgar, appeared in court, offering his services as advisor to the king. For some reason King Hadric felt inclined to accept him and stranger still, immediately brought him into his inner circle. Later that very day the king began to suffer the most merciless of headaches, and it lasted for days on end. Legend has it that the agonizing pain caused him to scream so loudly the castle itself would shake. Medgar offered the king a drink that relieved the pain but caused the king to fall into deep sleep for days at a time. During these bouts of hibernation King Hadric was plagued by terrible nightmares. He began to drink his medicines but refused to be allowed to fall asleep. He always had a guard with him, whose sole duty was to prevent his king from falling asleep. If the guard failed in his duty he was promptly executed. The king also refused to eat, saying that all food tasted like ash. He’d had several cooks executed before coming to this revelation. The only thing he would dine on was pure salt, and he ate it by the handful.

Hadric had begun to change. Where there had once been a veritable mountain of a man, feared by all, there was now just a shell of what he once was. He was still as wicked as he had been the day he was born, but his once powerful form was greatly reduced. He was no longer the huge, powerful warrior, feared on the battlefield. He appeared sickly and frail. His long, black hair had fallen out, leaving only patches of hair scattered around his head in its place. His teeth had rotted away due to his drastically altered diet. King Hadric was wasting away before his subjects’ very eyes. The court gossiped about his sudden change, but if one speculated too loudly they disappeared. The old man, Medgar, never left the king’s side, and he was always there whispering into his sire’s ear.

It wasn’t long before the surrounding kingdoms caught wind of King Hadric’s reduced state, and they combined their respective armies into a massive host to regain what was taken. They began a march towards Hadric’s capital intent on bringing their common enemy to justice. Day by day their forces crept closer. King Hadric’s subjects anxiously waited to see what their king would do. His generals counseled him to raise his forces and meet him in the field. His counselors advised him to treat with the kings and come to an agreement. The merchants told him to take all of his valuables and flee for a faraway land, where he could live out the remainder of his days as a rich man. But the king only listened to Medgar, and none knew what he was telling him to do. Members of the court continued to disappear. Within a week the massive combined force of all of King Hadric’s enemies were within sight of the castle.

The king went up to the tallest tower in the castle to get a better look at the approaching army, the very same his wife had jumped off exactly a year before. He brought one man with him, Medgar. They both stood there in silence, before Medgar leaned in and whispered into King Hadric’s ear one final time. It will never be known what exactly he said to the king, but whatever it was it startled him and when he turned to look at Medgar he saw not a wizened old man anymore, but the same simple farmer he’d had killed last year in order to steal his wife. King Hadric cried out in fear, backing away, trying frantically to escape from whatever the man really was. In his panic he tripped and fell over the side of the balcony, and with a scream he plummeted to his death. The moment he died, the entire castle was swallowed up by the ground and none of King Hadric’s court were ever heard from again.