GLRP:EMs:Event Bios:Lord British
Lord British
Occupation: King, scholar, adventurer, wanderer
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Location: The Ethereal Void
Alignment: Virtuous
Status: Unknown
Brief Bio:
Lord British was the founder and first King of Britannia, and the moral philosopher who invented the Virtue system that continues to guide our moral lives to this very day.
However, he proved strangely unreliable, leaving us twice, once for unknown reasons, and the second time to take a powerful artifact to the Ethereal Void to guard it against Minax.
Detailed Bio:
• Origins
Lord British's history began on a strange world known as "Earth" (sometimes spelled "Urth" and sometimes called "Terra"). A young man named Cantabrigian British somehow found himself in our enchanted land, a very different place from where he grew up. Through processes not recorded, but doubtlessly related to the young man's many talents (which may have been suppressed on his home world), he became a King of an island nation, 1 of 4 such island nations in this (to him) new world.
This world was threatened by an evil mage named Mondain. Lord British used powerful magics and summoned forth a "Stranger," later on known as the Avatar in some circles. This Stranger hailed from British's own home world, Earth (or Urth). The Stranger found his true potential in the world his countryman British had summoned him from. He grew in strength and wisdom and knowledge, and after many trials and difficulties slew Mondain. To do so, the Stranger had to shatter Mondain's Gem of Immortality, and the shattering of the gem created a great number of parallel universes, which we now known as the Shards. We live on one of these parallel world, ours seems to be called "Great Lakes" by the others, and on occasion we get visitors from the other Shards, or people who come from other Shards to settle permanently.
At this point, the histories of the original world and the Shards diverged. Here on "Great Lakes," British unified the people of his island nation with other people, and formed a nation known as Britannia. He also designed the Virtue system, which continues to guide our moral lives to this very day, even in British's absence.
• Lord British's Reign
It can scarcely be denied that British was a talented, capable, and sincere ruler. Good citizens ranging from beggers, to the nobles at the castle, to the mages of Moonglow, to the skilled craftsmen, to gypsies, all sang his praises. Though the Kingdom was, well, a Kingdom, and not a Democracy, there were aspects of Democracy present, in the way Lord British listened to his subjects, and in the way his rule was tempered somewhat by an advisory Council, which would eventually become the Britannian Council or Ruling Council or Royal Council.
The pre-British aristocracy remained, and throughout the increasingly Democratic era maintained some kind of power, and wealth, and influence.
Lord British's military chief was the famous Dupre, and his court wizard was the famous Nystul. Other famous persons, such as Sherry the Mouse and Katrina the Shepherd and Shamino the Ranger and Geoffrey the Fighter, floated in and out of his court. The seat of government was Castle Britannia, also known as Castle Britain, which was and remains located in the western part of the capital City. This castle continued to be the seat of government under various Royal Councils and under Queen Dawn. King Casca used Castle Blackthorn as his seat, and King Blackthorn at the time of writing uses a considerably re-designed and re-built Castle Blackthorn.
• The Creation of Trammel and the Faction Wars
Lord British and Nystul, facing an unstoppable invasion from Mondain's former lover Minax and her innumerable evil minions, created a mirror universe called Trammel using powerful magics, renaming the old land Felucca and largely abandoning it. The old world was fought over by 4 armies known as "Factions." One Faction, known as the True Britannians, fought in British's name and had a special relationship with the still-present, but apparently largely retired, Dupre. The other 3 Factions were the Shadowlords (an evil Faction worshiping the demonic wraiths known as the Shadowlords); Minax (fighting in the name of the Dark Mistress herself); and the Council of Mages (the Council of Mages, while accepting the Virtues, disagreed strongly enough with British's decision to create Trammel that they were willing to go against him and constantly sought to re-summon The Avatar/The Stranger).
The four Faction armies fight a never-ending Civil War for Felucca. Lord British's abandoning of the old realm is hands down the most-often question decision he made as ruler of Britannia.
• Of Order, Chaos, Virtue, and Blackthorn
Lord British's most enduring legacy is probably the creation of the complex Virtue system. In brief, the Virtue system relies upon 8 sacred Virtues, which are derived from different combinations of 3 sacred Principles (Truth, Love, and Courage). One can, the system holds, lead a life that is virtuous and Good, both in terms of one's own self and in terms of how one treats others, by following the Principles and Virtues, and by seeing life as an ongoing tension, and quest for balance, between the Virtues ("should I show Valor and bear this insult, or Justly demand an apology?"). And, of course, the more important tension between the complexity of the Virtue system, and the harsh, unyielding, brutal world we live in, which often demands simple answers to complex questions.
One day, a noble in Lord British's court, a good friend of British, a nobleman named Blackthorn, overheard a conversation between British and the Time Lord, a conversation also overheard by Sherry the Mouse. The contents of this conversation are described elsewhere, but the result was that Blackthorn created an alternative moral system that came to be known as Chaos. Whereas Order and Virtue stressed, well, order and virtue, Chaos stressed individual rights and individual freedoms.
British and Blackthorn continued to play chess together, while their more fanatical followers fought and slaughtered one another in the streets.
• Lord British's First Departure, and the Consequences
Lord British vanished from the realm, for reasons that were never disclosed. In his place, the advisory Council, known variously as the Ruling Council or Royal Council, ruled.
At this point, events occurred that were widely misunderstood at the time. The following account, written in italic script, represents what we thought happened.
Despite Blackthorn's philosophical adherence to equality and freedom, in his heart he was an arrogant aristocrat. Blackthorn harbored deep resentment against British for not naming Blackthorn as his successor, leading him to an alliance with the evil entity known as Exodus, and with the Juka race. These 3 parties waged a savage, brutal war against Britannia, which was eventually repelled by the citizens, under the leadership of a young, talented, but woefully under-prepared little girl named Dawn.
Some time later, with Lord British still absent, Blackthorn, without any help from the Juka or Exodus, launched an assault on the City of Yew, during which he was slain by Dawn, who then retreated into obscurity for some years.
That was the old view. What we now know is that Lord Blackthorn, not too long after British vanished, attempted to challenge Exodus on his own -- a rather stupid move on his part, unworthy of anyone who knows the game of chess. Blackthorn was imprisoned by Exodus, and a doppelganger of Blackthorn was sent to us. It was this doppelganger, with Blackthorn's face and manner, who committed the evil deeds attributed to Blackthorn until heroically slain by Dawn. The real Blackthorn remained imprisoned and tormented by Exodus.
• Lord British's Return
Lord British returned one day, basically out of nowhere, having to my knowledge never said where he'd been. Lord British's returned coincided with the Revenge of the Dark Enchantress, Minax, who began attacking Britannia at about the same time.
Some weeks after his return, Lord British held a memorial service for Blackthorn (of course not realizing that Blackthorn was not dead at all), wherein British stated, among other things, that he was abandoning his goal of unifying the Shards under the Virtues. And thus, Blackthorn appeared to effectively "won" the Order/Chaos conflict, in death.
Eventually, Lord British left again, to take a powerful artifact (said to be pieces of the Gem of Immortality that powered Mondain) into the Ethereal Void, which would secure it beyond permanently Minax's grasp.
• After British's Departure
The Royal Council ruled the realm for a number of years, until the ascension of the evil Casca, who became Britannia's second monarch. Casca was succeeded by Dawn, the same woman who had killed the Blackthorn doppelganger years before, until herself being slain by her own husband, under the influence of the demon lord Virtuebane. At this point the Assembly of Lords and Guilds attempted to rule, but proved to not be up to the task, especially with the malicious Lord Kendal in a leading role. The Assembly ruled until the return of the real Lord Blackthorn some time later.
At the end of the day it simply must be conceded that Lord British was a good King for as long as he stayed, but proved in the end to be unreliable. He could have been much more useful as a ruler than attempting to turn himself into a tragic hero.
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