For context on the world, please see the Intro post.
Now that we finished documenting the most
powerful weapons in Magusterra,
the Excalibur collection, it is time to collect The hand of The Sorcerer King!
This task was given to me by the new
Immortal, Merlin The Wizard King, which I will
just be referring to as Merlin. I was given this quest via a letter.
As the Immortal in charge of magic, Merlin was told to give up other magical items that he knew the whereabouts of, just like all the other Immortals. With this Merlin decided to give up the location of the most powerful set of rings owned by one Human, The Sorcerer King.
Who is The Sorcerer King? Well, no one knows his real name, except for Merlin, who refuses to say it, not even to the other Immortals! The reason for this is that Merlin believes that The Sorcerer King was his biggest mistake.
While Merlin was learning how to harness
magic without the help from the Immortals and magical creatures, he found many
orphans and adopted them. I mentioned two of them in the document: Item 61: Caliburnus or The
Immortal Key. Which is a cursed object and can only be read on my patreon here:
Merlin
raised many of them to respect magic and to use it for the benefit of Humankind.
And he succeeded for the most part, but failed with two of his adopted pupils, one
of them being The Sorcerer
King.
Very little is known about The Sorcerer
King. The little we do know comes from scraps of
burnt papers and lost journals written by one of Merlin’s scribes.
The
lose notes and books were found and stolen from the house of Merlin’s adopted
son Blaise, who became Merlin’s scribe and chronicler. Blaise showed a strong
potential to use magic and was found by Merlin in a library of a small village.
Blaise
was adventurous and a literary master, who went with Merlin on many adventures
and documented the wizard’s most amazing feats and accomplishments.
Blaise even documented when The Sorcerer King was adopted by Merlin. Blaise and The Sorcerer King became good friends, but that all changed when The Sorcerer King turned to evil and used Merlin’s research to usurp the throne of Gwyddno Garanhir, who was the King of Cantre’r Gwaelod, a now lost kingdom in the land of Cymru.
According to Blaise, Cantre’r Gwaelod was where Merlin found The Sorcerer King half dead and neglected by everyone around him!
To usurp the throne, The Sorcerer King needed powerful weapons, so he sought out five artefacts that would make him as powerful as Merlin. The Sorcerer King used research papers he stole from Merlin and went to work on finding a way to get rich quick, so he can have the money to buy an army. This gave The Sorcerer King two options, the Philosopher’s Stone or the Midas Touch.
Now as we know from document Item #59: Eilifligh flamberge or the Immortal killer, the stone was missing alongside its creator, Flemmel, around this time. So, The Sorcerer King settled on the Rings of Midas, of which there were ten. We know the location of two. One is in the possession of The Troll King, and the other was used by Flamel to make the Philosopher’s Stone. The rest were scattered.
After a long and frustrating search, The Sorcerer King finally found one. How he found it will be discussed in a later document when discussing each ring individually. But what I will say is that The Sorcerer King realised why King Midas got rid of the rings: because once you put them on, you can’t take them off!
But lucky for The Sorcerer King, he only had one ring, so anything he touched with the finger that the ring was on, turned to gold. The ring didn’t affect any of his other fingers.
This was a relief to The Sorcerer King, but the down side was that having one ring reduces the power of the Midas Touch spell. This meant that The Sorcerer King could only make small things gold and he could only do it once every six hours!
The Sorcerer King painstakingly (in secret, for Merlin didn’t know about The Sorcerer King’s plan) collected stones and plants and turned them into gold until he was rich enough to hire an army.
The Sorcerer King hid this ring under a glove, but was discovered when Merlin presented him with a Power Ring. More on this later, but for context, it was a ring Merlin invented (with an individual simply known as the African Magician) that allowed Humans to use magic. Up until that point they were using wands and the rings were more powerful. The Sorcerer King excitedly took off the glove and put on the Power Ring, known as Pacator (peace bringer).
Merlin seeing one of the Rings of Midas, interrogated The Sorcerer King. Knowing that Merlin wouldn’t like the answers of where he got the ring, The Sorcerer King attacked Merlin and ran away. Merlin sent his apprentice Balthazar Blake, to capture The Sorcerer King.
With Merlin hunting him, The Sorcerer King knew he needed more power. But since The Sorcerer King had two rings, he settled on only using rings to give him power. And he liked the idea of the Ring of Midas being cursed and the idea of the rings being permanently stuck on his fingers. That way they can’t just be taken off or stolen. The Sorcerer King took drastic steps to make sure every ring he put on was cursed to stay on his hand forever.
The Sorcerer King knew he needed more
knowledge on magic. But he couldn’t talk to those close to Merlin, so The
Sorcerer King sought out other evil magic users, such as Koschei the Deathless (Item #59: Eilifligh
flamberge or the Immortal killer), Morgan le Fay (Item 61: Caliburnus or The Immortal
Key), Loki (Item #59: Eilifligh
flamberge or the Immortal killer), the Lich King and many more.
The next ring The Sorcerer King wanted was one made by the four dwarves that made Freya’s necklace of the Brisings. He wanted a ring that had the same powers as the necklace: to enchant and control people with its beauty.
But before The Sorcerer King could do that he had to find a way to be immortal in order to use the Brisings Ring. So he created a ring of Ouroboros.
After that he found the four dwarves and got the Brisings Ring. This was in Nordrvegr, where he also met the Viking King, Seithennin, who had a small army and helped The Sorcerer King get hold of the four dwarves.
The Sorcerer King, with his gold magic convinced Seithennin to help him conquer Cantre’r Gwaelod. Seithennin agreed, but told The Sorcerer King, that his army was too small, but that he knew about an ancient race of beings that wanted to take over the world. These beings are known as the Deep Ones.
They are a race of fish-humanoid creatures
that live deep in the oceans. The Deep Ones are divided into two factions. The
first are guardians of The Lady of the Lake and her treasures.
The second are part of a group that left
The Lady of the Lake’s employ to work for an evil creature that came from the
shadows when the unknown light appeared, known only as Cthulhu, The Sleeper of
R'lyeh, who was defeated and imprisoned in Atlantis by The Lady of the Lake.
Cthulhu, got the Deep Ones to revolt, by convincing their King, Dagon, now called Father Dagon, (a title given to him by Cthulhu), who is the son of The Lady of the Lake and Cronos.
Dagon, alongside his wife, Mother Hydra, convinced the Deep Ones to revolt and join him in worshipping Cthulhu. But there were Deep Ones who defied their King and stayed loyal to The Lady of the Lake, which lead to a war that seems to have no end in sight.
Cthulhu’s Deep Ones, know they can’t defeat The Lady of the Lake by themselves, so they planned to try and take over the world above, by striking deals with villages and kingdoms who were struggling with food, by giving them fish. In exchange the people of the village or kingdom must worship Father Dagon and once a month give up their unmarried woman to take part in “breeding rites” where the women are impregnated by the Deep Ones to help build up Cthulhu’s army.
This plan of theirs has been very slow, due to the interference of The Lady of the Lake’s and Sister Death’s armies, who stop them and kill the woman still pregnant with the Deep Ones’ offspring.
So they started only approaching settlements where they are granted protection and secrecy. The most famous of these places being the city of Innsmouth.
The Sorcerer King decided to exploit the
Deep Ones and had the Viking King take him to the nearest Deep Ones settlement
close to Cantre’r Gwaelod. And this was an underwater kingdom known as Y'lu-Y'loa,
where Dagon was coincidentally hiding.
The Sorcerer approached Dagon and asked him
for help to take over Cantre’r Gwaelod. And promised Dagon that he will allow
Dagon to practice the breeding rites as well as share in the kingdom’s spoils
when they take over.
Dagon liked this idea, but he needed a
strong commitment from The Sorcerer King, a promise that he won’t double cross
the Deep Ones. So Dagon proposed that The Sorcerer King marries his daughter Shala.
If The Sorcerer King agreed, Dagon would give him a wedding ring that allowed him to control and command an army of Deep Ones, but if he tried to turn on Dagon, the ring would break and the Deep Ones would attack him. The Sorcerer King agreed and that is how he got his final ring.
So to recap, The Sorcerer King had five rings, all on one hand:
-Pointer finger, The Ring of Midas
-Middle finger, The Power Ring, Pacator
-Ring finger, The wedding ring of Shala
-Pinkie finger, The Brisings ring
-Thumb, The ring of Ouroboros
And with these rings, The Sorcerer King took over the Kingdom of Cantre’r Gwaelod by force.
Now, I won’t explain in this document how
he took the throne from Gwyddno Garanhir. Instead I will reveal how he did it step
by step when discussing the rings individually.
But I will close off this introduction to
the next series of artefacts with how Merlin stopped The Sorcerer King and how
that led to the destruction and demise of Cantre’r Gwaelod.
When the cease fire took into effect, and
the Humans and Immortals stopped fighting, Merlin approached The Lady of the
Lake to help him stop The Sorcerer King.
The Lady of the Lake sent a handful of Deep
Ones from her faction to infiltrate The Sorcerer King’s ranks as spies. And
even Balthazar Blake got himself captured to get close to The Sorcerer King.
Now, how to remove the rings?
First Merlin wanted to use the water that
removed Midas’ rings, but that lake was dried up and besides it would only
remove the golden touch ring. And assassinating The Sorcerer King wouldn’t work
because of the Ouroboros ring. A full scale attack wouldn’t work because The
Sorcerer King had two rings that controlled a Human army and an army of Deep
Ones. And a magical attack would be difficult due to The Sorcerer King’s
knowledge in dark magic from other evil magicians, which are amplified by the
power of Pacator.
So the only option was to sever his
connection to the rings by cutting off his hand. Which through careful
planning, memorizing the guards’ schedules and years of waiting the plan failed
and led to the death of Balthazar Blake.
For Balthazar Blake was meant to convince
The Sorcerer King that he wants to join him and leave Merlin, causing The
Sorcerer King to let down his guard. Then The Lady of the Lake’s spies would
swoop in and cut off the King’s power source.
But The Sorcerer King saw through Blake’s lies and killed him. The Sorcerer King even had the spies killed off one by one when on one visit, Dagon, told The Sorcerer King that he didn’t recognise some of the guards.
Heart broken, Merlin pleaded with The
Sorcerer King to give back the body of Balthazar Blake. The Sorcerer King
believing that he had broken the great wizard, allowed Merlin’s request and
even oversaw the delivery of the corpse to Merlin himself.
This led to The Sorcerer King’s fall,
because in is arrogance and gloating over his victory against Merlin, he failed
to see the giant serpent, The Immortal One, hiding and waiting for Merlin’s
signal.
Once Merlin gave the signal, The Immortal One jumped out and grabbed The Sorcerer King and held him tightly in his jaw. And when The Sorcerer King commanded his small army, which accompanied him to meet Merlin, to attack, he found that they were all dead.
Turns out that The Lady of the Lake already had a spy in Dagon’s ranks. This spy was there from the beginning when The Lady of the Lake started to suspect that Dagon was conspiring against her!
While The Sorcerer King and his small army were waiting, the spy poisoned their water supply. It took time for the poison to work, but when it did, the army fell.
The Sorcerer King was also too far away to call on more men to help him. He used his magic to break free from The Immortal One’s hold and attacked Merlin. Merlin held his own against The Sorcerer King. But Merlin wasn’t strong enough and was struck down dead by a dark spell.
The Sorcerer King, relieved, went to pick up Merlin’s body as proof that he truly was The King of Sorcery. But again, before a fall comes pride and when The Sorcerer King grabbed Merlin, Merlin pulled out Caliburnus, which he borrowed from Arthur, and cut off the King’s hand. Without the rings, The Sorcerer King instantly perished.
It turns out that Merlin knew he couldn’t get close enough to The Sorcerer King by force, due to his strength. So, Merlin approached The Immortal One with a plan to use The Sorcerer King’s hatred and hubris.
This plan involved a peach from the Celestial Peach tree (Item #59: Eilifligh flamberge or the Immortal killer) and Merlin’s death. The Immortal One gave Merlin a small piece of the peach, just enough to bring him back to life if he was killed, which helped Merlin get close enough to The Sorcerer King. And the use of Caliburnus, was just to make sure that the hand would be severed without any problems.
After that Cantre’r Gwaelod saw many riots and power struggles between the Humans and the Deep Ones, which caused many civil wars. Then when the cease fire ended and the Immortals and Humans carried on with the war, the kingdom fell due to there being a lack of security or protection. Eventually The Lady of the Lake took pity on the Humans in the kingdom of Cantre’r Gwaelod, and to stop the rise of the Deep Ones who want to defeat her, she flooded and completely wiped the kingdom from existence.
Now the hand was taken to an underwater cave, protected by The Lady of the Lake’s Deep Ones. This cave is so well hidden that the Deep Ones posted there, were brought there blind folded by Merlin as to keep the location a secret. Not even The Lady of the Lake or Lady Wisdom know where it is!
Then Merlin, burned down Blaise’s house along with all of the records that talk about The Sorcerer King and his origins. But there are still remnants from those papers, that were found by scavengers and thieves who sold the documents on the black market.
But now Merlin was obligated to give up the location. And this is where the ark sent me. It was in the middle of a vast ocean, with no land in sight, except for a mountain that was barely peeking out from the waves.
There I met the army of Deep Ones posted there, all packing up and eager to give me the hand, so that they could go home.
I was greeted by one of these fish people.
His name was Garry and he immediately had four of his men put the hand into the
ark after he saw the letter from Merlin.
I was surprised by what I saw when I got
the hand. I was expecting a couple of bones with metal loops, but instead I got
a hand that was still intact. It turns out that even though it isn’t attached
to the main body anymore, the ring of Ouroboros still kept the hand from
withering and decaying away.
I was also given a special glass case that
was tinted to negate the power of the Brisings ring. I also got a pair of goggles
with the same glass so that I could closely examine it and document the
Brisings ring without being enchanted.
Good thing to, because without the goggles
I wouldn’t have been able to document the other rings, because the Brisings
ring, is the first ring I documented.
So join me as I talk about the first ring
in the next collection, The Sorcerer King’s rings, in the document:
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