Item 26: The Ring of Midas

 For context on the world, please see the Intro post and context on the rings of The Sorcerer King, please see Item 22.

And

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The next ring on the hand of The Sorcerer King was his first ring, which was one of the ten rings that belonged to King Midas.

I did briefly go over the history of the rings in the document Item #59: Eilifligh flamberge or the Immortal killer. But I will go over it again and in more detail.

First I will go over the ring’s history, then I will go over how The Sorcerer King got hold of one and how it was used to take over the kingdom of Cantre’r Gwaelod.

King Midas was the ruler of Phrygia, and sought to make it one of the most prosperous kingdoms in all of Hellada. Midas was so devoted to his mission, that his kingdom was known as the Mining Lands, because of the uncountable amount of mines that he had started in order to get as much riches out of the earth as possible.

But despite his greedy nature, Midas was a kind and generous ruler. And it is because of this caring attitude, Midas was able to make his kingdom very rich.

One day, Midas was out touring the grounds of a new mine that was just opened and there he found a satyr named Silenus. Silenus was injured after being attacked by a bear. Midas saw the satyr in trouble and had his warriors protect and save Silenus.

Silenus was treated for his wounds and was Midas’ most honoured guest. Silenus stayed with Midas for three weeks and Midas learned that Silenus was actually Pan, the biological son of Mother Nature and the adopted son of Hermes!

Pan usually goes by the name Silenus when traveling to hide his identity and status. Pan’s main job is to travel to different followers and worshipers of Mother Nature and teach them how to use the magic of nature.

Pan’s next student was one of Mother Nature’s most powerful worshippers, Dionysus.

 Pan has been teaching Dionysus for some time and left him to go home in winter time, and when spring came, Pan was on his way back to his student when he was attacked.

Hearing this, Midas, organised a carriage to take him and Pan to Dionysus’ home, which was a massive palace. On returning Pan to Dionysus, Dionysus was so pleased and relieved to find his tutor safe, that he said he will grant one wish to Midas.

Midas’ wish was quickly made and that was to have more gold than anyone else. Dionysus agreed to this and told Midas that he will grant it in one month.

During this month Dionysus met with The Troll King. Although The Troll King hated Humans, he liked Dionysus, as Dionysus used his teachings from Pan to grow his vineyard and make the most delicious wine, which he shared with The Troll King.

Dionysus and The Troll King worked together to come up with a solution on how to grant Midas’ wish. The only thing they could come up with was to give Midas the power to turn anything into gold by just touching it and thus created the Ten Rings of Midas.

And to make sure that no one else would use these rings, Dionysus stamped it with a cursed seal that made sure that when you put on the rings, that it was cursed to stay on your hands forever.

 This cursed seal was made by Dionysus as a method to keep his followers quiet. For you see, Dionysus used his wine for more than just getting close to the Immortals, but he also used it to intoxicate and seduce other Humans.

The Humans who drank the wine got addicted and started worshipping Dionysus as a god and even started a cult, known as the Rites of Dionysus. Little is known about the cult and what goes on in the celebrations.

All we have are rumours and these rumours are that Dionysus holds his cult meetings deep in the woods, where his followers are given wine that makes them euphoric. In this state of euphoria one of two things could happen, either the Humans who drink the wine go mad and run into the woods looking for animals to kill. The dead animal’s blood is then offered to Dionysus, who then drinks it (it is unclear why).

The second thing is that the drinkers of the wine become lustful and start having orgies. Dionysus would often take part in these “group activities” as his worshippers believed that it was a way for them to become one with their god (it should be noted that Dionysus was married with children, but his wife, Ariadne, the princess of Crete, seemed to have no problem with his activities!).

Other rumours range from bestiality to Human sacrifice, but one rumour has been confirmed, and that is that all participants must go through the ritual of being tattooed with Dionysus’ cursed seal on their neck. This seal prevents them from being able to talk about what happens during these “celebrations” even when they are being tortured.

This seal can be seen on the necks of Dionysus’ Maenads (his madwomen), a group of four women that follow Dionysus everywhere carrying the thyrsus, Dionysus’ symbol and holy relic. It is said that before every cult meeting, the thyrsus is danced around in a circle and kissed by his followers before the wine is served.

 

Now this cursed symbol used by Dionysus works similar to Cthulhu’s meteorites (see Item 151: The Statuette of Cthulhu) in that once Dionysus adds it to something, he can give it a purpose. When on the necks of his followers he cursed them to not be able to speak about his cult. And on the Rings of Midas, he cursed the wearer to not be able to take them off!

Anyway… Dionysus and The Troll King made ten rings, one for every finger and gave it to Midas, but they didn’t tell the King about the cursed seals. This led to Midas’ downfall.

Everything Midas touched turned to gold, this included food and other people. Midas couldn’t eat and so he had to be fed by his servants. This was not a good look as it made Midas seem weak and incapable of fulfilling his kingly duties, causing the people from his kingdom to turn on him.

Midas also isolated himself in his palace as he became extremely depressed after he accidently turned his daughter into gold, killing her. Eventually his people revolted and Midas begged Dionysus to remove the rings.

Now one might ask, why Dionysus didn’t tell Midas of the curse or why Dionysus didn’t add any rules to the rings, such as not being able to turn food or living things into gold? The answer is simple: Dionysus enjoyed driving other people mad, whether it was through alcohol, drugs or cursed objects!

But since Midas was kind to Pan and didn’t send an army to his palace as revenge, Dionysus agreed to rid Midas of the rings. Together with The Lady of the Lake, Dionysus created a special river/lake known as Lake Guatavita in the lands of Tawantinsuyu.

 There, Midas washed his hands and the rings came off. These ten rings were then collected by The Lady of the Lake and spread out and hidden all around Magusterra. So far only three were located. The first is in the hands of The Troll King and the second was used by Flemmel to create the Philosopher’s stone (see my document Item #59: Eilifligh flamberge or the Immortal killer). The third, I will go over a little later, but for now I will just finish off Midas’ story.

After Midas got back home, he found that his kingdom has been taken over and he was overthrown. Fearing for his life he ran away and reached out to Pan. Pan helped Midas escaped and put him in charge of a farm. There Midas led a peaceful live, but was later cursed with donkey ears by Apollo after a disagreement, but this is a story for another day.

Now to talk about the third Midas ring that was used by The Sorcerer King.

This ring ended up in the hands of the Chinchaysuyu people, who used it in their coronation rituals, where the eldest hampicamayoc (witch doctor) would use the ring to turn sand into gold dust. This dust would be blown onto the body of the new chief of a village during his coronation and thus would be known as el Dorado (the gilded one). 

This “gilded one”, would then bathe in Lake Guatavit, washing off the gold and upon exiting the lake is the new chief of their village.

Lake Guatavit was also used in the anointing of the new eldest hampicamayoc, when the last one either retires or dies. The Chinchaysuyu people from all surrounding villages would use Lake Guatavit to wash off the ring from the last hampicamayoc and then give it to the new eldest hampicamayoc.

Now how did The Sorcerer King get his hands on this? Well, the plan he devised was quite complicated. The Sorcerer King wanted to get the ring the same way as Flemmel: making a deal with a devil or demon (Item #59: Eilifligh flamberge or the Immortal killer)! The reason was that The Sorcerer King didn’t have the power to fight the entire population of the Chinchaysuyu people who would fight tooth and nail to protect their Midas Ring.

But, unlike Flemmel, The Sorcerer King didn’t want to give up his soul after receiving the ring. So, The Sorcerer King wanted to find a devil/demon that needed his help. The Sorcerer King went around looking for unusual cases where a devil or demon was in a situation where they were trapped or stuck… Enter farmer Sigurd Larsson.

Larsson was a framer in the land of Svitjod and was absolutely hated by everyone around him, especially the gnomes. Gnomes are very small woodland creatures. Some say they are related to dwarves, whereas others say they are related to elves and/or fairies. Their most notable identification are their red hats for male gnomes, and green (if married) or grey (if unmarried) hats for female gnomes.

Now there are different types of gnomes and the one Larsson had were farm gnomes, gnomes who live in barns and sometimes help out the farmer and farm hands with daily tasks, especially if the farmer and workers were generous and kind towards the gnomes.

But as you can presume, this was not the case for Larsson. His greed and poor treatment towards his workers made it hard for them to pay back the gnomes for their help. And in turn the gnomes on the farm struggled to keep their children safe in the barn and feed them. One day a gnome confronted Larsson, but Larsson grabbed the gnome and strangled him. Just before the gnome passed out, Larsson threw him out of a window and told the gnome to stay away.

This angered the gnomes and they summoned an imp.

They told the imp (a lessor or weak demon/devil) that they are there to make a deal on behalf of Larsson. The imp informed them that they must entrap him in a bottle and give it to Larsson and then a deal could be made.

The gnomes did so and gave the bottled imp to Larsson as an apology gift for bothering him. The gnomes told the farmer that the bottle contained a magic that will grant him riches beyond his wildest dreams.

 
 Larsson accepted, asked for the riches and drank up the demon. A week later, a farm hand, while digging, found buried treasure and at the same time all of the farmer’s competitors were struck with drought, making him the only farm able to sell goods to the nearby markets, increasing his profits tenfold.

But the richer Larsson got the more malnourished he became. No doctor could help him. Then the gnomes told him that he swallowed an imp. They explained that the imp eats away at the farmer’s life with every good luck he is struck with and that eventually Larsson will die and be dragged to hell.

Larsson begged the gnomes to help him. The gnomes informed him that there are only two ways to rid himself of the imp. One was to bleed out the imp back into the original bottle that it came from and sell it off to someone else and the curse will be broken. But Larsson threw that bottle away a long time ago.

So it was the second option that was left. But the gnomes would only help Larsson if he faked his death and left the farm to his son, who was much kinder to the workers and the gnomes.

Larsson, worried for his soul, agreed, wrote his will and disappeared deep into the woods. There he would build a log cabin and live in isolation for many years. And to help him get rid of the imp, the gnomes would bring him a special elixir to keep the imp weak and also eventually flush it from Larsson’s system. What this elixir was, no one knows, as the gnomes kept it a secret to stop the farmer and anyone else from making it themselves.

The Sorcerer King heard that Larsson was still alive and still had the imp inside of him. 

So he approached a gnome or Siberian gnome, named Kostja.

 

Now Siberian gnomes come from the land of Scythia and are seen as evil and hated by the other gnomes, for Siberian gnomes are known to interbreed with other species.

This isn’t the problem the other gnomes have with them, it is that the Siberian gnomes interbreed with the gnomes’ greatest enemies, trolls (which as mentioned in Item# 55 The Troll-riða blað or the Earth crusher, a troll is any creature that is part of The Troll King’s domain and is “a name given to beings that are deemed to be very ugly. For The Troll King’s guardians consists of bigfoots, goblins, ogres, etc.” and that The Troll King changed his name to take “back the word ‘troll’ which was used as a derogatory term to not only the creatures in his domain but to anyone who was alienated because of their appearance”).

Trolls and gnomes have been and still are waging an unending war between them, the reason has been long forgotten, but some say it is because the gnomes turned their back on The Troll King after his war (the Clash of the Titans) and aligned themselves with Mother Nature instead. But whatever the reason is, the Siberian gnomes are considered to be a part of the trolls and thus enemies of the other gnomes.

Anyway, Kostja hated the other gnomes and the Humans as well. He would constantly lead an army of Siberian gnomes and other trolls to torment Human villages, unless they pay him a protection fee, which consisted of half of what the Humans caught when out hunting, whether it be meat or pelts.

But after complaining to the Gnome King of the Scythia region, the Humans and the gnomes worked together to set up a trap for Kostja. They left a pelt in a tree as payment, but hidden near the tree was a simple snare rope trap, so when Kostja got close, the trap went off and caught him.

Hanging upside down and humiliated, Kostja was released on the condition that he leave the Humans and other gnomes alone. Kostja agreed.

Kostja, now abandoned by his army, wanted to get revenge and thanks to The Sorcerer King, Kostja was given the chance. The Sorcerer King approached the Siberian gnome asking him for help to find Larsson. Kostja used his connections to the other creatures under The Troll King’s command to find him. Kostja’s informants found the farmer not far from them, but they had to hurry as Larsson was about to receive the last remaining elixirs to cure him from the imp’s possession.

The Sorcerer King had the gnomes with the elixirs captured before they could reach the farmer. Then The Sorcerer King had Larsson caught and tied up. The Sorcerer King used a summoning circle to speak to the imp and told the imp that he will destroy the last remaining elixirs, but on the condition that the imp retrieves the Midas ring for him. The imp agreed and a month later Sigurd Larsson was completely consumed by the imp and sent straight to the pits of hell.

Then the imp travelled to Chinchaysuyu and snuck into the hut of the current elder hampicamayoc, cut off his hand and presented it to The Sorcerer King. The Sorcerer King removed the ring in Lake Guatavit.

There he found the cursed seal that Dionysus used. Later, The Sorcerer King, not only used this same seal on his other rings to make sure that they stay on his hand forever, but he improved on it by adding an extra symbol to the seal to strengthen the curse.

 To read about his improvement on the seal, please check out my Patreon exclusive post, Item 27: The Power Ring, Pacator. Link here:

https://www.patreon.com/OnlineCurator/posts/item-27-power-171870839?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Anyway, that is how The Sorcerer King got his first ring, Item 26: The Ring of Midas.

 Now this ring only has the original Dionysus cursed seal, it was only on his second ring, Item 27: The Power Ring, Pacator and the three others, that have his improved seal.

Now, how The Sorcerer King used this ring in his takeover of Cantre’r Gwaelod, isn’t exciting, but it was instrumental in making sure that the invasion of the kingdom was a success.

As mentioned in Item #22: The hand of The Sorcerer King, I mentioned that the Midas ring is weak without the other nine, and “could only make small things gold and he could only do it once every six hours!”

Meaning that The Sorcerer King could only use the ring four times a day, and had to wait a long time to accumulate the wealth needed to fund his attack on Cantre’r Gwaelod. Luckily, by the time Merlin was on to him, The Sorcerer King had enough wealth, fled to Nordrvegr, met and hired the Viking King, Seithennin.

The ring also only affects the one finger that it is on, meaning that unlike Midas, The Sorcerer King, could freely touch food and people with his other hand and fingers without the worry of turning them into gold. Only his pointer finger, where the ring was placed, can turn small things or big things over time into gold.

The Sorcerer King did however keep this limitation of his ring a secret, as to make others think that he could make them wealthy in an instant, tricking them into joining him. That is how he got the people of island of Serendid (Item #25: The ring of Ouroboros) and Father Dagon (Item 24: The wedding ring of Shala) to help and join him.

The Sorcerer King also used his Midas ring to bribe the other kingdoms around Cantre’r Gwaelod to stay out of his business, as well as bribing the guards of Cantre’r Gwaelod, to keep the people of the kingdom in line and force them to partake in the “Breeding rites” (Item 24: The wedding ring of Shala).

And that is how The Sorcerer King got his first ring and how he funded his campaign. And please check out the final ring in this collection, Item 27: The Power Ring, Pacator, now up on my Patreon. 

If you want to support this site, please consider joining my Patreon, where I will be posting exclusive content from time to time, which will be the "Cursed Object" collection, items that are too dark to just be shared publicly. The first two posts are already up and available for a onetime payments!
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