Cursed Crown of Nocaneb
| Type | Accessory |
|---|---|
| Discovered By | Claud |
| Discovery Date | 16 December 2006 |
| Discovery Location | Nocaneb, Far East |
| Abilities | (unknown) |
| Current Owner | (unknown) |
History of the Crown
Long ago, in times so ancient that not even the noblest of families can trace their lineage back to them, there was a king who ruled in Nocaneb. The king was fair and just, as was his father, and his father before him. Over the years other kings had admired this dynasty so much that they would send their daughters to marry into it, joining their realms to his. It looked like one day the entire Far East Islands would be united forever in peace and prosperity.
But this king had no children to carry on the dynasty after him. As the years drew on and the king grew older--thirty years, forty, fifty--he grew increasingly desperate. Some say he had as many as a hundred wives and concubines, but none could give him a child.
One day, when the king was past his sixtieth year, a strange man appeared at court. He claimed that he could solve the king's problem. Not by giving him an heir, but by making it so he wouldn't need one. There was a potion he could prepare that would grant eternal life. And he would provide it in exchange for a place in the king's court as one of his advisers. Desperate, the king agreed to his proposal.
The king's health improved dramatically when he began taking the potion. Men who went hunting with him said they hadn't seen him this vigerous since he was a man of twenty. But there were other changes as well.
Within a year of the Sorcerer's first visit the taxes in the realm, which had always been lower than anywhere else on the continent, were suddenly tripled. The courts of the kingdom, always before known as houses of justice, became places where rich men got what they wanted and how much money you could pay was more important than any evidence you could bring.
The king became bitter and mean. His first wife, whom he had loved, was thrown out on the street for not being able to give him a child. Most of the other soon followed. If they were so lucky. Many of his concubines--especially the most beautiful ones--simply dissapeared. Their fate is unknown.
Within a hundred years the good king whom everyone had so admired had become a brutal tyrant. The stranger had kept his word; the king never grew old. But his soul became black and rotten. The dukes whose fathers had practically begged him to rule over them chaffed under his rule.
Eventually they had had enough. The dukes marshaled their armies and marched on Nocaneb. The king had few enough loyalists to support him. His enemies marched on the castle and slaughtered everyone within. The evil king was stabbed through the heart by a common soldier and left bleeding in his chambers.
But when the captain of the rebel army came to retrieve the body so his head could be paraded through the streets, it was nowhere to be found. Some say they saw a man running from the castle with a horrible chest wound. One old farmer claimed he recognized the king running through his field, with a hole in his chest large enough to put your fist through and cold, dead eyes that didn't seem to see what was before them.
Wars were fought over who should succeed the king, and his empire crumbled. From the rubble emerged the realms you see on the Far East Islands today. Many of these realms are great, and many are good, but none will ever match the former glory of the empire centered at Nocaneb.
As for the king, for hundreds of years there have been stories of a wretched zombie who stalks the forests of Nocaneb, drinking the blood of animals and men it encounters to stay alive. Some say the zombie wears a bright golden crown, all that's left of his days as the great king, and if that could be taken from him he would finally die and leave the living world in peace.
Some speculate on what the crown would do to any mortal who wore it. What horrible power does it hold? Adventurers sometimes go hunting for the king and his Crown, but even if they found it, none would dare to put it on.
Recent sightings
After being lost for untold generations, the Crown was found on December 16, 2006 by an adventurer named Claud, bastard son of Sirius Melange. He claims to have fought an entire army of undead before finally slicing the undead king to pieces and taking the Crown.
At first Claud would show the Crown to anyone he met as proof of his valor, but recently he's been more coy, maintaining that he has the Crown but refusing to show it to anyone. Some are beginning to believe that he's lost the Crown, if he even had it to begin with.