King Kalti IV: A Particularly Vile Monarch
King Kalti Ewira, IV (a.k.a. The Flightless Bird)
Since the course of Wlitowa's history, her kings have made obscure and outlandish requests and regulations. Their servants did their best to meet their monarchs' demands, sometimes achieving the impossible. With each success, the kings were assured that their will alone was sufficient, and their orders strayed yet further from reality.
King Kalti IV represented the pinnacle and perhaps the conclusion of this tradition. He would ask for an impossible task. His servants would do their best but ultimately fail at their task. The king, angry that his underlings had failed him, would discipline them accordingly. For example, he once decreed that he wished to dine on the ceiling of his throne room, rather than on the floor. The immediate response by his head attendant was that he could not change the forces of gravity. For this insult, the servant was strung upside down and tacked to the ceiling for the rest of the day to "prove" that it was possible. While the servant only suffered minor damage from the affair, the ceiling was never built to carry such weight, much less food and furniture. The staff got to work designing a new ceiling, which took much too long for the king. In a bout of frustration, he tied a servant to his table and punched him in the abdomen for hours on end. Records say that the servant died of food poisoning after eating dinner, though all other servants fared well when eating from the same source. By the time the ceiling and respective contraption was finished, the king was so underwhelmed by the experience that he had the engineer executed and banished the rest out of Wlitowa proper.
Though he never realized it, Kalti was the first Wlitowan king to have a openly, publicly bad reputation. Under his rule, Wli-Tou-Rah was established and gained prominence as a political force. Kalti's final act was to throw himself off the newly-made roof of the throne room, believing that he could will himself to fly. He could not, as his death would prove. There was celebration in the streets. His only child and daughter Ngatka, more observant and self-aware than her father, spent most of her political career trying to reverse the damage done by her father to the royal reputation. Her actions saved the monarchy, but only for so long.
King Kalti IV represented the pinnacle and perhaps the conclusion of this tradition. He would ask for an impossible task. His servants would do their best but ultimately fail at their task. The king, angry that his underlings had failed him, would discipline them accordingly. For example, he once decreed that he wished to dine on the ceiling of his throne room, rather than on the floor. The immediate response by his head attendant was that he could not change the forces of gravity. For this insult, the servant was strung upside down and tacked to the ceiling for the rest of the day to "prove" that it was possible. While the servant only suffered minor damage from the affair, the ceiling was never built to carry such weight, much less food and furniture. The staff got to work designing a new ceiling, which took much too long for the king. In a bout of frustration, he tied a servant to his table and punched him in the abdomen for hours on end. Records say that the servant died of food poisoning after eating dinner, though all other servants fared well when eating from the same source. By the time the ceiling and respective contraption was finished, the king was so underwhelmed by the experience that he had the engineer executed and banished the rest out of Wlitowa proper.
Though he never realized it, Kalti was the first Wlitowan king to have a openly, publicly bad reputation. Under his rule, Wli-Tou-Rah was established and gained prominence as a political force. Kalti's final act was to throw himself off the newly-made roof of the throne room, believing that he could will himself to fly. He could not, as his death would prove. There was celebration in the streets. His only child and daughter Ngatka, more observant and self-aware than her father, spent most of her political career trying to reverse the damage done by her father to the royal reputation. Her actions saved the monarchy, but only for so long.
Current Location
Life
182 KTG
256 KTG
74 years old
Children
Aligned Organization
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments