| “ | I will stop at nothing less than the total eradication of these escaped slaves! | „ |
| ~ Mad King Gryphonheart, after he wanted to personally crush the revolt of the mud landers. |
| “ | Tarnum: If a man - a King - made many terrible mistakes, do you think he should have the chance to redeem himself? Droglo: Depends on the man, I think. Take Mad King Gryphonheart, for instance. His crimes are too great! He deserves only to rot in a pit for all eternity! |
„ |
| ~ Tarnum and Droglo about Mad King Gryphonheart. |
The Mad King Gryphonheart is the main antagonist from Heroes Chronicles: Revolt of the Beastmasters. He was a nameless king of the kingdom of Erathia and a cruel tyrant who enslaved the Mudlanders until Tarnum came to help them win their freedom.
Biography[]
Little is known about the Mad King Gryphonheart's past. His original name is unknown, but it is certain that he was a descendant of the previous Gryphonheart kings. However, he was completely different, a maniacal, evil tyrant who cared for no one but himself. Two sons were born, an older one named Niven and a younger one. However, the king turned them against each other early on, when Niven was six and his brother was five, when their father said that whoever killed the other first would be the new king, then he started laughing loud. He thought it was funny, but his younger son meant it and turned against Niven. Gryphonheart then ruled as an outright tyrant, some of the nobility did not support him, but some did. The king used Erathia's military power to subjugate and enslave the mud landers who lived in the territory of Tatalia. The most active participants in his reign of terror are three nobles: Lord Onsten, the wealthy Baron Paglon and the influential Earl Rambert. The king made decrees and laws that made life difficult for the slaves living in already bad conditions and the oppressors constantly harmed them.
The Ancients then sent the Immortal hero Tarnum to free the mud landers, but even he could not have imagined how bad the situation was. Gryphonheart restricted them in almost everything, the conditions were horrible and they even had to endure the special cruelties from Onsten. t was already difficult to organize the rebellion, since the king regulated by law that slaves could not form a group of more than three, nor could many of them talk to each other, otherwise they would be whipped. The conditions of the slaves were also horrible, especially in the mines of Onsten. The servants were chained to the walls, they had to live, sleep or die at their workplace, they were skinny and very smelly. Despite this, the uprising was organized, Tarnum became the leader of the rebels and several people started to join them. Onsten tried to intimidate the rebels with brutality, mutilations, and more murders, but Tarnum gathered enough troops to defeat the noble's army, besiege and capture his castle, and kill Onsten.
After Onsten's death, Mad King Gryphonheart took the threat more seriously and assigned another minion, Baron Paglon, to put down the uprising. The king even sent soldiers, but it was only a small force, not the famous, organized Erathian army. However, the baron suffered a great defeat, losing most of his soldiers and two castles. However, he still had one castle left, where he had enough soldiers left for defense. The king sent new reinforcements to the baron, but he was not happy about his defeat and warned him in a message that he would forgive him for this defeat, but if he failed again, he would strip him of his title. Gryphonheart and Paglon then came up with an evil plan in which both of them played an important role. The king promised ten pieces of silver for the head of an escaped slave, and the baron handed over the reward. With this, the two villains incited many robbers, murderers, thieves and pirates against the rebels, but they did not spare the innocent either. Hundreds of innocents were killed, men, women, children, non-human beings without distinction, and then the heads were taken to Paglon's castle, some even took a cartload of heads there, while the baron increasingly incited the bounty hunters against the rebels. Because of this, there were also desertions among the rebels, the situation was very serious and bad, but Tarnum and his warriors did not give up and made good progress. The bounty hunters looted tens of thousands of gold and treasures, but the rebels found their hiding places and killed them. Paglon realized too late that he was trapped, as his castle was surrounded by mountains and there was only one way to enter the area, but Tarnum had built a garrison there. The baron tried to bribe the rebel leader, offering half of his wealth, but in the eyes of the rebel leader, he was an evil criminal and rejected the offer. The castle was besieged by the rebels, and Tarnum killed Baron Paglon.
After losing his second most important minion, the Mad King realized that he had to get really serious about the uprising, but he still didn't want to lead the armies personally. He sent his son, Niven, but he also sent his third most important man, Earl Rambert, who was very influential and had many soldiers. However, the king's intention was not only to crush the rebellion, but to have Niven die. The prince was disliked by his father, he even hated him, as he was a completely different personality. He was educated, kind-hearted, the nobility supported him, and his father was feared but not supported. He believed that if the boy was killed, then his power would be greater, and Earl Rambert and his army could defeat the rebels. However, one of the nobles found out about this and secretly sought out Tarnum and told him about the evil king's plan. The rebel leader had already heard about the boy, who tried to correct his father's actions, for example, the bounty offered only for Tarnum's head, and he managed to partially remove the effect of Paglon's hate incitement. At the same time, the prince was also a great strategist, he inflicted a serious defeat on the rebels, in which both sides lost a lot, but the Erathians took many prisoners. He refused to execute or hurt the prisoners, despite Earl Rambert almost begging him to do so. He promised the nobleman that he would not kill the boy, but he also stipulated that they will still protect themselves. One night he and a companion, the young Droglo, kidnapped the prince from his camp and held him hostage. However, Tarnum's real goal was not to hold the prince captive, but to show him his father's true colors.
He led him around his camp, the prince's hands tied behind his back and Droglo guarding him. They first went to the healers' tent, where he showed him some newly arrived escaped slaves. They were all hunched from exhaustion, with fresh whip marks on their backs, even the children. However, Niven had never seen anything like this before and he acted completely as if he thought the whole thing was a fake. The rebel leader was a little shocked, but he knew that the boy had only seen house slaves, who were not treated harshly and did not have to do hard physical work, so he did not see his father's reign of terror. He then told twenty slaves personal stories of torture and pain, but Niven still did not want to believe the rebel leader and asked him to let him go. Tarnum, on the other hand, realized that if he saw the reality with his own eyes, he would believe him, so he asked him to show him one more thing, after which he would let him go. Tarnum, Droglo and the prince approached a small slave camp. The prince's hands were not tied, so he was able to climb a steep hill from where he could see the area well, and Tarnum wanted him to get a good look at what he was about to see. The prince was completely devastated by the sight, he started to cry because of the stench and the sight, and his heart broke. A terrible stench emanated from the slave pens, and the slaves were trapped in very small pits, barely able to move. In the middle of the camp was a tree with dozens of corpses hanging from it, and one female lizardman managed to get out of one of the pens and cling to the dangling heels of a male, hanged lizardman. The boy was broken when he saw what his father had actually done to others. The prince in his cage was speechless and eating little, Droglo wanted to let him go, which Tarnum agreed to, seeing the boy's condition and not wanting him to go mad like his father. The prince, on the other hand, wanted to stay with the rebels, his relationship with Tarnum and Droglo became very close and they also saw that he was a completely different person than his mad father. Earl Rambert's army suffered a great defeat, the nobleman lost three castles, but he escaped in time with some of the prisoners.
While with the rebels, Niven told Tarnum that he already suspected that his father was insane and had inflicted a serious wound on him. He had a brother, when Niven was six and he was five then their father declared that whoever killed the other would be king after him and then he started laughing out loud because he thought it was funny. The brother then hated Niven and disappeared. Tarnum was getting more and more annoyed by how evil the mad king was, but he had to focus on his current opponent, Earl Rambert. His last castle, on the other hand, was in a very difficult place to reach, and he threatened Tarnum in a letter that if he did not hand over Niven to him, he would execute the prisoners. Niven convinced the rebels to accept the offer and took him to the agreed location where the prisoners were, but Rambert ambushed them with some of his soldiers. The prince was enraged by the meanness of the evil noble and the fact that he also killed an important rebel commander, Brellick, so after breaking free from his cage, he killed Rambert with his sword. The prisoners then made it back to the rebel camp, and Niven was sent off to begin organizing the resistance. Tarnum then attacked Rambert's last castle with all his warriors and monsters, capturing it and destroying his remaining army.
After losing his last important minion, the Mad Gryphonheart King decided to personally crush the uprising, but he still did not lead the soldiers on the battlefield. Tarnum realized that he had been holding back until now because his goal was to completely cut off the rebels from the borders and surround them with his army, and the mad king had declared that he would take no prisoners and kill all rebels and slaves. The situation for the rebels was also complicated by the fact that in these deep parts of the swamp, the natives fought against everyone and did not side with anyone. The rebels had only to face the vanguard forces of the Erathian army, but even then they did not have an easy task, since most of them were not warriors. One night, the Mad King ordered a night attack, which the rebel leader said was madness, just like the king, as the swamp's wildlife was most active at night. However, the seemingly crazy idea seemed successful at first, the Erathian soldiers advanced and killed many rebel recruits, the power of surprise was effective enough. However, when Tarnum and the other rebels reacted quickly and were more used to the darkness than the enemy, the Erathians retreated, but the rebels killed half of them. This attack, however, gave Tarnum an idea that caused serious problems for his enemies. For several days, the rebels launched continuous ambushes at night against the Erathians, from whom they looted supplies and their morale deteriorated. The Mad King informed the vanguard force that he would personally arrive in his territory within two months and bring all his armies, but Tarnum's plan was so successful that he was able to send some scouts who constantly taunted Gryphonheart's army, distracting them. The rebels finally captured the enemy castle and defeated all the soldiers.
This was a serious defeat for Gryphonheart, as he had already lost quite a few of his own soldiers here. Tarnum even sent him a letter, in which he declared that now the mud landers would found an independent, free nation. The king was probably very angry, as he returned the letter in ashes to his own letter, declaring that they were slaves and thus could not speak and have no free land. His anger is also shown by the fact that he sent very significant forces against the rebels, including powerful mages, priests, knights, but even corrupt angels fought on his side. However, barbarian mercenaries, led by Tarnum personally, fought alongside the rebels. Several weeks later, Tarnum received a letter from Niven. While his father was away, he managed to talk to the nobles, who agreed that the boy should be the new king of Erathia, and his father was now the enemy of the kingdom. In the letter, he also sent the rebel leader a map of an area that he thought would be ideal for defeating the Mad King, but he didn't have enough soldiers on his own, so he asked him to try to get there as soon as possible. Tarnum knew what the boy's plan was and I thought it was great, but he believed the only way to succeed was to destroy the current enemy forces as soon as possible. Here both sides used what they could, but in the end the mad king's armies suffered a huge defeat. The enemy lost many and considerable troops, and now the downfall of the tyrant began to be certain.
After the great defeat, Gryphonheart's situation became worse and worse. However, he decided to hold out until the end, he had enough soldiers left to have a strong defense, and a lot of mercenaries, thieves and rogues followed him. One of Tarnum's attacks was unsuccessful and he suffered heavy losses. Together, the rebels and Niven wanted to break the mad king's last defense, but he used other methods. Tarnum and the rebels captured some rogues, who were found with a note bearing the Mad King's royal seal. The rebel leader was shocked when he saw that Gryphonheart had set a bounty on the head of his own son, Niven, not a small amount of money, twenty thousand gold. Eleven days later, the Mad King hired an assassin to kill his son. The assassin disguised himself as a monk and when the boy wasn't paying attention, he pulled out a long blade to kill him, but his loyal friend Droglo knocked him to the ground and the assassin was killed. In the area where Gryphonheart was hiding, there were frequent ambushes by rogues, but the rebels were all successfully defeated and killed the criminals. After that, Tarnum and Niven launched the final assault against the Mad King Gryphonheart's army. The tyrant's soldiers and henchmen fought to the last blood, and Tarnum fought him face to face. Finally, the Mad King suffered his final defeat, and Tarnum and he dealt each other a mortal blow, but the rebel leader was immortal so he did not die, but Gryphonheart did, ending his reign of terror.
Personality[]
The Mad Gryphonheart King was a cruel, power-hungry, maniac, oppressive, insane tyrant. During the reign of terror, the mud landers experienced a reign of terror, oppression, exploitation and torture. He deliberately made laws to harm the slaves for the smallest thing, even though no one supported him except the three evil nobles. The nobility feared him, but they absolutely did not support him, and he hated his son, Niven because they supported him, and he was completely different from his father. The Mad King was a completely selfish, immoral, corrupt, vile and evil person. The king had a remarkably good relationship with the criminals, with a surprising number of rogues fighting on Gryphonheart's side in the battles against Baron Paglon and the last battles before the final battle.