Merbol

“We are all interludes in history, a drawn breath to make pause in the rush, and when we are gone, those breaths join the chorus of the wind. But who listens to the wind?”
-Merbol
== History ==
Merbol and his brother Monopoly were the twin sons of heirs of the Dragon Emperor, who entrusted the Final Empire to both of them. Before long, the warmongering Monopoly came to the conclusion that the nation would be better if he ruled alone. Allying himself with a collection of heroes, Monopoly overthrew and killed his brother, before seizing the Thunderdome for himself. Before he died, Merbol's daughters Sharra and Jang were spirited to safety to the town that would become Arendur. 
Merbol was brought back from the dead by Tolumvire, who saw his overthrow and murder as a historic wrong. He and his the Final Empire's historic nobility, the Cards, were housed in the terrestrial city of Oranor, while Tolumvire and the Illuminated remained in the floating city of Arendur. Merbol was sidelined by the ruling class of Arendur, and Tolumvire himself came to feel great contempt for the Emperor's stubbornness and passivity, just as his arch-nemesis Monopoly had before him. Nonetheless Tolumvire dreamed of a greater nation, which he called Rainis, with Merbol as a constitutional monarch. This plan would be dashed by the Arendur-Ragnarok War. 
After the fall of Arendur, and the relocation of Arendur's population to Oranor, Emperor Merbol's house of cards collapsed. Frustrated with the loss of authority, Merbol approached Doctor Curtin to request a dangerous magitech/alchemical surgery to empower him as an individual. Merbol was convalescent and comatose when Tolumvire returned from his exile, and Tolumvire seized the opportunity, marrying his heiress Jang, forcing her to sign his abdication papers, and secretly ordering Curtin not to wake him up. 
Merbol perished during the fall of Oranor during the Demon Wars, a wretched death for a once great monarch. 
== Personality ==
Merbol was reckoned as the gentler of the two sons of the Dragon Emperor, but the hagiography that sprung up after his death, portraying him as a wise and just ruler, was overblown. Merbol was a dignified and decorous man, but slow to action, stubborn, disconnected, and preoccupied with holding rather than using his power. 
Category:Monarchs
Category:Final Empire
Category:Shield Campaign
Category:Arendur
Category:Dead
Category:Lawful Good