Wicker King

The **Wicker King** is both a title and a person, as the person who bears the Wicker Crown transforms into this monstrosity. Originally merely the title for the leader of the united people of the Wickers when they went out on the warpath, the Wicker King has become an entity in its self that has derived many myths and fear amongst those of the era one surfaces.

## History

The Wicker King was originally a title conceptualized at the beginning of the Wicker faction being created. Though his origin differs, some claiming him to be a mercenary soldier under the Cobals, others under the Stantons and some even claiming that he was a salve, all accounts recognize that the first king was a man of great strength and coercion.

### The First King

The first Wicker King surfaced when the Cobal and Stanton families warred against each other in a vile blood feud in the Headlands of Gilneas. While the pagan people of Gilneas had joined the Arathorian Empire, many had felt that they were being treated as lesser within the empire. Ambitious settlers from the core of the Empire had made their way to the mostly untapped lands of Gilneas, fertile and mineral rich in their status, and began to found towns amongst the land. While at first many of the pagan peoples of Gilneas saw this as a non-issue, as they were all part of the same empire, over time they found that as more settlers flooded in, land was growing scarce and their population had lost control over these regions. Conversion began, as well as minor religious persecution. Over the years, the pagan peoples of Gilneas developed their own smaller communities, mostly near the forests, and drew ever inward.

Around 900 U.A.R., the Cobals and Stantons, two families that had settled within the Headlands and began a blood feud for control, began to enlist various pagan clans into their fold in order to make the deaths less personal and less impacting to their settlements. This resulted in the feud erupting into small armies versus armies, clashing constantly as the two families puppeteered the clans against each other. Seeking respite from this blood feud, many fled into the Reach, founding a city known only as Wickenden within the trees. The wars began to die down again as many clans began to pull away from the feud in search of peace, though there were some who had become so embroiled against one another that they had forgotten their common roots.

Nearly three hundred years later, enraged by the continued lack of care for the pagan peoples of Gilneas and the gradual take over of the peninsula by perceived foreigners, a man known only as the Wicker King donned a Wicker Crown and proclaimed himself leader of a faction known as the Wickers. Swiftly claiming dominion over Wickenden, this king rallied many of the pagan peoples across the country under his banner and led a massive take over of the Headlands. Enslaving the Cobal and Stanton families, the Wicker King then broke out into the fringes of Gilneas, destroying and enslaving all in his path. Gradually, the peninsula was over taken by the Wickers and the War of Thorns began.

Though originally seen as a compassionate and self righteous man by first accounts, later accounts of the Wicker King describe him as cruel hearted and cold, torturing those who had been enslaved for amusement. The original man that sought to see his people in what he perceived as their rightful place in Gilneas had been corrupted by power and replaced by a degenerate dictator. Taking the Cobal and Stanton families as his personal slaves, the Wicker King ruled from the Headlands and was known to traverse Gilneas to ensure his rule was kept proper. Demeric Jaxon, the leader of the Arathorian Legion in the area, plotted against the Wicker King by arming and aiding his slave armies, and in a twist of fate the Wicker King was mortally wounded by the united Cobals and Stantons. Many believed this to be the end of the Wicker King, as he was evacuated to Wickenden, though within a few months time as the Legion began to retake Gilneas, the king returned.

His gnarled wicker crown had grown into his body, thorns and roots driving through his skin and replacing where appendages should have been. Wielding terrible power, the Wicker King began to aggressively lead his armies against the Arathorian legion, even as they lost ground. It was not until Jaxon was captured that the legion was halted. The king had him executed at the cliffs of the Reach, driving a large root spike through the legionnaire's back and plummeting him into the sea. Rather than halt the legion as hoped, the Legion returned once more into the brink and a charge led by Jaxon's son resulted in the Wicker King's capture. By the time of his capture, he was described to be "more plant and root than man" and was seen as a monster. Despite multiple attempts to execute him, the king surrounded himself in an impenetrable barrier of roots as he mocked his captors from within. However, this barrier would prove to be his undoing as the legion lit the cage of roots ablaze, burning him alive within a prison of his own making. In the end, the only thing that was not burnt to a crisp was the gnarled Wicker Crown that sat upon his ashen corpse, undamaged by the flames. The crown was later recovered by the Wickers, and though Wickenden was ordered to be subjugated, the legion could never find it.