Wyrrik

**Wyrrik**is a lion living at the end of the Age of Kingdoms. He was the king of Tayutho, a large kingdom just east of Lyndoreth. His death marked the beginning of the Age of War.

## Appearance

Wyrrik is on the smaller side, lithe and wiry. His fur is tan in color, with an orange mane, and an orange stripe down his back all the way to his tail. His left eye is golden in color, while his right is solid black with a white pupil. He is typically seen with a crown on his head and two gold bracelets around his front paws.

## Personality

At his core, Wyrrik is inherently kind and good-natured. During his time as king, he strove to maintain peace and prosperity in his kingdom, and to make sure that even the smallest creatures under his watch were cared for. He is thoughtful and clever, although he tends to struggle with hesitation when making big decisions that would affect others. He is apt to be overly-cautious, wanting to serve his kingdom the best he can but not always knowing how to.

After being blessed (or cursed, depending on one's perspective) with magic, Wyrrik's hesitation and cautiousness were far lessened, having being magically given the experience and wisdom that he was lacking. However, this lack of hesitation turned into recklessness as time went on, and thus he began to lose some of the values he had at the beginning of his reign. Near the end of his life, Wyrrik was known for his temperamentality and his hotheadedness.

## History

### The Young King

Wyrrik was born on Autumn 75, y2088. His mother, Tyqua, was the queen of Tayutho. His father left before he was born, skittish at the thought of becoming part of the royal family, and the attention that it would bring. Wyrrik would never meet him.

Three years later, in y2091, Queen Tyqua became sick; it was a simple illness, and she should have made an easy recovery, but fate was not on her side, and she died on Winter 37. With both parents out of the picture and nobody else to take the mantle, Wyrrik became king of Tayutho at age three. This prompted many dissenters from within the kingdom, with many creatures convinced that he was too young and inexperienced to be leading, and that someone else should take over until Wyrrik was grown. He proved himself to be a quick learner, however; despite the rocky start to his reign, by the time Wyrrik was five years old he was beloved among the whole kingdom.

The young king was known for being fair and kind, and delightfully clever as well. With the help of a few trusted advisors, including Faarza, he maintained the land that his family had been ruling for generations. He forged relationships with the rulers of neighboring kingdoms and territories, ensuring peaceful borders and prosperous trading. He made a point to welcome in creatures from other lands seeking a place in his kingdom, both natural and magical, which was seen as a radical action in a time when tension between the two groups was beginning to brew. King Wyrrik worked himself to the point of exhaustion to make sure that all the creatures under his reign were happy.

### The Gift of Foresight

Despite all his efforts, he was still so young, and could do nothing about his lack of experience. While he was excellent at maintaining interpersonal relationships, he did struggle with making decisions that would affect the entire kingdom; he was hesitant to do anything major unless he was sure he was making the right choice. Desiring a way to better serve his kingdom, Wyrrik turned to magic for the wisdom that he was seeking.

In y2097, when Wyrrik was nine years old, he traveled to the kingdom of Niiba, on Tayutho's northern border. He met with a young ice phoenix named Siku, who used her abilities to bless Wyrrik with the wisdom that he sought. The magic manifested itself in the king's right eye, turning it solid black with a white pupil; he found this a small price to pay for the knowledge he was granted in return – and, as many of the younger creatures in Tayutho would argue, it actually looked quite cool. The magic granted him the power of foresight, enabling him to gaze into the past or several possible futures for reference when making decisions. With this gift, his kingdom flourished and grew powerful, although Wyrrik never tried to conquer others or force them to follow him. His kingdom was built upon gentleness, kindness, and love.

### Magical Corruption

But this peaceful period was not to last. The more Wyrrik depended on his gifted magic, the more the magic grew; although originally the only physical change had been his right eye turning black, the fur around his eye soon blackened as well, and eventually the whole right side of his face. And as the magic spread, many in the kingdom of Tayutho began to notice changes in the behavior of their young king. His patience was growing shorter, and his temper rising. He was quicker to snap at others for minor mistakes. He grew impulsive. By y2103, the discoloration had reached down to his mane and shoulders, and the next year it was in his left eye as well.

What had once been a fair, just, and kind young king had grown into an impetuous, reckless ruler. The changes had come so gradually that it took years for the creatures of Tayutho to realize how far he had fallen. Many tried reasoning with him, some attempting to remind him of who he had once been, but every time they were met with hostility from Wyrrik. Although they had no way of knowing for sure what had caused this sudden shift, the majority of them believed that the gifted magic had corrupted him somehow - and in a time when the tension between natural and magical species was growing by the day, this only served to further cement the natural species' belief that magic was inherently harmful.

### The Age of War

In the winter of y2105, Wyrrik's close friend and advisor Faarza reached out to the leaders of Niiba, the kingdom where Wyrrik had sought magic from originally, to seek help for their wayward king. The queen of Niiba arranged to meet with Wyrrik, in hopes that she could understand how this magic had corrupted him, and to see if she could remove it. However, when Wyrrik returned to his palace to find a rival leader in his personal rooms, he saw it as an invasion. He snarled at the queen to leave, swearing that he would declare war on her kingdom outright if she ever stepped foot in his territory again. After learning that Faarza had orchestrated the meeting, he dismissed her from her position of his advisor, seeing this action as an act of utmost betrayal.

Although the Niiba queen, or any other Niiba creatures for that matter, made sure to stay far away from the border of Tayutho, King Wyrrik's mind still raced with thoughts of betrayal. All the anger that had been growing inside him now had a target. He grew paranoid, believing that another of his advisors would betray him, or that Niiba would mount an attack on Tayutho any day now. He decided he could not let that happen; and so, on Spring 93, y2106, Wyrrik gathered his army and declared war on the kingdom of Niiba.

Despite some initial hesitation amongst the soldiers, who didn't understand why their king had chosen to attack Niiba, loyalty eventually won out for the majority of them. While some fought out of loyalty to Wyrrik specifically, many more joined the attacking force out of loyalty to Tayutho has a whole. As the fact that Wyrrik's magic had come from Niiba was common knowledge among the residents of Tayutho, many of them resented the kingdom as a whole, and were happy at the chance to take revenge for what they saw as the ruin of their king.

The army crossed the border in the early hours of the morning, coming across a settlement near the southern border of Niiba. Before the residents of Niiba even knew what was happening, the Tayutho soldiers were upon them. Hundreds were slaughtered; while the army of Tayutho did suffer some losses, the settlement they had come across was demolished. Fueled by this victory, Wyrrik commanded his army forward to the heart of Niiba, where the queen lived. By the time they reached the next settlement, mid-afternoon the next day, the creatures of Niiba knew what had happened, and were prepared for a fight. What followed was a long and violent battle, with heavy losses on both sides.

On Spring 99, six days after crossing into Niiba, Wyrrik decided the battle was lasting too long, and he joined the fray himself. Despite his foresight, he'd had no formal battle training. He was overconfident, impulsive, and reckless. He threw himself into the heart of the conflict. Several hours later, when the dust cleared and the two opposing armies finally pulled away from each other to recoup their armies and tend to their wounded, the good King Wyrrik lay dead upon the soil.

## Relationships

### Tyqua

Tyqua is Wyrrik's mother. Many of his memories of her are fuzzy, as she died when he was only three. She was a strict ruler and a strict mother, but Wyrrik brought out a softer side of her that nobody else saw.

### Faarza

Faarza is Wyrrik's trusted advisor and close friend. She assisted him immensely during the early years of his reign, teaching him customs and traditions that his mother had not. She served as second-in-command throughout Wyrrik's life, and was appointed leader of Tayutho after his death, although she soon left the position.