Richard Chase II

King **Richard Chase II** the Tyrant is the last ruler of the original Chase Dynasty, whose death sparked the Culling of Crowns.

## History

### Before Coronation

Richard II was born in the late Netherite Age to Baelfire and Agatha Chase. His contemporaries described him as a pleasant and agreeable child in his youth.

When he turned 18, Richard sought to join the Priesthood of Ganlir. Arriving at their temple, Richard undertook the Adamantine Acolyte’s Ritual, in which one sees a vision of, as Ganlir puts it “how their song ends.” Richard’s vision was a dramatised version of the end of the Chase Dynasty, of the Culling of Crowns. Unwilling to accept this fate, he underwent a psychotic break, and was escorted back home. Richard was nursed back to health, and seemed to recover, but his personality had grown darker, pushing his friends away, and spending more and more time inside, contrary to his former exploratory nature.

### During His Reign

He took the throne at age 21, after Baelfire died of unknown and suspicious circumstances. At age 28, he married Isolde Chase. It is not known if they had children before Richard was assassinated; there are rumours that he had a secret child (mothered by either Isolde or someone else) who carried on the Chase bloodline. Others dismiss this as a desperate attempt at the reimplementation of the monarchy in Treehold.

What made Richard II stand out in the memory of the Chase bloodline is that which made him infamous. Shortly after taking the throne, he instated policies that only the Common language was to be spoken in Treehold's boundaries. Common was already the official language of the kingdom as per a ruling made by Hailith Chase, but all other languages were respected until Richard II entered the scene. He set a fine for those caught speaking another language. He used the money accrued from fines to pay for public works projects (overhauling the capital city's subpar plumbing system) and for personal affects. This later escalated to the ferreting out and arresting of non-Common speakers, along with the other object of his ire: Herobrine worshippers.

As stated elsewhere, Richard II ascribed to the Jallar Heresy, a sect within Initiatism that denies the validity of Herobrine as a god. In his letters and diary entries, Richard II states that he subscribed to the ideology because he felt that Herobrine's reaction to grinder farms and the hunting of Old Enders was "excessive." He also didn't believe that the supposed "Herobrine" entity responsible for the destruction of the Fallen Kingdom was a demon posing as the nature god; he thought it was Herobrine himself who was an evil entity bent on destruction. Unlike Hunith Jallar, namesake of the heresy, he had power to influence the Initiatist church. So he did, using bribery and threats to make the Treehold sector of the church remove reverent references to Herobrine and teach the doctrine of the Jallar Heresy. As the Treehold sector's theological decisions set many precedents for other sectors, this was a serious issue, and so the clergy tried to resist Richard II's demands. It was not until he personally threatened the clergy that they acquiesced. At best they had a stale compromise: they would not mention Herobrine in a laudatory way, but they refused to teach the Jallar Heresy as doctrine. Under Richard II, the spring festival of Herobrine, Astel's blessings on artists, and the Feast of St. Alphaeon were not officially celebrated by the church.

Richard II's persecution of Herobrine worshippers went even farther beyond this, and with time, he began to conduct raids on the city in search of "blasphemers and subversives." Many were killed, wrongfully imprisoned, or had their property destroyed in these attacks.
At age 32, Richard II was awoken in the dead of the night to find his captain of the guard standing over him. When he demanded to know what was going on, the captain shanked him between the ribs, killing him. The assassin then fled to an unknown location, escaping Richard's bodyguards. With the death of Richard II came a pro-democratic revolution in Treehold; a presidency was installed to replace the monarchy. This momentous change marks the transition from the medieval age to the modern, or the Netherite Age's transition to the Redstone Age.

## Personality

### Mental Trauma

Historians generally agree that Richard II suffered from paranoid delusions. They may have been brought on by the stress of ruling as an unpopular king, especially after his persecutions of non-Common speakers and people with different religious views from him. He believed he saw King Peter’s ghost in mirrors and paintings around the castle. In one infamous incident, Richard smashed every mirror in the royal bedchambers and master bath because he thought that Peter's ghost would come through them to kill him.

## Appearance

Richard II was fair-skinned, with blond hair and blue eyes. Aside from his coloration, many depictions of him note that he bore a similar appearance to Peter, which probably aided in his delusions of being haunted by the Dragonhearted king.

## Abilities

* **Intelligence:** Despite his psychosis, it cannot be denied that Richard II was very intelligent, able to deduce the exact location of Ganlir’s temple within a month.