The Bloody Crown of King Artur, as told by a loyal peasant

WomanWizard · 2018-12-19 16:01:56

I was Justice.

Justice Honor the third, that is. I was born to a woman who was gathering stones in the desert. She would put me down, toss some stones in her bag, then pick me up and run off again. Maybe it wasn't the most efficient way to do things, but I couldn't judge her, she had a baby to feed after all. I was simply grateful that she was willing to do both.

When we came home, I saw that we had a pump but no cistern. Maybe that was what mother was doing, I thought. I would help her when I was older, but for now, I needed to tend to the berries.

As I worked the fields, a young girl was crowned queen. Queen Julia the second. The people praised her and I thought, what a sweet moment.

I returned to my berries.

As I continued to work the fields I heard a child scream. I ran to investigate and discovered Queen Julia with an arrow in her chest, her uncle holding the bow. "A child can't be queen," he said. He was quickly stabbed.

Julia's grandmother came to her aid with a sterile knife and some quick patchwork. The Queen was saved, but she was in shock, seemingly terrified by the ordeal. She removed her crown, saying nothing while putting it on the ground. Then she ran away and killed herself.

Devastated, I returned to my berries.

As I grew older I figured it was time to continue my mother's job. I hadn't seen her in a while, and I didn't see any cisterns being made. Maybe she had made a well, I did't know. But the pump needed a cistern, so out I went with a basket to gather stones.

As I was building the cistern, Queen Julia's mother was lamenting the loss of her child. She was wearing the crown and talking about needing an heir. As she worried, she birthed a son.

I returned to my berries.

Not long after the birth of her son, The Queen ran through town. "Maybe a change of pace," she was saying. "Not a queen, but a King!"

"Yes!" I cried. "A king!"

Others echoed my cry and The Queen placed the crown on her young son's head. "The King needs a name," I told her. "A kingly name."

The boy was picked up by a man. "You are Artur," he said.

"Yes, a strong name," I replied. "King Artur!"

The baby seemed pleased, so I returned to my berries.

As Artur grew, he seemed a little entitled. His first command was for someone to... um... pleasure his cousin. It was an odd request, but not wanting to anger my king I came running to help. As we sorted out what needed doing, his cousin ran off. Was I that ugly? No matter, I had shown my king that I was loyal and willing to do anything for him. That must count for something, right?

I returned to my berries.

Artur grew into his role a little better over time. As I blossomed into a young woman and started birthing children, I noticed that The King's orders were starting to make a little more sense. "Make wells," he would say. "Breed more children!" He wasn't doing any labour, but he was watching the town, which was a good thing, I figured.

Unfortunately, I couldn't seem to follow his last command. I had very few children. The first was a boy that I didn't see much after he grew, then a daughter ran off the moment I set her down. "I have failed you My King," I said to Artur. He didn't respond.

I returned to my berries.

When I finally birthed a little girl who didn't run, I clutched her in my arms, naming her Maude. I took the baby to The King. "This is King Artur," I told her. She immediately got angry.

"No," she told me, when I told her to respect him.

Dejected, I put the baby down. How could I fail my king again? But Maude was persistent. She asked for food, but I would not pick her up. Artur demanded she be sent to the dungeons. "You need to respect our laws," I told Maude.

Maude apologised, and against my better judgement, I picked her up and fed her. Artur praised me for being a good mom, so I must have done the right thing.

I returned to my berries.

Maude grew into a curious child. "Where are the dungeons?" she asked me one day.

"We don't actually have dungeons," I replied. "Stabbing is our dungeons."

"I will make some," she said.

"Yes, so that Artur can send people to them," I replied, skeptically. I didn't trust that a child could go from hating the king, to willingly building the very dungeons that he'd threatened to send her to as a baby. But it was not my place to pass judgement. I was a simple peasant, after all.

As Maude grew she wanted to know the history of the crown. I didn't know much, only what I had witnessed as a child. I told her about the Child Queen Julia and her would be assassin. I told her about the crowning of King Artur and she looked on with wide eyes. "Wow," she said.

I returned to my berries.

Maude came to me in the fields one day. "Mom," she said. "Why aren't you queen?" I didn't know how to answer that. I was not born to royalty. I certainly couldn't be queen! "You should be queen," Maude went on. "Because you're white."

Wait, what? Where did Maude get such a terrible idea? My brother and I were the only white people in town. MAUDE wasn't white! I chased after her, running past the king as I did so. "Are you racist child?!" I called after her. This may have been a mistake.

Maude had escaped my sight. I didn't know what to do, so I returned to my berries.

Then I heard screams. I ran north to find knives and blood everywhere. I don't remember who all stabbed whom, but I remember watching in horror as my brother plunged a knife into King Artur, claiming that the king was racist.

I panicked. I didn't know if King Artur was racist. I certainly hadn't seen him say anything to indicate that. My own child, on the other hand... Had my brother misheard me as I was calling after Maude? Was Artur being racist when I, his most loyal subject, was out of earshot? Did I give the king ideas?

I didn't know. What I did know was that my king was bleeding out. I rushed to the medical station. There was only one wool pad left, but our king was dying, so I grabbed it. I did my best to frantically clean his wound, but the only needle and thread I could find was in someone else's hands and he was not stitching up our king! Devastated that I had failed my king once more, and this time more terribly than I had in any past instance, I lunged for a bloody knife that I had spotted on the ground.

My fingers slipped at first, but eventually I managed to grasp it. I was Justice, and it was time to live up to that name. In a cold rage, I plunged that very knife into my brother's stomach. "Why?" my brother asked.

"He was our king!" I cried.

I stood there, sobbing, as my king crumpled to the ground. I didn't move. My brother screamed at us all, calling us idiots and cursing our king as he died. He may have been in the right, I didn't know. I didn't care.

As I stood next to Artur's body, a small hand grabbed the other knife off of the ground. I looked up to see Maude standing above me, holding the very knife that my brother had used to kill Artur. We stared at each other for a moment, before she lunged forward, driving the knife through my chest. She said something about killing kin, though whether she was talking about her killing me, or me killing my brother, I didn't know. I could barely hear her over the pounding of my own wounded heart.

Artur was dead.

And I didn't want to live in a world without my king.

That day, I did not return to my berries.

Ilka · 2018-12-19 16:48:11

A nice story, even touching. Even so, I think that crowns are the least useful items in the game, and kings are the least useful people.

WomanWizard · 2018-12-19 16:53:21

Ilka wrote:

A nice story, even touching. Even so, I think that crowns are the least useful items in the game, and kings are the least useful people.

I agree completely, and normally I don't bother with them (I think I've made a crown once in all my months playing.) But role-playing a loyal peasant certainly made the ever tedious berry farming task far more interesting.

Ilka · 2018-12-19 17:05:01

Yes, this role- playing is always interesting. This is a good story as I wrote earlier.

Tea · 2018-12-19 17:25:49

What a beautiful story ! I love how you wrote it. Most of the time, crowns are the reason why there are so many bloody bodies in a town but it makes a hell of a story !

Solbusaur · 2018-12-19 17:51:01

Only things crowns are good for are showing off your wealth by decorating a monolith, or stirring up some juicy drama in a town that has nothing else to do.

The story was great though, and well written

WomanWizard · 2018-12-19 19:18:30

Thanks all! I'm definitely with you that crowns are pretty much useless. Though I'm going to go against the grain and say they aren't one hundred percent useless. A good king/queen is able to observe everything that's going on in town and tell people what needs doing the most. Ideally they will also do a bit of labour here and there. Unfortunately this almost never happens, rendering crowns nothing more than role-play toys.

Artur looked like he was at least trying to fill this role, though how well he was doing is up for debate. It's one of the harder jobs to do right, and almost always ends with mass stabbings.

lionon · 2018-12-19 20:28:28

WomanWizard wrote:

Thanks all! I'm definitely with you that crowns are pretty much useless. Though I'm going to go against the grain and say they aren't one hundred percent useless. A good king/queen is able to observe everything that's going on in town and tell people what needs doing the most. Ideally they will also do a bit of labour here and there. Unfortunately this almost never happens, rendering crowns nothing more than role-play toys.

You do not need a crown for this.

Anyway, from my experience crowns are not totally useless, they are nothing but trouble, as it gets into people heads.

WomanWizard · 2018-12-19 21:08:24

lionon wrote:

You do not need a crown for this.
Anyway, from my experience crowns are not totally useless, they are nothing but trouble, as it gets into people heads.

Correct, a crown isn't needed for a leadership role. It's use in this case would simply be to help people identify the leader, since most people aren't paying attention to what's going on in town and don't know who to listen to. But like I said, this is almost never what goes down, rendering them essentially useless.

I've seen it happen properly though, so I just wanted to point out a potential use for them. That's all.

Uncle Tensticks · 2018-12-19 21:27:10

WomanWizard wrote:

lionon wrote:
You do not need a crown for this.
Anyway, from my experience crowns are not totally useless, they are nothing but trouble, as it gets into people heads.
Correct, a crown isn't needed for a leadership role. It's use in this case would simply be to help people identify the leader, since most people aren't paying attention to what's going on in town and don't know who to listen to. But like I said, this is almost never what goes down, rendering them essentially useless.
I've seen it happen properly though, so I just wanted to point out a potential use for them. That's all.

Great story! Don't let the haters bring you down with their meta play. I just officially logged in for the first time to support you and your story. First post.

Back to my berries.

WomanWizard · 2018-12-20 01:23:53

Uncle Tensticks wrote:

Great story! Don't let the haters bring you down with their meta play. I just officially logged in for the first time to support you and your story. First post.
Back to my berries.

Many thanks, fellow berry peasant!

Uncle Tensticks · 2018-12-20 14:05:30

WomanWizard wrote:

Uncle Tensticks wrote:
Great story! Don't let the haters bring you down with their meta play. I just officially logged in for the first time to support you and your story. First post.
Back to my berries.
Many thanks, fellow berry peasant!

I took a little more pride in tending to the berries last night:)

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#1 2018-12-19 16:01:56

The Bloody Crown of King Artur, as told by a loyal peasant

#2 2018-12-19 16:48:11

Re: The Bloody Crown of King Artur, as told by a loyal peasant

#3 2018-12-19 16:53:21

Re: The Bloody Crown of King Artur, as told by a loyal peasant

#4 2018-12-19 17:05:01

Re: The Bloody Crown of King Artur, as told by a loyal peasant

#5 2018-12-19 17:25:49

Re: The Bloody Crown of King Artur, as told by a loyal peasant

#6 2018-12-19 17:51:01

Re: The Bloody Crown of King Artur, as told by a loyal peasant

#7 2018-12-19 19:18:30

Re: The Bloody Crown of King Artur, as told by a loyal peasant

#8 2018-12-19 20:28:28

Re: The Bloody Crown of King Artur, as told by a loyal peasant

#9 2018-12-19 21:08:24

Re: The Bloody Crown of King Artur, as told by a loyal peasant

#10 2018-12-19 21:27:10

Re: The Bloody Crown of King Artur, as told by a loyal peasant

#11 2018-12-20 01:23:53

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#12 2018-12-20 14:05:30

Re: The Bloody Crown of King Artur, as told by a loyal peasant

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