Drama Topic (2)
The Undying King.
He was the monstrous sovereign who reanimated every single subject of the Balkan Kingdom into an army of the undead—an immortal legion that once plunged the entire continent into pure terror. Because the undead inherently required no logistical supply lines, they boasted peerless, terrifying military efficiency. On top of that, every enemy slain on the battlefield could instantly be raised to swell their ranks, forcing opposing armies to learn the grim, visceral meaning of being hopelessly outnumbered.
Yet was necromancy, the underlying discipline behind the undead, an inherently evil magic from the beginning? Far from it.
It had simply been placed under a continent-wide ban by the Holy Kingdom in the wake of the Undying King Incident; before that catastrophe, it was a practical craft accessible to anyone.
Kinda sad about necromancy tbh
If you used it right, it was genuinely awesome.
You didn't even have to use human corpses—monster or beast carcasses worked just fine. You could replace hard labor with them entirely.
I honestly think necromancy wasn't evil; it's the scum who abused it that were evil.
If only the Undying King never existed
My dad wouldn't have been executed on the gallows either.
Necromancy had always been an unsettling magic, but it was never fundamentally evil. On the contrary, it had provided countless benefits—both great and small—to the world.
The most prominent of these was the replacement of menial, backbreaking labor. In particular, it had contributed immensely to agriculture, the very cradle and foundation of human civilization. If an ox dropped dead in the fields, one could simply reanimate the ox through necromancy. If hands were short during harvest, one needed only to hire a necromancer to furnish the necessary labor. While human cadavers could technically be utilized, doing so was restricted by rigorous, stringent regulations.
Above all, deploying necromancy in warfare was universally despised; an unspoken continental taboo barred its use on the battlefield. Any nation caught resorting to necromancy in war had no right to complain when slapped with total international ostracization.
It's true that necromancy gives people the creeps
Honestly, raising dead corpses is ominous by definition.
It carries an inherently wicked vibe, and dead bodies just radiate an uncanny dread.
Let's just stick to the facts.
Was the Undying King a villain? Yes.
Did the Holy Kingdom overreact massively? Yes.
Is necromancy an eerie craft? Yes.
If they had simply forbidden casting it on human corpses, nobody would complain. What pisses people off is that they banned the entire discipline of necromancy altogether.
Furthermore, people claim it disturbs and summons the souls of the deceased, but there isn't even definitive proof of that.
Have you ever seen a menial-labor skeleton display an ego or self-awareness? Because I sure haven't.
Rather than possessing an ego, it's widely theorized that an elemental-like presence—much like a guardian—simply takes root inside the vessel, and the commanded corpse blindly carries out whatever orders it receives.
When the Undying King Incident nearly choked the continent in an ocean of corpses, necromancy was forcibly rebranded as an inherently demonic art. A handful of prestigious mages and scholars had raised their voices, arguing that letting such a versatile field rot in total prohibition was reckless, but their pleas fell on deaf ears. Too many people had suffered casualties or lost cherished loved ones to the horrors unleashed by the Undying King.
At least within the current generation, necromancy was something no one would ever see again. Everyone had taken that as an immutable certainty.
I translated the text Grylls uploaded
The Balkan Kingdom's dialect is practically dead, and on top of that, it was written in high-court script, so deciphering it was a nightmare.
Every single line in here is so breathtakingly shocking that my head is spinning;; If this turns out to be real, the Holy Kingdom is going to implode.
Honestly, there were always so many fishy details
People who were friendly with the Balkan Kingdom back in the day all described the king as practically a sage ruler.
It's true he was deeply versed in necromancy, but casting it on the deceased was strictly prohibited under his rule.
It was only allowed through strict formal procedures under special circumstances.
Their territory might have been small, but the Balkan Kingdom was completely self-sufficient. Sure, their national power was weaker compared to massive empires, but relative to their land size, they were remarkably prosperous.
Why would a contented, benevolent king suddenly become the Undying King and try to drown the entire world in blood? Going so far as to turn his own beloved subjects into undead?
Propaganda claimed he wanted world conquest, but nobody does that unless they're utterly batshit insane. What's the point of conquest if you aren't even alive to enjoy it?
When this staggering revelation first spread across the Gallery, most users greeted it with skepticism. The contents were too outrageous to swallow at face value, and above all, it supposedly came from the Forest of the Four Seasons. To claim that the ultimate historical truth of a fallen kingdom had just popped out of an old tome discovered inside that mythical, lethal death trap seemed absurd.
The fact that it's from the Forest of the Four Seasons makes it way more believable though
If the Holy Kingdom was out to exterminate every living soul in Balkan, it makes total sense they would flee toward the Forest of the Four Seasons.
The Undying King probably sent his royal scribes into the forest as a desperate last bastion to preserve their truth. They were going to die either way.
No matter how I look at it, the timing is way too random
[Attached: Meme of an elf tilting its head in bewilderment]
Grylls goes digging around and just happens to uncover records on the Undying King? Doesn't that feel way too convenient?
Paradoxically, that sheer absurdity lent the discovery overwhelming credibility. Grylls had not merely shared fragments; he had uploaded the entire volume from cover to cover onto the forum. Had he selectively posted excerpts, people might have rightfully accused him of crafting a manipulative political smear campaign. Yet he had painstakingly transcribed and displayed the full text without withholding a single line, utterly preempting any accusations of bad faith.
Moreover, as long as one met the requisite conditions, the Gallery was an extradimensional gathering place accessible across all boundaries. Renowned scholars scattered across kingdoms had flocked to Grylls's post, pooling their arcane wisdom to cross-reference and verify every archaic glyph.
"……"
And watching this torrential deluge unfold on the screen was the Gallery's head moderator—the user known as Don't Abandon the Hero, Asella herself.
She stared at the forum feeds, her eyes wide with mounting turmoil. As a devout worshipper of the Goddess and the incumbent Hero of the era, the revelations materializing before her were almost impossible to bear.
W-What on earth is this……?
The unvarnished truth behind the most reviled necromancer and tyrant in recorded history: the Undying King.
According to orthodox history, blinded by hubris and greed, the monarch of Balkan had transformed his entire population into undead monstrosities. To halt that unholy ambition, the Previous Generation Hero and his partner, the Archmage Kadir, had personally marched into battle. In that climactic struggle, the Hero had met a tragic, noble death, while Kadir dealt the finishing blow to quell the Undying King.
……That was the pristine narrative universally accepted by the world.
T-This is impossible! The Holy Kingdom could never……!
The text Grylls had uploaded contained atrocities so heinous they bordered on unthinkable conspiracy theories. Grylls himself had simply uploaded the ancient journal of a deceased predecessor seeking assistance with translation, completely unaware of the cataclysmic shockwaves his curiosity would trigger. It was a truth that should never have been dragged into the light—the pitch-black underbelly of the sacred realm that claimed to speak for the divine.
Though only the opening chapters had been deciphered, the core narrative was already starkly clear: an alliance forged under the noble banner of subjugating the Demon King had instead engineered one of history's greatest monsters through sheer brutality.
There was not a single shred of justice to be found. It struck Asella with the force of a physical blow, rocking her core to its foundations.
Y-Yes. This has to be a fabrication. If this had truly happened, the Goddess would never have forgiven it.
The Holy Kingdom was a theocracy consecrated to the gods. There was simply no way such a holy empire could have fathered an evil equal to a Demon King. Grasping at rationalization, Asella forced herself to breathe, desperately willing her pounding heart to settle. Her immediate priority was to contain the chaos before the Gallery overflowed into irreversible panic.
Should I…… delete Mr. Grylls's post?
She recalled Gallery Rule Number Three: Posting content that stokes international conflict or geopolitical tension is strictly forbidden.
Grylls's post was in textbook violation of that regulation. The rule against off-topic socializing applied strictly to real-world fraternization, so that was not an issue, but the geopolitical fallout here was unprecedented.
And yet, Mr. Grylls posted it without the slightest trace of malice……
She was trapped in agonizing indecision. Worse still, an even graver dilemma loomed over her. If she abused her moderator authority to scrub Grylls's post now, the users would interpret the censorship as definitive proof that the Holy Kingdom was covering its tracks. Paradoxically, letting the threads linger might do far less damage.
Asella might occasionally appear naive or clumsy, but she was by no means a fool.
I shouldn't delete these posts. Not yet.
The contents had almost certainly already been copied, transcribed, and memorized by countless users. She had been physically preoccupied until a few moments ago, leaving her unable to monitor the board as the scandal exploded.
If the Holy Kingdom truly committed such an atrocity……
She shook her head violently back and forth, trying to purge the sickening thoughts that wriggled through the corners of her mind. In the physical realm, everything remained quiet. Even if the controversy leaked into the outside world, the Holy Kingdom had only to officially dismiss it as baseless slander.
Perhaps this entire storm will burn itself out within the confines of the Gallery.
Incidents flaring up on the forum rarely bled into physical reality. For now, it remained a tempest in a teapot. Of course, that premise relied entirely on the absence of undeniable physical proof. If the physical tome Grylls had uncovered ever made its way into the hands of an influential third party, the entire equation would shift.
Though pulling that off would require someone with immense continental prestige……
There was still time. Asella resolved to watch silently and gauge the Holy Kingdom's official reaction. Deep in her chest, she prayed with every fiber of her soul that none of this was real.
The Goddess has remained silent, so it must be a falsehood.
Yet given the dire, suffocating political reality she currently faced within her own homeland, the encroaching darkness continued to seep into her heart.
It has to be a lie. It must be.
Right around the time the Gallery was descending into unbridled mayhem.
"Ahhh. What a fantastic nap."
Grylls stretched languidly as he rose from his satisfying midday rest. The very first thing he did upon rubbing his eyes was pull up the Gallery interface to check whether anyone had finished translating his predecessor's memoirs. Glancing over the chaotic, blazing threads filling his feed, he arrived at a singular conclusion.
"Looks like nobody's gotten around to translating the parts I actually need yet."
A sigh of profound disappointment slipped through his lips.