King Theodoric

King Theodoric, known as the King of Ruin, was the tyrannical king of Ala Mhigo who ascended to the throne in the year 1546. Theodoric was the last king of Ala Mhigo before the occupation of the Garlean Empire.

A power-hungry despot, Theodoric proclaimed his kingship to be the product of divine will, ordained by Nymeia Herself. He believed the influential Fist of Rhalgr and its followers were a heretical group, and tensions between the two grew in intensity over the years. Eventually, citing a supposed "uprising", Theodric led a massive army to their temple and burned it to the ground, massacring the disciples within. This greatly angered the people, who formed an angry mob outside the palace. Theodoric instructed a young Raubahn Aldynn to suppress the mob. Raubahn did so without shedding a drop of blood in the process, earning him universal renown.

After exterminating the Fist, Theodoric enacted a series of purges that shook Ala Mhigan society to its very core and earned him the epithet the King of Ruin. He began with his own royal house, executing anyone with a claim to the Ala Mhigan throne, but soon turned his wrath on powerful noblemen and merchants. This turned the nobility against him, and with the help of his own queen, a group of nobles conspired to assassinate Theodoric, but the plot was betrayed by one among them and the plotters were all put to death.

The failed plot compounded the king's paranoia and insanity, and he became a recluse. Seeing enemies in every shadow, the purges intensified, sparing neither noble, beggar nor his own loyal followers. Anyone suspected of conspiracy against the crown was publicly executed by being flung from the top of the Divine Audience in Loch Seld.

Finally, in the year 1557, the people of Ala Mhigo revolted and stormed the royal palace. His guards, complicit in the uprising, simply opened the gates to his palace, letting the mob in to do what they pleased. Rather than allow himself to be torn apart by an angry mob, Theodoric took his own life, putting an end to his mad reign.

Following this act, Ala Mhigo entered into a state of economic unease, and the people were without a leader. It was at this time that the Garlean Empire, taking advantage of the chaos, invaded and occupied Ala Mhigo.