King Arthur
From Canonwars
Stats
Name: Arthur Pendragon
Aka: Arturus Rex, King Arthur, The Once and Future King, King of all Britons
Journal: righteous_ruler
Origin: Arthurian Legend
Designation: King
PB:
Player: Shiro
History
Arthur was born the son of the then-High King Uther Pendragon and the wife of one of his lesser lords, Igraine. It was (obviously) an affair, although that really didn't matter since Uther essentially offed Igraine's husband Gorlois the same night Arthur was conceived. As for Arthur, shortly after birth, he was whisked away by the sorceror Merlin - payment for having aided Uther in sneaking into Gorlois' castle to sleep with Igraine - and given to a foster family. Arthur was raised by an aged knight, Sir Ector, and the man's son, a young knight named Kay. After Uther's death, there was great conflict in Britain over who would become the next High King. And then it was that a large stone with a sword embedded in it appeared, the words "whosoever shall pulleth this sword from the stone shall be the rightful king of all Britons" carved into the rock. Knights and lords came from all across the British Isles to try and pull the sword from the stone, but none were successful.
None, that is, until the day of a massive jousting tournament which Kay was to participate in. Only, once he had arrived at the jousting fields, he realized he had left his sword back home and sent his younger brother and page, Arthur, to retrieve it. Arthur stumbled upon the sword stuck in the stone on the way back to their house, and since it was a lot easier to grab that sword instead of heading all the way back home, that's just what he did. The sword was pulled, making Arthur the rightful king of all Britons. Except he was still pretty much a teenager.
Anyway, after much protesting on the behalf of various lords who didn't like the idea of taking orders from a kid, Arthur ascended to the throne. Merlin became his trusted advisor, and it wasn't long before Arthur became engaged to the daughter of one of the lesser lords. Her name was Guinevere, and the dowry given with her was a large, round wooden table that would come to be one of the main symbols of Arthur's reign. Another would be the sword Excalibur, which he would receive from the Lady of the Lake.
People flocked to Arthur's court at Camelot, because he was a fair ruler as well as a pretty nice guy. Many young men became knights in his service, and they became known as the Knights of the Round Table, where all were considered equals and none sat higher than the rest. The foremost, and most well-known of these knights was a man named Lancelot du Lac, who became Arthur's best friend and close confidant. There were conflicts throughout, namely from a lesser king known as King Lot of Orkney, whose sons all became knights of the round table at one point or another. Though the biggest problem came in the form of Arthur's half-sister Morgan le Fay (who just happened to be Lot's wife), who seduced him at one point and wound up giving birth to his bastard son Mordred.
Mordred, thanks to the scheming of his mother, traveled to Camelot when he was old enough and became a knight of the round table. He worked his way into Arthur's confidence at a time when rumors were spreading throughout the court of Queen Guinevere's infidelity. Things took a turn for the worse when Mordred and a group of like-minded knights burst in on Lancelot in bed with the queen, and the lesser lords demanded Arthur burn her at the stake. When the day of the execution came, Lancelot saved her - though at the cost of quite a few lives - and fled Camelot with Guinevere in tow. She wound up in a convent, and he wound eventually up going mad and becoming a wild man in the woods. And sometime during all of this, Merlin was seduced and then trapped under a rock by Nimue, a young sorceress who was very likely a disciple of Morgan le Fay.
War erupted between the Britons and the French, due to Lancelot returning to his father's home in France. The knights were torn, and many went questing to retrieve the Holy Grail on Arthur's behalf. Battle after battle took place, until the last battle at Camlann, where Mordred delivered Arthur a fatal blow. The dying king sent one of his most trusted knights, Bedivere, to throw Excalibur into the nearest body of water, returning it to the Lady of the Lake. After that, a barge of three women landed at the shore, and Arthur was taken to the Isle of Avalon - either to be buried or healed. Legend held that he would one day return, when the world needed him most.
In Purgatory
Upon arriving in Purgatory, Arthur was utterly fascinated by all the stuff of the modern age. He is still quite wary of technology - cars and airplanes in particular - but is working to adapt. He happily spent his Christmas and New Year's in England, though incognito so as to avoid the mess of scholars and nutjobs vying for some info on the real scoop behind the legends.
He currently lives in an apartment flat, and often finds random gifts turning up in his mail from well-wishers off the island. Though he misses his fellow knights and advisor terribly, he is often too overwhelmed by the modern world to really worry about them too much.
