The Books of Blutora

12 : King Yiltin the Conniving

Some leaders are heroes amongst their people. Some leaders are feared amongst their people. Some leaders start out a hero, and eventually fall from grace. For King Yiltin of Moorufell, none of these types of leaders hold an accurate depiction. A King of heroic stories and exterior persona whilst simultaneously being one of the most deceitful and conniving people to claim a seat of power in the age of Blutora. King Yiltin's story is one of trickery, manipulation, false heroism, and selfishness. 

Grendul Yiltin was born in the year A-662 in the city of Antairi in southern Moorufell. A single child to merchant parents Fruzen and Yinn Yiltin, Grendul experienced an upbringing much different than most. Due to his parents constantly buried in their merchant professions, they had little time for Grendul, and as a result for the future King, trouble was plenty. In his younger years, Grendul would avidly watch his parents perform their duties of bartering and negotiating and quickly begin to pick up on the skills of speechcraft. As he grew older through the years, he began to develop a fairly adventurous side and this led to much of what led to his reign as King years down the line. Grendul developed a great reputation amongst common folk as a result of his clever use of speech skills he'd picked up from his parents, all while developing cunning and deceitful traits of his own. Without proper and consistent direction and upbringing from his parents, he never truly developed a proper sense for right or wrong, nor proper morals at that. His most common tactic was to play the part of a homeless kid in the city markets where he would offer to assist anyone in exchange for food. For any who took up Grendul in his act, they quickly felt foolish when realizing the kid had made off with their money from right under their noses. He would give a false name upon first meeting any victims, and after vanishing from the scene, he would clean up the dirt from his face, fix his hair, and change his clothes, making him completely unrecognizable from the homeless child act. This is when he would return to the victims and give them half of the money back claiming that he saw the thief running off and they had dropped some of it. Grendul would find himself held in high regard by the unsuspecting victims, all while his pockets became heavier. This is only one of the many examples of deceit and trickery he played upon others in his upbringing. 

By the year A-681, much of the city of Antairi knew of Grendul and viewed him as a promising and wonderful young lad. It was during this year that both of his parents were murdered on the road while travelling to Balmoral for their annual visit to the capital for trading and making more connections. Grendul had found his parents after they had never sent word of safe arrival to the capital, and he went to investigate. He returned to the city of Antairi and told the townsfolk of his parents murder by bandits  and told a tale of how many in Balmoral had experienced recent tragedy at the hand of bandits and brigands plaguing the lands of Moorufell. This rallied the people of Antairi behind a common cause and goal; to deal with the bandits before they took more lives. What the people weren't aware of was that Grendul had been the one who hired a small group of bandits to attack his parents and leave them for dead, informing them on their time of travel and paying a handsome sum to make sure the plan was performed correctly. Grendul had planned to use this as well as false stories of banditry plaguing the lands to further boost his good graces amongst the citizens of Antairi into supporting his claim to the throne of Moorufell. After telling the story of murder and bandits to the common folk, he pronounced he would take claim to the Grand Throne of Moorufell to deal with the brigand issues and return the lands to safety. He proclaimed that the current leaders were not fit to rule for allowing such deadly cutthroats to roam the lands freely. First he would take the throne of Antairi, and then Moorufell. He had Antairi's support the whole time, and within that very night, the people overthrew Ubel Hessdon; leader of the coastal city. 

Upon taking the throne of the south Moorufellian city and becoming Ubel Yiltin of Antairi, the capital of Balmoral and Grand Throne of Moorufell was much more within reach. In A-682, Grendul Yiltin sent word among courier to the likes of Balmoral and Ceseon to spread word to all citizens of the rising bandit threat among their lands. The couriers explained to common folk the tales of merchants and travelers being ruthlessly killed along the roadways of their great province, and that King Vebyl III of Moorufell was turning a blind eye to the tragedies, and even receiving a cut of the profits from the bandit raids. This infuriated the people of Moorufell, and the mentions of Ubel Yiltin planning to commandeer the throne to defeat the savages instantly won over the support of the people within the remaining cities of the province. These rumors and claims spread throughout the lands gave Yiltin connections amongst high ranking military figures in Balmoral who bought into the falsehoods and desired to see the Grand Throne of Moorufell change hands.