Campfire Tales with Yosser : The Mad King of Numeria

The tale of Numerias "Mad King" is one of terror, betrayal, and despair. An ever twisting horror story that spirals deeper into the realms of madness than any living man would ever dare to look... so none did. No one really knows the full tale behind this Tyrant of Insanity and much of what we do know comes from those that were alive to witness certain events. What we do know is that The Mad King did not seek power, wealth, or infamy. The Mad King sought only one thing, the destruction of everything we know... and he almost succeeded.
The Mad King was known by many names throughout his life, he was called The Man of Many Faces, Thousand Voices, some called him The Herald of Darkness and even The Sower of Souls. No one name ever truly described The Mad King, and even all of them together barely held the truth of what The Mad King was.
It is said by those that lived to tell the tales that The Mad King could make a man do unspeakable things to people he'd once loved and fought to protect. It was said that everyone around him, even those that tried to oppose his will or that stood against his tyranny, were truly only puppets whose strings ended at The Mad Kings fingertips... a few tales even tell that The Mad King was responsible for the great collapse of the Mendevian government before coming to Numeria, though none can say those tales are true.
It would take a great deal of telling to reveal the whole tale of the one they called Mad, and still more telling to reveal that of the one they called King. I wont tell you the whole tale, for it is also said that to tell the whole of the tale we know would in itself drive the teller into the pits of madness, for The Mad King still listens for his names...always watching.
What I will tell is the seeming end of this tale, how a great number of men, friends and bitter enemies alike, came together to march in war against The Mad Kings puppet armies. 35 years ago now armies from all over the North, men from Mendev, The River Kingdoms, and even Brevoy marched to Numeria to join forces with a young Warlord named Kevoth-Kul.
Kevoth-Kul had done the impossible and united much of what was left of Numerias scattered beaten ad destroyed Barbarian tribes. The Barbarians had given Kevoth the title "Black Sovereign" and it was under that title that he had called for the aid of all the North to send him warriors that he might wage war upon The Mad King and reclaim Numeria. The rest of the North had answered, and armies the sizes of which was seldom seen in history pushed into Numeria under Kevoths banner.
The Mad Kings puppets fell by the Thousands, his corrupt Technic Leagues abandoned him to join Kevoth, his fortresses fell, and his plans came unraveled in front of his very eyes... but it is said that all the while The Mad Kings howling laughter could be heard over the cries of the battlefield. In his madness The Herald of Darkness never knew fear, he only knew power...
Using strength and magic that the world had not seen since the dawn of creation The Mad King summoned Terrible Raving Horrors from different worlds to fell his enemies. The earth itself split asunder to swallow those that stood against him as he cried the name of his Terrible Master. The war was... nightmarish... and even soldiers that survived the same battles often describe completely different events taking place, with different nightmares walking the fields of battle.
Through it all the Free Armies of the North kept fighting. Survivors say it was as if the Gods themselves fought along side them, forever spurring them onward. Many reports from survivors describe seeing what could only have been Mighty Gorum wading through hordes of The Mad Kings Nightmares, or The Dawn Flower herself raining fire and death from the sky...
For weeks the fighting never stopped and 10s of thousands of souls departed the material world, with an end seemingly never to come. Until finally, an end came. The Mad Kings puppets, Nightmares, and terrors from other worlds vanished. The land itself seemed to calm, and suddenly it was over...
Unbeknownst to most that fought in that war, a group of Heroes chosen by the Gods themselves had broken into The Mad Kings fortress to challenge him... and finally they had won.
It is not told who these men and women were, only that they had succeeded, only that they had finally silenced The Mad Kings madness... even so, it is said that if you listen closely enough to anyone that survived that war while they speak, or if you simply speak about The Mad King at all, you can still hear his howling laughter, as he watches chaos envelope our world...
Remember friends, the Mad King is always watching, waiting, in the darkest places of our minds, for a chance to pull the strings of our fate and once again drive our world toward the brink of Madness.