In the aftermath of the great Scarecrow Ball Fire, the surviving courtiers ventured into the Great Hall of Erareon searching for survivors. Few were found, and those who were located were so badly burned as to be unrecognizable.

A man that they took to be the king was seated on the grand Scarecrow Throne built for the occasion, and his state was such that the courtiers could not determine if he was living or dead.

It was decided to move him to his throne room and to place him upon the throne, there to recover or perish as the fates willed. The king’s charred form was wrapped in soft gauze and draped in his finest robes, and laid upon his throne.

While this happened, a matter requiring the king’s urgent judgment arrived. The most able and independent men who remained at court had died, leaving only the hand-picked and easily cowed yes-men to deal with the emergency.

One courtier, finding the king unresponsive, simply responded to the missive in a way that he thought the king would have: brutal, unsympathetic, and racked with visions. The message was sent forth, and an innocent man executed for a crime he did not commit that very night.

And thus began the reign of the Charred King. Surely if he were not yet dead when placed upon the throne of Erareon he died soon after, but he had built a court that was too afraid to question him. And so it was that his brutal rule continued from beyond the grave.

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