Sir Ethilrist

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_bigfoot.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 19:40:45 +1300


TERRA INCOGNITA: wanted a bio of sir ethilrist and so I'll oblige with the shortened condensed abridged and expurgated version.

A knight from Safelster. His brother married the Toothless One of the Onyx Court causing his mother to commit suicide. He then became a captain in the White Horse Troop and fought for and against the God Learners as a mercenary.

During one of those campaigns, he crossed the Rockwood Mountains and defeated Hungry Jack who appears in the Dragon Pass Boardgame. Where precisely he crossed it is a big problem. The Runequest Companion states that he crossed the Rockwoods after being driven out of the High Pools with an army near the West Jungle to reach the Arrolian Properties.

To reach the Arrolian Properties, he would normally go over the High Llama pass near Nida. This makes sense if the High Pools were a series of lakes in Lankst right next to Ballid wood (assuming that is the West Jungle).

However the Arrolian Properties are supposedly founded by Lunars fleeing the onslaught of Sheng Seleris. This is far too late given that he appears as a hero in King of Dragon Pass which is before the Lunars fled to Arrolia. One can handwave this by saying that Arrolia was also the region's name in the days of the Loskalmi Empire.

A more serious problem is that Hungry Jack lives in Dorastor and thus Sir Ethilrist would have been going over Kartolin Pass and not the High Llama Pass. One can rescue the hypothesis by stating that he fled eastwards from the High Pools across Telmoria and decided to cross Kartolin Pass to reach Arrolia from there.

Problem #3: Ethilrist is also said to have crossed yet another bloody pass over the Mislari Mountains into Dragon Pass (Genertela Book p71). I am reduced to assuming that this was another mission entirely.

During the struggle against Hungry Jack, Sir Ethilrist broke up with one Keener Than basically because the latter (correctly) concluded that Sir Ethilrist was a pompous arsehole.

After this episode (which takes place early in volume three of his memoirs), Sir Ethilrist engages in more deeds to show everybody how wonderful he is which fill up the rest of volume three and volumes four and five as well. It isn't until volume six that Sir Ethilrist enters hell. He didn't reappear for well over three centuries and when he did, his troops were riding on Black Horse-like Demons.

He then aided the early Lunar Empire (which would have been interesting considering his known worship of Arkat) before being granted some land in Dragon Pass. Exactly when this took place is unknown but it is unlikely to be before the reopening of Dragon Pass to humanity and, as already stated, he does appear in King of Dragon Pass. He was cheated on his land grant and hates the Red Emperor as a result. But he still fights for the Lunars as well as others on occasions.

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