Kaiser Raynor II

Kaiser Raynor II was one of the earliest Shirerithian Kaisers.

Although Raynor I is generally accepted as a historical personage, many of his immediate successors are known only through the wildest mythology. Such a figure was Raynor II, legendary founder of Northshire. According to the story, after a long reign, Raynor, grown mad with power, decided he deserved to become a God. Rather than stumble through the usual cycle of incarnations before reaching Transcendence, he chose a more direct route, and called the world's most skilled engineers to his capital to build a catapult that could fling him into Heaven.

Thousands of workers were hired for the project, and the stories say that famous Treesian polymath Werilos Quaz was summoned to Shirekeep to direct the construction. While once the Great Forest of Elwynn stretched all the way to the gates of the Walled City, the trees to the north of the Keep were felled in order to provide lumber for the machine, and the catapult took shape in the resulting meadows. A small town sprung up a mile or so north of the walls to house the laborers.

After five years of work, the catapult was ready. According to legend, it stretched further than the eye could see, and was taller far than the highest spire of Raynor's Keep. Rather than rope, its mechanism used the dried and salted body of the great Sea Serpent Kalhamoraes, who took half the Shirerithian fleet with him to his doom. Kaiser Raynor II entered the projectile chamber, the device was activated, and the mad monarch flew off into the sky, never to be seen or heard from again.

According to one legend, he received a fool's doom, soaring all the way to Kildare before he plummeted to his death, the impact forming the crater that would later become Lake Christoph. According to another, he slammed into Tarsica, and the impression made by his form in its soft grey soils is what we now call the Man in the Moon. But the most popular legend among the people of Shirekeep themselves is that the gods favored his undertaking, snatched him from the sky, and invited him to join them. He is now worshipped by many as Raynertoo, God Of Ideas That Sounded Good At The Time.

After the Kaiser's flight, his successor, Brrapa II, kept the Great Catapult intact in the hopes that he could use it as a superweapon in the Lesser Yardistani Wars, allowing him to strike at the island nation without ever leaving his capital. But when it was found that the catapult could not be sufficiently well controlled for this purpose, he left it to be scavenged by the peasants, who used its wood to expand the small town at its base into a larger town. Brrapa II eventually made the larger town capital of his Duchy of Northshire, seeing as it was the only area north of Shirekeep actually pacified or explored by Shirerithians. After a few centuries in this capacity, the Duchy of Northshire became the Duchy of Elwynn, and the town of Northshire became a seamless part of Shirekeep.

According to legend, he grew mad with power and felt himself worthy to become a god. He hired the greatest craftsmen of Micras to construct a mighty catapult to fling him into Heaven. The catapult was completed, and Raynor II was flung off into the sky and never heard from again. Differing legends claim that he became the Man in the Moon, that he formed Lake Christoph, and that he succeeded in his attempt and became the God of Ideas That Sounded Good At The Time.

External link: The Legend of Raynor II

Preceded by: Erik I

Succession of the Shirithian Kaisership b2248–b2208

Succeeded by: Brrapa II