Valor is the better part of Discretion

But you don't allow the fear to overtake you. Instead, your heart picks up and fills you with a feeling of new vitality: spurs driving into your steed's side without a thought and sending you charging forward to meet your opponent. All of your senses are heightened, offering a confident smirk as you bravely stare Burtrexx square in the eyes and bring your blade up: focusing in on her as you wait for just the right moment to strike. The distance closes; twenty feet, ten feet; you can almost feel the blood coursing through your veins as you anticipate the strike...

And just as fast as it came, the wonderful sensation left, replaced by a horrifying mixture of sharp and blunt pain: the clang of steel followed almost immediately by the snapping of bone; the dragon-woman crashing right into you with the full **** of a charge. Through the blinding shock of the pain, you barely feel the next blow, as her greatsword pushes through to reach its real target, nor can you truly appreciate the youthful folly of charging a born warrior head on with so little training... but it would hardly do you any good, as a moment later your spotty vision fades to a crimson red; the last sensation the short fall from your saddle before crashing unceremoniously to the ground.

So ends the story of King Bryce, known to history as "The Brash". It is one of the great ironies of history that a ruler with such a short reign has become one of the most famous names of his time: living on as a cautionary tale for mothers to tell their sons about how the people they love will be hurt if they forget their responsibilities and limits for lofty ideals.

Though the forces of the So-Called Empress Burtrexx would eventually be driven off, later to be subdued by the new High-Warlord Wyrd The Blue, she did succeed in making Itheria bleed: as King Bryce had produced no heirs and his **** could only be hidden for so long. His body rests within the crypts of Castle Medden, having been recovered by the later King Oliver I, first king of the Medden Dynasty, who had used the time before making Bryce's **** public knowledge to gather the allies he'd need to win the war for the throne. Though thousands of lives and several provinces were lost in the process, Itheria continues to stand in a much reduced form.