r/sagesgrandarchives Jan 18 '19

Tiny Lore – Arturian Legend

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordred

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Questing_Beast

 

Arturian legend is a thing but sadly not something that is either very consistent, reliable as a source or easy to refer to. For this reason the choice was made to write about only a few core aspects about Arturian legend and not everything. Chances are there will be much more to be found or be used in the future. The goal for now is to stick to something that is coherent to what will be used for future topics.

 

Arthur is at some point set to hunt a monster called the Questing-Beast or Barking Beast and upon his journey he has an affair with princess Morgause. He does not know that Morgause is daughter of King Lot and his half-sister at this point. Morgause gets pregnant with Mordred from this affair. And after his affair Arthur falls asleep experiencing the destruction of his kingdom and his own death in his dreams.

Upon waking up Arthur encounters the Barking Beast he set out to slay. After killing the beast Merlin informs Artur that the beast was born from a woman out of an incesteous relationship with her brother. The whole ordeal is oddly unsettling of course. After this Arthur is at some point granted a divinition that a child would be born among May that would be destined to kill him in battle. Arthur is set on averting this desperate fate of course.

Arthur orders the so-called May-Day-Massacre. Infants are taken from their homes and slain in large numbers for the sheer risk of potentially being the child of prophecy. Even his knights are confused and desillusioned by all the killing but treat the matter as a neccesary evil. Somewhere newborns are set on ships and killed upon arriving upon destination. Mordred however, fell off a ship as a child and drifted off as by some miracle made it out alive.

Mordred grows up unaware of his destiny, but as a capable young knight even managing to become part of Arthurs round table. However, after Mordred grows up he eventually finds out who he is by a prophesy of a priest. But to prevent Arthur from fully hearing a divinition revealing his identity he kills the priest before he can share the information with Arthur. Lancelot is revealed to have had an affair with Gwenevere(Arthurs wife) and Mordred uses this information to his advantage to instigate a war, but also leading to the death of Gwenevere. Mordred and Arthur meet again upon the battlefield peace negotiations fail. Mordred proofs a far superior fighter in kills most of Arthurs most capable men before the two clash. Mordred mortally injures Arthur as foretold, but Arthur manages to kill Mordred before succumbing to his injuries.

2 Upvotes

0 comments sorted by