Karlien II

High King Karlien II, also known as the “Tinkerer King”, was a High King of the Palm from 1799 until his death in 1862. He is best known for his patronage of tinkerers, pansexual harem, and reviving Adventuring culture during his reign. He was a Contemporary to Queen Urendin Beretha the Sun Queen.

Following High Queen Illa VI’s death of Typhus in 1799, High King Karlien II was coronated in Slugside Harbor upon his return from K’ahjaan with his Adventuring Guild on an expedition to determine if it actually existed. Upon his ascension, High King Karlien invoked the Iterret. As such, H.K. Karlien was able to continue with his hobbies of exploring and Tinkering without having to be tied to Kongipol- his court following him on his adventures. Personally responsible for the Singing Brass Bird of Sondheim, H.K. Karlien the Tinkerer King was well known for his personal interest in supporting Palmist industry. Inspired by Urendin and Malaszec development, along with his time learning as King of the Palm, he personally believed that the adoption of the Assembly Line and research into mechanical engineering would cause the Palm to become preeminent in what he dubbed “the coming Age of Clockwork”.

While research into clockwork and friction machines did help the Palm become a regional manufacturing capital, the lack of wealth within the Palm and continuing issues with Luddism and several popular Uprisings by Western Milkmaidens and Urban Manufacturers along with High King Karlien II’s deep belief in Immaterialist principles of Laissez-faire sociality prevented proper organization and investment of resources and industry to allow the Palm to truly benefit from pockets of tinkerers and watchmakers who were able to produce the precursors to modern Palmist inventions.

During the rule of High King Karlien II, wheellocks and gyroscopic compasses replaced harquebuses and will o’wisps in many Adventuring guilds. His rule also saw the adoption of Pants by the monarchy, as Karlien II wore Adventurist Pants for the bulk of his reign due to frequent campaigning. The many incursions into the Alskog helped revive the magic trade within the Palm. The Revival of the Magic Trade and sporadic moments of innovation within the Palm were the source of much profit by the Purple Sea Concessions, as the sale of clockwork inventions and mana from the Palm abroad by Merchants helped to line the coffers of Urendin and help catapault artisanal and intellectual development decades ahead, with the principles and concepts introduced by Wheellocks and primitive Traction Devices helping guide Urendin and Erothenan Steam Age technology.

High King Karlien II’s adventuring also caused an art revolution in the Western Palm, with the Noble Idyll motif coming from this period. While High King Karlien II would die in 1862 of Stomach Cancer, the concepts arising during his reign along with the sudden resurgence of Magic allowed for the creation of the first Automatons and precursors to magic-based flintlocks in the 1860s. Development of Magic-integrated Clockwork sped up until the 1880s when mana consumption grew so common among inventors that most Palmist intellectuals died. With their death, the ‘Clockwork Revolution’ came to a close, as the Mages filled the space left by their deaths. This shift in influence, among other things, helped create the conditions that would go on to cause the Luddite Wars and the rebellion of the Guild of the Palm (which split into what is now the Blue Army and the Army of Adventurers).