Macbeth
Macbeth, King of the Highlands, was a valiant general and the Lord of the North before the words of a prophecy changed everything. In the year 258, egged on by his wife, he murdered his cousin King Duncan, took the crown for his own, and embarked upon a three-year descent into madness.
Born in 216 to Donada MacKenneth, young Macbeth was raised by one of the finest military minds of the age—when she wasn’t off fighting her father or her brother’s wars for them. By 15, he was serving as Donada’s aide-de-camp, just as she had done for her father. And by 18, he was fighting on the front lines himself.
For the next 24 years, under the reigns of his uncle and his cousin, Macbeth fought whenever and wherever king and country demanded. Along the way, he became a general, a lord, and the husband of a Fatherlandian princess. But though he was an ambitious man with his own claim to the throne and the loyalty of a battle-hardened army, Macbeth harbored no ill will towards King Duncan—none, that is, until a chance encounter with three witches planted the seeds of discontent in his mind.
In 258, after a rebels in the east threatened to invade the Autonomous Zone of Dab Ea and break the 116-year-old Treaty of Meltwater, Macbeth led his Army of the North to crush the insurgency. After the battle, on their return home, Macbeth and his lieutenant Banquo came upon three Kédalikín sorceresses. And it was during this encounter that Macbeth heard the prophecy which would alter the course of Highlands history.
Told that he would be king, Macbeth began to consider how he might make it so. After all, according to the ancient customs in place before 164, his mother would have been the monarch instead of his useless uncle—Duncan’s father. And his wife Franziska had her own claim as well. So why shouldn’t they rule?
The end-result of these dark thoughts was the murder of King Duncan, the framing of the king’s attendants and sons, and the elevation of Macbeth to the highest office in their land. And though the truth of the coup would come out eventually, it would take three years and many more murders before it did. In the end, only the actions of the vengeful Lord of the West would put an end to Macbeth’s reign of terror.
With the help of neighboring Fatherland, that lord sacked the castle at Connor’s Gob, killed the king in single combat, and installed Duncan's rightful heir, Malcolm III, upon the now-vacant throne.
These tales and many others would eventually be compiled by the historian Willem Shaxbeard in his book The Tragedy of Macbeth.
And at last we reach the end of the journey! I adapted a fictional work to my own world this WorldEmber and I see now how satisfying it is! Great work here! (I was hoping for a mention of his hand-washing habits and/or ornate gloves. But that can wait for when he shows up in the comic!
Learn about the World of Wizard's Peak. I'm participating in World Anvil's Summer Camp 2026, are you? Check out my progress at my Summer Camp 2026 Hub!
Yeah, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed trying to figure this all out, to finish WorldEmber, and to finish issue #6 of the comic all at the same time. Definitely not in the right state of mind to have so much on my plate, but so it goes.