Gurn Baldesion

Former crown prince of the Kingdom of Bal, and father of Queen Kururu.

How Gurn Begat Kururu

Gurn Baldesion was the King Galuf's heir-apparent until a fateful trip to the Mooglish forests. Gurn and his retainers were hunting the ellusive black-tailed pheasant goblin, an aggressive carrion bird native to Merge that uses illusion magic to engineer the "accidental" death of its prey. Thereafter, the bird feasts on its victim as it is dying.

Bal had long since hunted the pheasant-goblin to extinction within the realm of Bal on Merge II, but Gurn had taken it upon himself to rid the entire world of the vermin. Popular legend holds that Gurn's fiancee met her end at the hands of one of the wicked birds, and that the Prince's quest was one of revenge.

Whatever the case, he had tracked a nest of pheasant-goblins across the sea and into the realm of the Moogles on the Kuzar continent. There, unbeknownst to him, a war for control of all of Merge's Moogledom was in full effect between two rival factions, whose names in Mooglish roughly translated into "Those that are Dark," and "Those that are Light."

While, to an outsider, there was no obvious difference between the two factions, a member of either faction would be able to spot one of his enemies on sight, thereby putting himself into a rabid killing frenzy. Gurn, unwittingly, would, with his very presence in the Mooglish lands, end the ages old stalemate and ensure the dominance of one faction over the other.

Lurking in the brush alongside Gurn's hunting party as it moved through the forests was Kutalia. Kutalia was the daughter of the Dark Moogle Chieftain, and she was renowned among moogles for her curvacious, voluptuous beauty (though, to an outsider, she looked [for the most part] like any other Moogle). Indeed, Kutalia had been dubbed "The Wicked Evil Temptress" by certain members of the Light Moogles faction, and her feminine wiles were feared by the Dark Moogles' enemies.

Recognizing Gurn as a member of the royal family of the powerful Kingdom of Bal, she began to form a plan in her insidious Mooglish mind. Her plan was largely the same as any other plan hatched in that same insidious Mooglish mind: basically she was going to try to seduce him to get what she wanted. And usually, this tactic worked nine times out of ten. But Gurn was a human, and so Kutalia's game plan had to be altered to fit the situation.

As she was cackling silently to herself in the bushes, wringing her hands villainously, and et cetera, fate intervened. A flock of ravenously and hungry pheasant-goblins squarbled their way out of the forest canopy and descended on Kutalia. Screaming for dear life, the Moogle absent-mindedly stumbled into the clearing where Gurn and his men were setting up camp.

Immediately, the Balian hunters sprang into action. They drew their weapons and engaged the pheasant-goblins, taking them by surprise and butchering them utterly. Kutalia, for her part, played the role of damsel in distress to the hilt, and cozied herself up to her heroic rescuer ever so suggestively. Gurn, finding the tiny Moogle to be rather cute (in the way that, say, a newborn puppy is cute), totally misinterpretted Kutalia's advances and laughingly began to scratch the temptress behind her fuzzy bear-like ear.

This would take much longer than anticipated, Kutalia thought. The Balians admitted Kutalia into their camp, hoping to make use of the Moogle as a guide of sorts. They took great pains to find a way to communicate with the Moogle, never realizing that she was, like all Merge Moogles, telepathic. But Kutalia played dumb, if only to buy more time.

She tried everything, all her old tricks. She would begin to bathe while the Balians were pitching camp, and then send a telepathic signal to Gurn; but catching her vulnerable and washing did nothing for the Prince of Bal. She found herself making every contrivable excuse to bend over in front of Gurn, but the end result was the Prince thinking her an exceptionally clumsy (and perhaps mildly retarded) specimen of the race.

Finally, Kutalia came to realize that she could not woo the Prince on her own. She would need the help of her kin.

One day Gurn's party had a "breakthrough" in communicating with their Mooglish guide. Miraculously, through constant exposure to the Balians, the Moogle had learned to speak the Balians' language (though the speed at which she attained fluency, given her obvious mental handicaps, was something that gave only momentary pause to Prince Gurn). She told the Prince that her people knew where a large nest of pheasant-goblins lay, and that if the Prince would speak to her father, a pact could be made between the Balians and the Moogles for an alliance to exterminate the pests.

Gurn was overjoyed! But only because he had no way of knowing what else lay in store for him in Kutalia's plans...

Instructing her fellows via telepathy in how to react to the newcomers, she lead the Balians into the Dark Moogle villa and brought them before her father, the Clan Chieftain. "Translating" for the Chieftain, Kutalia explained to Gurn that the Moogles would only accept an alliance with the Balians if there was a marriage between the two ruling houses. In other words, Gurn would have to marry Kutalia.

Gurn laughed, and shared a glance with his fellows. He consented to the "marriage," agreeing to take the little teddy bear as his "wife," if it meant Mooglish aid in wiping out the pheasant-goblins. Kutalia sneered (an expression which was indiscernable to a non-Moogle on her face) and stipulated further that Gurn would have to consummate the marriage, multiple times and in varying positions and places, in order for it to be viewed as legal in the eyes of Mooglish tribal custom.

This was met with something of a wince on Gurn's part. He attempted to barter his way out of it, but to no avail; the Chieftain (who was fighting back laughter) would not relent on the matter.

And so began the week-long Consumation Ceremony, wherein Gurn and Kutalia were locked in a dark room together without any clothing, and were provided respite only for three meals and two lavatory breaks each day. Gurn's men were likewise locked away, in a chamber one floor above the Consumation Chamber, where they were atteneded to and treated like kings -- though they were not permitted to leave the building.

During the ceremony, preparations were underway in the Dark Moogle villa. Homes were set ablaze, the village proper was ruined. The Dark Moogle chieftain supervised the wreckage, dressing the "wounds" of the "casualties" to look as real and convincing as possible. When Gurn and his men were released from the sealed building, they came into a devastated Moogle villa. Kutalia feigned shock and dismay at the carnage, and "translated" as her father relayed to her what happened.

For the first time, Kutalia told Gurn of the horribly evil Light Moogles and the death and destruction they have waged for ages upon the peaceful and very nice Dark Moogles. It was the Light Moogles, Kutalia explained, who had sacked the village, and they were no doubt the ones who had been breeding the pheasant-goblins to terrorize the poor, not evil at all Dark Moogles who are utterly defenseless and never ever lie.

Gurn was resolved. He marshalled his entourage and asked Kutalia to guide him to the Light Moogles. She did so, and the Balians unleashed their superior weaponry and combat ability on the evil Light Moogles, who were engaging in a peaceful harvest ceremony (which must have been, in some way, an evil peaceful harvest ceremony). Gurn and his men brought wholesale slaughter on the Light Moogles they found there, and in this way drew Bal into the Mooglish Civil War.

Dark and Light Moogle armies mobilized against each other for the first time in a century. Gurn, who had called home for reinforcements, lead a huge contingent of Balian Dragoons, Dragon Riders and an elite force of werewolves from Quelb. The Light Moogles fought all on their lonseome, but they fought bravely and honorably... and for their trouble they were utterly decimated.

Shortly before the Final Battle of the Great and Evil Capital of the Light Moogles, Kutalia gave birth to a runty little half-human child, whom she named Kururu.