A thousand years before the great Mushroom War, somewhere in Scandinavia in the 900s, a person rose to power. That person was a power-hungry man named Arkris. As a child he always dreamed of ruling Scandinavia and beyond and growing up, being the son of a chieftain, he gathered all of his tribe to conquer other tribes and conquered most of Scandinavia.
But he wasn't content with his territories and wanted the whole world to be under his control and attempted to invade neighboring islands but his forces were repelled.
Not bothered by his failure, he, seeking advice from a seer, went to the coldest parts of Scandinavia and using a primitive form of magic he learned when he was young, created a crown that could grant its users the ability control the power of ice and snow. Putting on the crown, he set out to rally his forces and conquer the world and under his leadership and with his new abilities, tribe after tribe and kingdom after kingdom fell and his forces reached Europe.
All the feudal rulers of Europe put aside their differences to protect their lands from King Arkris and a coalition, consisting of the English, French, Normans, Germans were formed and a great war was fought lasted many years until finally, they pushed back Arkris's forces.
Then in a climactic battle, when the coalition forces had reached the shores of Scandinavia and fought the Arkris's armies, Arkris himself stepped into battle. Arkris's ice powers utterly decimated the coalition's armies and when the generals of the army and several princes went to fight him, he killed them but by sheer luck, one of the princes, Archard, swung his sword and decapitated Arkris, ending the battle. With their king dead, Arkris's forces disbanded and headed back to their homes and there was peace.
But after that battle, Archard picked up Arkris's crown before he went home and after returning home, found that the coalition disbanded and was back to its feudal ways and he himself felt that he didn't get the rewards that he deserved and felt bitter. Then one day, ignoring advice from his friend, put on Arkris's crown and grew mad and insane , unaware of the fact that one of the crown's properties was to corrupt those who wore it, and his friend had no choice but to kill him to end his madness.
When he died, Arkris's crown, now known as the Ice Crown fell into the ocean where it drifted back to Scandinavia and was lost for a thousand years before it was found by an old dock worker who kept it until he met an antiquarian named Simon Petrikov who bought the crown from him. After returning home, Simon put on the crown in an attempt to make his fiancé, Betty laugh but, himself, unaware of the crown's properties, became corrupted and suffered the same fate as Archard and lost his loved one. But Simon lived and the crown kept on corrupting and twisting him into a new creature and had ice powers just like Arkris and Archard had and it was with his ice powers that Simon survived the apocalyptic Mushroom War and a thousand years later, now known as the Ice King, he continues to wear it.