"I write this to any and all whom it may concern. For too long I (or we, if you will) have been viewed as simply a mad, fiend-ridden, incompetent, and wicked tyrant. It is, perhaps, fitting that I receive the punishment I have been fated from birth to suffer, but before I do I wish to tell my own story, to reveal, in my own pen and my own words, the truth of Ivid Naelax V."
"In the previous century, my forefather Ivid I, was the herzog of North Province, a land long held by House Naelax. Vengeance and a lust for power have long been prevalent in our family, and Ivid desired to repay House Rax for humiliating his house after the Battle of Shamblefield. There is no need to recount the bloody treason and maneuvers that led Ivid I to become the Overking, save for describing one incident, one that would end in tragedy for millions of innocents."
"My great-great-grandfather had made a pact with the devils, literally. In return for the power and glory of the Malachite Throne, he pledged not only his own soul, but the souls of all the sons who succeeded him as Overking. The pact was made and sealed, and Ivid the Herzog became Ivid the Overking. He was as much a devil as any of the fiends he consorted with. They made their way into his already twisted brain and he soon passed into insanity, losing none of his vile cunning in the process."
"When he had a son, the child's fate was sealed. The boy was born into a pact he never consented to join. Born to incredible power and glory, he would live like a demigod, holding the power of life and death over millions in his grasp, being able to have his every whim granted. On his deathbed, he would lose everything. He would fall into the Nine Hells for his judgement, and be punished accordingly. A child, born supposedly innocent, chained in manhood to a throne he cannot escape, and haunted by the fact that in his old age he would lose it all to damnation. All of this because of a pact he could not escape. His destiny was decided for him before he was born."
"That thought alone would be enough to drive any man insane, but there is more. The devils pass into your mind, fracturing your personality and warping your soul. Paranoia, sadism, mania... all these things become your lot in life. Some might say, with justification, that those of House Naelax possess these traits without any sort of madness or possession. But our blessing and our curse magnifies these traits, driving us mad."
"I suffered from this as much as any of my forefathers. I could work in my study, never sleeping for days at a time, before emerging to viciously kill or maim people, even my own kin, to relieve my tension or boredom. My nights brought me little sleep, but many nightmares and delusions. My many personalities could argue with each other in different voices, as if a dozen different people spoke through me, and perhaps they did. I could order men to invade foreign countries, to burn the houses of peasants, and fall on their own swords. Why did I do that? Because I had the power, and I was willing to use it."
"At times, I felt as if I would escape the fate of the four previous Ivids. I would restore the glory of the Great Kingdom of Aerdy, making it an empire to last eternal. At other times, I felt consumed with a frenzy of hatred for my enemies, especially Nyrond and the Iron League. I grew determined to destroy them in a mighty war as was done at the Battle of a Fortnight's Length so long ago. I might felt as if my power was slipping away, and wanted to use it before it was gone forever. I also secretly feared what was coming, and desired to go down in a blaze of glory, taking as many people as I could with me. Another personality, the small, sad part of me that was not wholly given over to evil, wondered at the futility of it all, to be born into this agreement, unable to escape it, and what it meant."
"I had always loved the theater ever since I was a child. I would stand alone in my throne room, the voices of my different personalities speaking through me in different voices, reciting poem and soliloquy that showed so many different personalities... or were they all aspects of the same twisted, wretched thing I was? I could not know for sure-whatever personality I had, whether it be one or many, I hid them behind theatrical masks. Despite my madness, I could be cunning, glib and eloquent. My skills at diplomacy and manipulation led me to accomplish the impossible. I united the entire force of the Great Kingdom into one final assault upon Nyrond and the Iron League. That small part of me not given over to evil, saddened at what was to come, knew that this would be my last campaign."
"I led brlliantly, and I would have crushed every one of our foes. But I neglected the fact that my armies, and indeed my kingdom, were crumbling beneath me. Power-struggles, intrigues, long-standing feuds, anger and resentment at my policies and actions all exploded in a frenzy that destroyed my own war effort. My army and then my tore themselves apart. The same emotions I had felt so long whirled through my head, and my sanity returned for this one moment, to write this small account of my tale, who I am, and how I came to be."
"This, then, is my command performance. Judge my actions how you will, consider both my sins and the reasons I may have had behind them. As I write this, I am a man at the end of the world. Rebels are storming my palace, the voices scream in my head, my servants are all in revolt. I know that ten thousand tales will be spun from the conflict now known as the Greyhawk Wars. Each of those tales will be told ten thousand times over, and all of them will condemn me as a villain. Indeed I am evil, I know that, it is the finale I cannot escape. I await my meeting with Dread Hextor."
"Thus, to whomever reads this, I offer it to you. Make of it what you will."
My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings a several tale,
And every tale condemns me for a villain.
-Richard III, 5.3.194-196