Rhobar II is the king of Myrtana during the events of Gothic, Gothic II, Gothic II: Night of the Raven and Gothic 3.
Rhobar bore the Scepter of Varant and was a chosen of Innos.[1]
Uniter of the four realms
The king is credited to have united the four realms under his leadership; Myrtana, Varant, Nordmar and the Southern Islands.
He invaded Nordmar for its ore mines 15 years prior to the appearance of the Nameless Hero in Myrtana and built fortresses there for his soldiers.[3]
Three years later he conquered Varant and only some southern nomad tribes stayed independant.[3]
Second Orc War
Barrier of Khorinis
Only five years after Rhobar took Nordmar, the cold in their homeland forced the orcs southwards into Nordmar. The orcs conquered the whole country and its mines and drove out the Myrtanian soldiers.
Without his magical ore from Nordmar, Rhobar focused on Khorinis and forced nearly every arrested criminal to mine there.
The highest Magician of Fire at that time, Xardas, talked to the king and convinced him to seal the colony under a magical barrier to prevent the convicts from escaping. That was not the actual truth and in secret Xardas had his own goal to erect the barrier.
But something disturbed the ritual. It failed and the mages were trapped inside the barrier, while the prisoners revolted and killed their guards. For the next ten years[3] Rhobar had to trade the ore with the colony's inhabitants.
The Blood Chalices
Rhobar once captured a set of six matching chalices during a campaign. Since he sacrificed many men to get them, they are called the Blood Chalices.[4]
Lee
The nobles of Myrtana feared Lee. He was an honorable man and Rhobar listened to his advice. They were afraid that Lee could reveal their dirty businesses to the king. The nobles plotted against him; the wife of Rhobar was murdered and Lee was blamed for the crime. Rhobar had no choice and sentenced Lee to lifelong imprisonment under the barrier. Only his glorious deeds as general saved his life but they robbed him of his freedom. Lee swore revenge if he ever could escape the colony.[5]
Losing the war
But it seemed he lost the war despite his magical ore. He lost the west of Myrtana within five years and two years later Varant. Another two years later Rhobar lost the midlands of Myrtana and one year later only his capital Vengard wasn't conquered.
Return of the Redeemer
The war was almost lost when Innos spoke to the king and told him that a ship would bring salvation. He called for Lord Hagen and sent him to Khorinis with the last ship of his fleet, the Esmeralda. His orders for Hagen were to gather all remaining magical ore on the island and return to Myrtana.
Some time after that incident Rhobar must have heard rumors of a Hero on Khorinis that defeated the Sleeper and the dragons in the valley of mines.[6] But soon his capital Vengard was encircled by the orcish armies. In an act of desperation he and his court mages created a magical barrier around the city to protect it until the Esmeralda returns. But when the ship returned, Hagen and his knights were nowhere to be seen. The ship brought only a nameless man and his crew to the fallen kingdom.
The Nameless Hero ultimately ended up in Vengard and the king greeted him as the redeemer of the people of Myrtana. He asked for the Hero's help and gave him the task to find out Xardas's plan and what the orcs were trying to excavate for him. The Hero went to the tower of the dark mage and got the information from Xardas himself.
The king is dead
There were three paths the king's life could have taken, but in the end it was the way of neither Innos nor Beliar.
For Innos!
The Hero returns to the king and tells him of Xardas' plan to find the Artifacts of Adanos. Rhobar knows of their great power and demands that the Hero needs to find them. When the Hero gets all five artifacts the excited king hands his scepter over to him as focus. The nameless Hero must go to the monastery in Nordmar and offer the Artifacts of Adanos to Innos at the large shrine in the sanctuary. Only then the god Innos himself can speak to the Hero and with the Scepter of Varant he can receive Innos's divine power and become his new chosen one and win the war and save Myrtana.
The Hero frees Myrtana with the power of Innos and when Rhobar II eventually dies, the Hero will become his successor; the new king of Myrtana.
For Beliar!
But the Hero could also have allied himself with Zuben and with the power of Adanos's Artifacts become the chosen of Beliar in the temple in Bakaresh. In that case Beliar commanded the death of Rhobar II and his new servant carried out the order and eliminated the king.
A war without a winner
The road destiny took was the plan of Xardas. He wished for the war of the gods to end and to reach this goal all chosen of the gods and the divine artifacts had to leave the world. The gods would have no power and no influence left in the world and their servants would eventually stop fighting the war of Innos and Beliar. But Rhobar was narrow-minded and wanted to continue his fight for Innos. The two chosen engaged in a fight which Rhobar did not survive. The Hero took the Scepter of Varant and left the dead king's castle...
In the canceled Sequel
Rhobar II would have appeared as an NPC in the canceled Gothic Sequel. He, his paladins and a group of mages occupy the mountain fort in order to search for something.
Trivia
- The German manual for Gothic has a vastly different background story for him. He is called Rhotbar the Second and it is his father Rhotbar who conquers Varant. The manual was declared unofficial by Mike Hoge.[7]
- The German intro for Gothic tells that Rhobar II REunited the four realms implying they must have already been united at some point in the past.
- Rhobar II is not the direct successor to Rhobar I according to Mike Hoge.[8]
References
- ↑ Xardas: 'King Rhobar and Zuben are the chosen of Innos and Beliar', in Gothic 3
- ↑ 'The Art of Gothic 3' Book
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Timeline in Gothic 3 manual
- ↑ Gothic II, dia_cassia_blutkelche: Yes. There is a matching set of chalices. Six of them. King Rhobar once captured them during a campaign - but he sacrificed many men so he could get them. That's why they're called the Blood Chalices.
- ↑ Lee's monologue on the dam; in Gothic
- ↑ He already knows who you are and mentions Sleeper and dragons when you first meet him, in Gothic 3
- ↑ World of Gothic interview with Mike Hoge: Where does it say that? I hope not in the Gothic 1 manual. There is a lot of nonsense in there. All Gothic fans, who are interested in the background of the world, should not touch the Gothic 1 manual, because the content (unfortunately) was not officially approved by PB.
- ↑ Statement by Mike Hoge
