The War King

War King The War King was the leader of the Great Houses during the War.

On the Homeworld
The War King was one of four "mutations" in his generation, members of the Great Houses whose character and personality were so at odds with the staid values of the Homeworld that they had a drastic effect on the Spiral Politic. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

As a renegade
The future War King became a renegade, the Houses' second greatest criminal. He believed that, as a member of the Houses, he deserved dominion over the Spiral Politic. He often manipulated an assortment of lesser species into helping him achieve these ends. (PROSE: War King, The War King's Inaugural Address)

Taking the name of War Chief, the renegade joined forces with a lesser species group known as the s. Together, they collected and brainwashed human soldiers from various wars in Earth's history, in an effort to build an army. The Doctor used a hypercube to summon the Time Lords to deal with the situation. (TV: ) As the War King, he would keep a hypercube as a memento on his desk. (PROSE: War King) The War Chief was killed, and his new body was hideously deformed. He next tried to ally himself with Nazi Germany. This failed and he died once more — this time returning to life successfully in a young, handsome body. (PROSE: )

In this body, he was imprisoned on Shada, the Great Houses' prison planet. However, he escaped to 1970s Earth. (PROSE: , War King) He began calling himself "the Master," and continued to use lesser species to try to conquer parts of the Spiral Politic. (TV:  et al.) An interventionist agent named Gandar modelled his appearance and personality on the Master. (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon) Father Kreiner obtained the head of the Master, but knew that it could have been from one of the clones made by the Council. (PROSE: Interference - Book One)

Rise to power
It's not clear how the Master became aware of the coming War, but The Book of the War speculated that it was through his contact with these military lesser species. Whatever his source, it had a profound effect on him. 81 years before the War began, he returned to the Homeworld, forced his way into the presidential chambers (killing three guards), and had some kind of confrontation with the Head of the Presidency, during which they were alone for fifteen minutes. Although the Presidency was characterised by strength in the face of a spat of invasion attempts by the lesser species, its Head refused to accept that there was an enemy at all. (PROSE: War King)

Five years later (76 years before the War) the Master returned and turned himself in for his crimes. He requested that he be allowed to address a Closed Session of the Ruling Houses, and although the Presidency opposed it (and its head refused to attend), his request was granted. The future War King warned the Houses of the enemy, and they agreed to pardon him for his crimes. He left again, and the Houses began a fragmented effort to open diplomatic channels with the future enemy. (PROSE: Closed Session, War King)

Another forty years later (36 years pre-War) the renegade who would become the War King returned again. Immediately, he was captured and the head of the presidency called together the Ruling Houses to deliver the Faraway Declaration. During the address, the War King was bound in a restraining device/life support system, and he was left there as the head of the Presidency departed. (PROSE: Faraway Declaration, War King)

The head of the Presidency was meant to return in five days — and he nearly did. However, he was late by several agonising minutes, and when he did return it was only as a literal head. The War King simply stepped out of his restraints (although this part of the story seems mythologised) and read aloud the message held in the head's mouth: "We are not amused." (PROSE: First Message from the Enemy)

Reign
The War King did not take power immediately. Instead, Academician Umbaste was immediately inaugurated, per the specifications of the Faraway Declaration. Umbaste was weak-willed, so although he held the title of leader of the Great Houses, the War King was far more influential in the Homeworld's War preparations. He became a beloved figurehead among the soldiery who would become the First Wave, and once Umbaste's thirty-year reign was over, his election was nearly unanimous. He insisted that he preferred not to be referred to by the traditional presidential title, and thus is almost always referred to as "War King." (PROSE: War King)

Two years before the War's official beginning, Compassion began to develop into the first human/timeship hybrid. The War King tried to recruit her for a timeship breeding project, but was initially unsuccessful. (PROSE: Timeline)

In the tenth year of the War, Compassion and the War King agreed to create a "second front" against the enemy. Considering Compassion's insistence that "House Lucia" was the true enemy, it seems that this led to Compassion's later offensive against Lolita. PROSE: Compassion, Carmen Yeh's "Fantastical Travels in an Infinite Universe", Timeline)

The War King demanded the release of Judy Collins from Jalaxian imprisonment. He threatened her guards with erasure from history, which he did several times without them being aware of it. (PROSE: Judy's War)

The War King sent Homunculette to investigate the Elder Things. (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5)

When Lolita began to surreptitiously assist Sutekh in gaining the throne of the Osirian Court, the War King instructed the Houses' ambassador to the Court, Mortega, that he should further the Houses' interests in the Court over Lolita's even if it meant allying himself with Faction Paradox. He refused to expose her interference publicly, because he knew that she represented the future of the Houses — not someone to offend unless absolutely necessary. Lolita helped Sutekh become ruler of the Court, and he tried to destroy Anubis, Cousins Justine and Eliza (now the vessel for a resurrected Osiris), and Mortega. The War King didn't have anything better to do with the 59th Time Fleet, so he used it for gunboat diplomacy, threatening to destroy Ra if Sutekh killed Mortega. Cousin Justine was no longer welcome on the Sutekh-controlled Court, and both she and the War King were opposed to Lolita, so he offered her sanctuary on the Homeworld. (AUDIO: Body Politic)

Undated events
Before he was crowned War King, (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5) the future War King held the position of Magistrate. (PROSE: )

Appearance
The War King had many scars from the days when he was a criminal in the eyes of the Great Houses. After gaining office, the War King decided to keep the scars to illustrate his suitability for the role. (PROSE: The Book of the War) He had a long, wispy white beard and wrinkled skin that was "parchment-thin". He wore black robes, supposedly out of mourning for the lost Homeworld. (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5)