Ghyll:Quezlar 6

Quezlar 6, who flourised around -300 EC, was an adventurer, academic, inventor, and all-round interesting person. Indeed, if Kmuppens' Taxonomy were extended to types of Ghyllians, Quezlar 6 would be smack bang in the middle of the "What-The-Crap-Dude-How-Did-He-Do-All-That?" group. Here's a summary of his most famous travails, escapades, gambols, and adventures:

• Was the first to cross the Elminster Mire, becoming in the process the first person other than Andelphracia to use Andelphracian Lights. Though not much is known about the crossing, at the time the Elminster Mire was an highly trepidous zone, and to have been the first to master it is quite an achievement.
• Discovered Oooite, the basis for Ghyll currency, naming it after the interjectionary exclamation that he uttered upon finding that first beautiful stone. He later built up a considerable collection of the stone, most of which is now lost and the basis for many a treasure story. The Bureau of Forgotten Knowledge is known to possess one stone from Q6's collection, donated by the Council for Quezlarian Research, who presumably own much of the rest.
• Invented Quezlarian Numerals (sometimes called Quezlar numerals). Of course, we've all heard of the quaint story that VI was named after Q6's wife Violetta, and we're fairly certain that it's based on an historical certainty, even though the Council deny it.
• Held the record for the most Fefferberries ever consumed at a New Year's Day celebration. We're not sure exactly which New Year's Day it was, though it seems likely that it was -300 EC, notwithstanding the fact that since it was 300 years before the start of this Encyclopaedia he wouldn't've known it was a major date.
• Was the "founder of the field of antiquation analysis", according to our own Antiquation entry, though how this information was ascertained has already been lost in our manifoldly complex editorial office processes.

Having said that, there are also a lot of fictions, a lot of Fish-Tree stories, associated with Quezlar 6, so one has to be on one's guard. Hemoss The Heretic even went so far as to propose that Q6 was invented for propaganda purposes, though that's as laughable now as it was heretical when he first proposed it. Still, the common playground story about Quezlar 6 and the pziqq tree is almost certainly a more recent item of folklore.

One other important detail about Quezlar 6 that isn't in doubt is that he travelled with Andelphracia to the Andelphracian River Valley to answer their Mysteries together. The story goes that Quezlar 6 and Andelphracia both inadvertantly answered one another's Hive-Lord Questions. Usually when this happens, as a punishment a Mystery is assigned that is thought to be unbreakable, and indeed, the ones given to Quezlar 6 and Andelphracia were said to be the most bizarre of all, though the exact nature of them has now been lost. Yet within a year they had solved it, and went to the Andelphracian River Valley to proclaim their victories. They remain the only two Ghyllians to have solved a Hive-Lord Mystery.

This is about as much as we know. Quezlar 6 did leave an extensive papery that is thought to have contributed much to society as a whole, but all documentation from his collection is in the hands of the highly secretive Council for Quezlarian Research, and the overall details are very sketchy indeed. But what we do know forms a picture of one of the most immense figures in the history of Ghyll, and one that has left a lasting and greatly beneficial legacy to society.

Citations: Andelphracian River Valley, Fish-Tree, Quezlarian Numerals.

--Sean B. Palmer 10:09, 16 Sep 2005 (EDT)