For anyone larger than life there are many more stories told about them and their history than can possibly be true. But which stories have a grounding in reality and which are told just to serve a separate purpose?
A Collector or Tales[]
Philbert Olio as well as Phil Foglio make a living such as it is tell Heterodyne and other stories to the populace. Part of that living is collecting more stories to tell. The stories of the Storm King intersects that of the Heterodynes and there are many stories that come from that. Of the stories in Philbert's repertoire ✣ we know there are:
- A story of how the muses were stolen from the storm king.
- A story of how he seduced the 1000 wives of the moon. Could these be the Geisterdamen before the lunacy of a certain spark sent them looking for a lost child?
- The story of how he was brought down by the Heterodyne Girl
- The story of how Storm King became King, "The Queen of the Mines and the Lamp that Summoned the Night".
Now all of these tales are in the kit of a very odd teller with an unfortunately predictable effect on his listeners. Still there are signs he is an avid seeker after truth who will go to great lengths for access to highly prized source material. So what parts of his stories are true? Which illuminate the history that guides the plot of the pages we follow?
A Roman à clef or The Baron's Lesson[]
The Baron uses the presence of the odd teller to unleash a new origin story ✣ . The Baron used a clever strategy to get the teller to relay the story to his son. In it we learn some possible facts about the genealogy of the Heterodynes and the desperateness of the baron. Maybe even clef's about the Baron's family. But what the clues strewn in the story mean only time and pages will tell. One possible message was that Gill needs to be smart, and at least Tarvek picks up on something ✣ .