Östen

Östen Eadgilsson, the first King of Neverland, was an Earthling refugee from the Earth-666 iteration of reality. He arrived in Eden as a sixteen-year-old survivor of The Calamity which brought his universe to an end and was forever changed by that experience. Called “insane” by the Neverlanders whose ships and ports he terrorized at random, Östen ruled by fear, yes, but was also driven by it. Forever afraid that death was hunting him, he lived a self-centered hedonistic life until his dying day.

Born in the Swedish city of Gothenburg in the year 1896, he grew up fishing the Kattegat with his father, grandfather, and brothers. In 1912, in search of a “better” life for their son, Östen’s parents arranged passage for him to live with extended family in the United States. Tragically, the ship he was set to travel on was the Titanic.

As the infamous ocean liner sank in the North Atlantic that April, young Östen found himself trapped below decks. He was on the verge of drowning when his version of the universe ceased to exist. Moments later, he found himself gasping for breath on the shores of the Sea of Tears—surrounded by several of the men who would soon invite him to join them as one of the so-called False Kings. But though his fellows would do their best to calm the crazed young man in their midst, Östen would never forget how close he’d come to death. And he would be determined to outrun that ancient foe for as long as possible, no matter the cost.

He sired countless children by countless different women, pillaged the very people he was sworn to protect—“to toughen them up,” he sometimes said—and eventually came to worship a monstrous sea god whom he swore would keep him alive forever, all for the low, low cost of one virgin sacrifice per month.