Character from Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
The Orc monarch of the Skull Empire — an authoritarian father whose terrible decisions with his children create the political instability that nearly destroys everyone.
King Rust governs the Skull Empire with the political acumen of someone who thinks disowning your son and ordering citizens to be quiet constitutes crisis management. When his son Maestro causes civil unrest through the Pork Boy Snick incident, Rust's response is suppression rather than leadership — a pattern that creates cascading failures throughout his empire. His transactional relationship with Carl is born of desperation: he needs Carl to convince his daughter Formidable not to activate the failsafe system, offering military retreat in exchange. It's the kind of deal that only gets offered when every other option has already failed. He's assassinated by Rosetta Thagra during negotiations, which is either poetic justice or terrible timing depending on who you ask. His legacy is a destabilized empire, traumatized children, and a succession crisis that makes the dungeon's political landscape even more dangerous.
An Orc king — the specific visual details are less documented than his terrible governance, but fan art exists depicting him with the imposing presence expected of an orcish monarch. Whatever he looks like, Carl's opinion is clear: 'Fuck King Rust and his asshole child.'
Also known as: King Rust, the Orc King