Character from Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams
The king who built the peace — a legendary warrior who united Osten Ard, claimed a dragon-kill that wasn't his, and died leaving a kingdom held together by nothing but his reputation.
Prester John is dead before the story begins, but his shadow covers everything. He was the great unifier — the king who brought Erkynland, Rimmersgard, Nabban, and Hernystir under one crown through a combination of military brilliance, political cunning, and personal charisma that no one has been able to replicate. He was also a liar. He didn't kill the dragon Shurakai — he found it already dead beneath the Hayholt, slain by King Eahlstan Fiskerne centuries earlier, and claimed the kill as his own. The Dragonbone Chair, the symbol of his authority, is built on a foundation of fraud. This doesn't make him a bad king — his peace was real, his accomplishments genuine — but it puts a crack in the myth that his sons inherit. His two sons, Elias and Josua, represent the two halves of his legacy: the warrior's strength and the scholar's wisdom. Neither got enough of both.
In his prime: a commanding figure, tall and strong, the kind of man who looked like a king before he became one. In death: laid to rest with the sword Bright-Nail on the Dragonbone Chair, the throne made from the bones of the dragon he claimed to have slain.
Also known as: King John, Prester John, John Doublecross