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Uhl Eharl Khoehng

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this great, Old Corellian tragedy is generally regarded as one of the greatest in all the galaxy. It was first performed some 500 years before the Battle of Yavin. The title comes from the Old Corellian term, khoehng, which means king. The word eharl is a Socorran mythological term which refers to an elf or trickster. Thus, the translation of the title into Basic yields "The Trickster King." The story of the play begins with the death of a king and his handsome young son. It opens on a distant world, where the son must take the throne once occupied by his father. The son - known as the Edjian-Prince - decides to expand his father's holdings and orders much of the surrouding forest cut down. When the woodsmen fail to return, and no trees are felled, the Prince's subjects begin to whisper of uhl eharl khoehng, and the Edjian-Prince begins trying to contact him. He sends messengers into the forest with invitations, but none of them ever return. The people begin to rebel against the Edjian-Prince's follies, until he orders his soldiers to drive them all into the forest. No one, not the subjects or the soldiers, ever returns. The Edjian-Prince is left with just his aging hunt servant, and the prince then sends the old man into the forest, in a last-ditch effort to locate the trickster king. When the old man also fails to return, the Prince barricades himself within his castle walls, but uhl eharl khoehng was too smart for that. The trickster invaded the Prince's dreams and bade him to come into the forest, promising safe passage and a discussion of peace. The Prince awoke and travelled into the forest, hoping to restore his kingdom. However, uhl eharl khoehng tricked him, and although he was never hungry or thirsty, the Prince was forced to travel through an unending labyrinth of trees during a ten-year search for the trickster king. At one point, the spirit of the huntsman appeared to the Prince and told him that the trickster king had turned all the people of the kingdom into trees, unable to move or speak. The Prince was led to the edge of the forest, where he encountered the Eharl Khoehng for himself. The Prince was given a choice - to worship the Eharl Khoehng and have his kingdom returned, or die. The Edjian-Prince went mad, running back into the forest and setting fire to the trees, claiming that the burned-out trees and blackened soil were "...the only kingdom I deserve to rule, and the only kingdom that the Eharl Khoehng can claim." He then submitted himself to the Eharl Khoehng and mutters the famous last line, "Long ... live ... the king."