The Mouse King has ruled in Zobeck as long as the city has stood. His servants include halflings, humans, and various rats, mice, and more dangerous rodents; supposedly, every rat and mouse in the city obeys him. Anyone refusing to give the Mouse King his due supposedly dies a death of ten thousand bites as the Mouse King’s servants devour the fool. This might be purely a gruesome story meant to scare newcomers to the city’s thieves’ dens, but the old-timers and most of the dockworkers swear it’s true. Of course, the tale becomes more graphic, and their protestations of its truth louder, as their audience buys more drinks.
The Mouse King, they say, knows everything. The city’s rats whisper to him all that happens in Zobeck. They even know when a river barge is about to arrive, so they can come to the wharves to meet it. This may be only rumors and rattish propaganda, but many otherwise jaded people take great precautions to avoid speaking in the presence of a rat.
Few beyond his servants have seen the Mouse King himself. Some describe him as a halfling wererat that rarely takes humanoid form. Some believe he is a ratwere who takes human form only when it suits him. Some believe him merely the figurehead for a group mind resulting from the presence of so many escaped familiars near the Arcane Collegium.
Whatever the truth, the former Mouse King (Theodore XII) ran the city’s underworld in partnership with Ersebet Cemilla until 14 years ago. While the servants of the new king (Myzi I) still take coin purses and snatch jewels, his funds mainly come from smuggling and the gambling hall called Sixes and Sevens between the Gullet and King’s Head Tavern. However, the break with the Spyglass Guild has reduced the Mouse King’s influence, and his rodent minions now swarm everywhere, seeking to regain that power.