King of Kings

The legend of Ozzy Mandias began in a simple bookstore, of which he was the proprieter. This bookstore was located in a distant and ancient land called Wilderness. The bookstore, which was called "Ozzy's Bookstore" was normal enough, and as for business, Ozzy earned a decent enough living. However, this changed drastically after Ozzy had an idea that would change the land of Wilderness forever.

Soon after Ozzy came up with his idea, his patrons discovered its nature. Newly placed in the bookstore, right next to the cash register was a brand new fountain soda machine. Ozzy had met a traveler from a foreign land selling the new drink, called Coca-Cola, along with a number of other brands owned by and affiliated with the original drink, such as Barq's root beer, Dasani water, and Dr. Pepper. Ozzy went into a partnership with this traveler, and together they would change Wilderness forever.

The idea caught on, and Ozzy's once quiet bookstore soon bustled with more customers than any of the neighboring stores combined. Ozzy was soon a rich man, and he soon owned the neighboring stores, and the stores neighboring those as well. Fountain soda machines were installed in Ozzy's new acquisitions, and all the citizens of Wilderness soon came to love them for their convenient placement and cold, refreshing flavor after a hard day of shopping.

Ozzy's success was undeniable. A statue was built in his honor, bearing an inscription of his words, and he moved out of his old home, a small apartment above the bookstore, and into a palace on a cliff overlooking the Iteru River and the whole of the land of Wilderness. However, Ozzy's newfound prosperity was not to last.

Soon, a new traveler came to Wilderness, bringing with him a new variety of fountain soda: Pepsi. Disgruntled store owners, struggling to compete with the growing number of Ozzy-owned businesses, were quick to partner with the new traveler. The new machines caught on just as quickly as the old, and it was not long before Wilderness was divided almost perfectly evenly between the two rival drinks. Competition was fierce, and violence emerged as the only solution to breaking the deadlock.

The soda wars erupted quickly, and they were both brutal and fierce. The war raged for years, claiming the lives of many, including Ozzy himself. In the end, Wilderness was left a wasteland, its homes and businesses burned to the ground. Soon, the land was overtaken by the sand, becoming the Wilderness Desert, or in Arabic, the Sahara as it is known today. Shortly before the war began, a single traveler was spotted leaving Wilderness in the deep of night, and indeed, the two travelers who brought Coke and Pepsi to Wilderness were this one man.

History has not forgotten Ozzy Mandias, and though the statue built in his image has long since toppled over, the pedestal still remains, along with two legs, broken at the knees.

OZYMANDIAS OF EGYPT
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said:—Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

-Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1818