Before I tell you about the king of Motinspire, I will tell you about his formerly most loyal subjects: powerful shapeshifters known as the Nightmares.
Memory of Nightmare, a man who could shapeshift into any character of the past, typically those formed in dreams. Escritor sent him first to the dreams of a Writer named Holly, when she attempted to summon one of her own characters with lucid dreaming. In fact, she was trying to summon your counterpart in this world, Ranger.
Vision of Nightmare, a man who could shapeshift into any current character, appeared in a similar way. He whispered into Holly's mind that that same character, Dr. Lupe, had drifted too far from what he "should" be in the chaos of the Taco. Vision then presented himself as the true, "canonical" version of Dr. Lupe, from the proper timeline.
Premonition of Nightmare, the leader, could transform into the future versions of any character, generally choosing the appearance of the Grim Reaper. He appeared once Memory and Vision had been unmasked for who they truly were.
And then Fantasy of Nightmare, the first to betray the king, could transform himself while drawing from characters' hopes and dreams. He stood with the Taco against the invasion by his former comrades, and later the Motinspiran army writ large.
But why, you may ask, did King Escritor of Motinspire desire to sow discord in the happy and cheerful world of the Icy Taco? To protect them from further pain, of course.
For you see, the man who commanded armies of monsters to march betwixt worlds was not always the Writer King Escritor. He was once just a young man playing a game with his friends. Do NOT give me that look Monster Hunter, I am NOT making a Homestuck reference.
Before he was king of a mystical realm, Slade Gray lived in a world you might mistake for the Writers' supposed Real World, playing a game in which he embodied the brave paladin Terentius.
Terentius sought nothing more than to protect his compatriots, and this often led to him falling in battle to save his comrades. Of course, this was not a worry, as advanced magicks were plenty to revive him time and time again.
But repeated trips beyond the veil can take a toll on a man's mind, and Slade thought it would be untrue not to explore this. But the rest of his friends did not want to take it in this direction, and so Slade left before the campaign's conclusion.
Without Terentius, the rest of the party proved unable to save the realm. And that is when Slade received a strange visitor, offering to finish the game with him.
Slade was given control over the entire former party as a great demon marched upon the central city. Everything seemed impossible until the strange visitor revealed the twist of the game: the visitor was only playing one character, the demon. Slade was commanding the entire party. That made Slade the Game Master, not the visitor.
Slade could rewrite the rules of the world, command every soldier who might possible exist, and tell a compelling story. Sounds quite a bit like Writer Powers, no?
After being defeated through Slade's display, the visitor gave Slade a "gift": the ability to live in the world he loved so much. Forever. Slade was banished to Motinspire, never to be seen in his own world again.
Slade, now posing as the great sorcerer Escritor, had great control over the world, but could not change its suffering. That wouldn't be "true" to the world, after all.
Escritor wooed Queen Hera, in an attempt to find a truer way to resolve the kingdom's pain from a place of authority. But of course, heavy is the head.
As the years went on, rebellions flared up all across the kingdom, against this all-powerful king. The once-beloved Queen Hera went out to quell such protests, and was assassinated by the rebels.
It was at this point that King Escritor decided that there was no way for the kingdom to be both "true" and happy. He sent his young daughter Ashe to be raised in the neighboring kingdom, and closed the borders of Motinspire in a massive maelstrom of magic.
Every single sapient creature who lived in Motinspire was turned into a shadow of their former self, nothing more than an archetype. I believe some scholars now refer to this form of being as Ersatz.
He allowed his former party to keep some of their personalities, however. Terentius, of course, warped by his pain, became Premonition. Premonition knew in sharp detail the pain that Escritor was trying to save the world from, and suggested the incursion into other worlds.
And thus, the Motinspiran War of Assimilation began in earnest. The Icy Taco was a bastion of those who allowed word to flow from fingertip, to let characters be "true" rather than useful. Escritor believed this would cause nothing but pain for the Writers, and Premonition believed oblivion was better than the pain it would bring upon characters.
But Escritor was right about one thing: letting characters be "true" means letting them be unpredictable. The Nightmares eventually rebelled, all for their own distinct reasons. Premonition felt as though he could lead the armies by himself, he didn't need a Writer King at the helm. Memory did not want to be controlled at all. And Vision stood with Fantasy in realizing that their cause was flawed from the start.
The magic from their confrontation shattered the mountain atop which Castle Motinspire sat, and threw it into the sea. A strong symbolic defeat, freeing the Ersatz from their curse and allowing the kingdom to rebuild.
Now, I mentioned a few times at the top the Writer Holly? She is more important to the seven of you than you might realize...