A tapestry depicting the fall of King Gruliac, seen during Garrett's venture into the Sunken Citadel in Thief: Deadly Shadows.
The Kurshok were an ancient and proud civilization that once held dominion over the surface world and were favored by the Trickster god (the primary antagonist of Thief: The Dark Project), who bestowed King Gruliac and his people with great power, prestige, and glory. But Gruliac grew ever arrogant and greedy, proclaiming himself "greater than the [Trickster] himself." The Trickster grew angry with the king's arrogance and caused their entire civilization to be buried deep underground where neither sun, nor moon, nor rain could reach. The once great Kurshok cities fell to ruin, the royal lineage eventually died out, and their culture, history, and even language (note the hieroglyphic inscription in the upper right corner) were gradually lost to time. Eventually, even the existence of the ancestral ‘aboveworld’ became the stuff of myth, and sincere believers were deemed ‘headsick’. The tapestry depicts the fall of King Gruliac and the subsequent ruin of the once mighty Kurshok civilization symbolized by the golden crown of power, a gift from the Trickster. Gruliac lost his hand and when he attempted to fight the Trickster and wrest ownership of it; although Gruliac managed to keep the crown, his hand—as well as his people—were destroyed.
