Time to drop my Cruel King headcanons, I have SO many, I'm normal about him trust
He has owl wings, more specifically snowy owl wings! He also has a lot of traits that those owls do have, the main obvious one being how solitary those animals are. Even when he was still a prince, he was quite solitary, mainly spending time inside the castle to prepare himself to become the future king of Blackrock
Despite having wings, he can not fly. It's because of how cooped up in the castle he was when he was a prince that he never really went out to strengthen those muscles. Along with that, the Icedagger caused a lot of damage and scarring to his body, most of it being from frostbite, so even if his wings did have the strength, he still wouldn't be able to because of that
His kingdom means everything to him, as he puts the well-being of his people before everything else, and he greatly fears anything happening to them, and that was the main thing the voices used against him from when he eventually gave into them
He was always a worrisome man, fearing the worst in any case scenario, and thus, very pessimistic, and when he gave into the voices, that only worsened greatly. He feared the absolute worst would happen to his kingdom under his rule, and that there was nothing he could do to prevent it, and with all his love for Blackrock, it broke him
Before the Icedagger, he wasn't known as "Cruel King", that was a title his people gave him after the Icedagger started affecting him. Rather, before that happened, he was a kind and sweet ruler. Even though pretty much all of his time was spent in Blackrock, he would be around his knights and people when not busy. It's why even after he caved to the voices, his knights still stayed so loyal to him
He was known as Boreas, but he ended up forgetting that because of how long the Icedagger affected him, which was years. It affected his memory, and so he only knew that he was Cruel King, not Boreas. That was his legacy, and one he deeply regrets
He caused years of torment onto his kingdom, and that was all he ever knew, and now feels unworthy of his people's forgiveness, still feeling so much like the tyrant he once was
There's more but this would be way too long so I'll stop there ^_^
he would’ve been able to fly, but solitude ripped off his wings.
