However, feeling disgraced and filled with greed and selfishness, the eldest son refused to accept this; he soon declared his claim as sole ruler in front of his brothers and demanded their obedience, breaking their family stone.

Hoping to turn the tide of the war to his favor, the prince persuaded the witch to make a spell that would give him the strength of ten men by offering her his signet ring, and she gave him the spell in a drinking horn but, having seen his wounded soul, warns him of making a choice: either to fulfill his dark wish or heal the family bonds he had broken.

When his brothers protested, the prince in response drank the spell, which gave him the strength he desired but, to his surprise, turned him into a great black bear.

Perceiving this as them turning against him, the enraged prince attacked and killed many of his former men; the survivors fled the kingdom in terror, as the fracturing of the brothers' armies lead to its collapse.

Doomed to his bestial form because of his actions, the prince - now known as the "Great Black", "Mor'du" - now wandered the land endlessly, his once human consciousness and intelligence now overwritten by an animalistic bloodlust that compelled him to kill and instill terror wherever he roamed.