Wait a minute! Didn't you say this guy was a medieval monster hunter? What's up with the name? That's right! Remember I said Kirby was a time traveller? Well, he's not the only one. Apparently, everyone and his dog has run into a time runner (sorry, professional term) at one time or another. Or at least it seems that way. Well, rampant time travel has it's repercussions.

In this case, another time runner landed several hundred years in Cregor's past, and several hundred miles away. This time traveller, who came from the year 1999, had the annoying habit of writing down all of his adventures in a diary. And then he went and got himself killed while facing down a demon possessed army, solo. But that's another story.

From there, the diaries passed into the hands of Calen, the local blacksmith. Inside the diaries, among other things, was an account of a very odd and compelling dream. Based on this dream, the time traveller leaves instructions to give these diaries to "the Flaming Man." After using the awesome fiery powers of the Phoenix inside him to stop the aforementioned demon army, Calen seems to fit the bill.

Enter Cregor, several hundred years later. The mighty monster hunter saves the life of the new town blacksmith, a man by the name of Calen. In gratitude, Calen forges a mighty weapon for the warrior, a weapon befitting Cregor's stature and strength. Calen names it "the Canopener" after a reference in the diaries, in which the writer several times wishes for one of these mighty weapons when faced with men in armor. But the real mystery is where this blacksmith, centuries later, could have gotten the books. It couldn't be the same Calen... Could it?

And then, centuries later, the diaries appear again. They are delivered to the government of Narcota (Kirby's home town, and the capitol of the city-state of Narcotia) by a man who identifies himself only as "Calen." This mystery man leaves instructions to deliver these books to their original author, in hopes that he may correct the mistakes that lead up to his deaths. Yes, deaths. Time travel's a wacky thing. Based on the information in these diaries (for there appear to be two different diaries, accounting different lives, but penned by the same author), Kirby travels through time on a mission from his government... Where he runs into Calen. And the moral of this story? If you ever feel compelled to time travel, for Heaven's sake don't take notes! You never know who you'll suck into your wake.

Or, alternately, if you're immortal, try to change your name every once in a while. It worked for Conner MacLoed.

Here we see an artist's conception of the Canopener. It was drawn from descriptions made by Tim O'Neill, Cregor's creator and player. I still don't know if it actually matches Tim's conception, which was a meld of a sledgehammer, axe, and pick. But I kind of took it and ran with it, anyway. Hopefully Tim will forgive me.

The name was actually coined (by Tim) well before the story above, but it was just too good to pass up. So the Canopener was woven into the history of the world, and the rest is literally history.