PART III: AFTER THE UNSEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 16: Crimsonheart Castle

(A/N: The Crimsonheart Castle storyline introduced the lore about Tynerum, and it gave us our first look at what the demon homeland is like. Unfortunately, nearly all of it was blatantly plagiarized by KMS from GMS’ Masteria. I’ve mentioned this before, but Tynerum is called Masteria in KMS. KMS took the name from GMS’ Masteria, which is the continent that hosts New Leaf City. Not only was KMS too lazy to come up with an original name for Tynerum, but they also lifted the assets for Crimsonwood Keep and the pre-revamp versions of the twisted Versalian soldiers, after which they just slapped on the new name of Crimsonheart Castle and called it a day.

I think that it’s really dumb how our only glimpse of Tynerum is just a cheap, recycled version of GMS Masteria. Not only that, but GMS decided to change some of Grendel’s dialogue to say that Tynerum is facing a war led by the demon Naricain, the antagonist of the Masteria storyline. This replaced the original KMS dialogue that basically had Grendel note that even the demons had no idea what the cause of the great war that devastated Tynerum was. GMS’ unnecessary change now just exists to cause confusion between Tynerum and Masteria.

The only reason why I’m including this section is because it’s technically canon, but I’m really hoping that they give this storyline a revamp one day. The Heroes of Maple blockbuster was revamped in the Dreamer update, and it cleared up a lot of confusion about Tynerum, confirming that it’s the third world created by the Overseers, while Friends World is a parallel world within the same dimension as Maple World. Because of the new focus on Tynerum, as well as the string of storyline revamps, it’s very likely that Crimsonheart Castle will be revamped as well, and with any luck, it’ll get rid of the recycled Masteria assets and establish its own unique aesthetic.)

A traveler was contacted by Grendel the Really Old, who asked if they were interested in learning more about the world of Tynerum. They decided to meet him in Ellinia, where he told them about the Grand Athenaeum, a library which contained all the knowledge in the universe. Much like the Akashic Records of old, the Grand Athenaeum was a place where magicians who surpassed time and space could gather in order to share their knowledge. (A/N: The Akashic Records is a concept in theosophy and anthroposophy about a compendium of all universal knowledge. I guess that it’s an actual thing in Maple World.)

He told them that some of the library’s books even had personalities of their own, and that one particular book had kept following him around until he had opened it. Inside, he had found that it was written in a strange language, which he had translated and discovered to be a distress call from a magician named Ridley, who had written that Tynerum was on the verge of collapse, as chaos ruled and law was gone, with the pride of the demons fallen to the ground. He then requested for anyone receiving his message to send help immediately.

(A/N: Ridley is an important character in the original Masteria lore. Aside from his contributions to Crimsonwood Keep, he had embedded his consciousness into a statue, allowing him to speak with others.)

Grendel told the traveler that according to ancient records, Tynerum was the distant world of the demons, located far from Maple World. With little knowledge of Tynerum, and with the demons reappearing in Maple World after centuries, Grendel believed that the distress call warranted investigation. Using the library book as a medium, Grendel created a portal that allowed the traveler to enter Crimsonheart Castle in Tynerum.

(A/N: In-game, you actually use the Dimensional Mirror found in most major towns to travel to Crimsonheart Castle. It’s a bit strange that Grendel can open a portal between dimensions, but as Tynerum was only recently confirmed to be in its own dimension, it’s likely that this detail will get replaced with something that makes more sense in a potential revamp.)

Inside the castle, the traveler discovered that several pure-blood demon children had been imprisoned within. The traveler spoke with their leader, a girl named Pepper, who was surprised that an outsider had come to help them, as none of them had sent out a distress call. Pepper explained that all the children had been captured from a nearby town, to which the traveler asked her whether there was anyone who would come to their rescue.

Pepper told the traveler that they must not know the situation in Tynerum as an outsider, explaining that due to the ongoing great war, their nation had all but collapsed, with only a few small villages remaining. She revealed that a group of unknown, violent assailants had kidnapped them as they had struggled to survive, and that she had overheard that they were planning to conduct some sort of ritual sacrifice.

(A/N: The Heroes of Maple storyline reveals that the demons had been conducting terrible experiments for thousands of years in order to take the powers of the Transcendents of Tynerum. One such experiment was the Sword of Destruction, which had been created by sacrificing the souls of countless half-blood demons across the millennia. As a result, the sword came to be inhabited by the Spirit of Vengeance - the combined spirits of those sacrificed demons - and was later claimed by Damien. It’s likely that these weak, pure-blood demon children are being held for sacrifice in a similar type of experiment.)

The traveler then asked Pepper whether there was a magician named Ridley amongst them, to which Pepper replied that she had never heard of anyone with such a name before. Just then, a statue called the traveler over and explained that he was Ridley, the one who had sent the distress call. Ridley welcomed the traveler to Crimsonheart Castle and explained that it had once been a majestic and impregnable fortress until it had fallen in the great war hundreds of years ago, leaving it a desolate state.

He also that during the fall of Crimsonheart Castle, he had been turned to stone from a curse, leaving him frozen for centuries. Because of this, he had been unable to tell the captured demon children about several secret passageways that could help them escape from the castle, which was why he had sent a call for help through an enchanted book in the Grand Athenaeum. At Ridley’s request, the traveler informed Pepper about the secret passageways, though Pepper explained that the passageways were heavily guarded, making it impossible to escape through them.

Just then, Grendel telepathically contacted the traveler and asked what they had found out. After hearing about the situation, Grendel realized that the state of Tynerum was indeed grim, though he asked the traveler to continue investigating by helping the demon children. In order to clear a path for the children to escape, the traveler fought and defeated the monsters and soldiers patrolling outside the area. With the traveler’s help, Pepper and the other demons were successfully able to flee the castle and thanked the traveler profusely for their help.

The traveler then spoke with Ridley, who revealed that the monsters outside the castle had once been the proud knights of Crimsonheart Castle until they had been corrupted by an evil force during the great war. The traveler asked Ridley why they had been corrupted, to which he explained that it remained unknown, as the origins of the great war remained shrouded in mystery. As he had been frozen in place for centuries, Ridley regretfully admitted that he had no knowledge of what had been transpiring in the outside world.

After speaking with Ridley, the traveler contacted Grendel and informed him about everything that they had learned. Grendel was surprised to know that not even the demons were aware about the cause of their great war, and so he asked the traveler to leave Crimsonheart Castle and investigate the outside world. However, the traveler found the path to the exit blocked by a powerful warrior named Master Red Nirg. Though the traveler was able to defeat him, they noted that despite being a demon, he had been exuding a strange aura.

(A/N: Master Red Nirg is based on Red Nirg, one of the four Twisted Masters in the original Masteria storyline. The Twisted Masters were powerful Versalian commanders who served the Archdemon Naricain, the main villain of the Masteria storyline, and you also got to fight them in the now-removed Crimsonwood Keep PQ.

In addition, the corrupted monsters and soldiers of Crimsonheart Castle are all mobs which appeared in the original Phantom Forest of Masteria. In the original Masteria storyline, many of these corrupted monsters are minions of Naricain who crossed over to Maple World from another world called Versal. However, the current Masteria storyline retconned these soldiers to be knights of Crimsonwood Keep who were corrupted by Naricain, similar to the story presented in Crimsonheart Castle.

The original Masteria lore is hands-down one of the best stories in the game, and I have a writeup about it as the prologue on the GMS-verse section of this website. GMS-verse is a name that I made up in order to refer to the shared universe for all the overseas content in GMS (which is non-canon to the main story): Masteria, Sengoku, Jett, Beast Tamer, MONAD, Stellar Detectives, and Mushroom Shrine Tales. In my opinion, the old Masteria lore is infinitely better than the new one in every single way and Masteria Through Time is the single greatest mistake ever made in the history of storytelling.

On the topic of overseas content, however, the Crimsonheart Castle storyline was continued overseas as the original Gollux prequest, in which Pepper and the other demon children contact you from Shadow Veil Forest and ask you to help them defeat Gollux, who was corrupted by Hilla. This backstory has been removed everywhere except JMS, which still has the weaker version of Gollux and the old prequests. The huge number of prequests were cut down everywhere else, with GMS even getting a small new backstory to Gollux that ties directly with the Masteria lore and Afinas, the mysterious society of knights and scholars who were dispatched to the Abrup Basin during the events of MONAD.)

The traveler then discovered that a powerful barrier was preventing them from exiting the castle. They reported back to Grendel, who realized that their investigation couldn’t continue, as the barrier had been designed to keep outsiders out. However, he noted that there was indeed more to Tynerum than what met the eye and added that they would get a chance to continue learning more, as the barrier wouldn’t last forever. He then thanked the traveler for their help in learning more about Tynerum, explaining that he couldn’t help but be curious about it as a member of Maple World, a member of the Alliance, but most importantly, as a scholar.

(A/N: Following the Crimsonheart Castle storyline, there are several mini-games that you can complete in order to help strengthen Ridley’s magic, although there’s nothing that we get from completing them. There’s also a party quest called the Tynerum Altar, which is a watered-down version of the Crimsonwood Keep PQ in GMS. Ironically, the Tynerum Altar PQ has been removed in KMS and virtually every other region except for GMS.

Although it’s a cheap knockoff, you do get to learn a little bit more lore about Tynerum by completing them. We learn that the Twisted Masters - at least, the KMS version of them - have holed themselves in Crimsonheart Castle in order to absorb the power of five legendary weapons wielded by the knights of Crimsonheart Castle. The party quest involves fighting your way into the Tynerum Altar, defeating the Twisted Masters, and reclaiming the legendary weapons.

At the end of the main Crimsonheart Castle storyline, however, the Demon gets some exclusive dialogue. He tells Mastema that this was his first time coming to Tynerum in-person, as he had only ever heard stories about it. Mastema notes that it’s a much livelier place than she had thought, as she had also only ever heard stories about it.

The Demon then reflects back on how he had been brought up in a community of half-blood demons who had crossed over to Maple World some time ago. He recalls how it hadn’t been easy growing up in Maple World as a half-blood demon, for while he had been fortunate enough to have earned respect by being born with demon powers, Damien had been born weak and sickly, for which he had been forced to become even stronger in order to keep his family safe from harm.

He then tells Mastema that from the stories that he had heard about Tynerum from the high-ranking demons of his community, he had learned that Tynerum had fallen into chaos in the absence of a strong ruler, which was why he had believed in the Black Mage’s ideals to conquer Maple World and become a Commander, though he lamented that he had lost everything as a result.

After a pause, he tells Mastema that he never wants to lose anyone like that again, adding that he wouldn’t make that mistake again if he got the chance to do it over. He explains that it would be better if he were to pick up his sword simply to protect what he loved, rather for any sort of grand ideal, noting that Damien would agree.

The Damien webcomic created a continuity error with this dialogue, as it retconned the Demon and Damien’s birthplace as Tynerum. It explained that the Demon took his mother and Damien to Leafre shortly after his demon powers awakened, as his mother was human and Damien had been born without demon powers, making them easy targets for the powerful pure-blood demons.

I wasn’t sure whether to include the in-game version or the webtoon version for the Demon’s backstory on this site, as the story constantly flip-flops on whether it’ll retcon a webtoon with new in-game lore, or if it’ll retcon in-game lore with a webtoon that gets built upon by future in-game lore. Because of this, I’m tentatively choosing to include the webtoon lore, as it’s not directly contradicted by anything released in recent years, but I’ll add or remove things as necessary if future storylines contradict anything.)