PART I: BEFORE THE SEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 1: The Ancient War

In the beginning, the Primordial God made 365 creations - the sun, the moon, the stones, the trees, the wind, the rivers, the seas, and countless others - each adhering to 365 laws that governed the universe. From these 365 creations that made up the world, powerful beings were brought into existence that embodied these natural laws. Eventually, one such being, Noctis - unparalleled in her raw power and mastery over illusions - came to rule over all others, creating her sanctuary in the city of Tallahart. She, along with those beneath her, were revered by mortals as gods, and ages later, they would be known as the Ancient Gods.

These Ancient Gods were unpredictable and uncontrollable, each with their own independent aims and goals, causing them to come into conflict with each other. Their incredible power and disregard for the natural order created an age of immense chaos that led to devastation and destruction in the mortal world. In an attempt to end this chaos, several mortals began researching to find a way to fight back against the Ancient Gods.

Their research led them to investigate previously forbidden studies about the Abyss, the source of all knowledge in the universe, in which creatures known as Specters dwelled. The researchers hoped to fuse a host body with countless Specter souls, which would trick the holy relics into believing that the host was actually filled with the support of many mortal souls. However, the ritual that transported a subject into the Abyss resulted in a Specter immediately taking control of their body, erasing their memories, consciousness, identity, personality, and soul as the cost of having seen the infinite knowledge in the Abyss. As a result, the Specters born from these experiments were horrifying beasts that despised humanity.

After years of failure, the inhumane experiments finally succeeded by utilizing hosts who had the ability to resist being possessed and taken over by Specters, allowing them to retain their bodies and minds, while also being filled with countless Specter souls from the Abyss. The culmination of this research resulted in the creation of a special type of Specter, which could successfully trick the holy relics into recognizing them as worthy wielders, as the relics would sense the countless souls inside the host and mistakenly interpret it as the host being filled with the faith of many mortal souls that viewed them as the champion of their god. As a result, mortals gained the power to defy the Ancient Gods and face them in combat.

However, even in spite of these creations, the Ancient Gods continued to rule ignobly until the Primordial God, unable to abide such chaos, created three beings known as the Overseers in order to restore balance to the universe. To defeat the Ancient Gods, the Overseers created a powerful relic known as the World Heart. Imbued with immense divine power, the World Heart had the ability to absorb the power of higher beings.

On the planet Grandis, twelve wise and courageous Anima sages became known as the elders, famed for their strong sense of duty and their desire to help the world by sharing their wisdom and knowledge. Their excellent character and convictions drew the attention of the Overseers, who gave them a direct mission to use the World Heart in order to create beings who could stop the chaos of the Ancient Gods. Revering the Overseers as saviors who would restore order to their chaotic world, the elders came to regard the Overseers as the will of the world itself.

The elders were given much by the Overseers, including a long lifespan and researchers to aid them in their experiments to create the powerful beings that would defeat the gods. The elders created a large floating laboratory called Odium, where they began investigating how to create mortals that could stand up to the gods. Using the World Heart as a template, the elders created relics known as the Godspheres.

As these man-made Godspheres were weaker than the World Heart, they did not possess the power to drain the energy of higher beings, nor did they share the conditions required to awaken its power. Instead, the Godspheres had their own unique conditions - namely that they would only awaken in response to the collective determination of the people, such that their immense power could never be monopolized by a single individual.

(A/N: In the original KMS text, the Godsphere is known as the “spear of god”. It’s later explained in both the Cernium and Shangri-La storylines that Freud had extracted the residual power of the World Heart, which had permeated deep into the continent, and had created his own Godspheres, which he had named “Seal Stones”, as he had imbued them with the power of time in order to both seal the Black Mage and to undo the damage that the Black Mage had inflicted upon the continent.)

Knowing that those who feared the power of the Godspheres, as well as those who coveted it, may attempt to attack Odium, the elders gathered four of the strongest Anima in Grandis: Ara the Blue Dragon, Shuli the Vermillion Bird, Baekyeon the White Tiger, and Gaon the Black Tortoise. These four Anima became known as the Four Symbols and severed their ties to their old lives in order to protect the elders and their research.

Gaon, in particular, had suffered under the rule of the Ancient Gods, with his fellow black tortoise Anima being wiped out in the carnage. As the last survivor of his race, Gaon wandered the world in order to fight the gods until arriving at Carcion, the Cradle of Life, heavily wounded. There, he was rescued by Keira, a water goddess who had protected Carcion and its snake and turtle Anima, who had fled the chaos of the Ancient Gods.

A staunch opponent of the gods’ disregard for mortals, Keira healed Gaon and allowed him to recuperate in Carcion. Gaon slowly changed his stance on the gods and came to become a close friend and protector of Keira. During this time, an Ancient God named Brihini - an enormous sea serpent capable of creating devastating whirlpools - attacked Carcion, enraged that Keira refused to oppose the Overseers. Though Gaon and Keira managed to drive Brihini away, many Anima were killed and injured in the battle. To protect them, Keira infused her divine blessings into the waters of Carcion, which healed the Anima and strengthened their abilities.

After Gaon was chosen by the Overseers to protect the elders, Keira - upon seeing how conflicted he was at the realization that he would be helping the Overseers seal her away - chose to help him by making the decision to seal herself away first, declaring that she would do her part to quell the primordial chaos. Before falling into dormancy, Keira gave Gaon a jewel infused with her powers, which was embedded into her spear. However, by the time that Gaon arrived at Odium, the divine power within the jewel had already faded away with Keira’s slumber.

With Gaon and the other Symbols arriving to protect them in Odium, the elders began conducting experiments to fuse mortals with the Godspheres in order to give them the power to match the gods. The elders created mechanical Guardians to defend the laboratory, as well as to identify suitable test subjects. Worthy candidates were known as Vessels, who would then be experimented upon in order to be fused with the Godspheres.

As the elders conducted their experiments, they began using a combination of magic and cybernetics to enhance their Vessels and make them stronger, as well as to forcibly make them compatible with the Godspheres. Their early experiments resulted in a number of failed test subjects, many of which were sealed within the laboratory.

Over time, the elders began perfecting their research and were soon able to successfully unite the Godspheres with their Vessels, giving rise to the first Adversaries. Imbued with the power to challenge the gods, the Adversaries began the conflict that would one day be known as the Ancient War. This war began with the Adversaries’ attack upon the Ancient Gods of Tallahart, the seat of power for the supreme god Noctis. However, Noctis’ immense strength allowed her to effortlessly defeat the Adversaries who came to face her, leading her to believe that none could harm her or her twin sister, Rue.

Nevertheless, the other gods of Tallahart began to fear the Overseers, as the creation of the Adversaries directly challenged their faith in their immortality. As stronger and stronger Adversaries were sent forth from Odium to attack Tallahart, the other gods betrayed Noctis in an effort to steal her immense power. By kidnapping her sister, the gods forced Noctis into an agreement to surrender her power in exchange for her sister’s life, though the gods nevertheless stripped Rue of her power and banished her from Tallahart. Though the gods of Tallahart claimed Noctis’ power, they were unable to handle that power, resulting in Tallahart’s complete destruction and the gods being sealed away by their Adversaries.

With their experiments succeeding with great results, the elders began mass-producing more Adversaries in order to subdue the gods and end their chaos. However, the one critical flaw of the elders’ research was that due to the nature of the brutal experimentation, their Adversaries lost everything that made them human - their memories, their emotions, their free will, and their sense of self - thereby reducing them into empty shells devoid of anything except their single-minded obsession to fulfill their assigned purpose as Adversaries of the gods.

This lack of humanity was called contamination by the elders, who were shocked and disgusted with themselves for having forcibly taken away the humanity and free will of so many heroes of the world. Nevertheless, as they had been given a direct mission by the Overseers to end the rampage of the wild and unaccountable gods, the elders continued with their research, despite knowing that they were committing grave atrocities and compromising all the core values that they held sacred.

(A/N: It’s suggested that the reason why the Adversaries need to be stripped of their egos is because the nature of the Godspheres is such that they only respond to the will of the people. Because of this, any Vessel that seeks to be fused with a Godsphere needs to perfectly embody that will, and nothing else. As a result, the elders attempted to erase any trace of individuality within their test subjects, which would turn them into empty shells that only have the desire to fulfill their purpose by defeating the gods, carrying out the single greatest wish of the people.

Within the scope of the larger story, the player gets turned into an Adversary at the end of Black Heaven, as the Alliance uses the last Seal Stone in existence in order to save the player’s life. As a result, the Seal Stone recognizes that the player is filled with the wishes of countless souls, and since the Seal Stones operate on a similar principle as the holy relics, it organically fuses with the player, rather than artificially through experimentation, and turns them into an Adversary. As the player naturally embodies the will of the people, they don’t need their ego to be erased in order to fuse with the Seal Stone, and so they become the only known Adversary capable of retaining their humanity.)

Soon after, the elders also realized another side-effect of their Adversaries - one which had been directly created by the Overseers themselves. The Adversaries’ power to destroy higher beings made them a great danger to the world, for while they were working to end the chaos of the gods, allowing such powerful and dangerous weapons to remain in the world was a grave risk, as their mere existence had the potential to usher in a new age of chaos, equal to that of the Ancient Gods. For this reason, it had been ordained that the fate of every Adversary - from the moment that they awakened - was to die soon after fulfilling their purpose. As a result, their Adversaries - after defeating the gods - began falling one by one.

Because of this, the elders continued requiring candidates for their experiments in order to give rise to more Adversaries. One test subject underwent the brutal experiments, though he was ultimately deemed a defective Vessel. The test subject was thrown out by the Guardians and sent plummeting from the sky, with his body - which had been replaced by metal - causing him to sink to the bottom of the sea. There, however, he encountered a giant anglerfish, whose light helped him begin the process of creating a large tower in order to escape the ocean. Because of the experiments, the test subject’s body would not tire, and so he spent centuries laboring to escape the bottom of the ocean and reach the surface.

Though most Adversaries had been created in Odium, there was one known instance of an Adversary being created outside the laboratory - the First Explorer of the planet Maple World, whose deeds would be told generations later as the Legend of the Maple Tree, the favorite resting spot of the First Explorer. Though the First Explorer was an orphan, he had never felt alone, as Sugar, the avatar of the Goddess of Maple World, had always been with him. As Sugar genuinely cared for the First Explorer, she was constantly consumed by a sense of guilt, as she had been tasked by the Overseers in guiding him through his destiny, which would ultimately lead to his tragic death - the same fate shared by all Adversaries.

Meanwhile, the war continued progressing as the elders had hoped, with the gods falling one by one to the Adversaries’ power. Eventually, only one god remained, and the elders continued their experiments to create an Adversary to confront the last god standing. Though test subjects were typically brought in from outside Odium, there were several Vessels that existed within the ranks of the researchers. In particular, there was one researcher named Kaling, who was deemed a suitable candidate for experimentation, despite the research team’s reservations about whether she would be compatible with the Godsphere.

A researcher named Aroa warned Kaling that the experiments would be incredibly painful, and that she may face unending pain or even death as a result, as well as the possibility of her humanity being stripped away from her. Despite Aroa’s warnings, Kaling - who was considered the most kind-hearted researcher amongst them - gladly agreed to undergo the experiments, despite knowing the risks, as she had a strong desire for peace and had full faith that the experiments would bring about that peace. However, though Kaling underwent the brutal experiments, she was ultimately deemed a defective Vessel.

While Kaling’s ego was unable to be fully erased, she was nevertheless affected to a certain degree by the contamination, which began stripping away her humanity and compassion, leaving her obsessed with fulfilling her purpose to defeat the Ancient Gods. Aroa, who had previously warned Kaling about the nature of the experiments, discovered that Kaling had created four mechanical monsters imbibed with energy.

Kaling explained that while the researchers had Vessels and Godspheres, they lacked the power to fill the Vessels in order to make them stronger. She revealed that while her four machines were small, they could amass great power by consuming other small monsters, which could then give rise to an extremely powerful Adversary.

Despite Aroa and the other researchers recognizing the signs of contamination in Kaling, they turned a blind eye to her experiments, refusing to believe that the contamination could affect even the best of them. Over time, however, the elders and the researchers began realizing that the contamination was beginning to spread to them from their Vessels, slowly eroding away their humanity. Hoping to stop the contamination, an elder named Weio proposed that they create an object known as a mysticant, which could cleanse them of their contamination and wash away their grave sins.

Several elders refused, claiming that they should view their lack of humanity as punishment from the Overseers for their abhorrent crimes. However, some of the elders agreed with Weio and began experimenting alongside her to create an object to stave off their contamination. Their efforts resulted in the creation of the bell mysticant, whose ring would be able to cleanse their sins and their contamination. However, as the bell would only ring in the hands of someone with an exceptionally pure heart, Weio - a sheep Anima - left the bell with a sheep Anima village, entrusting them to find someone who could make the bell ring.

By the end of the war, the contamination completely took hold of Kaling, erasing her morality and causing her to fall to evil. After she released her four monsters - Hundun, Qiongqi, Taowu, and Taotie - into the world, her creations began consuming fiends and terrorizing the entirety of Grandis with their impunity. Aroa soon confronted Kaling and ordered her to terminate her research immediately, claiming that it was a complete failure.

Aroa explained to Kaling that her monsters had become known as the Four Perils, and that they were causing great harm upon the people of Grandis. However, Kaling retorted that Grandis was already embroiled in war and chaos, even without her creations. She then claimed that once the Four Perils consumed enough monsters, she would combine them and create an extremely powerful Adversary who could defeat the last god and win the war. 

Before Kaling’s experiment could finish, however, the last god was defeated in a climactic battle, in which their blade carved a great scar across the land upon which the holy city of Cernium would one day be built. Having been felled by their Adversaries, the Ancient Gods’ bodies were sealed away across the world, laying dormant for ages as they recovered from the injuries sustained in battle.

At the end of the war, the elders realized that they could no longer turn a blind eye to Kaling’s madness and had her seized from Odium. Zigang, the leader of the elders and Kaling’s mentor, confronted her and declared that she had created monsters, and that she was no longer his disciple. Turning his back on her, he ordered another defective Vessel named Tai Yu to handle Kaling and her Four Perils. Tai Yu successfully sealed Kaling away, trapping her under the hardest and heaviest rock in Odium, which Tai Yu bound in place with golden chains and countless sealing talismans, after which he began hunting down the Four Perils.

After the war ended, the elders realized that their contamination had spread critically, which threatened to completely erode their humanity. They also realized that though the war had ended, their research to create beings strong enough to destroy a god had the potential to give birth to a new age of chaos. For this reason, the elders, in accordance with the will of the world, decided that they would clear away their research and sequester themselves from the world in order to prevent both the contamination and the secrets of the Overseers from leaking out.

With no Godspheres left in Odium, the elders took the World Heart - the original template made by the Overseers - and forcibly fused it with Hundun, the strongest of the Four Perils. As the World Heart’s power was so strong that even they could not handle it, the elders hoped to deplete its power in order to ensure that no one would be able to misuse it. After fusing it with Hundun, the elders used him as the power source of Odium. Meanwhile, Tai Yu sealed away the other three Perils, though the elders kept the truth about Hundun secret from both Tai Yu and the researchers.

The researchers, using some of Kaling’s old research, created the Constables - sentient robots made in the researchers’ own image, with their Anima features replaced with metal equivalents. The Constables were then tasked with maintaining the laboratory in the researchers’ absence. Additionally, the elders left Guardian Kalos, the strongest of their mechanical Guardians, to serve as the laboratory’s sentinel. With Hundun and the World Heart powering such a vast and complex mechanical system, the elders hoped to slowly deplete the World Heart’s power over the span of many ages.

With all the Adversaries meeting their demise as a result of their preordained fate, the divine power of the Godspheres - originally stemming from the World Heart - permeated deep into the land. The power of the First Explorer, who had met his fate after fulfilling his mission, was imbued into the leaves of the Maple Tree, his favorite resting spot, where it lay dormant, awaiting the one who would inherit his will.

The elders then locked all remnants of their research - including the monstrous creatures born from their failed experiments - inside the laboratory, tasking their Constables and Guardians with safeguarding Odium. With all traces of their research cleared away, the elders used their power to create the treasures of the study - composed of an inkwell, ink, brush, and paper - which they used to create Shangri-La, also known as the realm of the sages, where they planned to imprison themselves.

(A/N: The treasures of the study are the Korean “munbangsawoo”, also known as the “four friends” - the four basic Korean calligraphic tools.)

Shangri-La - a realm made completely out of magic - was created in the image of a beautiful painting and structured with four inner realms that corresponded to the four seasons. The outermost barrier was Spring, which led deeper into Summer, Autumn, Winter, and finally to the innermost pavilion where the elders lived. Shangri-La was created to be closed to outsiders, with only a true sage being allowed to enter and leave, either physically through a special hanging scroll, or by astral projection through their dreams.

In order to prevent outsiders from forcing their way into Shangri-La, the Four Symbols who protected the elders were tasked with guarding each of the inner realms and their barriers. Ara the Blue Dragon protected Spring, Shuli the Vermillion Bird protected Summer, Baekyeon the White Tiger protected Autumn, and Gaon the Black Tortoise protected Winter. Each of the Four Symbols had their life forces tied to special scrolls that served as gateways in and out of their respective realms, with the treasures of the study separated and stored away in each of the four seasons, respectively.

With the natural balance of the four seasons, the elders hoped that the contamination spreading to themselves and the researchers would be halted. After imprisoning themselves inside Shangri-La, the elders spent the ages filled with guilt and remorse for the atrocities that they had committed during the war. Because of the contamination, the elders and the researchers also began having their humanity stripped away, slowly eroding their ability to feel. Nevertheless, the spiritual balance of Shangri-La countered the contamination and prevented it from worsening.

Filled with unending regret, the elders branded themselves as the Sinners and waited ages for the one who would ring the bell and wash away their sins to appear. Despite their guilt and their contamination, the elders maintained their strong sense of duty and morality for which the Overseers had chosen them. Seeing it as their continued responsibility to quell the chaos of the world, just as the Overseers had tasked them with, the elders sent Tai Yu and several other sages to the outside world in order to correct all that had gone awry.

Meanwhile, the defective Vessel who had been thrown off Odium into the sea had completed building his tower to escape the ocean after centuries. Upon reaching the surface and seeing the rising sun, he believed that he had never been a failure, but rather, the elders had deemed him one because they were afraid that they had created an Adversary even more powerful than they were.

The test subject, whose humanity had partially been stripped away by the experiments, similar to Kaling, was left obsessed with becoming an Adversary, despite the fact that he was incompatible with the Godsphere. With his free will and morality taken away, the test subject single-mindedly continued building his tower for ages in an attempt to reach Odium and prove that he was capable of fulfilling his mission. Upon reaching Odium, however, Guardian Kalos detected that he was a defective Vessel. Declaring that the test subject was unworthy to enter Odium, Kalos destroyed the tower and reduced it to rubble in an instant.

The test subject once again fell back to the bottom of the sea, where he realized that if he could not reach Odium himself, then he would need to use a true Vessel in order to clear the path for him. The test subject continued rebuilding the tower repeatedly and began stealing the Guardians protecting Odium each time before Kalos destroyed it. He then enchanted the tower and turned it into a magical artifact, in which he created statues that contained his memories.

Potential Vessels that came in contact with the statues would be transported to a subspace containing the reprogrammed Guardians, which would attack the Vessel in order to determine whether they would be deemed worthy by Kalos. The test subject then enchanted the tower so that it would rebuild itself each time that it was destroyed. Though it naturally took a lifetime to complete, the presence of a Vessel would accelerate its completion to the span of less than a day. Because of this, the tower became known as Karote, the Unending Tower. 

Following the end of the Ancient War, the Overseers, to restore order back to the universe, ordained that only three worlds - Maple World, Grandis, and Tynerum - should exist. These three worlds, which had once been connected as one, were separated into different dimensions and governed by the three laws of light, life, and time.

(A/N: The identity of the third world besides Maple World and Grandis has gone through an extremely complicated history in regard to whether this world is Tynerum or Friends World (also known as Earth). Tynerum was first revealed as the demon homeland in the Crimsonheart Castle theme dungeon, which stated that Tynerum was a separate world from Maple World.

Despite this, overseas content - for a time - had Tynerum exist as part of the continent of Dawnveil in Maple World, just south of Leafre, until Dawnveil as a concept was removed. However, as Dawnveil was overseas-exclusive and not from KMS, it was never considered canon to begin with. The problem is that the introduction of Friends World created a significant degree of confusion, though not at its initial release.

The Tenebris storyline, which was released well after both Tynerum and Friends World were established, revealed that there are three worlds that exist in the game’s universe. Maple World and Grandis were always confirmed, but the story made it extremely ambiguous in regard to whether the third world was Tynerum of Friends World.

The evidence for Friends World being the third world was that the White Mage of Friends World is actively merging Maple World and Friends World and planned for Kinesis to face the Black Mage in Tenebris as a potential Adversary, which suggested that he might have been a Transcendent of Friends World. The Arcane River is also said to be a convergence of the three worlds, and Friends World fusing with Maple World, just as Grandis did, fits with that description.

In contrast, the evidence for Tynerum being the third world was that the original Heroes of Maple blockbuster revealed that Tynerum had at least one Transcendent, whose powers the pure-blood demons had once attempted to steal, suggesting that Tynerum has its own set of Transcendents, making it the third world. In that same blockbuster, however, Friends World was said to have been the same world as Maple World before a higher power split them apart, which lines up with the Overseers splitting apart the three worlds into separate dimensions.

The 5th job advancement made things even more confusing because it released the Goddesses of Grandis and Tynerum alongside the Goddess of Maple World. Kinesis doesn’t have a Goddess for his Maple Warrior-equivalent skill, as his is just called “President’s Orders”, which features a reskinned version of the Goddess of Tynerum. However, he and the Demon classes share the Otherworld Goddess 5th job skill, adding another layer of ambiguity about the whole thing.

The Heroes of Maple blockbuster was revamped in the Dreamer update, which finally gave conclusive answer to this long-standing mystery. It confirmed that Tynerum is indeed the third world that the Overseers separated, while Friends World is a parallel world that exists in the same dimension as Maple World. In this way, Tynerum is set to take the center stage of the main story after the Grandis arc, while still keeping the door open for Friends World content to play a supporting role in the story.)

To enforce the three laws, and to ensure that the Ancient Gods would never rise again, the Overseers created three Transcendents for each of the three worlds. The power of the Transcendents suppressed the Ancient Gods, who were to remain forever sealed away in their unnatural slumber. Despite this, however, one Ancient God - the Divine Bird, Shinsoo, was tasked with protecting a particular bloodline on Maple World, which had grown intertwined with the Transcendents, such that a descendent of that bloodline would one day awaken to become a replacement Transcendent should the need arise.

(A/N: Shinsoo was revealed to be an Ancient God during the Arteria storyline. It’s currently unexplained why Shinsoo wasn’t forced into dormancy, although the lore about this has gone through some changes in recent years. When Heroes of Maple was first released, it was revealed that only one Ancient God - Abraxas the Watchful God - was permitted to remain awake during the age of the Transcendents, and that Abraxas’ job was to watch over the graves of the primal forces which had come before.

Because of this, Shinsoo being an Ancient God created a significant plot hole, as none of the gods except Abraxas are supposed to be awake. With the Heroes of Maple revamp in the Dreamer update, the lore about Abraxas being permitted to remain awake was removed, and Abraxas was said to be sealed away with the other gods. However, a trace of Abraxas’ power still remains active, which is still a bit contradictory with the information that we’ve been given.

Despite the fact that the absence of some gods, such as Mitra the Sun God, caused their followers to lose their powers completely, there seem to be more and more cases than not which suggest that the power of the Ancient Gods still persists to some degree, such as Keira’s divine blessings dwelling in the waters of Carcion, the power of Malice stemming from the Ancient God Satiras, which lives in Kain and Luska, and the power of the unnamed Ancient Gods of the Nova that dwell within the Nova relic, the Outrigger, as well as Angelic Buster’s bracelet.

I think that the direction of the story that we’re going towards with the Ancient Gods is that the gods themselves remain dormant, although small traces of their power can still manifest weakly in the age of the Transcendents. Obviously, this limitation goes away after Maple World and Grandis fuse, which causes the gods to start waking up after the Black Mage’s plan succeeds and causes Maple World to lose all its Transcendents. However, it’s something to keep in mind in storylines set before continental Grandis.)

During the Ancient War, Shinsoo had taken pity on the people of Maple World, who had been suffering immensely from the chaos of the Ancient Gods. Shinsoo took it upon herself to protect humanity from the carnage with her immense power. After the end of the war, Shinsoo - who had been tasked with watching over the birth of the new Transcendent - used her power to create the floating island of Ereve, which became a seat of power for members of that bloodline, with each of their descendants ruling as the Empress of Maple World after accepting Shinsoo’s divine power.

Shinsoo also created the Piyos, a race of bird-like creatures, who would carry out her will to aid the Empress. To defend the Empress, Shinsoo bestowed a portion of her power to a guardian known as the Knight of Light, who used the power of light inside their Soul Shield to serve as the Empress’ protector, with the Knight of Light’s title and power being passed down across generations to worthy inheritors chosen by the Soul Shield.

In the absence of the Ancient Gods, a brief time of peace began as the people began rebuilding and creating new kingdoms. However, chaos soon reigned once more as these different kingdoms waged war on one another. Amongst those who had been protected by Shinsoo, a small number chose to stay at her side in Ereve, where they learned from her teachings.

Having expended most of her power on protecting humanity, as well as creating Ereve and the Piyos, Shinsoo had considerably weakened in the aftermath of the war. In her stead, her followers chose to carry out her will and protect the weak. Shinsoo gave them her blessings and named them the Noblesse. Though they were bound by ideology, rather than bloodline, the Noblesse fought bravely to defend humanity. The Noblesse also built a large mansion on Ereve, in which they and those who joined their ranks resided, though they spent much of their time away from Ereve in order to fight in the many wars that took place across the ages.

In both the age of the gods and the age of the Transcendents, the Goddesses of the three worlds existed, quietly watching their realms over the eons. In the darkness of the beginning, the Goddesses had once used the Erdas, the building blocks of reality, to sculpt a soul. Throughout the ages, the Goddesses occasionally bestowed that same power to manipulate the Erdas upon those whom they deemed worthy so that those champions could protect their worlds. After the fall of the Ancient Gods, with the Overseers using the Transcendents to maintain order, the shape of destiny became fixed and wholly predictable, thus restoring order to the universe.

(A/N: When the 5th job advancement was released, the Memory Keeper stated that the Goddesses used the Erdas to sculpt the three worlds after the fall of the Ancient Gods, and that they had taught certain humans, elves, demons, and dragons how to manipulate Erdas as well. However, this was changed during the Destiny update, as it now states that the Goddesses used the Erdas in the darkness of the beginning to sculpt a soul, although I have no idea what that means. Most likely, it’ll get picked up as a plot thread in the future.

They also changed the wording to not specify the races that were given the power to reshape Erda, likely since we also have the Flora and Anima classes now. The reason for these dialogue changes is likely because the story of the Goddesses creating the three worlds contradicts every other storyline in the game, which state that the Overseers merely separated the three preexisting worlds into their own dimensions. Worlds like Grandis were said to have existed during the time of the Ancient Gods, meaning that it’s impossible for them to have been created by the Goddesses after the fall of the Ancient Gods.

Regarding the Goddesses, it’s highly unlikely that they’re Ancient Gods, since they’re not supposed to be active while the Transcendents are around. The Goddess of Maple World was referred to as the Spirit of Maple World in the original Explorer storyline, and so we could say that the Goddesses of the worlds are more like the spirit manifestations of their realms, rather than actual deities.

My personal interpretation is that the Goddesses are the interfaces through which the Overseers communicate with the people, just like how they use the Transcendents to enforce their will, as it’s been suggested that they can’t directly interact with the universe themselves. As the Goddesses teach the Adversary how to manipulate Erda in their 5th job advancement, and since it’s said that they’ve taught the skill to other heroes in different eras, it’s possible that their job is to explain the will of the Overseers, who are often described as the will of the world itself, and to guide significant people towards their destiny.

The introduction of the Ancient Gods created some contradictions with established beings like the Goddesses of the three worlds, the Goddess Rhinne, and the race of beings known as Goddesses, such as Minerva and Lakelis, whom you encounter in the Orbis and Kerning City PQs. Rhinne is the Transcendent of Time, but her influence and power in Maple World likely caused the people to worship her as a Goddess.

The Goddess race, while relevant to some party quests, honestly never comes up in the actual plot, and so we can just ignore them. There’s also another deity in Maple World whom the people worship as just ‘The Goddess’, although there’s some evidence to suggest that she’s Minerva of the Goddess race. Her statue in Orbis grants the Hero’s Echo skill for Explorers, and the monster Eliza in Orbis Park is known as the Goddess’ pet. 

Another deity is Sino, the Fox God of Grandis, who’s been heavily hinted at being an Ancient God over the years. We also have the Slime God from Ramuramu mandated that all Slimes be as cute as possible, for which the Slime God created the Guardian Angel Slimes in order to judge the cutest Slime. Just from the sound of it, the Slime God and its Guardian Angel Slimes seem similar to the Fox God and her Sky and Cloud Guardians, which makes me believe that the Slime God might be an Ancient God as well, although that could change as the story unfolds.

The only Ancient Gods that we know of at this time are Abraxas the Watchful God, the Divine Bird Shinsoo, Satiras the Devil Dragon, Mitra the Sun God, Tynos the God of Calamity, Archelon from Hotel Arcus, Keira the Water Goddess, Brihini the Sea Serpent, Gob the Hand of God who made Archelon’s robot body, Noctis the Goddess of Illusion, Prague and Edmire and the other unnamed lesser gods of Tallahart, the unnamed god whose tree was used to carve Pathfinder’s relic, and the unnamed dormant god in Ristonia. We were also shown an otter-like Ancient God named Enki during the Identisk Island event, although the canonicity of this storyline is unknown.)