PART III: AFTER THE UNSEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 3: The Forgotten Hero

(A/N: Shade’s storyline was revamped in the Milestone update, and I personally think that it’s the worst story revamp that we’ve ever gotten in history, even more so than the Explorer revamp. One major reason for this is because a large majority of Shade’s quests were deleted because of Nexon’s obsession with streamlining story content so that every storyline goes from 1-30, with 3rd and 4th job advancements, as well as a final level 200 quest.

The original Shade storyline was practically perfect in terms of pacing and presentation, and this stupid streamlining erased a large amount of narrative content that made the original so compelling. There’s another glaring issue with the direction of the new story, but I’ll hold off on that until later, since it’s a pretty major spoiler.)

Centuries after the Black Mage’s sealing, the forgotten hero mysteriously appeared on moon of Vulpes in Grandis, severely weakened, where he awoke to the sight of a young Pointy-Ear Fox Anima girl named Moonbeam looking down at him, excitedly claiming that the Fox God had granted her wish. Upon seeing his confusion, Moonbeam told him that he was under the Fox Tree, to which the hero asked her whether he was near the Temple of Time, and what had happened to the Black Mage.

Moonbeam replied that she had never heard of either of those terms and explained that he was at the home of the Pointy-Ear Foxes. The hero then noticed Moonbeam’s strange animal features, as well as the fact that there were many moons in the sky, to which Moonbeam told him that there were always many moons in the skies of Grandis, causing the hero to realize that he was somewhere completely different from Maple World.

Moonbeam then asked him to come with her to the Anima village, and so the hero reluctantly followed her back to Fox Point Village. There, Moonbeam explained that though they didn’t normally allow strangers to enter their village, the hero was an exception, as he had saved her life once before, much to his confusion. She also added that since the hero had no sharp claws or teeth, he didn’t seem to pose any danger at all. She then told the hero that he would still need to get permission from her grandfather, Silver, who was their chief, in order to settle in their village, to which the hero told her that he couldn’t stay, as he needed to return back to Maple World.

Upon learning that the hero had no idea how to get to Maple World, Moonbeam told him that the area outside the village was dangerous, and that he would quickly get into trouble if he tried to leave in his current state. Realizing that Moonbeam was right, the hero agreed to meet with the chief. After the hero introduced himself, Chief Silver noticed that he had no ears or tail, meaning that he would not be able to take care of himself. He took pity on the hero and decided to take him in before asking him what his name was.

The hero began recalling how Freud had given him his name when they had first met, but Silver mistook his silence and assumed that he was struggling to name himself, for which he decided to come up with a good name for the hero. Silver suggested several strange names, but Moonbeam rejected all of them and decided that she would name him, since she was the one who had found him. Because he was dark and mysterious, she gave him the name Shade, which she explained was the perfect complement to Moonbeam.

(A/N: We never actually get to learn his original name, although we do know from the behind-the-scenes information released during the Milestone event that Shade didn’t have a name at all prior to meeting Freud, similar to how Mihile had no name in his original storyline before Cygnus gave him one. In KMS, the name that Moonbeam gives him is actually Eunwol, which translates to ‘hidden moon’. While she calls him Shade in GMS because ‘Shade’ is a complement to ‘Moonbeam’, her reasoning in KMS is because she recalls how Shade had come from a world with only one moon, rather than many, and so she names him ‘Eunwol’, which means ‘hidden moon’.

The five Heroes of Maple have their names spell out MAPLE with Mercedes, Aran, Phantom, Luminous, and Evan, while the five Explorers in the Explorer storyline spell out STORY with Sugar, Tess, Olive, Rondo, and You, the player. Sadly, Shade doesn’t get to have his name fit into either phrase, although he could maybe be an empty space between MAPLE and STORY, since he’s the forgotten hero. Someone also once suggested to me that the ‘E’ in Eunwol and the ‘S’ in Shade could serve as a bridge between the E at the end of MAPLE and the S at the start of STORY.)

After receiving his new name, Shade decided to visit the new house that Silver had given him, which had been left empty after its owner had gone away. Despite his new life, Shade wondered what had happened to his friends. Given that he was still alive, he wondered whether it meant that the seal on the Black Mage had failed. However, he refused to believe that the other Heroes would have given up so easily, and so he assumed that they were hiding out somewhere, waiting to get back together. He decided that he needed to focus on getting his strength back first so that he could join them.

After inspecting his new house, he returned to Silver, who told him that it was time to meet the neighbors. He explained that it was their tradition to give rice cakes to new neighbors, and so he gave Shade some old rice cakes to distribute to the other Anima. The Anima in the village were pleased to receive the rice cakes, but gave several back-handed compliments about Shade’s lack of ears and a tail. They also gave Shade new clothes in order to make him look more presentable. After greeting his neighbors, Shade returned to Silver, who explained that the last step was for him to pray to the Fox God.

Shade was escorted to the Fox Tree by Moonbeam, who prayed for the Fox God to watch over her new friend, whom she called weak and vulnerable. At Moonbeam’s insistence, Shade also prayed to the Fox God. Suddenly, a light engulfed Shade and filled him with strength. Moonbeam explained that it was the Fox God’s blessing, which would allow him to use the power of the spirits contained in his new Fox Marble. Moonbeam then taught him the basics of how to use his new power and explained that it would be useful to him for hunting and taking care of himself.

After returning back to the village, Moonbeam decided to teach him how to hunt. She joked that failure meant starvation, but she promised that she would still feed him, even if he failed. Shade first hunted for Dried Caterpillars, but because he was opposed to eating such food, Moonbeam had him hunt for Sparrow Eggs. After he returned, Moonbeam told him that the adults had prepared a gift for him, as the village had a tradition of giving gifts to baby foxes after their first successful hunt.

Shade went back to his house and found their gift of raw liver. He tried to eat it, telling himself that people ate raw fish, but found that he couldn’t stomach it. Nevertheless, he decided to thank the Anima by lying that he had eaten it. However, he noted that the villagers seemed cold when he thanked them. Silver explained that he was meant to have given a gift in return to the villagers. Since he believed that Shade had already eaten the liver, and since Shade was too weak to get large gifts, Silver suggested for him to bring Mouse Tails.

After hunting and obtaining them, Shade got lost on the way back to the village and stumbled across a large tiger monster. As he felt a strange sense of déjà vu, Shade’s head began to throb as he collapsed in pain. Suddenly, Moonbeam arrived and stood between Shade and the tiger, claiming that she would save him, just as he had saved her in the past.

Her words caused Shade to recall a memory from many years ago, when he had awoken in the Temple of Time and seen the Black Mage sealed behind the Seal of Time. Suddenly, Shade had begun flickering in and out of existence, causing him to disappear into a void between dimensions. Within the void, Shade had heard the sound of someone crying out for help, causing him to reach out into a bright light pouring out from a dimensional crack, allowing him to cross over into Grandis.

There, he had seen the tiger monster towering over Moonbeam, who was crying behind the bodies of her parents, who had already been killed by the monster. With the last of his strength, Shade had rushed forward and taken the tiger’s attack before it could reach Moonbeam, causing him to collapse and flicker out of existence once again. Just then, the Fox God had appeared and defeated the monster before bringing Shade to her domain.

Shade then recalled how the Fox God had, for many years, poured her power into him in an effort to stabilize his flickering existence, though Shade had remained in a coma all the while. Because of Shade’s actions in trying to save a fox Anima, the Fox God had vowed to save Shade, no matter what, even though the exertion of energy had caused her to fall asleep for a long time.

Soon after, Shade awoke from recalling the memory back in his home, where Moonbeam demanded to know why he had gone off on his own to hunt for Mouse Tails when he was already so weak, adding that she could have done it for him so that he wouldn’t have gotten hurt. She then told Shade that she hated him and ran off towards the Fox Tree. Confused by what he had done wrong, Shade decided to go after her.

At the Fox Tree, Shade apologized to Moonbeam for getting hurt and worrying her. Moonbeam told Shade that she was the one who had hunted the liver herself, and so Shade had no reason to hurt himself while trying to get gifts for the other villagers, who hadn’t done any of the work. Realizing that he was still too weak, even with a spirit, Moonbeam decided to give him her own spirit.

Against Shade’s protests, she transferred her guardian spirit to him, explaining that she had promised to protect him. She reassured him that she was strong, even without her spirit, and that Shade could protect her if she ran into trouble. Back at the village, Silver told Shade that he had heard that Moonbeam had given him something special and explained that she would get extremely attached to certain people, likely because she had lost her parents at a young age. He asked Shade to take care of Moonbeam just as much as she cared for him. He then added that it was time for Shade to undertake his coming-of-age ceremony, which would allow him to be acknowledged as a true fox.

He told Shade to speak with the villagers in the town and obtain five marks of certification from them. First, Timber asked him to defeat Red Poison Frogs and Green Poison Frogs. Next, Compass gave him a quiz about the Pointy-Ear Foxes. After passing the quiz, he took Patience’s test to defeat the Delinquent Chicks and Brook’s test to defeat Punk Chicks. Finally, he approached Moonbeam, who gave him her certification without having him do anything. (A/N: Moonbeam is that one friend who always lets you copy her homework.)

With five marks of certification, Silver proclaimed Shade to be a true fox and one of their kin. He told Shade that the villagers had prepared another gift for him and asked him to go home and see. Back at his home, Shade found that the Anima had prepared fox ears and a tail for him. Shade hated this gift as well, as he didn’t want to lose his identity while in the unfamiliar world. Realizing that he needed to give the Anima a gift in exchange, Shade returned to Silver, who eagerly told him that there was someone who may know about where he came from.

Silver explained that though most Pointy-Ear Foxes lived in close-knit families and never left the village, there were some who wandered the world, with one of those Anima coming back. Suddenly, both of them noticed that it had begun to rain, with Shade realizing that he had never seen it rain before. Silver explained that rain meant that a fox Anima was crying somewhere. As no one in the village was crying, he suspected that the rain was indeed because of Moonbeam. However, he explained that she had never cried once since losing her parents.

Worried that something bad had happened to her, Shade went to the Fox Tree, where he found her hairband caught onto one of the branches. He began scaling up the tree and soon found Moonbeam attempting to reach the highest branches. Moonbeam sadly smiled and explained that she had been hoping to reach the top of the Fox Tree so that the Fox God would be able to hear her wish – for Shade not to leave. She explained that she had always known that he would leave one day, as his scent was of the wind. She explained that she had given him her spirit because she didn’t want him to leave. By having Shade promise that he would protect her, she had hoped that it would make him stay by her side.

Shade told her that he had a friend, and that his friend was the first person to have ever helped him. At the time, Shade had told him that he didn’t have a reason to live, but his friend had then told Shade that he didn’t have a reason to die either. That friend had also promised that they would get through the tough times together. Shade explained that before arriving at the village, his friend’s face was the last one that Shade had seen. He told her that his friend was likely in pain and blaming himself, thinking that Shade was gone, and so he needed to go back to see the ones who were waiting for him so that he could tell them that he was alive. However, he promised to return to Moonbeam once it was all over.

(A/N: The friend in question is Freud. A lot of subtext in Shade’s storyline makes it seem like he might’ve had feelings for Freud. Even with a platonic reading of their relationship, Shade feels like a kicked puppy that keeps following the first person who shows him basic human decency. He’s very similar to Moonbeam in the sense that both of them get heavily attached to certain people and base their entire existence around them, indicative of some pretty severe codependency issues.

Moonbeam is willing to give up her guardian spirit, which is considered sacred to her people and integral to her safety, to a near-total stranger whom she’s gotten attached to after only knowing him for a few days. Shade gets so attached to Freud, and the other Heroes later on, that he practically throws himself on the executioner’s blade because he has such little regard for his self-worth that suffering a fate worse than death isn’t just the obvious choice, but the only one that even crosses his mind. It’s a tragic contradiction that he fixates on a singular thing to keep living for while also being psychologically unable to care about himself.)

Moonbeam asked Shade if she was a friend who was just as important to him as his friends from Maple World were. Shade promised her that she was, to which Moonbeam explained that the fox Anima called such people ‘companions’. As she and Shade were companions, she told him that he was bound to come back to her. She also told him that she would miss him greatly while he was away and made him promise to come back soon.

With that, they carved a mark of companionship on the Fox Tree. As they had made their promise under the Fox Tree, she explained that Shade was sworn to keep his promise in the name of the Fox God. With that, Moonbeam told him that she was hungry and raced back to the village. However, Shade noted that the rain still showed no signs of stopping.

Back in the square, Shade found that the entire village – except for Moonbeam – had come out to see Tumbleweed, an Anima wanderer and Moonbeam’s uncle who had returned back to town. Silver explained that Tumbleweed was the owner of the house that Shade was staying. Tumbleweed immediately recognized Shade as a human and asked if he was from Maple World. Shade asked him how he knew about Maple World, to which Tumbleweed explained that though he had never personally been there, he had heard that the Interdimensional Portal in Pantheon allowed for travel between Grandis and Maple World.

Tumbleweed was surprised that Shade had never heard of an Interdimensional Portal before, as he believed that Shade must have used one to arrive in Grandis. He was further surprised to learn that Shade had no idea that he was in another dimension, to which Shade explained that he had assumed that he was merely on a different world. Tumbleweed then agreed to guide Shade to Pantheon, with the entire village sharing a portion of their power with Shade in order to protect him until he returned.

In Pantheon, Shade marveled at how the atmosphere was completely different from Vulpes, noting that the Nova appeared to be just like Magnus. As they entered the town, Shade thanked Tumbleweed for guiding him, to which Tumbleweed told him that it was nothing. After a pause, he noted that it had rained all the way out of Fox Point Village before adding that it seemed that Moonbeam seemed to care deeply about him. He explained that Moonbeam had always smiled when she was younger, before he had left the village.

He then admitted that the reason why he had left was because he had been trying to run away, as Moonbeam had reminded him of his dead brother. He explained that he had been afraid that he would grow to resent Moonbeam if he had stayed, as she was a reminder of how his brother and sister-in-law had been killed, while Moonbeam had survived in their stead. He then thanked Shade for saving Moonbeam when she was young, and for becoming her friend in the present day.

After Tumbleweed returned back to the village, Shade met with Cartalion, who guided him to the Interdimensional Portal, from which he emerged in Henesys. Though he realized that everyone in town was human, he still felt that something was different. At the center of the town, he found Chief Stan and asked him about Maple World. Stan immediately grew annoyed, as he thought that Shade was playing a joke on him. When he realized that Shade was being serious, he gave an in-depth explanation about Maple World using his Maple Map.

After seeing the new geography of Maple World, Shade recognized Ossyria. Stan explained that Athena Pierce had come from Ossyria as well, and told him to speak with her at the Bowman Instructional School. Shade recalled Athena as the little girl who would follow him and the other Heroes around. He remembered that she had been heading to southern Victoria Island by airship and had likely settled down. He also wondered whether she would know anything about Mercedes. Arriving at the Bowman Instructional School, he was surprised to see that Athena was an adult.

Athena, in turn, was surprised by his words and took it to mean that Shade was surprised that she hadn’t been cursed by the elves. She explained that she had been lucky to avoid the curse, adding that the centuries which had passed since then were enough time for an elf to mature. Shade was utterly confused by her words, as he recalled that the day that they had faced the Black Mage was the same day that young Athena had gotten on the airship to Victoria Island.

Athena realized that Shade had been cursed by the Black Mage and explained that it had been centuries since he had been sealed away. She then explained the story of how the Heroes had successfully sealed the Black Mage away, and how they had been cursed to be frozen in ice soon after. Shade was shocked to learn that centuries had passed, as it had only been one year since he had awoken in Vulpes.

(A/N: This is weird because one year on Grandis is equal to ten in Maple World. This would mean that a whole decade should have passed in Maple World since he woke up, which can’t be possible. I’ve mentioned this before, but it seems like Nexon has forgotten about this plot point after initially revealing it in Kaiser and Angelic Buster’s storyline.

The only other way that this could be possible is that ever since Maple World and Grandis had started fusing, the rate at which time passes in both worlds has begun to synchronize, which I think is actually a good way to write this off, since it’ll remove any confusion about why the Alliance members who go to Grandis don’t age slower than they would on Maple World, and likewise with Grandis classes aging faster on Maple World.)

Shade then asked what had happened to the other Heroes, to which Athena explained that all the curses had lifted on the five Heroes. As they had gotten weaker from the curse, they were roaming Maple World in order to rebuild their skills. She added that though no one knew why the curse had broken, she suspected that it was due to the Black Mage’s resurrection. At Shade’s surprise, she revealed that centuries after the Black Mage had been sealed away, the seal had been broken, after which he had attacked Maple Island, with the slumbering Heroes awakening soon after.

(A/N: The part about the Heroes returning after the Black Mage’s seal is broken doesn’t make any sense because we know that the Heroes join the Alliance when it’s first formed, and since the Alliance is formed right after the seal is broken, they have to have been awake beforehand. Most likely, Athena just means to say that they’ve finally made a public return and are working actively again with the Alliance after the Black Mage returned.)

With the Heroes wandering Maple World in order to regain their power, Athena told Shade that she would inform him once she learned where they were. Shade thanked her and explained that he wanted to see Freud first before wondering what had happened to Afrien. Athena uncomfortably told him that Afrien had taken the curse in Freud’s place, which meant that Freud – a human – couldn’t have survived for centuries.

(A/N: I refuse to believe that Freud, the mage who casually remade the Seal Stones and created a new universal law to prevent time travel before the Black Mage was sealed, was incapable of extending his lifespan when people like Grendel and Alcaster could easily do it.)

Athena added that after the other Heroes had been cursed, Freud had roamed the world and told the story of the five Heroes, but she wondered why he had never mentioned Shade. Shade was overwhelmed by the news, unable to believe that he would never see Freud’s smile again. He began wondering why Freud had left him out of his stories, and whether it was out of guilt that Shade had taken his place as a sacrifice. Though Shade had wished to find Freud and tell him that it wasn’t his fault, he noted to himself that he would need to accept that Freud was gone, no matter how hard it was.

(A/N: Something that I hate with the revamp is that Shade originally refused to believe that his best friend was gone, and so he went on a journey to find traces of him, eventually leading him to meeting Evan at Turtle Island. There, he learned that Afrien was sleeping in a deep depression, which causes him to finally believe that Freud really is gone. Nevertheless, he’s unable to find any closure without seeing Freud’s grave or someone who had seen his death, and so he ultimately decides to write a letter and send it out to sea inside a bottle to give himself whatever closure he could. The revamp reduced all of that soul-searching into three sentences of reminiscing, which is a very appropriate metaphor for how badly they’ve screwed up on this remaster.)

As Shade began training to regain his strength, Athena soon reached out to him and informed him that Mercedes would be visiting Henesys. Shade quickly returned to Henesys, where he found Mercedes good-naturedly teasing Athena for her gullibility in thinking that she had met another one of the Heroes, reminding her that only Aran, Freud, Phantom, and Luminous had accompanied her into the battle against the Black Mage.

Just as Athena noted that Shade didn’t seem to be lying, she quickly noticed Shade’s distraught face as he ran away. Athena sadly watched him leave as she told Mercedes that Shade had seemed genuinely upset while hearing about Freud’s fate, to which Mercedes wondered whether he had been a mercenary who had accompanied Freud, though Athena remained unsure.

(A/N: Following his meeting with Evan in the original storyline, there was an entire questline that took place between his 2nd and 3rd job advancement, in which he began seeking out the Heroes. He first met with Aran in Rien, where he found out that the reason why she didn’t remember him was because of her memory loss. He then tries to visit Mercedes, but ends up discovering that Lucid is impersonating Mercedes in Elluel while putting all the elves into a nightmare. After he exposes her deception, Lucid vows revenge on him before disappearing.

After that, Shade ends up searching for Phantom by visiting his three vaults in Orbis, Ariant, and Leafre (the sites of Phantom’s three job advancements). He finds Phantom in the Leafre vault, where Phantom doesn’t recognize him and believes him to be an intruder. After they fight, Shade tells Phantom to stop, as the portrait of Aria hanging on the wall might get damaged. Phantom is immediately suspicious when he finds out that Shade knows about Aria and believes him to be a minion of the Black Mage.

Confused by what’s happening, Shade leaves and decides to seek out Luminous, as he starts to suspect that he’s been forgotten. He eventually hears that Luminous lives with Lania, and so he meets with her in Grendel’s library. Lania is happy to meet a friend of Luminous’ and brings him back to her house, where Luminous raises his weapon and believes Shade to be an enemy. This cements Shade’s belief that he’s been forgotten, which leads into the rest of his questline, which has remained mostly unchanged.)

Elsewhere, Shade realized that it now made sense why Freud had omitted him in his stories, and why Athena still couldn’t remember him. He noted to himself that Mercedes not being able to remember him seemed to confirm his suspicions that his existence had been erased as a result of him sacrificing his time. In order to confirm his theory, he went to Minar Forest, where he found a time capsule that he and the other Heroes had made. Though they had promised to open it together, Shade hoped that they would understand why he had opened it himself.

Inside, he found Phantom’s contribution, a scroll from Luminous, a whetstone that Aran had used to sharpen Maha, one of Afrien’s scales, and the token of the Ruler of Elves, though he wondered whether Mercedes had meant to put it in there, as he assumed that it was quite important. He then found his own contribution, a photograph of all six of them. He remembered that the others had told him to put his most prized possession inside, and so he had put in a photo of his only friends in the world. However, upon looking at the photo, he was shocked to find that he had been erased from it. He left the forest distraught, finally accepting that he had been erased from Maple World.

Believing that he had no place in Maple World anymore, he decided to return to Vulpes, where he knew that at least the villagers would still remember him. He returned to Fox Point Village, but to his surprise, he noticed that the mark of companionship which he had carved with Moonbeam had disappeared. In the village, he was shocked to find that Moonbeam, Silver, and all the Anima villagers only saw him as an intruder, chasing him out of the village.

(A/N: In the original storyline, Shade sees that it’s raining and meets with Moonbeam, who’s been crying ever since Shade left because she’s lost her guardian spirit and doesn’t know why, as she doesn’t remember that she gave it to Shade. Because of this, she concludes that the Fox God took it away from her as punishment for her bad behavior, and she’s spent all her time at the Fox Tree ever since, praying for the Fox God to give it back.

In the revamp, it’s later revealed that the Fox God gave Moonbeam a new guardian spirit off-screen, which is why she’s not upset here. Although I like the angst that came with the original storyline, it does make more sense for the Fox God to have given Moonbeam a new spirit, since it’s her job to protect the Anima. The remainder of Shade’s 3rd job advancement below is completely new to the revamp.)

At the outskirts of town, a devastated Shade noted that none of the Anima remembered him, even though their power was still with him. Suddenly, Shade was teleported into the Fox God’s domain, which he recalled from his dream during his time comatose there. The Fox God recognized Shade as a human and demanded to know how he had the power of the fox spirits, noting that he had not only her strength, but the strength of the other Anima as well.

Though the Fox God believed that he had stolen that power, Shade quickly explained everything that had happened to him, causing the Fox God to realize that he had been forgotten each time that he had crossed dimensions. Believing that his story added up, the Fox God noted that she now understood where her missing power had gone, realizing that Shade was the one whom she had poured her power into in order to save.

In order to ensure that he would not feel the same pain again, the Fox God gave Shade her blessings, explaining that though she couldn’t undo the memories which had already been lost, she could ensure that he wouldn’t be forgotten again. She then told Shade to make new memories, adding that she wanted him to be happy. With that, she sent Shade back to Vulpes, where he was relieved to know that his curse had been lifted.

Though he wondered whether he ought to go back to the Anima and rejoin them, he soon recalled Athena’s words about the Black Mage’s resurrection and realized that he couldn’t ignore the Black Mage’s threat to Maple World. Knowing that he would only end up saying goodbye to Moonbeam again, Shade decided that he would only return to see her once the Black Mage had been defeated once and for all.

(A/N: This is, by far, the stupidest writing decision I’ve ever seen in my life. The main problem I have with it isn’t really that his curse is broken, but the fact that it got broken so easily and so quickly. Before the revamp, Shade’s curse never actually got broken. It took the entire convergence of Maple World and Grandis into one dimension for the curse to just be circumvented in that one specific edge case, rather than it actually being broken permanently.

The revamp removed a large majority of the angst and emotional drama that came with Shade’s distress upon realizing that he’s fated to be forgotten forever. Rather than it being the central conflict of his character arc, Shade now spends a grand total of fifteen minutes with this world-shaking revelation before the Fox God waves her magic wand like his personal fairy godmother and makes everything all better for him.

The weight of his curse is so much smaller now because all of it gets fixed instantaneously like it was nothing, and while there’s still the fact that him being forgotten can’t be undone, being able to make new, permanent memories with his old friends feels a lot less impactful than being cursed to be forgotten whenever he crosses dimensions.

It’s likely that the writers didn’t want to be limited by Shade when writing the lore with Tynerum, since it’s not guaranteed that we’ll get a Convergence-style event with Tynerum and Maple World/Grandis, but I’m sure that there were plenty of other ways that they could’ve handled it. We could’ve even had Chronica break Shade’s curse, since his curse is because he sacrificed his time, with Chronica literally being the Transcendent of Time. I just wish that there was some more time between Shade realizing the true nature of his curse and the curse actually being broken.

On another note, the Fox God is also heavily implied to be an Ancient God, which is another issue that a lot of players have had with the story lately - that everyone and their mother is now an Ancient God, or using the power of an Ancient God, or related to an Ancient God, when the whole point of the Ancient War was for the Overseers to seal the gods away and ensure that they remain asleep forever. Now, the game is filled with cases where the gods’ power is still active, and in some cases, the gods themselves are still awake.

We already have Shinsoo as an Ancient God tasked with watching over the birth of a future Transcendent, but there’s no reason at present why the Fox God should be allowed to remain awake. We know that she helped the elders of Grandis with their experiments to create Adversaries in Odium, and at this point, I’m assuming that the Overseers give a free pass to the gods who swore obedience to them so that they get to avoid falling asleep in exchange for turning against the other gods.)

Shade then continued to train in Maple World until he suddenly began to feel unnaturally drowsy. After falling asleep, he had a terrible nightmare of Moonbeam and the other Anima running in fear of him, the five Heroes looking at him with anger in their eyes, and himself disappearing as he sacrificed himself to power the Seal of Time.

Suddenly, the Black Mage appeared before him in a dark void and told Shade that the only reason why Shade hadn’t disappeared was because, as a Transcendent, the Black Mage was still able to remember him, and that Shade would disappear once he did. He then asked Shade if he would make the same choice again, knowing what it had cost him. Awakening from his nightmare, Shade wondered whether it had really been a dream, or whether it was the Black Mage using his power, which meant that his full resurrection was imminent.

Reflecting on the Black Mage’s words, Shade recalled how one of the Seal Stones had been cracked when he had first opened his eyes in the Temple of Time, and how he had rematerialized into existence imperfectly once the Black Mage’s seal had been broken. He noted that it was only thanks to the Fox God pouring her power into him for many years that his existence had been stabilized, with her blessing serving as a temporary solution to let his existence persist while crossing dimensions. However, he noted that the curse hadn’t been erased fully, which meant that there was a chance that he would disappear if the Black Mage did.

He then thought to himself that he had always been prepared to sacrifice himself on that day, and that his only regret had been that his friends would have felt guilty about it, which had made it fortunate that there was no one who would be sad that he was gone. However, he wondered whether he would have made the same choice if he had known that he would not die, but be eternally forgotten, never to be truly part of any dimension. Nevertheless, he decided that what had happened was over, and that even if others had forgotten him, he only had more people to protect.

Because of this, Shade committed himself to growing strong enough to stop the Black Mage, for which he decided that he would need allies. He decided to meet with Athena Pierce, who had forgotten about his existence after he had crossed dimensions. Mistaking him for an Explorer, Athena asked him whether he wished to join the Alliance, adding that more and more people were joining now that the Heroes had returned. With Athena’s help, Shade traveled to Ereve and met with Cygnus before joining the Alliance. He then promised to himself that he would see Moonbeam someday if the Fox God’s blessing still held and protected him from disappearing with the Black Mage.

(A/N: Originally, Lucid was the one who gave Shade his nightmare because of his interference in Elluel when he exposed her actions. Later on, Shade got exclusive dialogue with Lucid in Lachelein, in which it was revealed that Lucid could still remember Shade. Me and a bunch of other people on the lore server came up with a huge theory to explain this, which you can read here, although all of it is now incompatible with the current lore.

The new explanation about Shade’s curse in the revamp is that Shade’s existence is tied to the Black Mage, who remembers him because he’s a Transcendent, as the Transcendents embody the laws of the universe. Because of this, Shade was able to still exist - very weakly - in a space between dimensions for centuries as the Black Mage’s seal began weakening, since Shade’s existence was sacrificed to power the seal. Eventually, Shade was able to cross dimensions as Maple World and Grandis began fusing, allowing him to appear in Grandis.

After the Fox God rescued him, she exerted a significant amount of power into stabilizing his existence, which is why he no longer flickers in and out of existence after he finally wakes up from his coma. The Fox God then blesses him with enough of her power that his existence is completely stable, meaning that he won’t be forgotten when his existence briefly flickers out while crossing dimensions. However, Shade is unsure of whether his existence itself will be erased with the Black Mage’s death, since he believes that it’s tied to the Black Mage remembering him.

As we see in Limina, however, Shade doesn’t disappear anymore, although it’s left ambiguous about why this is. One reason could be that the Fox God’s protection kept him from fading away, while another could be that plenty of people remember him now that he won’t be forgotten. Either way, I really hate the way this got handled because the original version had Shade being certain that he’ll disappear once the Black Mage dies, and he still chooses to fight anyways.

Shade’s story closely parallels the generic Adversary’s character arc, with him falling into despair, overcoming it with the assumption that he’ll disappear forever, then being surprised with the Black Mage’s final words that he won’t be forgotten, and finally getting his catharsis with the curse finally being ‘lifted’ with Maple World and Grandis’ fusion as a thematic reward of sorts for everything that he went through. There was a lot of depth to Shade’s feelings in the original, and the new version just doesn’t come anywhere close to it now that he has the Fox God as his safety net.)