PART I: BEFORE THE SEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 9: The Seven Commanders

• Believing that the Overseers had left the world broken beyond repair, the Black Mage intended to destroy their world and recreate it. Knowing that the Overseers could only shape the universe by using the Transcendents as their proxies, the Black Mage sought to remove their influence from the world that he would create by destroying the Transcendents. In this way, he intended for life to restart from scratch, resulting in a perfect society created by complete beings, as the Overseers would never have had any influence in its development.

• In creating a fixed, predictable future, the Overseers had inadvertently allowed for him to calculate all possible futures based on known variables. Using his enhanced perception as a Transcendent, the Black Mage calculated the perfect course of events that would lead to his victory.

• As the laws governing Transcendent powers prevented Transcendents from killing each other or themselves, the Black Mage required allies in order to battle the other Transcendents. For this reason, he gathered seven Commanders in order to carry out his goal:

  • Orchid and Lotus, the Spirits of Darkness whom he had granted human forms

  • Guwaru, the King of Spirits, who was corrupted by the Black Mage as the balance of the Transcendents shifted towards darkness

  • Hilla, a Shamaness of Azwan who sold out her kingdom to the Black Mage for eternal beauty and youth

  • Magnus, a servant of Gerand Darmoor who was sent to Maple World in order to heal the injuries that he had sustained at Kaiser’s hands

  • Arkarium, the High Priest who betrayed Rhinne, the Transcendent of Time, after foreseeing the Black Mage’s victory

  • Von Leon, the Lion King of El Nath who joined the Black Mage in order to get revenge on the ones who had destroyed his kingdom and his wife

  • The Demon, who joined the Black Mage and became his right-hand in exchange for the protection of his family

• With his Commanders gathered, the Black Mage gained the forces needed to defeat the other Transcendents. As he was unable to destroy himself, however, the Black Mage sought to create an Adversary who could kill him. As the Godspheres only responded to the will of the people, the Black Mage sought to manipulate events such that an Adversary would be created through a Vessel fusing with a Godsphere in response to the strong desire of the world.

• Knowing that the Overseers’ influence had resulted in humanity becoming selfish and corrupt, the Black Mage hoped to unite the world against him by becoming a threat large enough that people would look past their self-interests and come together against a common foe. By showing the world that they were on a predetermined destiny, he hoped to strengthen the world’s determination to resist their fate, which would be channeled through the Adversary. With both the Adversary and the world united in their desire, the power of the Godsphere would awaken and give the Adversary the power to kill him.

• Simultaneously, he promised his Commanders a place in his new world, in which all their wishes would be granted. Secretly, however, he planned to have his Commanders eliminated one by one after they outlived their purpose, as he knew that they would choose to betray him upon realizing that he never truly intended to let them exist in his perfect world, which he planned to create by enacting the Genesis Ritual at the very moment that the Adversary killed him, resulting in a world without Transcendents.

• To carry out the Genesis Ritual, the Black Mage needed the powers of creation and destruction, as well as a high volume of pure Erdas, the building blocks of reality. In order to steal the power of creation from another Transcendent of Light, as well as to obtain a high concentration of Erdas, the Black Mage sought to create a convergence of worlds.

• As a world without active Transcendents automatically sought out another world to merge with in order to maintain its balance of Transcendents, the Black Mage planned to seal the other Transcendents of Maple World, as well as himself. He began a war of conquest with his Commanders and planned to use them to fight against the other Transcendents, while simultaneously drawing out the very heroes who would seal him.