PART II: AFTER THE SEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 2: The Shadow War

Around 300 years ago, a mysterious war broke out in Maple World. Though nearly all details about its origins and history remained shrouded in mystery, it was rumored that Lotus, whose spirit was capable of leaving his comatose body and possessing others, may have been the cause. A tome called the Book of Ancient, filled with powerful forbidden spells, was used as a weapon during the course of the war.

Amongst the many Explorers who fought in this war were five brave heroes:

• Sayram was said to be the father of all warriors, having been the only one to master the ways of all three warrior branches, becoming a Hero, Paladin, and Dark Knight. Born in the deep forests of Victoria Island, Sayram inspired countless others with his bravery and courage as a warrior. In the Garden of Darkness in Orbis, Sayram encountered a Griff - a sentient creature with the head and wings of an eagle, the body and legs of a horse, and the tail of a lion, capable of flapping its wings to create powerful gales. This monster - the same species as Griffey of Minar Forest - was tamed by Sayram, who named the beast Stormclaw and rode him as a mount, placing Stormclaw’s soul into his shield.

• Alleria was a magician renowned for her beauty and talent, using her magical mastery to conduct magical experiments. Rumored to have been born during the time of the Black Mage, Alleria took on an apprentice named Alcaster, whom she taught all her magical knowledge and spells. In addition, Alleria kept a diary containing her records and thoughts on the war.

• In addition, these two heroes joined forces with three others - Lyra the bowman, Calix the thief, and Draken the pirate. Though it was unknown how these five heroes had met, they would often joke that they had started out as enemies before becoming friends, remaining inseparable and vowing to stay allies until the very end.

Together, these legendary Explorers banded together with many others in order to face their enemies, whose identities were lost to time. Alongside the Explorers, the Noblesse - who had sworn to uphold Shinsoo’s legacy - joined the battle, as well as Athena Pierce, whose talents as an elven bowman were indispensable in the battle. Despite their efforts, however, the flames of war continued to reignite, no matter how many times they were extinguished, resulting in a long and arduous struggle.

Eventually, a final, decisive battle took place at an unknown fortress, where the mysterious enemies used a powerful superweapon to attack. Though the enemy was repelled, the bloody battle resulted in the destruction of half the fortress and immeasurable casualties, including Lyra, Calix and Draken, whose bodies were never recovered, leading to their status remaining unknown. Nevertheless, Alleria was able to survive the battle due to her magical necklace, said to have the power to save the wearer from death. Together with Sayram, the pair left on Stormclaw at the end of the battle.

Having grown bitter and jaded from the senseless deaths of her comrades, Alleria retreated to El Nath, where she secluded herself in her laboratory to conduct magical research, while also training her disciple, Alcaster. Alleria also created a small grave for her fallen allies, whose bodies had never been found. Meanwhile, Sayram continued to fight in the war, despite having sustained great injuries in his many battles. Eventually, Sayram discovered that their enemies were soon to return with their superweapon, for which he sought out Alleria on a cold winter night, hoping to ask his comrade for her help in the coming battle.

However, Alleria refused and got into an argument with Sayram over his great injuries, though when the pair were unable to come to a resolution, Alleria - knowing that Sayram would leave to fight no matter what - enchanted his shield, which contained Stormclaw’s soul, with all the defensive magic that she knew. In addition, she also gave Sayram her magical necklace, whose magic had saved her life at the decisive battle at the fortress.

With Alleria’s blessings, Sayram rode out on Stormclaw and continued his fight against their enemies. In the end, Sayram traveled to Minar Forest and defended the Halflinger village from an invasion, making him a figure of legend to the Halflingers. Though Sayram’s fate remained unknown, Minar Forest was said to be his last known location, with Sayram having eventually won the war by defeating his enemies.

Eventually, however, Stormclaw returned back to Alleria without his rider, leading her to conclude that her comrade had passed away. After taking back her necklace, which Stormclaw had brought with him from the battlefield, Alleria kept the necklace and her records in her laboratory within Orbis Tower, which was inherited by Alcaster after her death. Meanwhile, Stormclaw returned back to Minar Forest, with his last known sighting being around two hundred years after the start of the war, as he had been tasked by Sayram to pass on his shield to a worthy warrior like himself.

Though the mysterious war was won, the casualties of the battle were immense, taking not only Sayram and his allies, but also the Noblesse, who went extinct and faded into obscurity. Though the Noblesse had gone extinct, their ideals would be passed down over generations through their descendants, thus keeping a spark of their memory alive. However, over the next few centuries, few people would remember that such a war had even occurred, with the exception of Alcaster, who had been born shortly before its start, making him one of the few in the present day who had personally lived through the conflict.

(A/N: The amount of lore that exists on this topic has been almost microscopic for many, many years. For a long, time the only information about this war 300 years ago that we even had was just that it existed. The information about the Book of Ancient comes from the El Nath town quests, which have us go on a mission to help Alcaster seal the Book of Ancient. The original version of this quest should be familiar to people who played pre-Big Bang, as it involved a lot of back-and-forth travel across Maple World in order to gain access to Alcaster’s special shop that had objects like Magic Rocks and Holy Water.

That questline revealed that the Book of Ancient contained forbidden spells created by a person named Elmina, and that the war was when the four Wisemen of Victoria Island met - Athena Pierce, Dances with Balrog, Grendel the Really Old, and the Dark Lord. The lore about Elmina and the Wisemen was removed in the current iteration of the quest, which was shortened considerably, leaving only the lore about the Book of Ancient being used in the war.

From what I gather, mentions of this war have been around since the game was created. It’s possible that it was originally meant to be the war against the Black Mage, but Phantom’s storyline makes it clear that the battle against the Black Mage took place centuries before this one. He speculates that maybe Lotus had a hand in causing it, but then tells himself that he shouldn’t jump to conclusions. This war was mentioned to him by Alcaster in the main story, in which he talks about how his master had made records about the war in her laboratory in Orbis Tower, although we never actually got any proper details about it.

This war was finally referenced again in 2022 with the Ignition update, which created the lore about the Noblesse and revealed that they had participated in the 300-year-old war, which had also resulted in their extinction. Two years later, there was a special questline added with the Collector - the NPC who buys boss crystals - in order to buy certain items from his shop, which revealed all the information about Sayram and his allies that we know about today.

The questline involves us finding proof of Sayram’s existence, resulting in a lore chase that concludes with us getting Alleria’s necklace from Alcaster and Sayram’s shield from Stormclaw, who’s been holding on to life while waiting to pass it on to a worthy warrior like us. At the end, we bring the relics to the Collector, who extracts their power so that he can keep the relics for his collection, while also transforming the power of the relics into special potions so that we can inherit Sayram and Alleria’s legacy like Stormclaw had wanted us to do.

Sayram’s lore actually came from old pre-Big Bang quests for 4th job skills, and it was adapted into the current lore by the story team in a rare instance of them doing a really fantastic job with it. Sayram’s lore originally just talked about him being the father of all warriors and taming the Griff, but the stuff about the war from 300 years ago and his allies is all new stuff. It’s very likely that this war is going to be a side storyline that develops independently from the main story, which I’m very grateful about.

Interestingly, the part about the battle at the fortress might actually be taken from the MSEA localization for MONAD, which mentions that Skuas Fortress, which is the setting for Act 3, was an impregnable fortress instrumental in stopping the war 300 years ago. Although MONAD is overseas lore and not canon, it’s possible that the KMS team may have adapted some of those ideas into official canon, which I think is actually pretty neat.)