PART I: BEFORE THE SEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 12: War Against the Black Mage

• After the destruction of the Anti-Black Mage Coalition at the hands of Von Leon, several other factions of resistance appeared.

• Destonen was a famed pirate who married a half-elf named Yuris and had a son named Tess. Around the time that Destonen fought in the war, the Black Mage used his powers to split the continent of Ossyria, causing a chunk of it to float off and become Victoria Island.

• Before her death, Aria created the Silent Crusade to face the Black Mage’s Commanders and gather information on them. The organization went underground after her death, though it persisted for centuries after the war.

• As the Heroes planned to stop the Black Mage, Freud created two contingency plans as backups in case they failed to defeat him. For both cases, he drew upon the power of the World Heart.

• After the Ancient War, the power of the World Heart contained inside the Godspheres had permeated deep into the land with the deaths of all the Adversaries. Freud extracted this residual power and, using the scattered Godspheres as a template, he created his own, identical version of the Godspheres, which he called the Seal Stones, as they had been imbued with the power of time to seal the Black Mage.

• For his first contingency plan, Freud placed a special sealing spell on five Seal Stones, which would bind the Black Mage to eternity in the case that the Heroes were unable to defeat him in combat.

• For his second contingency plan, Freud planned to distribute several Seal Stones to different regions of Maple World. As the Seal Stones responded to the collective will of a population, Freud intended for the Seal Stones to be used as failsafes in the event that the Heroes failed to stop the Black Mage, and if the sealing spell failed.

• By giving the Seal Stones to the various people of Maple World, he hoped that each region would be able to channel their collective willpower into the Seal Stones, thereby allowing them to undo the damage that the Black Mage had inflicted upon their lands. To this end, Freud distributed at least seven Seal Stones, one for each of the regions of Orbis, El Nath, Mu Lung, Ludibrium, Ereve, Ellin Forest, and Victoria Island.

• Before Aria’s death, Freud had entrusted the Seal Stone of Ereve to Shinsoo. During Orchid and Lotus’ attack on the capital, the Knight of Light who served as the Empress’ guardian was killed in the battle. After the fallen Knight of Light was succeeded by his protégé, Shinsoo - who had grown too weak to protect anything without an Empress to claim her power - entrusted the Seal Stone to the next Knight of Light, who placed it within their Soul Shield, such that only a Knight of Light could extract it. Shinsoo then gave a new name to the Seal Stone - Shinsoo’s Teardrop - in memory of Aria’s death.

• During the battle against the Black Mage, Alicia - moved by Ryude’s sacrifice - chose to help the Heroes in their quest to seal the Black Mage, though her specific actions were unknown.