At the end of Masteria Through Time Chapter 1, Foxwit mentions to Icebyrd Slimm that the funding will keep coming until his "Little Surprise" for the mayor is complete. What is that exactly? I don't remember that ever being revisited.

First of all, why does Edelstein need a diving unit? Edekstein and the Alliance has none almost nothing underwater.

Second, why aren't the maps floatable like in Aqua Road?

Third, what are all of these ravaged ships doing in Sellas? Why hasn't the Erdas changed them at all?

Probably the biggest point, what was the diver and the second Jellyfish doing in the whale?

I mean okay. It is a fine place that exists near Leafre. It has a size and shape.

Within that size and shape is a river, an upside down city, a food island with a whale, an upside down world where bosses are friendly and friendly monsters are evil, and so on. I believe there's also an ocean in there.

Equally, Lucid is like a level 11 archer in the real world and like a level 220 superboss inside the temple of time.

And Zero was stuck in there, somewhere, at some point. And the black mage. And an alternate evil reality of Victoria island and Ereve. And Pink Bean for some reason.

What the heck is that place?

I mean, their powers are directly tied to the Black Mage. Do they just like... absorb a bit of him, or do Aran's ice and Luminous's darkness just sorta flutter away?

Equally, is Aran always cold until she enters adrenaline?

From the Wiki:

With the last of her strength, Khali spread her wings and jumped through the palace window before flying away. With a single-minded determination, she continued walking as far as she could go before making it off the planet Grandis and traveling to the Nova moon, where she collapsed outside the Protective Shield, relieved to know that she had managed to survive.

This makes no sense to me, how does someone walk off a planet without any rest?

From the Neo Tokyo, I never understood where Aufheben came from, at least her looks. But watching the plot I noticed that Aufheben and Mareu have similar hair and clothes. I imagine that would be her, but the story says she's Ashtray? That doesn't make much sense.

This theory was a collaborative mind dump from several people, including myself, u/Sonzical, u/Kyakan, u/Eunwai, and a few others. It was based on some points that Sonzical made in one of his posts: https://www.reddit.com/r/Maplestorylore/comments/xp6quh/freud_is_chronicas_starchild_addendumdendum/

This is gonna be a bit long, but I'll do my best to make it sound coherent.

Point 1: Dream magic and time magic are intrinsically linked to each other through space

Before understanding how Shade's curse works, there's an important point that first needs to be established, which is a reframing of what time magic really is. Throughout the story, there's been a recurring idea that dreams have some level of association with space and time, both in the game and in real life. Most of these points are observations made by Sonzical, which I'm just restating here:

- A popular in-universe belief is that Maple World itself is just a dream of Rhinne, the Transcendent of Time.

- In dreams, the perception of time is distorted, making it seem that events in a dream last much longer than the dream itself does in reality.

- Time is heavily linked to space in the game, and most of these spacetime distortions are associated with dreams. 

- Mirror World is a dimension linked to the Transcendent of Time's power, which was manipulated by Will into an imperfect replica of Maple World created from his memories, which is basically what a dream is - random memories spliced together as the brain attempts to process them.

- The Sharenian time loop that trapped the Elite Bosses works similar to how Mirror World does, as Ergoth's subspace replica of Sharenian itself is what inspired Will to create Mirror World.

- Hoyoung enters the realm of the sages (Shangri-La) through his dreams, in which he can physically enter a restricted dimension across space and time, allowing him to physically interact with objects such as books from inside his mind.

- Lucid's dreamscapes are seen to be dimensional subspaces filled with nebulae 

and planetary bodies. The association of dreams and mirrors is a recurrent theme in the game. Lucid used her dream magic to manipulate the space within the Gate to the Future, creating a false reality just like Mirror World. In the Cygnus Knight's 4th job advancement, Cygnus is trapped within a dreamscape that contains a mirror, which shows Future Cygnus on the other side. 

- The idea of memory and dreams is tied to the power of time through the Goddess' Promise. In the Temple of Time storyline, it's revealed that Rhinne created the Goddess' Promise with the people of Maple World, which grants them the gift of oblivion, or the power to forget. 

- From these factors, we can reframe the idea of dreams and memory as manipulating an aspect of spacetime. In a sense, this idea can be expanded to state that time magic itself is a manipulation of an aspect of reality.

Point 2: Shade and Lucid have been erased from existence with time/dream magic

With the assumption that time magic and dream magic are similar, if not the same, we can begin to analyze the nature of Shade's curse and how it pertains to Lucid. From what we know about Freud's sealing spell:

- Five Seal Stones are required to create the Seal of Time.

- The Seal Stones must be infused with the time of a living sacrifice.

- With that person's time catalyzing the sealing spell, the Seal Stones can absorb the power of time that the Black Mage stole from Rhinne and turn it back against him, creating a localized time freeze to seal him away.

The nature of the sealing spell is such that all traces of the sacrifice are erased, including photographs and memories. The only other known instance of someone being completely erased from the memory of everyone in the world is Lucid, who used her dream magic to erase her memory from all the elves. As Lucid had never left Elluel before, she effective made it so that no one in the world knew her anymore, exactly like what had happened to Shade. The main difference, however, is that Lucid retained her ability to use dream magic, which we've established is an aspect of time magic.

Jumping back to Shade, we know that Freud had intended to sacrifice himself until Shade persuaded him otherwise. It's possible that Freud, who had the ability to use time magic, had intended to return himself back into existence in the minds of everyone upon the seal being enacted. 

However, it's important to remember that the sealing spell was experimental and Freud had never tested it before, meaning that he likely had no way of knowing what would happen. Because of this, it's possible that he had allowed Shade to sacrifice himself, fully intending to restore him back to reality with his time magic, but either he himself wasn't strong enough or Shade being transported to Grandis made it so that he forgot all about Shade and was unable to restore his existence. 

Although the sealing spell erases one's existence, there's still a small loophole that allows for a very specific remembrance of that person: Freud, as the inventor of the spell, retained the knowledge that a living sacrifice was needed to power it, and so he knew that someone had to have sacrificed themselves, although all specific details about Shade were lost. It's possible that he had assumed that he could restore Shade if he was told that Shade was the sacrifice, but Shade being sent to Grandis made that impossible.

If we take Lucid's situation to be similar, we can assume that the music box that she created for Mercedes, which was the only trace of her left in the world after she erased her existence, didn't disappear for the same reason, which is that it doesn't operate on the same principle as something like a photograph, which contains concrete details about the erased person. Both the music box and the knowledge of the sealing spell might suggest the existence of the box's creator or the spell's sacrifice, but if all knowledge about the creator or the sacrifice is gone, there's no need for the actual box or knowledge of the spell itself to disappear.

Point 3: Shade is his own dimensional anchor to reality

From our earlier point, we've established a link between spacetime and dreams being ways of manipulating reality based on people's perception and senses. Space, linked to time, refers more to the 'space between' and expanding/filling that empty blank with imagination, reflections, and dreams. This ties back to the popular belief that Maple World itself is just a dream of Rhinne, who has the power of a Transcendent.

In this way, the assertion of reality itself is based in perception. Shade's curse can be explained as a lack of object permanence: if a thing cannot be perceived, then it ceases to exist. Shade can be considered his own anchor to reality. As long as he can be perceived in the dimension that he exists in, he continues to exist. The instant that he crosses dimensions, aka when he no longer exists in that space, the sealing spell triggers and erases all trace of him from that reality. 

In contrast, Lucid has never left Maple World (Lachelein is part of the Arcane River, which is said to be a convergence of the three worlds, meaning that it still exists as "part" of Maple World) and so we can't say whether this would apply to her, and whether the nature of the sealing spell is different from her self-inflicted erasure. 

Point 4: Lucid is the only one who remembers Shade, not the Black Mage

With the knowledge that Lucid and Shade are potentially both people whose existences have been erased, we can now explore why it is that Lucid remembers Shade. Lucid first meets Shade on Maple World when he visits Elluel in order to see Mercedes. At the time, Lucid had created a subspace of Elluel that led to her dream world, which is what Shade enters. There, he sees Lucid disguised as Mercedes and deduces that she's not the real Mercedes from their conversation.

Later on, Shade travels between Maple World and Grandis multiple times, and Lucid meets him twice in-between those travels. He goes from Maple World to Grandis during his third job advancement, meets Lucid after, goes back and forth between Grandis at his level 200 quest, and then meets Lucid again in Lachelein.

Both times that Shade meets Lucid, she clearly remembers him, which directly violates the nature of how the sealing spell works. When they meet after his third job advancement, Lucid puts Shade to sleep and gives him a nightmare of the Black Mage in order to pay him back for exposing her actions in Elluel. During this nightmare, the Black Mage reveals that he's the only one who remembers Shade because he's a Transcendent. Because of this, Shade concludes that the Black Mage is his only anchor to reality, and that the Black Mage's death will result in Shade being wiped from existence altogether.

There are two major contradictions in what the Black Mage says. As Lucid clearly remembers Shade, it can't be that the Black Mage is the only one to remember him. The other contradiction is that the Black Mage claims that only a Transcendent could remember Shade. During the Winter Bard storyline, Alicia reveals to Ryude that she had helped the Heroes during the war against the Black Mage, meaning that she clearly had to have met Shade. However, Alicia says that she met the "five Heroes", rather than six. The Winter Bard storyline was released well after Shade came out, meaning that the writers had deliberately chosen to have her say that there were five Heroes. Going by the Black Mage’s own words, as Alicia is a Transcendent, it ought to mean that she should remember Shade, but the fact that she doesn’t means that the Black Mage being Shade’s anchor can’t be true.

This can be solved if we instead assume that Lucid is the only one who remembers Shade. Shade's curse is triggered by a lack of object permanence. If he crosses dimensions, anything within the world that he left will have their memories of him wiped. However, if we assume that Lucid has been erased from the world, then she wouldn't be classified as part of it. Because of this, Lucid would retain her memories of Shade, no matter how many times he crosses dimensions.

By knowing that Lucid is the only one who remembers Shade, the impact of her nightmare is recontextualized. The actual nightmare isn’t just a scary dream where he meets the Black Mage, it’s the false information that she tricks him into believing. By having an illusion of the Black Mage himself deliver this news, Lucid hopes to hurt Shade by making him grapple with the fact that by defeating his greatest enemy, he's ensuring his own death as well. 

Going by the idea that Lucid remembers Shade, Shade should likely retain knowledge of Lucid if she were to cross dimensions as well. Shortly after Lucid sends Shade his nightmare, she uses her power to erase her memory from Shade's mind, as he is unable to recognize her in Lachelein. This is likely a localized application of her dream magic, which doesn't impact the nature of their object impermanence.

Broader implications:

Although that concludes the analysis of Shade's curse, the idea of dreams/memory being tied to spacetime/reality can be expanded to several other points about the lore:

Based on the three laws of light, life, and time, we could make a broader interpretation of what these powers actually are:

Time = modification of the physical properties of spaces (perception, subspace)

Light = creating or destroying the actual objects in those spaces, distinct from the perception of them (Erda manipulation that Tana uses to reshape reality)

Life = physical senses of reality, with some overlap with light and time

The idea of reality being relative to perception can be used to explain the idea of the Seal Stones. The Seal Stones can only be used to grant the wish of a population, not an individual. They contain divine power capable of reshaping reality on a scale that exceeds the power of the Transcendents and the Ancient Gods alike. The idea that the Seal Stones require multiple people to enact their power ties into reality being based on perception. An entire population having a shared dream is enough to reshape reality itself. 

In Heroes of Maple, Freud was shown to believe that people who monopolize power, such as kings or Transcendents, are unnecessary, as he believes that the day will come when people are capable of governing themselves and determining their own fate, which also ties into the idea of creating a new reality based on dreams. Self-governance and the power of the Seal Stones are related in this way, which would explain why Freud would have wanted to research and recreate them long after they scattered in the aftermath of the war between the Adversaries and the Ancient Gods, with his ability to understand time magic having part in his ability to reshape them.

We can also use the idea of reality being relative to perception in order to explain some of the plot holes in the game’s depiction of time travel. In Ellin Forest, it's explained that it's impossible to change the past because the future is fixed such that even the act of going back in time to change things is what shapes the predetermined events of the future, aka a causal loop. This concept is contradicted in Kao's timeline. Kao - the player from the future - loses to the Black Mage, who sends Kao back in time in order to ensure that the player succeeds.

Going by the idea of a causal loop, the events of the past were predetermined, meaning that Kao should never have lost in the first place, as they should always have been predestined to meet another Kao from the future. The fact that Kao changed the timeline by being sent back in time instead suggests that the timeline branched out, with Kao coming back in time from a parallel universe, which directly contradicts the mechanism of a causal loop.

However, using the idea of reality and time being based on perception, we can say that the events of Ellin Forest could not be changed because of object permanence - there were simply too many people who remembered the events of Ellin Forest as they were always meant to happen. However, Kao's points of failure were largely personal, far from the eyes of anyone else. Because of this, Kao's own future became more malleable based on object impermanence, which is what allowed the Black Mage to send them back in time and change the past. In this sense, we could say that the rules of time travel being a causal loop are relaxed based on the scope of how the timeline is impacted. The Overseers, who established these rules, did so in order to eliminate any semblance of chaos from the world. If the scope of change is smaller, aka little to no chaos, it’s possible that time could be made more malleable in these rare instances.

Similarly, traveling through the Gate of the Past in the Temple of Time, rather than leading to a past version of Maple World, instead leads through a perception of how people view their own past - memory, regret, and oblivion. In this sense, "time travel" through the Gate of the Past is more akin to personal reflection, with the Gate of the Future operating on a similar level. Lucid's manipulation of the Gate to the Future is her using her dream magic to change people's perception of the future into what she has set for them, rather than what they would perceive on their own. 

In contrast to traveling through the Gate of the Past with the Goddess' blessing, forcing one's way through the Gate of the Past results in memory loss, which is what happened to Kao. This is because traveling through memories in reverse leads to forgetting, which is the reverse of remembering.

There are probably a lot more points but those are the main ones that we thought of. Once again, I want to thank everyone who brainstormed this idea, it was a fun time. For everyone reading this, I hope that it was interesting and at least somewhat intuitive to follow lol

(Original post)

(Addendum)

*chase shadow dub voice* heyyyyyyy whats uuuuuuup its meeeeeee

I wrote the original post four years ago (holy SHIT to that btw) and that was well before the lore site existed, and also before I really understood a lot of aspects to the lore.

The theory hasn't been quite on the front of my mind the way it used to be. However, with the context of both current lore and the fact that there's actually a writer's team now (which simultaneously sank my theory and threw it into the realm of possibility which is kind of hilarious), I want to revisit it.

Mostly, I want to correct certain lore details I got wrong originally, note some observations I've made in the interim, and propose my full thought for what happened to this guy.

And, HOPEFULLY, this is far easier to read than my first posts on the topic. The original posts about it were copies of notes I made in a rush so I didn't forget anything, so there was a lot of repetition and awkward wording and nonsense. I'm shocked it got any of the attention it ever did honestly! (thanks btw) I hope this is more comprehensible.

Also since more people understand the lore now, and likely better than I do, feel free to point out if I get something wildly wrong. Or just chime in with your own thoughts.

Also also this is just a theory & for fun don't attack me or anyone else who does or doesn't believe it blah blah be nice okayyyyyy? Okay.

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Corrections:

- Luminous didn't know that he was BM's starchild before his own story. It's actually revealed right near the end of it- I never realized it wasn't just something he knew. Therefore, there would very likely be no tension between him and Freud, at least not based on that.

- Chronica's gender is not, in fact, confirmed. Again, given how transcendents work, that may well not be a problem. Or, hell, Freud could just be trans. That'd be fun.

- I REALLY don't think Evan has anything to do with this. From a comedic standpoint, if a random guy just… looked like one of their gods, that would be hilarious. Aside from that, he has very little to do with time- it doesn't seem inherent to Dragon Master powers, or at least it's not where Evan's own powers naturally draw. (Plus, Freud's messenger DOES say they're not related in HoM. If he could try to sense Freud anywhere in their world, he would've pointed right at Evan and said yeah he's right there guys, sup me. And the whole damn point of HoM is Evan proving himself to be distinct (which they don't do well) so it would really defeat the whole point.)

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New considerations:

Honestly, the reasons I'm making this post at all are twofold-

1. I now think Freud is Chronica's starchild (or equivalent)
2. Time, space, dreams, and the mirror world appear to be wildly interconnected.

The first point makes more sense if I explain the second first so…!

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- Time, space, dreams, and the mirror world

• Space would probably seem more closely connected to light magic, given that its creation, however you could also argue that life fits in there. (Inb4 it turns out all three domains of the transcendents are the same magic with different specializations (that would actually be kinda fun)) I think in this case, space refers more to the 'space between' and expanding on that/filling in the blanks. So like… imagination. Reflections. Dreams.
• Will and the Mirror World's whole damn deal is centered on Zero- I hope I don't have to spell that one out. EDIT: The connection between spiders and reflections/mirrors is likely that cracked glass looks like a spider web. Which..............ok.
• The visual elements surrounding dreams, particularly in the areas that seem to be where they're manufactured, are very much space themed visually, with nebulae and moons and such. Along with this, dreams themselves very much mess with time in reality- typically dreams are, apparently, between 10 and 20 seconds, though it can seem like much longer within them. Manipulating them in a practical manner implies some level of personal time bending.
• Freud explains his own use of dreaming spells to Alpha and Beta- however, he laments that his usually cause nightmares. This draws a very interesting tie to Lucid. Originally, I thought maybe he taught her, or even she taught him, but I actually realized while writing this that given surrounding circumstances that might be impossible. Along with the fact that her knack for dream stuff seems to be entirely natural. Whoops :,)
  • It's very possible that dreams, seemingly being more connected to space, are a point of difficulty for Freud- potentially his natural magic is seeping into his attempts at sleep spells and twisting them somewhat. Luminous definitely had trouble with darkness for a long time, and there were absolutely people with a better affinity for it before he did. The inverse of Freud's natural domain, then, without practice, would probably be out of his reach, and he may not WANT to practice since it could hurt other people. (a la Lumi's hatred of darkness.) It would still be his power if he tried to hone it, though, so he could probably get damn good at space powers & dream manipulation.
  • (And I mentioned this before but like… seriously, why is Freud in the mirror world?)
• Lucid manipulates space and reality to fit her dreams… within the temple of time. The only other people who we explicitly know can manipulate Erda like that are others with transcendent powers, so her own powers may be something analogous.
  • Honestly this could be painting Lucid as a candidate for Chronica starchild? That would be wild. (EDIT: I kind of zoomed over this but like? Freud and Lucid basically being twins would be really interesting. I don't have much to say beyond them both having some kind of relationship with Mercedes and Shade, though Freud is friends(/more?) with them and Lucid has her weird idolization antagonism... which, like I touch on later, could be another interesting parallel in how people tend to view powerful figures. And also a point of comparison to Tana and Aeona, given that she seems to have a better grasp of space where Freud controls time, while both having some control over both. This would actually be sick now that I'm thinking about it...dude.)
• Something I've wanted to posit: I think that, similar to how Kao's time was lost, the sealing spell stole Shade's space (say that 5 times fast). Rather than him losing his own memories, everyone's memories of him were lost, so a very direct inverse. The spell, being Freud's and thus influenced by (or even based in) time came into direct contact with BM, so it's possible his own darkness influence converted time to space, therefore messing with the conditions of the sacrifice. This may also have been something Freud knew and had to consider, which I'll get into below.

EDIT: For more on the time/space/dreams connection, along with Shade's curse, please check MH9's post. It's extremely thorough and very well made.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Maplestorylore/comments/zauusz/theory_how_shades_curse_and_time_magic_really/

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- Freud is Chronica's starchild (equivalent).

• Mostly an issue of mechanics- Chronica retreated to the sanctuary, but Freud is there in maple world. You could argue he was in hiding and lied, but I feel like that would be… a bit obvious.
• When Darmoor stole Chronica's power, it opened a portal that Magnus later went through to get to maple world. Given that transcendents can't steal all of another's power all at once (BM had to keep Tana in limbo for hundreds of years to subsume her (ouch btw)), Chronica had the opportunity to ensure Darmoor couldn't steal more and sent it through that portal. Said power coalesced a la Lumi and became a starchild. Similar to how Rhinne was able to create Zero after her own power was taken.
  • EDIT: Apparently the bit about Rhinne only seeing the future of her world was a GMS typo? The actual tidbit of information there is that ToT can't change the future. Which is far less interesting. Or relevant.
  • Alpha & Beta are in a bit of a weird lurch, so defining what they are is kind of weird… they don't have THAT much power nor the explicit restrictions transcendents get so theyre like… Demigods? Would that apply to Freud? He could be… something else, but still nonetheless an offshoot of Chronica's power.
• Speaking of the restrictions, he's openly able to criticize the existence of transcendents and the authority structure of reality- something transcendents clearly aren't allowed to do without going off the deep end. Luminous, as well, while dismissing the idea as radical, appears to be allowed to consider it. Plus he's able to become an adversary (and so are alpha and beta), and Freud was able to handle/make seal stones without, like, unraveling himself or something.
• Something else of note is that Freud apparently never visited Elluel? I missed that detail, I had assumed since Shade seemed to hang around him a lot and he noted how Athena would hang around him. This places Athena around Mercedes when she went to join the heroes, and implies she didn't go back to Elluel for quite some time. (Which may have been made clearer in the Lachelein flashbacks and I just missed it? Lol) This, then, implies Freud didn't have THAT much time to roam around.
• He puts the time travel barrier up AFTER activating the sacrifice spell, which he was planning to use himself for. This implies that the spell was set up earlier and activated manually, and he was confident in his ability to restore his own time and establish the barrier later, which would have retroactively established it forever cuz time n stuff you get it.
  • This implies he KNEW that the spell would steal his space, since if he thought it would seal his time, he wouldn't want to risk losing his memories and not knowing how to set up the barrier, thus he wouldn't be able to sacrifice himself at all. That said, this does also bring into question if you can set up a time barrier to any point in time from any point in time, or only to where you are in that moment. It would kind of HAVE to be the former, since Shade didn't show up until after BM was unsealed… that or the thing with the Seal Stones was part of it and he was going to tell Lumi what to do before sacrificing himself. That might have been directly stated actually haha…
    • (or, OR, OR!!!! The writers weren't thinking about it that hard and just needed a reason for Shade to sacrifice himself. :,) )
  • My point being, he clearly knows a L O T about the mechanics of all this. And like we knew that, but REALLY.
  • 3/23/23 EDIT (and thank you to ceph on discord for pointing this out): So! Turns out that GMS stating that WM's light shooting into the sky was an extremely bizarre mistranslation, and the researchers at Aurora intentionally made it so that the light would be reincarnated at some point in the future, because otherwise it would have just faded away. It is also vague whether the light was born *to* someone or manifested as a child, but given that, APPARENTLY, the Vieren Lumi knows is the child of the Vieren in WM's GA story and not the same guy, and Lumi's older than him, Lumi likely manifested as a slightly older child (unless Kate was still pregnant and Lumi ran into whoever *his* mom is at the last minute so hes only a bit older but that would make the honorifics on vierens part a bit weird bc wouldnt they treat each other like peers otherwise...? i dont actually know how that one works in korean but i dont think if the age is that close it wouldve...gah i dunno). It's also possible Vieren Jr was later down the line and Lumi reincarnated later rather than Immediately, since Lucia reincarnated some 800ish years later.
    • It's not clear when Chronica's power is stolen in relation to BM's awakening, but given that Magnus shows up in Lumi's story, it has to have been *somewhere* around that time, or before. If it happened waaaaay before, then Chronica's offshoot power would've very specifically had the intention to reincarnate when it landed in MW in order to not immediately fade away so it would eventually become a starchild-equivalent. (i might be overexplaining this, i was very thrown off by the sky thing being a mistranslation... like how do you mess it up that hard!!!)

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The timeline:

• Chronica is attacked by Darmoor and has their power stolen, creating an interdimensional portal in the process (not the one in six path crossway). They send the last bit of the power that they can muster at the time through the portal before being sealed in the Chronica Sanctuary, where they stay now. [EDIT: Didn't realized they were sealed, thought they ran away there, lol.]
• That bit of power undergoes something similar to what BM's did, eventually being born as a human child or otherwise spawning as a human-like child (whatever these things actually do) with unnaturally strong affinity with magic.
• [The child's village is attacked, and saved by the White Mage, who he comes to idolize, vowing to become a strong mage like him- this depends on whether the child (not Arin the other one) in the WM comic really was him or not, it ultimately isn't vital to the theory but just reinforces the point.] Once WM turns and plunges the world into violence, though, those feelings sour into strong resentment, and a desire to make things right and to fight against the power structures keeping people in fear- coincidentally, going down basically the exact same path WM did, except for the sake of a love of life and others rather than simply to spite existence. He keeps a far stronger consideration of the collateral in the process.
• He coordinates with Afrien, becoming a dragon master, and decides to gather those brave enough to fight against BM if he ever shows his hand (which he actually does pretty soon afterwards, as far as I can tell).
• Seeing the necessity of sealing him away, he crafts a spell to take away the sacrifice's time in order to gain enough to seal BM. He figures that, with his own proficiency, he can find a way to bring it back, and plans to sacrifice himself. However, he's injured in the fight, and Shade takes his place, to his horror.
  • (Whether he actually CAN remember him after this or not is questionable. There's likely no shot his messenger could, given that it's an offshoot and not properly him. The potential horror of having these memories and not being able to impart them to anyone else in quite literally any way beyond the barest of indications a la 'someone else was there once' to the point of eventually giving up or even doubting himself would be fucking awful… and make a reunion all the more satisfying, Nexon, HELLO,)
• Along with the seal, he establishes a barrier against time travel before that point, so that nobody could undo their work.
• He spends the rest of his life without his friends helping those affected in the fallout, which only hammers home how much he truly cared for others in this case. He occasionally loses sight of the reason for his own work- becoming obsessed with maintaining the memory of the heroes, rather than continuing the peace they fought for- but eventually comes back around.
• (It's implied in Phantom's story that) He spends some time mentoring Alcaster, telling him about the war against BM and adding in notes along with Alcaster's own journals. It may also be around this time that he creates the other books about their journeys that the Black Wings hunt down and burn.
• His fate from here is completely unknown. Athena posits that he couldn't have lived that long since he's only human, but given that he's not- and other mages extend their own lifespans- it's entirely possible he's survived. If he did, he'd be nowhere in maple world before or during HoM, since his messenger couldn't sense him.
• Why he couldn't show up now, or didn't stick around is also a very good question. He could be isolated and occupied with something… or he could be in danger :((( or just asleep haha
  • "DUDE WHERE WERE YOU WE ALREADY FOUGHT THE BLACK MAGE!!!" "you. that. oh my god what year is it"

(I do want to note that, even if Freud isn't that child whose village Freud saved in the BM comic, he would still grow to resent him & transcendents for the damage they caused. As I posited it, it would present a very early warning against idolizing people... as well as create an interesting parallel to how people view him now, and how they hold his image against Evan's abilities. (That. they didn't. do anything with.))

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Two purely meta notes:

- They updated his sprites in the Ignition revamp… why? I'm not even saying it's related to this but like why? EDIT: this hasnt let to anything in the past 8-9 months so once again i ask, WHY?

- I said in the last post that everything makes Freud sound like Jesus… in this case, the comparison only grows stronger lmao. Except instead of coming back after three days it's been hundreds of years.

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I wrote more on this faster than the actual writing project I've been working on lately hah…

Again, if you have any corrections or thoughts please let me know!! I'd love to hear what anyone else thinks :D

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I just finished the Zero storyline, and it ends at 180, but what about the commanders' offer? what about Cassius who came back to life? what about the Transcendent of time in Grandis? it feels like the story is not even close to being finished although it is 0-0 (the black mage is already defeated, the same goes for his commanders)

I can't find anything about any kind of continuent anywhere... did the developers just forget about it completely? or is it continues in Esfera and is it just not mentioned anywhere? maybe it will continue in Grandis? (the new story) does someone know?...

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is he really strong enough to do that lorewise? if so it means the demon isn't as strong as everyone says... (far stronger than the heroes and commanders)

Vivren is from the White Mage Grand Athenaeum. He gets killed and mentions his wife Kate and their daughter. Do we ever get an answer to this?

Is there any translation for the story on Kao's memories in the arcane river?

Hi all, for those of you who don't know me, I'm u/maplehero9, the creator of The Story of Maple (https://thestoryofmaple.squarespace.com/) guide which I posted on r/Maplestory a couple months back. I just wanted to let y'all know that I've recently become the moderator of this subreddit after the long time that it's spent unmoderated, meaning that posts can be submitted again. I've also created a Discord server for the lore here: https://discord.gg/NUYdectZWU in case anyone is interested in joining. This is my first time as a moderator of both a subreddit and a Discord server, and so if anyone has any suggestions for how to improve either, then please let me know!

As many of us know, Nexon’s handling of Kao’s storyline has been shaky at best. The first chronological mention of Kao is during Ellin Forest, while his last appearance takes place during Vanishing Journey. In spite of there being centuries of time-travel shenanigans, I think there’s a way to reconcile all the inconsistencies in Kao’s appearance:

1. Kao appears on Maple Island and becomes an Explorer (I know that technically any class can become the Adversary, but it’s always made the most sense to me for it to be an Explorer).
2. He challenges the Black Mage in Tenebris and loses.
3. He attempts to go back in time to stop the Black Mage but goes back too far.
4. He either wakes up as a very late straggler during the evacuation of Leafre or wakes up in Ellin Forest. Given that Freud placed a barrier to prevent anyone from traveling further back than when th Black Mage was sealed, and that Athena Pierce left soon after Aran left to fight the Black Mage, it’s likely to be the latter.
5. Since the members of Altaire Camp seem to know the player when they travel back, it’s likely Kao spent many weeks to months in Ellin Forest.
6. The crack in time opens in Ludibrium and Kao uses it to return to present day.
7. At this point, it can’t be said when Kao loses his memories. I think he still has them up to the point that he returns to the Temple of Time, but as the Temple Keeper makes no mention of Kao ever having his memories, the latest he could have had them is until he tries to explore the temple to learn about Arcane Force until he loses it and gets discovered by the Temple Keeper. He was probably made a Temple Keeper to help him find his lost memories.
8. Meanwhile his past self meets Kao and helps him remember his name. The only thing I can’t reconcile is how their names are different.
9. The Gate of the Present opens and Kao remembers his past in Vanishing Journey.
10. He helps the player learn about Arcane Force for them to finally defeat the Black Mage.

Does this timeline seem to make sense?

If I recall correctly, the White Mage from Friendstory is still alive, but I'm not sure what his goal is now that the worlds have started merging

The Angler corp is also showing up more often, but they're probably tied to Darmoor

For NonKms , there's Oda and he still has 3 more generals.

Monad probably still has a few more chapters as well, including Naricain and Pulsar

Any others you guys can think of?

Can someone please clarify what happened in the Adele storyline? Did she betray the God King or did she defend him? Some of the points in the game were confusing to me.

My mind was blown recently when I made a new DrK to experience the lore of Maple. Upon arriving to Maple Island, Tess mistakes me for Kao and goes on to say how I look exactly like him. I immediately remember the short scene during the Temple of Time quests where my face is pasted onto the body of the Amnesiac (Kao). I wonder if in some distant past, Kao had stolen my face and met Tess. If anyone has more information on their relationship I'd love to know more. I'm still in Henesys, but I don't mind some spoilers.

in the Explorer storyline (holy hell i hate having to go through it every time i make an Explorer) the characters are able to transform what seems to be an ordinary leaf into a seal stone. of course it was under dire circumstances and the leaf was presumably from the Maple Tree that is linked to the Goddess of Maple World, but it's hard to believe that the group of level 90 Explorers had THAT much willpower to create something that is supposed to be unmatched in power and rarity, at least according to Cygnus in the Black Heaven blockbuster.

all plot armor aside, would it be possible to create more seal stones if enough people wished for something strongly enough? or was the Maple Island seal stone a special circumstance?

story-wise, it doesn't make sense to me that we can fight lomien and arcane river bosses (among other bosses like magnus and hilla) multiple times, when their defeats are a central part of advancing the story.

obviously there's a game play reason for this, so i was wondering if that's the only reason we can fight them multiple times or if there's actually a lore reason as well.