The introductory storyline that carries a player from their first quest as a Suhodan recruit to the cleansing ritual that restores the corrupted scholar Han-Gyeol.
A New Beginning
Players start as recruits. At the very start they are given their final lesson, a brief account of the world and what they have trained for. They are then instructed to take down a powerful creature in the rat area of the crypt, a respawning mini-boss called Bae-Gumeong, which has been growing stronger by feasting on its own kind. Killing Bae-Gumeong ends the first quest.
On the kill, the player finds a piece of a relic. When they return to the tutor, he exclaims it looks like a piece of a relic held by a man known as Han-Gyeol. When the player asks who that is, the tutor says it is best he does not explain, and that the leader of the path they choose will tell them.
Each path leader gives different dialogue on the subject, but all arrive at the same conclusion: the player is not yet strong enough to know more, or to do anything about Gloth.
Reaching Gloth
Further down the quest line, once the player reaches a certain level and quest chain, the leaders task them with killing Gloth. At the designated room the player is placed into an instanced room with their group.
Gloth was once Han-Gyeol, a devout follower of the five spirits and a figure of influence in Seonhwa. He was the first to note that Maggi gathers more strongly around places of great emotional disturbance, loss, or sadness. His studies led him to a corruption forming deep in the Crypts, and after losing a promising recruit he had personally trained, he went down to find the cause and remove it. There he found a pillar fragment. Believing it was sent by the spirits to aid him, he reached out to take it and was instead struck by the source of corruption itself, which transformed him into Gloth.
Keep in sync. The Gloth / Han-Gyeol origin is restated here. Canonical version: Gloth (Han-Gyeol). Also in The Crypts. Update all copies together.
The Ssitgim-gut (Cleansing Ritual)
The player confronts Gloth (present at first as an NPC, then despawned and replaced by the mob). On defeating him they realize they need to cleanse the artifact, and are forced to leave as Gloth slowly reforms from the Maggi.
The players then begin a quest chain to gather the items needed for a ritual designed by High Cleric Eun-Ae, the Ssitgim-gut, meant to purify the fragment and, with luck, Gloth, once known as Han-Gyeol.
Once the items are gathered, they confront Gloth again, defeat him, and perform the ritual. Han-Gyeol is restored. After the quest chain he can be found in a room players can access, where he writes down everything he learned to help Seonhwa down the road.
Notes
- Gloth reforming after the first defeat fits the wider rule that those fully corrupted by Maggi never truly die. They remain in its grasp, never permitted to move on, their bodies turned against their minds.
Keep in sync. The Maggi grey zone is restated here. Canonical version: Maggi. Also in The Crypts, Bestiary Overview. Update all copies together.
- The fragment that took Han-Gyeol is a shard of a broken pillar, the same kind of object central to Transcendence, where a player takes a fragment into themselves to become an avatar of a spirit.
Keep in sync. The pillar-shard transcendence mechanism is restated here. Canonical version: Transcendence (Beyond Level 99). Also in Maggi. Update all copies together.
See also
- Gloth (Han-Gyeol)
- Bae-Gumeong
- High Cleric Eun-Ae
- Necromancers (Danja)
- Maggi
- The Crypts
- Transcendence (Beyond Level 99)
- Why Players Fight (Progression Arc)
Source: bible “Overall Storyline” (A New Beginning, The Ssitgim-gut), “Boss Lore” (Gloth), the “Maggi” and “Enemy Respawns” notes, and the “Transcendence” note; foundation doc for recruit/Suhodan context.