The ETK Lore Bible

Wizard

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The Suhodan path of Yeonghwa, wielding elemental Giun as fire, ice, lightning, and arcane force.

Patron and philosophy

The Wizard follows Yeonghwa (Spirit Flame), the Celestial Spirit of Knowledge and Elemental Force. Where the Guardian endures and the Cleric heals, the Wizard shapes Giun, the Breath of All Things, directly into the elements: fire, ice, lightning, and arcane.

The Wizard’s creed sets knowledge against the dark: “Knowledge is the fire that burns back the dark.”

Leadership: Grand Scholar Seul-Ki

The Head Wizard is Grand Scholar Seul-Ki. She rose to her position not through ambition or fame, but by focusing so completely on her work that those around her began seeking her help with their own experiments. She often comes across as cold or distracted, a result of her one-track mind whenever a special project has her attention. She has been seen ignoring grievous wounds on recruits so she can examine the effects of Maggi on them. Her hair is long and unruly, her robes permanently singed, and she is rarely seen in person. When she does appear, it becomes an event. She forgets recruit names constantly and labels them with whatever is convenient to remember. She believes she can help the world through the pursuit of knowledge and understanding, and she tends to set the moral implications of that work aside.

As Head Wizard, Seul-Ki holds one of the five seats on the Council of Seonhwa.

Tutor: Lecturer Ji-Hoon

New Wizards train under Lecturer Ji-Hoon. He is highly organized, pedantic to a fault, and constantly annoyed at the young wizards in his charge. He answers their questions with a roll of the eyes, but he explains the complex elemental interactions of Giun weaves better than anyone. He is permanently assigned to the lecturer post (Seul-Ki does not want to deal with the distraction of teaching), much to his chagrin. Now and then he can be caught smiling after a wizard thanks him for explaining a spell.

Shared subpaths

The five Suhodan paths are not isolated. Where two paths share a border in philosophy and practice, a shared tradition has formed under the Circle of Balance. The Wizard borders two of them.

  • Danja (Jeopsindanja, “Those Who Receive Spirits”), the tradition shared with the Cleric. Both Wizards and Clerics study Giun, and the Danja use that shared understanding to communicate with the dead, performing Gut rituals to ease the Han that anchors restless spirits. Outsiders call them Necromancers. The Wizard side of the training supplies the control needed to manage spiritual energy without losing oneself.
  • Inscriber, the tradition shared with the Hunter. Inscribers take the elemental Giun theory that Wizards study and make it portable, using the Hunter’s fieldcraft. They create Bujeok, talismans inscribed with Giun patterns that store elemental effects. The Wizard establishment considers their approach crude, which gives the two an ongoing friction.

Transcendence

At the edge of mortal limits, a Wizard who would take on the burden of the Celestial Spirits takes in a shard of a broken pillar. Doing so gives a direct connection to the chosen spirit and removes the limits of humanity, but also removes its peace. Death loses its grip, and the cost is everything that made the person human, traded for a task that never ends. The shard-bearer becomes part of the pillar holding the world together, an avatar of the spirit. Taking in a single fragment marks the first step (il-san), with further fragments beyond it (ee-san and onward); attempting more before the body is ready is deadly. See the Transcendence file for the full mechanism, which applies to every path, not the Wizard alone.

See also

Source: ETK Lore Bible (Path Leaders: Grand Scholar Seul-Ki; Tutor NPCs: Lecturer Ji-Hoon; The Circle of Balance: Danja and Inscriber; Transcendence Beyond Level 99); The World of Haneul foundation doc (Five Paths and Patrons, Yeonghwa).

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