How many Black Knights (Black Wings Generals) are there really?

What about Dargoth?

Hmmm... hard to really say, but it looks like he's probably with Orca - either a comrade of the same rank as Hiver, or serving under Hiver. Remember that Francis and Baroq serve under Eleanor, and Eleanor herself is the first General to fall (storywise). Hiver, Shadow Warrior, and Dargoth all serve under Orca, since I think there's clearly some kind of dress code that the Black Wings use. I mean, explain why Dargoth and Hiver both possess modern outfits CLEARLY out of place with a steampunk Maple (Orca as well), and yet Akyrum and Eleanor possess occult robes? Furthermore, Valfar's clearly goth here, which DOES fit with Maple's technological level (note: For the purposes of this arc, we don't count Visitor, World Tour, or Masteria as canon to this, since neither Aran, Mercedes, Evan, nor the Cygnus Knights receive any lore quests to go to NLC; we go there of our own free will, and they factor in players, which my canon analysis is NOT doing).

Well that was an interesting trip back to the past.

In a paradox, it's the adventurers who bring take an unconscious Aran and bring him to safety, awaken an unconscious Mercedes, and rescue Mir's egg to return it to Afrien.

I would like to bring up that I think the current alliance thing was just a temporary fix-up that was made in a rush because a lot of the characters are really poorly done graphically (Evan, Aran, Wild Hunter, Grendel, etc) and many leaders are missing.

-Aran is going to be accepted as canonically female until proven otherwise.

In a flashback Evan quest, Aran is referred to as 'he'.

Most of this thread reads like fan-fiction filling in the blanks anyway.

Also at your comment regarding the classes no longer existing, technically, they're going with the ROOT of the base class, meaning what'd be acceptable to a MMO scholar. Warriors are known to carry shields and swords, mages carry staves, pirates were better known for their pistol use, Thieves carry all kinds of knivery, and Bowmen hardly used crossbows in history - only place you see them used is Feudal to Marksman age Europe and China. And do note China invented muskets AND Gunpowder.

I can understand that, but I still wouldn't put much weight into art that doesn't appear in game. Unless of course it does appear in game (I have no idea) then never mind.

After looking at the images again, it shows Aran as both male and female.

Somewhat offopic: Has Alcaster been given any new storyline in the Mercedes or Demon Slayer quests? He was arguably the most important person of rebuilding Ossyria after Black Magician's defeat (built Magatia, madide Orbis float, sealed Zakum, etc.), would be weird if they neglected him now. The Magatia storyline clearly hinted that he stole his alchemy powers from Black Magician's studies, wouldn't be surprised if he had secretly been an old follower of him or something.

Grendel practiced the Black Mage's magic at one point also. The result was the cursed Lupins and he said "wow screw this noise, I'm going back to flowers". :>

Well that was an interesting trip back to the past.

In a paradox, it's the adventurers who bring take an unconscious Aran and bring him to safety, awaken an unconscious Mercedes, and rescue Mir's egg to return it to Afrien.

I would like to bring up that I think the current alliance thing was just a temporary fix-up that was made in a rush because a lot of the characters are really poorly done graphically (Evan, Aran, Wild Hunter, Grendel, etc) and many leaders are missing.

True, but if we were writing this akin to a novel, then Lilin and her penguin crew would be majorly responsible for reviving Aran. My guess is that Mercedes awoke after Aran did because the Black Mage's power weakened substantially enough for the ice to melt (Rien's got a special border around it - meaning not much can penetrate that area, which also explains why Lilin and the Penguins had to DIG Aran out). Furthermore, Evan found that Onyx Dragon egg by pure coincidence - their immaturity plays major factors in how they let the Black Wings do so much.

Grendel the Really Old fits his title, btw, if Alcaster's a walking prune, imagine what Grendel's supposed to be (and this is factoring that Alcaster is as old as or older/younger than Asmodius himself!) in terms of age; most likely he'd be dead by now (he's not going to use the same magic that Asmodius used on Orca - and I feel like Orca got a special favor from Asmodius on that one). Dark Lord should be as old as Syl at this point (I'm guessing both are in their late thirties, early fourties in age); as for Cygnus, she's a goddess - and Goddesses stay young and beautiful forever (just look at Rhinne and the Eurel Goddess!). Lilin's in her late teens, due to Aran's storyline stating she was a child when the prophecy was unearthed - and Nineheart's probably in his 20s by now (which if you follow the time gap from Present Maple to Future Ereve, makes Nineheart in his 50s/60s during that arc).

EDIT - @Viaje: The only reason I'm doing this sort of speculation is because Nexon has YET to reveal any official lore for this story; and lore is the kind of thing we need to make SENSE of this damned arc. I mean, Neople and Nexon are working on DFO lore, and Mabinogi/Vindi have their lore built in, albeit not finished; why is Maple the only one without an official lore written out?

Such a deep topic about something with so little info.

Recall that in past quest lines, using black magic, like necromancy or the like, was said to slowly turn you into a demon. Asmodius is a ploy off of Asmodeus, which is another name for Lucifer/Satan. Since Black Mage probably lost his humanity during the Magatia Immortality incident and became a demon, it makes sense to call him Asmodius, since MapleStory paints him as the penultimate evil.There's no evidence that the Black Mage is any sort of demon, or anything other than a very evil human. I would compare him to Voldemort, he's still somewhat human. Also, penultimate evil?

Story Notes:

- I've factored that in. But then explain the screw up by Nexon in the Alliance gathering, wherein Aran is portrayed as female?Aran is portrayed as a male in every single instance in-game, including the artwork and the NPC in the past. Aran is an exclusively male name. Also, there's both a male and female Aran there, so maybe Aran is both male and female, like the Demon Slayer.
- I blame this one on Mir's immaturity. They're both rather immature, remember that Evan is maybe 12 during that part of the story.
- Then explain to me why his class select artwork is only showing the male version? Then explain to me why Aran's class select artwork is only showing the male version? You can't have your cake and eat it, too.
- In my eyes, in a fight you win if you kill the other person, especially if we're talking wars here. Orca got away, but how do we know she wasn't pulling punches here? Remind me to tell that to the next person I get into a fight with, will you? Here, Mercedes accomplished her goal, which was saving the small child. Plus, I see no reason why Orca would pull punches when she is "the one that led the Black Mage’s army in the past before he was sealed away. [Orca] has been waiting a long time to defeat Mercedes."
-This. Look at the comments, and you'll see someone say something about it; again, I repeat it may or may not be true. It seems that they stole those names from the Sentients from Hot Wheels Battle Force 5. No, really.
- I did not know that. But still, Mikhail apparently retains his title as the "most loyal to Cygnus". This is evident by the fact that even though he's a Dawn Warrior, the very symbol of light, he's still easily turned due to his unwavering loyalty. There's a flip side to every coin. Light can nurture, but it can also destroy.
- I dunno about that. Explain to me the rabbit squad she uses, her overall obsession with bunnies, and the fact that she's in the meeting room where Akyrum, Von Leon, and Valfar are plotting to burn Valfar's house down (at Valfar's protest, may I add?). Sounds to me she could very well be an Ariant or Henesys native, adopted by the Black Mage at one point. Ummm... I don't think we're on the same page here. But you gotta know that the general foot soldiers of the Black Wings all appear to be anthropomorphic, and a lot of them are rabbits. That's not exclusive to Orca, or whomever you're talking about here (which I'm not really sure).

My comments in bold.
THE BATTLE CONTINUES.

True, but if we were writing this akin to a novel, then Lilin and her penguin crew would be majorly responsible for reviving Aran. My guess is that Mercedes awoke after Aran did because the Black Mage's power weakened substantially enough for the ice to melt (Rien's got a special border around it - meaning not much can penetrate that area, which also explains why Lilin and the Penguins had to DIG Aran out). Furthermore, Evan found that Onyx Dragon egg by pure coincidence - their immaturity plays major factors in how they let the Black Wings do so much. Coincidence my right buttcheek. I'm fairly certain that Mir says that he was waiting for someone as pure of heart as Evan.

Grendel the Really Old fits his title, btw, if Alcaster's a walking prune, imagine what Grendel's supposed to be (and this is factoring that Alcaster is as old as or older/younger than Asmodius himself!) in terms of age; most likely he'd be dead by now (he's not going to use the same magic that Asmodius used on Orca - and I feel like Orca got a special favor from Asmodius on that one). Dark Lord should be as old as Syl at this point (I'm guessing both are in their late thirties, early fourties in age); as for Cygnus, she's a goddess - and Goddesses stay young and beautiful forever (just look at Rhinne and the Eurel Goddess!). Lilin's in her late teens, due to Aran's storyline stating she was a child when the prophecy was unearthed - and Nineheart's probably in his 20s by now (which if you follow the time gap from Present Maple to Future Ereve, makes Nineheart in his 50s/60s during that arc). I would assume that Grendel's use of magic over the centuries he's been alive has had some effect on his lifespan. Jin and Syl are both probably in their mid-20's to early 30's, given that they were deeply in love when Jin killed the former Dark Lord, which places them in their mid-teens, add on 10-15 years that they've probably been apart, because Tristian died something like 10 years back, according to the storyline, and he called the late Dark Lord there, so that gives us a minimum of 10, and I doubt much longer than 15. It never says how long ago the prophecy was unearthed though, does it? I would place Lillin more at the same age as Lady Syl, or a little younger. I'm fairly certain that Empress Cygnus is in her mid-30's in Future Ereve, and I'm quite certain that she's mentioned as a "young girl" somewhere.

EDIT - @Viaje: The only reason I'm doing this sort of speculation is because Nexon has YET to reveal any official lore for this story; and lore is the kind of thing we need to make SENSE of this damned arc. I mean, Neople and Nexon are working on DFO lore, and Mabinogi/Vindi have their lore built in, albeit not finished; why is Maple the only one without an official lore written out?

True, but if we were writing this akin to a novel, then Lilin and her penguin crew would be majorly responsible for reviving Aran. My guess is that Mercedes awoke after Aran did because the Black Mage's power weakened substantially enough for the ice to melt (Rien's got a special border around it - meaning not much can penetrate that area, which also explains why Lilin and the Penguins had to DIG Aran out). Furthermore, Evan found that Onyx Dragon egg by pure coincidence - their immaturity plays major factors in how they let the Black Wings do so much.

No man, that's not what I was talking about.

After the battle with the Black Mage, Aran is left unconscious in a field with dark wyverns. Maha can't save him because he isn't a physical being, so it's an adventurer that takes Aran to a safe location.

Mir's egg is lost in the battle and Afrien asks an adventurer to save it so that it may choose a successor in the future.
It wasn't pure coincidence, Evan found the egg because he was chosen by either Mir or the spirit of Freed. You see he gets the Onyx Dragon mark on his hand before he finds the egg?

And an adventurer wakes up Mercedes who would then return to Eurel.

No man, that's not what I was talking about.

After the battle with the Black Mage, Aran is left unconscious in a field with dark wyverns. Maha can't save him because he isn't a physical being, so it's an adventurer that takes Aran to a safe location.

Mir's egg is lost in the battle and Afrien asks an adventurer to save it so that it may choose a successor in the future.
It wasn't pure coincidence, Evan found the egg because he was chosen by either Mir or the spirit of Freed. You see he gets the Onyx Dragon mark on his hand before he finds the egg?

And an adventurer wakes up Mercedes who would then return to Eurel.

Freed is the one who hides Mir's egg, moments before he dies. He then returns to Afrien where he finally dies, being unaffected by the spell of the Black Mage. No adventurer involve.

Source? Mercedes & Evan Storyline.


Mir and Evan were chosen by destiny. They met on a dream at the beggining of the storyline, and that's where they made the pact. The actions they made were based on thinking they were doing the good. They finally discovered the truth, and then went to get their revenge on Hiver (who I personally believe is a General).

Evan and Mir are now on a quest for revenge against the Black Wings, well, that's where the story left of.

Source? Evan Storyline.

There's no evidence that the Black Mage is any sort of demon, or anything other than a very evil human. I would compare him to Voldemort, he's still somewhat human. Also, penultimate evil?
Every version thus far is referring to him as the penultimate evil badguy, since Naricain does not exist in any other version save ours, and technically, Masteria's somewhat dead.


Aran is portrayed as a male in every single instance in-game, including the artwork and the NPC in the past. Aran is an exclusively male name. Also, there's both a male and female Aran there, so maybe Aran is both male and female, like the Demon Slayer.
Therein lies the catch. In every single instance, he's male. And in a prior post, I've accepted the fact that Aran is male canonically.
They're both rather immature, remember that Evan is maybe 12 during that part of the story.

Yeah, but remember that Evan's technically got more years on Mir when he finds him; Dragons age fast though. But still, Evan's got superiority here when it comes to age (maybe not to size, as the country boy is still a pipsqueak compared to fully grown Mir.
Then explain to me why Aran's class select artwork is only showing the male version? You can't have your cake and eat it, too.

Read my response to the first comment entailing Aran's gender.

Remind me to tell that to the next person I get into a fight with, will you? Here, Mercedes accomplished her goal, which was saving the small child. Plus, I see no reason why Orca would pull punches when she is "the one that led the Black Mage’s army in the past before he was sealed away. [Orca] has been waiting a long time to defeat Mercedes."

True, but technically, if Orca's objective was to kill, then this messes up the whole concept of the fight. And I explicitly stated that if it was a "WAR", which your reaction assumed I meant fights in general. In a war, when you fight, sometimes you fight to protect, other times you fight to kill. Mercedes was fighting to protect; Orca was fighting to kill. I consider it a win for Mercedes in what she was doing, but a draw on the "kill" part, since Mercedes could've killed Orca if she truly wanted to. But she let Orca escape; thus it's a draw. And again, both of their fight objectives conflict.

It seems that they stole those names from the Sentients from Hot Wheels Battle Force 5. No, really.

I didn't know whether either of those names were true. Thanks for confirming they were not. But it still doesn't change the fact that a Thief and Pirate legend exists.

There's a flip side to every coin. Light can nurture, but it can also destroy.

True. But light is very hard to turn to darkness. Where there is light there is also darkness. Mikhail's loyalty was most likely the very flaw that led him to his downfall.

Ummm... I don't think we're on the same page here. But you gotta know that the general foot soldiers of the Black Wings all appear to be anthropomorphic, and a lot of them are rabbits. That's not exclusive to Orca, or whomever you're talking about here (which I'm not really sure).

Then why does Orca have so much bunny apparel? Why are a majority of Orca's squadron rabbit anthromorphs? Akyrum's legion is serpent based, as he wields serpent based powers, so it only makes sense for him to have snake anthromorphs. Eleanor's squad uses what's around them (i.e. Francis controlling the common monsters; Baroq disguising as Maple NPCs). It would make sense for each "branch" of the Black Wings to have a theme to them - hence why Von Leon's got a more medieval theme to his troops.

Also makes me think Orca is from Ariant, or around there, since that's really the only place you can find the Desert Rabbits she's appeared to have mutated (other than Henesys, which has Moon Bunnies, but her bigger henchmen appear to be Desert Rabbits mutated).

There's nothing similar between Orca's henchmen and Desert Rabbits other than that which is intrinsically inherent from them being rabbits.
There are rabbits all over Maplestory: Korean Folk Town, Ariant, Chryse, and Ludibrium.

As for Goire, he needs to be a gigantic Krexel-type general, since his minions appear to be trees, making him seem Terra based.

Like Orca is a giant rabbit?

On a side note, you use the word "need" far too often in places where "I would like to see" would be more appropriate.

If we factor in that Mikhail is the captain of the Cygnus Knights, in a story where our first-person view Cygnus Knights don't exist, he'd be the only one capable of killing Eleanor, due to his unwavering loyalty to the Empress. This would make him the canon killer of Eleanor.

The canon killer of Eleanor is an unnamed Cygnus Knight.
Our first-person view of a Cygnus Knight does certainly exist.

the Thief and Pirate legends (whom from a source I hear are to be named Boralis and Krytus - could be hugely wrong on this though)

Don't worry; you are.

-Mikhail is the oldest and wisest member of the Cygnus Guard, second to Irena, with Eckhart being in the middle, and Oz being the youngest. Because he's been serving Cygnus for quite some time, even long before Nineheart, he can at least break loose of Eleanor's curse, and be able to kill her.

But he doesn't because he's frozen in carbonite.

Since Black Mage probably lost his humanity during the Magatia Immortality incident and became a demon, it makes sense to call him Asmodius, since MapleStory paints him as the penultimate evil.

It makes more sense to call him the pineappleing Black Man.

In my eyes, in a fight you win if you kill the other person, especially if we're talking wars here.

By that definition, virtually no war in history was ever won.

Somewhat offopic: Has Alcaster been given any new storyline in the Mercedes or Demon Slayer quests? He was arguably the most important person of rebuilding Ossyria after Black Magician's defeat (built Magatia, made Orbis float, sealed Zakum, etc.), would be weird if they neglected him now. The Magatia storyline clearly hinted that he stole his alchemy powers from Black Magician's studies, wouldn't be surprised if he had secretly been an old follower of him or something.

I would love to see Alcaster's story expanded. As you said, he clearly has a major role in the story, but he basically is just used a a All Cure hawker.

EDIT - @Viaje: The only reason I'm doing this sort of speculation is because Nexon has YET to reveal any official lore for this story; and lore is the kind of thing we need to make SENSE of this damned arc. I mean, Neople and Nexon are working on DFO lore, and Mabinogi/Vindi have their lore built in, albeit not finished; why is Maple the only one without an official lore written out?

I don't think you know what lore is.

Such a deep topic about something with so little info.

Which is why half this pomegranate is being made up on the spot.

Freed is the one who hides Mir's egg, moments before he dies. He then returns to Afrien where he finally dies, being unaffected by the spell of the Black Mage. No adventurer involve.

Source? Mercedes & Evan Storyline.

I just saved Mir's egg in the past of Leafre. Almost certain that Mir's egg stayed with Afrien until the time was right for Evan, because I don't think it's possible that Freed went to Henesys to hide the egg, then go back to leafre just to die.
All in the span of like...not long

A lot of you guys are just either bullshitting everything by filling in the blanks, or BAD TRANSLATIONs involved.

Source? Mercedes & Evan Storyline.

Source doesn't mean jack s'hit. We travel to the past and completely change the past. Those storylines are now nothing.

@Viaje - You're such a friggin killjoy it almost makes me want to strap C4 to your house and blow it up.

I'm interested in a story; which is why I speculate on what COULD be, not what is.

All you seem to be interested in are two things:

1. Nexon's shutdown, and the return of Blizzard to the gaming power
2. Your e-peen, which may or may not equate to that Reverse Gear you got from Pink Bean/that Horntail Pendant you so greatly cherish.

I make wild assumptions because it's fun to speculate on a story, as well as piss you off.

I just saved Mir's egg in the past of Leafre. Almost certain that Mir's egg stayed with Afrien until the time was right for Evan, because I don't think it's possible that Freed went to Henesys to hide the egg, then go back to leafre just to die.
All in the span of like...not long

I too find that confusing, but it's said by Afrien to Mercedes. Unless they changed the storyline, but the egg of Mir was hidden by Freed. Perhaps someone followed Freed, and that's where they try to destroy the egg, making the adventurer fill in all of this. The Egg can't be with Afrien, he was sealed with the other 4 heroes, and he is weak too do anything since Freed is dead, which would mean half his soul is gone, again, said by him.

inb4 Nexon Korea makes a major storyline revamp.


Edit: @Meta, wow, so aggresive. Sorry if I made anything to anger you, but you shouldn't answer like that. Changes made in the future of the past, could also not be canon. In all the stories where time changed, there is always a first story, followed by another branch of the same events, that happened differently. A major example of a story like this is Terminator. The storylines are canon, and later on they were changed, but that doesn't avoid them being canon.

Why do I bother? You will just get more angry and well. Meh.

True. But light is very hard to turn to darkness. Where there is light there is also darkness. Mikhail's loyalty was most likely the very flaw that led him to his downfall.

Poetic bullshit.
Darkness is an absence of light.

Source doesn't mean jack s'hit. We travel to the past and completely change the past. Those storylines are now nothing.

That's yet to be seen. We don't know how time travel works in Maplestory yet.

Freed is the one who hides Mir's egg, moments before he dies. He then returns to Afrien where he finally dies, being unaffected by the spell of the Black Mage. No adventurer involve.

Source? Mercedes & Evan Storyline.

Where in the Evan storyline does it say Freed hid the egg?
As has been pointed out, that would be quite a back-and-forth trip for someone who's dying.

But storyline is what makes MapleStory a real "STORY". After all, if we went back to the days of post-Beta Official release, where everything was grind central, I'dve quit long ago.

Now that Maple is developing a story, you can bet your ass I'm gonna speculate and wonder about it, like someone reading a giant book series, wondering what'll come next.

This is the whole point of what cliffhangers are supposed to do; when you don't know enough about the story, you speculate what might happen.

EDIT - @Viaje How do we know Freed wasn't struggling with that egg during the time he carried it? He could've died on the spot when he got back to Afrien (most likely due to exhaustion).

@Viaje - You're such a friggin killjoy it almost makes me want to strap C4 to your house and blow it up.

Did I break up the "HEY GUIZE! LISTEN TO MY FANFIC!" parade?
I'd apologize if I gave a pomegranate.

I'm interested in a story; which is why I speculate on what COULD be, not what is.

I'm interested in facts.

All you seem to be interested in are two things:

1. Nexon's shutdown, and the return of Blizzard to the gaming power

lulzwut? When have I ever said or implied either of those things?

2. Your e-peen, which may or may not equate to that Reverse Gear you got from Pink Bean/that Horntail Pendant you so greatly cherish.

lulzwut? I don't even know what you're talking about anymore.

My responses have nothing to do with personal ego; they're a verbalization of my low tolerance for bullpomegranate.

I make wild assumptions because it's fun to speculate on a story, as well as piss you off.

You vastly overevaluate your affect on my mood. Nothing you've said has or possibly could piss me off.

Now how about you stay on topic instead of making yourself look like a child who doesn't like being corrected?

Where in the Evan storyline does it say Freed hid the egg?
As has been pointed out, that would be quite a back-and-forth trip for someone who's dying.

After you save Afrien, he speaks of the past. You get teleported to the moment where the final battle was about to be fought. And Afrien speaks of what happened later. I believe it's the level 70 quest. But he does say it.