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

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?