First Adversary/Story

MonsterStory

First Adversary
First AdversaryFirst Explorer
Hometown	Maple Island
Gender	Male
Race	Human
Affiliations	Sugar Elders of Grandis The Adversary
Enemies	Ancient Gods
Status	Deceased (lore) Fightable (gameplay)

“Born as a maple leaf... he wandered through a world in chaos. He forged his willpower into a weapon... and with it, he slashed through earth and sky. Then, to secure a lasting peace... he fell as a maple leaf.”

― The Explorer, reading about the First Adversary

The First Adversary, also known as the First Explorer, is the father of all Explorers and the first Adversary created in Odium to face the Ancient Gods. Despite meeting his preordained death, the First Adversary's spirit continues to reside within the World Heart, serving as a guardian to prevent all but a worthy Vessel to claim its power. In addition, the First Adversary's spirit and power is imbued in the maple tree on Maple Island, where it chose the Explorer to inherit his will.

Story

The Ancient War

The First Adversary was a human orphan whose name was lost to time, born on Maple Island during the era of the Ancient Gods. Despite having no family, however, he had never felt alone, as he was close friends with a girl named Sugar, who had always been at his side. Though they both enjoyed spending time together, the boy observed that Sugar always seemed sad, as though she were consumed by a sense of guilt. During his youth, the boy was fond of a maple tree on Maple Island, often resting beneath its shade. As he grew older, the boy would come to master the four branches of warrior, magician, bowman, and thief, becoming known as the First Explorer. After the elders of Grandis were tasked by the Overseers with defeating the Ancient Gods, the First Explorer was guided by Sugar to Grandis, where he was brought to the floating laboratory of Odium. Around this time, the First Explorer came to realize that Sugar was the human avatar of the Goddess of Maple World, and that Sugar's guilt came because she had been tasked with guiding him through his destiny that would culminate in his preordained death. Nevertheless, the First Explorer chose to accept his destiny and agreed to undergo the elders' experiments in Odium, with the elders uniting him with the Godsphere - a divine artifact imbued with the Overseers' power - and transforming him into a demigod known as the Adversary. Imbued with the power to challenge the gods, the First Explorer - known from that point on as the First Adversary - began the attack on the Ancient Gods, with the war beginning in the holy city of Tallahart. With more Adversaries created in his wake, the conflict quickly began spreading as the Overseers' war upon the Ancient Gods engulfed the world itself.

Soon after, however, the elders discovered that the Overseers had created a safeguard to prevent the power of the Adversary from being misused. As the Adversaries were strong enough to destroy higher beings, allowing such powerful and dangerous weapons to remain in the world was a grave risk, as their mere existence had the potential to usher in a new age of chaos, equal to that of the Ancient Gods. For this reason, it had been ordained that the fate of every Adversary - from the moment that they awakened - was to die soon after fulfilling their purpose. As a result, the Adversaries - after defeating the gods - began falling one by one. Just as Sugar had always lamented, the First Adversary fell in battle upon fulfilling his destiny, with his power coming to rest in the leaves of the Maple Tree - his favorite resting spot - where it lay dormant, awaiting the one who would inherit his will. Following his death, a prophecy was written about one who would inherit his will and his power: "And when the pitch-black sunset stains the northern sky, another maple leaf will herald his coming." In addition, the First Adversary's spirit was imbued into the World Heart: the Overseers' relic, whose power had been used by the elders to mass-produce the Godspheres. Within the World Heart, the First Adversary's spirit served as a guardian to protect the World Heart from the unworthy. After the Adversaries won the Ancient War, the elders sequestered themselves in Shangri-La and used the World Heart as Odium's battery to eventually deplete power so that it could not be misused. After the First Adversary's death, those whom he had inspired with his heroism created the towns of Amherst and Southperry on Maple Island, centered around his favorite Maple Tree. Many came to Maple Island in order to become Explorers, hoping to follow in his footsteps.

Another Maple Leaf

Eons later, the Goddess of Maple World manifested herself as Sugar once again as the seal on the Black Mage began to weaken. Sugar was sent to guide a young Beginner on their destiny to defeat the Black Mage. The Beginner, who lived an ordinary life on Maple Island, grew up reading stories about the First Adversary. One day, they picked up a maple leaf falling from the tree, which briefly glowed with the residual power of the First Adversary. The Beginner then met Sugar, who convinced them to become an Explorer. The Beginner then set out and became an Explorer on Victoria Island. During their adventures, they inadvertently freed the Black Mage from his seal, after which he attacked Maple Island with his shadow. There, the Explorer was shocked to find Sugar attempting to put out the black flames on the Maple Tree. Though their faith in themselves had been shaken, the fact that Sugar still believed in them allowed them to regain their determination. In response to their strong willpower, the power of the Adversary inside the maple leaf allowed the First Adversary's voice to reach out to them. The First Adversary called them a warrior of kindness and bravery and explained that a great strength of will slept within them. He then told them to remember their heart's greatest desire - to protect others - and added that their heart was the key. Channeling the residual power of the Adversary, the Explorer was able to defeat the Black Mage's Shadow and use the Seal Stone of Victoria Island to restore Maple Island.

As the Explorer grew stronger, they soon helped one of their friends, Rondo, learn more about his roots as a potential Anima from Grandis. However, they found themselves unable to make it past the waves of Specters outside Pantheon, to which Rondo resolved to grow stronger. The Explorer lamented that they hadn't been strong enough to help find Rondo's people. They also realized that the flames of war engulfing Grandis was just like the disaster at Maple Island. As they began wishing that they could help make a difference, the First Adversary's voice once again responded to their determination. The First Adversary called them a good-natured warrior and told them that they had the will to be awakened. He reminded them of their heart's desire to help those in need, explaining that their heart was the seed that would grow and flourish. Some time later, the Explorer learned about Tess's family history and how he and his sister, Kyrin, were suffering because of their blood curse. They began wondering whether they could do anything for their friends or even stand up to the Black Mage, though they also reminded themselves that Sugar would want them to keep going. In response to their determination, the First Adversary's voice rang out and called them a warrior of benevolent willpower. He explained that their strength of will had at last awoken, reminding them that their heart wanted to be stronger for others' sake. He then told them that their heart would lead them to their fate.

Shortly after obtaining an Arcane Stone from the Goddess of Maple World, the Explorer heard the voice of the First Adversary calling out to them once more. The First Adversary told them that they had awakened to their full potential, meaning that their current meeting would be their last. Because of this, he agreed to answer any questions that they had. Regarding himself, he explained that he was a man who had given his heart to calm the primordial chaos, as the Goddess had willed. He was surprised to know from the Explorer that the people of Maple World considered him a legend, as as he had been born merely as an ordinary human child. He then told the Explorer about his history with Sugar and how she had led him to fulfilling his destiny before dying. Regarding his power, he explained that the power within them was a portion of his own power, which had been granted to him by the ones who kept order. Regarding their fate, he told them that they had inherited his fate and asked them to let their good will be a torch to light the way ahead. The Explorer asked him if their destiny was to defeat the Black Mage, to which the First Adversary replied that if the chaos of their time had begun with him, then it was. However, he added that how that fate transpired was up to them, as though their will was the same, their choices were not. With their time running short, the residual power of the Adversary within the maple leaf disappeared. As the First Adversary's voice faded, he told the Explorer to walk the fated path with awakened power, for the chaos, long since faded, was gathering again.

Testing the Adversary

After the Adversary entered the heart of Odium and met with Hundun - one of Kaling's Four Perils whom the elders had forcibly fused with the World Heart - Hundun offered them the World Heart, hoping that it would free him from his long life of imprisonment with the World Heart's power keeping him alive. After the Adversary accepted the World Heart from Hundun, they were immediately transported into an inner dimension within the World Heart - an expansive void with a dark black-red sky and a singular door in the middle. The Adversary noted that they had been pulled inside a space that the World Heart had created, causing them to wonder why the World Heart had done so. Suddenly, a brilliant orange flame appeared before the door that spoke to them in an indistinguishable voice. The Adversary wondered briefly whether the voice wanted them to follow it before deciding that sitting around wouldn’t do anything. Walking through the door, the Adversary found themselves in a ruined, burning coliseum, where the spirit of the First Adversary appeared before them as a man wielding weapons of the four original job branches: a warrior’s sword, a magician’s staff, an archer’s bow, and a thief’s dagger.

After a fierce battle, the Adversary managed to defeat the First Adversary, causing their surroundings to burn away as they experienced a vision between the Vessels of Odium. One the Vessels - a woman the uniform robes of the laboratory - stated that she hadn’t wanted such an ending, while the other Vessel - a man wearing armor - retorted and told her to stop trying to avoid death, noting that they had all been with death since they had first been created. The woman angrily asked the man how he dared to call her a failure, while the man reminded her that they existed to annihilate irrational power, and that none of them were an exception to that fact. As the two spoke, more and more Vessels appeared on each of their sides, with armored warriors appearing by the man’s side, and robed Vessels on the woman’s. The woman noted that after having suffered so much throughout her life, she refused to die in such a meaningless way. However, the man simply reminded her that she needed to fulfill her purpose. Because of his words, the woman soon decided to tell the researchers of Odium that she could do more, and that the researchers could still keep going with their experiments. As she spoke, more and more of the Vessels by her side became failed experiments, taking on the monstrous forms of the Disintegrating Test Subjects and Failed Subjects that the Adversary had fought in the laboratory. The man then declared that his death was a noble one, and that he would accept it. However, the woman replied that even after she died, she would never forgive the researchers for what they had done, though the man noted that such was simply their destiny.

Suddenly, however, all the Vessels in the vision turned to look at the Adversary with monstrous eyes, speaking aloud at once and asking them how they were still intact, just as Hundun had wondered. The woman asked the Adversary whether they had believed that they would actually succeed, while the man told the Adversary that they, too, were destined to fail and end up like the other Vessels. The woman then noted that even if the Adversary were to succeed, their fate had already been decided, just as the man asked the Adversary whether they truly understood what it meant to gain the power of the gods. The woman then asked the Adversary whether they thought themselves to be special, declaring that they were no one, just like the others. After hearing the words of the Vessels, the Adversary replied and told them that they, too, had spent a long time thinking about what it meant to be the Adversary, and that there had once been a time that they hadn’t been able to come up with an answer until the very last moment. However, they noted that that wasn’t the case anymore, declaring that they had the good-hearted desire to live and protect everyone, for which they would fight against their fate once again. As the Adversary spoke, the indistinguishable voice of the First Adversary in the flames spoke as well, with the Adversary telling the Vessels that their words didn’t hurt them at all, adding that all they had come for was the World Heart. Suddenly, the broken coliseum transformed into a beautiful, grassy field, with the glowing form of the First Adversary appearing and transforming into the World Heart, which the Adversary grasped in their hands. As they did, they were transported back into the laboratory.

Trivia

• Although it is not explicitly stated that the First Adversary and the First Explorer are the same in-game, several Easter eggs in the KMS promotional rollout for the First Adversary boss fight confirm this off-screen:
  • In the Odium storyline, the story mode version of the First Adversary boss fight has the First Adversary speak to the player in an indistinguishable voice, which manifests as various sequences of solid blocks in different patterns. Putting these blocks together creates a QR code that leads to a promotional KMS website, which contains the First Adversary's message to the player. In this message, the First Adversary refers to himself as "the one who quelled the primordial chaos and saved the world", which is identical to the description of the First Explorer that Sugar reads in the MapleStory: Destiny promotional video.
    • Both the QR code and the message are omitted in GlobalMS.
    • In Non-KoreaMS regions except GlobalMS, these blocks were replaced with proper dialogues talking to the player, and the message from QR code is played in the end of prequests instead:

“So you chose to grasp it in the end.
Truly fitting for one who has deviated from the flow.

Yes. I am truly curious about what you will achieve or what you will fail to achieve...
My life will end here. I will not be able to witness what you do afterward.
Even so, after you seized the Spear of God, you undeniably changed.
For you are the one who endured that trial and proved yourself.

O vessel who has stepped out of the flow,

the path that now unfolds before you belongs to you alone.
Do not fear. Walk forward with pride.
Though I was forced to merge with this Spear of God,
I struggled until my final moments, just as I am now.
Well, since you made your own choice...
It's not such a bad story, is it?

Of course, it will not be easy.
Just as the unavoidable trials once bestowed upon the adversaries created in Odium,
those trials will surely come for you as well.
But they will not be able to halt your path.

Become like the one who quelled the primordial chaos and saved the world.
One recognized by the original Spear of God shall become the harbinger of a new era.

The road ahead will be lonely, harsh, and painful.
But you, acknowledged by none other than that being ...
will become history soon, remembered by all.”

― The First Adversary

• • If the player interacts with the NPC of a character who took part in the first boss clear for the First Adversary, a special dialogue plays that reveals that the First Adversary had once been an Explorer. Additionally, sitting on the chair rewarded from defeating the First Adversary and speaking to the Explorer NPC has them state how, after inheriting the First Explorer's destiny, they had never imagined that they would be able to fight him face-to-face, which explicitly confirms that the First Explorer and the First Adversary are the same person.
• From the Explorer's conversation with the First Adversary, it appears that unlike the other Adversaries, the First Adversary was able to retain his sense of self. Given that Hundun also retained his sense of self while fused with the World Heart, and given the First Adversary's importance as the original Adversary, it is possible that the First Adversary's power may be tied to the World Heart itself, rather than a mass-produced Godsphere. If so, it may explain why the First Adversary's will and ego was tied to the World Heart's power scattered across the continent.
• In the Destiny Weapon storyline, Zigang tells the player that the elders had once known and trusted another person just like the player, though he expresses deep regret about their fate. It is speculated that this person was the First Adversary.
• The First Adversary's storyline is very similar to Christopher Crimsonheart's original storyline from GMS's Masteria. Just like the First Adversary, Crimsonheart was once an Explorer who mastered the four original job branches. Much like how the spirit of the First Explorer resides within the World Heart in order to prevent the unworthy from claiming its power, Crimsonheart guarded the Antellion.