Hypnos

NPCMonster

Hypnos
Title	Dark Forest Master (formerly)
Hometown	Dark Forest
Current Residence	Eternal Forest
Gender	Male
Race	Ancient God
Emblem	Eternal Rest Brand
Minions	Eternal Rest monsters
Enemies	Gaia Lynn Pan Penni Paeon
Status	Unknown
Name (Other Servers)
JapanMS	ヒュプノス (Hyupunosu)
ChinaMS	许普诺斯 (Xǔ pǔ nuò sī)
Voice Actors
GlobalMS	Jeff Berg
JapanMS	Kousuke Tanabe

Hypnos is the Ancient God of slumber and the former Forest Master of the Dark Forest. Ages ago, Hypnos was defeated by Gaia and the Forest Child, with Gaia becoming the new Forest Master of the Dark Forest, later renamed as the Eternal Forest. Over the ages, Hypnos attempted to regain control over his domain by using his power to create curse monsters in order to weaken Gaia and exact his revenge upon her and the Forest Child, reborn in the present day as Lynn.

Despite being an Ancient God, Hypnos only exists within the CMS overseas continuity, meaning that he is not canon to the main KMS storyline.

Story

The Ancient War

In the beginning, the Primordial God made 365 creations - the sun, the moon, the stones, the trees, the wind, the rivers, the seas, and countless others - each adhering to 365 laws that governed the universe. From these 365 creations that made up the world, powerful beings were brought into existence that embodied these natural laws, including Hypnos. Over time, these beings were revered as gods by mortals, and ages later, they would be known as the Ancient Gods.

In Maple World, Hypnos came to rule the Dark Forest of Jianghu and became known as the evil Forest Master, using his powers to create a shadow of eternal slumber across the land. However, Hypnos would eventually be challenged by a benevolent entity known as Gaia. In order to defeat Hypnos, Gaia enlisted the help of a blacksmith's daughter, with whom she shared her ancient power, awakening her as the Forest Child. Using Gaia's power, the Forest Child became a beacon of light in the Dark Forest, breaking through Hypnos' power to awaken three guardian spirits - a bear, a bird, and a wolf - from eternal slumber. The Forest Child then gave them the names: Pan the Earth Guardian, Penni the Sky Guardian, and Paeon the Life Guardian.

Imbued with Gaia's power, the Forest Child and her three Spirit Guides fought alongside Gaia and managed to defeat Hypnos after a great battle. After Hypnos' defeat, Gaia became the new Forest Master of the Dark Forest, which was renamed the Eternal Forest after light returned to the land. In order to ensure that Gaia's power could continue circulating through the forest, the Forest Child and the Spirit Guides began a cycle of reincarnation throughout the ages, with this cycle being powered by the Great Tree at the Samsara Spring.

During the Ancient War, the Primordial God - unable to abide the chaos in the universe - created the Overseers to establish order in the universe. To this end, the Overseers tasked the elders of Grandis with creating beings known as the Adversaries. Imbued with the divine power of relics known as the Godspheres, the Adversaries began a war to defeat the Ancient Gods. However, it is unknown whether Hypnos ever faced an Adversary, or whether Hypnos was later sealed away into slumber by the influence of the Transcendents.

Hypnos' Return

Over the ages, Hypnos planned to regain his power as the Forest Master by weakening Gaia. By spreading his curse of eternal slumber across the forest, Gaia slowly began to fall asleep and shrink in size as she weakened. Though the Forest Child continued to reincarnate over the ages, several incarnations rejected their role as the Forest Master and chose to act selfishly, with one even going as far as to steal Gaia's horn in order to sell at the Jianghu marketplace. Without the Forest Child to circulate Gaia's power, that power grew stagnant and weak, allowing Hypnos' influence to grow even further. Thanks to Hypnos' powers, the Forest Child and the Spirit Guides' memories were altered, causing them to forget about Hypnos' existence and making it impossible for them to learn the identity of his Eternal Rest curse monsters.

In the present day, Lynn - the current incarnation of the Forest Child - attempted to save Gaia from her weakness by training to use their power. After training in Maple World, Lynn and the Spirit Guides realized that they had grown much stronger together. Because of this, they decided to return to the Eternal Forest in order to awaken the Forest Master. There, they began facing off against the Eternal Rest monsters which had appeared at the spring. As they fought, Hypnos' voice began speaking aloud in fragments, declaring that eternal slumber would descend upon the forest.

The Spirit Guides realized that the voice seemed familiar, and they soon concluded that the voice had been erasing their memories of its existence. Suddenly, Hypnos' dark voice called out again, declaring that now was the perfect time, for when the forest would cast its shadow, eternal slumber would descend upon it. Upon hearing his voice, Lynn instinctually recalled the fact that the dark voice belonged Hypnos, though she was unable to remember who he was. Suddenly, Hypnos' dark energy began surging throughout the forest, causing his Eternal Rest mark to appear on the sleeping Forest Master, much to everyone's shock.

Though Lynn fervently attempted to use her healing abilities, she was unable to erase the curse mark, which caused the Forest Master to grow even smaller and weaker. Overcome with guilt over her inability to save the forest, as well as the actions of her past lives, Lynn was able to recall that the Forest Master's name was Gaia. By recalling Gaia's name, Lynn was able to help Gaia manifest into her fully awakened form. However, to everyone's shock, Gaia quickly began weakening again from Hypnos' curse.

In order to save Gaia, Paeon the Life Guardian chose to sacrifice himself in order to give Gaia back the power that she had once given him. The shock of losing Paeon caused Lynn to fully awaken as the Forest Child, allowing her to bring back both Paeon and Gaia. Just then, Hypnos' voice denounced Lynn by claiming that the ignorance of being bound by mere memory was always the same. He then proclaimed that now that he had stepped foot into the Dark Forest, everything had become meaningless. Arriving at the Samsara Spring at last, Hypnos – a black and purple deer with bramble-like horns – spoke aloud to Gaia and told her that it was time to put an end to their relationship once and for all before unleashing purple flames that burned down the Great Tree at the center of the spring.

Though Lynn was unable to remember much about Hypnos besides his name, she was nevertheless able to feel the immense malevolence inside him, causing her to recall that Hypnos had once attacked the Samsara Spring in the past in order to destroy Gaia, and that she and the other Spirit Guides had stopped him. Vowing that she would protect everyone once again, Lynn warned Hypnos to stay away from Gaia, to which Hypnos disdainfully told Lynn to keep his name out of her filthy mouth, noting that the eyes of her current incarnation held the same disgusting look after so many ages.

However, he explained that he had, at last, come to realize that the source of her rebirth was never in the spring, but rather, it was in the tree. He then declared that he would destroy it completely in order to break the reincarnation cycle and punish Gaia for disrupting his rule of order. Lynn and the Spirit Guides then engaged in a fierce battle against Hypnos and managed to defeat him, leaving his fate unknown. Despite their victory, however, they were shocked to find that Gaia had begun to disappear with the destruction of the Great Tree. Because of his actions, Hypnos was successfully able to exact his revenge by destroying Gaia and putting an end to the reincarnation cycle, ensuring that Lynn and the Spirit Guides would never again be reborn to the Eternal Forest.

NPC

Eternal Forest

Samsara Spring

Hypnos
Location	Samsara Spring

Gallery

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  NPC artwork of Hypnos
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  NPC artwork of Hypnos
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  NPC artwork of Hypnos

Trivia

• Hypnos' existence as an Ancient God leads to several contradictions between this storyline and the official KMS storyline:
  • Hypnos is capable of being harmed by the Forest Child, who holds the power of Gaia. Although it is said that Gaia's power matches that of Hypnos, it is not stated that Gaia is an Ancient God. As Lynn does not make any mention of it, despite explicitly recognizing Hypnos as an Ancient God, as well as sensing 'familiar' power in Shinsoo, who is also an Ancient God, it is probable that Gaia was not intended to be an Ancient God. This leaves a continuity error in regard to what kind of being Gaia, and why she holds the power to match that of a higher being.
  • Hypnos remains awake during the era of the Transcendents, despite being an Ancient God. Currently, Shinsoo is the only Ancient God who remains awake in the present day, with this arrangement implied to have been from an understanding with the Overseers, as Shinsoo guards the Empress' bloodline in anticipation of a replacement Transcendent appearing as the Empress' descendant in the future. Other Ancient Gods, such as Abraxas, Keira, and Satiras, have their power weakly manifest, but they themselves remain sealed away, making Hypnos' ability to remain awake and active a plot hole. One possibility to explain this could be that Hypnos' power as the Ancient God of slumber allows him to remain awake.
  • Despite these plot holes, however, Hypnos does not exist in the official KMS continuity, meaning that these plot holes can be disregarded as negligible, with the KMS lore about the Ancient Gods only being ancillary to Lynn's storyline, rather than any need for it to be strictly adhered to.