ForPain

Dear (whoever's reading this).

TLDR (for lazy people like me): I believe that official material released by Nexon heavily implies that Aria's Soul survived and is currently residing in the Skaia. And so I believe that Maplestory Staff should add a quest for the Phantom Plotline. In the quest, Phantom discovers that Aria's soul survived and embarks on a journey that results in the resurrection of Aria.

Let's face it - if you've ever played or seen Phantom's storyline firsthand, you have got to applaud whoever's behind this hero's personality depth and background.

Phantom is, at least for me, one of the characters with the most engaging plots. Sure - all characters are specifically designed but few are actually tied to real-time NPCs and Key characters in the Maple World.

At this post I shall elaborate on a small suggestion I had that would be, in my opinion, a nice addition to Phantom's quest based on proven, existing materials released by Nexon for it "Maplestory Secret Story Fanbook - Q&A With Phantom". First of all, I shall elaborate a little bit on the main points of Phantom's plotline:

- One of the Heroes who helped defeat the Black Mage.
- Had his lover, Empress Aria, killed by Black Mage's Commanders - Lotus and Orchid. This amazing plot material ties him directly to Orchid, Lotus and Cygnus, who is Aria's Niece. It is also implemented very well in the Blockbuster Content - "Black Haven" and "Heroes", providing Phantom with exclusive content when interacting with Orchid and Cygnus (Good job Nexon!).
- A once free-spirited, independent thief who is now caged by a desire to avenge the fallen Aria, and holds a two-dimensional personality:
- on the surface he seems like the usual free-spirited Phantom.
- on some cases he demonstrates a colder, more harsh side that is, by assumption, a result of Aria's Depth - fighting Luminous at the "Hero" Blockbuster when the latter
insinuated Aria's death was "petty", a complete change of demeanor when the memory of Phantom assaulting Lotus and Orchid is played in "Black Haven" as a part of
Orchid's memory, and, if you played "Black Haven" with Phantom - a complete change of behavior when he encounters the memories of Aria's death.
- not a part of Maple World's heroes as a part of a desire to create a better world, but as a part of more selfish, realistic ideals that a person should have.

Now then, onwards to my suggestion:

It is important to begin with the fact that my suggestion will mostly be tied to Aria's Status in the world. Her death was, at least to me, tragic and really emotional. I believe that, although Aria, eventually, appeared in the Phantom Questline as a spirit, her appearance did little to provide closure for me and so it spurred me on to bring this suggestion based on the VERY SUGGESTIVE themes I encountered when reading an OFFICIALLY released Maplestory content book by Nexon.

When Aria first appeared in Phantom's plotline, she really seemed to be coming out of nowhere. However, this is not truly the case.

A Nexon fanbook called "Maplestory - Secret Story" officially issued by Nexon has an entire section dedicated to "interviewing Phantom". This helped viewing this whole matter in a different light. In the interview, the narrators ask Phantom a variety of questions and one of his answers, specifically when concerning Aria's sudden appearance as a spirit to save him when he was under Lotus' control, is mostly as follows: "Who would've guessed that she would appear from the Skaia held by Cygnus?"

A link to a scan of the the official Q&A paper where Phantom states that:

https://i.imgur.com/qKs9NnF.jpg

I will say again - this is actual, legitimate content released by Nexon.

Aria's spirit didn't come out of nowhere to save Phantom - she came out from the Skaia that Cygnus was holding when Phantom was about to kill her. This is a very important detail in my suggestion, considering the powerful, repeating motive in Maple World when it comes to the following topics:
1. Death is, apparently, not the end and there is obviously life-after death can occur (Afterlands? Aria and Lotus as Spirits in Phantom's Storyline?) / resurrection and revival are possible (in Black Haven content - the protagonist is brought back from the dead, Lotus is somehow brought back from the dead albeit in the worst scenario imagined) / reincarnation (most notably - Lania in Luminous' storyline is a reincarnated soul), etc.
2. Magic exists in Maple World (Wizard Lizard), most notably for my suggestion - Magic related to imbuing Items with SOULS.

Despite the fact that I've written a very long exposition for my plotline suggestion, it's pretty simple and, if you're saturated enough from Maplestory-cliche - this one is not as cliche as some of the existing content - it is very vague in terms of elaboration as I'm NOT a fanfiction author:

1. A quest for Phantom Post-Black Mage content (Level 275) reveals that the Skaia was, in fact, IMBUED with Aria's Soul upon the Empress' Death by Shinsoo as a final-countermeasure to save the Empress. This further sheds a whole new light on Shinsoo's request for Phantom in his past: "The Skaia, you must take it". In Aria's Diary, given to Phantom by Cygnus at Level 200, it's stated that the Skaia is just a plain rock that Aria spread rumors about to attract Phantom because she wanted to meet him. If that is true, and Shinsoo is obviously aware of it, it would actually serve no purpose for Shinsoo to urge Phantom to take the Skaia after Aria's death. Unless, somehow, the Skaia's significance SOMEHOW CHANGED by then.
2. Phantom embarks to find Shinsoo using the Lumiere's Intelligence Department. Existing materials in Maplestory already revealed that Shinsoo left Cygnus and is currently resting in Leafre.
3. A confrontation and Dialogue with Shinsoo reveals that she did not mention the Skaia matter to Phantom up until now due to various reasons:
- Political Reasons (at the beginning of Phantom's storyline, with the appearance of Hilla who impersonated an Empress of Ereve, the "Ereve Congress" claimed that Ereve
cannot be torn between two Empresses in such dire times when the Black Mage threat is looming. The same obviously implies for the matter of Aria's Soul enduring death
within the Skaia, which can possibly tear Ereve even further - the legitimate Empress lives)
- Magical Reasons - Aria's Soul only recently gathered enough strength to manifest as a spirit. Let's remember that Aria's Soul had an estimated amount of 400 Years to
recover - the Skaia was in Phantom's possession up until the Black Mage's curse was lifted.
3. After a dialogue which can be heated or emotional, depends on how the Plot Writers decide to write it down, a conclusion is made as a result of pressure from Phantom and Shinsoo's knowledge (Shinsoo had also been resurrected and returned from Death by Cygnus) - Aria's Soul is strong enough to be resurrected. A series of quests ensue to provide Phantom with a method to resurrect Aria in secret, as to not Politically tear apart Ereve. It is implied in Aria's Diary that she wants to be freed from Empress duties. Well - here's your chance.
4. A series of mini-quests can involve monster / item hunting for spiritual figures such as "The Rememberer" (who previously helped Phantom with Lotus' Spirit), the Soul Researcher (who obviously specializes in Soul Items). etc. Phantom and Shinsoo will be communicating all-the-while and establish a nice relationship that is unprecedented in Maplestory until now.
5. Aria is revived in secret in the presence of Shinsoo, Phantom, and whoever they recruited to help them along the way.
6. Now no longer the ruling Empress of Ereve, Aria joins Phantom's crew in the Lumiere.
7. Now Luminous isn't the only one with an implied-lover in his Storyline residing at his base. Suck it Luminous.

END.

Anyways, so far for my horrendously long post. It's a long-shot but at least I managed to get it out of my chest. Personally, I've been a long-time Maplestory player ever since the First Anniversary of Maple (the only classes were explorers and it took forever to reach level 30 or accumulate 1 Million Mesos). I've been on-and-off playing but I've never been so drawn to virtual content like I was drawn to Phantom's storyline.

Hope you enjoyed.

Best Regards,

ForPain.

UPDATE (1-29-2019): I found the original source material that is the foundation for my suggestion - URL is: https://i.imgur.com/qKs9NnF.jpg