Jinu

Four hundred years ago, Jinu lived a life of poverty with his mother and younger sister. The three of them belonged to the lowest class of society, scraping by in a world that offered them little kindness. Their days were shaped by hunger and hardship, and Jinu’s only possession of value was a worn bipa, a traditional Korean lute that he would play on street corners to earn a few coins, though never enough to lift them out of their poor life.

One fateful day, Jinu was contacted by Gwi-Ma, a cunning and ancient demon king cloaked in flattery and false promises. Gwi-Ma whispered of a better life, one of wealth and without hunger. The demon king offered Jinu a way out of his suffering. Desperate and weary, Jinu accepted the offer without hesitation.

With the pact he had signed with Gwi-Ma, he gained good fortune and the gates of a grand palace opened to Jinu because of his heavenly voice. There, his days were filled with feasts and his nights were spent on silk sheets; he was dressed in fine robes, and given a status he had never imagined. But when he turned to bring his mother and sister with him, palace guards blocked their path. Jinu had not realized his deal with Gwi-Ma only lifted him from poverty. In his longing to escape his own suffering, he willfully abandoned his family who were left even worse off without him. Though he continued to live in grandeur, his deal with Gwi-Ma had its consequences, and the weight of what he had done became worse than the poverty he had fled.

As the years passed, the guilt and shame of Jinu's misdeed began to manifest. Patterns crept across his body from his pact with Gwi-Ma while he saw visions of the demon king, hearing his voice in his mind and amplifying his torment. The more he regretted, the more the patterns spread. Eventually, the curse completed its work and Jinu became a demon bound in servitude to the very demon who had seduced him. Jinu spent the next several centuries aiding Gwi-Ma, though only when it served his own interests and was still haunted by the memories of abandoning his family.

In time, Jinu encountered others like him, once-human souls who had made their own dark bargains and bore the same infernal patterns of Gwi-Ma. These fellow demons became his cronies and group mates of the Saja Boys.

Gwi-Ma's continuous reign was put on halt by the first generation of demon hunters who used their voices and music to create a barrier called the "Honmoon" which was powered by their fans and trapped all demonic entities beneath it, preventing them from entering the mortal realm and only able to enter through weak spots. Centuries passed, and Gwi-Ma was left weakened while the hunters would soon be on the verge of turning this barrier into the "Golden Honmoon", which would in turn vanquish him and his demonic kindred into the underworld for eternity.

Meanwhile, Jinu saw this as his opportunity to finally forget all about his guilt and misery. By aiding Gwi-Ma and helping him destroy the Honmoon as well as the Hunters, he would be repaid by having him erase his painful memories.