Backstory

Moon Chae Won was born a child of premarital sex. As punishment to her parents, she was sealed inside a wood and iron box, and cast out to the sea of Tereng Pur.

Starving, and wrought with fury, Moon Chae Won tried to scream; but her dehydrated throat only allows hissing rasps of breath. When her rage subsided, she heard gentle tapping at the sides of her box . She listens to the gentle taps converge at the top of the box, where there is a small hole to allow her to breathe. Outside of this hole, at first she sees glowing red eyes, and a long serpentine body of a black watersnake.

As it pulls itself through the small hole, and flops to the ground, it is soon followed by several more of its kind.

One of the larger snakes raises its head, but rather than opening its mouth to reveal fangs, it instead expels fish from its mouth, to its new companion. Another snake provides her with Sintu Berries, a bitter berry found at the seabed of Tereng Pur which provides drops of fresh water when bitten.

Too hungry to think, she ate the gifts without question. As she ate the snakes began to entwine about her person, one of them resting loosely around her neck, hissing in her ear as a mother would hush a frightened child.

After many months at sea, Chae Won’s vessel ground ashore. Where, she did not know.

It was a long while before this strange box was investigated by the natives. Pokes and prods at the walls of her prison. When the seal was broken, and the lid flung open, the natives gasped in fear and awe at what was inside.

It was decided that the coming of this child, in the company of the black watersnake, bode ill for the island. The chief of the Jeju people called for her death lest their patron deity, Son Ogong, be angered.

As the tribes folk reached in to extract the child from the box, the snakes rose around her, defending their adopted kin from danger. The watersnakes tried to attack the villagers, but were stayed by the word of their adopted daughter.

The villagers, astounded by this feat, considered this a great sign. She was heralded a deity.

Those that regarded her with doubt had their fears assuaged, as Chae Won wove her newfound spell upon them. [ ⇦ Bunny to fix this bit!] In time, the entire isle of Jeju bowed at her feet, considering her a goddess, and worshipping her. With a word, they would bring her wealth and plenty. In return, she would bestow her teachings and love unto her children, as her companions had done for her for those years at sea.

None of this went unnoticed, however. Son Ogong grew angry at this mere child, and descended from the heavens with the intent of killing her. When he began searching for this child, he was lead to believe that Chae Won had hidden herself inside of her iron prison. He opened the box and climbed inside, only to have the door of the prison sealed behind him by the very people that worshipped him before. The iron prison was then buried deep under the salt plates of the nearby island of Koleang. The prison of iron, the thick plates of salt, and the bones of a thousand serpents served as a barrier, so that Son Ogong would never be heard from again.

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