#50. Jaeyun

Lore

The Sellsword

"The famed warrior sauntered into the square. He declared that for the fight to be fair, he would use only a wooden stick. Hearing this, the Mountain Giant lost his nerve and fled."

– Tales of The Sellsword

"I remember that one. I'd lost my sword and armor playing tujeon, but I took the job because I needed the money. Lucky break finding that stick. 

– Jaeyun, thumbing through a copy

As the story goes...

The legendary mercenary Jaeyun traveled the seas of the Old Kingdom on the back of his dragon turtle companion Imugi. As a soldier of fortune he won treasure beyond counting - at least he never counted it himself before he gambled it away. 

He earned three wishes in one day rescuing a unicorn-lion's soul from The Goblin King, but lost four wishes that night playing poker with a fox spirit and had to grant a wish himself. He earned ten thousand rubies and a huge magic sword on a job protecting the king from the shadow ninja Jiro, and managed to hang on to the sword. He earned 2 copper/hour delivering barbecue. Work is work. 

His most famous task was his epic five year quest to help Imugi become a true dragon. His least famous job was the time he lost an eye getting a cat out of a tree. 

Jaeyun loves Valhalla, though regrets teaching Fait to play tujeon. In the arena, he loves side bets and bets heavily on himself. The year he won the Grand Tournament, he put everything on "In the final match, Jaeyun will be the first to greet his opponent" and lost a fortune when Kaya was quick and in a good mood that day. 

Connections

• (No mentions of Jaeyun in other legends' lore pages have yet been found)

Context

A few fundamental facts about this legend are not made clear in his lore, but were shared by the BMG developers themselves elsewhere. For example, although there is no obvious mention of Korea in Jaeyun's lore, BMG devs have confirmed that he is the first Korean character in Brawlhalla (Source, begin at 24:20). Also, a fun fact is that Jaeyun's name was given to him by none other than well-known Brawlhalla artist Calamari-Pop. She didn't make it clear why she chose that name in particular, but it is certainly a Korean name, as evidenced by the fact that Jaeyun is the name of a member of TOO (a k-pop performing group).

It's not entirely clear when Jaeyun lived in Korean history. If we assume the Hanbok Jaeyun skin to be in any way canon (hanbok refers to traditional Korean clothing, so the canonicity of the skin is not too crazy of an idea), then looking at the origin and development of the hanbok (especially the black transparent gat) tells us that Jaeyun could very well be from either early in the Three Kingdoms of Korea era or more likely the Joseon dynasty era. It is interesting to note that the black gat in the Joseon period was typically restricted to men who passed a civil service examination called the gwageo. Maybe Jaeyun spent some time in civil service before becoming a mercenary?

I had a hard time finding much information about mercenaries or "sellswords" in historical Korea, but perhaps wherever there are soldiers, there could very well be those who fight for some extra coin. Speaking of coin, Jaeyun earned 2 copper an hour for delivering barbeque. It seems that copper coins were not in wide circulation in Korea until the start of the Joseon period, so that is evidence that Jaeyun likely lived during or after that. 

Tujeon is mentioned a couple of times in Jaeyun's lore. In a very basic sense, it's like the Korean version of poker cards. The fact that they were used in the latter half of the Joseon dynasty is additional evidence that Jaeyun likely lived between 1600 and 1900 AD. It seems the term tujeon refers more to the playing cards themselves, rather than the name of a game. Though games are sometimes named after the things you use to play it. Case in point, the most popular game played with these cards was called gabo japgi, but this name is used interchangeably with tujeon. 

Swords have certainly served a vital role in Korea's defense throughout the centuries. It was hard to find anything that specifically referenced "greatswords" or similar in Korean history, but several other cultures have swords of a "normal" size, as well as the large two-handed varieties. The fact that Jaeyun is the first legend to have two swords is certainly quite appropriate for this "sellsword."