First of all: this book was NOT inspired by August D's Daechwita! This idea is more than a year old and only because of Corona I was able to write it eventually. But you may take Daechwita and Hwarang as a reference for the era this story is set in.

Second: Disclaimers/Triggers. This story describes era-typical violence like beheading, stabbing, poisoning, mutilation and such things. If I consider a scene to be very depictive, I will say so beforehand and mark the paragraphs, so that you can skip it. It does not happen often though. That said, there are minor character deaths in this book.

Now about this story. I'm a major fan of Chinese Wuxia/Costume drama such as The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty or The Untamed (consider this a recommendation), so I wanted to write a FF of BTS in that age. I've never seen one in that setting before, which was another motivator to start this and pull through. And true to the nature of this genre, it will be a slow-burn story and you'll get to know a shit ton of names and characters. But more on that later.

This book is placed during the era of the three kingdoms (around 600 AD), which are Goguryeo in the north, Baekje in the south-west, and Silla in the south-east. I'm going to ignore Gaya and make it a part of Silla. I chose Daejeon and Daegu as the respective capitals even though that is not historically correct (I only dug into the history during writing).

Now I am going to explain some things about that age.

Looks: Everyone wore their hair long, men too. Short hair was a sign of slavery or being lowborn. The clothes (of men and women) consisted of so-called undergarments which are trousers and a thin long-sleeved jacket (they were also used as sleeping clothes), several layers of outer robes which were of finer fabric for rich people and decorated, a sash belt that fixes the outer robes around the waist, socks and boots, and hair décor. The hair décor for women were pins and needles, men wore their hair in a topknot around which rich people wore so-called sangtugwans. Headbands were optional. Unmarried men wore their hair open, married man completely bound into the topknot.

Language/Education: Korea still used Chinese characters at this time and only the higher society knew how to read and write. Women did not have the same access to education like men. They were mostly illiterate unless they were princesses or women of noble blood. They were expected to know things like embroidery and painting.

Courtesy: Men would bow to show respect, women would curtsy. Also, in ancient times it was common to call everyone "(young) master/mistress" by default even if they were not technically a master/mistress of a household. It is to show respect to the other. It is/was very impolite when you address(ed) people older or in higher positions than yourself with "you" or their given name. Back in ancient times, people have been severely punished by royalty for stuff like that. On the opposite, people in low positions would talk of themselves as "this servant" or "this soldier" etc. to show that they know their place.

Palace: In the palace certain rules were applied. For example, when you greet the king, you do it on your knees until he allows you to rise (but that might be solemnly for China). Also, the king chooses one of his sons as his official heir and crowns him crown prince. As for the government back then called court: the king's word is absolute, but he still has ministers to discuss politics and fulfil the edicts. You will get to know a few ministries in this book.

The palace in Seoul was the muster for my palace in Daegu, so I advise you to walk through the palace with Google Street View to get an impression of what I am talking about.

My palace gardens:

My palace:

Harem: It was not uncommon for rich men (especially royalty) to have several women. Only one was considered the wife and thereby head of the harem, any other woman which had been married to the man was called consort, and women who were not married to the man but lived with the family as kind of a sexual interest were called concubines. Also, for the royal family of Silla incest was accepted to keep the blood clean, sisters would be married to brothers (at least if one can trust Hwarang, but I do not put it beyond the people of the past). Please keep this in mind for this book.

Homosexuality: Homosexuality was not as unaccepted as it might come across here. During the time of the three kingdoms, in which this story is settled, it was not uncommon for kings to have male lovers or even male 'concubines' in their harem. As long as a king would still produce an heir, no one would object. Only after the three kingdoms have been united to the Joseon Dynasty, Confucianism ruined that liberal state of mind. Still, a Goguryeo king who had a harem of men has been killed by his minsters for being too effeminate, and royal women were punished with death for having a relationship with maidservants. You can say it was tolerated for men. Interesting fact: there existed homoerotic porn illustrations.

Family: In old times, because families had many children, uncles/aunts would be numbered by age (at least in China). Hence, Jimin will be the fourth uncle in my book. Also, family was really important during that age and many generations would live together, so that the young people could care for the old. Crazy fact: women were expected to give up their family after marriage and to take care of the parents of her husband. That much about preference of a son...

Other stuff: beds and pillows were made of wood and only rich people could afford to make it softer with a thick blanket as mattress and a wrapping around the pillow block. Windows did not have glass. The beautiful ones with patterns used paper to block out the wind and still allow some light in. Another kind of window was a simple square hole in the wall that was closed with wooden blinds.

The families in this book:

The Kim family is the royal family of Silla. Namjoon is the crown prince and son of dead queen Jang, Jin is the first prince (he is not the crown prince because he is the son of concubine Oh), and Taehyung the third prince and son of the second wife of the king, consort Kang. Namjoon has an older sister Jinhwee (Glam member), who is married to the emperor of Goguryeo Bang Inkyu, and Taehyung has an older sister Dahee (Glam member), who is married to Park Bogum. Also, Namjoon is married to Yoon Soojin (Glam member).

The Park family is the military family who is in control of the army. General Park (Sung Dongil who played the head of Hwarang school) and minister Park Sungwoong (Method, The Swindlers, New World, The Dude in Me) are half-brothers of different mothers. General Park is the father of Jimin, his brother Jihyun, and his sister Jiyeon (Glam) (May I add that this family constellation makes me very happy because all the siblings share the same first syllable in their names which was common back then and is still done in some families in Korea). Minister Park is the father of Park Hyungsik (the prince in Hwarang and smart guy in the Korean version of Suits), Park Bogum (actor in Hello Monster and Love in the Moonlight), and adoptive son Park Seojoon (the Hawarang leader in Hwarang and Park Saeroyi in Itaewon Class).

As you can see, all the characters are real people. You can look everyone up. I only made up names for the children and characters who do not appear in person such as the dead queen and several officers of the army of Baekje.

Now I wish everyone a great read. It is my first story of this genre, so please leave many comments what you think about it.

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