Hello

This time, the keyword is Blood Moon, and I wanted to write about elements in Nexon games that give off that dark crimson feeling, like a blood moon

This is an AI-generated image

A red moon, more than anything, creates an atmosphere that feels eerie, yet deeply memorable. In this post, I looked for elements in MapleStory that carry that same feeling

Root Abyss and Bloody Queen

Root Abyss, where Damian's four servants guard the sealed World Tree, presents a dark atmosphere that suits this theme well

Among the four, Pierre brings out that mood through the red roses and the moon. Even so, the boss that combines crimson light and darkness most clearly is Bloody Queen

To begin with, the Queen's Palace itself is built around red tones, and red light spills in through the windows as well. On top of that, there were some especially memorable effects, ones you could not see in KMS, but could see in overseas versions of MapleStory

They were the blood-tear effect, and other red effects that immediately call blood to mind. In Korea, I have heard that, along with the hands seen in Pierre's sandwich, they were censored and never brought over, and while that is understandable, it is still a little disappointing, because if they had been included, I think Bloody Queen would have felt even more striking as a boss monster

El Nath Mountains region

The mountain range around El Nath also has a distinctly dark atmosphere

First of all, Lion King's Castle in this region feels even darker when you take in Von Leon's tragic story alongside it. The old-fashioned but worn castle, and the reddish clouds hanging around it, create a very beautiful atmosphere

Inside the castle where Von Leon resides, lava openly flows, so the red-and-black mood comes through even more strongly. Its presence has faded now that it has become a daily boss many players no longer fight, but Von Leon's story is still worth seeing, so if it interests you, I would recommend looking into it at least once. At present, after story revisions, it has been properly brought to a conclusion

Even on the road toward the back of the Abandoned Mine, where the atmosphere begins to settle in more fully, that darkness stands out, and when you remember that the Liches and zombies were all once humans who lived in El Nath, it feels fairly unsettling, even if the dot sprites themselves look cute

If you go all the way to the end of the Abandoned Mine, closer to Zakum, you can see an atmosphere that matches this theme especially well. In-game, people do not really hunt Zakum itself much anymore, and even when they enter, it is summoned right away, so there are not many chances to stop and look, but the Devil Tree, which forms Zakum's main body, taking the shape of a screaming human figure, is quite memorable. No matter how many times I look at it, it still feels like an extremely well-designed boss monster in many ways, especially as one of the earliest boss monsters

Crimsonwood, now forgotten

As things are now, this feels like one of those places many players have either forgotten entirely, or never knew in the first place. I had forgotten about it for quite a while as well, and only remembered it again while writing this post, so I stopped by for the first time in a long while. As you can see above, it can only be accessed through that button in the Maple Guide, it does not even appear on the world map, and all of its related main quests have been deleted, so at this point it is hard not to see it as an unfortunate region

When you enter through the Maple Guide, you arrive at this map, and true to the region's name, it shows a castle washed in a reddish glow. It shares the same sparse, abandoned feeling as Lion King's Castle, but because it is even more forgotten than that area, it feels more isolated still

If you press the Return to Town button, you are moved to the top of the fortress. From there, you can move to some of the maps

First, the four portals above lead to maps with layouts similar to the ones you just saw, and each of them has 2 maps

To its credit, each map does feature different monsters without much overlap

The other portals let you encounter the monsters above, and as of now, there is not much here that especially stands out

Through the statue in the center, you can play a total of 3 mini-games. I tried them all to see what they gave, but aside from a very small amount of experience, there is really nothing to gain, and the difficulty is only irritating enough to be frustrating, so I absolutely would not recommend them

If you only look this far, you might end up wondering what this map is even for, and I felt the same way, so I looked it up. It turns out this used to be a place with a Party Quest, and even an exclusive story quest as well

The patch that removed those quests was fairly recent, on April 17, 2025, and at present the area functions only for Monster Collection. Since the story reorganization established MapleStory's third region as Masteria, and this place is tied to demons and to Masteria, the fairly persuasive view is that it was removed in advance so it could be addressed more deeply in a later story

Even the statues in maps that can no longer be visited, and the area's individual elements themselves, feel like they could create a remarkably atmospheric space if used well, so I find myself looking forward to whatever later patches do with it

The original Black Mage

Lastly, the Black Mage is, in many ways, a figure that fits this theme perfectly. Starting with the character himself, black forms the base, while a red aura is emphasized throughout, and it looks striking

Not just the throne where the Black Mage resides, of course,

but also the bodyguards, the black chains, the Death Count UI, and the various attack patterns, all of it is arranged in a way that suits the main body's atmosphere, so the overall presence feels tremendous

The atmosphere of phases 1 and 2 is, after all, closer to what players had expected from the Black Mage, so there are also opinions expressing some disappointment with phases 3 and 4. It does not really match this post's keyword, but if you view it as an attempt to embody the new world the Black Mage dreamed of, then personally, I quite like it

Thank you for reading