The Legend & Adventures of Tae & Kwon

The following piece before I cut to 35 words for Longline. An Adventure beyond time; A legend from an ancient Kingdom. A dark force, a deadly combat art. A Prince. A Princes. Another time. One mission. They are not alone. But when there's no one in sight, the region hums with the echoes of a great civilisation that disappeared long, long ago. A Legend of the Ancient Kingdom and a deadly combat art inscribed on cave walls and lost to history. A Dark Force has found the cave and released its Evil Fighters in a Power and Profit quest. But Two Young Heroes will emerge from the cave to pursue the dark force and carry the ancient battle into the 21st century. Weak and exposed in appearance, but powerful when unleashed. One's reactions may start afterwards, but the response arrives there first. Quote by Yuh Niuy. The Legend It is told three thousand years ago, the Mongolian Kingdom of Shilla, under the leadership of a group of monks, developed an elaborate new system of hand-foot combat called Soo Bak. The system was based on principles of body, mind, and soul and centered not on war but a philosophy of non-violence and personal well-being. In times of hardship and famine and known for their generosity, the dynasty also pledged never to wage war on its neighbors. When a young Shilla prince approached the Supreme Emperor Chong, he suggested a better way to settle differences between neighboring states. The Emperor was impressed. He commanded every Kingdom to send teams of their best martial artists to compete in a grand tournament. Each Kingdom would pit their unarmed combat skills against those of neighboring states, and the winning Kingdom would earn the right to rule the empire for the next five hundred years. More than three thousand, mainly male competitors took part in the tournament. After a grueling seven-day contest, a shy young woman from the Mongolian Kingdom of Shilla emerged as the ultimate victor, and the crowd fell into shocked silence. Her skill and style were unique. No one had seen such an exhibition before. Had the ancient Shilla dynasty introduced a new concept in martial arts? But now that the skills and style of Soo Bak’s displayed at the grand tournament, it was important to ensure that this pure form was not corrupted or allowed to fall into the wrong hands. The Mongolian prince who accompanied his martial arts team to the contest, and who was to marry the victor later, again approached the Supreme Emperor. Emperor Chong commissioned his best scribes and artists to set down on parchment the complete history of the martial arts, including that of Soo Bak. In an almost hidden labyrinth of caves far from the capital Tungka, the artists drew life-sized murals on the large cave walls of people practicing all manner of early martial arts. Over the decades' tombs were laid down, and the once shy Mongolian victor, and later Queen, was buried there. It is said that the ancient spirits watched over her and all her descendants. But all was not well. The Soo family, rulers of the small Soo kingdom, had long plotted to destroy the Shilla dynasty and secure the ancient parchments. They were determined to take possession of the ancient writings and drawings by any means; not to keep them, but to corrupt Soo Bak and sell the parchments on the ‘black market’ to anyone willing to buy them, such as a government or museum, archaeological team or historical society. It was imperative to get the scribes’ work into trusted hands. The opportunity to do so came once every five hundred years when, as the last stroke of midnight ushered in the next century, two chosen cave figures would ‘come to life’ and emerge from the wall. For these chosen ones to leave the cave and carry the parchments into safe hands, someone from the outside world must open the external cave. However, as each half-millennium passed, the power of the figures to materialize in this way diminished, and the year 1999 would mark the last chance.