Of Love and Greed
Ungnyeo and her husband, Hwanung, watched over the Mortal Realm, and life, harmony, and balance flourished amongst all beings. With the birth of Dangun, their beloved son, the god of Earth believed his happiness complete.
As the days, months, and years passed, he grew afraid of his wife’s mortality. Even if she lived a hundred years, it would be but a moment for a god, and Hwanung could not bear to lose her so quickly. More and more, he longed to take Ungnyeo to a place that would imbue her with near immortality.
The Realm of Four Kingdoms understood greed and selfishness.
Rather than using their disproportionate powers for good, the Shinbiin used it to sequester the Realm of Four Kingdoms and hoard the magic for themselves.
They chose to forget they were all beings of the Cheon’gwang and looked down on everyone less powerful than them.
Hwanung had always shunned their ways, but in his fear and desperation, he convinced Ungnyeo to live as a shinbiin—as someone who didn’t know illness or endure injuries. For his sake. The god of Earth did not tell his wife that the Shinbiin’s powers were begotten from theft of the worst kind.
Ungnyeo believed mortality to be a gift, and injury and illness to be a part of life. Its fleeting, fragile nature was what made life so unbearably beautiful, so precious. But she loved her husband and followed him to the Realm of Four Kingdoms to ease his suffering.
True love was selfless, and too late would Hwanung realize that his manipulations came from greed, not love.