Post by redsycorax on Jan 16, 2024 3:15:31 GMT
Saengmyong-Sul was more colloquially known as the "Scarlet Vampire." He faced the legendary Captain Marvel in January 1953, but what was his existence like beyond that? Was he solely motivated by his desire for blood?
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GOGURYEO CRYPT, 1893:
Saenmyong-Sul Maseineun Ja was one of the core members of the feared Seukalles Baempaieo, or "Scarlet Vampires" as they were more colloquially known. Their name had nothing to do with any ostensible political philosophy, more their preferred banner and livery colouration, a vivid red. It might have referred to the colour of blood or have some other, lost significance. The Seukalles Baempaieo had been in existence for several hundred years, with varying degrees of engagement with human regimes on what would become the Korean peninsula along the way. They usually kept their distance, although there was some residual patriotism within their ranks. From the hallowed time of the Three Kingdoms (Goguryeo, Bakeje and Sillae), they found pragmatic leadership in the Northern successor kingdom of Bilhae gratefully accepted and rewarded their service with peasant blood. This continued into their unification into Goryeo and valiant service to their country during the Gorgyeo/Khitai War with the Liao Dynasty in China, Mongol invasions and resistance to Japanese hegemony in the nineteenth century. But then, however, their country lapsed into anarchy after the Japanese assassination of Queen Min, a fierce opponent of their expansionist, imperialist neighbour to their north. The Seukalles Baempaieo found acceptance of their feeding habits, as well as stability of their local environment which permitted it, endangered. Rather than risk being wiped out, they undertook a period of peak feeding in 1893 and then underwent Sugmyeon, the "Great Sleep."
1910-1948:
After his strong and effective consort's death, , the monarchy of King Gojong had become sclerotic and corrupt and the weak ruler had to accept a humiliating "security and defence" 'arrangement" with Japan in 1905. Weakness, division and anarchy heralded Japan's annexation in 1910. Despite a degree of fear, though, the Seukalles Baempaieo were also held in respect due to their historic patriotism and defence of the many configurations of their country. The malignant and sorcerous Japanese Black Dragon Society was wedded to a brutal and imperialistic brand of Shinto necromancy and darkmagick. It is probably best known for the "Captain Nippon" confrontations against the American mystery man "Captain Marvel Junior" in the 1940s, but they also pursued their own agenda within occupied eastern coastal China and Korea.
It is a matter of historical record that Imperial Japan tried to erase Korean cultural identity altogether and exploited its peasant labour force without adequate pay within miserable working conditions and under repressive and cruel rule. Even worse, the peasantry were forced to send significant proportions of their rice crop to Japan, leading to near-starvation conditions on the peninsula. The nightmare continued with atrocities committed within the Korean enclave of Yanbian within southeastern China after the Korean uprising there that had led to the Battle of Qingshanli in 1920, when five thousand Koreans were slaughtered in the reprisal Gando Massacre.
In 1923, unionised Korean workers in Yokohama were slaughtered after an earthquake shook the southern Japanese city and the Japanese army and police took the opportunity to unleash heinous repression against them. Altogether, six thousand died. A year beforehand, in northeastern Honshu, Korean workers on the Shinano River project perished after the Tokyo Electric Power Company decided to dispose of its shabbily treated Korean workers, killing six hundred of them and burying their bodies in cement, before casting them into the waterway. For once, decency prevailed, as the scale of the massacre became apparent and led to uproar in Nigata Prefecture, leading the Tokyo newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun to investigate in July 1922.
And then, in 1929, an event occurred that would have lasting significance. The Koshu Anti-Japanese Students Movement met with the usual repression and bloodshed by the Japanese occupation forces and independent Korean journalists, academics and clergy of many faiths abruptly disappeared, never to be seen again. In one notorious incident, twenty nine people were herded within a Korean Methodist church, which was then set aflame. However, this time, a wild card happened. A Korean Buddhist nun saw the spectacle and remembered what her grandmother had told her about the Seukalles Baempaieo. She disappeared from her convent and spent several weeks exploring the countryside in northeastern Korea, until she found the Goguryeo Crypt where the Suekalles Baempaeio had lain dormant for the last two decades. She awakened them with blood from her hand and explained the situation to them.
Vampires are usually depicted as hereditary parasites, temporally unmoored from their surroundings and with loyalty only to themselves. But that was not the case with Suekalles Baempaeio. They had lived in their nation for centuries and although some might have labelled their relationship with the Korean peasantry 'exploitative', they still loved their country. Unfortunately, they paid for that patriotism as Japan became increasingly dominated by right wing militarists and industrialists and many of their number perished in the turmoil of the Second World War. Leadership fell to Saenmyong-Sul Maseneun-Ja and he ordered reluctant withdrawal to Mongolia, across the Chinese border and an area of relative safety for the Suekalles Bampaeio's survivors. There, they replenished and recovered the depredations that the Japanese Empire had wrought against them. However, their sacrifice was not in vain.
In 1945, the years of turmoil and pain finally lifted, but it proved a prelude to a further period of dissension and unrest as the Soviet Union, United States and Chinese factions backed rival political movements within the Korean peninsula. In 1948, the rivalry led to partition into communist North Korea and an authoritarian, capitalist South Korea. However, with Chinese assistance, communist North Korea invaded their southern neighbour in 1950 and started the conflict known as the Korean War, which was waged for three years.
PYONGYANG, 1953:
In the communist regime's capital, at night, Saenmyong-Sul bowed and assessed the new overlord of his nation, Kim Il-Sung:
"You are welcome here, Saenmyong-Sul, as a patriot and ally of our peoples democracy of socialist North Korea. You and your people made many sacrifices on behalf of the liberation of the Korean people and it is with gratitude and hope that I make this offer."
Saenmyong-Sul guessed what was coming and his engorged mouth expanded in a cadaverous smile, amply demonstrating his row of razor-sharp fangs:
"And on behalf of the Suekalles Baempaeio, President, Supreme Commander and Chair of the Glorious Worker's Party of Korea, I accept this latter sacred trust with gratitude. As ever, you have our undivided loyalty and commitment to our motherland."
Kim Il-Sung cleared his throat:
"However, there will have to be some... changes... made to your service, noble Saenmyong-Sul. You can no longer feed on our rural workers. However, you have the Workers Party's full permission to drink from the bodies of the enemy who occupy the puppet state of South Korea. Do not feel inhibited. I know that as always, your patriotic bampaeio cadres will work tirelessly and with the admiration and gratitude of our peoples democracy on our behalf."
"Mister President, we regard this as an honour and sacred trust. We will not let you down."
GONGURYEO CRYPT, JANUARY 1953:
"Was this wise, Lord Saengmyong-Sul?"
Saengmyong-Sul sighed to himself. Vampires brooked no arbitary divisions of class or gender within their ranks and for this reason, he still valued the counsel of Myeondokal Yeoja, "Razor Woman". She had fought at his side for centuries and there was no deadlier ally in battle than this fierce and unyielding warrior woman.
"This is unusual, Myeondokal. You are usually in the vanguard of our number. Yet, despite the fact foul foreigners still stalk our beloved homeland and occupy our southern territories, you have suddenly developed reticence. Is there reason for your caution?"
"My Lord Saengmyong-Sul, we have survived numerous changes of regime and philosophy within this land of ours. This was not done without objectivity and strategy. You are aware that the human forces have fluctuated wildly in terms of the territory held over the last three years. Until China intervened on our behalf, the Workers Party in Pyongyang might have fallen to the Americans and their allies three years ago in December 1950, given that it almost occupied the whole of this newly minted statelet. Then, thankfully, the Peoples Vanguard Army did so, fought back against the Americans and their pawns and the situation stabilised. In geographical terms, despite odd feints, the partition is likely to endure. But North Korea will survive."
"We have starved and been humiliated by foreign occupiers too long, Myeondokal. This is no time for restraint or withdrawal."
"Then I suggest that we divide our forces, My Lord. And adopt subterfuge. Due to our Mongolian sojourn, intercepted military communications indicate that the Americans are aware of us but imperfectly. They have labelled us "Mongolian vampires." Please. Do this as a mark of respect to our long camaraderie and companionship on the battlefield."
Saengmyong-Sul was proud, but no fool. At length, he conceded the wisdom of Myeondokal's tactics, even if he did not share her sudden caution.
EPILOGUE: JANUARY 1953.
However, thousands of miles away, young WHIZ-TV broadcaster Billy Batson was entering the final hour of a marathon effort on the airwaves as part of a telethon to raise blood donations for the United Nations forces in South Korea. Which might have meant very little to Saengmyong-Sul, but the diminutive, eager child frontperson was secretly the celebrated action hero Captain Marvel. When the telethon was finally completed, despite his alter ego's exhaustion and with frozen and preserved blood supplies on hand, Billy Batson was still able to pronounce the transformative phrase that led to his magical metamorphosis into the World's Mightiest Mortal. Thus empowered and with the legendary strength of Hercules, the Captain gathered together the donated blood within a refridgerated container and ferried it across the sea to the thirty eighth parallel. As he alighted, he witnessed Saengmyong-Sul and his offensive Suekalles Bampaieo detachment descending en masse against American military hospitals, uttering American blood! Blood!
Consequently, the World's Mightiest Mortal made short work of the attackers, forcing their retreat. Captain Marvel sought subterfuge to lure the vampires out into the open and resumed his Billy Batson identity, but in his eagerness, he didn't realise that Billy's telethon induced fatigue had made it difficult for his alter ego to remain conscious and lucid. As a consequence, he was captured, along with the refridgerated blood supplies, and imprisoned in their provisional headquarters. However, due to inadequate communication about the risks attendant on their newfound captive, Billy was able to insure a gag came loose and spoke his magical phrase Shazam once more.
Liberated, he dealt summarily with the Suekalles Bampaeio detachment attacking the American hospitals by wielding a giant ceramic mirror, making it seem as if he was manipulating a fragment of the sun himself. Tracking the Bampaeio back to their lair, he broke a mighty tree asunder and using the speed of Mercury, impaled the attacking vampires en masse at the end of fatal stakes. Thus perished Saengmyong-Sul Maseineun Ja, or the "Scarlet Vampire" as he would come to be known, after a life of centuries, spent protecting and defending his homeland against its foreign assailants.
As one might guess, libellous caricature depicted Saenmyong-Sul as a voracious, murderous predator blindly loyal to the Pyongyang regime. However, in his homeland, things were somewhat different. There, he and the Suekalles Bampaeio are honoured as self-sacrificing patriots, who only sought to ensure their homeland's freedom from foreign domination and oppression and did so at the cost of their continued existence. Myeonkodal Yeoja and her cadre of Suekalles Bampaeio survived, and were honoured for their comrade's perceived loyalty to their country through a blood tariff assembled by North Korea's hospitals on their behalf. However, as far as Captain Marvel and his fellows were concerned, the Suekalles Bampaeio had wholly perished that day in January 1953. Soon after, the Korean War ended in August 1953 and they forgot that moment one evening at the thirty-eighth parallel.
As with other North Korean metahumans who fought for their country during those years, the Suekalles Bampaeio were retrospectively enlisted amongst the numbers of the Yeong-gwangsueleon minjog Seonbongae, or "Glorious People's Vanguard". And, the whereabouts of the survivors carefully redacted, that is how they are still remembered seventy years after the events described here.
THE END [4.15 PM, JANUARY 16, 2024]
Source: "Captain Marvel Fights the Mongol Blood Drinkers" Captain Marvel Adventures 140 (January 1953)
++
GOGURYEO CRYPT, 1893:
Saenmyong-Sul Maseineun Ja was one of the core members of the feared Seukalles Baempaieo, or "Scarlet Vampires" as they were more colloquially known. Their name had nothing to do with any ostensible political philosophy, more their preferred banner and livery colouration, a vivid red. It might have referred to the colour of blood or have some other, lost significance. The Seukalles Baempaieo had been in existence for several hundred years, with varying degrees of engagement with human regimes on what would become the Korean peninsula along the way. They usually kept their distance, although there was some residual patriotism within their ranks. From the hallowed time of the Three Kingdoms (Goguryeo, Bakeje and Sillae), they found pragmatic leadership in the Northern successor kingdom of Bilhae gratefully accepted and rewarded their service with peasant blood. This continued into their unification into Goryeo and valiant service to their country during the Gorgyeo/Khitai War with the Liao Dynasty in China, Mongol invasions and resistance to Japanese hegemony in the nineteenth century. But then, however, their country lapsed into anarchy after the Japanese assassination of Queen Min, a fierce opponent of their expansionist, imperialist neighbour to their north. The Seukalles Baempaieo found acceptance of their feeding habits, as well as stability of their local environment which permitted it, endangered. Rather than risk being wiped out, they undertook a period of peak feeding in 1893 and then underwent Sugmyeon, the "Great Sleep."
1910-1948:
After his strong and effective consort's death, , the monarchy of King Gojong had become sclerotic and corrupt and the weak ruler had to accept a humiliating "security and defence" 'arrangement" with Japan in 1905. Weakness, division and anarchy heralded Japan's annexation in 1910. Despite a degree of fear, though, the Seukalles Baempaieo were also held in respect due to their historic patriotism and defence of the many configurations of their country. The malignant and sorcerous Japanese Black Dragon Society was wedded to a brutal and imperialistic brand of Shinto necromancy and darkmagick. It is probably best known for the "Captain Nippon" confrontations against the American mystery man "Captain Marvel Junior" in the 1940s, but they also pursued their own agenda within occupied eastern coastal China and Korea.
It is a matter of historical record that Imperial Japan tried to erase Korean cultural identity altogether and exploited its peasant labour force without adequate pay within miserable working conditions and under repressive and cruel rule. Even worse, the peasantry were forced to send significant proportions of their rice crop to Japan, leading to near-starvation conditions on the peninsula. The nightmare continued with atrocities committed within the Korean enclave of Yanbian within southeastern China after the Korean uprising there that had led to the Battle of Qingshanli in 1920, when five thousand Koreans were slaughtered in the reprisal Gando Massacre.
In 1923, unionised Korean workers in Yokohama were slaughtered after an earthquake shook the southern Japanese city and the Japanese army and police took the opportunity to unleash heinous repression against them. Altogether, six thousand died. A year beforehand, in northeastern Honshu, Korean workers on the Shinano River project perished after the Tokyo Electric Power Company decided to dispose of its shabbily treated Korean workers, killing six hundred of them and burying their bodies in cement, before casting them into the waterway. For once, decency prevailed, as the scale of the massacre became apparent and led to uproar in Nigata Prefecture, leading the Tokyo newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun to investigate in July 1922.
And then, in 1929, an event occurred that would have lasting significance. The Koshu Anti-Japanese Students Movement met with the usual repression and bloodshed by the Japanese occupation forces and independent Korean journalists, academics and clergy of many faiths abruptly disappeared, never to be seen again. In one notorious incident, twenty nine people were herded within a Korean Methodist church, which was then set aflame. However, this time, a wild card happened. A Korean Buddhist nun saw the spectacle and remembered what her grandmother had told her about the Seukalles Baempaieo. She disappeared from her convent and spent several weeks exploring the countryside in northeastern Korea, until she found the Goguryeo Crypt where the Suekalles Baempaeio had lain dormant for the last two decades. She awakened them with blood from her hand and explained the situation to them.
Vampires are usually depicted as hereditary parasites, temporally unmoored from their surroundings and with loyalty only to themselves. But that was not the case with Suekalles Baempaeio. They had lived in their nation for centuries and although some might have labelled their relationship with the Korean peasantry 'exploitative', they still loved their country. Unfortunately, they paid for that patriotism as Japan became increasingly dominated by right wing militarists and industrialists and many of their number perished in the turmoil of the Second World War. Leadership fell to Saenmyong-Sul Maseneun-Ja and he ordered reluctant withdrawal to Mongolia, across the Chinese border and an area of relative safety for the Suekalles Bampaeio's survivors. There, they replenished and recovered the depredations that the Japanese Empire had wrought against them. However, their sacrifice was not in vain.
In 1945, the years of turmoil and pain finally lifted, but it proved a prelude to a further period of dissension and unrest as the Soviet Union, United States and Chinese factions backed rival political movements within the Korean peninsula. In 1948, the rivalry led to partition into communist North Korea and an authoritarian, capitalist South Korea. However, with Chinese assistance, communist North Korea invaded their southern neighbour in 1950 and started the conflict known as the Korean War, which was waged for three years.
PYONGYANG, 1953:
In the communist regime's capital, at night, Saenmyong-Sul bowed and assessed the new overlord of his nation, Kim Il-Sung:
"You are welcome here, Saenmyong-Sul, as a patriot and ally of our peoples democracy of socialist North Korea. You and your people made many sacrifices on behalf of the liberation of the Korean people and it is with gratitude and hope that I make this offer."
Saenmyong-Sul guessed what was coming and his engorged mouth expanded in a cadaverous smile, amply demonstrating his row of razor-sharp fangs:
"And on behalf of the Suekalles Baempaeio, President, Supreme Commander and Chair of the Glorious Worker's Party of Korea, I accept this latter sacred trust with gratitude. As ever, you have our undivided loyalty and commitment to our motherland."
Kim Il-Sung cleared his throat:
"However, there will have to be some... changes... made to your service, noble Saenmyong-Sul. You can no longer feed on our rural workers. However, you have the Workers Party's full permission to drink from the bodies of the enemy who occupy the puppet state of South Korea. Do not feel inhibited. I know that as always, your patriotic bampaeio cadres will work tirelessly and with the admiration and gratitude of our peoples democracy on our behalf."
"Mister President, we regard this as an honour and sacred trust. We will not let you down."
GONGURYEO CRYPT, JANUARY 1953:
"Was this wise, Lord Saengmyong-Sul?"
Saengmyong-Sul sighed to himself. Vampires brooked no arbitary divisions of class or gender within their ranks and for this reason, he still valued the counsel of Myeondokal Yeoja, "Razor Woman". She had fought at his side for centuries and there was no deadlier ally in battle than this fierce and unyielding warrior woman.
"This is unusual, Myeondokal. You are usually in the vanguard of our number. Yet, despite the fact foul foreigners still stalk our beloved homeland and occupy our southern territories, you have suddenly developed reticence. Is there reason for your caution?"
"My Lord Saengmyong-Sul, we have survived numerous changes of regime and philosophy within this land of ours. This was not done without objectivity and strategy. You are aware that the human forces have fluctuated wildly in terms of the territory held over the last three years. Until China intervened on our behalf, the Workers Party in Pyongyang might have fallen to the Americans and their allies three years ago in December 1950, given that it almost occupied the whole of this newly minted statelet. Then, thankfully, the Peoples Vanguard Army did so, fought back against the Americans and their pawns and the situation stabilised. In geographical terms, despite odd feints, the partition is likely to endure. But North Korea will survive."
"We have starved and been humiliated by foreign occupiers too long, Myeondokal. This is no time for restraint or withdrawal."
"Then I suggest that we divide our forces, My Lord. And adopt subterfuge. Due to our Mongolian sojourn, intercepted military communications indicate that the Americans are aware of us but imperfectly. They have labelled us "Mongolian vampires." Please. Do this as a mark of respect to our long camaraderie and companionship on the battlefield."
Saengmyong-Sul was proud, but no fool. At length, he conceded the wisdom of Myeondokal's tactics, even if he did not share her sudden caution.
EPILOGUE: JANUARY 1953.
However, thousands of miles away, young WHIZ-TV broadcaster Billy Batson was entering the final hour of a marathon effort on the airwaves as part of a telethon to raise blood donations for the United Nations forces in South Korea. Which might have meant very little to Saengmyong-Sul, but the diminutive, eager child frontperson was secretly the celebrated action hero Captain Marvel. When the telethon was finally completed, despite his alter ego's exhaustion and with frozen and preserved blood supplies on hand, Billy Batson was still able to pronounce the transformative phrase that led to his magical metamorphosis into the World's Mightiest Mortal. Thus empowered and with the legendary strength of Hercules, the Captain gathered together the donated blood within a refridgerated container and ferried it across the sea to the thirty eighth parallel. As he alighted, he witnessed Saengmyong-Sul and his offensive Suekalles Bampaieo detachment descending en masse against American military hospitals, uttering American blood! Blood!
Consequently, the World's Mightiest Mortal made short work of the attackers, forcing their retreat. Captain Marvel sought subterfuge to lure the vampires out into the open and resumed his Billy Batson identity, but in his eagerness, he didn't realise that Billy's telethon induced fatigue had made it difficult for his alter ego to remain conscious and lucid. As a consequence, he was captured, along with the refridgerated blood supplies, and imprisoned in their provisional headquarters. However, due to inadequate communication about the risks attendant on their newfound captive, Billy was able to insure a gag came loose and spoke his magical phrase Shazam once more.
Liberated, he dealt summarily with the Suekalles Bampaeio detachment attacking the American hospitals by wielding a giant ceramic mirror, making it seem as if he was manipulating a fragment of the sun himself. Tracking the Bampaeio back to their lair, he broke a mighty tree asunder and using the speed of Mercury, impaled the attacking vampires en masse at the end of fatal stakes. Thus perished Saengmyong-Sul Maseineun Ja, or the "Scarlet Vampire" as he would come to be known, after a life of centuries, spent protecting and defending his homeland against its foreign assailants.
As one might guess, libellous caricature depicted Saenmyong-Sul as a voracious, murderous predator blindly loyal to the Pyongyang regime. However, in his homeland, things were somewhat different. There, he and the Suekalles Bampaeio are honoured as self-sacrificing patriots, who only sought to ensure their homeland's freedom from foreign domination and oppression and did so at the cost of their continued existence. Myeonkodal Yeoja and her cadre of Suekalles Bampaeio survived, and were honoured for their comrade's perceived loyalty to their country through a blood tariff assembled by North Korea's hospitals on their behalf. However, as far as Captain Marvel and his fellows were concerned, the Suekalles Bampaeio had wholly perished that day in January 1953. Soon after, the Korean War ended in August 1953 and they forgot that moment one evening at the thirty-eighth parallel.
As with other North Korean metahumans who fought for their country during those years, the Suekalles Bampaeio were retrospectively enlisted amongst the numbers of the Yeong-gwangsueleon minjog Seonbongae, or "Glorious People's Vanguard". And, the whereabouts of the survivors carefully redacted, that is how they are still remembered seventy years after the events described here.
THE END [4.15 PM, JANUARY 16, 2024]
Source: "Captain Marvel Fights the Mongol Blood Drinkers" Captain Marvel Adventures 140 (January 1953)
