Midnight's Darkness

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Midnight's Darkness
Age	Unknown
Sex	Male
Race	Human (Imposter)
Affiliation	Priest Order (Formerly) Black Order (Current)
Occupation	Exorcist Black Order Shepard Pureblood
Alias
Location	Fortress of Nemesis Paradise of Ruin
Foreign Name(s)	N/A
Likeability	N/A

Banya, (a.k.a Midnight's Darkness) is a Exorcist and former Priest Order member until he had grown disillusioned in his faith in God and became an Imposter through a contract with the Four Demonic Beasts, later alligning himself with the Black Order as one of their Shepards.

Lore

Character Biography:

Male/Age unknown.

A former Monk of the Suju Parish known to have been as strong as one of the Four Archpriests, Shinjang.

He once was as faithful as the next Priest, but couldn't stop wondering why his god wouldn't save people from suffering.

After much agonizing contemplation, he came to a conclusion that he must save them on his own, and his decision led him to the path of the Imposter.

Then, the Four Demonic Beasts, the shikigamis strictly forbidden by the Priest Order, approached him. Midnight's Darkness entered into contract with them to employ their powers.

In his twisted mind, Midnight's Darkness believes that he's only trying to save the world and the real redemption comes only if everyone on the earth becomes an Imposter.

---

Exile Mountains Exerpt:

I never doubted my faith in God.
I always believed He worked in mysterious ways.

But look at these starving children,
these poor people groaning under the harshness of life.

Is this the world that He really wanted for His children?
Or is our god so weak that He can't help us?

I say now it's time we help ourselves.
We need new bodies and new strength to escape our doomed fate.

The solution is right next to us.
We just haven't noticed it because of our anger and hatred toward it.

The Imposters. Hah hah. I knew you'd react that way.
But why don't you think the Imposters can save us?

We have to use everything we have at our disposal, even if it's evil.
Even if it's the notorious God of Chaos.

Even Michael, who saved us during the Black Crusade, was an evil Apostle.
We can use Imposters.

I can be a demon if I can break this chain of karma that binds us.
I can sacrifice myself if I can save the world.

I'll die if it can turn this world into paradise for everyone else.

History

This part of the current article contains spoilers.

As an Enemy

Midnight's Darkness

Type

Banya makes his first boss appearance inside the Exile Mountains' Fortress of Nemesis.

Move Set

•  Holy Amulet: Banya launches out three much larger amulets in front of him, dealing moderate damage with hitstun upon contact.

• Black & White Waves: Banya slams the ground with his staff, creating black and white magic circles that spouts out energy waves to appear beneath party members causing multi-hit damage upon contact.

• Four Demonic Beasts: Throughout the fight, Bayna is able to randomly summon either of the four Shikigami to attack with their own patterns:
  • Qiongqi: It flies upwards and opens up it's wings to create six red tornadoes from different angles around the room inflicting moderate damage and knockback if a player is hit by one of them, then those tornadoes quickly move towards Banya altogether before disappearing.
  • Hundun: It opens it's mouth to suction in party members similar to the Shaman's  Soul Magnet, then bites down for an explosion.
  • Taowu: It will launch out a AoE roaring attack similar to the Avenger's  Dark Howling that causes numerous rocks from above the ceiling to fall down.
  • Taotie: Two clones of Taotie appear by having them dash around the room in a Z-shaped pattern, then colliding with each other in the center to create an explosion.

• Beastly Riot: Banya relocates to the room's middle section and summons all four of his Beasts to perform their respective attack patterns. While he does this, there are four Yin-Yang orbs locationed each with a opposite color spawning on both left and right sides that each player needs to pick up and collide with each other (I.E Player 1 = Yin Orb, Player 2 = Yang Orb) that shoots them upwards into the sky being similar to Sirocco's Dark Energy Sweep in her Leveche Form to avoid Banya's shockwave that inflicts a instant kill.

• Berserk:
  • Yin-Yang Balance Breaker: When Banya's HP is around 45%, he'll teleport to the room's middle section, forms a protective shield around him that acts like a Nen Guard with it's own HP bar and then summons a large Yin-Yang symbol beneath him that spins in a counterclockwise rotation. There are also lightning bolts that spawn on that corresponding color as stepping in the Yang (White) portion spawn white bolts periodically and stepping in the Yin (Black) portion spawns black bolts are able to ignore Super Armor. In order to activate Banya's groggy state, all party members are required to stay in at least one color portion and follow it while they destroy his shield before the pattern ends.

If the party succeeds in destroying his shield before the timer gauge on Yin-Yang Balance Breaker depletes, Banya knocks down everyone to perform a large energy explosion around him, quickly use  Quick Rebound to evade being hit by the attack that may inflict nearly fatal damage or be instantly killed, afterwards he'll enter his groggy state.

Strategy

• Banya himself can be seen as a extremely tanky boss due to wielding a large HP threshold compared to Devastar the Pureblood, he also posesses strong attack patterns that can be easily avoided with a well-coordinated party.
• Try not to stay in one spot during Black & White Waves as the multi-hits from those waves can deal nearly fatal damage, resulting in casualties.

• For Beastly Riot:
  • Try not to collide with whoever has the opposite orb color of yours too early.
  • Whenever Banya's Shikigami finishes their respective patterns, collide soon as possible once he prepares to launch out his shockwave. Though the best time to collide is when Hundun's pattern ends first.

• For Yin-Yang Balance Breaker:
  • Most parties mainly stick to staying within on the Yang portion when they're attempting to destroy Banya's shield during the symbol's rotation period.
  • Don't step into both portions as this causes room-wide lightning strikes.
  • Failure to break his shield before the pattern ends will have him use the explosion wave without knocking down everyone.
  • Depending on the strength of your party members, have the leader activate Light Judge for a temporary damage boost alongside the Crusader/Enchantress to deploy their  Apocalypse/ Final Judgment,  Crux of Victoria/ Laus di Angelus,  Marionette/ Curtain Call and use your strongest skills upon entry into the boss room or another tactic is to hold off on Awakenings until he's in a groggy state after clearing his berserk pattern.

Quotes

Encounter

• (この先さきが底そこなし地獄じごくだとしても...)

"Even if the path ahead leads to the abyss..."

Black & White Waves

• (喝かつ!)

Shikigami Summons

• (貫つらぬく、窮奇きゅうき！)

"Break through them, Qiongqi!" (Summoning the Red Beast - Qiongqi 'Depravity')

• (吠ほえろ、檮杌とうこつ！)

"Howl, Taowu!" (Summoning the Blue Beast - Taowu 'Ignorance')

• (来こい、饕餮とうてつ！）

"Come forth, Taotie!" (Summoning the Green Beast - Taotie 'Gluttony')

• (飲のみ込こめ, 混沌こんとん！)

"Swallow them, Hundun!" (Summoning the Orange Beast - Hundun 'Chaos')

Beastly Riot

• "Run riot, my beasts!" (Summoning all four Shikigami)
• (荒々あらあらしく泣なき叫さけべ。)

"Howl fiercely!"

• (そして、帰依きえするがいい！)

"And submit to God!"

Yin-Yang Balance Breaker

• "At the end of enlightenment is refuge!" (On cast)
• "Yin Yang Balance Breaker" (Tooltip)
• (悟さとりは肉体にくたいを堕だすることになる。)

"Enlightenment leads to the degeneration of the flesh."

• (至心ししん帰命きみょう!)

"Offer yourself to God!" (On full charge)

Defeat

• (悟さとりの後あとでまた会あうことになろう。)

"We shall meet again at the end of enlightenment..."

Black Purgatory

Banya makes his return in Black Purgatory as Bloodlust Midnight's Darkness.

Ozma Raid

He'll appear for his third boss encounter in Ozma of Chaos Raid.

Appearances

• Fortress of Nemesis (Boss)

Trivia

• The name Banya in the KDnF version is derived from Prajñā, one of six perfections in Mahayana Buddhism meaning Wisdom in Heart Sutra, a very popular and influential Indian scripture.
  • Ban-ya in either Korean or Chinese language (반야 / 半夜) translates to Midnight Black, which is where he would be renamed to 'Midnight's Darkness', likely part of a naming scheme due to his allegiance with the Black Order.
• His Shikigami are based upon the Four Perils (四凶) in Chinese Mythology that often described as evil malevolent beasts being a antithesis to the Four Symbols.
• His Demon Form in Black Purgatory is based on a Oni of Japanese folklore.
• Although his Ozma Raid appearance comes from an Asura, he does bares a striking resemblance to Zenyatta from Overwatch.
• His goal of achieving Western Paradise is another word for Sukhavati a western pure land of Amitābha in Mahayana Buddhism.
• His Fortress of Nemesis boss theme is created using traditional instruments:
  • Haegeum
  • Moktak
  • Taepyeongso
• In Arad Senki, Banya will sound off on the Japanese names for his Shikigami:
  • Tōkotsu -> Taowu
  • Kyūki -> Qiongqi
  • Konton -> Hundun
  • Tōtetsu -> Taotie

Gallery

Arwork

Sprites