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The story of The Master from Into the Badlands.
Biography[]
Early life[]
The Master visiting her childhood in the mirror chamber.
Born as a girl named Ada, the Master was originally an unassuming child whose family lived happily away from the Badlands. One day, on the winter solstice, Ada and her brother were playing outside, when Ada accidentally pricked her finger on a blackberry bush. This activated her Gift and caused her to kill her own brother. When her Gift ceased, Ada found herself standing over her brother's body and looked up to see the horrified faces of her parents, who witnessed her killing him. After this, Ada decided to create the Abbot Monastery, a place where Dark Ones could train in secret, becoming the Master. Those who tried to run away from the Monastery would be put into a coma with acupuncture needles, thus preventing anyone with an untamed Gift to run wild in the Badlands. At some point, the Master began working with a woman named Ankara, who served as a second master. The Monastery worked with a select group of non-Gifted scribes in order to find other Dark Ones. However, this practice ends in disaster after a man named Magnus, a member of the Black Lotus, works as an acolyte in order to get the location of Azra from Ankara. Magnus leads a siege against Azra, and after this, the Master stops working with non-Gifted scribes altogether. A boy named Bajie is taken to the Monastery and becomes the primary student of Ankara, but she is eventually banished due to her obsession with rebuilding the lost city of Azra, something the Master now believes to be impossible. A girl named Minerva is later taken to the Monastery, and becomes Bajie's student, as he is now an Abbot. After Minerva breaks the rules of the Monastery, the Master orders her to be needled, but Bajie transfers his Gift to her, waking her up. When Minerva wakes up, she finds she cannot use the Gift Bajie gave her, thus rendering them both powerless. They both run away from the Monastery, and the Master does not pursue them due to both no longer having the Gift.
Meeting M.K.[]
The Master healing her arm after M.K. broke it.
After decades of controlling the Monastery, the Master sends a group of three Abbots named Cyan, Dury, and Ramona to work out of old temples of Azra scattered throughout the world, where they hunt down Dark Ones to take back to the Monastery. In order to accomplish this, they are willing to work with religious totemists, and one day receive news of a boy named M.K. with the Gift in the Armadillo Territory, the area of the Badlands ruled by Baron Quinn. The three capture him and take him back the the Monastery, where he becomes a novice. He works with a highly-skilled Abbot named Ava who trains him for six months, but during this time he does not see the Master. He requests to on several occasions, but Ava does not bring him to her, saying the Master will see him when he's ready. After a particularly bad argument between them, M.K. is brought to see the Master, but does not initially realize it is her, as he assumed they would be fare more dangerous and imposing. The Master reveals she is who he has been wanting to see, and the two sit down and eat together. M.K. explains that he does not want to be at the Monastery, as he wishes to seek out the mythical city of Azra, unaware that it was destroyed long ago. The Master then reveals that she knows of his past, being mentored by Sunny, the best Clipper in the Badlands, having a romance with a girl named Tilda, and wanting to find his mother. M.K. asks if he can go, and she says he may leave the Monastery if he can pass a test. She holds a paper crane and says if he can dodge it without his Gift activating, he's free to leave. Due to the Master's expert precision, he is cut by the crane, activating his Gift. During his Gift activation, M.K. breaks her arm, but she quickly deactivates his Gift with her pressure point techniques. M.K. is then led by the sleeping chambers by Cyan, having failed the test. The Master heals herself using her Gift, shocked that M.K. was able to injure her.
M.K. realizes that the only way the Master could have known so much about him is if Ava told her, as M.K. had shared all of his past with her. She tries to apologize, but it's clear that M.K. no longer wants anything to do with her. The Master later approaches M.K. and leads him to a room known as the Mirror Chamber. She explains that his Gift is the most powerful she's seen in a long time, and that he needs to learn to control it. She explains that while in the mirror chamber, people can journey into their past, unlocking previously buried memories. She holds a paper crane, and crushes it in her hands, producing white mist which M.K. breathes in, inducing a dream. In this dream, M.K. faces a dark version of himself, but ultimately cannot overcome it and nearly has a heart attack, only surviving due to the Master pulling him out at the last minute. After this, the Master realizes that M.K. is likely to give into the darkness within him, and decides he cannot go back to the mirror chamber again for a long time. When she tells him this, he sneaks back into the chamber the next night after stealing a paper crane, and entering another dream. The Master finds him doing this, and uses her Gift to manipulate his dream and make him think that he killed his own mother, when in reality his mother was killed by Sunny, his mentor. After this, the Master locks his Gift so he cannot use it without going into the mirror chamber. It is at this same time that another novice named Tate tries to run from the Monastery and is needled by Cyan. M.K. witnesses this but Ava pulls him away before he can be caught and needled as well. He tells her of what he saw in the chamber, and makes it clear to her that it's obvious that the Master is lying to them. M.K. runs away from the Monastery the next day, and Ava ends up running away to protect him. The Master sends Cyan, Dury, and Ramona to capture M.K. once again, alongside Ava so they can both be needled.
M.K. eventually reunites with Sunny, alongside Bajie who has joined Sunny as his traveling companion. The three of them, alongside Ava, manage to kill the three Abbots at the cost of Ava's life, but not before Cyan uses a special technique known as the Hand of Five Poisons on Sunny, putting him in a coma that will eventually kill him. M.K. and Bajie break into the Monastery in order to potentially retrieve a cure for Sunny, and do actually manage to find it, but are confronted by the Master, who uses her Gift to shove them backwards through a door and into the Abbots dining hall. The Abbots and their novices are prepared to fight M.K. and Bajie, with the Master lambasting the two of them for their failure, telling Bajie he is her greatest disappointment and that M.K. could have been so much if he had stayed. Bajie apologizes for failing her, but says she is a hypocrite who only really wants control. The Master then questions M.K. on the fate of the three Abbots she sent to capture him and Ava, and he reveals that Ava is dead, and so are the Abbots sent to capture them. M.K. tells the novices to ask the Master about Tate, as the knowledge of runaways being needled is kept from them and only known by the Abbots. This does cause some level of doubt among them, but they still are willing to fight and capture M.K. and Bajie at the Master's command. Bajie and M.K. begins fighting them, with their plan being to cut the novices so that they will attack the Abbots, as they are unable to control their Gifts. This works, and soon a complete brawl breaks out, with the Abbots fighting M.K. and Bajie alongside the uncontrollable novices. The Master attempts to join the fight, but is halted by having to overpower the novices in a non-lethal way. Eventually all of the Abbots are knocked out or killed, with the novices surrounding the Master. This gives M.K. and Bajie the opportunity to get away, where they use the stolen cure to wake up Sunny, saving his life.
Return of Azra[]
When M.K. and Bajie broke into the Monastery, Bajie also stole a compass that was confiscated off of M.K. when he was taken to the Monastery months ago. Bajie combines this compass with a book on Azra that was in the possession of Minerva, now known as the Widow, and uses the two of them to track down a radio tower which sends out a signal, supposedly to the city of Azra. However, after months no response comes to Bajie's signal, and he abandons the quest for Azra. In actuality, the signal was recieved by Pilgrim, one of the lost children of Azra who plans to build a new Azra on the ruins of the first temple of Azra, even if it means destroying the world and rebuilding Azra in its ashes. The Master detects this while using her Gift to search the world, and decides that she must begin working with those inside the Badlands in order to face the coming threat that Pilgrim poses. The Master assesses her options, and notes that there is currently a war going on between the Widow and Baron Chau for control over the Badlands, and that between them the Widow is the best option for the Master to work with, due to their shared history and the Widow being actively willing to fight for a better world unlike Chau. During the final battle between the Widow and Chau, the Widow is led to a room where she is ambushed by archers, who fire an nearly kill her, only to have their arrows stopped in the air by the Master, who flings them backwards killing the archers and injuring Chau. The Master then incapacitates the Widow and has her brought back to the Monastery. Despite her abduction of the Widow, the Master's intervention actually ended the war in the Widow's favor, as Chau would have killed her had the Master not stopped the arrows. Chau flees and goes into hiding, with the Widow's forces declaring her the new ruler of the Badlands, and her closest allies searching for her.
The Master has the Widow put into a trunk just as she does with all of the other people that are kidnapped and taken to the Monastery, and the moment the trunk is open the Widow bursts out ready to fight. The Master welcomes the Widow home, but she rebuffs this saying that the Monastery is not her home anymore, and that the Master is no longer hers, and demands to be let go. The Master says that the Widow may leave, but only if she is able to get past her. This prompts the Widow to immediately attack the Master, but is not able to land any strikes on her due to the Master's Gift giving her superior speed and reflexes. The two fight outside in the snow until the Widow accidentally breaks the roof they are standing on, causing them to fall into one of the Master's meditation chambers. The Master tells the Widow that she fights with anger and not intention, and it causes her to be predictable and sloppy when facing someone like the Master. The Widow tells the Master that her anger has kept her alive, and his been more of a help to her than the Master ever was. This angers the Master, who tells the Widow she would be so much more if she did not fight with anger. The Widow begins attacking the Master using a sword from a nearby weapon rack, but the Master catches it in her hands and disarms her. The Widow throws a blade straight at the Master's chest, but she flies backwards faster than the speed of it being thrown in order to dodge it. The Master then breaks one of the Widow's swords and flings the broken blade into the air, then twisting the Widow's arm and holding it in place so that the falling blade will fall straight through the Widow's wrist. This incapacitates the Widow for a time, but the Master knows they must come to an armistice. The Master uses her Gift to heal the Widow's injury, and explains the rising threat of Pilgrim, who the Widow is familiar with due to him having recruited followers on her land, and how together they can unite the warriors of the Badlands and the Dark Ones together to survive the coming war.
The Master and the Widow making amends.
The Widow agrees to work with the Master, but on the condition that when this all ends, the Master unlocks her Gift once again. The Master agrees to this, and brings the Widow to the mirror chamber, saying that while her combat skills are exceptional, her inner strength is extremely conflicted. The Master breaks a paper crane, releasing smoke that the Widow breathes in, thus inducing a dream. During this dream, the Widow experiences an alternate world where she has her Gift, but is just as cruel as other Barons such as Chau. She is eventually confronted by an alternate version of herself known as Raven, who overpowers and kills her, ending the dream. When the Widow awakens, she begins to see things more from the Master's perspective, and it seems they have reached an understanding. A few days later, Bajie arrives at the Monastery and is taken to the Master, with the two immediately being hostile towards each other. Bajie apologizes for having activated the signal, as he thought that he was bringing back Azra, but in reality ended up calling Pilgrim. Bajie then explains that Sunny and Pilgrim are lost children of Azra, and that together they opened a machine known as the Meridian Chamber, which enable Pilgrim to grant or revoke the Gift from anyone he wants. Bajie further elaborates that Sunny turned the machine on because his son Henry possessed the Gift, and Pilgrim was able to remove it, but in the process gained the Gift himself. The Master is shocked at all of this, as Ankara warned her this may happen, but she had her banished. The Master explains that Bajie can help her, but he must work with the Widow. Bajie and the Widow are surprised to see each other and hostile due to the Widow blaming Bajie for abandoning her years ago, but the two mend fences after he apologizes. The Master uses her Gift to probe Ankara's mind and find her exact location. She explains to the Widow and Bajie that the Black Lotus are hunting Ankara, and as can track those with the Gift, the Master cannot send her Abbots after them, else they be tracked down and killed, so instead she sends the two of them after Ankara and gives them a syringe with a liquid that can instantly deactivate the Gift, allowing them to overpower and capture her.
Fall of the Monastery[]
The Widow and Bajie's mission does not go as planned, with the Widow having to depart after learning the Chau has captured her adoptive daughter Tilda and lover Gaius Chau, whereas Bajie, who has been rejoined by Sunny, and Ankara are attacked by the Black Lotus, with Ankara being killed. Some time before this, M.K. manages to unlock his Gift following a heroin overdose where he unburies his memory of Sunny killing his mother, thus severing their relationship for good. M.K. can now control his Gift at will, and his joined Pilgrim in his quest to bring back Azra. After Sunny severely damages the Meridian Chamber, Pilgrim questions how to defend himself against their enemies without an army of Dark Ones, as he was only able to give the Gift to a small group of people before Sunny damaged it. While the Meridian Chamber is being fixed, M.K. informs Pilgrim of the Abbot Monastery, and while the Abbots themselves are unlikely to join him, the novices that have been put into a coma for trying to run away will follow him if he wakes them up. Pilgrim and his small group of Dark Ones invade the Monastery alongside M.K., and kill several Abbots. Pilgrim himself confronts the Master, and the two begin to argue over their differing ideologies when it comes to the Gift. Pilgrim asks if the Master knows who he is, but she says she only knows who he thinks he is, as his Gift has corrupted his mind due to him not originally being born with it but instead transferring it from Henry to himself. Pilgrim tells the Master that she has become a heretic, saying that the Gift is not hers to mold, but instead a power that molds them, as is the way of Azra. The Master says the Gift is a responsibility, less they all be destroyed. The two begin fighting and seem evenly matched, until they activate their Gift's. The Master at first is at a massive advantage due to her Gift being a Master's Gift, but Pilgrim is able to turn her Gift off, a power he obtained due being born in Azra. With his Gift activated and hers deactivated, he decimates her in combat and overpowers her. The Abbots have all been killed by M.K. and the other Dark One followers of Pilgrim, with only the novices being spared.
Pilgrim indoctrinates the existing novices by explaining that he does not wish to hold them captive like the Master, but instead he wants to build a new Azra, a kingdom where they will all rule and be safe from persecution from their Gift. This causes the novices to switch sides and begin following Pilgrim, therefore leaving the Master with no remaining followers. The Master is chained up and still severely injured, but whenever she tries to heal herself using her Gift, Pilgrim deactivates it as he cannot risk her regaining her strength. Pilgrim and M.K. dig through the Master's scrolls in the hopes of finding the method to wake the sleepers, and while the Master initially claims it cannot be done, they manage to find the scroll and discern that Pilgrim's Gift is strong enough to perform the procedure required to wake the sleeping Dark Ones. M.K. taunts the Master over the fact that she tried to silence him, just like how she did to all of the sleepers, and he's going to be the one who wakes them all up. The Master claims that she never wanted to silence M.K., and when he asks why she took his Gift, she tells him that had she let him go, she knew that he would go down this path, and destroy them all. M.K. claims he's going to save them all and bring back Azra, but the Master prophesizes that he will lead to immense suffering in the world, and he will never see Azra. Pilgrim and M.K. then awaken the sleepers, and despite Pilgrim's Gift being strong enough to perform the procedure, the unstable nature of it causes him to become very weak after he wakes so many sleeping Dark Ones at once. After the sleepers are awake, Pilgrim explains that he saved them, and will lead them in creating the utopian city of Azra, gaining all of their support. While looking for Tate, M.K. finds that he is not among the Dark Ones that he and Pilgrim woke up. M.K. angrily demands to know where Tate is, at which point she reveals that he actually died when they tried to put him to sleep, as the procedure to do so is so intense that not all can survive it. M.K. nearly kills the Master in anger, but is stopped by Pilgrim, who still believes she can be useful to them.
Pilgrim later confronts her over having hid on a mountain rather than trying to change the world, and how with her Gift she could have been one of Azra's greatest warriors. The Master completely brushes this off, prompting Pilgrim to accuse her of having an extreme amount of hubris. At this time, his eyes begin bleeding due to the strain the Gift is putting on his body. She then points out how his hubris is bleeding from his eyes, and how her power is not simply raw destruction like his, but instead hides until it ready to strike. She then breaks her chains and attacks Pilgrim as he is in a weakened state due to having woke all the sleepers. M.K. attempts to intervene but is thrown back by the Master who begins choking Pilgrim to death. M.K. then runs up behind the Master and stabbing her in the chest, causing her to collapse to the ground. She is left to die by Pilgrim and M.K., who take the existing novices and the ones who have just been woken from their coma, and they depart, returning to the first temple of Azra. The Widow eventually returns to the Monastery to tell her of what happened with Bajie and Ankara and finds the Master dying, and takes her to the mirror chamber where they journey into a dream together. This dream is of the last time that the Master was happy, right before she killed her brother. The Master apologizes at last for all she did to the Widow and the other Dark Ones, but the Widow admits she has made her share of mistakes too. The Master hands the Widow a flower bulb in the dream, and telling her to create a world where there are no more masters. When the Widow awakens from the dream, she finds that the flower bulb is somehow in her hand in the real world, and the Master is nowhere to be found. The Widow then burns down the Monastery, destroying it for good. The Master is seen one last time after the final battle between Sunny and Pilgrim, where the two kill each other. Sunny awakens in the realm between life and death, where the Master tells him that in his final moments his long buried Gift activated, and will soon revive him from death. She states that a horrible evil, one worse than Pilgrim or any human is about to return, and that Sunny's work has only just begin, then departing with Sunny to an unknown location.