The Pheasant, that fell from the Sky || Hwarang

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Hi, thank you all for reading. That's it. That's the story of Yeseul and Yeowool. 

I hope you enjoyed it.

Often times when watching K-Dramas instead of the main leads the interesting handsome/pretty side characters quickly catch my eyes. For Hwarang this was Yeowool. Him having a pretty name only helped. 😆 Thus leading me to write this story.

This story originally had just 30 chapters when I wrote it back in 2021 but as I picked it up again, I thought I could just include the other ideas I had for those two into "The Pheasant, that fell from the Sky" instead of writing a sequel. 

While writing those new chapters I did a lot of research and noticed some interesting things. If you're interested in those, I'll write about it further down.

Generally, you can say that it's not easy to find a lot of information on Silla at that time (compared to Joseon later for example) since it's already about 1500 years ago. So, there are a lot of things I had to make up myself as I couldn't find any specific sources. Which is why I definitely cannot claim historical accuracy.

I have another story called "Falling Hibiscus" in the works at the moment. This story is loosely based on "The Pheasant, that fell from the Sky". It is more of an original work. I might consider uploading it if there is interest in the story.

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#1 in [yeowool] 28.07.2024

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Now to the things I found out during research:

1. King Jinheung was 51 years old when he founded the Hwarang and died the same year.

When the real King Jinheung founded the Hwarang in 576 as the 24th monarch of Silla he was already 51 years old. Other than the young King Jinheung portrayed by Park Hyungsik in Hwarang the real Jinheung wasn't in his twenties and also most probably didn't train undercover with the Hwarang. Furthermore, he died the same year (576) the Hwarang were established and was succeeded by his son Prince Geumryun (later King Jinji of Silla).

This fact messes a lot of things up as the following battles against Baekje were under the new King Jinji and not Jinheung. Also battles that led to the war against Baekje couldn't be caused by Jinheung in the Hwarang timeline, as he wasn't king yet, even though the historic Jinheung was known for expanding Silla's territory immensely. This way the Hwarang-Jinheung's birthyear also doesn't add up with the one of the historic one. Which is why I had to make up (new) birthyears for the characters in my head.

2. The Hwarang's hanbok were different.

It's not that easy to find good (free) sources for what the Hwarang wore historically. But what I found did most definitely not resemble their purple/blue/white hanbok in Hwarang. Their warrior robes might come close to some depictions of their warrior clothes, however.

Their actual clothing came closer to the description I gave in chapter 41.

You can actually recognize some of these historically more accurate details in those early promotion posters in those dark hanbok they did of the actors. In the poster of Minho as Suho you can recognize the pheasant feathers on the headband that were actually part of the Hwarang's outfits. But in reality, the feathers might have actually been on a hat of sorts. In Minho's poster he's also holding a bow and arrows. Those are the weapons the Hwarang are most often depicted with. In Cho Yoonwoo's poster you can also spot a little bit of the red eyeshadow the Hwarang are believed to have worn to intimidate their enemies.

But since it's not completely clear and, as far as I could tell, still debated on what the Hwarang actually wore, I let myself have a little bit of creative freedom.

3. Park Seojoon's character Seonu seems to be, as far as I could tell from mentions on websites, supposed to portray the well-known military general Isabu. This kind of explains why they made him Jinheung's general in the end.

4. The real Jinheung ended up marrying the real Princess Sookmyeong as his second wife, even though they were sibling in reality as well...

In general, Jinheung ended up with 7 wifes. Which is a lot more than his predecessors and successor had on average (3-4 wifes). His seven marriages resulted in 14 (known) children.

5. Queen Jiso had an interesting love life as well.

Jinheung' father Ipjong was her own uncle (the brother of her father King Beopheung of Silla). There isn't a lot of (English) information about him (there isn't even an English Wikipedia page). They had two kids (Jinheung and a brother named Kim Sookheuljong).

After Ipjong she had a spouse interestingly named Yi Hwarang with whom she had a daughter (Manho).

After him she was married to Kim Isabu. Yes, the one (as said in 3) Park Seojoon's character seems to portray at least in the end. This once again aligns with the total distortion of the timeline due to making Jinheung younger. With Isabu Jiso had a son named Sejong and Princess Sookmyeong. That way her own son Jinheung also is listed as her son-in-law.

Interestingly enough there was a Park Yeongshil in reality as well. In fact, he was Jiso's forth husband with whom she had two daughters (Hwanghwa and Songhwa).

Lastly, she had another daughter (Bomyeong, who also married Jinheung later on) with a man named Gu Jin.

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Uploaded 16.06.2024
Updated 28.07.2024