Ma Hyoji has a long family background, since the beginning of the Korean civilization, in fact. Her earliest ancestor was believed to be Hwanin, the Lord of the Heaven, who had a son, Hwanung. Hwanung wished to live on Earth and was given permission to lead the earthlings, beginning the Dangun Kingdom. Hwanung was a very wise ruler and taught the humans about the arts, medicine and agriculture.

As legend has it, a tiger and a bear came to Hwanung one night, praying that they might become human. Hwanung, who was all knowing and all powerful, ordered the tiger and the bear to remain in a cave and out of sunlight for one hundred days. After being ordered to do so, the tiger and the bear found a cave to hide in for one hundred days but the tiger gave up after two weeks. The bear persevered and in the end became a woman.

In the legend, Hwanung married the bear-woman and together they developed cures for medical maladies, one of the famous ones being acupuncture. The earthlings believe that Hwanung and the bear-woman were a match made in heaven, but Ma Hyoji's family knew the real story. After the bear-woman became human, she became obsessed with the idea of having a son. She bewitched Hwanung into marrying her and she soon gave birth to a son named Dannig. Growing stronger and more confident from her connections with Hwanung, the bear-woman's knowledge and power continued to grow. It didn't take long for her to figure out how to transfigure herself to and from a bear, and from there to transfigure herself into other animals.

The rest of Ma Hyoji's family was given the right of passage to the ability to shapeshift, as well as other forms of sorcery, which made it easy for them to get whatever they wanted. Right now, all Ma Hyoji wanted was revenge. H