The Ring
The Ring (약지, yakji) is one of the Five Fingers, one of the five most powerful Syndicates in the City holding enough influence to rival the Wings.
Out of the Five Fingers, the Ring are notorious for their very literal human exhibitions — constructing galleries of art made from other people and even themselves. They value self-expression but pursue gruesome forms of art dedicated to depicting human suffering by perpetuating it.
Known Members
Docents
Maestros
Unknown Role
- Pointillist Researcher of the Ring? (Former)
Sinner Identities
Culture
Similar to the other four Fingers, the Ring has an unique Syndicate culture and creed that all members follow fervently. The creed and calling that the Ring lies in the creation of "art".
Formal members of the Ring are eccentric artist enamored with the creation of artistic pieces (mostly of the modernist movements), usually related in some way to the human condition within the City. To this end, members exemplify human suffering in their pieces by perpetrating it in highly gruesome and visual manners.
Art made by the Ring are predominantly of the painting and sculpture forms, with sculptures primarily visibly made of humans (both dead and alive) and paintings depicting visual depictions of violence. However, more conventional subjects and manners of presentation also appear to be available in fair quantities, as evidenced by the art gallery scene in Leviathan.
Residents of areas under control of the Ring are required to regularly attend "tests" held by the Syndicate, and display sufficient artistic aptitude and taste to ensure continued protection from said Syndicate. To be precise, residents are required to relatively consistently get "passing grades" for their art to ensure continued survival under the Ring. One failing grade results in a warning from the Ring, two consecutive fails results in withdrawal of the Ring's protection, and three fails results in immediate execution.
Lower-ranking members of the Ring also needs to regularly complete "assignments" issued by higher-ranking members (usually Maestros) within designated time periods (called "deadlines") to ensure continued membership.
The Ring also maintains art galleries where art by members are put on display, and hold auctions of art pieces created by members. Aside from ownership of the art piece, the highest bidders in those auctions also gains the right to request the author of the piece of a service. Buying pieces from Maestros would allow one to gain access to the Ring's 'Corridors'.
Organization
The Ring is divided into 3 (currently-known) ranks: Students, Docents, and Maestros. Position within the Syndicate hierarchy is denoted by an elaborate coiled ring members wear on their Ring fingers: Students' rings have one coil, Docents two, and Maestros three coils. The Docent and Maestro rings also have a portion that trails down the back of their hands down to the wrist.
Students are the lowest-ranking members of the Ring, and are required to regularly complete "assignments" issued by the Maestros and to grade the work of civilians under Ring control. Docents are the second rank, and does various critical work such as grading the Students' pieces and explaining the context and meaning of art pieces displayed at the Ring's art galleries. Maestros are the highest-ranking members currently introduced, are act as influencers to entire schools in the Ring.
The Ring is also divided into several schools, each being characterized by an unique approach to art and the creation thereof, and is named after a real-life style, movement, or technique in modern art. Currently, three of these schools are introduced:
- The Fauvists (named after the early 20th-Century art movement Fauvism), who commonly wear animal masks and utilize wild methodology in their creation.[1]
- The Pointillists, led by Jumsoon, which frequently uses elements of dots.
- The Cubists, who "seek to incorporate and hold the three-dimensionality within a single gaze".
As of the events of Canto VI: The Heartbreaking, it is known that a large portion (if not all) of the Pointillists have detached from the Ring following Jumsoon's death at the end of Leviathan, and is now cooperating with the N Corp. faction led by Hermann.
Attire
Aside from the rank-denoting ring previously mentioned, all Ring Docents and Maestros currently introduced wear white avant-garde style suits (with the collar forming a V-shape on the front that culminates near the end of the sternum, and which buttons up near the corners of the suits) and white dress pants.
The two Student Identities currently introduced instead sports a white vest-apron apron with gold borders above a black tunic and black pants. Both also wears a white beret, also with gold borders. The white parts of their attire are always depicted as stained with a plethora of colors.
Members also often sport tattoos or similar decorations on the cheeks, right below the eyes. Earrings are also a common element.
The 'Corridor'
The Ring owns a techonology called a "Corridor" (복도, bokdo), which can allow them to create an entrance from anywhere. When a corridor is created, a corresponding exit appears at the end of such hallways.
According to Nanseul, corridors however can fail to properly link — creating issues for interlopers.
Relationships with other Factions
Nagel und Hammer
The Ring kidnapped researcher Aseah, a member of the League of Nine Littérateurs from N Corp. Despite the circumstances, Aseah and Maestro Jumsoon developed a professional relationship with one another due to Jumsoon's fascination with the Mirror Worlds he could see using N Corp's glass-window, aiding in Aseah's research as the two became mutual partners.
Due to the Syndicate's collaboration with N Corp., rumors spread across certain Wings and Grade 1 Fixers that the Ring was observing an unknown Singularity.
Dead Rabbits
The Dead Rabbits Syndicate is said to have been given support by The Ring, seemingly as a subsidiary Syndicate.
However, this is a lie. The Dead Rabbits seen in Canto VI are in fact a second iteration maintained by former Ring members and N Corp. as part of the experiments under Wuthering Heights.
Enemies
Researchers of the Ring?
For more combat information about the Researchers of the Ring from Wuthering Heights, see Researchers of the Ring?.
The Researchers of the Ring? are a group of former members of The Ring who are involved in maintaining the Glass Pods in the basement of Wuthering Heights. They disguised themselves as members of the Öufi Association in order to conceal their identity. As Pointillists, they wield large paintbrushes that function as spears, and have a fighting style that revolves around the 
Bleed Bleed
The next Y time(s) this unit tosses an attack skill Coin, take X fixed damage. Status Effect.
Trivia
- The schools of the Ring hold significant resemblance with the real-world art movements/techniques they are named after.
- For example, Pointillism is a painting technique where small, distinct dots of paint is applied to the canvas, giving rise to an unique depiction of light and color. The technique branches from Impressionist techniques, and notable works include A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.
- Similarly, Fauvism is characterised by unconstrained brushwork and strident colors. Additionally, the Ring Fauvists' obsession with animal masks may have come from the etymology of the word "fauve", which originally meant "beast" or "yellowish-brown" in French (see Wikitionary:Fauve).
- Similar to real-life Cubism, Ring Cubism also involves deconstructing the depicted object, then reconstructing the same in abstract form with an emphasis on 3-dimensional structure.
External Links
Footnotes
- ↑ The Ring Pointillist Student Outis/Identity Story; described by Outis as "garish colors and overcomplicated lines".
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