Tamna the island(creation myth)

nah just kidding. This ain't no creation myth. It's just Tamna stuff.

Tamna the island was based on a manhwa of the same name. But the manhwa itself was based on the true experiences of Henrik Hamel, a bookkeeper with the Dutch East India Company (the VOC).

In 1653, while heading for Japan on the ship 'De Sperwer' (the Sparrowhawk), he was shipwrecked on Jeju Island off the southern coast of Korea along with thirty-five of his crewmates. By then Korea was known as the hermit country. As castaways, Hamel and the others were treated well in the early months after the disaster. However, as soon as the novelty wore off, they again became the foreigners whom Korea had wanted to keep away from its shores. The fact that they could just have come from their arch enemy Japan perhaps added to the fate of the Dutchmen.

Hamel wrote a report during their stay in Dejima about their stay and about the customs in Korea. Of his first encounter with Koreans after they had crawled ashore from the wreck of De Sperwer, Hamel wrote: "We panicked as we thought these people were ready to lynch us." He described some of the later humiliations he and the others suffered. The men were obliged to adhere to the customs of the land and became all but imprisoned by the Koreans.

When the novelty of their capture was still fresh, the Dutchmen had been brought to the royal palace in Seoul, as a kind of novelty item for the king. Through interpreters and confidants, Hamel and the others were able to relay an urgent request to the king. They bade him to grant them their release so they could go back home and rejoin their wives and children. But the king refused. It was obvious to the Dutchmen that the Koreans intended to continue to restrict their movements. Following the local customs soon they were no better than slaves.

In 1666, after thirteen years of what then had become imprisonment, eight men including Hamel were able to escape. They managed to seize a boat and soon reached Japan where they were able to travel on to the VOC trading mission at Dejima, the artificial island in the bay of Nagasaki. Although Japan also was closed to foreigners, its local rulers and people at least were not unfamiliar with Europeans, especially the Dutch traders. (adapted from wikipedia)

“Hamel Ship” in Jeju Island, a replica of the vessel that took the first Dutchman, Hendrik Hamel, to Korea in 1653.