NEXUS: The Kingdom of the Winds (), alternately known as Nexus TK or simply Nexus, is a pay to play MMORPG, currently run in the United States by Kru Interactive. Nexus began as a US version of the Korean game 바람의 나라 (Baramue Nara, or simply Baram) developed by NEXON Inc. of Korea, and is loosely based on Korean mythology and on a series of graphic novels by an artist named Kim Jin. Development of Baram began in Korea in 1994 and the game was released on April 5, 1996. One year later, it also entered beta in the United States, going commercial in 1998. In 2005, the US subsidiary of NEXON changed its name to Kru Interactive and took over running Nexus, Dark Ages, and Shattered Galaxy as an independent company. Most of the employees of the subsidiary were laid off but the management remained the same as it was when the company was a subsidiary of NEXON. A few features that distinguish Nexus from other MMORPGs are its 2D tile graphics, intense player involvement, a central storyline, and its manhwa-like style. The highly popular game Lineage was based on a fork of the Nexus server software; its developer, Jake Song, was one of the original developers of Baram. Nexon pioneered distributed game servers in 1999 and set a record of 12,263 simultaneous users in a single world. Setting NexusTK is set in a land similar, geographically, to the Three Kingdoms of Korea, which existed between the 1st century BC and 6th century AD. Other lands such as Han and Ilbon, though not present in the game itself, are often referenced. In addition to the three kingdoms, there are nine villages in which a player may live. Three exist for each kingdom, containing houses which players may rent for a fee. Homes may be customized as a player sees fit using "floor plans" offered for homes of different sizes. Koguryo Koguryo is loosely based on an historical kingdom of Korea (Goguryeo) and was the first cultural center of NexusTK. Koguryo, whose capital city is Kugnae, is home to the Chongun, Spy, Merchant, Diviner, and Monk player subpaths. Kugnae is the largest city in the Nexus. King Dongmyeong of Koguryo, also known by his birth name Jumong, was the founding monarch of Koguryo, the northernmost of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. The capital city of Koguryo is Kugnae. The Kingdom