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The Bird That Drinks Tears
February 22, 2026 at 12:49 PM
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The Bird That Drinks Tears (Korean: 눈물을 마시는 새) is a Korean fantasy novel series by Lee Yeong-do (also romanized as Lee Youngdo), widely acknowledged as the father of the Korean fantasy genre. The novel series is the source material for Project Windless, though the game is set approximately 1,500 years before the events of the books.
Item | Description |
|---|---|
First serialized | March to August 2002 on HiTEL's Serial forum, a Korean dial-up Internet service |
Published | 2003 by Golden Bough, an imprint of Minumsa Publishing Group |
Format | Four hardcover volumes, each themed after one of the four major races |
The four volumes are:
Nhaga Who Extract Their Hearts
Rekon Who Pursue Their Desire
Tokkebi Who Play Their Fire
Humans Who Seek Their King
The Bird That Drinks Blood (눈물을 마시는 새의 피를 마시는 새) was published in July 2005 in eight hardcover volumes. It is set 50 years after the events of the first series.
The story begins when a Nhaga envoy is dispatched northward to deliver a critical message. A trio is assembled to escort the envoy, one member from each of the other three races. However, the original envoy is murdered and replaced by an anomaly. A Nhaga who still possesses his heart, making him far more vulnerable than a typical heartless Nhaga.
The escort party consists of:
A Tokkebi who is merely a scholar, not a warrior
A Rekon who is deathly afraid of water
A Human who hunts and eats Nhaga
An old prophecy states "three handles one," and the fate of the world may rest on this one Nhaga making it to the North alive. The novel is celebrated for its original worldbuilding, which integrates traditional Korean culture (including ssireum (Korean wrestling), yutnori (a traditional board game), and ondol (floor heating)) into an epic high fantasy setting.
Lee Yeong-do (born 1972 in Busan, South Korea) is widely credited as the pioneer of the Korean fantasy genre. He studied Korean language and literature at Kyungnam University and began writing seriously in 1993. His debut work, Dragon Raja (1998), sold close to two million copies in four languages and sparked the growth of Korean fantasy and science fiction literature. The Bird That Drinks Tears has been called "the Korean Lord of the Rings."
In 2023, translation rights sold to publishers in 12 countries with an advance of approximately US$500,000, the highest overseas sale for a single Korean novel at the time. The series has been translated into 17 languages as of 2026.
The English translation of the first book, titled The Heart of the Nhaga, is published by Harper Voyager (HarperCollins), translated by award-winning translator Anton Hur, with a release date of June 2, 2026.
In 2023, Golden Bough published a 20th anniversary illustrated edition featuring 34 artworks by Seongmin Baek and six new short stories by Lee Yeong-do.
Project Windless is not a direct adaptation of the novels. It is set approximately 1,500 years earlier, during the mythical age of the Hero King and the founding of the Arajit Kingdom. The game explores an era that the novels only reference as ancient legend, giving KRAFTON Montréal Studio creative freedom while remaining faithful to the world and races that Lee Yeong-do created.
