Relationships

Kilik
Pupil of Edgemaster and once a student of the Ling-Sheng Su temple, Kilik was entrusted with the Kali-Yuga, which was one of its three sacred treasures. When the evil seed rained down after the events of Soul Edge. he was inflicted with dark energies which caused him to lose his mind and murder everyone in the temple. This included his sworn sister, Xianglian, who managed to restore his sanity by placing the Dvapura-Yuga on him before passing away. The Dvapura-Yuga was a sacred mirror that was able to prevent the dark energies in Kilik from driving him mad, but if he was ever to be seperated from it he would go insane again. On the advice of Edgemaster, he started a journey to the west and went to an Indian port to catch a boat.

It was here that he would encounter Maxi's ship. After asking Maxi's sworn brother, Kyam, for a trip west, the man agreed if only Maxi would allow it. Unfortunately, this was not to be. A ship carrying Astaroth and the Lizardman docked into the port, drawn by the dark energies in Kilik's body, and attacked Maxi's crew. Kilik tried to fight Astaroth off, but the giant managed to remove the Dvapura-Yuga from him and thus Kilik became insane again. Maxi arrived and fought Kilik, eventually managing to replace the sacred mirror on the man, but by this point Astaroth had left. After Kilik was restored, the two men drove the Lizardmen away, but Maxi's crew and sworn brother had all been killed. Kilik and Maxi travelled together after this (you can find the rest of Kilik's story in his official biographies).

Kilik and Maxi are, essentially, best friends, and although they are currently split apart in the storyline I find it likely that they will have a happy reunion at some point. Maxi had lost his memories of Kilik and Xianghua for the most part, having only fleeting memories of a man who was 'very dear to him,' which is Kilik. In Soul Calibur 4, he meets up with both Kilik and Xianghua again, regaining his memories, but split with them and continued to travel alone because Kilik's Dvapura-Yuga harmed Maxi thanks to the Soul Edge piece inside his body. Once Soul Edge is destroyed, perhaps, the three will find that happy reunion.

Xianghua
Xianghua joined up with Maxi and Kilik shortly after they began their journey west. Her sword, the Krita-Yuga, was in fact Soul Calibur disguised, but she did not know this at the time. Her mother had taken it from Ling-Sheng Su temple (for reasons why, see Xianghua's official biographies) and Xianghua did not know about its origins. When she and Kilik faced off against Nightmare, the Krita-Yuga revealed its true form and she used it to seal her opponent away. Having lost her treasured sword, she was given No-Name by an old man (probably Edgemaster) shortly afterwards. At this point, Maxi had disappeared (find the rest of Xianghua's official history in her biographies).

Xianghua completes the trio of friends, but Maxi had no memory of her whatsoever (Kilik seems to be slightly more important to him) until meeting Kilik and her again in Soul Calibur 4. Xianghua underwent a huge change in appearance between Soul Caliburs 1 and 2, and I actually prefer the second look. ^^

Astaroth and Kunpaektu
As mentioned in Kilik's section at the top of this page, Astaroth was responsible for the death of Maxi's crew. Maxi did manage to kill the giant at the end of Soul Calibur, but at the start of Soul Calibur 2 the god Ares/Palgaea resurrected him. This started a whole new chase for Maxi, who began to pursue the giant once more (see Maxi's official histories for details).

So far in the official storyline, Maxi has not managed to find Astaroth again yet, but in Soul Calibur 3 he found the ruins of the Fygul Cestemus temple. Fygul Cestemus was the death cult that worshipped Ares/Palgaea, and its high priest had been the one to create Astaroth. Astaroth has destroyed the temple when the high priest, a man named Kunpaektu, tried to cast a controlling spell over him. Few survived the onslaught, but Kunpaektu himself had, and when Maxi found the ruins he found Kunpaektu there. The man had been driven insane and now only mumbled and cursed to himself whilst clutching a fragment of Soul Edge. When Maxi mentioned Astaroth the high priest began to curse the name of the giant and Maxi discovered that Kunpaektu had made him. Driven by the dark impulses of the Soul Edge fragment in his body, Maxi killed the priest. It was a remark that Kunpaektu made before Maxi killed him that made Maxi realise he had this Soul Edge fragment inside himself.

Astaroth will likely be killed again by Maxi, but I don't see this happening until the series comes to an end. So lets hope that this doesn't happen for a long time, eh?

Kyam, Maxi's crew and Hwang-Sung Kyung
Kyam was Maxi's sworn brother - Kyam's family were killed when very young, so Maxi's parents brought up Kyam as their own. The two would form a pirate crew, with Maxi as captain and Kyam as first mate. We don't know very much about what happened during this time except for one incidence that we can speculate on.

The official history of Hwang-Sung Kyung mentions an incident in which he falls into a pirate's trap near the Ryukyu islands. Hwang was demoted afterwards because his impatience and eagerness to capture the pirates had contributed to the failure of his own crew in the mission. The Ryukyu islands are Maxi and Kyam's homeland, which suggests that they might be the pirates responsible. This is backed up by the fact that Hwang's destined battle in Soul Calibur 1 before Seung MiNa is unlocked is Maxi. Recently, this link was confirmed for me when I happened to read Yunsung's full SC2 biography. The quote is: -

Upon hearing rumors that a pirate from Ryukyu (present day Okinawa) - with whom Hwang fought to a draw four years earlier - took the southern route to Europe, Yun Sung decided to take that same path without a moment's hesitation.

So, thanks to our friend Yunsung, we now know that Hwang and Maxi definitely did fight, and that they did so to a draw. I'll take it Hwang didn't like not winning a battle, so he formed a grudge.

As for Maxi's crew, only one members name is really mentioned - a guy called Yagazzi, who made his nunchaku Fatibal. All of the crew, including Kyam, were slaughtered by Astaroth and the Lizardmen at the beginning of Soul Calibur 1, leaving Maxi with nothing but his weapon and a grudge...