Sun Wukong

Sun Wukong is mythological hero-god from various Chinese legends, who most famously appears in the Ming Dynasty novel Journey to the West. According to the novel, Sun began his life as a monkey born from a stone. He quickly proved he was much greater than his brethren, becoming the leader of the monkey tribes, learning magic from a Taoist sage, and acquiring a massive magical cudgel from the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea. Sun began to form alliances with other animal tribes, which caught the attention of the Jade Emperor, the monarch of the Taoist gods. The Emperor gave Sun a title, in hopes of controlling him. When Sun learned his title meant nothing more than the duty of taking care of Heaven's horses, he was furious. He did the unthinkable, and attacked Heaven, where he fought off thousands of heavenly soldiers single-handedly. It was only by the might of the Tagatha Buddha himself that Sun was finally defeated and imprisoned beneath an enchanted mountain.

After five centuries was passed, Sun was finally freed from his prison. To redeem himself for his past actions, he was commanded to perform as a bodyguard for a Buddhist monk named Xuanzang on a quest to retrieve Buddhist sutras from a temple in India.

The pair would be joined by the godly warriors Zhu Baije and Sha Wujing. Together, the group would battle demons and monsters that sought to kill Xuanzang. At the end of their journey, Sun was granted Buddhahood.