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Saturday, October 5, 2013

The Dark Order, explained at last


As early as July 2011 I dropped hints about a mysterious Hero Factory backstory I was cooking up involving The Dark Order, or, in their original tongue, the Or'Da.  In 2012 I drummed up renewed interest with a series of cryptic, low-resolution videos featuring various heroes addressing an unknown character known as "Sempax."  Then, in January, I released a series of stories of the Crystals of Zemai-4 as told by master chronicler Zeyek, giving full view to a slice of history involving the work of the Order and their arch enemies, the Brotherhood of Light.

Today I finish the puzzle at last. Get ready for a bit of a read...
I'll do my best to make this plain & clear; no more beating around the bush!  The Or'Da is like the Hero Factory universe equivalent of the Jedi, though they predated the Hero Factory quite significantly.  Their origin was the so-called Dark Universe, named back when space-time was thought to be divided into just two zones.  They were a network of warrior-scholars committed to bettering themselves and protecting innocent, developing societies from forces that would do them undue harm.


Members of this Dark Order numbered in the mere hundreds, though they protected every known inhabited corner of the Dark Universe.  Always training and advancing their own technologies, the Or'Da became nigh invincible in battle, and over many millennia they brought total and absolute peace to their entire realm of influence.

Through their travels and unending quest for knowledge, the Or'da learned of the existence of the Light Universe, and eventually gained access to it, sending members one at a time across the divide on long and treacherous scouting missions.  It was discovered that this zone of Light was infected by corruption and deceit perpetuated by a massive criminal organization known as The Brotherhood of Light.


The Or'Da resolved to tackle this evil and spread peace to the Light, but how they would approach this monumental task would create great controversy amongst their ranks.  For much of their raw power, you see, the Or'Da relied upon six types of incredibly rare crystals.  These crystals were used in their weapons, their training rituals, and, in fact, within their own bodies.  Sources of these crystals were few and far between within the Dark Universe, and though they do re-grow when carefully harvested in small quantities, such regrowth was painfully slow.  The first and foremost charge of all members of the Order was thus to protect the planets, stars, nebulae, and asteroids where these crystals could be found.  To take on the Brotherhood of Light, the Or'Da would need to travel to the Light Universe in force, leaving dangerously few behind to protect all of the scattered crystal sources from threats yet unseen, and perhaps yet undeveloped.


While many stratagems were proposed and debated, the strength of the Brotherhood of Light grew unchecked.  In the end, it was one very brave, though powerful young member of the Or'Da who stepped forward to single-handedly end the impasse.  All known sources of all but one of the sacred crystals would be fully mined out, permanently extinguishing their existence in the Dark Universe.  The harvested crystals would be distilled to their finest forms and used to imbue previously unattainable powers into the Or'Da themselves.  The hope was that this would give them the ability to overcome incredible numeric odds and defeat the Brotherhood on the other side.  Only one member of the Order, he who proposed the plan, would remain behind in the Dark.


The plan carried a great risk.  If the Or'Da could not find sources of their sacred crystals in the Light Universe, they could never replenish their own energies, and their life forces would one day fade away forever.  It would be the ultimate sacrifice in the name of the ultimate achievement, ending all evil in both halves of all of known existence.

The gamble paid off, to a degree.  In the Light Universe the Or'Da went about freeing system after system from Brotherhood rule, and along the way, they began to discover new sources of the all-important and ever so sacred crystals.  They would be able to live on, but their fight grew ever more difficult the farther they ventured out into the Light.  The Brotherhood, as it turned out, had begun to discover crude and inefficient ways to harness some of the power of the crystals.  Battles would become seemingly infinite wars, their outcomes indeterminate to this very day.

Back in the Dark Universe, the brave lone Or'Da straggler, Akiyama Makuro by name, developed a passion for invention in the slowly regressing peace of the Dark Universe.  He learned to successfully utilize small amounts of the one remaining sacred crystal within his reach, Quaza, to bring life to new creations.  As this universe evolved and its civilizations developed, new evils emerged, and Makuro would lead his living robotic creations in the fight to maintain Order.

Today, the fight against the Brotherhood rages on, and some of the influence of the evils of the Light have begun to extend across the universal border as well.  In response, a handful of old members of the Or'Da have returned to the Dark to aid offer assistance to their Sempax (meaning, literally, elder classmate, derived loosely from the Japanese word "senpai"), whose Hero Factory warriors with their limited Quaza power sources stand to be overwhelmed should a full-scale Light counter-invasion occur.  The Or'Da proper, now fully based in the Light Universe, knows of the perils facing their old realm and desires to re-seed old Dark Universe crystal sources to power a strong second front in the growing conflict.  Makuro, meanwhile, plays down the threat of a Light incursion, cautioning that protecting fragile new crystal growths from today's Dark evils would strain the resources of the Hero Factory while weakening the Or'Da presence across the divide.


Championing the push to invade the Dark Universe is an eccentric Brotherhood member who goes by the name of Goruz. His scientists have apparently established a reliable system of transporting small energy bursts across the divide, carrying with them encrypted communications. Through these communications Goruz has recruited criminal agents on the Dark side to help do his bidding.  These agents, known as "Grays" for their Dark existence under Light rule, now seek the oldest secrets of the Or'Da, with a most keen interest in discovering their method for transporting physical matter from one universe to the other.  What Goruz would do with such knowledge is painfully obvious.

Such is the highly abbreviated and distilled history of the Or'Da and its current state of affairs as relates to the Hero Factory (Dark) universe we know of today!  Of course, this raises as many questions as it provides answers:

  • Who exactly are the current "Grays?"
  • Have any members of the Brotherhood already crossed over into the Dark, and if not, how long will it be before they do?
  • Will Makuro cave and allow his ancient plan to be reversed, bringing back the other five crystals and much of the might of the Or'Da with them?
  • Or'Da operatives have been working under cover as mere Hero Factory heroes -- will their true identity be soon discovered?
Only one thing is certain.  This isn't over!

11 comments:

  1. All has been revealed......

    BUT GORUZ KNOWS OTHERWI-

    In all seriousness though, I cannot wait to see what unfolds!

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  2. it is kinda lot even for a fan to read :/

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    Replies
    1. It's equivalent to about 2 1/2 pages in a book :-/

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  3. Awesome story, can't wait to find out what happens next :)

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  4. great job, i think this is one of your best works yet!

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  5. This is one of the most amazing story I have read in a very long while
    And surprisingly find myself rooting for the brotherhood of light

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  6. This Is an amazing story! I made up a series in my head and I thought if they merged something awesome would happen! Is that OK? Do you want to hear the basic plot of my story?

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  7. Is it OK if I make a crossover video between our two stories similar to your "addresses the sempax" series? If you don't respond I'll do it anyways but keep it at home.

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  8. awesome, cant wait to see what happens

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  9. What an epic story!!!!! I to have a story that I would like to merge with this one. Is that OK? Please reply. (P.S I to have a blog.) :-)

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  10. I really like this story! Very creative!

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