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Origins: Of Knights and Dragons
“The legend of Zeon”
The Power was a vast current of raw energy directed through a dimension separate from the rest of reality to protect the other dimensions from its effects. While some energy leaked from the Morphin Grid and manifested as magic, psychic and spiritual energy, the other more powerful forms of energy were mostly restrained. It was not an easy thing to connect pure Grid Energy in a safe and predictable fashion. And despite appearances to the contrary, neither the Time Lords of Gallifrey, nor the Guardians of Oa found the solution… yet.
The earliest beings in the higher dimensions had managed to do so by trapping the energy under extreme pressure and condensing it into the form they desired, but the ability to touch and control such forces was beyond the population of the lower planes. Instead, they had shown the ingenuity that the lower races would become known for and cheated. Instead of trapping energy inside objects, they instead trapped the energy inside dimensional pockets and placed the dimension inside the object – for it seemed that dimensional engineering was far easier than creating such objects.
In the early days following the departure of the Celestials, such methods were not available as the Time Lords and their peers had yet to arise. It was a period when the continued existence of those mortals they left behind was not a certainty. The seals holding back the beings within the higher dimensions from simply conquering the lowest level of existence allowed the young races to come together and change the laws of nature within their dimensional plane to something that suited them. But before that occurred, before the Time Lords and the Maltusians, and the other races that formed the first alliance could gather, there had been other threats.
The Celestials had been charged with the task of overseeing the creation of the universe and priming it with the early forms of life. It was a task that they had fulfilled. To accomplish such a feat they had considered as many factors as their limited minds would allow – for despite their intelligence they were designed to favour hard logic over imagination. They had attempted to create a balanced existence where they believed life would have the greatest chance of survival. They had failed to notice that despite their best efforts some denizens of the higher planes of existence remained, hidden in the dark places. And some of those beings had been servants of the Dark One.
When the Celestials departed they unknowingly allowed a powerful threat to remain behind, unrestrained by their edicts. The creature was a being of unmatched power that took the shape of a multi-headed dragon. It was known as Vitara, but like most of its kind that was only a name it had chosen to present to the cosmos – for like many such beings, the knowledge of its true name was a dangerous first step towards vanquishing it. It had bided its time, hiding away as the Celestials had worked, awaiting their departure before feasting upon the defenceless stars. For the dimension the Celestials had left behind had no means to protect itself from a being such as Vitara, a demon that consumed the life force of worlds and transformed it into a chaotic mass of destructive energy. With nothing to stop its rampage, the beast’s power grew ever stronger.
For this was not an ordinary beast. It had been a personal creation of the Dark One, imbued with many abilities and capable of drawing upon the power of its creator. And while the Dark One had been imprisoned at the very depths of existence, unable to use his powers, he presence so close to the Morphin Grid corrupted a part of the Power, giving the beast a new source to draw upon.
World after world was drained of life as the demon crossed the many galaxies. It not only destroyed the primitive beings that had emerged on a few select planets, but it also stole the power that the Celestials had placed within each world to support and encourage life. As the demon soared through the cosmos, it left behind a trail of dead worlds. Fortunately, the Celestials’ need to have a balanced universe had created safeguards in case such a threat should arise. It was not a simple balance of creating a equal counter to the threat. Instead it sought a champion that would eventually defeat the demon and then with time allow the universe to heal.
While the Celestials had sealed the mortal realm to allow it to evolve before allowing the higher dimensions to interact with it, there were dimensions they could not seal. Some dimensions had been created before the Celestials had been sent out on their mission. Such dimensions were connected to focal points within the young reality. And while the Celestials could access such dimensions and manipulate the forces inside, they were unable to strengthen the barriers between them and other dimensions.
Within existence there were many types of energy: magical energy, psychic energy and spiritual energy were the most common. In the same way that a healthy human required a mixture of fat, carbohydrate and protein to function properly, so the three forms of energy helped to maintain the functioning of reality’s ecosystem. And then there were the more potent forms of energy, those the Celestials had been wary of. Raw Grid Energy was something that even the builders of existence treated with caution it seemed; Grid Energy was highly disruptive, more so than magic. When left alone, Grid Energy was altered by the environment outside of the Morphin Grid. Over time the energy slowed down and slowly transmuted into something resembling matter. That matter had been found in places across the universe as small fragments of crystal; the Celestials had even used some of those fragments as a means of enhancing the connection to the Morphin Grid by implanting them in the cores of planets.
The world of Zeo was different than most planets because it had been formed backwards as part of an experiment to see if planets constructed in such a fashion would prove more successful. Instead of creating the planet and then implanting a fragment of crystal, the Celestials had instead located a crystal and built a planet around it, trapping the crystal at its core. The results had been promising, but had been stopped when the Celestials discovered that the crystals had continued to grow in size after the planets were formed, meaning that they were still connected to the Morphin Grid.
Life did not emerge on Zeo for a long time although the energy leaking through eventually caused the lifeless planet to evolve into a primitive life-form. It did not possess thoughts of its own but had been shaped by the collective thoughts and feelings of the living beings on the worlds around it. And while it could not truly think, it was capable of responding to a threat… or a plea for assistance.
But how does a planet, even one connected to a massive pool of energy respond to a cry for help? The energy needed a conduit through which to work. And so the limited intelligence that had evolved within the dimension reached out to find a suitable avatar for its power. On a primitive world it found a young knight defending a family from bandits. The energy somehow decided that his actions made him worth to be their avatar.
The young man was drawn to Zeo and shown the danger Vitara represented. Although the power could not speak, it conveyed its wishes and from his response, confirmed his agreement to become its vessel. And so his body was infused with the raw power of the Morphin Grid, changing him from flesh and blood into a being of light and energy. He became the first champion of the mortal plane, starting a legacy that would continue far into the future and inspire many stories of the heroes fighting demons.
The noble warrior and the dragon met in combat and though the knight was powerful due to the power he had been granted, the beast was older, more experienced and had access to the energy it had stolen from millions of worlds. Their battle seemed endless as they moved across the universe and the knight became aware that his time was growing short – for the energy he had been granted was more than his body, mind and soul could withstand for such a long time without burning out. It was only as he realised his end was near that the knight’s prayers were answered and he saw an opening. The knight took the opportunity, sacrificing everything that remained of the person he had once been to destroy the threat, ending its evil rampage.
But while the dragon thrashed about in its death throes, the knight realised that his work was far from over. Vitara had caused unimaginable damage to millions of worlds. The energy it had stolen was the raw power of creation, which once corrupted by the demon became chaotic and destructive. As the demon was torn apart from the fatal blow it had received, the energies it contained were unleashed. The untainted power of creation left behind by the Celestials was absorbed into the body of the knight where it mixed with the other energies that now dominated his being. The corrupted energies leaked into space where they solidified into a green crystal sparking with dark energy; when the beast’s body exploded, the Chaos Crystal was blown far away.
With Vitara seemingly gone, the knight was no longer needed. It knight travelled from dead world to dead world, replacing the energy Vitara had stolen by placing a part of his body inside the damaged cores. And as he travelled and reversed the damage the demon had caused, he gave more and more of himself, until very little remained. In the end, it had taken almost all of the spiritual energy The knight possessed, but his task had been completed. The worlds he had visited would recover in time and he expected them to bring forth life as the Celestials had intended. But it was likely that any life that emerged would be tainted by the wickedness of the dragon’s attack and the nobility of the knight’s sacrifice.
With his task complete, The knight returned to Zeo. He had expected that with his work complete, he would die, but the power that had supported him in his quest refused to let him pass. Vitara had proven there were dangers in the fledging universe that threatened its existence. The fledgling races required protector until they grew strong enough to take on the responsibility themselves. The Power chose the knight to fulfil that role, but seemed to recognise that he had used up much of his life force restoring the worlds Vitara had savaged. His original form had burned away after a short time of agreeing to fight the beast; he was barely capable of containing what remained of the potent energies he had absorbed. Some energy leaked into the world around him, solidifying within its crystal core, despite his efforts.
What little remained of the knight’s essence was transferred into the Morphin Grid and soon became a part of the dimension’s growing consciousness. Beyond the boundaries of that dimension, his connection to the world that he had left behind upon his supposed death remained. And as the power of the Morphin Grid continued to flow, so a part of it fed into the crystal core of Zeo and throughout the millions of years that followed, the energy within the crystal increased and the crystal expanded to contain such power.
But it was not just the crystal that was connected to the potent life-giving energies of the knight’s new home. The planets he had healed remained connected to his life energy and through it the dimension he now resided. Just like the crystal, those worlds would continue to receive energy, causing them to evolve and attract life. And all of them had been connected to a single dimension filled with power. The evolution that the Celestials had been wishing to see would now begin.
Many years would pass before the planet Zeo was rediscovered. By that time its core had grown so powerful that its existence could no longer escape the notice of those seeking power. Wars were fought to possess it and unlock its secrets. The violence grew until a wise leader came to understand that as long as the planet remained accessible, the fighting would never end. And so an alliance as formed and the planet was placed into another dimension where it would remain until its power could be tempered and the people of the universe grew wise enough to understand its real value. When the task was complete the alliance would return with only a small fragment of the crystal core. It would be presented to an order of monks in the M-51 Galaxy and would start a legacy all of its own. But that is another story.
And far away in another part of the cosmos the dark remnants of Vitara’s power had condensed to form another crystal. Unlike the one created by the knight, this crystal pulsed with the corrupted energy of a fallen demon. Its power could best be described as chaotic. And over time it too had grown larger. From time to time its unstable structure would fracture, ejecting a fragment of crystal into space where it would fall into the hands of an unsuspecting victim and unleash chaos and destruction in the name of evil. For existence had been crafted in a way that would ensure that it remained balanced regardless of the dangers such balance posed.
End of Part
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