Disclaimer: I do not own Green Lantern or Doctor Who. Green Lantern and associated characters belong to DC Comics. Doctor Who belongs to the BBC.
Rise and Fall of the Guardians
The Maltusians were not the first race to be deemed a success by The Celestials. they were however the first to not be consumed by their new role and to show residence to the corruption of their new powers. Tall humanoids with blue skin and white hair, the Maltusians valued science and order. Research and investigation were amongst their major skills. They possessed a natural curiosity about the cosmos and those that had come before.
For the most part the Maltusians remained in the background, nudging development of the lesser races without outright interference. They would educate and provide assistance to those they deemed to be on the right path while avoiding those that they believed could cause problems. This allowed the races that followed their mindset to flourish while others either disappeared or adopted their teachings and changed path. By the time their race reached what they considered to be its peak, they were already an ancient and partially revered race.
Unfortunately for the Maltusians, their own curiosity was a weakness. Although they had not shown the same vulnerability to corruption that other races had seen, the temptation of forbidden. The Maltusians had adopted strict rules about subjects that were not to be researched. Reaching into the distant past to observe the act of creation was considered a crime punishable by death -for to look upon the face of their creator undermined their belief that no such being existed.
One scientist, named Krona, the laws of his race and despite being sanctioned many times, built a machine capable of doing the impossible. He succeeded and caught a glimpse of the moment The One had sent forth the seeds of creation into the void, transforming it into the universe. His machine was unable to withstand the sudden forces it was exposed to and exploded, causing a backlash that created a schism and broke the universe into two universes. In doing so his actions unleashed the dark forces that led to the first war between Good and Evil.
For his crimes, Krona wasw sentence a, one of their number conducted experiments to see back to the beginning of the universe. He witnessed the events that led to the greatest explosion in history, but his actions and emotions triggered an imbalance that cause the universe to split, forming the second universe that had led to so much trouble.
In the wake of his actions, the Maltusians divided into clans and spread out to pursue their own beliefs. It seemed Krona had not only broken the universe, but the unity of his own people. As punishment he was transformed into energy and sent to circle the universe for all eternity.
But his actions had one final and unintended outcome. For there was so much distraction caused by his crimes and the break-up of the Maltusian race, that for a time his people abandoned their duties to deal with the aftermath. Their inattention led to the universe slipping away from the science they preached and into the chaotic grip of magic. Unknowingly, Krona was one of the triggers of the dark times to come.
Much later, as the Maltusians came to accept what had happened, they sought to make amends for their failures. They chose to name themselves the Guardians of the Universe, believing that presenting themselves as protectors instead of leader would make the lesser being more accepting of them as they attempted to bring order to the chaos. The also relocated themselves to Oa, a world closer to the centre of the universe in a move they hoped would give the illusion of importance.
But before they could turn their attention to matters such as crime, they first tried to restrict the use of extra-dimensional energy. Extra-dimensional energy or Grid Energy as some of the lower races had started to call it, was the same energy that had seeped into the universe since its formation. It was the same energy that had been unleashed to create the building blocks of the cosmos, which The Celestials had later refined. It was the raw energy that The One devoted his every waking moment to keeping under control. Since before the universe, the energy had existed within a dimension that flowed throughout the universe, touching every part of creation. Krona's actions had caused rips to form that allowed some of that energy to escape.
The Maltusians did not fully understand the force known as magic, which was one of the most common variants of Grid Energy. Nor did they wish to understand it. They considered it unpredictable and destructive to use. And because they chose not to try and understand the workings of magic, they were unable to find the means to prevent it from entering their dimension. Instead, after successfully removing it from their Oa by trapping it inside a large crystal, their only option was to repeat the process wherever the energy was found in large quantities and contain it in vast vessels. How they would dispose of such volatile containers was unclear and something they vowed to deal with in the future.
It was an endless battle to drain the masses of energy that had accumulated and stay on top of new breaches. By the time they realised they were unlikely to succeed they had also given up trying to get the people of the universe to acknowledge them as the Guardians of the Universe. For the Guardians of Oa was the best they were ever going to achieve. Faced with the prospect of failure, they changed tact and decided to try to learn more about the source of the energy that was causing them so many problems in the hope that that knowledge would provide ways to speed up the cleansing process.
Through their research, Oa's greatest scientists concluded that the energy they had encountered was just a small part of a previously unclassified force of nature. They redefined their understanding of such energy and referred to its collective form as The Power. Through intensive research they were able to identify and describe the properties many of the types of energy they encountered. With further study aided by their constantly advancing science, they found ways to to separate and then sub-divide the various energies, bringing an understanding to a force that had previously defied explanation. And eventually they were able to divide the energies that made up The Power into five classifications. Of those five types they considered two to be too unpredictable or dangerous for further study. The rest they labelled: Spiritual energy, Psychic energy, and the previously known Magical energy.
Spiritual energy was the energy generated by the very existence of the universe. It flowed through living beings but could be found in almost all matter in some form or other. It was also almost impossible to channel using inorganic technology. By its nature it required living bodies to act as a conduit through which it could flow. And while energy created by those in the lower planes could be easily utilised with the correct training, the energy from the higher levels had proven less useful. Spiritual energy could be polarised to either positive or negative and sub-divided according to its original and whether it was flowing or pooled. After some study, the Guardians classified it as posing only a small threat to their work and almost impossible to eliminate without destroy all life. They chose to ignore it and moved on.
Psychic energy on the other hand seemed to be made up of a single flow of energy. There were few identifiable variations and although it could be used positively and negatively, there was no obvious difference in the energy used for either purpose. It was just a vast pool of energy that flowed its way through reality and if directed properly, it could be used. Thoughts and emotions were an important part of directing Psychic energy. Combined with the shear willpower and concentration needed to sustain it once set in motion. It was classified as being of little concern if it was handled carefully.
Finally they came back to magic. Magic was the least controllable and most potent of the raw energies of the universe. It didn't have a single source. It was the natural background energy that had been dispersed at the creation of the universe. It was part of the powers the Celestials had wielded. It was the life energy that sustained the denizens of the higher dimensions and the creatures that lurked in the more insidious dimensions. Magic ranged from being raw and near uncontrollable to being refined and easily commanded. It could be polarised between positive and negative or completely neutral. It could be contained, grown, reused, dispersed, and gathered. Unlike Psychic energy it could sustain its effects without the need of a constant effort.
Magic was a force of change. It could alter the structure of its surroundings and change, create and even destroy matter. It could cause mutations in living cells and in high quantities act like a dose of radiation. When forced to obey the laws of science it could be stored, channelled, and insulated against. Once tapped correctly with the right method of control, magic could be used as an effective tool.
However, some magic could not be controlled safely. Some magic was too potent to be restrain, some was simply too destructive to attempt to control and some was almost sentient and fought back when attempts were made to call upon it. Some magic required extra precautions, some required offerings to be made through ritual ceremonies before it would conform. In later times the reasons for such varying behaviours would be better understood, but for now the Guardians tried to remove the more volatile magic from where it could cause harm.
Unlike Psychic energy and Spiritual energy, Magical energy did not need an outside medium to work. Magic had existed at the beginning of the universe, some had been unleashed at the formation of the planets or the fall of the Dark One. A lot of corrupted magic had been released when the second universe had collapsed and now leaked from the scar behind which the Dark One remained. Some magic had been left by the The Celestials during the building of the early cosmos. Magic was the natural background energy and spiritual energy of the beings found within the high planes, seeping down through the barriers, and interacting with an alien environment.
Perhaps some of the most dangerous forms of magical energy were those that had evolved into living entities and trapped inside their own dimensions following The Celestials' acts to protect the lower dimensions. These were beings filled with vast amounts of energy unable to to pass the barriers that The Celestials had raised. Such energy desperately sought release and were willing to share their power with those on the other side of the barrier in exchange for the spiritual energy they needed.
For that was one of the most useful qualities of Spiritual energy. Because it was found in all living beings it could be offered as an exchange for access to one of the other forms of energy. It was the key to unlocking one side of the seal The Celestials had placed between dimensions, requiring only somebody on the other side to provide a similar offering from their side, often in the form of Magical energy.
This was the key fact that the Guardians of Oa had come to understand. The use of Magical, Spiritual and Psychic energy required an exchange. Energy for energy, thought for energy, emotion for energy, something for energy. Even the powers that they had evolved required that they offered up vast amounts of willpower in return for being able to transmute energy into matter.
It was only when their long period of study ended that their campaign to eradicate the most dangerous forms of magic and contain those that would dare unleash such dangers upon the universe began. After a long period of discovery, the Guardians returned to their previous goal of bring order and lawfulness to what they considered a cosmos running out of control.
They attempted to resolve the problem by creating machines to carry their new laws to the farthest reaches of the universe. And when that failed, they tried to replace machines with living beings to do the same. But for some reason their plans failed, often in disastrous ways that undermined their reputation and caused splintering within the Maltusian race. Their people drifted apart with many leaving to pursue other goals. The time of the Guardians of Oa as the leaders of the universe had come to an end before it really started. They retreated from public view and were seldom heard from as the Universe moved on.
And despite all that they had done, it seemed that nothing could stop the universe as it slowly descended into disorder once more.
End of Part
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