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Rise and Fall of the Guardians
Existence had changed and it was the fault of the Time Lords of Gallifrey. Their need to define and control the way in which the universe operated had at first been a campaign many had been able to rally behind. The establishment of the fundamental rules of science and logic that placed mathematics above all other pseudo-sciences had been met with quiet acceptance. Their experiments and eventual implementation of the Laws of Time – not to mention the rather flimsy timeline that they had created to help maintain order had been something many had gotten behind. Even their insistence on the restriction of time travel had proven acceptable, although some had asked why Gallifrey was allowed to control their experiments while restricting others?
But it had been their zealous attempt to remove all traces of the force known as magic from the cosmos that had lost them their support. Not only had their campaign led to the mass destruction of known, respected and peaceful races, they had failed to accomplish what they had promised. For the most part magic remained completely untamed by the Time Lords. For their campaign had not only failed, but the aftermath had rendered them blind to most forms of magical energy. They would forever believe they had succeeded when in fact their minds and senses had been altered to completely ignore the possibility that magic still existed. In their minds the Time Lords would now believe that anything magical was simply a manifestation of psychic energy or spiritual energy.
While they had failed in their ultimate goal, the Time Lords had been partially successful. They had discovered the means to direct magical energy into crystalline structures, where it could be contained. As more and more magical energy drained into the containers, the crystal structures would grow larger, ensuring that they would never overflow. And because of the density of the crystal structure, it was almost impossible for them to break open.
Of course such a high concentration of magical energy in one place was bound to draw unwanted attention. The Time Lords responded to that threat by forcing the growing crystals into dimensional pockets where they would remain beyond the reach of other beings, not realising that over time those dimensions would start leaking magical energy back to where it came from.
And the magical creatures they had attempted to destroy had survived their banishment to the void that formed a cushion between the walls separating one reality from another. There they flourished and grew more powerful, waiting for the opportunity to return and take their revenge upon the sane and rational universe.
Inadvertently, the Time Lords had broken the barriers between dimensions and caused the walls that held the universes apart to weaken whenever they had used their technology to forge new dimensions. And those breaches allowed beings previously prevented from entering their dimension to do so. Worse, their activities had created tears in the walls that were supposed to stop universes colliding. In doing so they had created openings between their universe and four of its neighbours, exposing their reality to the horrors that lay beyond.
But perhaps their greatest error had been to expose the existence of the multiverse to races that had previously been unaware of its existence. That error would lead to other races researching the nature of the cosmos and to some discovering technology that would rival the Time Lords for dominance. It was after these and other errors in judgement were brought to the attention of Gallifrey’s citizens that their High Council decreed that the Time Lords would refrain from further interference. They would observe but not intervene. That remained their policy for a long time until some saw the need to intervene once more.
While the Time Lords had been busy actively drawing attention to themselves and pretending to be one of the original races to emerge in place of the First Ones, the Guardians of Oa could trace their origins back to the early days of the cosmos. Originally from the planet Maltus, the Guardians in their early days had been tall black-haired beings with pale blue skin. At an early stage in their development they came into contact with a race of symbiotic beings that lived on their world. Through the union, the symbiotes fed upon the spiritual energy generated by the hosts and in return the Maltusians gained near immortality.
As time passed and the race evolved, the Maltusians grew in intelligence and developed strong psychic abilities. They became a race of thinkers and scientists eager to learn more about the universe around them. They developed the means of space travel and many forms of advanced technology. It was during their exploration of the universe that they realised how chaotic the cosmos was.
The Maltusians worked with others to firmly establish the rules of physics that defined their part of the universe. Through the use of advanced technology and sheer will they helped to change the nature their dimensional plane. Over time the number of experiments conducted by the Maltusians increased. They start to experiment not only on the world around them, but on other living beings. The Maltusians modified several races as they tried to learn more about alien biology. They created a race known as the Psions which they later rejected and briefly considered destroying.
In other fields of science the Maltusians also expanded their knowledge with little regard for those that they inadvertently harmed in the process. Their experiments destroyed several planets and drastically changed the environments on others. Their research with chemicals led to the poisoning of the population of one world and for a time put an end to those pursuits.
At some point the Maltusians discovered a source of energy fuelled by the collective emotions of the universe. The energy was a hybrid of psychic energy and spiritual energy. Through careful research the Maltusians discovered that the energy was a mixture of several emotions and that by concentrating upon a single emotion, it was possible to make the energy change colour. With sufficient concentration the energy could be used to create constructs of solid light. The Maltusians started to call their new energy The Glow.
Through the strict application of science the Maltusians were able to record and measure the wavelength needed to produce each colour of light. This in turn told them the wavelength of each emotion and allowed them to isolate those wavelengths. The Maltusians found that one of the wavelengths corresponded to the collective willpower of the cosmos. Soon they decided to suppress their emotions in order to focus purely upon willpower.
As they studied the nature of their new energy source, they discovered the existence of entities capable of not only using the energy they had been studying, but enhancing its power. While at first the Maltusians were intrigued by the possibilities such creatures represented, they deemed the creatures dangerous and had them imprisoned.
But it was the attempt to learn more about the origins of their universe that led to their gravest error. With a limited understanding of time travel technology, which would prove drastically inferior to that of the Time Lords, the scientist Krona attempted to look back to the creation of the Universe. Using time bending technology to circumvent the protections placed upon that period by looking forward in time and creating a temporal loop, Krona wished to confirm the truth of the legends his people had recited for generations concerning their origins.
It was unknown where the bolt of cosmic energy came from, but the resulting damage to the machinery caused it to punch a hole in the fabric of creation, allowing dark forces from the previous existence to enter. Those forces upset the balance in the universe as chaos and evil gained the upper hand.
Despite denying any responsibility for Krona and his unauthorised experiments, the Maltusian leadership felt honour bound to clean up the mess he had created. For his part in the fiasco, Krona was sentenced to death, but since their people did not have a way to end his enhanced level of immortality, they settled for converting his body into energy and condemning him to drift through the cosmos until the end of time.
Determined to put things right and to restore the order they had disrupted, the Maltusians moved from Maltus to the planet Oa where they proclaimed themselves the Guardians of the Universe. They built an enormous battery on the planet’s surface in the shape of a lantern after discovering that is shape allowed it to channel energy more efficiently. After working for millions of years to build the battery and even longer to protect it from those that might steal its power, the Guardians began working on their new campaign to eliminate the evil their actions had brought into the cosmos.
To that end the Guardians created a machine race known as the Manhunters, programmed to hunt down evil. Unfortunately a glitch in their programming led the Manhunters to instead hunt down and destroy the living. The malfunctioning machines went on a rampage through the universe until the Guardians finally stopped them. Stripped of their power and left to rust on a distant world, the Manhunters’ new target was the Guardians.
The Guardians tried two more times to create a force to hunt down evil and restore order, but neither attempt was successful and for a time they gave up on their first plan and instead tried to bring about order through direct interference.
The Guardians took steps to try and limit the flow of extra-dimensional energy, especially magic, into their dimension. In their minds magic was dangerous and uncontrollable, and therefore needed to be contained. They took steps to gather and contain all the magic on Oa into a large crystals before sending it into deep space where gravity would compact it. They tried to do the same for other worlds they encountered, working unseen to clean up the cosmos. But no matter how successful they were, the amount of magic seeping into their level of existence increased and when their activities were discovered, they were forced to apologise and step back..
The Guardians continued to try to intervene to stop the growing chaos, taking steps to limit those races they considered a danger or to ensure those they felt would one day be useful thrived. Eventually though it became clear that the Guardians were not making any real progress in their mission and were forced to concede defeat. They chose to withdraw while they worked upon a new solution, developing new means for other to act on their behalf, but with safeguards to prevent another massacre like the one instigated by the Manhunters.
For a long time the Guardians vanished from the cosmos to work on their technology. During that time they created a new weapon in their fight against evil: the Power Ring. The ring was a technological marvel; a super computer, communicator and weapon capable of directing the power of The Glow, which the Guardians had relabelled as the Emotional Spectrum.
The ring was tuned to draw and channel energy based upon willpower. Once connected to a suitable user, the ring could grant them many of the abilities the Guardians enjoyed without the need for their vast psychic abilities. So long as the user had a strong enough will and the imagination to use the ring, they could accomplish almost anything.
When the first ring proved a success, more were created. However, for those rings that followed the Guardians altered the design so that the rings were not directly connected to their power source. This allowed the Guardians a means to safely disable a ring should the bearer turn on them. Instead each ring contained the ability to hold a limited charge before needing to top up it supply from a portable power cell, which resembled the battery on the Guardians’ world.
To recharge the ring a request needed to be made to access the power held within the portable power cell, which in turn allowed the Guardians to review their agents’ activities before agreeing to grant them more energy.
However, the success of the power ring brought with it arguments within the ranks of the Guardians and deep divisions on Oa. There were arguments about whether the Guardians had the responsibility and the right to intervene in the affairs of the cosmos. There were also those that considered the reliance upon willpower as a source of energy to place unwelcome limitations on their agents. The Maltusians split into tribes reflecting their beliefs and as years passed, many departed Oa to build their own technology to create their own agents.
Strangely, when they emerged the Guardians discovered that they had spent far longer in their self-imposed exile than they had planned. The universe had moved on without them and the dangers they had sought to overcome had been defeated or overcome by others. While they were far from being obsolete, the creation of their new Green Lantern Corps received a muted response from a universe that had spent generations under the protection of the fabled Morphin Masters.
The tribes that had departed Oa with the intention of creating their own Lantern Corps soon found new worlds on which to build their power batteries. In time the tribes would reunite to face a greater evil and in time they would discover that the magic they had managed to contain and hide away so many years before had since been uncovered. In their efforts to restrain the spread of magic through the cosmos, the Guardians had unwittingly made it more accessible.
They would also discover in due time that they were not the only ones to have mastered the powers of the Emotional Spectrum. Others had attempted it over the years the Guardians had been away and some had even succeeded despite lacking any sort of psychic ability. In the future those beings would present the Guardians with their greatest challenge and perhaps even their existence.
End of Part
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