Aurum

The Aurum (オーラム　o-ramu) are a species of aliens in Kid Icarus Uprising.

They are attracted to battle, as Palutena said, and the war between humankind, the Forces of Nature and the Underworld Army had attracted them to Earth. They have taken over and harvested previous planets that they have come across to create massive islands, battleships, and cruisers.

Origin
As Pyrrhon stated, according to the Book of Divine Prophecy, chapter 84, section 3, "Beckoned by destruction and corruption, the Aurum are born from and return to nothing. They travel across the galaxy to swallow up the heavens, land, and seas." The Aurum invasion mostly came to Earth due to the war between Palutena, Viridi, and Hades. It is apparent that the Aurum have successfully taken other planets for their own, as their vast island bases and hives imply.

Apperance
The Aurum vary in appearance. The majority resemble white geometric shapes with various features. It could be said they look a lot like computer programs and act in very stable, methodical fashions. The only Aurum member that looks somewhat alive is the Zaurum. The Aurum have also successfully copied enemies Pit has met before, such as the Monoeye, which, when copied by the Aurum, becomes the Aurum Monoeye. These Aurum have a white and binary green in color like the rest of the Aurum troops.

However, when Pyrrhon takes control of the Aurum Brain, the Aurum troops become white and bright orange in color, the color of Pyrrhon.

Aurum Hive
The Aurum Hive is a spherical space station. It can be seen as the mothership of the invasion. Within the Hives, the Aurum begin their process of building new troops and ships, as well as copying anything they loot from the planet. Each Hive has a generator that causes it to run and operate. Destroying this generator will cause the destruction of the Hive and anything within blast radius of the resulting explosion. Entering the Hive is very difficult, as there are one-way force-fields for the ships to exit from, and everywhere else is impenetrable. According to the idol, Pit is the very first person to ever enter and destroy an Aurum Hive.

Natue and Goals
The Aurum have one uniform aim, stemmed from the Aurum Brain itself; to consume and be all. From Pyrrhon's dialogue when possessed by the Aurum Brain, their single-minded desire to achieve this task is shown. Viridi does comment that they follow the same pattern as living things in the way they consume and kill other species to survive, but they are far too unnatural and destructive.

The Aurum have no individuality of any sort, being controlled by the Aurum Brain. They ransack planets they conquer, pulling up entire chunks of land via anti-gravity beams to create their bases, regardless of the inhabitants of the earth. To further emphasize their destructive nature, the Aurum are literally drawn to the "flame of battle." Palutena describes them as "hungry moths," aptly regarding their affinity for ruination and their helpless urge to plunder.

As a "race" (using the loosest term of the word), the Aurum act much like bees. Viridi and Palutena even describe them as such in-game, although Hades calls them "locusts." The Aurum are highly structured, and each unit acts purely for the benefit of the populace. From their bases, individual Aurum drones go out to purge, plunder, and capture anything they come across before returning to the Hives with them. There, they convert the material to suit their needs, using assimilation to achieve their goal as becoming all that is. They even copy any living beings they come across to further this end. Skuttlers, Miks, Pips, and Fire Wyrms are just a few examples of enemies cloned by the Aurum to take the planet for their own. This is their sole purpose, and to be fair, they are pretty faithful to their cause.

Kid Icarus Uprising
Created from nothing, the Aurum conquered various worlds and harvest their resources and life forms to improve themselves with each conquest. Apparently attracted to wherever destruction and corruption are found, the Aurum arrive to Pit's world, drawn by the war among the gods. The arrival of Pyrrhon holds the initial invasion force at bay while Pit fights his way in and destroys the Aurum Core. However, as the other deities and Pit fall back, Pyrrhon remains to hold off the reinforcement fleet. With the gods setting up a temporary truce to deal with the invaders, Pit goes to the Aurum Hive to destroy its generator and have the entire battle station implode on itself. By that time, the Aurum have capture many of Hades' and Viridi's forces and created Aurum copies of them. During the final battle with the Aurum, Pyrrhon betrays the others by fusing with the Aurum Brain to obtain its power for his own agenda. As a result, the Aurum turned crimson in color as Pyrrhon uses them to attack the other gods. However, the Aurum Brain soon takes control of Pyrrhon's mind before Pit destroys it, and Pyrrhon uses the last of his power to jettison the remaining Aurum Hive to the other side of the galaxy.

The Chaos Kin is able to reproduce the minor Aurum foes during the fight against it in Chapter 21: The Chaos Vortex, having apparently looked into Palutena and Pit's memories.

Trivia

 * The Aurum appear to be based on a semi-common concept of aliens that assimilate or imitate other races. They share this as well as their "digital" theme with the Aparoids from Star Fox games.
 * All of the Aurum bosses are completely stationary, relying solely on allies and defenses to attack.
 * "Aurum" is the Latin word for Gold.
 * Later on, during the second phase of attacks against the Chaos Kin, several Aurum are created that move similarly to how an LCD would work - switching positions with no in-between state. Pit even remarks, "those Aurum are doing their best Game & Watch impression," with Viridi calling Pit a "nerd."
 * Pit and Mr. Game and Watch both met in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 * The Aurum troop Tribyte has a Triforce mark on its back.
 * As mentioned in the Aurum Mik idol description, the Aurum need to capture objects in order to replicate them.
 * Though their actual names cannot be fully pronounced, Palutena revealed she took the liberty with how to call them.
 * The Aurum need to capture enemies to make a copy of them. This is revealed in the game when the question is asked why they can't make a copy of Pit.
 * Though there are Aurum copies of Monoeye, Mik, and Specknose, there are no Aurum copies of Monomiknose.
 * The Aurum change color to red once Pyrrhon takes over the Aurum Brain.
 * The Aurum weapons come in Clubs, Orbitars , Blades , Bows , and Palms
 * The Aurum Bow seems to vaguely work like the Phosphora Bow, but with better continuous-fire homing.