The Forgers were an ancient race of machines that hailed from the world of Homeworld and directed the construction of hundreds of classes of other intelligent machine races.
Design[]
The Forgers were briefly seen to silvery ephemeris with pincer like fingers.
History[]
In the beginning, the Forgers were a young race that existed in the galaxy. At the time of their rise to the stars, the galaxy was facing a critical stage as nearly of all of machine life was destroyed by an malignant entity known as the Wraithiest that corrupted and influence life with death and destruction. Opposing it was an older race known as the Wraith Legion, a brave valiant army of crusaders that were immune to its corruption. However for all their might, the Wraith were unable to destroy the Wraithiest, only fighting from world to world, at the cost of many lives.
Ironically the Forgers succeeded with intellect where physical might failed. They were immune to the Wraithiest's powers and using their science, they weakened the Wraithiest to the point they were able to trap the entity within their planet.
Afterwards the Wraith and Forgers forged an alliance to rebuild the galaxy. Where the Wraith would defend and pacify the stars, the Forgers would create a society.
For millennia. both civilizations honored their pact, however the society of the Forgers was not the promised utopia, but one of a stratified totalitarian caste system dictated by design and function. Deviations was seen as a punishable offense, whether by accident or intentional. Those that broke the laws were subjected to the Kill Lock, a symbol in which a quartet of robots would be linked until the end of their days. If one was killed they were all would die.
Their society continued through the ages, until a single rebel Artisan Class engineered their downfall. Unhappy with the restrictions placed on the classes, as they were forbidden and unable to modify themselves, the Artisan sought to use a convicted Wraith Class, who by choice choose to submit himself to the laws of the Forgers. The Wraith had disobeyed orders to kills Child Classes of a heretic world, and so was labeled a heretic himself. As an experiment his kind permitted him to be submitted to the Kill Lock. The Artisan chose to display himself as a psychotic killer, the first of his kind to do so, in order to be linked in a quartet of other convicts that included a Labor Class who was an alcoholic and accidentally killed several robots through his negligence, and a Child Class that was created with a exterior flaw.
Through his manipulations, the Artisan Class directed his comrades in searching for the Axial, a former Forger who developed the Kill Lock in order to convince her to tell them how to remove the stigma. At firs unwilling to help the Axial conceded and gave them directions to a world where they might be able to find a cure. However the cure turned out to be a lie, as the Axial directed other robots with the Kill Lock to a world that served as a trap for their kind. Two Leviathan Class
The Artisan Class and Child Class managed to escape into the underground fortress where they were shocked to see another Artisan Class with a Kill Lock on him. It appeared that the Forgers lied that the other Artisan was the only one to have turned rogue as it was deemed a scandal at the time and was quickly cover up. This Artisan Class figured a way to create a loophole with the Kill Lock. While each robot was vulnerable due lack of coordination and individuality which often led to risky and unnecessary damages, shared via the links to one another, the link could be merged into one form making coordination and survival chances higher. However such a thing required the consent of the other. A scuffle between the two groups, left the Labor Class crippled, and the Child Class near death. In order to save them, and his own life the Artisan Class proposed the Wraith Class to become their host, which he accepted.
The minds of both damaged classes were transferred into the mind of the Wraith, but unknown to the trio, the Artisan usurped control of the Wraith's body, becoming what he planned to become a genius Artisan with the indestructible body of a Wraith warrior.
Months passed, and the Artisan-Wraith gathered many robot rejects, all victims to the Kill Lock to his banner, offering protection and freedom. Word eventually reached the Forgers who then dispatched members of the Resolve Class to eliminate the threat to their society. However the assassination attempt failed forcing the survivors to become desperate and call on the Wraith Legion.
The Wraith Legion hearing the summons from the Forgers were initially unwilling to intercede, finding that the whole mess to be the fault of the Forgers, but since the Artisan was possessing a body of one of their comrades, they agreed to bring the heretic to justice. The planet where the Artisan-Wraith ruled was attacked by the full might of the legion, killing thousands of his followers. The Artisan-Wraith had a contingency and used a weapon that he threatened to use on the fleets of the Legion and ground them on the planet. His threat was minimal as the Wraith could easily rebuild their fleet, so the Artisan-Wraith threatened to destroy his body, something which they were not willing to allow as even though the Wraith he inhabited was a criminal, he was still a comrade in arms.
The Artisan offered a compromise, the return of the Wraith in exchange for their aid in destroying the Forger Alliance.
The offer after consideration, was accepted by the Wraith commander, who held the Forger wholly responsible for the debacle and deemed them heretics.
The fleet then changed targets, bringing the Artisan-Wraith and several survivors to witnesses the purification of the Homeworld. However to their shock the world was already in ruins with no survivors. Only a message from the Forgers that they knew the Legion would come and rather than face their one time allies chose suicide by releasing the Wraithiest.
Sources[]
- The Kill Lock Issue 0001
- The Kill Lock Issue 0002
- The Kill Lock Issue 0003
- The Kill Lock Issue 0004
- The Kill Lock: The Artisan Wraith Issue #1
- The Kill Lock: The Artisan Wraith Issue #2
- The Kill Lock: The Artisan Wraith Issue #3
- The Kill Lock: The Artisan Wraith Issue #4
- The Kill Lock: The Artisan Wraith Issue #5
- The Kill Lock: The Artisan Wraith Issue #6