History of Planet Zi

At the far reaches of the Milky Way hung the Great Star, Sol. Revolving her was eight planets, one one of note was the Blue Planet where all humans were once from. Even today little is known of this world, what we do know is this: The brightest and most brilliant scientists of the Blue Planet had learned that their world's life would be extinguished in less than ten millennia and there was naught that could be done to prevent it.

Knowing they had time to evacuate the planet if they acted quickly, these genius minds hatched a plan that led to the union of all tribes of Man on the globe. These united nations worked together in a way never seen before in the world's history in an effort to beat the clock just in case the theorized time remaining was wrong and the world died far sooner.

Ships of scientists, explorers, soldier, families, plants and livestock took to the stars in every direction. Each ship was also transporting DNA samples of every type of plant and animal that existed on the Blue Planet. Every ship commissioned with the same mission: Find a world similar to the Blue Planet and able to support life, form a colony and send a transmission back to the Planet to begin evacuations.

The first ships launched into space never sent a transmission back as all but one were lost to the perils of the Black. Only The Eden found soil again. At the opposite end of the Milky Way. A never before found planet who had two main forms of life. The human-like Zoidians and zoic mechanoids simply referred to as “Zoids”.

Warriors by nature, Zoids were often used in wars between the two key factions of the Zoidians. When they saw the humans from the Blue Planet, the factions ceased their eons of conflict in the face of a potential enemy. After destroying The Eden in a show of power, the Zoidians took the humans as slave labor and prisoners while their own scientists studied the DNA samples that were not destroyed, recreating life from the Blue Planet, creatures that bore an uncanny resemblance to the mighty Zoids of this planet. A world simply known as “Zi”.

The human race grew for countless generations and it was not until the princess of one of the kings of the blue-skinned Zoidians was rescued by a human slave that the two races truly saw the good in each other. The slave never found freedom for himself, slain when the truth was revealed when the princess was found with child. The child was first called an abomination until it was born... a perfect union of Zoidian and human.

Hundreds of years pass but one day the Zoidians and humans were seen as one race and the Zoidian's blue skin eventually was lost to the sands of time as each generation became more mingled than the last. Those who descended from the Zoidians had natural marking upon their foreheads which was often various shades blue or red. In a show of being one, human adopted their own Zi-marks, tattoos either on the chin, cheek or over the nose whose coloring and style dictated bloodline. The two races lived in peace, unknowing of life outside of Zi.

However, the story of the Blue Planet did not end with the world simply fading into the darkness. Over the remaining millennia, humans sent forth more ships and soon found themselves at war for survival. Creation of a galactic Empire led to growth and the rekindled hope of survival. And nearly eight and a half thousand years after the very first ship were launched into the Black, the Blue Planet's life was extinguished. Not by man or machine. Not by a power from the sky like the one said to have obliterated the dinosaur. Some wrote it was like the Blue Planet, now referred as “Terra” by the Empire, knew its time had come to an end and drew its final breath. Overnight, the world became inhabitable and countless humans and animals died while plant-life continued on and continues to do so.

Over the centuries that followed, the Empire spread out but somehow overlooked a tiny planet, far beyond the once-planet called “Pluto”, that circled a star as its pair of moons did the same. Zi was more than forgotten, she was never known; and in her isolation, Zoidian and human scientists created the first man-made Zoid. Far larger and more powerful than any before but horribly evil. Possessed with a will for destruction, the Zoid set about killing countless lives in the greatest and most majestic city on all of Zi, Eveopolis. Somehow, the survivors were able to seal away the creation they named “Deathsaurer” as they were unable to destroy it. With it sealed, they held to the hope that one day, their descendants would end the evil beast. In a final act of selflessness, the Zoidians left Zi in the care of the humans and did the impossible, sealing Eveopolis and all the old cities linked to her under the surface of the planet to be forgotten forever.

Much like the Zoids that were indigenous to Zi, humans are also warriors at heart. Needing war to grow and thrive, not to destroy. Three great kingdoms of old rules a third of Zi each. Farsa was ruled by the Arcadian Empire. Soro and Cartor were once a single continent, ruled by the Guylos Empire. And the mass to the east was the Forgotten Land where none dared tread as they were never heard from again. It was here that the Zenebas Empire reigned. Arcadia and Guylos were more ally than foe, however, as is inherent in humans, the lands did war more than once until they formed a truce to battle back a force on both lands by Zenebas.

There are conflicting tales on the origins of the Zenebas Empire, however, the truth lies in the original predated the Helic Empire by two thousand years. The Helic Empire was formed when there was a rebellion in the Guylos Empire. It was in this age that Zoids were again used as weapons of war.

In the final decade of this age, a young man entered unknown ruins near the Wind Colony and found a discovery that changed the face of Zi and laid the groundwork for global restoration. This discovery was a nearly forgotten form of Zoid called an “Organoid”. This young man, Van, along with the Organoid, Zeke, and an ancient Zoidian girl, that Van named Fiona, single-handedly united Helic and Guylos Empires after lifetimes of war b bringing them together to end the ambitions of Gunther Prozen and his cloned Deathsaurer and again four years later in the remains of Eveopolis.

With the wars coming to an “end”, Zoids soon began to lose their fighting spirit and Zoid Cores (the very heart and soul of a Zoid) lot their light, changing the metallic body of the Zoids to stone. Monuments of once-powerful creatures. In an effort to prevent the extinction of Zoids, the humans of the Arcadian, Guylos and Helic Empires formed one branch of their governments to oversee a rebirth of a long-forgotten tradition of both Zi and the Blue Planet. Sports, or in this case Zoid Battles. Strictly governed by a group named the “Zoids Battle Commission”, Zoid Battles breathed a new life into human and Zoid alike. No longer did you have to be a soldier to be able to use a Zoid for more than labor, if you had money enough or a sponsor, you could participate in Zoid Battles.

As technology was reborn, countless satellites were launched into a tight orbit about Zi. Each satellite, in turn, fired capsules back at the surface of the planet and inside the capsule was a single occupant, a robotic judge who watched every sanctioned Battle on Zi as well as transmitted it to viewers all over the world via the Outernet and television.

This age saw innumerable Warriors who put their pride on the line and sharpened their skills against each other every time they heard “Ready... FIGHT!” The greatest Warrior of this time was a once-junk dealer turned Liger Zero pilot, Bit Cloud. Bit lead the once losing Blitz Team into a Team that had the longest running winning streak of all time, going from Rank C to Class S in a single year by making Rank A and then winning the Royal Cup.

As the years passed Bit Cloud grew old, and as all men do, died. Forty years after Bit's death, the ZBC designated all Zoid battles in his name and established the After Era Calendar. The Tournament Cup came to be known as the Cloud Cup. All was pristine and calm, Bit and the Blitz team worked hard to put an end to the Back Draft and restore the ZBC. Now in the year After Era 40, it seemed some new evil was brewing. Zoid battles all over the globe were being interrupted, Zoids were ripped to shreds and pilots brutally murdered. One team, though, was always spared during these attacks: Team Draco. Soon Team Draco rose to the top and were rarely challenged. The ZBC could not find any evidence that Team Draco was part of the attacks, so they were not a suspect. Under a new law, it became a crime to disrupt a Zoid battle, and new teams were formed with protection under the law. However, even after the law was passed few teams survived. Teams Wolf, Draco and Quicksilver, The Republic, and The Strikers were the only teams to live through the attacks. It was up to them to discover who was attacking the Zoid battles and why.

Much had changed since the day a young man named Tetsuo started Team Draco. Tetsuo's name would become world famous, surrounded by controversy and shrouded in secrecy. War was the norm and for a short time the ZBC was incapable of regulating battles. A number of pilots were responsible for uncovering a shadowy organization that claimed to control the fate of the world. The toil of many events had taken their toll on the greatest pilots of the ZBC, thus resulting in their retirement. The major teams fell into disrepair and ultimately disbanded. Tetsuo had finally had enough of the world and disappeared never to be seen again.

Generations went by and the world's fighting and anguish halted. Worldwide peace and prosperity flourished throughout. People fell away from Zoids for a while, and went back to more peaceful and stable lifestyles, but this didn't last very long. Years later, the kids and grandchildren of the past Zoid pilots, and other people who'd heard stories of the past, brought out the Zoids that had been unused and unwanted. This new generation of pilots had a vigor that the old pilots lacked. Each had a burning desire to become the best. New teams arose from the ruins of the old ones, and the ZBC finally allowed freelance pilots to participate in official Zoid battles. With this new generation, new and amazing things were sure to happen. It was in this generation that a long dormant evil once more resurfaced. The Deathsaurer once again attacked the planet, this time beat back by Team Dreadnaught.

The teams of the last generation all faded from glory, some were reborn others lost to the annals of time. It is in this era that six teams are most well known, while there were a great many other teams. Of these six only five remained. Teams Fury, Team Blade, Team Sniper, the HighGuard, and Kage Tatsu. While membership and leadership changed (as does all things with time) these five remained strong and often were the forces that shaped Zi, which is now governed by the Zoids Battle Commission. Ancient evils, like the BackDraft group, chose this era to return only to be met by another group of forgotten history: the Guardian Force. The Guardian Force was formed in the days of Van Flyheight to maintain the peace for the people of planet Zi. In this new age, however, it was not the Guardian Force who beat back BackDraft, returning the organization back to the shadows of the once Zenebas Empire, rather it was the teams.

It is also, in this time, that the universe slowly became aware of Zi's existence with the crash landing of multiple ships who encountered a gravitational pull of an oddly unmarked world...

In the presence of a great war, the ZBC forwarded nearly all of it's funding towards fighting its foes and near the end had nothing left to give. With the battle commission's banks having been fully depleted and so many repairs needing to be made across the world there was no choice to be made except to close down. So many people held negative feelings towards the ZBC, but soon found out that without the commission there were no battles to host, and without sponsors, the teams were unable to make up their cost of living with other common activities such as bandit hunting, hero worship, and the like. Soon the teams were slowly forced to separate, disband, and the members heading in their own directions. It wouldn't be until nearly five years later that the battle commission was able to once again get a foothold and begin its climb back to the great power that it once had.

This is the universe of Zoids: After Era, now... it is time for YOUR story, Warrior.