The Warrior King was a noble, brave and benevolent hero, native and ruler of a fantasy realm.
Background[]
His realm was bleak so he relied to the power of a Magic Orb to use the elements and keep his world alive. However the Orb was so strong that a team of dragon-riding rogue wizards coveted its power. Finally they assaulted his palace, and the Warrior King's advisor and mystic opened a portal through "time and space" where he could hide the Orb, beyond the Wizards' reach.[1]
The Warrior King possessed some limited psychokinetic powers which enabled him to levitate. He was also equipped with a fighting rod with certain powers, which also guided him to the Orb.
After several travels through the multiverse, the orb ended up in space,[2] and the Warrior on Earth, around 2450. While there he met a soldier named Blair.
Always trying to reach his sphere, he ended up in a Sleeper Ship to travel in space hoping to eventually find it. In the meantime he learned that his world had died, so his only option was to use the orb and create new life.
The Orb eventually ended up to a barren desert planet and was used by its natives to turn it the into a paradise, afterwards known as Oasis. They called the Orb as The Maker.
Reanimated
Around 2654 The Warrior's Ship was discovered by the Kilrathi and tractored by a Kilrathi Tug until Maniac, Archer and Payback attacked the convoy and the ship was transported to the TCS Tiger's Claw. Maya McEaddens and Guthrig Andropolos examined the old ship but after finding the sleeping Warrior, Geoffrey Tolwyn ordered to reseal it.
Warrior King zaps Maniac
The Warrior however was reanimated, exited the ship and attempted to threaten the crew and escape the Claw to resume his quest. Among others he faced Christopher Blair, whom he found familiar. Eventually he was neutralized by Grunt and placed into custody under the watch of Andropolos.
By coincidence the Claw was near the planet Oasis, and Blair tried to speak with him and inquire whether he was familiar with the Oasis' Maker. The Warrior used his telekinetic powers to break the door and took Blair as a hostage. He stole a Scimitar and descended to the planet. There he eventually found the Orb and attempted to take it to restore life to his world. But then Scimitars arrived to rescue Blair, who were in turn attacked by Sarthas; the Kilrathi had formed a plan to steal the Maker from the Oasians and use it for their own ends. Seeing the dogfight and endless war, the Warrior used the Orb to destroy the Kilrathi, including their carrier, the KIS Naoukeric.
The Warrior started to make his way to a Scimitar, planning to find a way back to his world and create new life to resurrect it. He was stopped by Archer, who persuaded him that if he took the Orb, Oasis would be destroyed and become the desert it once was. The Warrior realised that there is no point to sacrifice one world to re-create his own, he threw the Orb away, which returned itself to the top of its pinnacle. He then took the Scimitar and flew away to move forward, never to be seen or heard again.[3]
Behind the scenes[]
The Warrior King (voiced by Michael Dorm of Star Trek fame) was an ephemeral meta-series project. On November 16th 1996, the episodes of each of the 4 different animated series featured this original character, and all together formed a finite story arc. The series and episodes that formed the "saga" were:
- Street Fighter: The Animated Series: The Warrior King
- Savage Dragon: Endgame
- Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm: Resurrection
- Wing Commander Academy: Recreation
It was worth of note that this project was ad hoc. It was never promoted or announced beforehand. Viewers commented that only those who decided to watch all 4 episodes would realise the story arc; whereas those who were fans of only one of the series would never take notice. The "saga" was obviously the result of some spontaneous cooperation between the 4 animation studios; the USA Network supported the project by changing the showing order of the episodes on that particular day to form the story-arc (WCA switched places with MK), but other than that it was not advertised or documented.
Who proposed the original idea of that project, and whether there were any future plans to exploit the character, remain unknown. This meta-series remained the only appearance of the Warrior King who did not spun off his own franchise, nor was ever used again.
References[]
- ↑ Street Fighter: The Animated Series: The Warrior King
- ↑ Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm: Resurrection
- ↑ Recreation
External links[]
- CIC: Saga of the Warrior King
- CIC: The Warrior King Returns (article including all four episodes for download in low resolution)
- Who is the Warrior King? - article concerning the Warrior King project, includes YouTube videos of the episodes.
- "Saga of the Warrior King"