Only known from ancient myths and dark legends, and mentioned only in hushed whispers and unconfirmed rumors, a race of paranoiacs who have an instinctual talent of analyzing an opponent and finding their weaknesses, known throughout galactic history as the Destroyers. Archeological studies of ancient Ruins of the mythical Orionites has revealed the name of the Destroyers, the Antarans.
Background
Introduced with Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares, the Antarans has become a staple of the MoO Franchise and one of the iconic villains within Rouge Gallery of Gaming.
Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares
Promotional Poster
Master of Orion II Promotion Poster
From the creators of Master of Orion,™ Computer Gaming World’s 1994 Premier Award winner, comes the sequel you’ve been waiting for.
Banished from Orion, a xenophobic race lurks in the darkness. You prayed they would never return. But now, in the deepest reaches of outer space they plan their revenge. Introducing MASTER OF ORION™ II. Discover new technology. Command detailed tactical combat. Come face to face with new alien creatures. Use the multi-player feature to challenge friends over a local area network, go head-to-head via modem, or compete in a hot seat game. Whatever you do, lead your team cautiously. Because you must master the ultimate evil before it masters you.
Manual
Orions and Antarans
(Excerpted from “Pre-Psilonic Galactic Civilizations” Vol. II, by Ectron Victor, retired Master Adjudicator, Psilon Central History Institute.)
As a story is told and retold over the course of generations, no matter the attention paid to detail and no matter the importance of the tale, the truth is gradually nibbled away by little mistakes and innocent exaggerations. Carried off on these well-intentioned, tiny feet, the facts deteriorate softly and painlessly into a condition generally referred to as “shrouded by time.”
The legends concerning the Orions and Antarans are shrouded by time. What is certain is that at one time both races coexisted in the galaxy. The scope of their power and technical advancement has surely been enhanced by hyperbole, but that they were far superior to anything now known is indisputable. Perhaps it was inevitable that two such behemoths meet in violence. The legends paint the Antarans as ruthless, xenophobic killers, but we all know that history is written by the victors. The Orion-Antaran war was a protracted holocaust of galactic proportions. While we can never know if they truly flung entire star systems across deep space as weapons (as the storytellers claim), our astrophysicists have uncovered evidence of directed energy bursts the power of which staggers the imagination. That both races had the ability to raze planets no one contests. The Orions eventually defeated the Antarans. Rather than exterminating the race, as the stories claim the Antarans would certainly have done, the Orions chose to imprison their enemies in a “pocket dimension”—a volume the size of a single star system, formed and carved somehow out of the fabric of space-time. Physicists to this day puzzle over the theory and the technique, but the result was obvious; the Antarans were banished one and all from this dimension.
At this point, even the storytellers admit that the legends become vague. Sometime after the war, the Orion race inexplicably disappeared. They left only two legacies for the galaxy’s future inhabitants. One was the tales of their power and legends of the Antaran war; the other is the Orion system itself. One planet circles this star, and it is reputed to be the original home world of the Orion race. Despite the incredible potential this abandoned world must hold, no one has yet plundered or colonized it. The reason for this is that the system is only uninhabited, not undefended. The Orions left a single Guardian to protect their home. Perhaps they intend to return some day.
Perhaps the Antarans intend to return, too.
Master of Orion 3
Main article: Master of Orion 3 backstory
Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars
Short Stories
See Short Stories
Antarans
The Antarans are an Elder Race, they are far older and more technological advanced than any of other races in the galaxy. The Antarans are what you'd call 'control freaks'. They can't accept anything being outside their domination. That means races weaker than them are conquered or destroyed so they can never become a threat, and races powerful enough to threaten them are just outright destroyed. For countless of thousands of years, the Antarans ruled their sector of the Galaxy with an ironclad fist and their reign of terror seemed to be unstoppable…
Until they meet a race that represent their ultimate fear, a race so far beyond them that they could never defeat them.
The Herald of Antares
The Herald of Antares was introduced within Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars, very little is known about him but he appears to be the supreme leader of Antarans and the master mind behind the Antaran Attacks.
Xyphys, the Antaran Warrior
Xyphys, the Antaran Warrior
Xyphys is a ship leader that appeared in Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares, he is the pilot the Star Fortress, a gigantic and powerful space station that protects Antares, the Homeworld of Antarans and serves as the “Final Boss” in the game.
Antares (Planet/System)
Just like the ancient myths and legends of the Orions and Antarans themselves, the mysterious homeworld of the cruel Antarans is shrouded by time. While many know where the coveted Orion System is, no knows where Antaran homeworld of Antares is located as it is lost to history. Any coordinates for Antares that are uncovered in both ancient Ruins of the mythical Orionites and Antarans all lead to a desolated corner of galaxy with lifeless planets scared by orbital bombardment and destroyed planets slowly crumbling into asteroid belts. Those that arrival at the coordinates they found nothing but empty space, no star, no planets, not even a rouge comet or cosmic dust.
Only those with highly sophisticated sensors are able to detected a strange anomaly, a unusual curvature in the space/time continuum, dent in space itself. As if a celestial object of great size and mass, like a planet or a star, is bending space with its gravity, but there no sign of anything physical being there as if it both invisible and intangible for those residing in normal space.
Are the ancient legends true? Did the Orion folded time/space itself, displacing entire solar system and imprisoned Antarans within an artificially created pocket universe? Are the Antarans still alive with their dimensional prison?
Many of the Greatest Galactic Historians, Xenoarchaeologists and other Scientific Minds in Galaxy can argue, speculate and discuss this topic for several thousand years and they have done so most vigorously. Some want to open a portal into the pocket dimension to see what inside it, but many would agree that somethings are better left alone.
Especially if the dark legends about the Antarans are true.
Antaran Ships
(Most of these ship names come from Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares)
Antaran Raider-Class Frigate
Antaran Marauder-Class Destroyer
Antaran Intruder-Class Cruiser
Antaran Interdictor-Class Battleship
Antaran Harbinger-Class Titan
Star Fortress Antaran Doomstar
Antaran Ship designs do not follow any rhyme or reason we can understand, or maybe we are incapable of understanding as the minds who created these vessels are far more older and advanced then ourselves. While the designs of ship of the younger races are based on things from nature and obey to the law of physics as we know it, Antaran ships do not. They have a utterly otherworldly look about them, an air of dread and wrongness surround them, and when just looking at them you almost get instinctive feeling that they don’t belong this universe and every inch of their design screams death and fear.
But they are still ships and they can be destroyed, however these vessels are on higher technological level than the ships of younger races, their weapons are devastatingly strong and their incredibly tough defenses makes them dangerous foe to fight against. Even the new technologies and battle tactics that the best and brightest of younger races’ scientists, engineers and tacticians think up are not enough to hold back to coming tide of darkness. Only way to fight the Antarans on equal foot is by capturing their technology and turning their weapons against them.
However, Antarans are so paranoid about other races getting their hands on their technology and reverse-engineering it that they equipped all their vessels with powerful self-destructive device that vaporizes the entire ship if it becomes to damaged, leaving nothing behind for the victor to claim as their prize, with exception of a cloud of metallic vapors.
However there was a mythical race that not only fought the Antarans, but defeated and imprisoned them. The Legacy of the Orions may be the key for the continued survival of the Galaxy.
Eluder (Scout)
The enigmatic Antaran Eluder-Class Scout Ship is all that; a rumor. While no one has acutely seen one, let alone got any evidence to prove it existence, however one would be foolish to think that the Antarans would not have a dedicated class of vessel for Scouting and Spying on their enemies and future targets. It is speculated that the Eluder is equipped with a highly advanced cloaking device that renders it invisible and undetectable to even the most sophisticated sensor arrays.
Raider (Frigate)
The Antaran Raider-Class Frigate would be the first and last Antaran ship any of our colonists would see before their unguarded and/or undefended colonies are bombed out of existence. While having lighter amour compered the other more battle-hardened vessels in the Antaran Armada, they are still far above anything the younger races can build. The Raider’s strengths lies in their speed and use quick hit-and-run tactics, and that they also can be massed produced and put on the field of battle in massive numbers.
Marauder (Destroyer)
The Antaran Marauder-Class Destroyer is upfront the Antarans first choice of frontline ships. Having better armor and weapons then the Raider-Class Frigates, these ships are first to lead the charge, and last to leave. They are often use for bombing run missions to destroy any settlements on a unexpected planet, bombing every single living soul into extinction from high orbit with powerful and devastating Neutronium Bombs.
Intruder (Cruiser)
The Antaran Intruder-Class Cruiser, much like the cruisers of younger races, are multi-role vessels that can be loaded out with different modules, it can function as a carrier craft with several Interceptor Bays or be equipped with devastating weapons that are capable of warp space itself and crush it targets.
Interdictor (Battleship)
The Antaran Interdictor-Class Battleship is an ancient terror strait out of myth and legend. These type of vessels are mentioned a lot in the ancient myths and legends about the Orion-Antaran War, Loremasters tell that should an Interdictor appear in the skies of our world and judged our world to be unfit to be enslaved and a threat to the Antarans there is nothing you can do as it unleashes scouring hot beams of death from heavens onto the unexpected planet and bring death to everything that the beam touches.
Harbinger (Titan)
Also known as a "Fleet Killer", the Antaran Harbinger-Class Titan is most powerful ship in the Antaran Armada, heavy armored and shielded with powerful weapons that bring untold devastation, Harbinger-Class Titan truly earns its title as "Fleet Killer". Entire fleets have been turned to space junk, debris and scrap iron in their wake, and entire planets have been turned into lifeless worlds of rubble, ash and ruin by these Titans. Even mightiest warships of younger races barely stand a chance against this Titan among titans as bare his weapon towards them. With numerous Particle Beam Cannons, Neutronium bombing bays, weapons that cause spatial distortions or fire scouring hot beams of death, and if the rumored are truth a weapon that literally fires microscopic black holes, makes these monolithic titans are as unstoppable as told in the ancient myths and legends.
Star Fortress (Doomstar)
The Star Fortress from Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares is an massive immobile battle station, while the Star Fortress in Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars is reimagined as a Doom Star.
In the Myths of the Orion/Antaran War, it is said that the Antarans had gigantic vessels known as Star Fortresses at their command. According to the myths these vessels were giant Engines of Death and Destruction, that were about the size of a small moon with the power to destroy entire planets with its dreaded weapon known as a Steller Converter. While the destructive capacity of Antaran Interdictors and Harbingers are legendary, it pales in comparison what the Star Fortress is said to be capable off. It said that the Antarans once had thousands of these world destroying weapons at their disposal, which they threw against the Orionites during the Orion/Antaran War, sundering entire planetary systems with their destructive power.
While many believe that all Star Fortresses were destroyed at the end of the Orion/Antaran War and their imprisonment with in the pocket dimension would left the Antarans incapable to build any more Star Fortresses, having only the resources of their own solar system at their disposal. Even if the Antarans want to build a Star Fortress within their dimensional prison, they need to strip bare, hollowed out or cracked open every single planet within their home system to gather the massive amount of resources needed for the construction of such a weapon. Even if they did, it must be either an act of sheer desperation or madness.
It is said the modern Mobile Planetoid Stations known as Doom Stars, which many of the Races of the Orion Sector at least owns one, were inspired from these myths. Even after their banishment the influence of the Antarans can still be felt across the Orion Quadrant and their myths inspire the creation of terrifying world destroying weapons.
Gallery
Master of Orion II
Antaran during Master of Orion II
Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares Box Art
Master of Orion 3
Antaran during Master of Orion 3
Antaran Concept Art
Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars
Antaran during Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars
