Zoids Bible translations

[Falcarius]

That's right, it's finally happening!

Scans can be found here, and I'll be uploading my own scans to my website at some point.
(Also I will be disappointed if nobody starts pointing out scientific errors in this, because there's plenty)



THE ZOIDS BIBLE
Zi HISTORY FILE


== Evolution of Life on Planet Zi ==

<Concepts of Metal Lifeforms>

* The creatures of Planet Zi are called "metal lifeforms" as a general term.
* "Metal lifeforms" that have a Zoid Core within their bodies are called "Zoids".

1 billion years ago ~
A: Primeval Metal Lifeforms
+ The primeval life of Planet Zi, they have similar appearances to Earth creatures and contain large quantities of heavy metals within their bodies.
+ Part of their body is formed by a solid "shell".

200 million years ago ~
B: Metal Exoskeleton Organisms (Shelled Creatures)
+ Their entire body forms an exoskeleton, and a Zoid Core has fully evolved within their body.
- Wild Zoids
(Refers to Zoids in general as they have naturally evolved, mainly used for beast-type Zoids. Zoids untouched by human hands are called Wild Zoids, and in particular, the dinosaur-type Zoids that prospered before the origin of beast-type Zoids are called Ancient Zoids.)

ZAC 1890 ~
C: Mechanical Organisms
+ "B: Metal Exoskeleton Organisms" biomodified by humans.
+ The majority of their body is composed of artificial parts.
+ Their natural reproductive functions have been lost.
- Artificial Zoids
- Combat Zoids (Battle Machine Beasts)
- Stray Zoids

20 million years ago ~
D: Metal Mucous Membrane Organisms
+ Mainly refers to Planet Zi's primitive humans and plants.
+ They have no Zoid Cores, but they have the ability to coat their bodies in a metallic secretion.
- Ancient Zoidians
- Planet Zi's plants

The State of Planet Zi in ZAC 2000

Zoids
- Living Wild Zoids are mostly beast-types.
- A small portion of dinosaur-types have survived.
- The majority of Zoids have been made artificial and enlarged through the work of humans.

Plants
An even mix of plants endemic to Planet Zi and plants from Earth brought by the Globally III.

Humans
- The abilities and characteristics from Ancient Zoidian times have been lost.
- Interbreeding with Earthlings is underway.

Contents
001: Evolution of Life on Planet Zi
002~004: Planet Zi
005~007: Metal Lifeforms
008~010: Wild Zoids
011~013: Ancient Zoidians
014~018: The Age of Intertribal Conflict
019~023: The Age of the War of the Two Tribes
024~028: The Age of Tribal Unification
029: Outbreak of the Central Continent War
030~033: Arrival of Earthlings
034~035: The Age of the Central Continent War



== Planet Zi ==

<From the Big Bang to the Birth of Planet Zi>
<12 bya ~ 5 bya>

The Beginning of the Universe: The Big Bang
12 billion years ago, a miniscule amount of "cosmic particles" caused a major expansion, and the "universe" was born.
This huge explosion that created the universe is called the "Big Bang". The matter released at this time eventually gathered together due to its own gravity, forming groups of small, heavy "gas clouds".
These contracted at an accelerating rate and grew into galaxies.
About 7 billion years after the Big Bang, in a galactic arm 30,000 light years from the centre (or "bulge") of the Milky Way, in a symmetrical region of space directly across the bulge from our own solar system, a new star system was about to be born.
Dust and gas drawn together by gravity formed a disc-shaped cloud and began to rotate. The centre grew into an F-class yellow-white star, and "Planet Zi" was born as the first planet orbiting around it. This occurred approximately 5 billion years ago.

The Birth of Planet Zi
The protoplanet Zi drew in nearby asteroids through gravitational attraction, growing to a diameter of 10,000 kilometres. It was in a fireball-like state, with its surface temperature at 6000 degrees Celsius and all its component matter molten.
100 million years later, the ground finally began to cool, and with its surface covered in hard, jagged rocks, Planet Zi was a stable, dead world. But one day, 200 million years after its birth, the massive planet "Mi", which was as much as a quarter of Planet Zi's diameter, collided with Zi.
Due to the damage, Zi was on the verge of complete collapse. A quarter of Zi's crust was blasted off into space, and the colliding planet itself was added as a new part of Zi. In addition, the parts of Zi's crust that had been blasted into space and the fragments of the colliding planet continued to follow a satellite orbit around Zi, eventually becoming the three natural satellites "De", "Se" and "Ae". Most of the constituent elements of this planet that collided with Zi were heavy metals, and it is thought that 78% of the heavy metals currently existing on Zi were brought by this planet.
Due to the collisional energy of this planet, Zi once again became a fireball, and its surface was covered with molten heavy metals, as if it were a blast furnace. Its strongly acidic atmosphere and ammonia-dominated seas were hell incarnate, and its environment continued to be far from suitable for the origin of life. Although the planet's crust eventually began to solidify again, large quantities of minute metal particles had been released into the atmosphere during the planetary collision, and these remained in the skies of Zi for countless millennia. As a result, the high-temperature infrared rays emitted from the surface were intercepted, causing a lasting runaway greenhouse effect, and even after it entered a stable period, Zi had an atmospheric temperature of 160 degrees and a pressure of 60 atmospheres, an environment unsuited to the origin of life.
However, "thermophilic" bacteria were born in its hot seas. These bacteria self-replicated within the toxic hydrogen sulphide of submarine volcanoes, and cleverly chemosynthesised the heavy metals in the seawater to produce movement energy. With this tough life force, they gradually built up their numbers in the depths of Zi's hot seas.


<The Zoid Star System's Second Planet, "Zi">
<5 bya>

Planet Zi's Three Satellites
The three satellites produced by the collision of the planet Mi are called "De", "Se" and "Ae", from the innermost out.
They are each collections of fragments of Zi and Mi, but the largest, Ae, is unusually massive and traces a non-concentric orbit. 100% of its constituents are considered to be fragments of Mi's satellite "Te", and by investigating the depths of Ae, there is a possibility that the mysteries of the birth of life on Zi may be elucidated. In addition, the smallest, De, has an average distance from Zi of only 180,000 kilometres, and this distance is decreasing day by day, so it is clear in theory that it will at some point fall onto Zi.

The Zoid Star System's Second Planet
Planet Zi was born as the first planet of the Zoid Star System, but at present, another planet exists inside its orbit, and Zi revolves around an F-class yellow-white star at an average speed of 101,326 km/h as its second planet. Zi's diameter is 10,026 kilometres, and its axial inclination is 26.3 degrees.
"Thermophilic" lifeforms, thought to have originated 200 million years after the planet's birth, later spread throughout the oceans of Zi.
Zi's surface, which was once an entirely molten sea of metal, eventually cooled, hardened and stabilised, divided into a solid continent and a hot ocean containing large quantities of metals.

Planet Zi's World Map
The present surface environment and geological features of Zi were determined by the fall of a group of planetesimals onto the planet's surface 700,000 years ago. This phenomenon occurred because Zi's orbit overlaps with the orbit of a cluster of more than 100 million planetesimals, which were left behind in the process of the Zoid Star System's formation. Eight planetesimals, the largest having a radius of 16.2 kilometres and an estimated mass of 1.0008 trillion tons, fell onto the equator of Zi.
The large quantities of water brought by these planetesimals, which were lumps of rock and ice, evaporated. It washed all of the metal particles remaining in the atmosphere onto the surface, converting the atmosphere into the present Earth-type atmosphere over 20,000 years.
As a result, the thick heat-carrying clouds of metal particles disappeared, the light of the sun reached the planet's surface, and coupled with the quietening of the submarine volcanoes, the surface cooled rapidly.
The single continent was submerged by seawater brought by the planetesimals. The six current continents were formed due to differences in elevation.


<Primeval Planet Zi and the Origins of Life>
<3 bya ~ 500 mya>

Bodies Formed of Metal
The traces of the first bacteria appearing in the primeval seawater of Planet Zi are conjectured to be from approximately 200 million years after the birth of Zi.
In seawater containing large quantities of metals and hydrogen sulphide at more than 120 degrees Celsius, "thermophilic" bacteria began to self-propagate. At the bottom of the sea where the sun's light did not reach, they gained energy through clever chemosynthesis, and transformed into creatures with a variety of characteristics.
Their bodily fluids had almost the same composition as the primeval seawater of Planet Zi at the time, but creatures appeared that formed shells using the metal in their surroundings, and these shelled creatures eventually lived on as the champions in the struggle for survival at the bottom of the sea.
Metal cannot be passed on to one's descendants genetically, but the biological system of bringing in metal to compose their bodies a posteriori was not particularly complex.
They began an evolutionary path unique to Planet Zi, absorbing the metals that existed in abundance in the surrounding environment, circulating them through their entire bodies by way of blood cells, and putting them to use.
They also developed a system advantageous to survival, regulating the concentration of metallic elements that they took into their bodies and gaining heat energy through chemical reactions, and this eventually developed into conductive muscles when they later strode onto land.

The Zoid Horseshoe Crab, Still Alive Today
The "Zoid Horseshoe Crab", a primeval metal lifeform whose shell is a hard metal exterior reaching a Mohs hardness of 7, is a descendant of the tough primeval creatures of Planet Zi, which survived the unfavourable conditions of water at 120 degrees and 20 atmospheres. Its shape and form are almost unchanged from that time, and it inhabits underground lava lakes even now.

Early Lobites with Shells
The "shelled lobites", early protozoans, already possessed a system to take metals into their body along with primeval seawater and solidify them on their body's surface using special organs. And so, they propagated in the high-temperature seawater at more than 120 degrees Celsius.




Differences in the Monthly Zoids Graphics version:

They are each collections of fragments of Zi and Mi, but the largest, Ae, is unusually massive and traces a non-concentric orbit. 100% of its constituents are considered to be fragments of Mi's satellite "Te", and by investigating the depths of Ae, there is a possibility that the mysteries of the birth of life on Zi may be elucidated. In addition, the smallest, De, has an average distance from Zi of only 180,000 kilometres, and this distance is decreasing day by day, so it is clear in theory that it will at some point fall onto Zi.

They are each collections of fragments of Zi and Mi, but the largest, Ae, is unusually massive and traces a non-concentric orbit. 100% of its constituents are considered to be fragments of W, and by investigating its γ (gamma), the day may come when the mysteries of the birth of life on Zi are elucidated. In addition, the smallest, De, has an average distance from Zi of only 180,000 kilometres, and this distance is decreasing day by day, so it is clear in theory that it will fall onto Zi in 20,000 years' time.

As a result, the thick heat-carrying clouds of metal particles disappeared, the light of the sun reached the planet's surface, and coupled with the quietening of the submarine volcanoes, the surface cooled rapidly. The single continent was submerged by seawater brought by the planetesimals. The six current continents were formed due to differences in elevation.

As a result, the hot clouds of metal particles disappeared, the light of the sun reached the planet's surface, and coupled with the quietening of the submarine volcanoes, the surface cooled rapidly. The single continent was submerged by seawater brought by the planetesimals. The five current continents were formed due to differences in elevation.

The traces of the first bacteria appearing in the primeval seawater of Planet Zi are conjectured to be from approximately 200 million years after the birth of Zi.

The traces of the first bacteria appearing in the primeval seawater of Planet Zi are conjectured to be from approximately 20 thousand years after the birth of Zi.

[Falcarius]

Jul 24, 2015 23:19:33 GMT -5 Falcarius said:

(Also I will be disappointed if nobody starts pointing out scientific errors in this, because there's plenty)

Aw, nothing? Not even the fact that the largest planetoid planetesimal was apparently less dense than styrofoam? >_>

Anyway, I'm cutting it really close this month, but here's the next set of translations. It's now moved into biology rather than physics/geology, but there's still some... issues. It's also rather repetitive - see how many times you can find the phrase "high-temperature, high-pressure"!




== Metal Lifeforms ==

<The Evolution of Primeval Metal Lifeforms>
<1 bya ~ 200 mya>

A Different Biogenetic Environment from Earth
The life of Planet Zi originated in its high-temperature, high-pressure seas, and later evolved into more complex organisms. In order to win against others in the struggle for survival, all they could do was follow the path of evolving to be larger, harder and faster-moving.
The slow-moving lobites that crawled around on the seafloor came to possess a spinal cord as a means to move faster and further, and developed sharp teeth to eat prey and fins to improve their mobility. Eventually, two pairs of fins developed into "legs", so that they could climb up onto the unknown territory of land.

A Biota Clad in Armour
Having originated on the high-temperature, high-pressure seafloor, life eventually made three choices with regards to its environment.
When the impurities in the atmosphere were removed by the fall of the planetesimals, and the sun's light began to reach the surface, protists appeared that used this light to perform photosynthesis. They later developed into plants, with a structural colour of beautiful green.
In contrast, the lobites that had gained hard metallic shells evolved into insects as well as fish, which developed the spinal cords necessary to move more actively, and one variety of fish developed its fins into "legs" and aimed for land.
To move around on land, stronger muscles would be necessary. Developing their organs for absorbing metal internally and externally even further, they perfected semiconductive muscles with greater energy efficiency.
These closely resemble the ion-conducting macromolecular membrane technology produced by the latest robotronics, which can expand and contract due to electric charges.
Through this, they gained quicker movements and harder shells, and came to prosper on land.

The Origin of the Zoid Core
The life of Planet Zi was born within a blast furnace of high-temperature, high-pressure, high-concentration hydrogen sulphide, and even when their environment changed and they began to live on land, they continued to preserve the composition of Planet Zi's primeval high-temperature seawater as the composition of their blood and bodily fluids. However, by the era in which huge sauropods strode across the land, this primeval high-temperature seawater no longer existed anywhere on the planet (except in the special environments of underground lava reservoirs), and thus when generating new individuals, they had lost the environment in which to give birth to offspring. The "Zoid Core" was a groundbreaking system that they produced in order to overcome this situation and leave behind new individuals for the future.


<The Origin of the Zoid Core>
<200 mya>

Life on Land ~ Subsequent Conversion to Zoids
For the creatures of Zi, which were born in the high-temperature, high-pressure depths of the sea, the environmental upheavals that attacked them one after another were extremely harsh ordeals.
The "Zoid Core" was the system they developed as a method to overcome these.
How does this system differ from the creatures of Earth?
Other than viruses, protists and the like, which multiply through cell division, all higher life forms produce eggs for the purpose of reproduction. Even humans produce eggs, but they produce them within their bodies and raise the embryo internally, and are therefore classified as mammals.
In the sense that it is a means of reproduction, it could be said that the Zoid Core is also an egg.
However, the Zoid Core is not the "basis of a new individual" generated during breeding periods, but a life data storage device that always exists at the centre of the Zoid organisms.
Having climbed onto land as metallic life forms, they gradually gathered their organic matter in the centre of their bodies, and safeguarded it with a firm, strong structure with a high concentration of metal.
Before it developed into the Zoid Core, this organ was a fluid circulation organ that governed their internal chemistry. It constantly maintained a high temperature and pressure by means of chemical reactions, and if their body temperature decreased accompanying a decrease in outside air temperature, it would adjust their body temperature by releasing its heat. It was truly the basis of life.
Eventually, as a result of directional evolution, the majority of their internal organs and structures were condensed into this organ, and their organic structures came to be completely zoned (compartmentalised) within the organ.
Through this, the "Zoids" were born, creatures with a body structure unique to Zi in which their skeleton, muscles and skin are metal, and their organic structures are zoned in the centre of their body (their centre of gravity, to be precise).
The system of generating new organisms through this Zoid Core was extremely effective as a method of coping with dramatic changes to the environment.
After the fall of the planetesimals, cooling proceeded and the average air temperature on Planet Zi became 8 to 26 degrees. However, due to changes in its orbital eccentricity as it revolved around its sun, as well as changes in its axial inclination which recurred on a scale of tens of thousands of years, the planet came to alternate between glacial periods with an average air temperature of -50 degrees and comparatively warm interglacial periods.
This is extremely similar to the "Milankovitch cycle" (a cycle of glacials and interglacials) on Earth, and even if there had been any land creatures without this Zoid Core system, it would surely have been impossible for them to continue existing on Zi until today.
The Zoid Core is the cradle of life, which reproduces the "high-temperature, high-pressure primeval seawater" in which life was once born within itself when generating new individuals, no matter how much the external environment changes.

The Zoid Core
The appearance of the Zoid Core is similar to the early nuclear fission chambers created by mankind.
Its interior is at a high temperature and pressure, so it takes a spherical shape to seal in this pressure, and it moves by shifting its centre of gravity.


<The Life System of Zoids>
<200 mya>

Wild Zoid Growth Mechanism
Once, Wild Zoids could let their descendants flourish just by producing embryos in seawater. However, when their high-temperature, high-pressure environment was lost, they developed a system to generate and maintain a high-temperature, high-pressure environment inside the embryos.
After the death of the adult, these embryos would move towards water, and once submerged they would take the water and metallic elements contained within it into themselves, reproducing the high-temperature, high-pressure environment internally.
The juveniles thus produced would put their metal absorption and distribution organs into full operation, growing by absorbing the metallic elements in the water and creating skeletons and shells.

Wild Zoid Breeding Mechanism
We Earth humans proudly call ourselves primates, but the composition of our blood is surprisingly similar to the composition of Earth's primeval seawater. If you were faced with composition tables for both, you could justifiably call them almost identical.
This stems from the fact that our distant ancestors originated within the primeval seas.
We have attained civilisation, and someday the time will come when we journey to other stars and beyond. Even then, we will continue to replicate the primeval seawater of ancient Earth within our bodies.
This is the "Birthday Shackle". This law of nature also applies to all the organisms of Planet Zi.
Zoids are beings which possess a time capsule that reproduces the same high-temperature, high-pressure environment as when their distant ancestors were born inside their Core.
In terms of Earth life, the Zoid Core is both an egg and an embryo.
Within it, the experience that the adult has accumulated during its life at dealing with its environment is stored as genetic data.
Zoid Cores have a wide variety of characteristics according to each species, and their size also varies. All of them form the basis to generate new individuals in water, and produce offspring.
Depending on the physical constitution and living environment of the adult, multiple Zoid Cores may be left behind by one adult, and the number is not determined by species.
Zoids have no breeding season; when the Zoid Core is exposed outside of the body - in other words, when the organism dies - the Zoid Core immediately begins preparations to generate a new individual.

Assorted Zoid Cores
"Zoid Cores" come in different sizes, colours and shapes, depending on each individual. The history of the evolution of life on Planet Zi is etched inside these spheres.




Differences in the Monthly Zoids Graphics version:

However, by the era in which huge sauropods strode across the land, this primeval high-temperature seawater no longer existed anywhere on the planet...

However, by the era in which huge sauropods strode across the land on Zi, this primeval high-temperature seawater no longer existed anywhere on the planet...

In the sense that it is a means of reproduction, it could be said that the Zoid Core is also an egg.

In this sense, the Zoid Core is also an egg.

Its interior is at a high temperature and pressure, so it takes a spherical shape to seal in this pressure, and it moves by shifting its centre of gravity.

Its interior is at a high temperature and pressure, so it takes a spherical shape to seal in this pressure, and it moves by shifting its centre of gravity. Its basic biology as a species is condensed within this.

We Earth humans proudly call ourselves primates...

We humans proudly call ourselves primates...

Even then, we will continue to replicate the primeval seawater of ancient Earth within our bodies.

But even then, we will continue to replicate the primeval seawater of ancient Earth within our bodies.

Zoids are beings which possess a time capsule that reproduces the same high-temperature, high-pressure environment as when their distant ancestors were born inside their Core.

The Zoid Core was a splendid evolution to escape from this shackle. Zoids are time capsules that reproduce the same high-temperature, high-pressure environment as when their distant ancestors were born inside their Core when generating new individuals.

All of them form the basis to generate new individuals in water, and produce offspring.

However, all of them form the basis to generate new individuals in water, and produce offspring.

(plus some typos, punctuation changes etc.)

[Maethius]

Wow... so all Zoids are Homaphrodites when they get wet?! Talk about an impending population control issue!

Thanks again for all the work, Falcarius; it's fascinating to get some understanding of the really cool squiggles all over my cool boxes and catalogs!

[Hanyoutai]

I meant to reply to this quite a while ago but haven't had the time to sit down and read it until now. The Zoids Bible is something that I know a few people are interested in, and world building stuff is beyond awesome to a lot of us that make OCs and stuff. It's excellent to see this project being taken on by someone, and thank you so much for the translations!

[Falcarius]

Sept 1, 2015 11:25:29 GMT -5 Maethius said:

Wow... so all Zoids are Homaphrodites when they get wet?! Talk about an impending population control issue!

Thanks again for all the work, Falcarius; it's fascinating to get some understanding of the really cool squiggles all over my cool boxes and catalogs!

Not really hermaphrodites so much as asexual - and if they only reproduce when they die (in a non-violent way), I'm surprised their population is as high as it is. Then again, there's a lot of weirdness about Zoid biology...

This time, we get some of Planet Zi's palaeontology, including its equivalent of the K-T K-Pg extinction. Still plenty of science fail (including captioning a wild Rev Raptor as an ornithopod), but at least the "high-temperature, high-pressure" stuff is mostly gone. I also decided to convert "animal-type" to "beast-type", because it sounds really weird to distinguish between "dinosaurs"/"dragons" and "animals" in English. I considered converting "dragon" to "dinosaur" as well, but the text uses both so I decided to leave them alone.

By the way, next month's translation might be delayed, because my thesis is due in early November and I should really be focusing more on that.




== Wild Zoids ==

<Proliferation of Dinosaur-Type Zoids>
<200 mya ~ 50 mya>

The Creatures that Ruled Planet Zi
Through the development of the "Zoid Core", the giant dragon-type shelled organisms gained a means of cycling through death and rebirth on land no matter how much the external environment changed, and reached their golden age approximately 200 million years ago.
They further developed the groundbreaking internal organs that internally and externally absorbed and reprocessed the metallic elements existing in abundant and inexhaustible quantities in the ground, rocks and water. As a result, they came to possess strong bodies that could defy gravity, stand and run.
Aided by the facts that they had no particular external enemies and that the climate was remaining stable, they increased in variety, grew enormous and prospered greatly.
These groundbreaking organs enabled them to perform two tasks at the same time, "converting proteins from prey organisms into their internal structures, and converting metallic elements into their skeletons and shells." As a result, they established a splendidly cycling ecosystem that fell under the "Lotka-Volterra Model", a formula presented by Earth ecologists Lotka and Volterra in 1925~1926 that expresses the balance between predators and prey.
When the eaten decline, the eaters also decline. When the eaters decline, the eaten multiply. Then the eaters multiply...... This beautiful, everlasting ecosystem wrought by God was established.
It continued to maintain the balance until the day Zoidians began to breed and domesticate "Zoids", and "artificial selection" intervened.
Wild Zoids obeyed the clause in the basic programming of life to "seek possibilities, diversify and prepare for coming cataclysms", multiplying and changing into a variety of forms in the sky, on land, in the sea and underground.
Excluding a number of extinct types, the majority of giant dragon-type shelled organisms had reached a peak in numbers and varieties by 50 million years ago, and reigned as the masters of Planet Zi until the rise of the beast-type shelled organisms that would later develop.
In this era which was so plentiful for them, they branched into many varieties, differentiated as far as possible, and left behind a wide range of species.


<Those that Fell Victim and Those that Survived>
<50 mya>

Those that Fell Victim and Those that Survived
The era gradually came when the greatest characteristic of the giant dragon-type (dinosaur-type) shelled organisms that had taken possession of the land, their huge, heavy and hardened shells, became a drawback.
The environment on Planet Zi began to show signs of change once again. Roughly 50 million to 30 million years ago, a cycle of change in the nuclear fusion rhythm of the F-class yellow-white star at the centre of the Zoid Star System lasting hundreds of millions of years overlapped with an interglacial period, and Zi experienced a frozen period in which the whole planet turned into a snowball. The thermal radiation of the star, which normally had an effective surface temperature of 6,580K, declined by 20% of the maximum, and due to this, Zi's surface was bound in ice. This caused an extreme increase in the albedo (reflected heat) from Zi's surface, and in a mere 180 years, an instant in geological time, Zi froze over. Because of this, the majority of giant dragon-type (dinosaur-type) shelled organisms were unable to cope with this environmental upheaval and faced a danger of extinction. With the majority of the hydrosphere frozen, the Zoid Cores could not implement their generation process. Those that narrowly managed to survive rapidly changed their characteristics.
In this "cold period", the small animals began to extend their influence, and taking advantage of this period, they gradually stole away the ecological niches held by the giant organisms.


<The Rise of Beast-Type Zoids>
<30 mya>

From Dinosaur-Type to Beast-Type
In the era of the giant dragon-type shelled organisms, the small shelled fauna trembled at their fury, living hidden in rocks and lurking under cover. Compared to those giants, they were weak, small and powerless, but they had a single superior point. Their efficiency at generating and consuming energy was surprisingly good.
Eating little and moving nimbly, they built up their number of offspring in caves and the few remaining warm underground caverns during the "cold period", preparing for their own upcoming era.
They cleverly inherited the energy generation method their ancestors once used, "chemically decomposing the absorbed metallic elements within their bodies to gain energy", and thereby survived the "cold period" and awaited their later prosperity.
Furthermore, something that definitively separated the rise and fall of the two groups was the necessity of a solvent when reproducing - in other words, water. Even the Zoid Core, their method of overcoming adversity, was not all-powerful.
The giant dragon-type shelled organisms required an abundant source of water in the environment where their Zoid Cores would grow into juveniles, so on the frozen land of the glacial periods, they were unable to grow and could only die out. The beast-type shelled organisms did not necessarily require water to grow, so they were able to develop.
Most species of giant dragon-type shelled organisms were on the verge of extinction, but some of them formed an unexpected ambush for the beast-types. Before the fall of the planetesimals, some of them sought for a place to survive in the high-pressure, high-temperature territory of underground lava reservoirs, and continued to live quietly in this environment similar to the primeval seawater in which they had originated.
However, they were ultimately special cases, and could not gain the strength to take back the surface from the smaller animals.
And so, since approximately 30 million years ago, the surface became a world of diverse beast-type shelled organisms derived from the small animals.
Time passed, and when the climate became warm again, the beast types flourished even more, and large species such as whales and elephants began to appear once again.
They underwent a process of evolution different to that on Earth, and apparently there were species among them that grew to dinosaur sizes.




Differences in the Monthly Zoids Graphics version:

giant dragon-type shelled organisms

shelled giant dragon-type organisms [plus a couple of other variations - the Graphics really needed a proofreader]

Excluding a number of extinct types, the majority of giant dragon-type shelled organisms had reached a peak in numbers and varieties by 50 million years ago...

Excluding a number of extinct types, the majority of shelled giant dragon-type organisms had reached a peak in numbers and varieties by 5000 years ago...

Roughly 50 million to 30 million years ago, a cycle of change in the nuclear fusion rhythm of the F-class yellow-white star at the centre of the Zoid Star System lasting hundreds of millions of years overlapped with an interglacial period, and Zi experienced a frozen period in which the whole planet turned into a snowball.

Roughly 5000 to 3000 years ago, a cycle of change in the nuclear fusion rhythm of the F-class yellow-white star at the centre of the Zoid Star System lasting hundreds of millions of years - separate to the cycle of glacial and interglacial periods mentioned earlier - overlapped with an interglacial period, and Zi experienced a frozen period in which the whole planet turned into a snowball.

In this "cold period", the small animals began to extend their influence, and taking advantage of this period, they gradually stole away the ecological niches held by the giant organisms.

In this "cold period", the small animals began to extend their influence, and taking advantage of this period, the small animals gradually stole away the ecological niches held by the giant organisms.

Compared to those giants, they were weak, small and powerless, but they had a single superior point.

Compared to those giants, they were weak, small and powerless, but they had a single superior point to these giants.

Furthermore, something that definitively separated the rise and fall of the two groups was the necessity of a solvent when reproducing - in other words, water. Even the Zoid Core, their method of overcoming adversity, was not all-powerful.
The giant dragon-type shelled organisms required an abundant source of water in the environment where their Zoid Cores would grow into juveniles, so on the frozen land of the glacial periods, they were unable to grow and could only die out. The beast-type shelled organisms did not necessarily require water to grow, so they were able to develop.

Even the Zoid Core, their method of overcoming adversity, was not all-powerful.

Most species of giant dragon-type shelled organisms were on the verge of extinction, but some of them formed an unexpected ambush for the beast-types. Before the fall of the planetesimals, some of them sought for a place to survive in the high-pressure, high-temperature territory of underground lava reservoirs, and continued to live quietly in this environment similar to the primeval seawater in which they had originated.

Meanwhile, most species of shelled giant dragon-type (dinosaur-type) organisms were on the verge of extinction, but some of them formed an unexpected ambush. Before the fall of the planetesimals, some species sought for a place to survive in the high-pressure, high-temperature territory of underground lava reservoirs, and they survived in this environment similar to the primeval seawater in which they had originated. Consequently, there also existed underground sub-species that reproduced without a Zoid Core, and these included giant shelled organisms that were thought to already be extinct.

And so, since approximately 30 million years ago, the surface became a world of diverse beast-type shelled organisms derived from the small animals.

And so, since approximately 30 million years ago, the surface became a world of diverse shelled beast-type organisms derived from the small animals.

[Maethius]

Yeah, I think the science kinda slews really far to the left/right sometimes. Still, it's fun to see what the story guys came up with (and how they will ignore or change it in the future).

^_^

[Falcarius]

Okay, now that I'm out of uni I might have some more free time (at least until I find a job). Sorry about the lack of update last month, but this one deserved some extra focus. There should be a fair few people interested in the Battle Story's take on Ancient Zoidians...

Also, it's definitely worth checking the Graphics comparison this month, as the two sources have quite different takes on Earthling/Zoidian interbreeding. I haven't been posting anything about the Big Zoids Expo panels so far because they're mostly just heavily abridged versions of the Zoids Bible, but in this case they actually follow the Graphics version - which is interesting, because the Expo happened a couple of months before the Core Box came out.




== Ancient Zoidians ==

<Zoidians, the Heresy of Planet Zi>
<100 tya>

Zoids and Zoidians
The roots of the humanoid-type Zoidians are not clearly understood.
They originated after the climatic upheaval on Planet Zi due to the fall of the planetesimals, during the period when it stabilised into an Earth-type atmosphere. The most prominent theory at present is that they evolved from small animals that lived an arboreal lifestyle. However, they do not possess a Zoid Core, so taxonomically they are considered a separate race to Zoids.
These small, powerless arboreal animals had no sharp fangs or hard shells and thus lived in trees to protect themselves. Unable to do anything but flee from the giant shelled organisms, they developed their cerebral centres as thinking organs in order to survive.
Since they lived in trees, there was a limit on their body weight, and therefore their metal shells were extremely thin compared to the other organisms on Zi. But on the other hand, their limbs had a high degree of freedom and they were able to use tools.
Some of them had the capability to harden their shells for a certain period of time when danger approached (a "plating ability"), but in general they abandoned their hard, heavy shells, used more freely-moving hands, and developed their tool-making skills.
By using fire and cladding their bodies in cloth, they overcame several ice ages.

Special Abilities of the Ancient Zoidians
At present it can only be inferred from fossils excavated from within the earth, but ancient Zoidians also had thin metal shells, though not to the extent of Zi's other organisms.
This was because, like the other organisms, they possessed an organ that could store the metallic elements contained in the water and plants they consumed inside their bodies and recompose them on their skin, and it is conjectured that some extinct species of ancient Zoidians had shells shaped like full body armour.

Fading Characteristics
The greatest characteristic of the creatures of Planet Zi, the organs that absorb metals into their bodies and use them as components for their shells, exist in Zoidians as well. But as a result of evolution (or degeneration) over roughly 100,000 years, they have been minimised, and now only barely remain as a part of the digestive organs.
Though the metallic element content in their blood and skin may be high, Zoidians with hard shells like the ancient Zoidians are not seen among extant varieties.
There are, however, examples of Zoidians even now who have a metallic outer shell appear on part of their body like a birthmark, but this has no substantial function such as protecting them from external enemies or providing sex appeal to acquire an excellent mate during reproductive activities. This phenomenon is no more than the exposure of excess metallic elements absorbed into their bodies on a part of their skin, and should be understood as a function to maintain body stability.
This is similar to the degeneration of body hair in Earth humans, and one could say that both of these are bodily characteristics that were lost in roughly inverse proportion to the progress of civilisation.
Among modern Zoidians, whose appearances are now little different from Earth humans, there are some who treat the metallic outer shells as fashion or family symbols and replicate them by deliberately etching tattoos in conspicuous places such as the face.

Mating with Earthlings
Earthlings and Zoidians are almost identical in appearance, but if you shift your focus to the elements forming the 60 trillion cells composing their bodies, the difference is remarkable, and you can tell that they are completely separate kinds of organism. Genetically speaking, crossbreeding was impossible. However, hybrids called "Seconds" or "Azzes" have been born between Earthlings and Zoidians as a third race.
With the establishment of crossbreeding, which should have been absolutely inconceivable according to the life sciences, some scholars are attempting to find some sort of common denominator with Earthlings in the mystery-shrouded origins of the Zoidians, but unravelling these mysteries is impossible even with modern science.


<Relationship with Wild Zoids>
<10 tya>

Usage of Zoids
The Zoidians of roughly 10,000 years ago, who created stone tools and used fire, captured and preyed on Wild Zoids that lived in close proximity to their spheres of life.
The metal shells of Wild Zoids were hard and unsuitable for food, but portions of their muscles and organs were a valuable source of protein.
However, they could not penetrate the metal shells of the Wild Zoids with stone tools. From experience, they mastered a method of restricting the movements of Zoids by using natural magnetic rocks, and this later progressed to magnets.
Wild Zoids also contain large quantities of metallic elements in their internal organs, particularly their hearts, and powerful magnetism could sometimes stop the Wild Zoids' cardiac functions.
The metal shells of Zoids captured for eating would later be processed into high-quality iron tools by way of the invention of high-temperature furnaces.
There were a wide variety of other Wild Zoid capturing methods, but these all occurred before the invention of writing, and actual proof of them would have to wait until the deciphering of Babahot's Iron Plate.

Domestic Zoids
As Wild Zoid capturing technology advanced and people started to live in groups more commonly, Zoids began to assume a role as domestic animals.
Hunters brought small predatory animals with excellent senses of smell along with them on hunts, shared the spoils with them in return, and selected and tamed the individuals that were more obedient to humans after dozens of generational changes.
In addition, nomads utilised large birds as a means of transportation, domesticating them over countless generations.
If we trace back even further to the Megalithic Age, there exist records of large Zoids being used to transport megaliths, indicating that there has been a long history of symbiosis between Zoidians and Zoids.
Through this history of domestication, only the healthier and more obedient individuals were selected, so a great number of domestic species currently exist whose characteristics clearly differ from the wild species.
This artificial selection would eventually develop into the cyborgisation of Zoids, using the Zoid remodelling technology of the Age of Intertribal Conflict.


<The Beginning of the Zoid Calendar>
<ZAC 1~ (first year of ZAC)>

Ruins and Babahot's Iron Plate
The metal plate discovered by geologist Babahot is believed to have been a type of report to the hunting god worshipped at an ancient temple in order to give thanks for the food that they were able to acquire in that year's hunts, and the characters written on it are thought to be the oldest writing in history.

The Birthplace of Zoidian Civilisation
After the fall of the planetesimals, the climate stabilised. However, Planet Zi repeatedly experienced large-scale orogenic activity in cycles of 10,000 to 30,000 years.
This was because the high-temperature, high-pressure mantle was still active deep below ground, and the countless active volcanoes all over the continent periodically underwent major eruptions, spewing out viscous lava and volcanic ash.
The history of the Megalithic Age was hence buried under this volcanic ash, and for a long time the origins of civilisation on Planet Zi were considered a mystery.
However, in ZAC 1693, the geologist Babahot happened to discover traces of an ancient civilisation in the ground while investigating a large earthquake that had occurred on the eastern tip of the continent. A metal plate he unearthed was engraved with ancient hieroglyphics. Judging from its purity, this metal plate itself is believed to have been manufactured by using a blast furnace to melt the metal shell of a "Zoid" obtained through hunting. As a result of analysing this metal plate with "carbon-14 dating", it was established to be almost 1700 years old. This date was considered the starting point of civilisation on Zi - namely, "ZAC 1" - and defined as the beginning of the era of civilisation.
It seems that the ancient civilisations, which processed iron and used writing, possessed more advanced living technology than we thought.
Until "Babahot's Iron Plate" was unearthed, there was no unified theory as to the origin of civilisation on Zi, but thanks to this iron plate, the fact that civilisations had lived together with Wild Zoids since ancient times was made clear. In particular, "Taj Bee", an archaeologist who was assigned to analyse the plate, determined that people had been experimenting with domesticating Zoids since before recorded history.
At the same time, he discovered that there was a description on the plate indicating the location of a huge temple, thought to be the largest of its time.
It took thirty years from the unearthing of the plate, but he finally located traces of this phantom temple on a cape on the southern tip of the Central Continent, and succeeded in excavating it completely.
Many precious items were unearthed from this temple, starting with valuable ancient ornaments, but a carbonised Zoid Core enshrined in the temple was the greatest discovery of them all. A theory was published stating that this was proof that the people of the time were performing tests in which they extracted Zoid Cores from dead Zoids, submerged them in blast furnaces, generated new individuals and grew them into adults prematurely, and that the Zoid Core was carbonised because it had died due to a mistake in regulating the temperature within the blast furnace.
This fact is proof that people had been living together with Zoids and using fire and iron since before "Babahot's Iron Plate" was created. Because of this, the assertion that we should trace back the origin of civilisation on Zi several centuries beyond the discovery date of this iron plate is repeated even now.




Differences in the Monthly Zoids Graphics version:

Special Abilities of the Ancient Zoidians

Special Abilities of the Zoidians

There are, however, examples of Zoidians even now who have a metallic outer shell appear on part of their body like a birthmark, but this has no substantial function such as protecting them from external enemies or providing sex appeal to acquire an excellent mate during reproductive activities.

There are, however, examples of Zoidians even now who have a metallic outer shell appear on part of their body like a birthmark, but this has no substantial function such as protecting them from external enemies or providing displays for reproductive activities.

Earthlings and Zoidians are almost identical in appearance, but if you shift your focus to the elements forming the 60 trillion cells composing their bodies, the difference is remarkable, and you can tell that they are completely separate kinds of organism. Genetically speaking, crossbreeding was impossible. However, hybrids called "Seconds" or "Azzes" have been born between Earthlings and Zoidians as a third race.
With the establishment of crossbreeding, which should have been absolutely inconceivable according to the life sciences, some scholars are attempting to find some sort of common denominator with Earthlings in the mystery-shrouded origins of the Zoidians, but unravelling these mysteries is impossible even with modern science.

Earthlings and Zoidians are both humanoid in appearance, but genetically speaking, crossbreeding was impossible. The difference between the elements forming the 60 trillion cells composing their bodies is remarkable, and that distance was a difficult one to cross. However, the life science-based "Interface Cell" technology brought by Earth civilisation gave birth to hybrids of Earthlings and Zoidians called "Azzes" as a third race between the two. Natural interbreeding between the two species is only possible between fellow "Azzes".

From experience, they mastered a method of restricting the movements of Zoids by using natural magnetic rocks, and this later progressed to magnets.

But from experience, they mastered a method of restricting the movements of Zoids by using natural magnetic rocks, and this later progressed to magnets.

There were a wide variety of other Wild Zoid capturing methods, but these all occurred before the invention of writing, and actual proof of them would have to wait until the deciphering of Babahot's Iron Plate.

There were a wide variety of other Wild Zoid capturing methods, but these all occurred before the invention of writing, and actual proof of them would have to wait until the deciphering of wall paintings.

If we trace back even further to the Megalithic Age, there exist records of large Zoids being used to transport megaliths, indicating that there has been a long history of symbiosis between Zoidians and Zoids.

If we trace back even further to the Megalithic Age, there exist records of large Zoids being used to transport megaliths, so there has been a long history of symbiosis between Zoidians and Zoids.

In particular, "Taj Bee", an archaeologist who was assigned to analyse the plate, determined that people had been experimenting with domesticating Zoids since before recorded history.

In particular, "Taj Bee", an archaeologist who was assigned to analyse the plate, analysed it with the latest technology, starting with "carbon-14 dating". He determined that people had been experimenting with domesticating Zoids since before recorded history.

It took thirty years from the unearthing of the plate, but he finally located traces of this phantom temple on a cape on the southern tip of the Central Continent, and succeeded in excavating it completely.

It took thirty years from the unearthing of the plate, but he finally discovered traces of this phantom temple on a cape on the southern tip of the Central Continent! And he succeeded in excavating it completely!

Many precious items were unearthed from this temple, starting with valuable ancient ornaments, but a carbonised Zoid Core enshrined in the temple was the greatest discovery of them all.

Many precious items were unearthed from this temple, starting with valuable ancient ornaments, but a carbonised Zoid Core enshrined in the temple was the most precious discovery of them all.

[Maethius]

Actually, that is a very interesting entry for me; I like the info that doesn't focus on the giant machine animals and instead offers some background on their pilots as a species.

Again, great stuff!

[Snowflake]

There's a lot of story stuff filled in here that I was VERY interested in. Finally we know the proper origin of those facial markings. Earlier I thought (pretty sure I read in some previous source) that they were a natural reaction to the zoid lignite present in the environment

[Chibi Liger Zero]

Wow I am going to have to sit down and read through this one day!

[Falcarius]

Happy New Year! Here's a jumbo-sized update, and I think this one should interest quite a few people as well
(By the way, I decided to stick with the established pattern of shortening the rather unwieldy "Depths of the Earth Tribe"/"Subterranean Tribe" to just "Earth Tribe".)

I'll be tweaking the last few bits soon, just wanted to get this one posted on time...




== The Age of Intertribal Conflict ==

<Zoidians Spread Across the Central Continent>
<ZAC 1700s>

Increases in Population and Contact with Other Peoples
Around 50 or more tribes once lived hunter-gatherer lives on the Central Continent. They gradually formed primitive family groups, and created villages as assemblages.
They developed living customs to match the characteristics of the regions they inhabited, and started to recognise themselves as tribes. Their population was still low relative to the area of the continent, and conflicts surrounding the ownership of territory did not occur.
However, the progression of living technology eventually changed the hunting and gathering societies into pastoral and agricultural societies.
Until then, people had used all of their living time to acquire food, but with the arrival of pastoral and agricultural societies it became possible to stockpile food, and a leisure class unconcerned with the production of food was also created. This led to an explosive increase in population, and produced advanced governed societies.
Kindred races frequently engaged in trade, and their bartering eventually caused the development of a monetary economy using gold coins. Domestic Zoids as a means of transport themselves became commodities, and were provided at a standardised price across the entire continent.
By this period, each race was conscious that its living area was entirely its own territory, and came to recognise that these territories were something absolute at the foundation of their lives.
Representatives of this are the Bird Tribe who lived in mountain regions, the Sea Tribe who lived in the ocean, the Sand Tribe who lived in the desert and the Earth Tribe who lived hidden underground.
Eventually, distinct economic disparities were born between tribal villages through the circulation of currency. The tribes who had superior pastoral and agricultural technology and could produce a variety of appealing living supplies became economically prominent, absorbing the other small tribes.
And so it became possible to draw a clear power chart of tribal groups on the Central Continent.
At this point in time, it was domestic Zoids that supported people's lives. They were classified by their various uses, such as transportation, construction work, contests and defence, and many tribes supervised them through public management.


<Representative Tribes and Zoid Riders>
<ZAC 1000s~1700s>

The Wind Tribe and Beast-Type Zoids
The Wind Tribe live on high-elevation plateaus, and are thought to be the descendants of a race that constructed an ancient megalithic civilisation.
They have possessed a high level of living technology since antiquity, excelling in megalith transporting and processing technology, and also developed the geometry necessary for this. Their ancient stone waterways for daily use boast an incline of 1/1000, a precision difficult even with modern civil engineering technology, and their houses built from stone are said to have a thousand years of durability. In addition, they were already using natural energy such as windmills in the early days of civilisation.
They have logical thoughts and have considered it a virtue to protect peace and human rights since ancient times, and their personalities are generally gentle.
As physical characteristics, they have black hair and green eyes. They have had little interaction with other races since before recorded history, prospering as a single race and establishing republicanism.
They have domesticated and used small predatory beast Zoids for hunting since antiquity, and through countless generations of artificial selection, they have succeeded in breeding wolf-type Zoids with high intelligence that can understand and follow complex commands from humans.
They use these wolf-type Zoids for all purposes, including transportation, travel, contests and defence, and overcame the ice ages alongside them.
They are said to cherish these domestic Zoids as if they were their own children.

The Sea Tribe and Fish-Type Zoids
The race called the "Sea Tribe" as a whole is in actuality a collection of several races.
Their roots can be broadly divided into a northern Viking-like race and a southern fishing tribe.
However, they have had interactions since before recorded history such as dividing marine resources, and shared socially-advanced rules. They cooperated to oppose foreign enemies that threatened their spheres of life, and fostered a sense of companionship between people who gained food from the sea.
Due to later intermingling (after the dawn of history), it is already difficult to distinguish the two based on physical characteristics; as a race they uniformly have black hair, deep blue eyes, and a slight blue tint to their skin.
They have excelled in shipbuilding technology since time immemorial, creating a world map of Zi sooner than any other tribe, and at the same time they possessed a unique calendar that evenly divided the revolution periods of stars necessary for sea voyages.
As one might expect, it was before recorded history that they began the domestication of ray-type Zoids with the goal of having them tow ships, and this let them engage in commercial voyages against the ocean currents and gain profits.
They also levied a sailing tax when other tribes passed through their territory, and at the same time formed armed groups to guard these ships.
Here too they made frequent use of thoroughly tamed fish-type Zoids, and boasted great mobility on the sea.

The Bird Tribe and Bird-Type Zoids
A race whose spheres of life are vast primeval forest regions.
They are a peaceful tribe who use trees and their fruits as living provisions, prize harmony with nature, and worship nature deities said to dwell in trees.
They create dwellings atop huge trees, and honour family systems.
They developed technology related to wood processing, created various living necessities using resin as an adhesive, and engaged in trade with other tribes.
They have domesticated bird-type Zoids living in the primeval forests since ancient times, using them for transportation, construction and combat.
In particular, soldiers who performed aerial battles upon bird-type Zoids were worshipped by the people and given the title of "Warrior", and their lineage was inherited only by blood relatives.
In the oldest surviving "Zoid rearing" literature, there is a description of how Zoid trainers tamed Zoids by sleeping and waking up together with them, and one can feel their enthusiasm to tame Zoids at that time.
As for their physical characteristics, they have black or deep grey eyes and blond hair.
In addition, there are surviving accounts saying that at the time considered to be the beginning of civilisation, the primeval forest regions were assailed by changes in climate, and that every time the temperature dropped they would migrate to a different primeval forest region; this is thought to have been performed with the arrival of each season.

The Insect Tribe and Beetle-Type Zoids
A tribe that lives on grasslands, which become vast wetlands regions in the rainy season. Getting a grasp on the terrain was impossible in the wetlands regions, and therefore other tribes did not invade these areas. Aided by the fact that wetlands were thought to be a source of plague in ancient times, the tribe were able to continue protecting their spheres of life.
Pursuing the wetlands regions that appeared and disappeared according to the amount of rainfall, they needed to move their places of residence, and thus they never created a huge city-state. While other tribes created large villages and towns and increased their populations, the Insect Tribe members spent their lives constantly moving in small numbers, and therefore their population is low.
They have a history of domesticating and living together with beetle-type Zoids since ancient times.
The extremely hard beetle shells, which would let no shield through, could also be called a precious asset for the tribe. If they clad their bodies in the shells of dead beetles they could use them as invincible armour, and if they processed them into shields or spears, they formed splendid weapons.
In addition, powerful beetles were used for transporting rocks and trees, the material for creating their dwellings, and flying beetles were used for combat.
In times of war they created excellent arrows, spears and shields, and sold them to make a profit. As physical characteristics, they have brown skin, grey hair and blue-green eyes. They worship a rain deity.

The Fire Tribe and Bird-Type Zoids
A tribe whose area of residence is in active volcanic zones. These regions never froze over, even in the ice ages, and the tribe has worshipped a fire deity since ancient times.
They have used geothermal energy since antiquity, and developed unique technology such as creating machine tools using steam power to build houses and roads.
Their unity as a tribe is extremely strong, but they are also warlike and have a powerful distrust of other tribes. This personality is derived from their culture, which honours military power and considers strength a virtue, and their society is centred on a caste system based on martial arts.
They have domesticated ferocious archaeopterygiform Zoids and use them as a means of travel, flying around the volcanic zones.
It was impossible for other races to tame these Zoids, and hit-and-run diving tactics using these Zoids were the tribe's specialty strategy.
These archaeopterygiform-type Zoids were by nature primitive as organisms, so increasing their numbers was difficult, and the methods for rearing them were an extremely high-secrecy art even among the Fire Tribe, known only to "Zoid tamers". In addition, those who rode these archaeopterygiform-type Zoids were considered elites and honoured, even among warriors.
They have constructed a number of towns and usually live separately, but in times of war they unite to fight enemies.
As physical characteristics, they have brown skin, black hair and red eyes.

The Sand Tribe and Reptile-Type Zoids
The descendants of a great tribe that once created a megalithic civilisation in a vast desert area, building huge cities of stone. Their former civilisation was extremely advanced, and accompanied by other surrounding tribes, they created a huge city-state and wielded great power for a time, but starting around ZAC 1600 their power rapidly declined, the city-state split up and the monolithic culture was lost.
This is thought to be because the temperature in the desert rose at that time due to a change in the sun's thermal radiation activity, causing a serious shortage of domestic water to continue for many years, and because they absorbed too many other races at the same time.
Afterwards, they continued their lives in small villages dotted around the desert.
They created bases of life at oases, and domesticated reptile-type Zoids to make a living.
They bred several species of reptile-type Zoids for transportation, construction work and combat and lived together with them, but they had little interaction with other tribes and continued to live in seclusion in the desert, so little is known about their actual state.
They worship a sun deity, and for physical characteristics they have white hair and black eyes. Since the collapse of the old city-state, they have become exclusive and are shunned by the surrounding tribes.

The Earth Tribe and Insect-Type Zoids
Underneath the central mountain zone of the Central Continent are vast underground caverns carved out by the ice ages. The Earth Tribe has lived in these underground caverns since before recorded history, and developed a unique culture. This was a subterranean world beyond the reach of sunlight, but the air temperature was warm and stable all year round due to terrestrial heat, and the deep caves were natural fortresses that would not allow invasion by foreign enemies.
They lived in the depths of the earth and were self-sufficient, but when they needed grains and such they would proceed to the surface in groups to procure and collect the necessary items. However, before they knew it, villages and towns were created by other tribes on the surface, and farmlands became places owned by these tribes. Even so, the Earth Tribe appeared on the surface and stole food from the farmlands just the same as before.
This earned them animosity from the tribes living on the surface, and the Earth Tribe became infamous as a dreadful combat group whose true nature was unknown.
They bred many insect-type Zoids that lived underground, and used them for transporting materials, constructing houses and the work of digging new tunnels.
Socially, they had strong shades of feudal rule, prized loyalty towards family heads, and had great pride, saying "We are the rulers upon Zi!"
As physical characteristics, their skin and eyes are both red-brown. Their hair is orange. They have a latent yearning for the surface, and even justify attacks by armies on other tribes' territories as a means of survival.

The God Tribe and Divine Beast-Type Zoids
Their true origins are not clearly understood. Whether they are an ethnic minority that came across from the Dark Continent before recorded history, or whether the race has its roots in people who came from another planet, their origins remain unknown.
They conducted politics with mystical sorcery using fire and light, cured people's illnesses, and predicted volcanic eruptions and natural disasters, and are said to have had powers such as moving rocks with psychokinesis, summoning spirits, and holding conversations with residents of the world of the dead.
They lived in temples, called themselves descendants of the gods, and raised profits in trade with other tribes by selling a variety of practical medicinal herbs. They also possessed extremely large divine beast-type Zoids as guardian deities, and this became one reason they were feared by other tribes.
These divine beast-type Zoids were an ancient species of dinosaur thought to already be extinct on the surface. It is believed that the God Tribe had known since long ago that these supposedly-extinct Zoids had survived in underground lava reservoirs, and had tamed them.
They rarely show themselves in front of other tribes, always wearing masks and never showing their faces, to emphasise their mystique. As for their physical characteristics, their skin is white, and their hair and eyes are both silver.
This can be considered a mutant form of the humans living on Zi.



Differences in the Monthly Zoids Graphics version:

By this period, each race was conscious that its living area was entirely its own territory

By around ZAC 1700, each race was conscious that its living area was entirely its own territory

the Sand Tribe who lived in the desert and the Earth Tribe who lived hidden underground.

the Sand Tribe who lived in the desert and the Earth Tribe who lived hidden underground and must be classified as an anomaly compared to the other tribes.

The Wind Tribe and Beast-Type Zoids

The Wind Tribe
[etc.]

They have excelled in shipbuilding technology since time immemorial, creating a world map of Zi sooner than any other tribe

They have excelled in shipbuilding technology since time immemorial, creating and possessing a world map of Zi sooner than any other tribe

[Maethius]

Wow! And to think, originally, there was the "Gold Tribe" and then the "Silver Tribe"

[Falcarius]

Okay, this update is gigantic, easily the biggest one I'll be posting for the Zoids Bible, so I'm putting up an unfinished "first-pass" translation for now. Apart from needing a bit more polish, you may notice some other differences - there's a rather abrupt change in style between the "science" and "history" sections, including exclamation marks and ellipses all over the place.

This war - in fact, everything before the arrival of the Globally III - really isn't covered much in Battle Story material. About the only sources I can think of that deal with pre-Earthling Planet Zi are the first few pages of History of Zoids, the inner jacket flap of All About Battle Machine Beasts, and of course the Zoids Bible. It does make for good fanfic-fodder, though




== The Age of the Two Tribes War ==

<The Wind Tribe vs. the Earth Tribe>
<c. ZAC 1920>

The Planet Zi World Map
At this time, approximately 30 "domains" stood close together on the continent, and their people swore loyalty to their domains.
This was a bud of the awareness that they were a fate-sharing community, and simultaneously a bud of the group mentality where people who did not belong to a domain were treated as lawless barbarians. By this point a number of domains had already united, forming primitive military alliance agreements to secure the safety of trade routes using domestic Zoids and jointly defend against foreign enemies. However, no military alliance agreements were formed across the Central Mountain Range. The Central Mountain Range ran across the Central Continent, dividing it into east and west. This huge wall separated the continent's western and eastern environments.
The Central Mountain Range established a difference in climate. The strong winds blowing in the same direction as Planet Zi's direction of rotation, namely the westerlies, brought the temperature changes of the deep ocean currents onto the Central Continent. As a result, the western side of the Central Mountain Range directly received the intense seasonal temperature changes, while the eastern side, with the westerlies intercepted by the Central Mountain Range, had a stable amount of rainfall and was blessed with a warm climate with relatively little temperature difference throughout the year.
Therefore, while the continent's west and east both possessed almost the same area of level ground, clear differences arose when it came to the harvesting of grain and stability of life. When trade between west and east became prosperous, this fact became something that many people knew. The bountiful east side and the not so bountiful west side...... The western domains were visited by great floods, cold waves and droughts in a cycle once every four years, and the people were impoverished by hunger and thirst. Fearing disorder, the eastern side refused to accept refugees from the west, and the antagonism between the eastern and western domains rapidly became severe. At this time, there was someone who saw the dissatisfaction of the people from the western domains! It was "Guylos", the leader of the Earth Tribe. He splendidly tied together the Earth Tribe's latent "longing for the surface territories" and the dissatisfaction of the western domains' citizens, insisted strongly that they "provide colonies for the western citizens within the bountiful eastern territory!" and gripped the hearts of the people as a mouthpiece for the citizens of the western domains. And so they formed an alliance of western domains, centred on the Earth Tribe, then placed pressure on the surrounding countries and made them participate.

The true objective of the tactician Guylos was the complete control of the bountiful eastern territories.
Using underground caverns that passed under the Central Mountain Range and continued on to the eastern side, he sent an army of 60,000 to invade the eastern side, plotting to gain control of half of the eastern territories at once.
The eastern side narrowly managed to hold back this invasion, but with this battle, the military antagonism between west and east became definite.
"Helic", the leader of the Wind Tribe, felt an alarming sense of crisis at the movements of the rapidly uniting western side, so he appealed to representatives of the eastern domains and organised a cooperative body to defend their territory collaboratively. This developed into a military alliance in less than a year. Here were born two large-scale military alliances, the likes of which had not been seen in the history of Zi. One was the "Western Domains Alliance", with the Earth Tribe's leader "Guylos" as its acting commander, and the other was the "Eastern Security Alliance", with the Wind Tribe's leader "Helic" as its chief.
It was clear to everyone's eyes that this was the harbinger of a large-scale all-out war that would someday occur, and it reached the state where even the domains that wished for neutrality could not survive without participating in one of these two military alliances.
This was the beginning of the Age of the Two Tribes War.


<The Lengthening War and the Appearance of the Dark Continent Army>
<ZAC 1955>

All-Out War on the Central Continent
The Two Tribes War on the Central Continent developed into a large-scale war that turned the entire continent into a battlefield. Great numbers of Zoids were released, and large quantities of military supplies were consumed, including weapons, ammunition, and the soldiers who used them. In all-out war, the outcome is decided by how abundantly and how efficiently one can release as many human and material resources as possible. It was a huge tidal current, different in scale and nature from the good old intertribal conflicts where courage and conviction brought victory, and even if one lost, their honour remained.
Neither the west nor east camp would fall back one step, fierce combat continued across the entire continent, and the war began to show aspects of becoming completely long-term.
As the battle dragged on, the continent's streets that had profited by trade and once-beautiful nature fell into ruin, and the people's hearts ran to waste.
All of the funds and resources for use by the nations were released to accomplish the war, and due to the loss of warriors, the age of conscripted soldiers dropped day by day. People's lives became impoverished, fear and despair spread across the entire continent, and even living materials began to run dry.
They were supposed to have raised their army for the sake of peace and happiness for their citizens...... Helic, chief of the Wind Tribe and warlord of the eastern side, was greatly troubled. At this rate, both enemy and ally would lose everything that they had built up! But now, only hatred grew between both camps, and truce or compromise was already impossible.
Helic desperately groped around for a method to end the war. One day, while perusing an old tactical document, he had an insight in the tactical theory that to break through a two-sided confrontation between tribes, a third threat was necessary.
He remembered the "Northern Dark World Adventure Records" left behind by an adventurer from his great-grandfather's era. To the northwest of the Central Continent extended a vast permafrost linking to the Arctic Circle. According to the writings of that adventurer, who was also his great-grandfather's vassal, an unknown tribe who had no interaction with the outside world lived there, and it was written that they dreamed of advancing unnoticed onto a bountiful continent......

The Central Continent Unified Army and the Dark Continent Army
Having pondered over his plan, Helic departed aboard a bird-type Zoid alone, aiming for this Dark Continent. The absence of Helic, leader of the eastern side, was kept top secret, and a shadow warrior was set up to hide this fact.
More than a year had passed since Helic began his journey when one day, the Central Continent were invaded by an unknown army corps. The never-before-seen army landed on the continent from the sky and sea all at once, launching an attack without any warning. The people of the continent were exhausted from the war between the eastern and western tribes, and were defeated helplessly by this surprise attack. This unknown army corps was a powerful attack force that had come from the Dark Continent to the north.
The terrible tribe living on the Dark Continent...... To the people living on this continent, they would only have existed in legend.
Receiving the sudden attack without any warning, the continent's armies produced chaos in their order and command systems, and could only panic and flee!
The continent was in crisis! But at this time, there was one who stood up. It was none other than the tyrant Guylos.
After proposing a ceasefire agreement with the eastern side, he immediately reorganised the western army and turned to counterattack the Dark Continent army at once! The counterattack army led by Guylos fought a good fight, but their losses were too great.
Seeing this, the eastern army aligned with their counterattack. They all had to protect the continent together!
The battle continued to advance and retreat. However, the Dark Continent army released further reinforcement forces and attacked the continent army. One day, as the fierce attack and defence continued, Helic returned. He explained to everyone the wideness of the world. "We are friends living on a small continent. We must combine our strength, unite and battle this foreign enemy! If we combine Guylos' courage and my wisdom, we can surely defeat this strong foe!"
All the continent's armies were unified by Helic's call, and fought against the approaching second enemy attack force. An army of various tribes with different languages formed a united front and battled the Dark Continent army. However, the enemy was powerful, and their unknown weapons brushed aside the attacks of the unified army......


<X-Day, the End of the War>
<ZAC 1957>

Helic's Plan and Victory
Amid the fierce attacks of the Dark Continent army, Helic preserved his army's strength and planned a great counteroffensive operation. Its execution date, the so-called X-Day, was set as the 25th of July (by the Zoid calendar). He had a secret. The unified army led by Helic amassed on the Central Continent's western plateau and blocked the way of their south-bound enemies, the Dark Continent army. The time had come for the decisive battle.
This day, the 25th of July, was the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere of Planet Zi. In the west of the Central Continent Range, the air temperature rose by more than 10 degrees at once, and moreover, the solar radiation increased by 30 percent. For the soldiers and mecha organisms of the Dark Continent army, who lived on permafrost at high northern latitudes where the sun only barely showed its face on the horizon all year round, the mercilessly blazing sun was the thing they feared most.
The soldiers lost their eyesight due to the powerful ultraviolet rays, and the mecha organisms ceased functioning due to the high temperatures.........
The continent army led by Helic swept down on the utterly weakened Dark Continent army all at once, and decided the outcome in their first engagement! Then the army corps led by Guylos destroyed the fleeing enemies.
Due to this, the western and eastern soldiers were forced to feel strongly that "If both the east and west combine their power, it brings great results!"

The Central Continent's First Unity
Everything was as Helic had expected. The appearance of the Dark Continent army corps was a plan Helic had thought up. Nobody knew this fact...... No, perhaps the tactician Guylos had realised this fact, but Guylos informed Helic, "You are fit to be a true leader......" A strong enemy might attack the Central Continent from outside again some day. This day, when they had defeated the enemy and stopped the quarrels between east and west, was a new beginning...... It became a unification anniversary, when the continent was united into one. From this day on, they began to reconstruct the continent ruined and scorched by the flames of war. Helic announced that he would treat all peoples equally, without distinction between east and west, and declared that everyone would share in the wealth of the continent. Peace arrived on the continent, and Helic was welcomed as king. Helic established a democratic government that would manage the affairs of state through a parliament that gathered representatives of each race, and he governed the continent.
Meanwhile, Guylos seemed as if he was living out his last years quietly, but he told the people "I have no work left to do on this continent" and left on a journey, taking just two close associates with him and aiming for a phantom territory said to be located even further north than the Dark Continent. As a result, he would subsequently take part in the founding of the later invading army, the Guylos Empire......

The Zoids of the Dark Continent
The Zoids used by the Dark Continent army were animals that only existed in legends, such as dragons and wyverns, so this was a great surprise to the people of the Central Continent.

The Defeat of the Dark Continent Army
A "cold kingdom" that possesses vast territory, yet is blocked off from the Central Continent by the treacherous ocean region "Triangle Daras", and has the majority of its realm locked away in rock and ice - that is the Dark Continent.
This ice never melts, even in interglacial periods. The inhabitants of the Dark Continent, who have lived there since long before recorded history, are quite used to its harsh environment and have survived in this frigid land.
They lived in castles made of ice and domesticated mecha organisms that evolved in a different environment to other continents. They gave them energy by way of a special substance called "Deochalcum", and each one's individual combat abilities were overwhelmingly higher than the Zoids of the Central Continent.
However, they held a secret ambition of someday taking hold of a bountiful land where the sunlight poured down.
So without knowing that the adventurer from the continent who appeared before him was Helic, the chief of the Dark Continent raised an army, saying "The time is ripe!"
Although they were defeated in this battle, the Dark Army had not given up on invading a bountiful continent.
Perhaps some other day, the time would come for the Dark Army to bare their fangs again......


<The Birth of Battle Machine Beasts>
<c. ZAC 1850~1950>

Wild Zoids (prehistory)
Zoids that live naturally are called this.
Humans used to capture Wild Zoids as a means of living, and would process the necessary parts of their bodies, remodel them and make use of them.
In particular, since the skins of Zoids were hard metallic shells, they could also be used as-is as shields and armour for humans to wear, and once technology had progressed these shells would be temporarily melted, reprocessed and used as various living supplies.
In the hunting era, Zoids were still no more than hunting targets to humans.

Domestic (Steed) Zoids (c. ZAC 1850)
When human civilisation developed, humans began to use Zoids in their daily lives.
They fed them artificially and attempted to tame them. They grew Zoids from Zoid Cores and increased the number of individuals that were obedient to humans, and as a result, they domesticated Zoids over countless generations.
They used Zoids for a variety of purposes such as transportation, construction work, contests and combat.
Some Zoid species that had limited numbers in the wild were grown in large numbers because they were convenient for humans, and in that sense, the ecological balance of Zoids collapsed.

Combat Zoids (ZAC 1900 onwards)
Once human civilisation developed further, they became able to take a method of transmitting commands from outside directly to the Zoid Core itself.
The Zoid Core within the organism is also a relay organ that transmits commands to the Zoid's entire body, so by sending a simple electrical signal here, one can control the Zoid and send it left or right.
Also, since the Zoid's shell is metallic, it is easy to process, and they customised Zoids and applied work such as allowing them to travel more quickly by installing wheels on parts of their shells.

Zoid Core Research and Bioremodelling Technology
The Zoid Core functions as an embryo when generating a new individual, but within the Zoid organism it acts as an organ that governs autonomous functions and movement commands from the brain. The people of Zi have possessed the technology to generate Zoids from Zoid Cores since ancient times, but detailed knowledge of how the Zoid Core functions within the Zoid's body would have to wait until the development of anatomical science.
The Zoid Core is a biological organ that governs the movement functions and autonomic nerves of the Zoid itself, and also an autonomic system that governs its internal chemical hormone balance and commands to move its limbs.
Consequently, if one could transmit commands directly to the Zoid Core from outside, they could freely control the movements of the Zoid's arms and legs, and could even control its fundamental phenomena of life such as body temperature adjustment and reinforcing its physical strength. And having revealed these facts through the accumulation of medical knowledge, people set about controlling Zoids with rudimentary science.
There is no phenomenon that has contributed to the development of culture on Zi as much as this technology to control Zoids.
However, since they could now be freely controlled, Zoids were released in large quantities as weapons in the Two Tribes War, and this saw the beginning of the age of mass production of battle machine beasts, the most important event in the history of Zi.
If the definition of civilisation is "the control of nature", the creation of these battle machine beasts could perhaps be called a tangible example of the development of civilisation.


<Zoid Remodelling Technology Spreads Between Tribes>
<c. ZAC 1950>

Basic Concepts of Zoid Core Processing
The act of accessing the "Zoid Core" located almost at the centre of a Zoid's body from outside and controlling its body movements and even physical condition is simple in concept.
In the examples established in the age of the Two Tribes War, weak electrical signals were sent from an external controller into the Zoid Core, inputting simple actions such as "move forwards", "turn right", "turn left" and "move backwards".
These electrical signals were exactly the same voltage as the movement commands sent from its central nervous system, so the Zoid Core transmitted these signals to the entire body as commands from the brain.
In addition, if one connected processed nerve tissues so that these commands could be transmitted to artificial parts added to portions of the Zoid's body, these artificial parts could also function just like part of the Zoid's body.

Racial Ideas About Zoids
The various races living on the continent began to make use of Zoids in their own lives.
Zoid remodelling technology first began with the Earth Tribe, then spread to the other surrounding tribes, and its use in Zoid transportation facilities and the like became popular.
The technology spread rapidly and changed in various directions according to each tribe's life and culture.~
The Earth Tribe strengthened the armour and control functions of Zoids with the goal of combat.
The Bird Tribe used the same eagle-type Zoid for transportation and for combat. For the transportation Zoids, they expanded their wing area and extended their cruising range and flight duration. For the aerial battle Zoids, they removed their unnecessary outer armour and shortened their wingspan, prioritising turning abilities and manoeuvrability at the cost of stability.
The lizard-type Zoids used by the Sand Tribe had their whole bodies painted in tar to prevent evaporation of moisture, and had water tanks expanded on their backs in order to travel through the dry desert between oases.
The Wind Tribe added pads to the four legs of wolf-type Zoids so that they could run across irregular ground.
~In these ways, each tribe applied a variety of work and made use of Zoids in their own lives.



Differences in the Monthly Zoids Graphics version:

As a result, the western side of the Central Mountain Range directly received the intense seasonal temperature changes, while the eastern side, with the westerlies intercepted by the Central Mountain Range, had a stable amount of rainfall and was blessed with a warm climate with relatively little temperature difference throughout the year.

As a result, the eastern side, with the westerlies intercepted by the Central Mountain Range, had a stable amount of rainfall and was blessed with a warm climate with relatively little temperature difference throughout the year. Meanwhile, the western side of the Central Mountain Range was exposed to a harsh climate, directly receiving the intense seasonal temperature changes.

"Helic", the leader of the Wind Tribe, felt an alarming sense of crisis at the movements of the rapidly uniting western side, so he appealed to representatives of the eastern domains and organised a cooperative body to defend their territory collaboratively.

"Helic", the leader of the Wind Tribe, felt an alarming sense of crisis at the flow of the rapidly uniting western side, so he appealed to the signatories of the already-formed Eastern Trade Union and formed the "Eastern Trade Signatories Security Treaty", a contract to defend the eastern territories collaboratively.

The unified army led by Helic amassed on the Central Continent's western plateau

The continent army led by Helic amassed on the Central Continent's western plateau

This day, the 25th of July, was the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere of Planet Zi.

This day, the 25th of July, was the day of Kashi in the northern hemisphere of Planet Zi.
[From History of Zoids... "Kashi (Summer's Beginning): This corresponds to the summer solstice on Earth, but on this day on Planet Zi, the temperature rises 10 degrees at once and summer begins."]

but Guylos informed Helic, "You are fit to be a true leader......"

but Guylos saw through everything and informed Helic, "You are fit to be a true leader......"

and domesticated mecha organisms that evolved in a different environment to other continents.

and domesticated mecha organisms (Zoids?) that evolved in a different environment to other continents.

Domestic (Steed) Zoids

Steed (Domestic) Zoids

fundamental phenomena of life such as body temperature adjustment and reinforcing its physical strength

fundamental phenomena of life such as body temperature adjustment and attack functions

[Maethius]

Whoa... this will take some readin'....

[greengai]

Climate stuff, cool!