My Tale of the Golden Axe

by Noman Nasir

Notes: I used the games Revenge of Death Adder, Golden Axe I, II, III for Sega in the story. If I knew the plot of the other games I might have included it here. Every name in italics is a name of an enemy that appeared in the games.

In the beginning there were only the planets, the moons and the stars. There were many gods, both male and female who personified these different planets. They waged unending wars with each other. The different stars were ruled by Tirawa, the personification of life. It was the energies of his stars that gave life to the universe. Soon he and his brother, the god who ruled over all the moons, were caught in the middle of the wars between the different gods. Once the gods were defeated their worlds’ nature calmed down and life began to grow on them. Those who hadn’t been killed were made into spirits that would manifest in the bodies of mortals to live out and then finally die as organic beings. However the greedy moon god began to fight his brother Tirawa because he wanted to be supreme. Tirawa killed him but not before he was bound to a corporeal shell filled with all the power of his brother. Now that his brother’s powers had become one with his he was no longer pure. Angered he forcefully separated from his corporeal shell and forged it into a green axe and renamed himself “Death Bringer”; since he was no longer a bringer of life but would become a bringer of death.

Remembering the spirits that were yet to be born who would die as mortals, Death Bringer thought that he could pass his corruption onto them with the green axe. If he rid himself of all corruption he would be pure again; he would regain his godhood and be an all-powerful ruler of the stars and the moons at last. To this end he would wait for the different species of the world where the spirits had been banished to create brood for the spirits to inhabit, knowing well that once they died as mortals they would die altogether so he would have to catch them before death came to them.

So to make them all come to him, he would conquer the land. Then the spirit individuals, who would possess great spiritual powers, would seek him out to end his conquest. To this end he fathered three sons from the elvish race to aid him. His favorite son, Death Adder, promptly took up his father’s cause, while the other two knowing well the chaos that Death Bringer’s ambitions would mean for the world turned against him.

Death Bringer also fathered another son, Axe-battler. He left him to be raised by his mother since at the time he didn’t want to deal with another possible betrayal of kin. Without his father to teach him, Axe-battler didn’t properly learn how to control his powers so all he could do was control rocks and summon volcanic explosions.

This is when the events of Golden Axe: Death Adder’s revenge took place. Idolizing his father, Death Adder decided to use an axe as his weapon as well. For betraying their father’s cause Death Adder sought to kill his brothers. One was killed while Gilius survived. Due to his treachery Gilius aged normally but Death Adder remained the same age, thanks to his father. Gilius was able to gather the spirit individuals to defeat Death Adder.

Then Golden Axe I took place. Death Adder killed the loved ones of the spirit individuals to lure them to his castle once again. Using their various powers over natural elements, the heroes were able to single handedly defeat his massive army. After killing Death Adder and his son, Death Adder Jr, the heroes went of to face the cause of all the chaos, Death Bringer. While he had many elemental powers to aid him, ultimately Axe-Battler was able to stab him with his own green axe. The union of the axe, Axe-Battler and Death Bringer created a spell that drew some of the corruption from Death Bringer and scattered it amongst his minions destroying them. In a flash of light, Death Bringer was gone and all that remained was Axe-Battler, having his powers heightened, and the green axe was transformed into the Golden Axe. Due to the purity of Axe-Battler’s soul and will, the Golden Axe had become a weapon that could purify the wielder’s soul; since with every strike it would transfer corruption from its wielder into its victim.

Death Bringer, however, had become pure enough to survive physical death. He was surprised that his bastard child, Axe-Battler, had done what the countless children he had over the centuries were unable to do; create the Golden Axe out of his green axe. He knew that he would need to claim it if he wanted to use it to become pure again. Even though Death Bringer could use it to transfer his corruption into regular people, he still sought out the spirit avatars because only they could take the majority and indeed all of it away from him. Even though he had regained much of his vast power due to the previous battle; he still wasn’t strong enough to defeat the heroes.

His new army would have to be much stronger for him to achieve his goals. He kidnapped young warriors from Axe-Battler’s tribe, since he was in awe of the people that produced such fine warriors like his son. Using the Golden Axe he transferred his corruption into them. The least corrupt became the minotaurs who would lead his army. Then there were the, blue colored, cave minotaurs, whom he kept around the landscape of his castle to protect it. And finally there were the most corrupt, red colored, royal minotaurs, who he assigned as his personal body guards. Next he needed to make sure that the heroes wouldn’t be able to steal mystical items from male elves in order to caste elemental spells. So he captured many of them and transferred corruption into them as well in order to turn them into wizards that would join his army. With so many magic users at his side he was able to enchant many suits of headless armor that would become the strongest members of his army. The reason these enchanted suits of armor were headless was because they were controlled by a mystical helmet that was a part of his own Death Armor. Noticing that his army was ready, renaming himself Dark Guld he began conquering the land hoping to draw the heroes out.

This is when Golden Axe II took place. Axe-Battler had gained better control of his powers. Rather than using the earth he used the pure power of the wind to create tornadoes to fight his enemies. As the heroes made their way to Dark Guld they battled his Death Armor, realizing that he wasn’t even in it. Gilius was wounded in this confrontation and had to stay behind. Finally the rest of the heroes reached Dark Guld. Even though he had greatly increased power he was still defeated. However, since he had the Golden Axe he was able to transfer some of his corruption into them. Only Gilius was spared since he didn’t participate in the battle.

In time he returned as the God of Darkness. Using the darkness now in control of Tyris and Axe-Battler, was able to use them to capture other spirit avatars like them and corrupt them as well using the Golden Axe. Now that he had the majority of the heroes in his control he knew he didn’t need to concentrate on building a powerful army again. This time he simply captured members of Gilius’ tribe and turned them into the four armed minotaurs serving his army as its generals. These were the various Ego monsters that would appear in Golden Axe III which was now taking place. The King was also transformed into the powerful Eve who would seek out the elusive Gilius. Axe-Battler was finally given the training needed to fully control his powers, as now he could command tornadoes and water molecules in the air to produce a wide variety of attacks.

Now with the heroes under his control, the King dethroned, and Gilius on the run from Eve, things were finally going the God of Darkness’ way. Each day he would continue to pass more and more of his corruption into the heroes, and his power would continue to grow. He felt no pity for Axe-Battler because he knew that if he still retained his free will he would never side with him. However, this revelation really bothered him. Even though he knew that once he was free of all corruption he could return to his idealistic and peaceful existence, free of all emotion, he chose to satisfy his paternal lust. Using the princess, he killed any female child she born him, until at last a son was born. Rather than to continue passing away his corruption to the heroes, he spent all his time rearing his new child. He kept him isolated from the rest of the world so that he could consume all his affection. Since he was the God of Darkness, his son would take on the title, Prince of Darkness and it would be under his name that the kingdom would be held under sway since he was its rightful heir due to his royal blood. Gilius, who had aged significantly over the years running from Eve knew he could no longer fight his father or his armies. Luckily, he had discovered that since the corruption inside the heroes wasn’t theirs to begin with, he could remove it without the Golden Axe. He was able to do this to one of the heroes, but didn’t have the strength to do it to all of them. However, eager for revenge, rather than let the corruption fade into nothingness he wanted to send back inside the God of Darkness. Unable to do so due to his great power, he sent it inside the Prince of Darkness instead. The corruption freed hero performed a similar process on the other heroes. Even Eve was freed this way, transforming back into the King, but dieing soon after. Soon the Prince of Darkness was so corrupt that his skin became scaly green, matching what his father looked like in his Death Bringer persona. Enraged, the God of Darkness, as Damud Hellstrike confronted the heroes and lost. His son, as Damned Hellstrike took up the Golden Axe and fought the heroes, eager to use it to free himself of the corruption, but lost as well and was killed.  

To be continued in future games…………………………………………………………

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