Equodo: A Saga Across the Universe
Equodo: The Universe Beyond Earth and the Rise of a New God
The first three stories of the Arlzverse are relatively easier to place within a familiar framework.
Mirov begins in Earth's present and eventually moves beyond Earth into the Shadow Universe. Orion moves between Earth's future and its distant past. Vilaad takes the reader even further back, into an ancient Earth populated by species and civilisations that disappeared tens of thousands of years ago.
Equodo is different.
Its story does not begin on Earth at all.
It opens directly in the wider universe, among planets inhabited by different forms of intelligent life. For a reader approaching the story without the context of the earlier books, that shift can initially feel unfamiliar. But that unfamiliarity is also central to what Equodo is trying to explore.
A Story That Begins Outside Our World
The opening of Equodo introduces a new force into the universe:
Thy O Ron.
Unlike the powers previously encountered in the Arlzverse, Thy O Ron claims to be God.
And this is not merely a title.
He demonstrates powers that appear to support the claim and begins attempting to bring the different forms of life existing throughout the universe under his control.
His vision of creation is radically different from the freedom enjoyed by humanity.
In the universe he wants to establish, even the supreme creatures of individual planets would possess only a limited and conditional form of free will. Most living beings would exist under a system of control, almost like biological machines.
The purpose is clear.
No species would possess the unrestricted freedom that humans have—the freedom to act according to their own desires, even when those choices eventually lead to the destruction of their own planet.
For Thy O Ron, that freedom represents a fundamental flaw in creation.
The Fienders and the Planets of the Helidrs
The story begins among planets created or established by Vooders and Helidrs.
The native species of planets established by the Helidrs are known as Fienders.
They are creations of the Helidrs—the same beings whose presence was encountered in Orion and Vilaad through the identities of Joggers and Helbreads, the forces later associated with the idea of devils.
This means that Equodo does not introduce an entirely disconnected universe.
Instead, it opens another part of the same larger mythology.
From a human perspective, the simplest way to describe its opening would be:
This is a story that begins with aliens and the universe itself.
But that description barely scratches the surface of what is happening.
The Arlzverse as a Cosmic System
To understand Equodo, the larger concept established in Orion and Vilaad becomes important again.
One way of visualising the Arlzverse is to imagine an enormous computer system.
Inside it are countless applications and millions of different files.
But somewhere within that system is a virus.
To deal with such a virus, one might install an antivirus program designed to contain or eliminate it.
In this analogy, the entire universe—with everything contained within it—is the system.
The Helidrs represent the virus.
The Vooders, or Equodians, represent the antivirus.
But even this comparison describes only one side of the larger picture.
Because Equodo begins questioning whether the concepts of good and evil are actually as simple as they appear from one particular perspective.
The Creator, the Angels and the Devils
Another way to understand this universe is through the existence of a creator called Showmar.
According to this interpretation, Showmar created the entire system of existence and, for reasons that remain unknown, allowed both opposing forces to exist within it.
One represents light.
The other represents darkness.
One represents creation.
The other represents destruction.
One is associated with good.
The other with evil.
But the underlying philosophy is more complicated than simply declaring one necessary and the other unnecessary.
Night cannot exist without day.
Day cannot exist without night.
Likewise, perhaps creation requires destruction, and survival requires the possibility of annihilation.
The two opposing forces may therefore be enemies, but their existence may also be interconnected.
The Human Interpretation
From the perspective of humanity, the arrangement appears relatively straightforward.
Showmar is the creator.
The Vooders are his angels, travelling throughout the universe and creating life on planets capable of sustaining it.
The Helidrs are the devils.
They have been given extraordinary powers and allowed to exist as a challenge to creation.
Their destructive presence forces living beings to struggle, adapt and survive.
From this perspective, the threats created by the Helidrs may serve a purpose: the challenges they impose produce the instinct for survival that makes intelligent life stronger.
But this raises an obvious question.
What if this is only one side of the truth?
The Other Side of the Story
Equodo begins to explore precisely that possibility.
Humans naturally interpret the universe through the experience of the beings they know.
From the human perspective, the Vooders are angels and the Helidrs are dangerous, repulsive devils.
But from the perspective of the Fienders and Helidrs, the situation is reversed.
The Vooders are the devils.
The humans created by the Vooders are insignificant, dirty, almost insect-like creatures.
This reversal is one of the most important ideas introduced by Equodo.
Good and evil may not look the same from both sides of a conflict.
Why the Fienders Matter
Understanding the Fienders therefore becomes almost as important as understanding the philosophy of the Helidrs.
The Vooders create life in enormous variety.
They use genetic engineering to develop different kinds of creatures on planets capable of supporting life.
No single species is necessarily considered supreme.
Humans, Satans and countless other forms of life can all emerge from this process.
The Helidrs follow a different philosophy.
They also create life, but they do not appear to value biological diversity in the same way.
Their creations tend to follow a common form.
And the creatures they create from their own genetic lineage are known as Fienders.
On Earth, these beings were previously encountered in Orion under the name Joggers.
That connection gives the larger Arlzverse another layer of continuity.
A Third Force Enters the Universe
But Equodo introduces something that is different from both Vooders and Helbreads.
That force is Thy O Ron.
He does not simply claim to represent one side of the existing cosmic conflict.
He claims to be God.
His objective is to identify what he considers the inherent flaws in the design of the supreme creatures created for individual planets, remove those flaws and create what he believes will be better lifeforms and better worlds.
That ambition places him directly against both major existing powers.
The Vooders and Helbreads therefore become his principal opponents.
And Thy O Ron begins his journey by confronting them and successfully limiting their influence.
But defeating them is only part of his objective.
He also needs the universe to accept his claim of divinity.
The Galactic War
To establish himself as a god and gain acceptance among thousands of advanced civilisations, Thy O Ron chooses an extraordinary opportunity:
a galactic war capable of destroying two entire galaxies.
Three major sides are involved.
One is Nelido, a galaxy populated by Fienders created by the Helbreads.
The second is Sasen, a galaxy inhabited by human-like beings created by the Vooders.
The third consists of the extinct Vooders, who are attempting to restore themselves with the help of abducted beings resembling the inhabitants of Earth.
The conflict is already heading toward catastrophic consequences.
Thy O Ron sees something else within it.
An opportunity.
Changing the Past to Control the Future
Rather than simply entering the war as another combatant, Thy O Ron interferes with the pasts of key figures connected to the conflict.
He manipulates events in their personal histories.
He changes circumstances.
He alters the paths that brought them to the war.
The objective is not simply to manipulate individual lives.
If the right events are changed, perhaps the outcome of the entire galactic conflict can also be altered.
And if Thy O Ron succeeds in preventing an enormous catastrophe at the same time, he gains something far more valuable than military victory.
He gains the opportunity to establish himself as God in the eyes of thousands of advanced civilisations.
The Pawns Have Their Own Stories
The individuals selected by Thy O Ron are not ordinary pieces on a cosmic chessboard.
Each of them is already caught in a severe personal conflict.
They have their own histories, their own enemies and their own reasons for fighting.
Thy O Ron's intervention begins changing those histories.
Events that once appeared inevitable start moving in different directions.
People who were destined to make particular choices may now choose differently.
Old conflicts begin producing new consequences.
And the larger galactic war begins to change along with them.
But there is a fundamental uncertainty at the heart of the plan.
Can changing the lives of a few individuals really change the outcome of a war involving entire galaxies?
And if the war can be changed, what will happen to the thousands of civilisations whose survival depends upon its outcome?
A New Question for the Arlzverse
Mirov asked what lies beyond the reality humanity knows.
Orion explored Earth's distant future and its forgotten past.
Vilaad revealed an ancient Earth shaped by extinct species, extraterrestrial forces and conflicts that would influence the distant future.
Equodo moves beyond Earth altogether.
Its central conflict is no longer simply about humanity, history or one planet.
It is about the nature of creation itself.
Who has the right to create life?
Who decides what makes a lifeform superior?
Is free will a gift—or a flaw?
Can good and evil exist independently of perspective?
And when someone claims to be God, is the claim proven by power alone?
Thy O Ron intends to answer those questions by reshaping the universe around his own idea of perfection.
But the lives he manipulates, the civilisations caught in the coming war and the opposing forces he challenges may have something to say about that vision.
The universe is already at war.
A new power claims to be God.
And thousands of civilisations are about to discover what that claim really means.
Click here to learn more about the books in this series.
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