REAL NAME: ARIC OF DACIA
ALIASES: X-O Manowar.
ABILITIES: As a Visigoth, and heir to the position of king, he trained to be a skilled warrior. As X-O Manowar, the armor grants him the ability to fly, healing himself and alien state-of-the-art weaponry. The X-O Manowar is arguably the most powerful weapon in the universe.
KNOWN ASSOCIATIONS: Visigoths (both past and present, by way of the descendants of those taken with him); Dalgan Pith (Vine soldier who helped to overthrow the Vine Council); Alexander Dorian (Vine planting that helped Aric and Ninjak foil the Vine conquest on Earth); Unity; G.A.T.E.
Eons ago, Shanhara was a girl who lived on a planet devastated by a plague. Her father created the X-O Armor to save her life, but also condemned her to being the host of the armor. Landing in Loam, the planet of the race known as the Vine, it became a sacred relic. According to the legends, a Vine champion was gifted with the armor of Shanhara by the Hara Vine, the last plant life on the planet, and used it to defeat the Torment, a supposedly conquering race, and free his people.
Aric of Dacia grew up as the nephew of King Alaric of the Visigoths, in the 5th Century. A people with no land since the Huns and the Romans pushed them away from their territory, the Visigoths were a people of warriors, determined to get back what was taken from them. Aric specially wanted to destroy the Romans, for they were responsible for the death of his parents.
During a night incursion to what the Visigoths believed to be a Roman camp, Aric and many others were taken captive by a Vine spaceship. They became slaves in the Vine farms. Aric lost his left hand when he stood up for his friend Gafti, who tried to eat from their strange fruits.
Several years later, Aric organized a rebellion to escape from their slavery, an event that he would only survive thanks to bonding with the X-O Armor.
Interstellar traveling brought him back to Earth, but it was already the year 2012 A.D. when he arrived. After several attempts at reinstating the Visigoth reign in current day Romania, and having found descendants of his people on other Vine ships, Aric finally conceded to General Capshaw's offer of land on United States' territory. In exchange, one of the most powerful weapons in the universe, the X-O Manowar, now worked for the government of the US.
He had a son with his wife Saana. Believing the boy died due to radiation exposure from the X-O Armor, Aric left Earth. His journey took him to Gorin, a planet divided by civil war between the patrician race of Cadmiums, the rebellious caste of the Azure and the war-tribe of the Burnt. Aric fought with the Azure, and later became emperor, but abdicated when his own allies hired the Processors, alien bounty hunters, to dethrone and kill him.
As a member of the Unity team, he was part of the forces sent to stop the Immortal Enemy when he was after Kay McHenry; as well as part of the team that contained Divinity when he first returned to Earth from the Unknown.
For a time, he was believed to have died after he stopped a meteorite heading to Earth. He was actually in outer space fighting the descendants of the Romans, the Novus Romanus Empire, whose influence extends through galaxies.
Recruited by the Timewalker, Aric returned to Earth as the sinkholes situation became critical and was tasked with finding Divinity, Ivar's first hope of stopping Dr. Silk's plan.
OTHER DETAILS: He knew and trained with the Eternal Warrior when he was a boy, a fact Gilad tried to use in his favor upon Aric's first return to Earth to reason with him, to little effect. However, he seems to have matured into his role as ruler of his people since then.
WARNING
READ AFTER RESURGENCE: X-O MANOWAR
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