Think Tank: Disciples of Zor

[Colonel Wolfe]

The DOZ is a almost unexplored group in the Robotech Universe. What are your Ideas on them? Who are They?

What we Know about them?

They are Rivals of the Masters.
The Masters at one point Blame them for the Destruction of Dolza's Fleet.

[drewkitty ~..~]

Taking in all know data about said group, they would be original triolians (Pre-clone inhabitants) who worked for him and renagade zentradiee. That is all there is to say about them.

[BookWyrm]

From what I can remember, the Disciples of Zor were rogue Tyrolian scientist who embraced Tyrolian-brand Robotechnology (as opposed to the Terran version) but did not partake of the pollen from the Invid Flower of Life. While they did have some minor success as a resistance to the self-proclaimed Robotech Masters, they were no match for the Zentraedi & quickly went underground. They decieved the Masters into believeing that the 'rebel traitors' had been wiped out. When the Masters packed up & left to re-capture the Protoculture Matrix, they left Tyrol virtually leaderless. The scientist Cabell, along with the Zor-clone Rem, were assumed to be part of the Disciples, or at least the last remaining ones when the SDF-3 & the REF fleet arrived in Tyrolian space.

Am I mistaken?

[Rabid Southern Cross Fan]

Well...(Some evidence from the series...and my own love of Asimov's The Foundation trilogy added for colour)

I would say that the Masters were humans from pre-history. Either they achieved space flight and then left or were taken (by the Haydon?). I would go with the latter...just because a more Babylon 5-ish answer suits me...but then again the Masters could be the Ancient Atlanteans of Robotech.

My guess would be the original Robotech Masters built their Republic at least 500,000 yrs ago (just to help reconcile the whole 500,000 yr old line). Zor did his deal and the Invid's Forefathers and they ran for their lives. Then Zor created a warrior race (ancestors of the Zentraedi) to police the Republic (originally Micronian sized) but either he or someone else decided later that they would be better as giants. The experiment goes awry and angry giants rampage, kill Zor and the Republic collapses.

Two divergent groups survive with access to enough Robotechnology to begin the eventual rebuilding of the Republic: the Robotech Masters and the Disciples of Zor. They are essentially clones of the original Robotech Republicans (leaders, scientists, soldiers etc). They rebuild the Republic, reign the Zentraedi back in and eventually split at some point (I think the DoZ are singular like Zor whereas the Masters are triplets because of their religion surrounding the Flower of Life).

Basically, you can think of them as 2 divergent lines of a religious movement with Zor at the head of their pantheon. This includes all the usual religious overtones of charges of heresy, evil and so forth that comes from a religion splitting. At some point, one or the other discovers the SDF-1 (probably the DoZ) and repairs it enough to send it crashing to Earth (probably to get as far from the Masters as they can). The Masters, in turn, find Zor's DNA and his memory matrix and clone him to try and recover the lost secrets of the ages. Of course, its missing something so every clone they get goes down the tubes. This changes when they capture personnel from Moon Base Luna in 2029. Voila: Zor Prime.

For my own reasons, I refute the depiction of Zor and the Robotech Empire as presented in The Graphic Novel or the novelizations. I do not subscribe to the 'Zor the Victim' theory. He's been dead so long that his descendants only bear the slightest resemblance to the people of his age. I would assume the same would go for the Disciples of Zor as well had a Zor clone achieved its donor's memory.

[Omote]

I thought the Disciples of Zor was a defunct Robotech fan club run out of Duke University...

Dang right. A good one too.

...........................Omote
FPQ