The Great Ring of Arrako

[Bulagirl1]

So it turns out Arrako has an exact miror council, like Krakoa made up of 12 mutants and a voice in Redroot.

Whise excited to meet these mutants and learn about them?
I'm really excited, I know we have so many characters already on Krakoa but I think Hickman's creations have been really good.

[Drexelhand]

I've seen this mentioned on Reddit, but Ora Serrata the Witness is the interesting one. On Earth-1191, there was a character called LeBeau who could travel through time and exist at any point in it. LeBeau was part of Stark-Fujikawa Industries, was guarded by Shackle and worked with Lycadeon - all of whom referred to him as the Witness. He also raised Bishop for a year until his grandmother (an elderly depowered M) took him to the Lion's Den to raise him (ruins of Las Vegas where the Summers' Rebellion ended). This is all from Ostrander's miniseries, not the non-canon Times & Life of Lucas Bishop. Is it possible that this Witness is the same one? The one we know was killed by John Greycrow before the Messiah Complex crossover, but that could easily be in the Witness' future while being in our past.

The Ora Serrata part is what makes it seem like it may not be him. That refers to a junction in the eye that represents the change in complexity of ocular parts. In this sense, Ora Serrata the Witness may actually be an omega-level Eye-Boy. That's a lot less interesting, because Bishop's future has Nimrod Sentinels. He's mentioned on at least one instance how he and Shard used to hide from Nimrods when they were children and before Mastermind died, he put Bishop in a mirage where he faced a Nimrod from his childhood (there we found out that the Nimrods never recognized the XSE). If Bishop ends up in the X-Men post-election, I bet this might be the Witness we know just because of Bishop's connection to Nimrod.

[Omega Alpha]

The Witness seems like an Omega level precog.

[Daedra]

The Witness seems like an Omega level precog.

Isn’t IDYLL the precog?

[Sutekh]

I'm interested to see some mutants with powers, not just 'angry jerk with sword' like we've seen so far from a bunch of them (like all of White Swords so-called-'powerful-mutant'-flunkies).

I'm also interested in seeing what Arakko considers 'Omega.' Genesis talked all sorts of smack about Apocalypse being weak and unfit, and he struck her down without even using the Celestial-enhanced powers that she knew nothing about (and which made him orders of magnitude stronger than the stretchy-shapechange-y guy she remembered from their past together).

I would be amused to find out if Arakko thinks people like Magneto and Xavier are 'Omega' and has no idea about people like Storm or Jean, let alone that the 'mere humans' they have such contempt for can field people like Dr. Strange and Captain Marvel and Iron Man and the Hulk, and that there are people out there like Thor and the Silver Surfer for which they are *utterly* unprepared.

I also am intrigued to see how they react to technology. They're up to swords and seige engines. Meanwhile, those pathetic humans have cracked the atom and can pump out Sentinels and mutant-power-negating technology that should come as a *HUGE* surprise to them. "Blah, blah, bow to your superiors human weaklings! You can't match our Omega powers!" Zap. "And now you're a bunch of angry people with swords. And we brought guns..."

I see Tarn as the Sinister of the Great Ring, all eager to steamroller the Earth and take, take, take. At least one should be more of a voice of reason who'se like, "We and our ancestors before us fought for millenia to be free from the endless demons of Amenth, and now we are, and you want *more* endless war?
Can't we like, take five and look around first?"

[GeneTitan]

The Witness seems like an Omega level precog.

When I read that name, I thought the exact same thing.

[useridgoeshere]

The mirroring of Krakoa's structure and ideas like "omega" seems lazy to me. Born in a completely different time, sent to unending battle in Amenth and yet they're in basically the same place? Arakko should have an entirely different structure and classification system that reflects their environment and experience. Maybe it'll turn out that Moira knew about Arakko from one of her other lives and mirrored them. So far, everything I've seen from Arakko in X of Swords and this has been disappointingly bland.

I'm interested to see some mutants with powers, not just 'angry jerk with sword' like we've seen so far from a bunch of them (like all of White Swords so-called-'powerful-mutant'-flunkies).

I'm also interested in seeing what Arakko considers 'Omega.' Genesis talked all sorts of smack about Apocalypse being weak and unfit, and he struck her down without even using the Celestial-enhanced powers that she knew nothing about (and which made him orders of magnitude stronger than the stretchy-shapechange-y guy she remembered from their past together).

I would be amused to find out if Arakko thinks people like Magneto and Xavier are 'Omega' and has no idea about people like Storm or Jean, let alone that the 'mere humans' they have such contempt for can field people like Dr. Strange and Captain Marvel and Iron Man and the Hulk, and that there are people out there like Thor and the Silver Surfer for which they are *utterly* unprepared.

I also am intrigued to see how they react to technology. They're up to swords and seige engines. Meanwhile, those pathetic humans have cracked the atom and can pump out Sentinels and mutant-power-negating technology that should come as a *HUGE* surprise to them. "Blah, blah, bow to your superiors human weaklings! You can't match our Omega powers!" Zap. "And now you're a bunch of angry people with swords. And we brought guns..."

I see Tarn as the Sinister of the Great Ring, all eager to steamroller the Earth and take, take, take. At least one should be more of a voice of reason who'se like, "We and our ancestors before us fought for millenia to be free from the endless demons of Amenth, and now we are, and you want *more* endless war?
Can't we like, take five and look around first?"

If any of this was done/acknowledged, I'd be pleasantly surprised.

[loke13]

The mirroring of Krakoa's structure and ideas like "omega" seems lazy to me. Born in a completely different time, sent to unending battle in Amenth and yet they're in basically the same place? Arakko should have an entirely different structure and classification system that reflects their environment and experience. Maybe it'll turn out that Moira knew about Arakko from one of her other lives and mirrored them. So far, everything I've seen from Arakko in X of Swords and this has been disappointingly bland.


If any of this was done/acknowledged, I'd be pleasantly surprised.

I mean a ruling Council made up of the strongest mutants on the island who are thousands of years old sounds like exactly the type of ruling body that would evolve out of a culture constantly at war and fighting for survival. Not sure why you expected it to be different? Arakko culture values strength above all else which makes sense considering Apocalypse family are its founding members.

[Drexelhand]

The Witness seems like an Omega level precog.

The Witness from Earth-1911 was more like Gambit with his powers amped up to Omega Level. Kind of like the New Sun was, as Fabian Niciesza hinted at Gambit's potential in his solo in the early 2000s when he showed that if his powers kept increasing, he'd gain control over energy and be able to move through time.

[Omega Alpha]

I mean a ruling Council made up of the strongest mutants on the island who are thousands of years old sounds like exactly the type of ruling body that would evolve out of a culture constantly at war and fighting for survival. Not sure why you expected it to be different? Arakko culture values strength above all else which makes sense considering Apocalypse family are its founding members.

Exactly. The problem with war-like societies is that of course the strongest warriors don't make necessarily the best leaders. Someone like Xavier is far more useful to Krakoa than having Quentin Quire or Iceman in that position.

[useridgoeshere]

I mean a ruling Council made up of the strongest mutants on the island who are thousands of years old sounds like exactly the type of ruling body that would evolve out of a culture constantly at war and fighting for survival. Not sure why you expected it to be different? Arakko culture values strength above all else which makes sense considering Apocalypse family are its founding members.

That’s fine because I’m not sure why anyone would expect Arakko and Krakoa to have the exact same structure. It doesn’t seem like a warlike structure to me at all. No supreme commander? No hierarchy of leadership? People organized by time of day and power level, but not skill or function? Nope, it seems like they took the easy route rather than spending time to give Arakko something distinct to reflect its history.

[Wolverine12]

That’s fine because I’m not sure why anyone would expect Arakko and Krakoa to have the exact same structure. It doesn’t seem like a warlike structure to me at all. No supreme commander? No hierarchy of leadership? People organized by time of day and power level, but not skill or function? Nope, it seems like they took the easy route rather than spending time to give Arakko something distinct to reflect its history.

Just because I'm curious what type of governing body would you have expected/wanted Arrako to have? Oligarchies are a fairly common form of government and I don't think that it's all that odd that two small nation states chose that particular structure.

Unrelated, was it ever explicitly stated that Genesis was part of the great ring? Was she ever stated as being an Omega level mutant also? In a different thread I was curious if "omega level" means the same to Arrako as it does to Krakoa.

[Sutekh]

I kind of thought Annhilation/Genesis was in charge, with outliers like White Sword being powerful enough to do whatever the f they wanted and having their own tiny micro-nations. So it's interesting that there's a bunch of mutants over there that didn't get steamrollered by Genesis and the Horsemen and the infinite demon army, and yet managed to survive and even thrive (since there are tons more of them than went in, so they had plenty of kids).

I kinda expect, given the situation, thousands of years of war, that the Ring is composed primarily of mutants with extremely useful powers (such as Tarn, who seems to be able to warp / fleshcraft other mutants and possibly turn one with a loser of a power into something capable of fighting and being 'useful' in combat) or just straight-up 'generals' with the Ring being essentially a military junta that's lasted so much longer than those things last in our world because *the war never ended.*

And I wonder what they do with the occasional non-mutant kid. Sabertooth and Mystique proved that two mutants can occasionally shoot a blank, so it's gotta have happened in a few thousand years... Do they eat them?

I wonder if any of these immortals are like Genghis Khan's of Arakko, and have thousands of kids out there...

So much to learn! I'm intrigued!

[Omega Alpha]

I imagine human kids get killed, just like Sparta did with "weak" babies, who were literally tossed off a clip.

[Rev9]

I kind of thought Annhilation/Genesis was in charge, with outliers like White Sword being powerful enough to do whatever the f they wanted and having their own tiny micro-nations. So it's interesting that there's a bunch of mutants over there that didn't get steamrollered by Genesis and the Horsemen and the infinite demon army, and yet managed to survive and even thrive (since there are tons more of them than went in, so they had plenty of kids).

I kinda expect, given the situation, thousands of years of war, that the Ring is composed primarily of mutants with extremely useful powers (such as Tarn, who seems to be able to warp / fleshcraft other mutants and possibly turn one with a loser of a power into something capable of fighting and being 'useful' in combat) or just straight-up 'generals' with the Ring being essentially a military junta that's lasted so much longer than those things last in our world because *the war never ended.*

And I wonder what they do with the occasional non-mutant kid. Sabertooth and Mystique proved that two mutants can occasionally shoot a blank, so it's gotta have happened in a few thousand years... Do they eat them?

I wonder if any of these immortals are like Genghis Khan's of Arakko, and have thousands of kids out there...

So much to learn! I'm intrigued!

One thing you forget is Genesis refused to put on the Amenth helmet for like 100 years to delay Amenth's invasion of outworld(her narrative) so if she was part of the council before she was probably excommunicated while in Amenth and likely was Isca ,until she came back into the fold..though the council was probably defunct while Genesis and the Horsemen were the voices of Arrako anyway.There are two options either this setup existed before the twilight war and Moira perhaps learnt of the setup from Apocalypse in life 9 and carried it over to House of X-life 10 or the Arraki came up with it in their exile ,mimicking the Otherworld council of regents they may have been part of.I don't mind it either way, most likely it is an old setup from Okkara that Apocalypse helped adapt for Krakoa mayhaps but I would have preferred a smaller council of 8 : seven mutants and Redroot as eighth ,it doesn't need to be like for like in absolute terms.Though if Redroot and Cypher had more say in the layout ,it could be understandable how speaking for one organism Okkara ,they came to mirror each other