The Bronze Guardians, typically referred to as Bronzemen, are a type of automaton created by the Super-Ancient Beings for various purposes.
History[]
Early History[]
The bronze-coloured automatons known as the bronzemen or bronze guardians were created by the Super-Ancient Beings long ago at an unknown point in Earth's history, and may have been designed to look like their creators.
As the Super-Ancients devised a series of trials for a race that might appear on Earth after them to undertake to confirm they were worthy enough to survive the Omega Event, they decided to implement their bronzemen in some of them.
They placed hundreds of the automatons in silver "coffins" and set them into the recesses of the hanging tower by the Great Bend within the Underworld. This army was programmed to awaken upon the completion of the third trial, the Diverting of the Hydra Galaxy Hydra Galaxy, and begin serving the recipient of the Mysteries which upon the completion of the third trial, the King of Kings.
More bronze guardians were implemented into the fourth trial, the Trial of the Cities. Again being secured in silver coffins and placed along the Great Avenues of the Secret Cities of Thule, Ra and Atlas, these automatons were set to awaken at all of the cities shortly after the opening of the gate of Thule. The bronzemen at each city would then proceed to march slowly down the main paths, killing any intruders or otherwise drive them towards their silver counterparts guarding the vaults, unless the one who had received the Mysteries and understood how the Three Immortal Weapons were to be used did so to get past them safely.
After the Super-Ancients were gone, the Four Legendary Kingdoms learned about the trials left behind by the Super-Ancient Beings, but only the Kingdom of Underworld may have known about the bronzemen since their silver coffins were stored in their domain, and most likely the Trismagi assigned to watch over their respective city.
While he knew of the existence of the silver coffins, it wasn't until his father's death that Anthony "Hades" DeSaxe received a written warning from his father not to attempt opening the coffins and to stay out of the occupants' way when they eventually unsealed. Though he heeded the warning not to try opening the coffins, Hades's curiosity led him to having non-invasive examinations performed on them, discovering the automatons within. As his scans showed them to be made of a dense metal and unmoving, Hades assumed that the bronze guardians in the coffins were a decorative type of statue.
At the conclusion of the Great Games of the Hydra in November 2016, Jack West Jr prevented King Orlando Compton-Jones from receiving the Mysteries, nullifying the conditions that the bronze guardians resting the Underworld were programmed to awaken upon. Shortly afterwards, however, one of the silver coffins began to open.
The Three Secret Cities[]
It wasn't until a few days after that a crew of minotaurs discovered that one of the mysterious silver coffins on the hanging tower had opened. As their leader radioed Minotus to report their discovery, the minotaurs peered into the coffin curiously, finding a bronze guardian inside. Immediately upon viewing it, the automaton awoke and quickly sat up, and asked them if they were their master in the Word of Thoth. As they were neither the recipient of the Mysteries of able to understand the language, the 30-strong crew of minotaurs were quickly slaughtered by the time Minotus and his lieutenants arrived. When it asked them its question, Minotus simply responded that he didn't understand, and with that answer the bronzeman went on the attack.
The bronzeman began tearing its way through the minotaurs with ease as it asked its question and killed those who failed to respond correctly, and no means of trying to attack it caused any damage. As the number of fatalities grew, Minotus soon came up with a plan to instead trap it, and had four of his people lure the automaton into an alley before collapsing the building behind it. While the automaton was cornered and unable to scale the sheer walls around it, its attack had led to the deaths of 150 minotaurs.
When Pooh Bear and Stretch arrived at the Underworld in response to Minotus's call to Hades for aid, they were shown the trapped bronzeman. As they heard it speak, Stretch considered the idea that it was speaking Thoth, and called Lily to confirm it; when she did, she translated the bronze guardian's question, "Are you my master?". Jack realised that the army of bronzemen was a reward for the King of Kings, and that preventing Orlando from being granted the Mysteries might soon result in more of them going wild. As Minotus confirmed that there were hundreds more of the silver coffins containing the bronze guardians, Jack instructed Minotus and his friends to do what they could to prevent the rest of the silver coffins in the Underworld from opening, which they apparently did by sealing the coffins and their occupants in concrete.
Meanwhile, Orlando, unaware of the conditions of opening the way into Thule and of the mistake he was making, prematurely initiated the Trial of the Cities and sent Cardinal Ricardo Mendoza and his Swiss Guards into the city to empower the Sword of the Rock. Shortly after he left the Great Avenue, however, the silver coffins built into the tunnel opened and released their compliment of bronzemen, which began their slow march along the roadway while calling as one, "Are you my master?". At the same time, because of Orlando's error, the bronze guardians at Ra and Atlas also awoke and began their march.
Mendoza and his men managed to get down to the cupola before the vault, but, unable to get past the silver guardians, realised they were trapped between them and the advancing army of bronzemen. When she and her troops arrived at Ra, Chloe Carnarvon encountered the same problem after getting past the bronze guardians there.
After Jack's team retrieved the locations of the Cities, Stretch and Pooh Bear headed to Thule, Iolanthe Compton-Jones, Nobody and Mae Merriweather went on to Ra and Jack and Aloysius Knight made their way to Atlas, all with the intention of backing Orlando's people up in case they needed the help. As they came up against their bronze foes, Knight fired a harpoon at one, only to draw its attention to him to attack. Luckily, Jack realised that the Weapons were the key to getting past the automatons, and used the Trident of the Sealord to command the bronzemen to stop, allowing them to swim past unhindered. With Jack's advice, Iolanthe passed the Helmet of Hades to Nobody to save him as he fell into the bronzemens' midst, and as he donned it the automatons reacted as they had been programmed; to not see whoever was wearing it, allowing Nobody to get to safety.
After all of the Weapons had been empowered, and Mendoza took the Sword from Pooh Bear, the bronze guardians at Thule stood aside to let the Cardinal and his remaining men pass.
The Two Lost Mountains[]
After Hardin "Sphinx" Lancaster completed the Trial of the Cities and was awarded the Rings of Command, he transferred the "power" of the Trident into the rings, given him command over all of the automatons. Keeping the emperor's ring for himself, Sphinx handed two of the lesser rings to Jaeger Eins and Dion DeSaxe, instructing them to begin gathering the numerous bronzemen from the Underworld and Atlas.
Eins began arranging for several C-5M Super Galaxy cargo planes to be requisitioned to transport the automatons, since they were the only aircraft capable of transporting so many. In spite of whatever actions Stretch, Pooh Bear and the minotaurs took to try and keep the silver coffins from opening, Eins managed to successfully gain command of the battalion of bronzemen from the Underworld, and had them transported away. Over the next few weeks, Sphinx's entourage continued consolidating his forces and resources, including the bronzemen and silvermen from the other Secret Cities, as Sphinx began preparing for the Trial of the Mountains.
Meanwhile, having retrieved the abandoned Immortal Weapons, Jack's team began working on the Weapons in the hope of finding ways to counter the bronze and silver automatons should they encounter them again. Stretch spent hours using a grinder to get slivers of the Sword's blade off so that Easton could affix them onto numerous bullets and shotgun shells, believing that the metal that the Sword's blade was made from would enable them to penetrate the armour of the automatons.
When Sphinx went after the Siren Bells kept at the Novodevichy Convent in Moscow, he had over 100 bronzemen dropped into the Convent's grounds within four Aerial Delivery System containers, which quickly spread out to cover the escape routes and barge into the living quarters of the nuns of the Order of the Serene Maidens. Once the nuns had been gathered up and the convent secured by the bronze guardians, Sphinx and his people moved in.
Sphinx then arranged an ambush for Jack's team, knowing they would come to rescue Lily, and Jaeger Zwei was given one of the rings of command and a few dozen bronzemen, which were placed on four car carrier trucks spread out around the Red Square. When Zwei realised that Jack had not been knocked out by the ringing of the siren bell, he ordered the squires driving the trucks to move in. Jack and Alby Calvin tried to get their unconscious friends out of danger by climbing up through St Basil's Cathedral, however the bronzemen pursued them by scaling its outer walls. As Alby managed to start driving away with Lily and Stretch on a garbage truck, the truck-driving squires went after him with a few of the bronzemen that had remained on the trucks.
The remaining bronzemen soon cornered Jack and Knight on St Basil's tallest spire, but fortunately Rufus in the Black Raven managed to knock a few of them off of the building with tracer fire while Jack got himself and the unconscious bounty hunter onto the plane. Meanwhile, as Alby fled, a few bronzemen managed to get onto his garbage truck, and while a couple were scraped off, the last one managed to get on top of the cab. Braking hard, the inertia sent the bronzeman flying off of Alby's garbage truck and into the Moskva river. When the truck landed on the frozen river, several bronze guardians approached the guardrail, only to lose their quarry as Sisters Lynda and Agnes helped Alby's group escape. The squires driving the trucks went after them, but they and their bronzemen were taken out of the chase as the Black Raven brought down a bridge, destroying two of the trucks and their collection of bronze guardians while the last one was struck by a missile.
When Sphinx went to undertake the Fall at the first Iron Mountain at Mont Saint-Michel, he brought several bronze and silver guardians with him. After Jack and Iolanthe's presence was discovered, the bronzemen were sent after them, while another squad was sent into their escape tunnel from the Tombelaine island end, pinning them in the flooding tunnel. As the bronze guardians approached, Jack, Iolanthe and Bertie de Montreuil latched onto the tunnel's ceiling and dropped greystone powder into the water, which quickly turned into stone and trapped the bronzemen, unable to break free of the hardening substance.
Soon after, Yago DeSaxe was sent with a squad of bronzemen to attack the team's hideout at Hades's estate, but only managed to capture Easton. As they flew away, Sphinx told Yago to throw Easton out of the plane, and so Yago ordered two bronze guardians to grab the minotaur and then walk right off the plane. Before the bronzemen could, they were thrown off of their feet as Jack's team took control of the Super Galaxy so that Jack could fly his seaplane into the cargo hold, crashing through several bronzemen as he did. Yago ordered the bronzemen to kill Jack and Nobody, but was stunned as their bullets, tipped with the Sword of the Rock's metal, punched through their armour, killing several of the automatons. Easton then grappled with Yago and took his ring of command, then ordered the bronzemen to stand down and for two to grab Yago. Given the ring, Jack used it to command the bronzemen holding Yago to walk him off of the plane instead, finishing all three once they struck the ground. Now in control of the bronzemen still remaining on the plane, Jack gave Easton the ring to command them, and had them painted in a pale blue paint so that they would know which automatons were under their control.
Soon after, at the second iron mountain beneath Aiguille du Midi, Dion, Jaeger Eins and their platoon of bronzemen fought to hold off the Order of the Omega and their Romanian troops as they prepared the falling temple, with the bronze guardians enduring against their enemies efforts. As Jack, Easton and four of their new "palemen" arrived on the scene, which helped to fight off the enemy bronzemen, they watched as Dion performed the Fall and then, having lost more bronzemen under a destroyed Super Stallion, destroyed the temple's supports. When General Garthon Rastor and his men arrived, the anti-aircraft guns on their truck were able to tear into Dion and Ein's bronzemen. When Rastor noticed one of the blue-painted bronzemen, he quickly determined it was Jack's doing, and having lost their palemen, Jack and Easton were forced to escape.
Once Sphinx arrived at the Supreme Labyrinth, he deployed most of his forces to defend the five gates into the maze, including 4,000 bronzemen, a quarter of which were stationed to defend the Emperor's Gate while the remainder was divided up in front of the other four gates.
When Jaeger Zwei spotted Jack in Jerusalem following Rastor's Fall beneath the Temple Mount, he used a Siren bell to put him, Pooh Bear and Easton to sleep, then moved in with his squad of bronze guardians. However, when Zoe, Lily, Stretch and Knight arrived and began taking down the bronzemen with their specially-tipped bullets, he was forced to abandon them and take cover.
As Alby and Rufus used a rocket at the Zapadny Cosmodrome to create an uplink to the moon pedestal so that Jack, Zoe and Lily could perform the Fall at the last iron mountain beneath the Great Sphinx, a squad of bronzemen was sent to their location in ADS containers to stop them. The bronzemen climbed the gantry tower as they went after Alby, who took a few of them down with the specially-tipped bullets while also trying to control the moon rover. Once the Fall had been completed, Alby and Rufus took off before the bronzemen could overwhelm them.
As Jack's team approached the gates to the Supreme Labyrinth, they spotted Rastor's men engaging with one of the defensive squads of bronze and silver guardians, before making into their gate. The team then undertook Jack's "Russian Doll" plan; Knight drove a Hercules into the midst of bronzemen at the far left gate, tearing and crushing several of them before their Super Galaxy took over. Next, Jack, Lily and Zoe drove a truck into the bronzemen, before ditching it for a motorcycle and sidecar, but were soon stopped short of the gate. Thanks to last-second help from Rufus and Alby in the Black Raven and Easton and his palemen, the trio made it through the remaining bronze and silver automatons and into the gate, followed closely by Easton and four palemen.
The One Impossible Labyrinth[]
During the Omega monks traversing of the Endless Tunnel, they were attacked by a pair of bronze guardians, with the confrontation ending with a crimson orb exploding and destroying most of the automatons' bodies, with the few remnants melting into the floor.
As they made their way through the First Cavern, Jack and his team lost the first of their palemen as a silver guardian threw it off their bridge, while two more fell into the chasm below as Rastor used RPGs to bring down the giant stalacite. The remaining painted-bronzeman, nicknamed Smiley, continued to accompany Jack, Lily and Easton through the Labyrinth until they reached the City-Maze.
Meanwhile, as Jaeger Eins began organising Sphinx's forces as they prepared to relocate, the remaining bronzemen by the entrance to the Labyrinth began marching towards the coast of the Red Sea. Once there, a few were set to guard the captive Alby and Knight alongside some squires.
At around this time, a Knight of the Golden Eight arrived at the Lake Albano Vault with a dozen bronzemen as he and his squires looked for clues to the Orphean bell's location on Chloe's behalf.
When the plane carrying Pooh Bear, Stretch, Lynda and Tracy Smith following their capture of Sir John Marren was remotely redirected to Raven Rock, a compliment of bronze guardians was among the forces waiting for them. But after Stretch set off an explosion that destroyed the plane, he shot the caught-off-guard Golden Knight controling the automatons, allowing Pooh to take his Ring of Command. With the bronzemen under their control, Pooh Bear and his team were able to overrun the facility's forces amd set off a Siren bell to knock out the royals within.
After the Omega Event was averted by Jack and Sphinx and his forces defeated, the upstart Trismagi was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Royal Prison of Erebus, and Jack used the Emperor's Ring to order all of the remaining silver and bronze guardians to Erebus with the single directive to never allow Sphinx to escape.
Description[]
The almost robotic bronzemen stand around six feet tall, and are largely humanoid in appearance, baring for a faceless head, with only a downturned beak-like appendage in its place. Like the other Guardians, the bronzemen have no visible seams across their bodies or even in their joints, making them appear like statues when completely still. Additionally, on their skulls, the bronze guardians have a collection of swirls, geometric shapes and text in the Word of Thoth engraved onto them.
They are crafted out of a bronze-like metal that is actually far sturdier than anything found on Earth, making the bronzemen able to withstand attacks from conventional human weapons such as bullets, knives and even grenade blasts. Anti-aircraft weapons can occasionally penetrate the bronzemen's armour - presumably the larger ammunition and higher rate-of-fire plays a part - although anti-aircraft guns that cannot achieve this do have enough force behind them to push the bronzemen back. The bronzemen can be crushed or pinned beneath extremely heavy objects such as large aircraft, but this does not necessarily cease their functions. The only things that have been able to pierce the bronzemen's armour is the Sword of the Rock, or bullets tipped with the strange metal the Sword is forged from.
The bronzemen are programmed to obey the orders of the King of Kings once he has received the Mysteries, which are done in the super-ancients' language of the Word of Thoth, though it does not appear that the Oracles of Siwa could also command the automatons through their natural understanding of the language. Alternatively, they can be commanded by those wearing the Rings of Command; while the emperor's ring can control ever single one of the automatons, the four lesser rings can only control a certain group of the bronzemen, those which come from the location the ring is assigned to.
The bronzemen are extremely strong, being able to tear humans and minotaurs apart with their bare hands alone, and can easily rip into most metals with their claws. A few bronzemen have been seen carrying bronze-like spears, though typically they are relied on for their brute strength alone.
Trivia[]
.