OJR battle story summary (with extra NJR randomness)
"It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine."
Helic/Guylos is the original split, back in the days of the funky wild-looking Zoids in the Zoids Bible. They both ally various tribes, with Helic wanting a peaceful yet strong Central Continent and Guylos wanting power more. Helic leaves with a wild Shoteagle to scout the continent 1955-ish, and returns to find both Guylos and mysterious invadey Zoids from the Dark Continent attacking his people. He and Guylos manage to get along in the end and ally to defeat them, though I suspect Guylos was still up to no good...or his descendants were.
This peace lasts until the then King Helic dies (1978), leaving a note to his two sons (Helic II and Zenebas, who are half brothers with Helic II the elder) to learn from history and play nice, but keep the Central Continent together.
Zenebas doesn't listen, wanting a more military sort of state than his brother, and wanting to attack (and I would assume control) other areas of Zi. Tensions build between them as Zenebas makes a nuiscance of himself and Helic gets upset in return. Things get worse and worse until the two come to a confrontation, ending with Zenebas spliting off from the Republic and forming the Empire (1978). This starts the most bitter and lasting of rivalries in the Zoids universe...and the inevitable war to go with it.
Humans show up (2029) when the Globally III crash-lands, and Zoids get smitier very rapidly as a result-this is about where we join the story with the models.
Some of the Zenebas people aren't too pleased with the war and the toll it's taking on them, to the point where there's a bit of a rebellion around 2032. One of Zenebas' generals, Gambino, kills himself to atone for his men's actions and attempt to get this across to the Emperor. Zenebas is...rather angry, but takes in Gambino's son, Störmer, who seems to parallel his father's views some later on. Zenebas' own daughter, Elena, is born not soon after (2033), and the two are raised together (yes, this is important).
After a lot of fighting and one hell of an arms race ending in Ultrasaurus, Zenebas is driven off the continent and gets help from Guylos (probably a different Guylos to the one Helic knew, or he'd be really, really old), returning to finish a little project...Death Saurer. The Republic starts losing as Death Saurer and its CPC tear things apart, and turns to bitter fighting in the mountain ranges (this is where the 1/24 line comes in), until they develop Mad Thunder. We know what Mad Thunder does to Death Saurers, right?
Death Saurer is sporked dramatically and the Empire army is driven back, collapsing as it goes (2049ish). With an oddly fatalistic sense to his words, Zenebas says that "if it cannot be mine...there is no way I can hand over the Central Continent to my brother..." and calls on Guylos again.
While an effective ruler, Guylos has all the nasty tribes on Nyx (remember them?) and their weird Zoids working together by being far nastier himself. He needs more people, more power, and so betrays Zenebas. He attacks both sides, but kills (kidnaps?) the Emperor and kidnaps Elena, Störmer, and what's left of the Empire army, absorbing it into his own. This likely was his intent all along.
Guylos then does the "you obey me or I kill the princess" thing villains so love. Unlike some more ineffectual ones, though, he's evil and smart enough that he both could and would, and Störmer and the downed army have no choice but to follow. I suspect Störmer would have otherwise turned the more loyal Zenebas-y lot against him later and taken the Republic on on his terms...as it is, he at least sees a common goal. He joins up with Guylos, and false peace falls over the Central Continent.
Weird things start happening. Rocks crumbling, birds fleeing, islands going out vanishing-level weird. This is presumably because of Dark Zoids or something else evil and Guylos-y. Shuu (whose name could also be Siu, don't you love name romanization angst?), a Republic scientistfighter-type, figures it out and, getting the President's approval and some new Zoids, leaves with a scouting party to poke the Dark Continent (2051).
Störmer, now leading the Jet Black corps (a fancy name for a lot of Dark Horns), smites. Shuu gets Gunbluster (which he likes a bit too much) and smites back, and from there on we have war. It's Guylos versus Helic again, and a long brutal fight in the Devil's Maze between gradeuppy critters. The Republic develops the superior Salamander F2, which starts giving them the upper hand through air superiority. This prompts Guylos to use a liiiittle something to counter it...a little something called Gilvader, piloted by Störmer. Gilvader tears the Saly F2 force apart along with Mad Thunder and a lot of other things, prompting the frantic deployment of the untested Orudios.
In the fanbooks, a lone Orudios piloted by Krueger kersporks a Gilvader though the cockpit to take it down. The pilot of the Gilvader is, frustratingly enough, not named. I can't help but wonder, especially considering the Gilvy pilot somehow survives at least long enough to talk to Krueger. Where exactly this falls in the main conflict, I'm not sure.
War continues, either way, with Gungy made to fight Orudios, and the development of many upgraded critters, Transfighters, and so on...until the Republic unleashes their trump card: King Gojulas. Closing in on the Empire capital, it tears through everything in its path, leaving only Descat and its Gravity Gun to stand in the way...
...and then the rocks fall. A comet hits one of the three moons. It breaks up, falling as meteorites and flinging the planet into chaos-magnetic storms scramble Zoids, the Central Continent is cracked into three pieces, and a large portion of Nyx sinks. The war ends without a victor, leaving both sides and the entire world a mess. (2056)
Here's where my info gets more sketchy, so someone smack me if I've screwed up.
Prozen is Zenebas' son too. When and where he was born is unknown (2050ish?), but I suspect near the end of the war Zenebas had him squirreled away, wanting to keep at least one bit of the family out of potential danger. Considering how Elena faired, this was probably smart...though I doubt he intended the Republic vs. Neo Zenebas thing to happen. This likely explains Prozen being warmongering and nationalistic-he'd have heard about the "evil" Republic, but not have actually experienced the fighting or known more of the reasons behind it beyond it's the family rivalry, we should have the continent, and this is what is done.
I can't find the proof of it myself, but several Japanese sources I go by have Elena as Camford. It'd make sense, if Helic were killed and didn't have an obvious heir. She's Zenebas-y, which is half family, and takes more after the Helic side of the family than the nasty one of her father. Her bio also seems to mention she was well-liked in general. Don't ask ME how no one recognizes her.
Also worth noting: there'd be a lot of Zenebas-y citizens left on the continent. The NJR Helic Republic is, in a way, what's left of both brothers' countries fused together into one stronger force. Störmer seems to have wanted to do something like that...though not under the Helic name...and funny thing, he and Elena knew each other well. (definition of "knew" up to interpretation and the source of some speculation as to Hermann's origins)
Guylos, having somehow survived all the doom, finally kicks it 2097ish, leaving a young Rudolph as his heir. Prozen takes over Guylos, though really he's plotting to smite both Guylos and the Republic, drawing all the loyalists to Zenebas' old smitey ways under the Neo Zenebas banner.
It's 2099, and we have war again.
(and don't ask me to summarize it, because I don't have enough info. YET. I like parentheses.)
