In my universe, an “Arrow” is a colloquial term used for an Autonomous Replicating Omnidroid (ARO). It is essentially a robot AI that is made up of “nanochains” that can expand, contract, and rearrange themselves into multiple forms. This enables the Arrow to transform into almost anything or anyone. They were created to serve humanity.

This is their tragic story.

How the Arrows Began

The first Arrow was created in the year 95138 at the height of Temperance’s Empire. It was the product of hundreds of years of scientific experimentation and the first project in history to be endorsed by Temperance himself.

But before all the history unfolded, the concept Arrow grew out of an idea that I wrote down more than a decade ago. I had created a Word document and written a splattering of ideas that fell under the Fantasy and Science Fiction umbrellas. I don’t remember exactly where I got the idea, but this is what I wrote:

Robot that can change into anything and is on the run from the government who created it.

I carried this idea with me until 2018 when I started writing the thesis novel for my master’s degree at Western Colorado University. I was so excited to begin writing my thesis novel that I started developing it several months earlier than was necessary. One of my teachers called me “crazy” on social media for doing this.

I agreed with him.

In the planning stage of this novel, I needed a secondary character that would help my main character, Roth. Basically a character like Athena who helped and mentored Telemachus in the Odyssey. So I initially created a human character named Tryn Aurea.

Originally, Tryn was a double agent working for the Dominion and sent to spy on the Ascendancy where Roth worked as an intelligence officer. Eventually she and Roth fell in love and blah, blah, blah.

Needless to say, I wasn’t thrilled with her character. Somewhere along the way, I changed her name to Trin and made her a damaged and shapeshifting robot. In my opinion, she stole the show and is one of my favorite characters in the book.

(The term “Arrow” came later when I developed the acronym “ARO.” I didn’t want it to be a perfect acronym, using all the letters of Arrow. I suppose you could say it was a stylistic choice. I liked it and it stuck.)

Trin developed into one of the earliest Arrows in existence, but she isn’t the first. (The First Arrow vanished when the Vine began the extermination, and the Arrows are still looking for them—wherever they are. 😉) But Trin’s story is explained more in the Stars Reach series, though she has been around for a very, very long time by the time Breaking Colossus begins.

Appearance & Composition

Arrows were humanoid robots, each cut from the same cloth. Before they chose their own appearance, Arrows appeared as sexless, gray-skinned mannequins. They could transform into anything greater than 1 inch (2.54 centimeters) squared and less than 14 x 10 feet (4.27 x 3.05 m)—anything from a paperclip to a small bloodship thanks to the nanochain technology inside them.

Hidden in the center of their chest—where the human heart would be—sits a core of advanced fusion energy in the shape of a glowing sphere. This core gives the Arrow the power they need to transform into multiple objects as well as fold space. Since their body is a homogeneous mass of nanochains that remembers shapes and sizes, Arrows can transfer their power core to any part of their body they wish.

Directive

The purpose for Arrows, I later realized, was based subconsciously on the purpose created for the cylons in Battlestar Galactica. They were essentially robots designed to help and serve humanity, to do things that humans couldn’t do. They could withstand the cold void of space, lift incredibly heavy objects, and expand Temperance’s empire.

A robot slave race.

But I didn’t want this to lead to the stereotypical “robot uprising” as it did in Battlestar. It’s a well-worn trope from which I wanted to deviate. Arrows were humanity’s creation, and they were superior to humans in almost every way.

I didn’t want them to become the enemy.

So, I thought about this a long time. If Arrows weren’t the enemy, what were they?

Well, they were doing what they had been created for—serving humans. They were also used as weapons and were often sent on missions by imperial leaders to destroy enemies of Temperance. Because of this, many Arrows felt used by humans—like objects rather than individuals. Something had to break up the status quo.

But humans don’t often play well with others—and that seemed true to life.

Eventually, humans became terrified of their own inventions, afraid that Arrows would indeed destroy them. After the fall of Temperance, the power vacuum was filled by a new empire—the Vine. This new leadership ordered all Arrows to submit themselves for immediate destruction.

The Arrow extermination had begun.

But before we touch on that, I’d like to explain why a few Arrows have “agency,” or the ability to act for themselves.

Choice & Gender

As you may have noticed, a few Arrows also have a gender. The short answer to your inevitable question is that they were designed to be like humans, so their directive compels them to imitate their creators. Each Arrow chooses their own gender (if they want one) and are assigned a four-letter name that designates them as a true Arrow (i.e. Trin, Seer, etc.). Some even switch genders multiple times during their lifetime.

This was the very reason why humanity betrayed their creations.

If the Arrows ever decided to destroy humanity, they could do so—and there would be nothing we could do to stop them.

However, when the Vine ordered the Arrows to submit themselves to permanent deactivation, the majority of them obeyed the call because it was in their directive. Only a few hundred or so, like Trin, escaped the extermination. They made a choice based on their directive to serve humans. They believed their service to humans would be more beneficial if they were alive rather than dead.

At the beginning of Breaking Colossus, Trin hopes there are other Arrows out there, but hasn’t seen any in over 300 years. It is still illegal to harbor an Arrow. Their ability to choose makes them too dangerous.

Which leads me to…

The Rise of the Seraph

The humans had thought they’d created their destroyers with the Arrows, but the true monsters were yet to come.

Because agency was what terrified the leaders of the Vine, they decided to take away the one thing Arrows valued more than anything—their choice. From this desire the Seraphs were born: Arrow hunters. Secret weapons of the Vine and later of the Dominion.

Seraphs could not choose who or what they were. They were mindless machines—each created from the same ARO technology that allowed them to change into almost anything. Only three Seraphs were originally created, but eventually the Vine created more than fifty. Due to the greed of the powerful, twenty-three remain unaccounted for.

One way to create a Seraph is to capture an Arrow and reprogram it. However, the process of removing an Arrow’s agency was expensive and time consuming. In the years following the extermination, several dozen Arrows were tracked down, captured, and deactivated until scientists could compel them into Seraphs.

Extermination

The extermination officially began in the second year of the new era of Extrication from Temperance’s rule. As I mentioned, many Arrows submitted themselves peacefully to the Vine for permanent deactivation. Others vanished into the Civilizations—disguised as humans, living among humans.

This is when the Vine’s scientists developed the “Gorgon trap,” which had the purpose to catch, immobilize, and, perhaps, destroy the Arrow if they wanted to. Once caught in a Gorgon, it was virtually impossible for an Arrow to transform or escape.

Dozens were caught and destroyed in the years following, though hundreds more remained ever elusive and beyond the Vine’s reach.

* * *

The story of the Arrows is long and full of tragedy and triumphs. If you’ve read the Sun Maker Saga, you’ve been introduced to a few of them already. The Stars Reach series will go into more detail about their arc as the books progress. I can promise you that you haven’t seen the last of them.

Begin an epic saga…

My first book Ruin Star: Sun Maker Book One Is available to read for FREE on Kindle Unlimited.