Vine (Valiant)
The Vine are an extraterrestrial species that features in Valiant Entertainment.
Contents |
History
The Vine were a race of bipedal extraterrestrial beings that were native to the planet Loam. Eons ago, during the earliest moment of their existence, the Vine homeworld was said to had been a paradise and they had lived a peaceful existence. (X-O Manowar v3 #11) Long ago, the primitive Vine encountered a humanoid alien woman called Shanhara who was infected with the Armor virus. After surrendering to the infection, she was transformed into a spherical construct which one of the Vine attempted to examine. It bonded with them but the Vine’s primitive hivemind prevented an Armor from bonding thus killing the host. These early Vine saw the death of their comrade and concluded that the Armor which they named Shanhara as being a god which they began to worship with an entire religion forming around it. (X-O Manowar: Valiant 25th Anniversary Special v1 #1) However, long ago, the Torment came to their world and were noted by the Vine for being a tyrant race. These beings of incredible power enslaved the Vine who were forced to tear down their world as they became slaves to these entities. The slaves were worked brutally by the Torment who tortured and devoured the race to the point that they would have been driven to extinction. During this time, a lone member of their kind who had escaped the Torment where he wandered to find any trace of the paradise that once was on Loam. The invaders brutal devastation had ravaged Loam leaving much of it barren but the wanderer eventually found a sole plant that was the Hara vine. Though the wanderer was content to pass away, the vine formed an Armor that saw him desire to fight off the invaders and bonded with him. It became a suit of battle armour was named Shanhara that provided him the knowledge and means to which he used to route the Torment from Loam. Thus, the species were saved and the warrior had given a name to his race which he named 'The Vine' after the Hara vine that provided him the armour. He gave them a shared purpose with Shanhara seen as a sacred relic that they revered and worshipped. Through it, they learnt to enter the gatherings that was an area from which all Vine could meet one another in the mind. (X-O Manowar v3 #11) In 1968, the Planting of Earth came to encounter a Psiot named Toyo Harada who learnt of their existence and began killing the Earth-bound Vine. (Imperium v1 #10)
During their travels, they had discovered many systems and visited many worlds where they had taken slaves to tend to their gardens. Among these included the Bouldermen of planet Petros, the long-clawed diggers from Klunn and the winged races of from the cliff peaks of Grife. (X-O Manowar v3 #13) For the next sixteen centuries, the Vine had nurtured humanity and had done so secretly. (X-O Manowar v3 #9) In 402 A.D., the Vine came upon Earth where they sought to place their Plantings on the planet. This involved abducting a number of the native newborn humans and replacing them with Vine children that had been genetically altered to appear as the native species. During this time, one of their transports was sighted by Visigoths led by Aric of Dacia who mistook them for their Roman foes and attacked them. The Vine responded with massacring the majority of their enemy and taking the remaining hostage that included Aric who was taken aboard one of their colony ships in space. (X-O Manowar v3 #1) On Earth, the plantings left behind continued their disguise where they lived among humanity over the centuries where they secretly served as caretakers to the planet whilst manipulating mankind. (X-O Manowar v3 #4) The Vine ship carrying the humans had a rebellion erupt among the slaves who sought weapons from the armory and incidentally stepped into the temple holding the armor Shanhara. Once there, Aric of Dacia managed to successfully bond with it and used its power to fight against the Vine overlords. (X-O Manowar v3 #2) Despite their weapons, the Vine were unable to stop the Manowar Armor with Aric using it to return to Earth. (X-O Manowar v3 #3) Admiral Xylem led the efforts in recovering the Shanhara Armor or destroy it as the theft of the relic was deemed a danger to the Vine. To prepare for the fleets arrival, the plantings on Earth were tasked with conducting missions in taking the armor back from Aric of Dacia. (X-O Manowar v3 #4) After an initial failure by Earth's plantings, they decided to call in specialist help and used their resources to send Ninjak to recover the armor. (X-O Manowar v3 #5)
The Vine agents at MI-6 were killed by XO-Manowar and Ninjak who departed as reluctant allies to stop the coming invasion. Alexander attempted to get further information from a Vine gathering but was banned from ever returning to it again. (X-O Manowar v3 #8) Through Shanhara, Aric was able to also pierce the collective gathering of the Vine which furthered the danger he posed to them. By this point, part of the Vine's invasion forces had arrived with Commander Trill leading a squad of X-O Commandos that attacked the Manowar armor. (X-O Manowar v3 #9) Trill and his X-O Commandos failed in their mission leading to Admiral Xylem launching the invasion fleet to attack Earth. During this time, Aric's friend Gafti had bonded with Shanhara and decided to sacrifice his life to destroy the invasion fleet. The XO-Manowar Armor then returned to Aric who decided to make his way to the Vine homeworld. (X-O Manowar v3 #10) Upon arrival, he immediately started attacking any Vine present with a large military force assembled to stop him but they were ruthlessly slaughtered. A priest later revealed though that members of Aric's Visigoth people still survived on Loam and would be killed if he continued his rampage on the planet. (X-O Manowar v3 #11) Unable to destroy the armor, the army decided to wage constant attacks in order to tire its host with an exhausted Aric collapsing causing Shanhara to return to its original state. The armor was recovered but Aric was taken to safety by Vine devotees of Shanhara who believed that the Visigoth was a religious figure in their prophecies and thus sought to shelter him. (X-O Manowar v3 #12) After finding his location, the Vine leaders dispatched the elite battalade to destroy the slaves along with Aric but he managed to summon the armour to him despite it being in a containment field due to the presence of the armour that regenerated his arm. With the Manowar Armour, he dispatched the attackers and with Vine priests along with the slave populations he sought to topple the Vine empire on Loam. (X-O Manowar v3 #13) Aric led the slaves and the rebel Vine in overthrowing the Council where he forced the Vine to end their conquest. (X-O Manowar v3 #14)
With the destruction of the council, the Vine Plantings on Earth were trapped there and it was believed that they would attempt to get their revenge against Aric. (X-O Manowar v3 #18)
Loam was then visited by the Dead Hand that was an automated designed to eliminate the threat posed by the Armors. It consisted of a planet sized horde of machines that arrived on target worlds where they catalogued all organic life before destroying the planet. The objective was to destroy all potential hosts for the Armor and once the threat was gone then reseed those worlds. Thus, Loam came upon the path of the machine horde with many of the Vine perishing as a result. Dead Hand faced some opposition from Aric of Dacia but the machine detonated the systems star in an effort to destroy Loam. (X-O Manowar v3 #34) Aric contacted the High Priest of the Vine who was informed of the coming destruction where in desperation he organised his people in evacuating as many people from Loam. Only the ships from the nightside of the world survived as the planet shielded them from destruction with these representing the withered remnants of the once great Vine civilization. (X-O Manowar v3 #35) With the loss of their homeworld, the Vine survivors rallied under the High Priest who led them to Earth as he stated that their place was to be with the Sacred Armor of Shanhara and its human wearer. Thus, they arrived at the camp site of Aric of Dacia and his Visigoth people where they stated they wanted to make a new home alongside his people. These Vine came peacefully but U.S. military forces who were led by a squadron commander traumatised from the Armor Hunters invasion opened fire leading to causalities among the survivors from Loam. (X-O Manowar v3 #39) Hostilities were stopped by X-O Manowar though the standoff was tense with no one realising that Vine Plantings under the command of Commander Trill were secretly trying to cause open war between the Vine and Earth. (X-O Manowar v3 #40) The Planting used one of their agents in an attempted assassination against the Vine High Priest leaving him critically wounding and beginning hostilities between the two sides. (X-O Manowar v3 #41) It was only the actions of Aric who stood in-between the two sides and threatened to fight against whoever fired the next shot that brought an end to hostilities. He then decided to seek out the Vine Plantings under the leadership of Commander Trill after learning that they were responsible for the incident. (X-O Manowar v3 #42) Together, Aric of Dacia and Ninjak worked in eliminating the hostile Vine Planting forces that were attempting to instigate hostilities. (X-O Manowar v3 #43) Whilst the pair worked towards eliminating the Plantings, Commander Trill decided to use the collective hive mind to gather his people under his leadership. (X-O Manowar v3 #44) He made it seem that the Priest was supporting Aric of Dacia and the humans in the extermination of their kind and at a time when they faced extinction. This led to the other Vine in the gathering siding with Trill who banished the Priest from their collective mindspace whereupon they began to attack the humans. (X-O Manowar v3 #45) The bloodshed only stopped when the Torment arrived on Earth forcing Trill to call a retreat from the Vine after they were unable to fight the attackers. (X-O Manowar v3 #47) Commander Trill then reluctantly formed an alliance with the people of Earth in order to defeat the Torment. (X-O Manowar v3 #49) After the Torment were defeated, Trill was prepared to resume hostilities to conquer Earth for his people but Aric of Dacia instead offered peace with him showing an inhabited world or the Vine to rebuild which they named New Loam. (X-O Manowar v3 #50)
Overview
In appearance, the Vine were gray-skinned humanoids with insectile features such as mandibles around their mouths and a set of three eyes making six in total. (X-O Manowar v3 #1) Vine were able to understand other languages such as human words but could not speak them. However, Plantings who were genetically altered to appear as those respective races were able to speak both the Vine's native tongue and those of their adoptive worlds. (X-O Manowar v3 #44) When wounded, they were noted to hold green blood with it possibly to sever their limbs. (X-O Manowar v3 #2)
When leaving their offspring behind, the Vine took specimens of the native species with them on their colony ship with some being infants and others fully grown adults. (X-O Manowar v3 #12) The Vine were genetically incapable of bonding to the Manowar Armour. (X-O Manowar v3 #14)
To the Vine, the collective was everything to them as it was akin to a virtual meeting place for their kind with these divided into numerous gatherings. There physical bodies remained in their location whilst their minds go into the gathering. From there, they were able to share knowledge with other members of their people across the universe with these being considered a private space for their race. It was used by their ruling council to govern their species and any breach of it by an outsider threatened their powerbase as it allowed them to communicate in secret. Physical confrontations or attacks were not possible within the collective as strikes simply passed through the 'body' manifestation of an individual. (X-O Manowar v3 #9) It was possible to ban a Vine from the Gatherings by declaring it verboten with the individual no longer being able to return to that space to meet with the others of his kind. (X-O Manowar v3 #8) Those banished from the collective could not reconnect with it and only sensed a void. (X-O Manowar v3 #9) Knowledge of the gatherings was achieved through the armor Shanhara itself which taught the Vine to access that spiritual plane from where they could share knowledge and memories. (X-O Manowar v3 #11)
The Plantings were conducted by taking a native newborn child and replacing them with a Vine offspring. A sample of blood was taken from the native and injected into the Vine whose body morphed into the local dominant race thus preventing them from being detected. (X-O Manowar v3 #1)
Their military was arranged into various battalades some of whom consisted of elite troops. (X-O Manowar v3 #13) Their forces contained gunships, wolf units and Commando Armors. (X-O Manowar v3 #35)
Slaves were sent into gardens tended to by the Vine with captives being forced to work through harsh conditions to look after the plants. Those slaves that died had their remains thrown into the gardens so that their flesh could enrich the soil for the plants to grow. Seeds were seen as offspring of the plants and treated with care with any act of taking them being considered defilement and grounds for punishment. (X-O Manowar v3 #2)
The Hara Vine on Loam was considered the most holiest of sites for the Vine who worshipped at the foot of its roots. (X-O Manowar v3 #11)
They had their own language that was also known as Vine. (X-O Manowar v3 #12)
Vine ground forces consisted of large bipedal battle-mech and large four legged walkers that supported the battalades forces with heavy weapon fire. (X-O Manowar v3 #13) They also made use of a variety of armored battle suits as part of their arsenal. (X-O Manowar v3 #4) These included:
- Commando class armor : worn by the elite Vine military with them being the pinnacle of their technology with them being effective in unified squads. These robotic exoskeletons were mechanical approximations of the innate abilities within the Shanhara armor. The suits provided increased strength, flight and its arsenal consisted of powerful blasters, grappling hooks and inorganic webbing to secure targets. (X-O Manowar v3 #24)
- Wolf class armor : larger bipedal suits that encased the pilot in thick metal affording them extraordinary defensive capabilities. They were considered one of the Vine's most powerful portable weapons with them able to launch rockets and ordnance over great distances. Alternatively, they could engage their targets on a one-on-one basis with their extraordinary speed and dexterity despite their size. (X-O Manowar v3 #24)
Their knowledge of biological science allowed them to develop Lord Vine-Class Assassin Sprouts that were growable sentient bio-weapons. (Imperium v1 #9) Such creations were used as Pure-Vine crisis management systems that were grown from seeds to eliminate large-scale threats but denied free-will to prevent them from going rogue. During the growing process, the collective mind of the Vine was used to encode the creature as a tool as the target was placed within its mind psychically as the entity was grown with the singular task of murdering its prey. Upon maturation, the clone assassin sprouts were built for murder as it towered over humans and had four arm-like limbs with two being clawed hands and another two being bladed appendages. These creatures were made in the form of the Pure Vine and said to be virtually impossible to kill. (Imperium v1 #11)
Travel was done through ultralight travel allowing their vessels to go over great distances in space. (X-O Manowar v3 #8) As a result of time dilation, the crew could experience years of travel whereas normally entire centuries would pass the rest of the cosmos. (X-O Manowar v3 #12) In orbit, they stationed Sky Arrays that were weapon platforms that could be used for defensive measures or to bombard specific sites on the surface. (X-O Manowar v3 #14)
Members
- Xylem :
- Trill :
- Axil : a male General that commanded the military against the X-O Manowar Armor when it came to Loam. (X-O Manowar v3 #12)
- Pith : a commander noted for being a great Vine warrior who was selected for the armor ceremony and died when Shanhara rejected him. (X-O Manowar v3 #1)
- Dalgan : (X-O Manowar v3 #12)
- Jhukka : a female Vine who died in the arms of Aric of Dacia when Loam was scorched by Dead Hand. (X-O Manowar v3 #35)
- Raago : a male Vine whose mate perished on Loam after it was destroyed by the Dead Hand but he survived with their son with them travelling to Earth to find a new home for themselves. (X-O Manowar v3 #39)
- Chutto : a male Vine who was the son of Raago. (X-O Manowar v3 #44)
- Alexander :
- Tess Solomon :
- Pinter :
- Titus Hughes :
- LV-99 :
Notes
- The Vine were created by Robert Venditti and Cary Nord where they first appeared in X-O Manowar v3 #1 (May, 2012).
- They appeared as a re-working of the Spider Aliens that existed prior to the reboot of the Valiant Universe.
Appearances
- X-O Manowar v3:
- Imperium v1:
External Links
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