Order of the Dark Crusaders

The Order of Dark Crusaders is the main enemy organization for the entire Alliance, which plays the main plot in Super Robot Wars GU2, after the defeat of Unicron, as well as the first Avatar of the Nightmare Lord. In the story, they appear after the start of the Scorponok invasion in a new guise, Mega Zarak.

The organization itself represents a gathering of “brothers” and an army of “knights in black armor” from another dimension. From which one exactly is unknown. What is known, however, is that their main goal is the extermination of all non-human races for no particular reason. Many alien lives, including Cybertron, suffered from their activities because they were not like Humans. They also target Beastmen, Newtypes, and even those People who do not share the ideas of the Crusaders.

According to legends, they came from another dimension, destroying worlds filled with special Beastmen called "Furries", different from those that exist in GU1 and GU2, and creating clothes for them for no reason, possibly as trophies. Their archive also stated that in their dimension, “Furry” was a kind of virus that infected many worlds, turning living organisms into the likeness of Beastmen. But unlike the current Beastmen, they behave more pervertedly, they always walk naked, and they can also look like monsters that kill other people. However, why they began to kill not only Furries, but also people from other universes is unknown. Although it will soon also become clear that the real reason is their leader: Trollge, hiding himself under the guise of the God-Emperor, or the Laughing Man. And it was the Laughing Man who became the reason for Motoko and Sousuke's investigation. But until that time the identity was unknown. However, soon the true reason for Trollge is to become like the Lord of Nightmares, becoming the same avatar, or even become a new Creator God. In his God Emperor form, he appears as a handsome man with golden armor and long hair. As the Laughing Man, he appears as a mysterious figure, with a cloak, a hat, pale skin, and a grinning face all the time (somewhat similar to Trollface from internet memes). And in his true form, he looks like a Lovecraftian monster with a face like the Laughing Man, but with white skin, multiple eyes and tentacles. The size is impossible to determine, perhaps even larger than any other enemies encountered before.

The Crusaders themselves are extremely aggressive, which is shown in their actions for no particular reason. The first victims of the Crusaders, after the Furries, when they arrived in this area were the Masons and their queen Rafflesia, which is why Dai Atlas's dream was interrupted. Soon, “Holy Terra” appeared from their own dimension, and the current Earth, where most of the plot takes place, was nicknamed “Bad Terra”. At that moment, when the Dark Crusaders were already ready to launch an attack on the planet, a counter-attack began from the Alliance, as a result of which it was decided to gather more forces from their dimension, creating more Fortress Ships for future attacks. During one of the battles, the engine that powered their ships was removed and converted into a Wave Montion Engine, thereby creating the Battleship Yamato and Mecha Gunbuster, which were capable of easily defeating several similar ships at once.

The Crusaders are men in huge black and white cybernetic armor, very similar to the armor of medieval knights. They carry huge machine guns called "bolters" with explosive bullets. They also have shields, swords, axes, hammers and more in their arsenal. Their army also includes more powerful versions of these knights, Dreadnoughts. They have much more weapons. In addition to Bolters, they also have rocket launchers, flamethrowers and more. As ships, they use huge fortress ships tens of kilometers long, which are huge temples, which show their greatness and faith in their God. These ships also often have statues of their God-Emperor installed, and the size of the statue depends on the rank and size of the ship in question. These ships have large-caliber batteries that move in different directions, and each shot is capable of destroying several divisions of mechs. Their main weapon is Exterminatus, a superweapon that, when fired, literally burns all life on the planet. For full Exterminatus, several of these temple ships are required. However, despite their clearly superior weaponry to Humanity, they still see resistance, and quite successful ones at that. For this reason, they cannot destroy “Bad Terra” for a long time.

By then there are also people who support the Crusaders' actions. So they become people who play more of a support role. They were called Dark Squires. They, in turn, not only support the Crusaders with fire, but also with treatment. And they are also ready to sacrifice themselves if necessary to protect their “Master” or “Brother”. The squires constantly repeat “Furries are enemy of Mankind”, “Kill all furries” and so on. Most likely they were brainwashed by Dark Crusaders propaganda.

They also have their own hierarchy. Besides the Emperor, Knights or Squires, below the Emperor are commanders called Twin Kings, which is one of the bosses in GU2. And underneath them there is also a man called the Duke, or Yellow Man in Blue, who looks "more cartoonish" than the others of the Order.

## Trivia

The Order of the Dark Crusaders is a direct reference to the Black Templars from the Warhammer 40K universe, which also references Flashgitz's Furry Crussade animation series.

The Twin Kings are a nod to the original creators of the series, while the Duke, or Yellow Man in Blue, is a nod to animator Major Cloog.