Celestial Blade

## **History**

### **Creation and Conflict**

Ten Thousand years before the Great Flood of Marn Heirogryph on Earth 616, the three **Celestial Blades** were forged by a grand coven composed of a thousand witches, who gave their lives in order to imbue each dagger with the power to kill any being with a power equivalent to even the strongest Celestials, even the likes of Oobi Doob Scooby Dooby Benubi or Fred. Only one witch remained, who was tasked with hiding the blades so that only she would know where to find them, and when the day came that Merlin returned to their universe, he would rid the multiverse of Celestials.

The unnamed witch was soon overpowered by demons, who killed her and brought the blades safely to Hell, where they would remain in Satan's possession for many centuries. Merlin eventually returned to Earth 616, and was displeased to find the blades were not where he and the witches agreed to store them. Upon investigation, he discovered where they had been taken and conjured a portal to hell.

There, he took on hundreds of demons, which he killed with little difficulty before making his way to Satan's Palace and confronting the Devil. He and Satan engaged in a powerful match that leveled half of the first floor of the palace, eventually carrying the duel outside. It ended with Merlin on his knees before the Dark Lord, and Satan decapitated him. It was then that he realized the thing he'd decapitated was a magical projection used to distract him while Merlin broke into Satan's vault and made off with the blades.

### **Merlin's Death**

Thousands of years after the blades were forged, Merlin fought against the evil tyranny of Lord Dromm in the realm of Oz where he would ultimately give his life in order to defeat the tyrant. To kill Dromm, Merlin combined the power of two Celestial Blades in order to create a magnificent sword called Excalibur. He ran the blade through Dromm and killed him, and it took his life in the process. Merlin's apprentice took Excalibur and plunged it into a stone on the far outer reaches of Camelot. He then hid the third blade safely away, but was later found and tortured by Tinkerbell until he eventually caved and told her where it was in exchange for a merciful death.

Tinkerbell amassed an army of fairies and rallied them against the god Pan and his army of satyrs, who had enslaved them for thousands of years. The fairies massacred their goat-like overlords while Tink attacked Pan with the Blade. Pan attempted to seduce her with the magical charm of his skills as a piper, but she was able to overcome the seduction long enough to run the blade into his chest and kill him.

With Pan defeated, the fairies became the dominant leaders of Neverland, and Tink kept the blade close to her lest she ever need it again. She would eventually tell her husband, Peter about it before her death at the hands of Captain Hook. From then on, the third blade became property to Peter, who renamed himself Peter Pan after the former tyrant of Neverland.

### **The Sword in the Stone**

#### **The Siege of Camelot**

4,000 years after the death of Merlin, a young boy named Arthur was brought by his mother to the stone in which Excalibur was placed and he lifted it out. He then traveled to Camelot in order to take his rightful place on the throne but was subdued by the Knights of Camelot and imprisoned in the dungeon. King Mordred, Arthur's uncle, then announced to the people of Camelot that it had been he who pulled the sword from the stone and officially won over their favor.

Arthur escaped his confinement, though not until after the death of his mother, and did not return for many years. When he did, it was with a small army of merry men led by the famous Robin Hood. They attacked the kingdom in what would come to be known as the Siege of Camelot and overthrew Mordred and his queen, Morgana.

The aforementioned Captain Hook had been part of the merry men at the time, under the alias "Little John", and during the great battle, he'd been captured by Mordred, who could sense that he had been to Neverland. Mordred tortured him for the island's whereabouts in hopes of finding the final blade and forging a weapon of unstoppable power by combining all three. Mordred was killed by Arthur before he could get the chance, and Arthur proclaimed himself king of Camelot.

#### **Battle of Camelot and the Munchkin Kingdom**

After the Wicked Witch of the West was forced into exile from the Munchkin Kingdom, she discovered the long dead army of Lord Dromm, the flying monkeys, and used them to attack Camelot in hopes of overthrowing King Arthur and using their combined armies to overthrow her sister, Glenda's. She was successful, and used Excalibur to kill the king. She then betrayed Lancelot, who she had allied with in order to take the kingdom and attacked the Munchkin Kingdom.

While Glenda and a handful of her subjects were able to escape the kingdom with their lives, Tabitha still successfully took control of the kingdom and hid the sword in her vault, where it would remain for the next several hundred years.

### **The Siege of Skull Rock**

After Peter Pan was supposedly killed by Hook and Tigerlily, his shadow instructed his head Lost Boy, Rufio to bring him the Genie lamp of Jafar, which they would use to resurrect Pan through his shadow. The Lost Boys captured Hook and retrieved the lamp, bringing them both to Skull Rock, where Jafar brought Pan back to life. Pan killed Jafar, taking the power for himself and becoming a genie enslaved to the lamp.

Rufio was about to use his final wish to free Pan when the Lost Boys were then ambushed by the merry men, who had since become Hook's pirate crew. Pan pulled out the third blade, about to kill Hook with it but was then stopped when Tigerlily stepped in front of him and took the stabbing. Hook then killed Rufio, retrieving the genie lamp and forcing Pan to send all of the Lost Boys back to their respective homes on whatever Earth from which they came.

Hook then trapped Pan back in the lamp and dumped it in the bottom of the ocean, the third blade now in his possession, but the true power of it unknown to him.

### **The Italian Empire**

Tabitha would eventually learn how to create portals to other universes and led her monkeys to Earth 616, where the great Italian Empire stood tall. Tabitha's father, Don Brody Maroni had posed as the Wizard of Oz for decades, raising her and Glenda as his daughters until Tabitha eventually killed him. His soul traveled to hell, which had since become the dominion of Jacob Maroni, and they both ruled over the Empire together. She waged war on her father, but was easily imprisoned and killed soon after.

This left Glenda to rule over the Munchkin Kingdom once again, and the sword Excalibur would come to belong to her, though she didn't even realize it. On Earth 616, Brody learned that Jacob had erased his memory of his time in Oz, which was why he didn't recall Tabitha or Glenda.

Brody trapped Jacob in Pandora's Box to ensure he could do no more damage, which would end up dividing the Italian Empire and caused the demons, led by the Sith Lord Darth Bane to rebel against Brody. With an army of undead Sith and every demon in hell opposing them, the Empire had a difficult time sustaining power. Brody had, at one point, expended resources to help aid Adolph Hitler in World War II in exchange for the Axis Powers' help against hell's forces, though he was ultimately betrayed.

In a last-ditch effort to defeat the demons, Brody released Jacob from his prison and the two worked together in order to win the war. However, now that Jacob was free, the two were enemies, and the Empire became completely split in half. In what became known as the Italian Civil War, the two powers utterly destroyed each other, crippling an empire that had already been severely weakened, until they became nothing more than two rivaling gangs.

Eventually, blood was shed in the streets as each faction went all out and attempted to destroy one another, with Jacob's forces coming out the victor. In a duel between him and Brody, he defeating the former Don and trapped him in Pandora's Box as revenge. The rest of Brody's men, those who did not flee into hiding, were given a choice between swearing unwavering allegiance to Jacob, or being executed.

Decades later, Pandora's Box was stolen by agents of the Illuminati, who freed Brody and spent centuries torturing him, brainwashing him into a weapon and renamed him Azrael. Their Supreme Overlord, Grista could not allow the Italian Empire to rebuild, as their power had previously been unmatched across the multiverse. She also became pregnant with Brody's child the night before sending him off to kill Jacob and Don Ferguson. They were easily able to overpower him, and using the help of Marn Heirogryph, they unscrambled the hundreds of years of brainwashing with a simple tap on the forehead.

What had been rebuilt of the Italian Empire rallied together in order to attack the Illuminati fortress, where they captured Grista and destroyed most of the Illuminati. Bringing her back to their palace, she revealed her pregnancy to them, and then Marn revealed to Brody and Jacob that Grista was the mother of Gar. Gar came down from heaven to kill Brody, but was stopped by Marn. Marn wanted to kill Grista, which neither Gar nor Brody were on board with, so they teamed up and broke Grista out of her cell. Outside of the palace, they were captured by Sheev-3PO and Galactus.

Taking them to the Cosmic-Verse, Sheev sped up Grista's pregnancy until Graven was born. He then began to transfer Gar's power over to Graven, though he only took one percent of his power before the place was stormed by Marn, Jacob and the full force of the Italian Empire, and the villains fled. Grista was killed by Satan, who had been working with Sheev so that he could flee without Marn catching him.

Graven was raised by Brody until adulthood, when he eventually grew a deep hatred for Jacob, believing him to be the source of his father's problems. This led him to leading an attack on the Munchkin Kingdom, where he destroyed every last one of them and skinned Glenda, his own sister, alive. He tried to frame Jacob, telling Brody he'd done it during his imprisonment in Pandora's Box, but Brody saw through his deceit. Graven then subdued his father and took possession of Excalibur. He journeyed to the Illuminati fortress, where he became their new Supreme Overlord and waged war against the still rebuilding Empire.

The Imperial heads retaliated by storming their fortress for a second time, and Brody put his familial emotions aside in order to defeat Graven. Graven tried to convince Brody to kill Jacob and rule at his side, handing him Excalibur, but Brody turned it around and ran his son through.

The sword was powerful enough to destroy Graven, but crumbled to ash in the process, and Excalibur was gone forever. It's power still remained, however, and would later be collected by Peter Pan.

### **The Blades Merge**

Pan's lamp remained at the bottom of the ocean for several hundred years, long after Hook passed from old age, and the blade was pawned to a drunken sailor who saw it as nothing more than an ordinary knife and used it to hunt on the rare occasions he was on land. Eventually, the lamp was rubbed by a mermaid named Ariel, who wanted to save her prince, Eric, who had been captured by Ursula, goddess of the sea. She used her first wish to return him back to his palace, and then Pan manipulated her, telling her that Ursula would not stop until she was dead.

He lied and told her that not even a genie is powerful enough to kill a god, and so he told her of a blade that she could use on Ursula.