Membership:
Adamath, "Devil," "Draco,"
Drin, Elder, Faru-Faro,
Llorex, others ORDER OF THE BLACK SUN
Membership:
Adamath, "Devil," "Draco,"
Drin, Elder, Faru-Faro,
Llorex, others
Purpose: Unrevealed
Aliases: None
Affiliations: Faction Paradox, Lords
of Althrace (Thane of Kodor, Dakon Theka), Time Lords (Bedevere,
the Doctor,
Morvane,
Rassilon);
formerly Fenris the Hell-Bringer
Enemies: Brilox, Luther, Special
Executive (Cobweb,
Millennium,
Viridian,
Wardog, Zeitgeist);
formerly Time Lords (Griffen, Jodolex, Omega, Rassilon,
Rema-Du, others)
Base of Operations: Unrevealed
First Appearance: (behind-the-scenes, unnamed)
Doctor Who Monthly#47/2 (13th November 1980);
(seen, named) Doctor Who Monthly#51/2 (12th March 1981)
History:
(Interference: Book One novel (fb) -
BTS) - The society of the Time Lords of Gallifrey was divided into
"Great Houses." While most Great Houses followed the staid rules of
Time Lord society, one was a renegade, House Paradox, founded to
oppose the Time Lord's traditional philosophy of rationality and
time-travel stability, with actions including passing on time travel
technology to "lesser" races. In response the Time Lords hunted them
down and nearly succeeded in wiping them out. The survivors reinvented
themselves as Faction Paradox, and to continue to harass the Time
Lords they set up cults and secret societies, often unaware of their
connection to the Faction, but each designed to give the Time Lords
grief. One of these was the Order of the Black Sun.
(Doctor
Who Monthly#51/2 (fb) - BTS) - The Order of the Black Sun were
a cadre of superhumans with technology seemingly centered around black
spheres each member carried, allowed them to fly and to fire lethal
energy beams that resembled black lightning bolts that incinerated their
targets.
(Doctor Who Monthly#57/2) - When the tiny, uranium rich
planet Desrault announced it was willing to negotiate mining rights with
off-world powers the Black Sun sent a delegation headed by an elder of
the Order to the negotiations. Unfortunately for the Order, the other
two interested parties were the warlike Sontarans, represented by
Brilox, and the Time Lords of Gallifrey, who were immediately wary of
the Order because from the Gallifreyans' perspective (thanks
to the twists of time-travel) the Order had twice launched
unprovoked attacks on them in the last thirty years. Despite being aware
that some time in the Order's future they would become hostile and send
attackers back in time, the Gallifreyans found the Black Sun elder
courteous and agreeable, and the Gallifreyan negotiator, the Time Lady
Rema-Du, was charmed by the Lord Adamath, one of the elder's Honor
Guard. The negotiations lasted several weeks, during which time Adamath
and Rema-Du began a romance. As the conference drew to a close it began
to look like the Order and the Time Lords would be able to divide the
mineral rights equally between them, leaving the less cooperative
Sontarans with nothing, so on the final day Brilox ambushed one of the
Gallifreyans, the Special Executive member Millenium, and brainwashed
her into assassinating the Black Order elder at the event's closing
ceremony in front of hundreds of witnesses. Called to the room, Adamath
arrived just after Millenium's friend and commander Wardog had been
forced to kill her, sadly too late to save the elder.
(Doctor Who Monthly#57/2 - BTS) - This event apparently
triggered the Order's hostility towards the Time Lords...
(Doctor Who Monthly#51/2 (fb) - BTS) - causing a conflict that would last (for the Order at least) around thirty-thousand years.
(Doctor Who Monthly#47/2 - BTS) - The Order hired a time-hopping mercenary, Fenris the Hell-Bringer, to go back in time thirty-thousand years to the day the Gallifreyans became Time-Lords and sabotage their experiment, preventing them from ever gaining mastery over time. However, though Fenris managed to cause some disruption, he failed in his mission and attempting to time-jump home with damaged equipment too close to a black hole scattered him across the time vortex. The Gallifreyans, now newly Time Lords, became aware they had been targeted, but not why or by whom.
(Doctor
Who Monthly#51/2) - Twenty years later (from the Gallifreyans'
perspective; an unrevealed amount for the Order) the Time Lords
retrieved the now-insane Fenris from the vortex using their agent
Wardog, leader of Gallifrey's Special Executive, hoping to learn from
the mercenary the identity of their enemy, what future event had
triggered the war, and any weaknesses the enemy had. Determined to
prevent this, the Order sent a five-being strike force - Drin,
Faru-Faro, Llorex, "Devil" and "Draco" - back in time to assassinate
Fenris. In the Question-Hall of the Time Lords' Prydonian chapter, Time
Lords had gathered to witness the Special Executive's telepathic
interrogator, Viridian, probe Fenris' fractured mind. Just as Viridian
had extracted that their foes came from thirty-thousand years in the
future and were called the Order of the Black Sun, the strike force
materialized floating high above the assemblage and launched their
attack before the startled Gallifreyans could react. As Drin, "Devil"
and "Draco" targeted the chamber's guards, Faru-Faro ordered Llorex to
slay Fenris while he eliminated Viridian. Seeing his colleague and their
prisoner slain, the unarmed Wardog called out to his associate Rema-Du
to fire back with her staser pistol, but his shout apparently drew
attention to him, as Llorex's next energy bolt caught him a glancing
blow, destroying his left arm. Coming to his side, Rema-Du fired back,
slaying Llorex. Seeing this, Drin called out to Faru-Faro that Llorex
had been "cancelled," but the strike team leader dispassionately replied
that it was unimportant, since they had completed their operation, and,
with Time Lord guards also now starting to fire back, ordered the team
to phase out back to their own time. As the Order's assassins faded
away, the Time Lords were left to pick up the pieces and wonder what crimes they had yet to commit that might have
provoked this attack from the future.
(Heart of TARDIS novel) - The Fourth Doctor recalled
Rassilon's encounter with a representative of a group that "attacked us
in the Time Wars in retaliation for the things we did to them before
we'd even heard of them in the first place."
(Doctor Who Magazine#262
(fb) - BTS) - A few years after this assault (from the Order's
perspective; thirty-thousand years later from the Time Lord's point of
view), the Order and the Time Lords brokered peace between them, with
the Order recognizing there should never have been a conflict in the
first place.
(Doctor Who Magazine#263 (fb) - BTS) - In mirrored
mindhalls the Black Suns' elders saw visions of a terrifying future
wherein Gallifrey turned into a brutal, conquering empire that
threatened the cosmos. With other "High Evolutionaries" having had
similar visions, and a place available on their council due to the
absence of a previous member, Merlin the Wise, Drin was sent by the
Black Sun to represent them at a meeting of the High Evolutionaries to
discuss the looming crisis, held within the virtual reality of the
Gallifreyan Matrix.
(Doctor Who Magazine#262)
- When the Time Lord renegade the Doctor came to Gallifrey the High
Evolutionaries pulled his mind into the Matrix to appraise him of the
threat. The Doctor expressed surprise at the presence of a member of the
Order, but Drin explained that time healed all wounds.
(Doctor Who Magazine#263)
- The High Evolutionaries informed the Doctor of the content of the
visions and asked him to help avert the dark future they had witnessed,
then returned him to the real world.
(Doctor Who Magazine#265) - The Doctor stopped the renegade Time Lord Luther from going back in time to change Gallifrey's founding history to turn them into conquerors, but then had to render safe a dangerous time weapon Luther had constructed. As it rocketed forward through time, many High Evolutionaries, including those of the Order, sensed its wake.
(The Enemy of My Enemy short story) - For convoluted
reasons relating to manipulating time to their advantage, another enemy
of the Time Lords sent dreams to comics writer Jim Sheldrake that showed
him elements of the war between the Time Lords and the Order of the
Black Sun; he incorporated these into stories for a comic tie-in to the
television series Mister E, wherein Mister E's race, the Temperons, were
attacked by the "Black Sun Brigade" for atrocities they had yet to commit.
Comments: Created by Alan Moore and David Lloyd.
Alan Moore said in an interview that the
Order of the Black Sun were a homage to the Green Lantern Corps from DC
Comics, and were from Earth-5 (as opposed to Earths 1 and 2, the two
Earths most DC stories were then set on).
When we get to see a close-up of one of the
Order's spheres in Doctor Who Magazine#263 (see the image of headshot of
the older Drin below, with the sphere visible beneath her chin), it
appears to contain what might be a miniature black sun, which would
explain the group's name.
A few quick term clarifications for
non-Doctor Who fans. Gallifrey is the Doctor's home planet; Gallifreyans
are the native species; Time Lords are the subset of Gallifreyans who
time travel (they don't all do so), and Prydonians are one of the
chapters within the Time Lord academy - if the Time Lords were lawyers,
the chapters would be their respective colleges, with Prydon being the
Harvard or Yale of the Time Lord academy. Often Gallifreyan is used as a
synonym for Time Lord, which is a touch inaccurate but understandable
(like calling all Americans "Yanks" when Southerners are not Yankees).
Rassilon was the founder of Time Lord society, as he developed the tech;
Omega was the stellar engineer who handled the actual harnessing of a
black hole that Rassilon had done the theory work on (and Omega didn't
die when Fenris sabotaged things, but instead got trapped in the black
hole, and eventually returned somewhat annoyed that Time Lords had just
left him there). The Special Executive, who debuted in this storyline,
were later established to be Gallifreyans who had been genetically
altered before birth by Rassilon.
The Faction Paradox debuted in the official
Doctor Who novels range, which is also where the link between them and
the Order was revealed. Interestingly, this isn't the only connection
Doctor Who/Marvel-related characters have with the Faction: Doctor Who
short stories have also revealed that Wardog of the Special Executive,
who fought the Order, worked alongside a human agent of the Time Lords
called Sabbat during the First Great Time War; Sabbat would go on to be
a senior member of Faction Paradox.
This profile was completed 09/13/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary's celebratory event.
Profile by Loki.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Order of the Black Sun has no known connections to:
Lord Adamath was the Black Sun representative for the Rigel Sector, and one of the Black Sun elder's Honor Guard for the trade conference on Desrault. After hearing the Gallifreyan delegate Rema-Du's speech on Gallifreyan Economics at the opening ceremony he approached her afterwards and, claiming (perhaps truthfully, perhaps not) to be a student of the galactic economy, started a conversation on the pretext of wanting to discuss the finer points of her lecture. Rema-Du found him charming, and romance blossomed between the pair over the following weeks, while simultaneously the Order and Gallifrey convinced the Desrault authorities to share the planet's mineral rights jointly between them. Unfortunately, this left the rival third delegation, the Sontarans, without anything, a turn of affairs the Sontaran delegate, Brilox, was not prepared to accept, so he brainwashed one of the Gallifreyan entourage into assassinating the Black Sun elder at the conference's closing ceremony. In an adjacent room, Adamath was alerted there was a problem but arrived only in time to see that the elder was dead at a Gallifreyan's hands. --Doctor Who Monthly#57/2
|
Comments: In case it's not clear, "Devil"
is a descriptive placeholder, not his name. --Doctor Who Monthly#51/2
|
An unidentified Black Sun member with scaly, clawed hands and feet and a frill down its spine took part in the assassination mission sent to eliminate Fenris before the Time Lords could interrogate him, and focused on taking down guards while others went for their main target.
--Doctor Who Monthly#51/2
|
Sometime later Drin had become a more senior member of the Order, with the honorific Demoiselle ("Young Lady"). With peace having been brokered between the Order and the Time Lords, she represented the Black Sun at a meeting of High Evolutionaries to discuss a crisis foreseen in visions, during which time she briefly met the renegade Time Lord known as the Doctor.
Comments: Drin appears to be eyeless
(though still able to perceive the world around her in a way
akin to sight) in her first appearance, but has eyes when we
meet her again. Given her lack of eyes doesn't appear to be a
disability (there's no evidence on her face to suggest she once
had eyes there), the most likely explanation would seem to be
that the version in the Matrix is a mental projection, so the
others there simply perceive her to have eyes. --Doctor Who Monthly#51/2 (Doctor Who Magazine#262, 263
|
The Black Sun elder was a courteous and agreeable man, which may well be why he was chosen to try and negotiate a trade deal with the planet Desrault. Over the course of the several week long conference he managed to convince one of the other trade delegations, the Time Lords, to enter into a deal sharing the mineral rights, and convinced the Desrault authorities this was a better option than the competing Sontaran offer. Unfortunately Brilox, the Sontaran delegate, had no intention of losing the deal and decided the best way to eliminate the competition was to set them against one another. Brilox brainwashed one of the Gallifreyan security team, the Special Executive member Millenium, turning her into a mindless assassin. As the elder sat on a stage next to his Gallifreyan opposite number, Rema-Du, at the conference's closing ceremony, Millenium came onto the stage from the back and tackled the unfortunate diplomat the ground, then turned her ability to accelerate time against him, rapidly aging him. Another of the Special Executive, Wardog, slew his friend in an attempt to save the elder, but he was too late, as the elder had already been reduced to a skeleton in the mere seconds Millenium had grasped him. 
--Doctor Who Monthly#57/2
|
 
Faru-Faro was in charge of the assassination mission sent to eliminate Fenris before the Time Lords could interrogate him. Assessing the situation when the team materialized, he realized that the telepath (or as he termed it, "brain-feeler") who was in the middle of probing Fenris' mind needed to be slain too, and ordered Llorex to handle killing Fenris while he took out the telepath. The mission objective achieved, and with the Gallifreyans now beginning to return fire, causing Llorex's death, Faru-Faro ordered the team to phase out back to their own time. --Doctor Who Monthly#51/2
|
 
--Doctor Who Monthly#51/2
|
Other Order of the Black Sun members At least three other Order members accompanied the Elder and Adamath to the trade talks on Desrault as part of the Elder's honor guard. One looked like a stocky crystalline humanoid with no head, another was tall with some kind of crest down the back of their head, and the third was short and wore full length robes. --Doctor Who Monthly#57/2
|
images: (without ads)
Doctor Who
Monthly#51/2, p3, pan7 (main image, Devil front view,
Drin full body, Faru-Faro full body, Llorex front/bottom view)
Doctor Who Monthly#51/2, p4, pan2 (effect of black sun blast)
Doctor Who
Monthly#57/2, p2, pan5 (Adamath body, other Order members)
Doctor Who Monthly#57/2, p2,
pan6 (Adamath headshot)
Doctor Who Monthly#51/2, p4, pan1 (Devil back
view, Draco, Llorex back/top view)
Doctor Who Magazine#262,
p5, pan1 (older "Demoiselle" Drin)
Doctor Who Monthly#57/2, p3, pan9
(elder, back of head, normal appearance)
Doctor Who Monthly#57/2, p4,
pan3 (elder, headshot, rapidly aging to death)
Doctor Who
Monthly#57/2, p4, pan5 (elder, death)
Doctor Who Monthly#51/2,
p4, pan4 (Faru-Faro front view, Llorex death)
Appearances:
Doctor Who Monthly#47/2 (13th
November 1980) - Alan Moore (writer), David Lloyd (art), Paul
Neary (editor)
Doctor Who Monthly#51/2 (12th March
1981) - Alan Moore
(writer), David Lloyd (art), Alan McKenzie (editor)
Doctor Who
Monthly#57/2 (October 1982) - Alan Moore (writer),
David Lloyd (art), Alan McKenzie (editor)
Doctor Who Magazine#262-263
(March-April 1998) - Alan Barnes (writer), Martin Geraghty (pencils),
Robin Smith (inks), Gary Gillatt, Scott Gray (editors)
Doctor Who Magazine#265 (June 1998) - Alan Barnes (writer),
Martin Geraghty (pencils), Robin Smith (inks), Gary Gillatt, Scott
Gray (editors)
First Posted: 09/14/2021
Last updated: 09/13/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright
info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099
Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!
An
unidentified Black Sun member who resembled a small devil took
part in the assassination mission sent to eliminate Fenris
before the Time Lords could interrogate him. He was exchanging
fire with a Gallifreyan guard when Faru-Faro ordered the team's
withdrawal. 
Drin
took part in the assassination mission sent to eliminate Fenris
before the Time Lords could interrogate him,
and focused on taking down guards while others went for their
main target. When she witnessed Llorex being slain she alerted
Faru-Faro, who ordered the rest of the team to withdraw since
they had achieved their mission.
The
manta-like Llorex took
part in the assassination mission sent to eliminate Fenris
before the Time Lords could interrogate him. It slew Fenris on
Faru-Faro's instructions, then opened fire on the nearby
Wardog when he called to his associate Rema-Du to shoot at the
Black Sun strike team. Llorex's blast only winged Wardog,
destroying an arm rather than slaying him, and before Llorex
could fire again Rema-Du fired back and slew Llorex.