When Draug the Conquerer ordered the Monolith to be completed, he knew that he would need some way to protect it and the power of the Weeping Tree within. He commissioned his mechanysts to develop war machines that would bolster his army and ensure his unending rule. Drawing on the ancient notes of the genius metallurgist Atar Starstrider and perverting them for violence, the mechanysts constructed mechs that could fuse together into a deadly automaton they called Mechaz0r. With the completion of the Monolith as top priority, there was not enough magical energy to power Mechaz0r until the Great Blooming took place, so it remained inactive in a hidden chamber of the Monolith. When Draug spent the last of his crystals to raise the Monolith into the sky, he also rendered inaccessible the one weapon that could have saved him from the coming Inxikrah invasion.
Two hundred years later, when the Senerei ventured into the Monolith and discovered the powerful Cores that had been created during the Great Blooming, that is not all they found. Zirix Starstrider uncovered the secret entrance to Mechaz0r’s chamber. The Senerei were awed by the titanic mech within but saw it for what it was — a mighty weapon. They promised each other to seal the chamber and keep its existence a secret so that the machine’s power could not be abused. But even as Zirix made his vow, he could not help thinking about the technological progress that he could bring to the Vetruvian Imperium by studying this mech.
Zirix surreptitiously returned to the Monolith several times to do just that. With the knowledge gained from Mechaz0r’s ingenious design, he was able to create the first living Sandshield, Scioness Sajj. However, the Vetruvians still had not won a Trial of the Cores, and Zirix could not stand by and watch his Imperium fall behind the other nations in prestige and energy one year after another. So he stole a Core from the Monolith and placed it inside Mechaz0r’s chest, infusing it with nearly unlimited power.
At the next Trial of the Cores, the Vetruvian champion, Nosh-Rak, unleashed Mechaz0r into the fray and used it to crush all of his opponents. The crowd went wild and Nosh-Rak was granted the title of Grandmaster, but the Senerei felt angry and betrayed, for they knew that Zirix had broken his promise. They feared that Zirix could use Mechaz0r to conquer Mythron for the Vetruvian Imperium, even if he had no intention of doing so at the moment. Thus, the other nations started investing in mech technology and built gigantic war machines to rival Mechaz0r. These Core-powered mechanical warriors constructed from smaller mechs became known as Ultra-Mechs.
With Zirix’s betrayal and the rise of the Ultra-Mechs, the newfound peace between nations became strained. Some suspected that the prophesied Second Empire had not yet come after all, and that Mythron was heading towards a second Age of Darkness.