The Great Galactic War (also known as GGW) lasted 28 years and was the first war to have directly involved all nations of the known world. The War was marked by the Invasion of the Galactic Coalition Army, whereby various intelligent lifeforms from a neighboring universe declared war on humankind by penetrating the Earth’s atmosphere with their warships and violently landing on densely populated cities. Major political powers of the known world responded immediately by forming their own military alliance, Earth’s Defense. This name, which was decided unanimously by the alliance, generated some controversy as a lot of people wanted to be identified as the “offensive side.” Nevertheless, the name stuck and an emergency meeting was called, during which Sino-Americana was appointed Commanding General of the Earth’s Defense while LYBRA’s current Chief Executive Officer, Leavitt, was named Director of Defense Research and Engineering, and Raphael, who was LYBRA’s Vice President of Operations, was named Deputy Under Secretary of Defense. However, he declined the position and chose to personally take to the battlefield instead; enrolling in the military with an honorary rank of Sergeant Major before slowly climbing up the ladder and making First Lieutenant by proving his prowess on the front lines.
For more details on the Great Galactic War’s course of events, one may refer to Modern History by Preston Johanssen.
LANZO LEAVITT
Leavitt’s decision to accept the role of Director of Defense Research and Engineering was met with some criticism, particularly from pure-bred scientists within LYBRA who did not wish to see their fruits of their research used in destructive and violent methods. Leavitt argued that while, “none of us ever signed up for this, this war is something that will affect the entire population of the known world. If we don’t play our part and do what we can to end it as quick as possible, with as little casualties as possible, then how can we say that we’re doing Science for the greater good?” referencing LYBRA’s famous tagline. Nevertheless, a handful of leading scientists still resigned from their positions, temporarily hampering LYBRA’s efficiency.
Though Leavitt and his team eventually manufactured technology which rivaled that of the Galactic Coalition Army’s, his greatest contribution to the war efforts was possibly the commercial production of LYBRA’s infamous supercomputer.
RAPHAEL XVI
Many were surprised by Raphael’s refusal of Earth’s Defense’s offer. The public had expected the outcome to be reversed - for Leavitt to be vehemently against taking up a commanding position in a military organization and Raphael to be ecstatic at the opportunity, given his background. However, his results on the battlefield eventually fulfilled, and even surpassed, expectations. As a Sergeant Major, he was forced to lead more than a thousand men into battle when deployed in the East Mountainous Region, due to a shortage in commanding officers. The terrain was a double edged sword for Raphael - while he knew, in strategy, that it could be advantageous, he was also highly unfamiliar with the landscape. Thus, his victory was considered a tremendous achievement which immediately earned him a promotion to Warrant Officer.
Unfortunately, not much else is known about Raphael’s war efforts as movements of the army were considered classified information at the time, and the release of specifics could compromise Earth’s Defense.
The Invasion of the Galactic Coalition Army (sometimes simply referred to as “The Invasion”) marked the beginning of the Great Galactic War that spanned 28 years.
LYBRA is a multinational organization that was originally institutionalized as a research center with the vision of Yoko Murasaki. She was later joined by Raphael XVI, Lanzo Leavitt, and A and B (commonly referred to as a pair, the Enigmatic Duo). Throughout its many years of service, LYBRA has constantly evolved with excellence in mind, transforming from the small, privately funded research center in its early days to the political powerhouse it is today. However, LYBRA’s motto of “Wit, Cunning and Strength” has remained unchanging, and it is still those three qualities in any person which LYBRA values most.
HISTORY
With Yoko’s solid reputation and achievements, LYBRA's activities were casually monitored and acknowledged by the scientific community even in its budding stages. However, as the other four were dark horses, the LYBRA project was also commonly regarded with some skepticism. Doubts about whether or not the other four could match up to Yoko’s brilliance only disappeared with Leavitt and B’s publication of The Tarnished Mirror of the Looking Glass Self - a detailed document analyzing the results of the year-long experiment they conducted in their natural time period. A and Yoko quickly followed up with the book, Optimal Sorting Algorithms, which cemented LYBRA’s standing in the community. By then, the public had all but branded Raphael - who had left for his natural time period for a month - as the weakest link in the chain, until he returned with a hefty amount of money to make his first successful investment in H20.
LYBRA’s first scientific breakthrough came in the form of the supercomputer Raphael proposed. At the time of its creation, its technological capabilities preceded anything that has ever been attempted in its field. Although the biggest commercial selling point of the supercomputer is its ability to efficiently undertake extremely large projects (such as processing huge quantities of data), its strength lies in its scientific value. Coined as the “Brain Jar” by Raphael - a nickname which was quickly adopted by the rest of the population - the supercomputer is able to emulate a human brain, and even go so far as to serve as a storage for a human conscience.
Currently, remains of Yoko Murasaki’s conscience is stored in the supercomputer. The program is flawed as LYBRA has only managed to salvage the test data she stored in the supercomputer during its alpha testing phase, but no efforts to update or repair it has been made due to its historical significance.
LYBRA started expanding its group of lead scientists after the supercomputer turned out to be a success. This was primarily to fill in the vacancies left by the Enigmatic Duo, though they ended up with a team that was larger than the five they started out with. With more people on board, they were able to churn out ideas faster, leading to a growth spurt and a period which would later be known as LYBRA’s “Golden Age.” It was also during this period of time that Raphael’s various investments and business endeavors came to fruition, allowing nearly unlimited funding for LYBRA’s ongoing projects.
MOTTO
According to Yoko, LYBRA first started out with a five-word motto - each value representing a founder’s principle. However, due to unspecified reasons, they shortened it down to three. This was confirmed by Raphael and Lanzo in separate interviews, though there is no public record of any of the founders ever matching a value to a name. It is common belief that Lanzo stood for “Wit,” Yoko for “Cunning,” and Raphael for “Strength,” though that is all pure speculation.
A and B met in high school and continued on to enroll in the same university, the Technical University of Munich, which just so happens to be the alma meter of all five founding figures. According to Yoko’s Self, A was pursuing a Bachelor of Science in “some Engineering” while B was a Psychology major who, under Leavitt’s influence, had also declared a minor in Sociology. Yoko’s decision to invite B to the team was initially met with some confusion as LYBRA’s area of academic interest had little to do with her fields of specialty, but Yoko argued that what they needed was “bright minds, not Engineers.”
Note that due to the underwhelming primary information on the duo, the majority of this page is merely a collection of quotations by the other founding figures on the two of them.
LYBRA
Since the duo’s natural time period predates the invention of time machines, they could only have met in their natural time period. According to Yoko, “A was the first person Raphael and I met when we returned to the past. We had somehow landed right outside of his lab, and I guess we made quite a commotion, because A was waiting for us when we stepped out of the vehicle. I was surprised A believed us when we told him we came from the future, but he very readily welcomed us into his lab, where Raphael saw what I assumed was a restricted equation in the future, printed on a poster that was tacked onto A’s wall. I could almost physically catch the moment his brain fell in love with A’s, and he recruited the guy right then and there. We met B the next day, when A took us around a tour of Munich in his century - an incredibly strange experience, I must say. A small corner of the library was sectioned off, and upon closer inspection I found that it was due to a Peer Lecture they were holding today, given by B on the intersection of Herman Hesse’s works and Psychology. I think I was the one who fell in love this time. I hung around to talk to her after she finished her lecture, and when A came over, he revealed that they were rather tight friends and introduced all of us. Just like Raphael, I recruited her to LYBRA immediately, but she refused my offer because she was already in the middle of another project. That was how we came to know Lanzo.”
PERSONAL LIFE
Of the duo’s habits, Raphael once commented, “He plays the drums a lot. Meanwhile, she enjoys reading in her spare time, and they have adjacent rooms. Now, you can see what the problem is.” He laughed gleefully, as if their misery brought him joy. “At first she would knock on his door and ask him to pipe down, but after a while she just started banging the walls and he’d know it was a sign she got to a good part in her book. If he was feeling nice, he’d sigh that old man sigh of his and stop playing. I know all this because my room is right beside hers, and it’s my responsibility to step in and fill the noiseless void when A steps down.” The interviewer asked if he played any instruments too. “Nah, but anyone can blast loud music.”
LEGACY
The Games is the most influential legacy the duo has left behind. It is said that A engineered the Games with Raphael’s help, though B contributed heavily to germinating the Games in its early planning stages.
Raphael XVI was a highly successful business magnate and investor. At the height of his wealth, his net worth was estimated to be 47 trillion Yen Dollars. Forbes has consistently ranked him as Top 10 or higher in their annual list of World’s Richest People, and he was the only person to have remained on the list for over twenty year. His streak was broken with the invasion of the Galactic Coalition Army, when he pooled private funds to support Earth’s Defense.
PERSONAL LIFE
Though he has claimed many times that he “isn’t as polished in the art of the mind as the other four,” simple future tracing has proven that Raphael is an alum of the Technical University of Munich, one of the most competitive universities internationally. He attended Munich with federal grants that required him to participate in military training while enrolled in university and to fulfill a minimum of two years of active duty afterwards. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Engineering at the age of 20, explaining how he was able to spearhead the supercomputer project. However, because he is, as he says, “a businessmen at heart,” Raphael eventually abandoned his Master track three months into the program and diverted the tuition money he saved from the military into seeding a startup he saw potential in. H20 would later become one of the world’s main water manufacturer, and Raphael’s first unicorn startup.
His love life was a topic Raphael avoided insistently when giving interviews - even though he was always in the middle of a dating scandal. "I blame it on my good looks,” he said, sounding slightly annoyed. When asked by the reporter if he believed the ladies couldn’t resist his handsome features, he scowled and said, “No, they’re not the ones starting rumors - it’s the people who are jealous of what they don’t have. The men!” Then, he broke out into his characteristic grin. “Just kidding.”
After the famous “Vampire Stroll” video was published online by an anonymous fan, speculation about Raphael and Yoko’s relationship starting growing out of control. The video, a twenty second long clip of extremely poor quality, was named as such because the coats worn by the unidentified man and woman in the footage looked like capes worn by vampires, a mythical creature of the past, when the wind picked up. Although their faces were never revealed, fans of the pairing have argued that their profiles match Raphael and Yoko’s, and when the girl spoke up, her high-pitched voice sounded exactly like Yoko’s - with which the public was familiar due to the number of speeches she has delivered. The exact transcription of their conversation is as follows:
Woman: if this was an anime they would be panning up to the moon right now a perfect shot just like this [motions with her hands]
Man: [mutters inaudibly]
Woman: [gasps] you dont know what anime is?
Man: [mutters inaudibly]
Woman: poor soul you have not lived
The video cuts abruptly then. When asked about this incident, all Raphael provided was an enigmatic smile and an affirmation that, yes, “Vampire Stroll is a rather fitting name.”
LYBRA
Perhaps it was due to his detachment from academia and the technical side of LYBRA’s operations that Raphael served as the face of the organization and acts as the founder’s mouthpiece whenever necessary. The founders probably realized that the public related to Raphael’s business endeavors more easily than to their scientific research and studies. Raphael seemed to have accepted this fact from early on; playing the ambassadorial role wonderfully in his myriad of interviews and official speeches. For this very reason, it is a common, public misconception that Raphael was the original founder of LYBRA, especially in the present.
Aside from funding, Raphael’s biggest contribution to LYBRA is the supercomputer that still powers 7% of the known world today. It is unclear for what purpose the supercomputer was originally created, but with the mysterious disappearance of the duo one day before its public unveiling, many believed that it was created with malicious intents. Because opinion of the duo is not particularly high, the public is convinced that they were the ones possessing malicious intent. The other three were heroes who had discovered, and put a stop, to their grand plan a day before they were going to execute it, forcing them to run away to another time period.
DEATH
Strangely enough, Raphael did not choose to extend his lifespan with the immortalizing technology a person of his stature was certainly rewarded access to. Instead, he simply vanished one day, a move which many considered ironic as he had expressed his disdain for the duo’s disappearance countless of times. Of course, many had also argued that though their actions were similar, they committed it under very different circumstances. Raphael probably wished to die in peace, something he has alluded to in a previous interview. “You never know what those damn scientists would do with your body after you die,” he said, passionately. “Even if you didn’t sign the forms!”
At an obligatory press conference after Raphael’s disappearance, Leavitt refrained from making a single comment even though most of the questions were directed at him. He only addressed the media once, before he left the venue, and even then his words were vague and raised more questions than answer them. “I don’t claim to be a mind reader,” he said. “I don’t know what was going on in Raphael’s head when he did what he did, and he certainly has never thought it concerned me enough to share his thoughts. Thus, I will not pass judgment on the moral soundness of his decision as my opinion on this matter is, I believe, completely unwarranted. All I can say is that Raphael is a smart man. He is one of the most calculating and logical person I have had the honor of knowing, and so I believe his vanishing wasn’t a reckless decision. He must have had his own reasons - reasons none of us need to be privy to. With that said, let us respect his wishes and stay out of his business. Thank you.”
Other sources have claimed that Raphael had been fatally injured by a surprise attack from the Coalition’s forces the day of his disappearance. He was seen to have escaped from a treatment facility and into his time pod, after which he was never seen again. Some outspoken members of the Earth’s Defense Army have branded him a “deserter,” though the Army has never released an official statement. Raphael’s squad has declined to comment on the incident as well.
Yoko Murasaki was a Physicist known for being the first founder of multinational organization and scientific powerhouse, LYBRA. In her tragically short life, she has also published 3 books and close to 30 academic papers in her field of specialty, Picotechnology. She is also credited with creating the first working formula for the Theory of Everything - more commonly known as the Final Theory - for which she received a Nobel Prize in Physics.
Personal Life
Yoko grew up under the tutelage of the Geneticist Dr. Murasaki, whose work with DNA cloning earned him the half-teasing nickname, “Mother of Genetics.” In Yoko’s autobiography, she explained the strange noun-choice was because, “the discipline already had Mendel. It just needs a mother to nurture it.” She said this was what her father’s colleagues would say in response to his half-hearted grumbling when referred to by the moniker.
About a third of her autobiography was, in fact, dedicated to the moments she shared with her father. She confirms what the public has long suspected - that her love for Science was deeply influenced by a child’s worship of the man who was always right - her father, and that she adamantly refused to be called by her last name because it was what people called her father. Almost the entirety of the book was written in a style which resonates strongly with Jung’s writings - of whom Yoko was a big fan - as if she was slyly suggesting for her autobiography to be read as a self-psychoanalysis on her strained relationship with her father.
“Living under the shadow of a giant wasn’t easy, but through this way of life, I’ve learned that even small people can do great things... or so other autobiographies would say. I think I’d have learned that lesson anyway, even if my giant had not stood so selfishly in the way of the light. Perhaps it would’ve taken me a few more years to realize it on my own, though what do we humans really have besides time? Time goes on and on and on - linear, in choppy, straight lines; endlessly looping, in curving circles. Life is a cycle in which some people could not help but be giants with shadows that cover the expanse of the Earth, and others who grow tired of the darkness would someday rise up into the light themselves.”
- Yoko Murakami, Self
Most critics have reached a consensus in the discourse on Yoko’s tone in Self, agreeing that it is a far cry from her usual friendly personality. However, many still disagree that her friendliness was “nothing but a sham,” as an outspoken LYBRA CEO once claimed (after he resigned from the position).
In her review of Self, popular book-critic Michiyo Kakutani expresses an idea which has since been adopted by many who are pro-Yoko: “I believe that human beings are capable of a spectrum of emotions, and this revelation of Yoko’s other side, so to speak, should not be treated with hostility, but with welcoming acceptance, as we finally receive the last puzzle piece which allows us to form a complete picture of the multi-dimensional woman she is.”
LYBRA
In the third and final part of her biography, Yoko divulges critical details on LYBRA’s humble beginnings. “It all started,” she said, “when I realized there was a more efficient algorithm for time travel.” To date, Yoko has never publicized this algorithm, and it is said that only top-ranking officers within LYBRA has knowledge of its specifics.
She also describes how she first met Raphael when she tested her algorithm by traveling to the future. As she shouted an excited, “Yes!” at the successful implementation, “a tall, dark, handsome boy walked up to me and asked, in the lazy slur I’d later associate with Raphael, if it would be alright for me to ‘shut my tits.’ I slapped him.”
However, they soon became fast friends. As Yoko realized he was someone she could envision building her dream with, he asked if she wanted to travel to the past together, “under the pretense of recruiting more people for the research center I was just describing to him.” The little exchanges Yoko recounted between herself and Raphael has led many to believe that they share a romantic relationship, though neither of them has ever confirmed nor denied the rumors.
Yoko was one of the most prominent leaders of the “Paradox Lie” movement that took off around the time she completed her algorithm. Advocates of "Paradox Lie” believe that time paradoxes are a scientific hoax reasoned by circular argument. Thus, Yoko has never shown any hesitation in time traveling and exposing herself as a time traveler, making her one of the few scientists who time travels on a regular basis. This means that she wasn’t completely unfamiliar with the past, though she has never traveled back as far as Raphael wanted to go. She was a bit suspicious of his motives at first, but eventually relented and took them to the 21st century, where they would meet the Enigmatic Duo and be introduced to Lanzo. This is also where Yoko’s fascination with modernist literature first developed, and she wrote that she would often go on weekend coffee dates with B, who was “as much of a literature fanatic as I am, if not more.” It is said that the four would return to fetch Lanzo after traveling back to Yoko’s natural time period, for reasons unknown.
Death
Yoko took her own life at the young age of 38. Her body was discovered on a Tuesday morning in her apartment, four days after her estimated date of death. Her subordinates reported thinking it was strange for Yoko to miss work, and when she was absent for yet another day on Tuesday, without notice, they knew something was wrong. They also said that, to their knowledge, nothing out of the ordinary happened on Friday, the last time any of them saw her.
She left a letter on her living room table. Though there is no official release of the contents of the letter, a leaked investigation report contains this paragraph historians believe was an excerpt from her suicide note: “I’m sick of playing the nice guy. No more. All this time, I’ve been pretending and pretending and pretending. You love to see me smile, don’t you? You love Yoko, the country’s sweetheart, don’t you? Well, sorry, that isn’t who I really am. Maybe if I died, I thought, they’d finally understand. Which is why, I had to do this.”
Unlike Yoko Murasaki and Raphael XVI, Lanzo Leavitt is believed to have met the enigmatic duo in his natural time period. Not much is known about Leavitt due to his relationship with the duo and their combined desires to maintain a separate identity in the era of LYBRA’s founding than the ones they hold in their natural time period.
Personal Life
Until the turn of this century, many have misunderstood their strong need for privacy as arrogance and were convinced that Leavitt - and to some extent, the duo - had allowed success to get to their heads. The clipped sentences and cold demeanor he presented in public were, after all, a stark contrast to Yoko’s friendliness and Raphael’s suavity. However, with the recent unearthing and extraction of new data on the founders - one of which was an interview Yoko gave to the Times, where she states with full confidence and her typical mirth that, “Indeed, Lanzo is a beast - a wolf, I’d say. He bares his teeth at everybody but members of his pack, who he treats with utmost kindness and care” - public image of Leavitt seems to have been slowly shifting to a more positive note.
Controversy
There are speculations that the name “Lanzo Leavitt” was only taken up by the man in his later years, just before the publication of his most famous work, A Revision on Darwin’s Natural Selection, though there is no substantial proof to this claim. The only reason for the existence of this theory is an audio clip in LYBRA’s museum, depicting a conversation between Lanzo and the female half of the duo, where she refers to him as “Bay” thrice in the duration of five minutes. In another interview, Yoko has also recounted a time when she ran into the room Lanzo and the female duo were working in after hearing Lanzo shout, really loudly, for someone to shut up.
“I was really shocked,” Yoko said, “and I acted on instinct, you know. I slammed the door open and there she was, just sitting on her favorite chair, laughing her heart out while Lanzo stood stiffly across her. I asked him what happened and all he said was that she wouldn’t stop calling him Bay, so I asked her what it meant - it’s something I’ve been curious about for a trifle now - and she looked at me with this twinkle in her eyes, and said, ‘What’s in a name?’ And Lanzo positively started fuming. ‘First of all,’ he said, a strict professor look on his face, a finger pointed at her, ‘I’m not a rose. Second of all, Bay is not my name.’ I was really confused, but since they seemed to just be messing around as always, I left them be. After doing a little research, I found out that she was quoting this prolific writer of the 16th century called Shakespeare.” Yoko shrugged. “It’s always like that with them - them and A. Though I understand English and speak English just fine, I always feel like we’re communicating in a completely different language. I guess it’s just the little differences in Old English we all find confusing - like when you read Joyce, Kafka, Rowling, or anyone from the age of modernism and post-modernism.”
Historians believe that figuring out Leavitt’s birth name would help uncover more information about the man, but no new discoveries have been made so far.
LYBRA
Leavitt was the last member to be recruited by Yoko and Raphael. Again, not much is known about how he came to be involved in LYBRA’s projects, though his acquaintance to Yoko and Raphael can be easily traced back to their mutual friends, the enigmatic duo. Raphael once claimed that B told him about how she and A first met Leavitt in a party while the duo were attending college together. “A has never been much of a party-goer, but his best bud, B - damn, she was a wild one.” He claims that A accidentally sat down on a couch Leavitt was occupying in the party, and when he tried to start a conversation by asking Leavitt if he’s having any fun, he was promptly cut off by the older man who said he was “conducting a social experiment,” after which he abruptly stood up to leave. The next day, Raphael said, almost as if their lives were a cliched movie, Leavitt turned out to be the professor of one of B’s classes, and when B texted, “their idea of rapid communication,” Raphael explained, for A to come check out the “cute and super young professor” for the elective she had planned on dropping, A decided to humor her, only to be surprised when he realized it was the man he met last night. “They stayed back after class to talk to the Professor - like nerds do - and I guess the three of ‘em got along real good, ‘cos the rest is history.” He scratched an elbow absentmindedly before continuing, “I think they signed up to be his research assistants, or something like that, the next term.”
It is important to note, however, that Lanzo did not vanish with the duo on the eve of the supercomputer’s creation.
