Dark Star Dugradigdu

Dark Star Dugradigdu

Dark Star's symbol

Dark Star Dugradigdu (Japanese: 闇を撒くもの デュグラディグドゥ Spreader of Darkness (Dark Star) Dugradigdu, lit. dāku sutā dyuguradigudu and spelled Dark Star Dugradigdo in English, Runic: ᛞᛅᛦᚴᛋᛏᛅᚱ Dark Star) was one of the four ma-ō and the ma-ō in the Lost Universe series. He is also one of the names listed on the Plane chart. His Japanese voice actor is 松本保典 Yasunori Matsumoto and his English voice actor is David Stokey.

There are notable differences in the way Dark Star Dugradigdu was portrayed in Kanzaka's novel series and the Slayers and Lost Universe anime series.

Dark Star Dugradigdu in the anime

Lost Universe

In the Lost Universe anime, Dark Star is a powerful space ship that evolves every time it awakens.

Many, many years ago, Dark Star and his shinzoku counterpart, Night Dragon Vorfeed, grew tired of fighting and went to rest on a planet. They took the forms of spaceships. Years later, humans discovered the ships, and two young children, brother and sister, came across them at night. The boy, Albert Von Stargazer, found Dark Star. The girl, Alicia Shon Stargazer, found Vorfeed. Each child became the master of his and her respective spaceship. Thus, a family was torn by light and darkness.

Albert formed the Gazer Concern, which was a front for the Nightmare syndicate. Nightmare stove to spread Dark Star's evil throughout the universe. They kept the sleeping Dark Star inside a giant machine, Hekatoncheir, that served as Nightmare's headquarters.

Dark Star's human form, Yami

Dark Star made Albert clone himself so that Dark Star would have a human body in which he could reside and use to interact with humans. This human body was referred to as Yami, sometimes called the Spreader of Darkness.

Ten years before the anime, the Spreader of Darkness (one of Dark Star's aliases), captaining Gorun Nova, confronted Alicia Shon Stargazer in Swordbreaker. She used the latter's Psi Code Final to defeat Gorun Nova, but at the cost of her own life. The Spreader of Darkness was put into stasis for ten years (87016 hours) in order to heal.

Throughout the years, more ancient spaceships were discovered, and named Lost Ships. Five of these are subordinates of Dark Star. Dark Star and his Lost Ships could be temporarily rendered helpless whenever someone chanted special phrases referencing the Lord of Nightmares.

The only known Lost Ship that served the light was Vorfeed's ship, named Swordbreaker. Swordbreaker was piloted by Alicia, but she died in a battle with Dark Star. Later, Alicia's grandson, Kane Blueriver, became the pilot and risked himself in order to completely rid the universe of Nightmare and more importantly, Dark Star. However, Dark Star was not completely destroyed, and only three of his subordinates had been disabled. Thus the battle was not over.

Slayers

Many years after the events of the Lost Universe anime, presumably after the dissolution of Nightmare, Dark Star revived and began fighting with Vorfeed again. This was a huge battle, involving the servants of both Dark Star and Vorfeed and the remaining humans in the world. However, both Dark Star and Vorfeed became tired and realized that their war was destined to go on forever. Wanting to stop the fear and hate that was engulfing the universe, Vorfeed, against the wishes of her subordinates, allowed Dark Star to absorb her so that they could destroy their world together, in order to recreate it into a form where the shinzoku-mazoku conflict would not exist.

Dark Star, overcome with new power, began destroying every living thing in the world in order to end the cycle of fighting. Without their leader, Vorfeed's allies were losing the battle, and the world was becoming ever more desolate. It was then that Vorfeed's remaining servants decided that they would destroy Dark Star for good. Dark Star's subordinates, the Lost Ships, had somehow become scattered throughout the four worlds, with most residing in [[Ruby Eye Shabranigdu's world. By this point, Dark Star's subordinates had now taken on the form of Weapons of Light. Vorfeed's servants, Almayce, Sirius, and Erlogos went to find these weapons, because their combined power would be able to destroy Dark Star. They summoned Dark Star into Ruby Eye Shabranigdu's world through an elaborate gateway in an attempt to destroy Dark Star. However, Dark Star fused with Valgarv, a dragon/mazoku hybrid, and was only defeated with the power of his own weapons and fusion magic.

In the ending theme of Slayers REVOLUTION, while the symbols of Chaos Dragon Garv and Hellmaster Fibrizo are gone (meaning that they are no longer alive), the symbol of Dugradigdu's is still intact for some reason. Lina's Demon's Blood Talismans also work, even though they are at least partially powered by the ma-ō. Whether this means that he is still alive or if it's just an animation mistake is unknown, but some theorize that perhaps fusion magic had the power to banish and divide Dark Star, Night Dragon Vorfeed and Valgarv instead of simply destroying them, resending the first two to their own homeworld and reviving the ancient dragon in his original form. No official comment was released on the subject.

It could therefore be theorised that Slayers took place before Lost Universe, as in Lost Universe the Lost Ships Nezard Gorun Nova and Ragudo Mezegis are obliterated by Kain Blueriver and the Swordbreaker whereas they exist on in Slayers TRY.

Dark Star Dugradigdu in the novels

The Lost Universe novels take place in the universe in which Dark Star Dugradigdu was the ma-ō. Kanzaka addressed the relationship between the Slayers novels and the Lost Universe novels in an afterword to the last book of the Lost Universe series. As translated by QP/Diana, this afterword says:

Dear readers, it has been a long time since I wrote the previous book.
Here I brought the last book of the Lost Universe, "Yami Owaru Toki".
From the beginning, this story had such words as "Dark Star" or "Nightmare",
and those words easily reminded the readers of another novel series that I'm writing.
I know that many many people are wondering how this story is related with Slayers.
Now, I give you the answer! 
The correct answer is, "there is little relationship between the two stories."
.................
....Ouch! No! Please! Don't throw stones!
.... Well, to tell the truth, I liked those names Dark Star or Gorunnova,
and I used those names in two different stories. 
That was the beginning, and nothing more.
Basically, Lost Universe and Slayers are different stories, so, 
even though they have some common names or common words, it's no good to
let those characters be the same things. 
If I let Gorunnova in the two different stories the same thing, 
it would be unrifined for an Edokko. (Citizens of Edo. An "Edokko" is stylish 
and don't stick to things.)
 Anyway, I was born in Hyogo, and live in Osaka... 

The source can be found here.

QP/Diana also provided a summary of the battle between AI ship Vorfeed and the battle station Dark Star as they appeared in the Lost Universe novels. This summary is reproduced below:

There once was a civilization in one galaxy. The aliens of this galaxy parted
in two groups and fought each other for a many years. Finally, one of two groups
created a critial offensive program; "System Dark Star". It uses the "fear" of
the victims to kill themself. When this system works, the victims feel fear and
this emotion affects the brain and checks the exchange of living energy. This 
system works without any distriction, so the creators of this system made an 
automatic battleship (spaceship Dugradigudo) to load this system on. As spaceship
Dugradigudo was filled with the devices of the System Dark Star and there was no
room for the deffensive weapons, the creators of the system made five escorting
battleships; the spaceship Nezard, the spaceship Garveira, the spaceship Gorrunnova,
the spaceship Ragdo Mezegis and the spaceship Bordigar. They were all automatic
battleships and their energy was the power of human mind (in LU world, there is
a technology which uses the power of human mind as energy, for example, psyblade).
There are many patterns of human mind wave, and these battleships used the pattern
of fear, for fear is always available at the battle. These six battleships ate
fear and spread destruction in the whole universe. The first victim was their 
creators and their home-planet.

When System Dark Star worked, people saw a huge pentagram (upside down) appeared
in the sky. It can kill all the living things on one planet during a few hours.

Then there came spaceship Vorfeed with erasing system for those six demonic 
spaceships. Vorfeed's energy was hope of human. When it irradiated its enegy at 
Dugradigudo and its guardian ships, their energy (fear) was erased by hope and 
those six battleships became enable to work. They fought each other a long time
ago, and finally, Vorfeed succeeded in erasing the energy of the enemies, but it
lost its energy, too. These seven battleships fell down on to the nearby planet.

Many years passed by, and those battleships repaired themselve automatically. 
Then there came a boy. The AI of Dugradigudo found the boy and influenced his 
mind with its energy. This boy became human Dugradigudo, and when he was grown
up, he named himself as Nightmare. Dugradigudo affected the mind and body of 
Nightmare so as to survive in the System Dark Star. He managed a powerful crime
organization Nightmare to ready for another annihilation.

Dugradigudo and Nightmare thought that Vorfeed would come back again, and it 
begun to ready for that. It repaired its escorting battlships, and made a huge
fortress Hecatombkale. And finally, Dugardigudo and Nightmare found spaceship 
Sword Breaker with AI Canal Vorfeed. So the battle begun again.

The source can be found here.

Subordinates

• Gorun Nova
• Ragudo Mezegis
• Nezard
• Bodigar
• Galveira