The battle for good and evil. I can do this for eternity, but can you? Your friends can't help you now. You are all alone.
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I was trapped in Lord Garmadon, then I was trapped in the Digiverse. Now I am free! Bow to your Golden Master!
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Go where, doomed ninja? The Golden Weapons are too powerful for you to behold. Your survival chance is zero!
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~ The Overlord after Zane begins to sacrifice himself
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Fools! All your existence, you have been powered by a lie...that the good guys always win. Sadly, they don't. I have the power now. Technology has made me infinite! The Golden Ninja is mine!
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~ The Digital Overlord to the Ninja
|-|Spirit Form=
|-|Physical Form=
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Destruction comes from the eternal struggle between light and dark. I will end this struggle. If you are willing to work for me, I will destroy the balance and put an end to the struggle. There will be peace in the dark.
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~ The Overlord's motivation
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I have many names. The Dark Lord. The Golden Master. The Crystal King. Of course, the Overlord as well.
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~ The Overlord introducing himself to Harumi
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I wasn’t asking for you to recruit an army. I want you to build one. Use Vengestone to turn the enemies’ weaknesses into my power.
The Overlord is the source of all Darkness in Ninjago and the creator of the Stone Army. After The First Spinjitzu Master created Ninjago as a world of balance and light. Since this new world needed dark to counter the light, The Overlord rose from the shadows to challenge the light and challenged The First Spinjitzu Master in a battle to control Ninjago. A battle for all Ninjago erupted, and it could have lasted forever. The battle initially grew to be a stalemate, with neither side winning.
To turn the tides of the battle, The Overlord created the Stone Army out of a mysterious substance found only on the dark half of Ninjago. The Stone Army was an indesctructible army and quickly started to help turn the tides of the war. Realising he would soon be overcome, The First Spinjitzu plunged his weapon into the ground and severed the landmass of Ninjago in two. One half continued as Ninjago, becoming a world of prosper. The other half of the land evolved into the Dark Island, banishing The Overlord and preventing him from entering Ninjago as the Dark Island slowly sunk under the water. Stuck on the Dark Island for thousands of years, The Overlord patiently plotted and planned for his return.
The Overlord finally got to enact his devious plan once the recently betrayed Lord Garmadon washed up on what was left of the Dark Island's shore. He appeared before the Master of Destruction as a pink orb of energy, promising to fufill his dream of recreating Ninjago in his own image while guiding him through a forest. Under The Overlord's instruction, Garmadon raised the rest of the Dark Island from the sea, disrupting the balance in a major way for the first time in thousands of years.
With his Dark Island restored, The Overlord guided Garmadon to the Celestial Clock, a device intended to count down to the Final Battle once someone took the Helmet of Shadows from its pedestal. The Overlord manipulated Garmadon into taking the Helmet of Shadows, starting the countdown to a battle The Overlord intended to win at all costs. As the Final Battle grew nearer, The Overlord and Garmadon worked to build the ultimate weapon - a tank that could fire the corruptive Dark Matter to Ninjago, corrupting it piece by piece.
Unfortunately for the Ninja and forced of light, The Overlord managed to corrupt Ninjago with his Dark Matter, revealing his plan and the fact that Garmadon was merely a pawn in his millenia-old scheme to return to Ninjago. To Lloyd Garmadon's horror, The Overlord possessed and took Garmadon's body for himself. A fierce battle between Dark Lord and Green Ninja broke out, but Lloyd's unwillingness to hurt his own father proved to be his undoing, and The Overlord broke Lloyd's leg, winning the battle. Weary of his interference, The Overlord opened a portal to Ninjago and took his army with him, stranding the Ninja on the Dark Island.
The influx of Darkness spurred on The Overlord's metamorphosis, allowing him to regain his original form. A corrupted, dark dragon. The ultimate weapon became a tower of evil. When the Ninja returned and attacked the tower, The Overlord fought back with his minions with equal vigor. When the Brown Ninja Dareth took control of his own Stone Army, The Overlord attacked the Ninja directly, corrupting every Ninja with Darkness - except Kai and Lloyd. While Kai was busy defending the city, an injured, unarmed Lloyd confronted The Overlord, unlocking the Golden Power hidden within him and becoming the Ultimate Spinjitzu Master, destroying The Overlord in a flash of light.
Although almost reduced to nothing, The Overlord survived his battle with Lloyd. When the technological foothold of Borg Tower was built on the site the Overlord was defeated at, he infected the technology as a digital virus - The Digital Overlord. When the Ninja travel to Borg Tower while on a field trip with their students, inventor Cyrus Borg gives them the Techno Blades, weapons able to reboot the system and wipe it clean of the Overlord virus for good. As revenge, the Overlord assimilated Borg and infects his robotic legs, transforming him into the villanous OverBorg. Taking over the technology in New Ninjago City, The Overlord launched an attack on the Ninja to retrieve the Techno Blades. When the Golden Ninja Lloyd arrived to help, The Overlord revealed his true plan - to capture Lloyd and take the legendary Golden Power for himself.
The Ninja form a plan to smuggle the Techno Blades out of the city, at a cost - The Overlord captured Master Wu, and mined his memory to discover all of the Ninja's potential hiding places. Due to this, the Overlord manages to nearly capture the Ninja and the Techno Blades in Garmadon's monastery. Unfortunately for the Overlord, the Ninja cause a blackout throughout Ninjago, destroying the power substation and crippling the Overlord and his forces of Nindroids, shutting them down.
Yet the Overlord survived. Due to a mysterious stranger's interference with Electro-Cobrai, The Overlord was brought back and teamed up with them, working together to locate the Ninja using Master Wu, now assimilated into the evil Techno Wu. However, this attack was a ploy. The attack scared the Ninja into sending Lloyd a distress message, which the Overlord and Stranger intercepted. The Golden Ninja was now exactly where they wanted him. Hiroshi's Labyrinth.
In the dense jungle, many Nindroids alongside Techno Wu attack Lloyd and Garmadon, persuing them through the forest. Lloyd nearly escapes - until a large draconic mech, possessed by the Digital Overlord. The Stranger reveals himself to be Lloyd's old enemy Pythor P. Chumsworth, and captures Lloyd, dumping Garmadon into the ocean below. Inside the mech, The Overlord begind draining Lloyd of his Golden Power, siphoning it into a brand-new physical body for the Overlord to inhabit. At the same time, his forces unleash an attack on Borg Tower while he confronts the Ninja inside the Digiverse, where the Ninja prepare to reboot the system.
As the citizens of Ninjago desperately push back against the Nindroids, the Overlord attacks the Ninja, turning the city inside the Digiverse upside down. The Ninja find the reboot station and begin the reboot, but the Overlord blocks them in a last-ditch attempt to buy himself some more time. As he attacks the Ninja and nearly kills Kai, the other Ninja connect with Lloyd, embracing the Golden Power themselves and completing the circuit, rebooting the system entirely, wiping the Overlord clean of the system.
Victory for the Ninja seems assured, but the Overlord survives. Having drained enough of the Golden Power to sustain a body, the Overlord was finally free of the Digiverse and sought after the 4 things that could complete his reincarnation. The Golden Weapons of Spinjitzu, which were shot into space, landing on a comet known as Delta V. The Overlord gives up his pursuit of Lloyd once he gives away his Golden Power to restore the Ninja's innate elemental abilities.
A skirmish in space begins, and with the help of a metal-devouring alien creature, the Overlord and Nindroids strand the Ninja in space, bring the Golden Weapons back to Ninjago, and takes over Borg Tower. They melt the weapons down and use it to form a golden mech. The Overlord completed his transition, becoming the prophecised Golden Master, with power equal to the First Spinjitzu Master. He turns the city of Ninjago into his own personal fortress, forcing the Ninja to rely on the Overlord's old weapons and defences to survive - the Temple of Fortitude and the Stone Army armour.
The Ninja's plan to shrink the Overlord uses a pill goes south as Pythor eats the pill to protect his master. With the Ninja all out of options, the Golden Master ensnares the Ninja in tendrils made of pure Golden Power. Zane is the only one that escapes the tendrils, and resolves himself to make one final act - he jumps up and latches onto the Golden Master's armour, overloading his power source as the Golden Master taunts his imminent demise. As Zane embraces what he is about to do, he blasts the Golden Master with a beam of pure ice. As his heart reaches critical mass and detonates, he freezes the Golden Master solid, destroying him - at the cost of his own life.
Much how Zane earned a new body, the Overlord also survived the battle, going by a new name: The Crystal King.