Roogalator
- You may be looking for Bilis, known in some sources by the title of "the Regulator".
The Roogalator, originally called the Regulator, was a legendary artefact from the Realm of Law which was taken to the Realm of Chaos and became central to the maintaining the Balance between the two realms, being an embodiment of that Balance. The Roogalator took many forms, appearing to the Eleventh Doctor as an arrow known as the Arrow of Law, Silver Arrow of Artemis, Jewelled Arrow of Artemis, Big Arrer, or Silver Shaft; at other points in its history, it was a set of scales called the Cosmic Balance and a staff known as the Staff of Law or Newtonium Staff. It was also known to have taken the forms of a sword, a cup, animals, and sometimes even people.
In its arrow form, the Roogalator was made from Newtonium etched with a runic alphabet and inlaid with jewels which seemed to "combine all the other jewels in Creation". (PROSE: The Coming of the Terraphiles [+]Loading...["The Coming of the Terraphiles (novel)"])
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- In the Michael Moorcock Multiverse, the recurring Eternal Champions usually possess powerful artefacts which set them apart from anyone else. The Roogalator is intended in its various forms to have been every powerful artefact used by an Eternal Champion, a single object with a history across the multiverse.
- It appears as a sword in the Elric stories, in which it is his cursed blade Stormbringer.
- It appears as a staff in the Dorian Hawkmoon stories, in which it is the Runestaff.
- It appears as a cup in the Von Bek stories, in which it is the Holy Grail.
- The "Cosmic Balance" first appears in the Elric novella Doomed Lord's Passing. In the Elric novel The Skrayling Tree and the Elric comic The Making of a Sorcerer, the Cosmic Balance appears composed of its other major forms: the base of the scales is Elric's black sword, its arms are the Runestaff, and its plates are the Holy Grail.
- It appears as a person when it is Lucifer, the Fallen Angel. The being inside Elric's sword first appears in the 1964 Elric story Doomed Lord's Passing, in which it emerges from the sword after Elric's death and speaks to the dead hero that it was "a thousand times more evil than thou". In the 1975 Hawkmoon novel The Quest for Tanelorn, the entity inside the sword is indicated to be named "Shaitan". A version of Lucifer is introduced as a central character of the Multiverse in the 1981 novel The War Hound and the World's Pain, with this Lucifer declaring in the climactic battle of the 1996 Second Ether novel The War Amongst the Angels, when he is faced with death by Elric's blade, "The blade is mine. The blade is me! I am IT! And I am more than IT!".
- When asked about the relation this Lucifer had with the Beast and Abaddon in a conversation the Doctor Who universe's place in the Multiverse, Michael Moorcock said that he generally viewed the two as having separate natures and that, "The Devil the von Beks deal with is the conventional Christian figure who might or might not having anything to do with the Dr Who devils."[1]
- Other uses of the term "Regulator" appear in Moorcock's work. The 1964 short story The Time Dweller depicts a "Great Regulator" used by the Chronarchy.
- In the Big Finish Torchwood audios such as AUDIO: The Sublime Porte [+]Loading...["The Sublime Porte (audio story)"], the mysterious figure of Bilis Manger was stated to be known as "the Regulator" and to seek to bring balance to the universe, "without fear or favour", although the forces he seeks to keep balanced were generally described as Light and Dark rather than Law and Chaos.
