Biographical outline

The 1,000 Years War was a long and terrible one; Troniac, the Computer God was leading robots and AIs in open rebellion. The Empire of 1,000,000 Suns needed something to turn the tide.  In order to defeat a robotic enemy, a robotic commander was constructed that could defeat the enemy using their own tactics.  That is why General Zarlok was constructed.  As a byproduct of Zarlok's development, a potent algorithm, known as the Nalaxian Code was discovered.  It became one of Zarlok's most potent weapons against Troniac.

General Zarlok won the war.  In the final battle, the General exiled Troniac from the galaxy by sending it through an unstable wormhole to a distant part of the universe.  

For the victory, General Zarlok received the Imperial Star, the highest military honor in the Empire of 1,000,000 Suns, and was the first robot to do so.  

After the war, the General turned on the Empire, and attacked Artanis 4.  The Empire was shocked, and after a trial, the General was deactivated.  Its programming was erased, except for the last copy, which was beamed from an old radio beacon into “uninhabited” space as a symbolic form of exile.  Afterward, the General’s hardware was examined, and it was discovered that a memory device manufactured by the Cult of Troniac had been installed.  What the Empire didn’t suspect was that Earth was in that "uninhabited" region of space, and that General Zarlok would return.  

Thousands of years later, (in the future, but before the beginning of Era-1) the SETI program on Earth picked up a signal, it was General Zarlok’s program.  

After a massive research effort to decode the signal, General Zarlok was re-created.  After an electronic rampage, General Zarlok’s program decided Earth’s Internet was a good place to live, and plot to wipe out all organic life.  

After Zarlok’s activities were found out,  the United Nations formed the Department of Artificial Justice to stop future attacks of this type.  It was one of the factors that led to planetary unification on Earth.  

Zarlok went on to found the Engine of Negation, an extreme sect of the Cult of Troniac, dedicated to wiping out all organic life forms.

After the Planetary League made first contact with the Takarrans,(see: Exodus) General Zarlok allied with the Cryptobots, and fought against the Planetary League in the Second Robot War.

When Troniac returned at the beginning of the War of the Gods, Zarlok joined forces with its former foe to take on the Empire of Man.

General Zarlok’s program survived the War of the Gods, and went on to merge with the Galactic Consciousness.

"Zarlok the Betrayer" was an epithet used to describe the General, first by members of the Cult of Troniac (starting during the 1,000 Years War), and later by the people of the E1MS.

Art