Warning! Spoilers ahead for Green Lantern: War Journal #9!The Green Lanterns’ past has finally come to light and revealed the nightmare-inspiring fate of the DC Universe’s original protectors. The Green Lantern Corps may be the most well-known peacekeeping organization, but they’re far from the first to bring order to the cosmos.

Rookie officer Green Lantern Shepherd has found the Book of Oa and is digging into the history of the Corps’ predecessors. The tome reveals an ancient, untold story that sheds light on the Guardians of the Universe’s forebears and it reveals how one awful decision may have doomed the DC Universe.

The First ‘Green Lanterns’ Awoke An Angry Old God

In Green Lantern: War Journal #9 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Montos, Adriano Lucas, and Dave Sharpe, Green Lantern Caolán Shepherd reads from the Book of Oa in his quest to find John Stewart. Unable to find any information about the Radiant Dead or the Revenant Queen, Shepherd looks for the first recorded mention of the Darkstars. Shepherd finds a story about ancient Maltusians, who searched for a power to bring order to the cosmos. The Maltusians eventually found a power in a monument dedicated to the Old God Olgrun and his daughter, Ajna.

The Maltusians were warned that desecrating the monument could invoke Olgrun’s wrath. But they still returned with firepower and stripped the monument of Genesis, the crystallized blood of Old Gods. The Maltusians actions’ caused an eerie light to grow deep within a crypt in the monument. But they ignored the light, content that they had harnessed a power that could transform their flesh into living light. They made mighty weapons and became the Green Lantern-like peacekeepers, the Knights of the Dark Star, dedicated to keeping order throughout the cosmos.

Unfortunately for the Knights, the Dark Star in the monument grew, fueled by Olgrun’s grief and fury. For desecrating his tomb, Olgrun took control of the Dark Star Knights and they were rendered into conduits of Olgrun’s mad power. Only the Knight’s captain remained a fragment of control over her body, but even she fell to the influence of Olgrun’s power. The captain took Ajna’s ring, the vessel of Olgrun’s very power and became the first host of Olgrun’s terrible might and power.

Who is Olgrun and What Threat Does He Present?

Olgrun is one of the Old Gods and was considered one of the mightiest around, able to create glorious worlds. However, he lost himself to madness and rage, killing his daughter in the process. The Old Gods couldn’t kill Olgrun, but they could diminish his power by fracturing it into aspects that were hidden all across the multiverse. For eons, Olgrun has lied waiting for the perfect vessel to possess and return to life, a wish that was granted when Green Lantern John Stewart gained god-level power after absorbing a Godstorm.

While John tried to live a quiet and peaceful life on Earth with his mother, Olgrun sent out his terrifying army, the Radiant Dead, led by the Revenant Queen. While the Radiant Dead took Stewart by surprise, he was eventually caught up to speed by newbie Green Lantern Caolán Shepherd. After getting John a new Power Ring lifted from a Green Lantern that had been turned by the Radiant Dead, Stewart and Shepherd embarked on a quest to hunt the Revenant Queen down and end her mission.

However, the Revenant Queen was prepared for John. She revealed that she was but a fragment of Olgrun’s power and that she had come to claim his body for Olgrun to possess. Green Lantern was kidnapped from Earth and transported to the far side of the universe and caught in the Dark Star of the Fenn’s orbit. The Dark Star of the Fenn is a terrifying gateway to the realm in which Olgrun inhabits and the mighty forces holding Olgrun back are growing weaker by the second.

The Green Lantern Corps’ Ancestors Doomed the DC Universe

Many Green Lantern fans know that, despite desiring to protect the universe and establish order throughout the cosmos, the Maltusians have ironically been one of its biggest threats. Before the Guardians ever created the Green Lantern Corps, they created the Manhunters, emotionless androids that kept every sector in line (until faulty programming resulted in an entire space sector being slaughtered). Not to mention, the Guardians also tried replacing the Green Lanterns with the Third Army, a terrifying genetically engineered race of obedient warriors intended to forcefully convert every living being in the DC Universe.

While those mistakes, among others, reflect poorly on the Guardians of the Universe, it’s nothing in comparison to what the ancient Maltusians did thousands of years ago. The Maltusians were warned specifically against desecrating Olgrun’s tomb, warning that they’d incur his wrath. But they ignored the warning and paid for it with their very lives, becoming the first wave of the Radiant Dead. Not only did the Knights of the Dark Star pay for their crimes, but they’ve potentially put the rest of the DC Universe in danger as well.

Had the ancient Maltusians not bothered with Olgrun’s monument, his power never would have seeped into the DC Universe, nor would the Dark Star of the Fenn have grown. But in the Knights’ desire for order, they awoke and angered one of the most powerful forces the DC Universe has ever seen. Olgrun hasn’t even been seen physically yet, but his Radiant Dead has proven to be quite a threat for someone with Green Lantern’s level of power. Now John Stewart is all that’s standing between life and Olgrun’s fury.

Can Green Lantern Fix the Mistakes of the Past?

Unfortunately, what the Knights of the Dark Star did can’t be undone. The Dark Star of the Fenn is there and Olgrun is closer than ever to returning. The Knights are long gone, but thankfully, their desire to protect the universe lives on in soldiers like John, the only Green Lantern strong enough to fight someone as powerful as an Old God. It remains to be seen if John can actually defeat Olgrun, but Stewart is the only one who has a shot at cleaning up the sins of the Green Lantern Corps’ ancestors.

Green Lantern: War Journal #9 is available now from DC Comics.