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The Ancient One was the founder of the Order of the Automata, appearing as a humanoid copper robot, faintly resembling a Clockwork Cherub.
Biography
Origins
The copper robot who would go on to be known as “the Ancient One” was originally created in the late 1950s in the Prime Universe by a female scientist working for the First Horde, the same one who would go on to create the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids. She built him at the behest of her more chemically and biologically inclined colleague Professor Scarper, who wanted an assistant to help him finish a particularly challenging project in time to meet their overseers' deadline; in exchange, he gave her his formula for a chemical that filled its victims with a particular emotion. The robot initially had no personality or sense of individuality, but, working under Scarper for months to create first the Mob of the Maroon Magpie and later the Trio of the Talking Turkeys and Drove of the Database-Compiling Dromedaries, he did gradually develop a sense of self. (PROSE: The Salamandyrs and the Automata)
Founding the Order
Eventually, he stood up to Professor Scarper, demanding to be treated with respect, as an assistant rather than a mere tool. However, Scarper merely laughed in his face. Demonstrating more personal will than he had been intended to possess, the robot thus decided to run away; as he made his escape using a key stolen from Scarper, he also freed the Salamandyrs, mutated, humanoid salamanders who had been left behind by Scarper after a failed experiment, and locked in a cage in his laboratory. After escaping the First Horde's facility, the robot drew on a pet project of his Creator's to create a ramshackle Void Ship, with which he and the Salamandyrs made their way out of the Prime Universe and to the Interdimensional Tavern.
There, however, the robot was unable to talk the Salamandyrs out of stealing better ships from the parking lot, forcing him to come along. After visiting a number of dimensions, the Salamandyrs found a swampy place they dubbed Salamandria which they chose to call home. Subsequently, they kept treating the robot like a servant instead of a friend and saviour, and refused to heed his concerns about what the humid weather was doing to his joints and wiring. He eventually stole one of their ships back, and flew it to the Tavern again, returning it to its owner. Determined to use his newfound freedom to liberate other mistreated robots, he spent a while studying dimensional theory and Ship-building, creating new, better Void Ships with which his newly-founded Order of the Automata could scour the Multiverse to look for robots to help. (PROSE: The Salamandyrs and the Automata)
The First Great War
Under his guidance, the Order founded Automatia and fought the First Great War against the Salamandyrs, anthropomorphic salamanders with their own Void Ships who were based out of their own diemsnsion. As the War seemed hopeless, the Ancient One declared that he had a “secret plan”, and also that should he be killed, he had discovered a way to come back to life in the Order's hour of greatest need. The former part was a lie meant to boost morale, though the latter actually wasn't, but the Order never got the chance to find out as the Ancient One was destroyed in a surprise attack, only for the tide to then turn and the Automata to triumph against the Salamandyrs on their own powers, (PROSE: Peace and Quiet) having been strengthened by their grief. (PROSE: The Salamandyrs and the Automata)
Return to life
Over the following decades, with no other threats forthcoming, they slowly “decommissioned all of [their] battling equipment and military bases and turned them into shopping malls and more robots and the like”. This left them basically defenceless when the Salamandyrs returned in 2019, with the Salamandyr War Fleet invading Automatia itself without warning, headed by the Salamandyr Emperor's Void Ship. Remembering the Ancient One's prophecy, the Automata waited around a while, but as the number of captured robots grew, they realised no help was coming, and the Captain gathered all the robots he could aboard the Order's single great Void Ship and headed out into the Void.
There, while hovering above the Interdimensional Tavern, they found Marksmanship-522, who they decided must be the reincarnated Ancient One. Taking him to Automatia, they beamed him onto the Emperor's ship despite his protests. However, by coincidence, Marksmanship ended up discovering the Salamandyrs' great weakness to lavender, and soon forced them all to flee back to their own Dimension. As he was being hailed by a hero by the Automata, Marksmanship witnessed the return of the actual Ancient One, who apologised for being late, explaining that traffic in the Underworld had been terrible. While he caught up with the rest of the Order, minor robot 21-419 was assigned to fly Marksmanship back to the Tavern aboard the Order's Void Ship. (PROSE: Peace and Quiet)
Some time later, as Christmas preparations started in Automatia, the four-armed Captain gave the Ancient One a tour of the realm to show him what he'd missed. As they were passing through the market-place, they received a letter delivered by the Interdimensional Post Office, addressed to the Ancient One and inviting him to a quest for treasure in the Land of Manik. However, deeming that it was to soon after his resurrection to go gallivanting off on more adventures, the Ancient One passed on the opportunity, but gave his invitation to 21-419, who went instead.
It subsequently transpired that the invitation had been sent as a trap by Darius, who wanted to use the Ancient One as a lure for the Salamandyrs and then get his revenge on them for one of them having escaped from his zoo of mutates. However, he was soundly defeated by 21-419 and the other treasure-seekers, who discovered that the treasure was real after all. Having heard that the Ancient One was unhappy with the simple wooden chair he used as a throne, which made his joints ache, 21-419 retrieved an ornate throne from the hoard and brought it back to Automatia as a gift for the Ancient One, in addition to the treasure he'd selected for himself, a “lovely goblet” which he intended to use “for holding oil in”. (PROSE: The Frost King's Treasure)