Metaplot / Yu-Gi-Oh! World Legacy

Adventurers Following the Path of the Stars

The hero who defends the light of the stars must destroy the darkness of the illusory world and entrust his power to the chosen one.
The will inherited by the chalice of the stars will become a new key and become the sword that cuts down darkness.

— Japanese Flavor Text of Mekk-Knight Avram

The World Legacy storyline is a Yu-Gi-Oh metaplot presented through card art and descriptions inside the card game. Compared to the Duel Terminal storyline, the World Legacy storyline is shorter but much tighter, with clear personalities, developments, and narrative structure.

The storyline is mainly told through cards across eight card archetypes: World Legacy, World Chalice, Krawler, Mekk-Knight, Knightmare, Crusadia, Orcust, and Guardragon. These cards are released from 2017-2019 within Series 10 of the TCG/OCG Booster Packs, starting from the Code of the Duelist pack and ending at the Eternity Code pack.

Set in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world ruled by mechanical lifeforms known as Krawlers and Mekk-Knights, the World Legacy storyline follows the adventures of childhood friends Auram, Ib, Ningirsu, and their small dragon Imduk. The adventurers are chosen by a fairy named Lee to become World Heroes, and are bestowed with the task to recover the seven World Legacies, powerful artifacts from before the world's collapse, so they can save the world.

A full overview of the story is found in the Master Guide 6 book; a translation of the book's descriptions can be found here. Additional lore info are scattered throughout other official publications; a summary on the lore of Krawlers can be found here.

This metaplot is featured as a playable storyline in Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel. For other Yu-Gi-Oh! metaplots, see here.

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The Metaplot contains examples of:

• Advanced Ancient Humans: Before the Mekk-Knight of the Morning Star apocalypse (which happened far before the starting point of the story), Earth was populated by a technologically advanced and aesthetically modern civilization. Most of the technology seems to have been lost after the apocalypse.
• Aerith and Bob: The main characters names range from the rather common "Lee" to the uncommon "Auram" to the outright fantastical "Ningirsu".
• After the End: A long time ago, an unknown apocalypse devastated the world, making the mechanical Krawlers and Mekk-Knights the new rulers of the world and forcing humans into small hidden communities.
• And the Adventure Continues: In the ending, Ib is revived as Lib, the World Key Blademaster, granted the eighth World Legacy, the World Key, and tasked to seal the World Legacies forever so the tragedy will not repeat again. In the final card of the story, The World Legacy, Lib and Imduk set out on another journey, and gaze into the sky full of stars.
• Apocalypse How: The apocalypse that devastated Earth happened when Lee, back then still a living scientist, rigged the Mekk-Knight of the Morning Star (which is built with the power of the Key), to activate the World Gears' destruction effects, causing mass destruction on the surface of the Earth.
• Arc Welding: The appearance of Avida, Rebuilder of Worlds strongly implies that the World Legacy setting takes place in some counterpart of the Duel Terminal setting, as said monster is a counterpart of "Sophia, Goddess of Rebirth" and "Tierra, Source of Destruction" and has "Qli" monsters integrated into its design.
• Bittersweet Ending: In the end, Lee's plots are foiled, and the world's collapse is averted with everyone revived. However, Auram has sacrificed himself and merged with the World Gears to become Avida, and Ningirsu has been revived as the world's protector Girsu, the Orcust Mekk-Knight. With both Auram and Ningirsu ascended, Lib is now the only member of the party still on Earth, and will have to continue her adventures with only Imduk in her company. However, Girsu has pledged to forever protect Lib in secret, and Auram-Avida is guiding her through the World Key sword.
• Brought Down to Normal: Lee takes away Auram, Ningirsu, and Imduk's World Chalice powers during the climax of the first act, reverting them to their initial forms.
• Call to Adventure: The first act of the storyline involves Auram, Ib, Ningirsu, and Imduk finding the World Chalice, and being selected by the World Chalice Fairy Lee to recover the seven World Legacies and save the world. They receive their first power up from the World Chalice, and follow the World Legacy's guidance (as shown in "World Legacy Landmark") to travel towards the other World Legacies.
• Dub-Induced Plot Hole: You see that flavor text for Avram at the top of the page? That was cut entirely in the English print of the card and replaced with a generic one-liner that is completely out of context unless you know exactly what's happening at that point in the story.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • Knightmare Incarnation Idlee in story is defeated by Dingirsu, the Orcust of the Evening Star, as depicted on the card Orcust Crescendo. In gameplay, Idlee can't be destroyed by card effects, but both Dingirsu and Orcust Crescendo can remove her because Dingirsu can send her to the graveyard, while Orcust Crescendo can banish her.
  • World Legacy Bestowal, known as World Legacy Choice in OCG, offers a choice of two effects: one sends an enemy Link monster to the Graveyard, the other lets you search out a Cyberse monster after banishing 7 World Legacy monsters from the Graveyard. The two effect options reflect the two choices faced by Avramax at that point in the story: he can either destroy the World Gears, or merge with it. The former corresponds to the first choice since the World Gears is a Link monster and can be sent to the graveyard with this effect, the latter corresponds to the second effect because the god that is formed when Avramax merges with the World Gears, Avida, is a Cyberse monster, and can be searched out with this effect.
• Humongous Mecha: Dingirsu, the Orcust of the Evening Star, is effectively an enormous mecha in the form of a centaur, forged by Ningirsu from the Babel tower.
• I Have Many Names: Every single character in the metaplot gets a new name when they receive a new character-specific monster card depicting their current state after some story progression.
• MacGuffin:
  • The seven World Legacies are the main MacGuffins of the storyline, as they are said to grant significant power when all seven are recovered. It turns out that while the World Legacies are powerful, they aren't the most powerful MacGuffin that all the factions are looking for, which turns out to be the "Key".
  • The power of the "Key", which is held inside Ib and her staff, is the real MacGuffin of the storyline sought after by Lee and Ningirsu. The "Key" has the powers to manipulate the World Legacies and activate the World Gears and trigger apotheosis.
• Mechanical Lifeforms: The Krawlers are a race of mechanical monsters controlling most of the Earth, and are subordinate to the Mekk-Knights, who are also mechanical life forms but are not numerous enough to form a full on race. It is suggested that the Krawlers are the actual nervous system of the Earth, meaning that the Earth, itself a giant prison for the World Gears, is an enormous Genius Loci.
• Recycled Premise: The setup of the World Legacy storyline is basically a JRPG setup; a group of young adventurers set out to recover seven ancient artifacts so they can protect the world. The way the layers of reveals completely derail the premise and escalate the situation into a divine battle is very similar to some JRPGs too. More specifically, many elements of the story are nearly directly lifted from the Xeno series of JRPGs by Tetsuya Takahashi and Monolithsoft, most obviously Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and Xenogears.
• Science Fantasy: Though the story is very fantastical and involves many magical powers and outright dragons, the general artstyle is very technological, with monsters having the appearance of robots and powerful beings having Tron Lines.
• Seeks Another's Resurrection: The conflict in Act 2 (from the Time Skip onwards) is initially motivated by Ningirsu's desire to resurrect Ib by collecting all the World Legacies.
• Spiritual Successor: This storyline is a spiritual sequel to the Duel Terminal storyline following Duel Terminal's conclusion in the series 9 booster packs. There are also hints that the World Legacy story is set in the same meta-world as Duel Terminal, given the World Gears' similar appearance to the Qliphorts.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Though they are not explicitly stated to be in a romantic relationship, the relationship between childhood friends Auram and Ib largely play this trope straight: in the first act, Ib is captured and sacrifices herself before Auram could save her, while in Act 2, Auram is forced to sacrifice his humanity in order to save the world.
• Time Skip: There is a time skip in the story in between the cards released in the Flames of Destruction pack and the cards in the Cybernetic Horizon pack, during which Auram formed Crusadia, while Ningirsu created the Orcusts.
• Title Drop: An atypical version of it. World Legacy, the main card archetype that depicts most of the major story beats, uses the name all the time as is required for it to be an archetype, which in turn leads to it becoming the common series name. However, the card depicting the very definite final story beat of the entire storyline is called The World Legacy, highlighting the now-commonly accepted title and signifying the end of the entire story.
• Two Guys and a Girl: The central trio of protagonists consists of the boys Auram and Ningirsu and the girl Ib.
• We Used to Be Friends: Following the Time Skip, Ningirsu has turned evil and now desires the World Legacies to revive Ib, and turned against Auram. The two (now Crusadia Maximus and Longirsu, the Orcust Orchestrator, respectively) ended up dueling in the artwork◊ of Orcustrated Attack.