Ryūga-verse

The Ryūga-verse is an unofficial term to differentiate the original series and the alternative spin-off, featuring Ryūga Dōgai instead of Kouga Saejima or Raiga Saejima.

Universe Description

Kouga meets Rian, whom he deduced originated from parallel world similar to his.

After the end of Makai Flash Knight, The One Who Shines in the Darkness series was created. Originally explained as story in the future, where Kouga no longer wields the Garo armor, it was later stated in Makai Tales that events featuring Ryūga Dōgai was actually in an alternate universe parallel to that of Saejima family's universe. It is a world where Kouga never existed and the previous golden knight had died, using his life and the armor's power to stop a great evil. After the Golden Knight died, the armor lost its golden shine and there was no knight to succeed him as the next Garo. This is where the story begins, Ryūga succeeding as the new Garo and then going rogue. Although much about the realm is similar to the original universe, the Horrors' lore is slightly different. The knights are mainly governed by priests, have a different hierarchy of power in their order, and the priests utilize advanced magical technology to help them combat horrors on par with knights. While Watch Dogs do exist, they aren't as proliferate and often rely on the priests to delegate their missions. Orders Document exists, but with more convenient forms of communication, it's only used in formal and less urgent orders. The most defining moment that clearly separates the universe was when Makai Priestess Rekka and Rian met and realized the Garos they supported have different wielders.

Chronology

• The One Who Shines in the Darkness
• Gold Storm Flight
• Makai Tales
• Fang of God
• Fang of God: JINGA

Alternate Universe or Alternate Future?

The status of whether the Ryūga-verse is set in the future or in an alternative timeline is still a debated issue; with the alternate timeline being a popular fan-theory; the only thing that has been confirmed from official sources is that The One Who Shines in the Darkness takes place in the 2200's. Mistranslations of the Makai Tales episode featuring a teamup between Rekka and Rian into English have not helped this matter, as depending on the preferred translator either 'time' or 'world' were used simultaneously to refer to dialogue about the 'place' and 'period' by which both of the respective characters belonged to. This is not helped by the episode in question because the teamup was facilitated through the actions of the Horror Eyrith, whose ability to affect time is confirmed in The Makai Flower to not be able to affect alternative universes at all, but only the timeline she exists within. To date there has been no official confirmation concerning the relation between the Ryuga-content and the Saejima timeline.

Taking into the account of noticeable differences in established lore between Original Universe and Ryūga-verse below however, the possibility of Ryūga-verse series truly set in the alternate universe is much more likely:

	Original Series	Ryūga-verse
Origins of Soul Metal	Unknown	Originated from Zedom's seeds.
Garo Armor	Obtains a temporary upgrade through the feelings and spiritual powers of others, its golden shine is purely cosmetic.	Its powers are tied to its golden shine and its upgrades may be reused.
Makai Armors	Have time limits which result in Lost Soul Beast transformations, can summon Madōbas	Have neither shown the time limit or the ability to summon Madōbas.
Watch Dogs	Mostly passive, strict, possessing lack of empathy, and origins remained a mystery.	Suggestively non-exist until Gold Storm Flight where they more approachable and even willing to assist their Knights and Priest if deemed necessary. Confirmed to be veteran Makai Priests.

An important aspect of Garo franchise fans greatly overlooked is Zaji himself. To elaborate this further, Zaji is an immortal monster born from malices of Horrors slain by bearers of Garo, and thus will do anything to destroy Golden Knights if it means using their loved ones. Zaji made it clear that he doesn't discriminate between bearers of Garo title regardless of where they are and WHEN they come from, as he was able to sense the light of Garo within others (Rekka and Rian respectively), even when they came from different times and realities. In addition, Zaji possessed power over space which allows him to create pocket dimensions where he has greater advantage over his opponents, coupled with Eyrith's power over time could've explained the team up. As such, it can be inferred that that the real reason of this debate may lie with Zaji's status as most underrated character in Garo franchise as a whole, with most fans dimissed him as ordinary Horror and simple monster-of-the-week.

Notes & Trivia

• Despite official sources' statement that the first entry of Ryūga-verse series, The One Who Shines in the Darkness, takes place in the distant future (2200's), the entire setting of the series is mostly similar with that of early 21th Century Era akin to Original Series instead of actual futuristic/cyberpunk world it suggested. This further exacerbated in the events of Fang of God: JINGA at which the said universe's civilization remained unchanged even after considerable time gap between the latter and Fang of God (which estimated to be decades).