The Vanguard

From TLJwiki

The Vanguard, a breakaway faction of the Sentinel, want the twin worlds of Stark and Arcadia reunited, and their plan in TLJ was to do this by controlling the Guardian.

They originally represented the scientists present at the Divide, the Starkian 6 of the 13 founding members of the Sentinel. Although originally faithful to the Sentinel, distance from their Arcadian brothers led to a forgetfulness of the importance of the Balance, and a desire to see the Two Worlds reunited, which finally led to a schism.

The Vanguard's plan to install their own Guardian involves finding and obtaining children 'born to the Balance' - i.e., Guardian candidates - and running experiments in an attempt to control them. These experiments have largely been a failure, though one resulted in Gordon Halloway's spiritual essence being split in half. Gordon later became head of the Vanguard's secret police.

In Stark, the Vanguard are working under their cover as the Church of Voltec because they cannot recruit openly. Through this religion and the company Malkuth Technologies Incorporated (MTI) they wield great power in Newport and across the world. According to Cortez, "they own multinational companies. They own planets. They own armies."

In Arcadia, April discovers that the ideas and theories of the Vanguard are starting to appeal to many of the people there. One of them is Lorhan, one of Roper Klacks' captives, who scorns the idea of the Balance and the Guardian, calling him a 'naked guy in a tower.' He says that the Vanguard are right, that "magic and science belong together, in the hands of the people". The Marcurian Cups Handler is gleeful at the prospect of a reunited Earth, whereas Karek the map seller is more circumspect, but thinks machines, rather than Arcadian chaos and magic, are the future of mankind.

The Vanguard are powerful, especially in Stark, where they have a secret police, advanced technology, genetic engineering and a vast network at their disposal. In Arcadia they seem to rely on subtler techniques, like spying and infiltration: their agents include the Alchemist Roper Klacks, though their recruiting tactics apparently didn't work on the Gribbler.

Jacob McAllen's role is not entirely spelled out. He is old enough to have led the schism of the Vanguard and he is CEO of MTI, so he is generally seen as being head of the Vanguard by default, but it is possible he took this role later rather than having been there from the beginning.

The Vanguard Agent at the Border House is voiced by Frank Rivers.