Cerebra's Files

Roma first appeared in modern times as second to her father Merlin, when Brian Braddock was made into Captain Britain. Over the course of Brian's career, Roma assisted her father in his work, saving Brian when he was critically wounded, and even killed. After Merlin's apparent death, Roma tried to take a more objective role as the new Guardian of the omniverse, and was not supposed to interfere directly with any specific Captain Britain from the CB Corps. However, she often found herself helping Brian Braddock 616 anyway.

Roma next came to the attention of the X-Men via Colossus's dreams and drawings, warning them of impending danger in Dallas. Forge's magical spell years before had unleashed the Adversary, who threatened to destroy the world. By the time the X-Men arrived, Roma had already been imprisoned in her Starlight Citadel, a giant floating palace made of crystal spires, which normally resided in Otherworld. The X-Men made it up to the Citadel, but were unable to stop the Adversary, though they made him abandon the form of Naze the shaman that it had adopted. Finally, Forge used the same spirit-spell that released the Adversary to contain it again, but the cost was the life forces of the X-Men and Madelyne Pryor. However, when Forge returned to Earth, Roma restored the X-Men to life, saying that the Adversary could never be shut away for good, only contained temporarily. Roma then offered the X-Men their choice of destinations in time and space, and when they chose to return to Earth, she told them that they were now legends, and as such were undetectable by any means other than the naked eye. This condition appears to have been a spell, and wore off as soon as the X-Men were revealed to be alive to the majority of the world. Furthermore, Roma gave the X-Men possession of the Siege Perilous, a mystical talisman that could be used as a gateway to a final reward or a second chance at life.

Immediately thereafter, Roma sent a vision of the Phoenix to Meggan and a dream of Phoenix III to Shadowcat just before Phoenix III returned to Earth from the Mojoverse. These visions caused the formation of the British super-team Excalibur. Though Roma was not involved at all in Excalibur's early adventures, she continued Merlin's manipulations, placing a "blunder factor" on Captain Britain that limited his leadership potential and forced him to work with the team, and ordering Saturnyne to have the Technet hunt down Phoenix III. Meanwhile, she orchestrated the events that sent the heroes through the omniverse on the so-called "Cross-Time Caper." These actions caused Excalibur to learn to work together and gel as a team.

Months later, Captain Britain was arrested and brought to trial on Otherworld for assaulting his teammate Nightcrawler in a fit of jealous rage. Brian was acquitted, and then learned of the Cosmic Convergence, and energy matrix that powered the entire Captain Britain Corps and was the source of Merlin's and Roma's powers. With this knowledge in hand, Excalibur was able to return to Otherworld when the omniverse begain to collapse due to Necrom's plotting and use of the Anti-Phoenix. Roma then explained to Excalibur that Necrom planned to combine all the alternate realities into the Cosmic Convergence and absorb its energy. Roma showed Excalibur that their team existed for the purpose of healing the frayed omniverse, which they did by combining into a single entity and traveling up the strings of reality. Necrom's plan was foiled, and Merlin was revealed to be alive, but Roma finally made her own move, showing Meggan where to hit the tower that served to link the omniverse together and destroy it, thereby denying even Merlin the vast energies of the convergence.

Roma did not appear to Excalibur until months later, when Captain Britain was nearly beaten to death by the Warpies under the control of the RCX. Roma healed Brian, and realigned the arcane circuitry of his costume to his owne physiology so that it stored and charged energy better (the costume was taken from the estate of the deceased Captain Marshall 998 and was not a custom fit). However, Roma warned that she could no longer come to Brian's aid after this incident, and so it was. However, Roma was pleased to officiate at Brian and Meggan's wedding on Otherworld.

Later still, the Adversary returned to Earth. Roma, at this point nearly powerless, teamed with Naze to summon Forge to fight his nemesis again. Although Roma and was seemingly destroyed, she proved more than resilient and met briefly with Forge before attempting to distract the Adversary while Naze trained with Forge. However, she was still weak from the Adversary's initial attack and was overcome. Fortunately, Forge accepted both sides of his heritage and defeated the dark demon.

Roma returned to guard the omniverse, but then appeared to have gone insane, using a cadre of Warriors to slaughter the Captain Britain Corps. Only Crusader X II and Captain UK survived to join Brian Braddock (now powerless), Meggan, Psylocke and Black Knight III against her. The heroes discovered that Roma herself was imprisoned by the mad computer/android Mastermind II, who hoped to use the Amulet of Right and Excalibur, the Sword of Might to destroy and re-create the omniverse. The heroes, including Captain Britain, whose powers were restored by his father's legacy and Excalibur itself, freed Roma, who took a gut shot from Excalibur and re-directed its energies into Mastermind to destroy it. After Captain Britain wielded the sword to heal the Warriors and return them to human form, Roma abdicated her throne and installed Brian Braddock as Guardian of the omniverse.

Roma stayed on Otherworld for a time to serve as an advisor. During the House of M reality warp, she sent Brian and Meggan back to Earth to deal with the potential threat to the omniverse. Later, she along with Saturnyne rebuilt the Captain Britain Corps, only to see them decimated by the Jaspers that had been resurrected by Jamie Braddock. Then the Starlight Citadel was attacked by the assassin Rougemort and her Janissaries, and Roma was stabbed in or near her heart. Sage was with Roma (having been brought to Otherworld with Excalibur) and Roma, realizing that Merlyn was behind the attack and wanted her knowledge, transferred all her omniversal knowledge to Sage. Merlyn then appeared to kill Roma, though whether death is truly permanent for her is unknown.
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