Zoid Warrior

"Liberty, courage, and a sense of justice: only a Zoid Warrior who posseses such qualities deserves to win the Royal Cup."

Bit Cloud, The Miracle of Zero: The Wind, the Clouds and Adventure

Zoid Warriors are a class of Zoid Pilot from the Zoids: New Century anime.

Overview

In the ancient past, long before the Empire and the Republic were at war with one another, each country would send its top warriors to a Zoid fighting competition to see who was the best pilot. These competitions ceased and faded into legend while the two nations turned against each other. Following the end of the war, these competitions resumed - Irvine fought in a tournament after helping Van defeat the Zoid Hunters.

Hundreds of years later, the title of Zoid Warrior was given to pilots officially licensed by the Zoids Battle Commission. Zoid Warriors are heroic figures bound by honour to fight fairly according to the rules and regulations outlined by the Commission, and ostensibly participate only in officially sanctioned Zoid Battles. Most Zoid Warriors belong to teams, but some are mercenaries who hire themselves out to whoever's willing to pay, while others fight alone in one-on-one battles. Every Zoid Warrior has a Zoid Gear which they use to input their registration number into their Zoid before a battle. Doing so claims the warrior's ownership of the Zoid and allows the Judge to recognize them as an authorised competitor on the battlefield.

In Zoids: Fuzors, a similar but distinct class of Zoid pilot exist, and are known as Zi Fighters.