Orchis is the villainous organization at the center of the the Fall of X, or need a refresher since their introduction in House of X/Powers of X, here's what readers need to know to understand Orchis.
Alongside many other elements of the X-Men's groundbreaking Krakoan Era, Orchis debuted in House of X #1 by Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia, VC's Clayton Cowles, and Jordan D. White. After the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., a vacuum was left among international intelligence and security apparatuses. In the wake of Krakoa's debut as a sovereign mutant nation, human supremacists stepped in to fill the gap. Thus, Orchis was born, named in reference to the orchid which remains a motif throughout the design and hierarchy of the anti-mutant organization. The bulk of Orchis is populated by agents from both active and defunct groups that operate in similar vicinities of the Marvel Universe: A.I.M., S.H.I.E.L.D., S.T.R.I.K.E., S.W.O.R.D., Alpha Flight, H.A.M.M.E.R., A.R.M.O.R., and Hydra.
Orchis Are the Real Architects of the Fall of X
To put it mildly, this year's Hellfire Gala was a catastrophe. Life-giving mutant medicines were turned into bioweapons against humanity, gate technology was encoded to lock out all mutants (save one), and a mass exodus of mutants off-world was staged to look like a massacre of the Gala's human guests. Years of work coalesced into a devastating blow to all of mutantkind. Orchis was already coasting on public goodwill for the key role they played in eliminating the threat posed by a Celestial in A.X.E.: Judgment Day. Their control over the narrative of what occurred at the Hellfire Gala has given Orchis the opportunity to play the hero of humanity, even posing themselves as a common-sense, nonradical defense against mutants. It's insidious fascism at its most effective.
Orchis' Key Players Are a Force to Be Reckoned With
From their executive officers to even part-time contractors, Orchis is stacked with a murderer's row of dastardly villains. Their collaborators range from Hordeculture, a band of elderly botanical super-scientists who hacked Krakoa's plant-based technology, to the Coven Akkaba, the anti-mutant mystical cult who fomented civil war among the X-Men's sister society of mutants on Arakko. Feilong, the anti-mutant industrialist, has taken over Stark International for Orchis, and is using proprietary Iron Man tech to supply them with Stark Sentinels. M.O.D.O.K., Mother Righteous, and Doctor Stasis are in Orchis' employ as well, and they all report to Director Devo, or so they think. In truth, Killian Devo is a pawn for the triumvirate that truly runs Orchis: Omega Sentinel, Nimrod, and Moira X.
The X-Men Must Defeat Orchis to Eliminate AI Supremacy
Karima Shapandar is a human woman infected with Sentinel nanotechnology that transformed her into the Omega Sentinel. Despite this, Shapandar has often been an ally of the X-Men. This changed when a full AI version of the Omega Sentinel's consciousness traveled back in time, commandeering the body of her younger self. This Karima is the one who founded Orchis with Killian Devo as her puppet. This Karima is also the one who ensured that Dr. Alia Gregor would bring the ultimate expression of Sentinel technology, Nimrod, into reality. She is driven by the future she lived through: one where mutants always win. Now at her and Nimrod's side is the demented AI self of Moira X, driven mad by thousands of years living where mutants always lose.
Now that Orchis has nearly wiped all mutants from planet Earth, the greatest population of super beings that could have protected mutants and humans alike from a future of AI supremacy is gone. The resources at Orchis' disposal are seemingly endless, and their tenuous network of super-villainous collaborators is vast. The odds are against the X-Men, but their fate is not sealed; Orchis may have won, but now they have to hold on to their victory.
