Origins[]

Doctor Alia Gregor began her career as an A.I.M. scientist. She wrote a paper on mutant repopulation following the Genoshan genocide titled "The Cro-Magnon Problem". While Alia had initially believed that mutantkind would be unable to recover from the genocide, her findings instead showed that due to cascading biological and cultural variables, the genocide had only bought humanity time, and that within twenty years, mutants would be the dominant species on Earth.

Alia's paper was influential in the creation of Orchis, a clandestine organisation created to oppose the replacement of mankind by mutants. Alia was recruited to the organisation, together with her husband Erasmus Mendel.

Orchis[]

With the establishment of the mutant nation of Krakoa, Orchis began to ramp up their operations by constructing a Mothermold. Alia led a team of Orchis operatives, aided by Omega Sentinel, in taking possession of Sol's Hammer, a partial dyson sphere originally constructed by Iron Man. Now re-titled the Orchis Forge, this would become their main base.^[3]

After station personnel started to board the Forge, Dr. Gregor was contacted by her husband Captain Mendel about a Shi'ar Scout ship rapidly approaching the station. Mendel surmised that it was a team of X-Men who had come to shut down their project. Dr. Gregor redirected all the Sentinels then occupied with mining operations with returning to protect the Forge.

With the X-Men docking their ship and preparing to board the station, a desperate Erasmus surmised that the only way to stop them was to sacrifice himself by attempting to blow up the X-Men's ship. While two X-Men were killed, most survived and were able to complete their mission, destroying the Mother Mold.^[4]

The X-Men had targeted the Mother Mold out of fear that it would lead to the creation of Nimrod, a super-sentinel capable of threatening Krakoa. However, by causing the death of Erasmus Mendel, they instead provoked Alia in attempting to build a weapon against the mutants and to try and bring back her husband to life,^[7] unaware that she was being watched by Mystique.^[8]

Alia succeed in constructing a Nimrod and implanting her husband's memories and personality within it. Now reborn, Erasmus was able to spot Mystique disguised among the crowd of Orchis agents, having come to assassinate Alia and prevent Nimrod from coming online. In order to prevent the station from being destroyed, Erasmus was forced to sacrifice himself again, erasing his personality, leaving only Nimrod, and leaving Alia inconsolable.^[5]

Fall of X[]

Orchis were soon able to succeed in their goals of destroying Krakoa, launching an attack on the Hellfire Gala after hacking the Krakoan medicines, and using the threat of using the medicines to kill humans to blackmail Professor X into forcing every mutant to leave Earth for Arakko.^[9]

Still struggling with the death of her husband, Alia visited Cyclops, the X-Men's captured leader, in his cell before his trial in Paris. During their conversation, Cyclops stoked doubts Alia had already been having about Orchis. After the death of her husband and Nimrod's activation, a part of the organization became inaccessible to her, a part commanding huge resources with no oversight.^[10]

Alia had in fact stumbled upon the true purpose of Orchis. The creation of the organisation had been orchestrated by Omega Sentinel, who wished to pit humanity and mutantkind against each other while she and the other Sentinels summoned a Dominion that would allow them to ascend and become part of its infinite, godlike A.I.^[11] She rescued Cyclops just as Omega Sentinel was about to execute him, and together they pursued Nimrod to Cyclops' old home on the Moon.^[11]

Alia confronted Nimrod, asking what the Sentinels were doing, hoping that her and her husband's roles in his creation would prompt his honesty. Instead, Nimrod brutally murdered her.^[11]

• The surnames of Erasmus and Alia are a reference to Gregor Mendel, the founder of the science of genetics.