Oddworld theories

If you have any theories about the Oddworld creatures, ecosystem, environments, or even Oddworld as a planet, here is where you can share and discuss them with other members. Since I don't have any ideas aout anything, I'll leave it up to someone else to start. Now get discussing!

I have developed a theory about sligs. Skillya is most likely the only queen slig on the continent we've seen in Oddworld. However on a map of Oddworld it reveals that there are many continents. Therefore I think it safe to assume that each has a different queen.

The idea of having every slig born from Skillya is somewhat absurd even by Oddworld standards. Besides even if they were then think about their life span. On the Oddworld website it is said they have an average life span of something like 20 years. There would be a massive shortage. And sligs are probrably constantly dieing on the job. Even if queen Skillya gave birth to a new slig every 5 seconds it would not be enough. They would have to be transported, trained, and hired before they started working. There would definately be a shortage on sligs if a couple of continents depended on having sligs.

If my theory is so far correct then maybe certain queens had different personalities giving birth to slightly different sligs. Therefore sligs may have several subspecies. Not to mention the queens may perhaps give birth to other queens as they get older. Thereafter they might be raised by the queen. Or raised by a Shrink so glukkons could be certain that the next slig queen wouldn't be less productive. But as the queen grows she will most likely have a slightly different personality than her mother. Therfore giving birth to even less slightly different sligs. And so the chain goes on with a form of evolution.

However all this about the queen begs to ask the question: Can female sligs be born unfertile? If so then are female sligs shunned like human females once were? Or are they accepted like in today's society? Or must they go in disguise to avoid being prosecuted? Maybe female sligs that aren't fertile are cast away being considered no use unless they're either fertile or male. The list of possibilities goes on with many different questions. But one of the bigger ones are: Can unfertile sligs become fertile? If so then how? Is it like humans? Or is it like some other creature? Or is it an entirely new method entirely? There are so many ideas its almost not even worth writing them down. But I shall give several ideas.
1. Female sligs are inheiritantly fertile. A rather boring idea.
2. Female sligs cannot become fertile if born unfertile. Again rather boring.
3. Female sligs mate the same way as humans. A rather odd idea.
4. Female sligs become fertile when a male slig touches her skin. This is done my microscopic organisms living on males skin. On contact with another microscopic organism, living on female sligs, they produce whatever needed to make a female slig fertile. ANOTHER question springs from this theory. What do unfertile female sligs need to become fertile if they can become fertile?
5. Female sligs need only see a male slig to become fertile. Unlikely but it's fun to think about.
6. Female sligs become fertile when the time is right.
7. Female sligs have a mating ritual involving both sligs rubbing their tails together. This theory is by far the most beleiveable in my eyes. After all sligs rarely show their tails. Perhaps organisms living on it create a chemical reaction making the female slig fertile.

This is where I stop to let others take the wheel. This is probrably reaching the longest post on this forum so I fell it is a good idea to stop now. Besides my right shoulder and right side of my neck hurt.

If you create a post longer than this I congratulate you.

It might be a bad idea for Stranger to be Squeek, because Stranger is strong, but Lorne Lanning said that the characters you thought were powerful would turn out to be unimportant. Why couldn't we find out what Stranger's real name was? Maybe because SW was the prologue to SO. And symbiosis can mean parasitism, and there are Oktigi parasitic on Steef. And here's some proof that Meeches aren't extinct: http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/scriptures/interviews/2000/05/You_want_INSIDE_info_How's_this...

Huaro, you might find this interesting (if you haven't read it already) http://oddworldlibrary.net/oddblog/specials/Nate_interviews_Lorne_Lanning
There's quite a lot there to read but it answers loads of questions about the Quintology. I think it even says something about Stranger's real name, though I'm not sure.

@ Oddey, oh my, that is a long post. You have some very interesting theories though. I think if a female Slig was infertile she would be seen as useless and would be killed (like in Sligstorm, the Slig is a 'mutant' and so is shunned). My theory is that females start out looking like males, but when they reach a certain age their abdomens enlargen and they begin to ovulate, at which time they are mated with a male 'drone', much like ants (and Mudokons). It's a boring theory, but that's just what I think.

I also think that there are different species of similar creatures. I'll use Scrabs as an example. The Scrabs we've seen in Abe's Oddysee I like to call desert Scrabs due to their natural habitat and their colouration. But what if there were others, like forest Scrabs or swamp Scrabs or even mountain Scrabs? Each one would have a different colouration and most likely a different body build to better suit them to that environment. And of course there could even be things like pygmy Scrabs (a very small species) giant Scrabs (a very large species) spotted Scrabs, striped Scrabs, etc etc.

What I'm trying to say is that creatures such as Paramites and Scrabs (as well as other things) might not be limited to one species and a couple of subspecies. What if 'Scrab' was just the name of the genus? This would open up a whole load of possibilities for other types that could exist on Mudos and other continents (though they're probably all extinct).

Yes, I read it already, and it doesn't tell you Stranger's name. Most likely, Stranger isn't Squeek, but it is possible.

Hmm, that's really weird. There was something where someone asked Lorne Lanning about Stranger's real name, and he replied that he's never actually thought about it. I;m sure it was in that interview, but I must be wrong.

I don't think Stranger is Squeek. The profile just doesn't match up. If you think about it logicaly then Squeek is most likely a Slurg (they are low on the food chain, they live in symbiosis with Fleeches, they are almost always overlooked by players, and they squeek when you step on them). However I don't believe that a purple slug was going to be the third hero of the Quintology. And if it was, then oh dear.

Squeek and Stranger may not even have anything to do with each other. Many games or movies change their ideas all the time. Squeek may have been what they had in mind before replacing him with Stranger. The reasons for this are that Oddworld found out that most gamers didn't want to play the kind of platformers the first two Oddworld games had been. They wanted shooters. Squeek, whoever and whatever he was, wouldn't really have been able to fit the bill. Stranger ,on the other hand, was perfect for this new style of gameplay.

As for what Strangers real name is... I don't think he has one. His character doesn't need one and is better off without one. I think when he hid his legs, he fashioned himself a nickname to sort of keep nosy people away. After all in appearance Stranger is a someone you don't want to mess with. Add a name to intimidate further and he'd probrably be left alone in todays society. Unfortuneatly the Clakkerz in SW are not todays society.

Now as a response to GlacierDragons theory about subspecies: I think you're wrong. Why, I don't know. But hey, freedom of speech.

Erm Oddey; I wasn't talking about subspecies, I was talking about genera and species within those genera. Reading what I posted before, I realise that it doesn't make much sense. I can't really explain what I'm talking about without going into all the stuff about the biological taxonomic classification of organisms, and since I think many of you will be uninterested in all that I think I'll just leave it here.

Stranger's real name is...

























































Steve.

Oddey wrote:

Squeek and Stranger may not even have anything to do with each other. Many games or movies change their ideas all the time. Squeek may have been what they had in mind before replacing him with Stranger. The reasons for this are that Oddworld found out that most gamers didn't want to play the kind of platformers the first two Oddworld games had been. They wanted shooters.

OWI would never turn the Quintology into a shooter. They would have to change everything about.

Not necessarily. The Quintology would stay the same, it's just one game that would be a shooter. As Oddey said, they needed to adapt the game to appeal to their target audience of that time.

Anyway, I don't think Stranger's Wrath is a proper part of the Quintology, but just another bonus game.

I have an idea. We know that the cure for Gorman Disenza is Gabbit blood. Well, maybe, at the end of MO, when Tex needed the Gabbiar, maybe he had Gorman Disenza, and he needed Gabbit blood as a cure! I think that maybe what happened next is that Tex's symbiotic relationship with the virus got him to the bottom of the food chain by Squeek's Oddysee, and he is Squeek! And Khanzumerz are not a species: http://www.oddworld.com/alf/ow_dearalf04.shtml

Hmmm, interesting idea. It's possible, I suppose...

I didn't find anything about Khanzumerz in that link, but then again I just scanned it. I assume you're refering to the word 'Khanzumer' being a broad term for many different species?

It says that the consumers of Oddworld products are everyone. This means that everyone is a Khanzumer. The AE manual says that the Khanzumerz are the most important creatures on Oddworld, so everyone on Oddworld is very important. Also, Khanzumerz are the only evil creatures on Oddworld because every character in Oddworld is evil in a way.