An explanation of these stories and Lelund
I recommend reading this BEFORE any of the stories etc.
the science bit | castes | skin colour | age | how did it start? | borrowed names?
influences | odd names | far fetched, you think
Ok. Bear in mind that when I was a kid, the Earth-like planet of Lelund was supposed to be a substitute for Earth itself, although Earth also existed, so if you like, Earth had a twin.
However, Earth was light years away and only the Transformers, using their incredible space bridge technology, had ever successfully bridged the gap, as far as Lelunders knew.
Basically, Lelund is a planet very like Earth; that can support Terran plant life, wildlife and human beings. Of course it does have differences, although many of the original names of places and natural features on Lelund are named after or closely after earthen places/features. The reason for this is simple; the race of men joined the populace of Lelund very early in its history (i.e. when Lelunders were at a very basic technology level and records of their history were scarce, plus communication was poor).
The exact happenings of how men (and women, obviously!) got to exist on Lelund has never been written or explained, but it is thought that a non Lelund-dwelling race brought humans to the planet at some point along with themselves (possibly a race with cranial protrusions – though some say a spirit or spirits did it), bringing humans from the archaic era on Earth, possibly around the early medieval times. This would explain why men and Lelunders are totally mixed in with each other, and why genetically most of the inhabitants are pretty half caste and fairly humanoid. Those who look un-human and fairly alien just blend in and no one thinks of them as alien, unlike great sagas such as Lord of the Rings and Middle Earth, where races are fairly separate and elves are distinctly separate in their living from Hobbits, and Hobbits from Dwarves, and Dwarves from Goblins etc.
Inhabitants of
Lelund come in four basic castes to date;
[ back
to top ]
Very slender humanoid – This caste of Lelunder are incredibly slender and thin, although muscle covered which makes them deceptively tough in the main. (Examples include Bumblebee and pre-death Altensho Goth Snr
Blocked humanoid – ‘Blockers’ as they sometimes get called when other choose to mock them, look rather like Kryten off Red Dwarf, for want of a better comparison. (Examples include Adam Winsur and Split
Basic humanoid – These, no matter what colour their skin is, look pretty much like humans do. In general they can be chubby, short or tall, fat or thin, well built or unfit etc. These are considered to be the closest thing Lelund has left to the original ‘race of men’, but almost all of them have Lelunder blood running through their veins, since their families/houses have been living on Lelund now for years and for most of them, centuries. (Examples include King Olivius Potar, Boom Loomer and M.Bison
Protrusion humanoid - These Lelunders have some strange, genetic bolt-on from days before recorded history; in the form of various protrusions coming almost always from the top of their head. The most well-know, modern example I could compare this to today would be to a Pikmin! (Examples include Eddy Powerman, Liv’er, Stylor
The three main skin colourations are listed below, all skin colours have been listed as seen on each caste
Caucasia
Yellowish-skinne
Ruddy-skinne
Alien-skinned (these unusual skin tones are pale and tinted varying shades of blue to green
Very dark-skinned (dark brown to utter black
Some Lelunders have a bit of more than one genetic caste in them; for example, Edward Powerman has a ruddy skin completion, an extremely wiry and thin form and a protrusion from his cranium. It is thought that genetics on Lelund are so alien and messed up that anyone can have a child of a different caste; although generally families tend to spread similar genes. But it is not at all unknown for a Caucasian family/house to have a dark-skinned child arrive into it.
Due to the genetics on Lelund, the castes and the skin-types etc. , and the fact that only the genes from the race of men have brought man’s ailments and health issues to the planet, most of those born on Lelund have extremely long life; near immortal life in fact. For a Lelunder to die, he or she usually has to be weakened by being very sick, killed by an illness, killed (by weapon, drowning etc.) or by being very, very old – or by some combination of the above.
They age very, very slowly after the initial quick burst of youth. The places of education serve Lelunders well into their twenties because whilst their bodies age slowly once they have reached adulthood, their mental age seems to behave much the same; meaning some very immature (by Earthen standards!) 30 year olds exist on Lelund, whose bodies look, at the most, 25 in age.
Scientifically speaking, they are born, they grow through childhood within 10 years and then everything slows right down, meaning every terran year above ten they age, they mature about 40 per cent as much as a terran does and their body ages about 40 per cent as much. Obviously this varies from character to character; some aging much more quickly than this and some even less! What this does mean however, is that it is quite acceptable for 15 year olds to marry (or pair up) to produce offspring of their own, whilst still sitting educational classes and behaving much like children on earth. Boom Loomer is a classic example of the young, adult, Lelund Father
So how did all this unusualness get started
Basically I ‘played’ with all my toys and models together and thus grew to tell stories that included them all. As I grew older the stories began to incorporate more background and more of a feel to them. More characters, although I had a real sense of ‘stay true’ to the old, and in some cases, silly names
For example, one of my characters is called Hand (Handis in full). A child-like name, based around the fact that the model of her only had ‘one hand’. However, the character herself clearly has both hands ;
So, in all honestly, some of the names seem a little silly now. But, to get into the spirit of the thing, I’ve opted to leave many of them as they were. For example, all of the central landmasses were named something-land (Redland, Blueland etc), and this I’ve changed somewhat. Higala, the ancient tribal name of Blueland, is now it’s ‘real name’, and so on
Redland I’ve stuck with, simply because to me, Redland by any other name simply wouldn’t be Redland, you know
Some of the character names you’re familiar with refer to other characters (example, Ultra Magnus is really a giant Transformer Mech – in this he is a mere humanoid Lelunder who happens to be a Prince). This is deliberate, since the people of Lelund were often historically named after similar beings from other worlds or races they’d had contact with.
Some of them (example M.Bison) are simply alternative universe versions of their true selves (Capcom's M.Bison). The deal here is they are ‘what-ifs’. What if Ryu was born on Lelund, as a humanoid, Caucasian male (pretty much the same as he is in Capcom's games), after several generations beforehand (if not many, many generations…) his ancestral family were brought to or arrived in Lelund and began to mix in with the populace, just as everyone else would have been doing at that time, too? So in this reality, Ryu has always been a Lelunder, and although he looks almost identical to his altverse selves, many things about him are slightly different and obvious the world in which he lives is utterly different. For example; Ryu Hoshi is still sitting education classes
So far, influences on Lelund life as far as I remember them are
Gorean culture (recent influence
Destron culture (see Destron Culture web site for further information on what Destron culture entails in my mind
Street Fighter series (large influence
The Transformers (large influence
Power Rangers (limited and loathed now
Rock Lords (limited
Other Mecha (limited
Go-Bots (barely mentioned and very limited!
Lego (large influence – almost all scenes/characters were built from Lego or had a Lego ‘man’ as his or her token
Mario & Luigi (featured briefly
Religious mysticism (of one sort or another, there is a religious/supernatural strain running through the stories
Medieval Novels (various well known knights feature such as Sir Lancelot…
Football School life
The Bible (parts of the saga were written in a Biblical style and similar use of language
Knightmare (the popular children’s adventure series on ITV in the UK influenced the naming of several villains and settings
Other Novels/Fiction book
Other children’s shows/cartoons (such as Bravestar
The Famous Five series (Yan and several others got their names from these!
Simple. When I was a kid, it sounded perfectly acceptable and serious to have a character called ‘Hand’ or ‘Bumm’ or ‘Cab’. In fact, Cab is also the name of a Japanese Transformer
The best way to think of these weird names is to imagine this has been dubbed into English for you J In the same way that Transformer names sound weird or Anime sounds weird dubbed, you get used to it because the characters are just as cool and the fiction/stories just as gripping, regardless of the names and funny sounding language used sometimes. This is the way you should see this universe/reality
Why do people seem to be so young and still have kids who have kids, already?
Heh J Simple – again when I was a kid, matters such as ageing didn’t matter to the story telling process. Try to remember that this is a human equivalent and an Earthen equivalent, not an actual direct copy of Earth or the human race. See the explanation of Lelund genetics, above
Therefore, there is no problem with acting 40 and having great great grandkids, like King O.P does in these stories. If anything it makes them more interesting because you’ve got the slight ‘alien’ feel there to make it different to a straight forward ‘another planet like Earth with humans stuck on it’
Some of the stories seem a little far fetched
It’s Neo-Medieval ‘alien’-eque Earth, for goodness’ sake J
There are knights with swords and horses, martial arts contests in the dojos, schools and football matches mixed in with space stations and radar and teleporting, mixed in with good ole’ fashioned high seas robbery and piracy, ar ...
Let your imagination run rampant, forget the rule book. As a child, your world will do whatever you want to, and only the sensible rules apply. If it makes for a great story, tell it; don’t worry who says it sounds silly. All great fics start out sounding at least a little bit silly
So long as they are internally cohesive, then they are fine
Lastly, I write and wrote for myself. When I was a kid, I told stories because I loved to tell them and to develop characters, to see them come to life in my hands and mind. At the risk of sounding terribly stand offish, it really doesn’t matter to me what others think of what I’ve written, although I love feed back and tips. But the point of this is so that some of you out there can enjoy reading what I enjoyed writing
So, read on … and enjoy them for the fun which they were intended to be. If you prefer very critical analysis of your written entertainment, you may wish to seek other web sites