Vorticon

The Vorticon are a race of grayish, dog-like, bipedal aliens featured in the "" computer games. They have formidable claws, rayguns and sometimes work as, oddly enough, ninjas. They were invented by Tom Hall.

History

In the second and third episodes of the Keen series, it is revealed that the Vorticon were originally a peaceful race, ruled by a Vorticon King. At some unknown moment in their history, Mortimer McMire, Keen's arch-rival at school, was able to force them to use his mind-belts, thus controlling their thoughts and actions. He turned them evil and belligerent, and forced them to revere him as the Grand Intellect. The only Vorticons unaffected by the mind-belts were the ancient Vorticon Elders, seen in episode two, who were kept in stasis chambers. Not much is known of the time before the Grand Intellect.

Mortimer planned on using the Vorticon to destroy Earth, so he sent them to establish an outpost on Mars. At least four Vorticon grunts were stationed there, with orders to distract Commander Keen when he arrived at the planet. In episode one of the games, the Vorticon stole vital parts from Keen's spaceship while he was visiting Mars, and hid them in different Martian cities.

Meanwhile, the Vorticon Mothership was stationed above Earth, preparing eight cannons pointed at major Earth cities: Paris, London, Rome, Moscow, Sydney, Cairo, New York, and Washington D.C. However, Keen was able to defeat the Vorticon on Mars, and repaired his spaceship. Using blueprints of the Vorticon Mothership he took from one of the Vorticons he defeated, he was able to infiltrate the ship. In episode two of the games, after fighting the Vorticon and their robots, Keen eventually disabled each of the Tantalus Rays in the Mothership, and foiled the Vorticon attack.

The Vorticon Elders at the Mothership revealed Keen the truth of the Vorticon's origins. Keen travelled to Vorticon VI to confront the Grand Intellect, where the Vorticon were preparing to kill him at any cost. In episode three of the games, Keen explored Vorticon VI, fighting hordes of Vorticon. When he reached the Castle of the Grand Intellect, he realized that he was actually his rival Mortimer. Mortimer had built a device called the "Mangling Machine" inside his castle, to protect him and to destroy Keen in case he reached him. However, unbeknown to Keen, Mortimer had left an android duplicate of himself inside the Machine, and had left to complete his other plans. Keen was able to defeat the Mangling Machine and the being he thought was Mortimer, and set the Vorticon free. The Vorticon King awarded Keen the "Big V" in order to show him his gratitude.

Homeplanet and lifestyle

Vorticon VI is the homeplanet of the Vorticons. It is featured in episode 3 of the series. Its atmosphere and gravity seem to be similar to those of Earth. Its surface is covered mostly by water, and it has at least four continents or large islands, and one smaller island. The soil of the planet has a distinct purplish coloration.

The Vorticon live mostly on two of the continents: Vortiville, which contains several villages; and New Vorticon, where the main Vorticon city is located. Another of the continents is reserved for military installations, which include Fort Vorticon and Cape Canavorta. The last continent is where the Caves of Oblivion are located, a maze of darkness and dangers. In that same continent, the Grand Intellect built his Castle.

Vorticon lifestyle is in many ways similar to Earth's: they live in houses and buildings with living rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, dinning rooms and garages. Furniture is very similar to Earth's. Most of the houses have a painting of a vague sillouhette of the Grand Intellect. There are recreational areas with fountains and trees similar to their Earth counterparts. There are also schools for the young Vorticons, in which they learn the English language and information on Commander Keen. For transportation, Vorticons use anti-gravity cars, and teleporters to travel from one continent to another, or between separate sections of one continent.

Vorticon speak "Omnispeak", a standard galactic language. For writing, they use the Standard Galactic Alphabet. Many signs written in this alphabet can be found in Vorticon VI and in the Vorticon Mothership.

Vorticons eat Earth-looking food, such as candy bars, burgers, cakes, and cola-beverages (Vorta-Cola and Diet Vorta-Cola). Weapons can be found in most Vorticon houses; the most common one is a purple raygun, the Vorticon Rail-Gun. However, most Vorticons seem reluctant to use them, relying on their natural abilities for self-defense. Vorticon children play a dangerous game of jacks, with large balls and deadly bouncing jacks. There are stuffed-animal versions of different Vorticon that seem to be popular.

Young Vorticon are very good at jumping, and mature males can also perform impressive jumps. However, they seem to fear darkness, and will not jump at all if there is no light present.

Other species inhabiting Vorticon VI include the easily frightened Foobs (small, yellow, jolly creatures that explode when touched) and the green, egg-shaped bad singers, the Meeps (whose song can travel through walls and kills anyone listening). A large, dinosaur-like sea creature, known as "Messy", lives in the oceans of Vorticon VI.

Hierarchy

Vorticons start out as small, bluish, juvenile citizens, usually called "youths". However, they are far from helpless, as they possess considerable hyperactivity. They also possess the ability to stun someone upon impact. Youths have unusually long arms, which they use to aid them while running to achieve faster speeds and higher jumps. Youths are sometimes sent by the Grand Intellect on off-planet missions aboard the Vorticon Mothership, as training to turn into fierce warriors.

When they mature, Vorticon fur changes from blue to gray. Female Vorticons grow enormously rotund and resilient, in addition to breathing fireballs. They are also extremely overprotective of their children. Male Vorticons become armorless grunts in the Army. In episode one, Commander Keen comes in contact with a Vorticon outpost in Mars, where the grunts have grown specially tough. Their leader is a Commander class unit that cannot be easily shot down. Grunts use different-colored uniforms: blue (for scouts), yellow (for grunts in off-planet missions) and red (for regular grunts).

Grunts that are specially skilled are trained as Vorticon Elite warriors. They wear pink-and-blue outfits, and carry a Vorticon HyperPistol, a special raygun reserved specially for them. To show their loyalty to the Grand Intellect, they have their ears clipped. Vorticon Elites are usually sent to difficult off-planet missions aboard the Vorticon Mothership.

The land-based defense of Vorticon VI is composed of the VortiNinjas, ninja experts in hand-to-hand combat and very difficult to take down. They are specially chosen by the Grand Intellect. They study in Vorticon military academies, and wear black outfits.

The Vorticon Elders, wise masters of lore and common sense, are kept in stasis and possess knowledge from before the time of the Grand Intellect. They appear only in stasis prisons on the Mothership in episode two. The Elders are kept in the Mothership to serve as a source of knowledge in the most difficult Vorticon missions. They are able to give their advice from their stasis chambers to anyone that requires it. They communicate telepathically.

The Vorticon are ruled by the mysterious Grand Intellect, whom they revere and fear. After Keen frees the Vorticon in episode 3, it is revealed that they were originally led by a King, who takes his seat back after the defeat of the Grand Intellect. The highest honor the King can give is a medal called the "Big V".

Vorticon Mothership

The Vorticon Mothership is a large, Vorticon shaped spaceship built by the Vorticon. It is featured in episode 2 of the series. Its main weapons are eight X-14 Tantalus Ray cannons, powered by cells from the Big Purple Space Amoeba. Each of them is capable of destroying a complete city. The Mothership has several sections: two living quarters, two weaponries, two engine rooms, a control room, a cafeteria, and eight Tantalus Ray rooms. The ship areas are very hazardous for living beings: there are plasma pits, acid pools, flame pipes, and electrical sparks almost everywhere.

The ship's crew consists mostly of grunts and Vorticon Elites. There are also Vorticon youths in training, and Vorticon Elders for advice. There are two types of robots aboard the Mothership: scrubs and guard robots. Scrubs are small, red robots, that can walk on walls and ceilings. They perform menial duties and maintain the ship functioning. The guard robots are hovering sentries that guard special areas of the ship. They shoot powerful laser beams, and cannot be destroyed.