This whole new take on the MOTU universe actually came about whilst I was in the chat room talking with fellow orger Darth Latveria. The topic of discussion had started off about our own fan characters that we had either completed or were currently working on, then for some reason the topic of things we don’t like in MOTU came up. Because, for some unknown reason, we share a similarities in views, we agreed on almost everything that each of us said we did not like. That is when I came up with the idea for us to recreate MOTU from the ground up. Keeping the heart of MOTU intact, whilst giving a whole new spin on it. Basically, we would create a series bible of sorts, sticking to a few basic ground rules and writing up bios and origins for the main characters.
What we strive to do is take a concept that is inherently unrealistic and treat it as realistically as possible. When looking at characters and concepts like Skeletor, He-Man, Castle Grayskull and Beast Man, we suspend belief enough to accept their existence, but when trying to figure out what they do, we base it on how people would realistically react under a set of given circumstances. For instance, in a world where there are laser guns, why would anyone ever decide to use a sword? Outside of a person like He-Man, who has special skills and a special sword, no one would use these melee weapons. So realistically, warriors wouldn’t use both of these weapon types (as is the case in our world, after all, when’s the last time we saw a marine charge into battle with an axe?). Issues such as these, as well as personal preferences, led to the ground rules which follow.
These ground rules, which were decided very early into the project, were things that we both agreed either worked or did not work in our new vision of MOTU. Firstly, and most importantly, there would be absolutely no technology in Eternia. It would be pure sword and sorcery. Now some people may hear this and say that’s “it’s nothing but Conan then”, but we must disagree with this. Conan, LOTR and 300 all have similar worlds of magic and weaponry, yet they’re completely different movies and concepts. In our view, what sets MOTU apart from other words of fantasy isn’t just the technology; it is the characters, places and concepts that compose its mythology. As a consequence of removing technology from MOTU, certain characters will not exist at all in our version of the story, such as Roboto (although Trapjaw will still be involved). Another obvious consequence of this is that all the vehicles will be gone and Hordak will no longer be a transformer wannabe, he’ll be pure magic (which lets face it is just better anyway).
The next rule, which we’re sure will cause quite a stir, is She-Ra will not be realted to Adam who shall remain an only child and he will be the only hero to be granted powers by Castle Grayskull. Another of the notable changes is that the Horde Prime character will not be separate from Hordak. Here the term “Horde Prime” will be a title given to Hordak himself, similar to our usage of the word “king”. The Horde will be nearly unrecognizable because it will not use any technology that is more advanced than what we on Earth had during medieval times. Speaking about Earth, we made a rule regarding Earth too. For the purposes of this project, Earth does not exist. Therefore, Marlena is a native of Eternia.
The villains as a whole will be different from what we have seen before. Although they may look the same and have mostly recognisable origins, their temperaments and attitudes will differ greatly. They will be killers, utterly vile and loathsome. Furthermore, they won’t all be utterly incompetent. Naturally some of them will be stupid, but a number of them will be quite intelligent.
In general, many characters will be based on a combination of what we saw in MYP and the Filmation series. A lot of characters (the ones that we decided to use) will be relatively unchanged, except with the addition of a few more character flaws and such, to add some realism to the series. For instance, He-Man will still have a heart of gold and be a great man, but at times he will be overconfident and somewhat likely to rely on brawn over brains. Teela will still be pretty much who she always was, but she won’t be captain of the guard because it seems absurd for an 18 year old to be given such a high stature.
However, some characters will be almost completely changed, such as Man-E-Faces. Mekaneck may also make an early appearance, but the circumstances of his participation we’ll keep to ourselves for now.
The final and most important aspect of this is that this isn’t a sickly sweet children’s fantasy. This is a world in war, where people find tooth and nail with swords, axes, maces and anything else they can get their hands on. There are injuries and there is death. This is a world where battles such as the ones seen in 300 are commonplace. The world is at war, and war isn’t pretty. However, for the purposes of the org, none of the writing will include graphic violence (well not overly graphic).
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There are a number of characters that we definitely want to include in the series bible, but some we don’t have much of an affinity for, others we just might not have fresh ideas for and some we simply might not have time to work on. For these characters (list coming shortly), we’d appreciate it if some of you guys took a try on them and submitted a bio for them.
For this alternate MOTU universe, we’re also incorporating fan created characters, as long as they follow these important rules:
1) Absolutely no technology - science and technology levels are equivalent to what is found in movies such as LOTR, 300 and Conan.
2) Hordak is the Supreme Ruler of the Horde. Horde Prime is simply a title he uses on occasion.
3) No Earth.
4) More Gritty and Violent then past MOTU
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Please check back soon for exciting new updates.
Any questions about this, or a request to be a part if this exciting new venture, can be put to either myself or Darth Latveria in this thread or via a PM.
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Characters Done
ETERNIA
Heroic Warriors
Ant-Arctic
Battle-Cat/Cringer (part of He-Man bio)
Bat-Ler
Buzz-Off
Calisman
Clamp Champ
Dragos
Ferat
Fisto
He-Man/Prince Adam
Javel
King Sun - Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 & 5 Part 6 & 7
Knight of Grayskull - Part 1 Part 2
Lizard Man
Lord Rodantus and Gutsy
Man-At-Arms
Man-E-Faces
Mekaneck
Orko
Ram Man
Rio (Rio Blast)
Roboto
Snout Spout
Sorceress
Stratos
Strider
Sy-Klone
Teela
Tidal
WarLock
Wolfsfang
Evil Warriors
An-Gar / Wrath
Arc-Tick
Beast Man
Blade
The Changer
Evil Lyn
Faker
Fang Man
Jitsu
Karg
Keldor/Skeletor
Mer Man
Ninjor
Panthor
Scare Glow
Spikor
Stinkor
Terror Fly
Trap Jaw
Triklops
Two-Bad
Webstor
Whiplash
- - - - - - - - - -
ETHERIA
Rebels
Bow
Castaspella
Light Hope
Sea Hawk
Sha-Man
She-Ra
Skaldor
Horde
Catra
Double Trouble
Grizzlor
Hordak
Imp
Leech
Mantenna
Modulok
Mosquitor
Shadow Weaver
-- - - - - - - - - -
Snakemen
King Hiss
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Kobra Kahn
- - - - - -- - - - - -
Others
Good
Captain Egidious Bara
Flutterina
Granamyr and the Dragons of Darksmoke
Gwildor
He-Ro
Marleena
Royal Family (part of Keldor bio)
Teral
Zodac
Bludaxe
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Evil
Count Marzo
He
Saurod
Thanatos
War-Hog
-- - - - - - - - - --- - -
The Sentinels of Eternia
The Berserker
Claudius
Gerald
Kairos
Marcus
- - - - - - - - - - - -
The Knights of Grayskull
Alie
Delga
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The Knight Mages
Sir Seror
Sir Sori
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SPECIALS
Stories
PRETERNIA / PRETHERIA
She-Ra: Tales of Pretheria - Part One
She-Ra: Tales of Pretheria - Part Two
She-Ra: Tales of Pretheria - Part Three
She-Ra: Tales of Pretheria - Part Four
She-Ra: Tales of Pretheria - Part Five
She-Ra: Tales of Pretheria - Part Six
She-Ra: Tales of Pretheria - Part Seven
She-Ra: Tales of Pretheria - Part Eight
She-Ra: Tales of Pretheria - Part Nine
She-Ra: Tales of Pretheria - Part Nine 1/2
She-Ra: Tales of Pretheria - Part Ten
She-Ra: Tales of Pretheria - Part Eleven
She-Ra: Tales of Pretheria - Twelve
She-Ra: Tales of Pretheria - Epilogue (Part One)
She-Ra: Tales of Pretheria - Epilogue (part Two)
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THE GREAT WAR
Royal Heirs - Part One
Royal Heirs - Part Two
Royal Heirs - Part Three
Royal Heirs - Part Four
The Havoc Staff
Beastly Meetings - Part One
Beastly Meetings - Part Two
Beastly Meetings - Part Three
Beastly Meetings - Part Four
Beastly Meetings - Part Five
The Taking of Snake Mountain
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MODERN ETERNIA / ETHERIA
She-Ra Revisited - Part One
She-Ra Revisited - Part Two
She-Ra Revisited - Part Three
She-Ra Revisited - Part Four
She-Ra Revisited - Part Five
She-Ra Revisited - Epilogue
The Story of An-Gar
Flowers for Hordak
Princely Duties - Part One
Princely Duties - Part Two
Princely Duties - Part Three
Princely Duties - Part Four
Princely Duties - Part Five
Princely Duties - Part Six
Princely Duties - Part Seven
Things That Go Bump In The Night – And Then Rip Your Arms Off – Part I
Things That Go Bump In The Night – And Then Rip Your Arms Off – Part II
Things That Go Bump In The Night – And Then Rip Your Arms Off – Part III
Things That Go Bump In The Night – And Then Rip Your Arms Off – Part IV
Things That Go Bump In The Night – And Then Rip Your Arms Off – Part V
Things That Go Bump In The Night – And Then Rip Your Arms Off – Part VI
Things That Go Bump In The Night – And Then Rip Your Arms Off – Part VII
Things That Go Bump In The Night – And Then Rip Your Arms Off – Part VIII
Things That Go Bump In The Night – And Then Rip Your Arms Off – Part IX
Things That Go Bump In The Night – And Then Rip Your Arms Off – Part X
The Hunt for the Dark Heart Stone - Part 1
The Hunt for the Dark Heart Stone - Part 2
The Hunt for the Dark Heart Stone - Part 3
The Hunt for the Dark Heart Stone - Part 4
The Hunt for the Dark Heart Stone - Part 5
The Hunt for the Dark Heart Stone - Part 6
The Hunt for the Dark Heart Stone - Part 7
The Hunt for the Dark Heart Stone - Part 8 - Part 8 (cont)
The Hunt for the Dark Heart Stone - Part 9
The Hunt for the Dark Heart Stone - Part 10
The Hunt for the Dark Heart Stone - Epilogue
Upgrades: A Tale of He-Man vs. Skeletor -- Part 1
Upgrades: A Tale of He-Man vs. Skeletor -- Part 2
Upgrades: A Tale of He-Man vs. Skeletor -- Part 3
Upgrades: A Tale of He-Man vs. Skeletor -- Epilogue
The Kidnappers
A Night in the Palace
Rio vs Saurod: The Fastest Draw in Eternia - Part 1
Rio vs Saurod: The Fastest Draw in Eternia - Part 2
Rio vs Saurod: The Fastest Draw in Eternia - Part 3
Rio vs Saurod: The Fastest Draw in Eternia - Part 4
The Tale of Kadroh: Part 1
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Behind the Scenes
PART ONE
PART TWO
PART THREE
PART FOUR
PART FIVE
PART SIX
PART SEVEN
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Race Histories
Avians
Caligars
Gars
Humans
Speleans
History of the Covenant
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Glossary