Abe (Oddworld)
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| Abe | |
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 A 3D render of Abe as he appeared in Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus
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| Game series | Oddworld Quintology |
| First game | Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee (1997) |
| Creator(s) | Lorne Lanning |
| Voice actor(s) | Lorne Lanning |
Abe is a fictional character and protagonist in the Oddworld fictional universe created by Oddworld Inhabitants. Abe was introduced in Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee as a slave attempting to free himself and his brethren. His story was continued in Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus and Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee through-which his character changed and developed. The reported first Oddworld full-length film is said to feature Abe as the primary protagonist.
Abe is a matured Mudokon, was hatched in the nursery of meat-processing plant RuptureFarms, and went on to work in the plant as a slave until his eventual escape. Distinctive from other Mudokons seen on Oddworld, Abe's skin is a blue-purple pigment instead of the usual green, and his lips feature the vestiges of being sewn up, supposedly from crying too much as an infant.
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[edit] Lifestyle
Abe is currently the social leader of the 'Free Mud' Party, the Mudokons’ uprising against their captors, the Magog Cartel, sometimes termed 'Abe’s Marching Mudokons'. Usually he follows the suggestions and instruction of religious and spiritual figures like the Almighty Raisin and the Weirdos, usually operating alone but occasionally aided by a band of his friends called Abe’s Crew, including his best friend Alf. More recently, though, he has been accompanied by the Gabbit Munch after finding out their destinies lie together.
The typical model of Abe’s success is to infiltrate a Glukkon factory or other facility and sabotage it from the inside, with the assistance of the scrubs (Mudokon slaves) working inside. He may shut down the power supply, explode the boilers or reservoirs of fuel, or possess the CEO and simply drain the company’s funds. Before he completes this, Abe makes sure to liberate the slaves. Normally Abe concerns himself with his Mudokon brothers, both those currently employed and the unhatched eggs of those that will be born into slavery, but he has been persuaded by ghosts to take care of the souls and remains of the long‐deceased.
Currently, Abe is appreciating a vacation in Necrum, as ordered by the Almighty Raisin, but is expressing sadness at the imprisonment of the Mudokon mother Sam.
[edit] Psychology
Abe is a Mudokon and has all the usual mental capacity that brings: he is slow‐witted, lazy and optimistic. He also lacks imagination, logic, intelligence and confidence. His primary mental aid is his powerful sense of morality, and in experiencing more and more of the injustices performed both against and by his people he attains the motivation and sheer dedication he needs to rise up to his role as the Mudokon messiah. He can become resourceful and cunning when faced with a challenge, even able to hack into security features such as those found in RuptureFarms’ ball cars. He is a determined pacifist, strongly opposed to any kind of violence, and strives to avoid confrontations and apply more stealthy tactics. While deeply saddened by his plight, he remains hopeful and optimistic. Some accuse him of being a dreamer, but Abe unashamedly draws no line between reality and fantasy.
[edit] Physiology
Abe weighs 92 lbs and is 5′ 8″ tall. Just like other Mudokons, he is equal parts clumsy and nimble. His large hands and feet make his step heavy and his posture poor, but he can expertly scale walls with his bare paws and leap almost gracefully between travel wells—sometimes. He has a tendency to fall down cliffs and pits. Abe is easily discernible amongst a crowd of fellow Mudokons, for his skin is blue (or rather, a purplish‐green), his eyes are bloodshot, and he keeps his ponytail tied up and his lips sewn together. He retains his lip stitches as a reminder of his past, motivation for the present, and a kind of medal of honour despite the demeaning nickname of Stitch Lips he endures. His skin is covered by three mystical tattoos that grow over his body gradually: one on the back of each hand and one on his chest, granted to him by the Big Face and the Weirdos respectively.
[edit] Abilities
Abe’s arsenal consists of his supernatural mental abilities. His most important power is that of possession: Abe can enter the mind of any creature of reasonable intelligence (though he dispels this limitation constantly) and control their actions. This allows him to make use of whatever power or resources that character has, employ the assistance of his victim’s friends or work colleagues, and clear safe paths. While to begin with depossession usually resulted in an explosive end to the possessee, Abe has been able to refine his touch and leave much less destructively. He has also been improving his degree of control, allowing him much greater likelihood of influencing the societies he spies on. Recently he was gifted with the ability to form possession orbs by the Almighty Raisin, a ball of consciousness that allows Abe to scout the area for a short period of time, whereas before he could only do this by possessing his own farts.
The tattoos that Abe wears imbue him with other powers, but usually these are only options to him when circumstances allow. Grateful Mudokon spirits have gifted him with invisibility for short periods, transformation into the Mudokon god Shrykull comes from the occasional special bird portal, and helper Mudokons do grant Abe with spirit rings and healing power should he need them.
[edit] History
Working late at RuptureFarms, Abe passed a advertisement billboard for the upcoming latest product in the Tasty Treats line of snacks, and succumbed to curiosity by eavesdropping the factory’s annual board meeting. Since wildlife resources were becoming depleted, his boss—Molluck the Glukkon— decided to turn to a readily available source of meat, the Mudokon slaves that worked in the factory. Understandably panicked, Abe instantly took flight and escaped from his workplace by hiding in a barrel on a production line, then evading the sharp‐eyed security surrounding RuptureFarms. No sooner had he passed the outer most perimeter did he discover what is now known as Abe’s Moon, a large moon whose face bears the shape of a Mudokon paw. Raising his hand to it, the cliff edge beneath his feet crumbled, and Abe fell to the ground beneath, smashed his skull and knocking himself senseless.
His body was approached by the Mudokons’ spiritual leader, the Big Face, who appeared to the unconscious Abe in a vision. Informing Abe that he was 'dead' (that is, dead to his prior life as a slave), Big Face then told him how the Mudokon race once lived freely with nature before they were enslaved by the Glukkons, and how their sacred animals were the very same ones being captured, slaughtered and processed to manufacture 'Tasty Treats'. He then revealed that prophecies foretold of a saviour who would appear, and that to test his worth he would be sent to the nesting sites of the Paramites and the Scrabs to relight the holy flames that were extinguished by the Glukkons. With the aid of his pet Elum, Abe traversed the forest and the desert to reach each temple in turn, and after completing the trials of each was invited to the initiation ceremonies, in which the backs of each hand were scarred with mystic tattoos.
With both hand scars, Abe was able to invoke the power of the Mudokon god Shrykull and infiltrate his former workplace, RuptureFarms, where he evaded heightened security measures to rescue every last fellow slave through bird portals. Abe broke into the board room and killed the entire board of executives before finally being captured by Slig security and taken to a holding cell, where he had enough time to pore over the last day before facing execution. Luckily, his good actions had impressed the holy Mudokons, who formed a chanting circle and focused their energies into a great bolt of power, which blasted Molluck and his Slig henchmen. Big Face then teleported Abe to the Monsaic Sanctum, where he received a hero’s welcome from the Mudokons he had rescued.
As he was celebrating his new celebrity, ghosts of old Mudokons appeared before him and told him that Necrum -- a once sacred Mudokon burial ground -- was being excavated by Glukkons, using blind Mudokons as slaves. Abe set out at once, followed by five faithful followers from RuptureFarms. However, when they eventually reached the mines, the five followers got drunk on SoulStorm Brew, which was made from Mudokon bones. Abe once again found himself journeying to the Scrab and Paramite lands to find a cure to the sickness the brew caused. When he eventually found it, he journeyed to SoulStorm Brewery, freed the Mudokons, and destroyed it. After becoming well known by everyone in Mudos, he was named a wanted terrorist by the Glukkons, but a revered as a great hero among his people.
Not long after the events of Abe's Exoddus, he helped out Munch (the last living remnant of an amphibious race called "Gabbits") to destroy Vykerrs labs and save Mudokon eggs from destruction. He and Munch also manipulated the Glukkon hierarchy from behind the scenes in order to win the last can of Gabbiar (Gabbit eggs, sold to Glukkons as a delicacy) and prevent the Gabbits from dying out completely. This only increased Abe's heroic legend, and also made him extremely unpopular with the Glukkon queen, Lady Margaret. No doubt he will continue to do this in the future and may even come into contact with the Stranger, another famous figure of Mudos, in the final games of the series.
