#irken history

[random-iz-stuff]

I'm curious to know your opinion on the theory that Irkens were a prey species before making contact with the Control Brains. It's one of my favorite theories, but I'm always curious to know if other people find it far-fetched.

I believe in this theory as well. I just like it.

My headcanon regarding ancient irkens is that they were a prey species for most of their history up until the irken equivalent of the Iron Age.

Irken history headcanons under the cut.

Ancient Irk was an interesting location. The surface of the planet was consistently colder than the average temperatures on earth, but wasn’t quite cold enough to freeze water most of the time. I’d say the average temperature constantly hovered around 5 degrees Celsius (for comparison, Earth’s average temperature is 13.9 degrees Celsius, and 0 degrees Celsius is where water freezes). Cold and difficult to survive, but not impossible. Irk also had seasons, with irk winters dipping far below freezing.

But under the surface of Irk is where things get really interesting. Ancient Irk had absolutely MASSIVE cave systems stretching all across the planet. Unlike the cold surface, these caves were mostly warm, especially in the deeper ones that are further away from the cold surface. You practically had a whole different world down there. These caves are where irkens originated from.

Irkens looked mostly the same back then, but had one major difference to modern irkens (besides the more primitive looks):

They had wings.

Ancient irkens had dragonfly-like wings that they used for traversing the expansive cave systems that they lived in, along with using them to escape predators. And boy did ancient irkens have predators.

Ancient Irkens regularly had to deal with predators of all kinds. One creature that modern irken historians discovered was a gigantic creature that looked almost identical to Earth Hamsters. These creatures lived on the cold surface of Irk, and would travel into the cave systems underneath the planet when winter rolled around. Ancient Irkens were so frequently preyed upon by these things that Modern Irkens still have an instinctual fear of them, despite the fact that they went extinct countless years ago. Zim’s fear of Peepi is an example of that instinctual fear. It’s not just Zim being Zim. He sees a hamster and his brain immediately starts yelling at him to get as far away from the predator as possible. Any irken would fear that same primal fear in that situation.

Modern Irkens actually have a lot of deep down primal fears that come from their origins as prey. It’s just that all of the creatures that cause that primal fear are long extinct. But as seen with Peepi, animals that look similar enough can still cause this instinctual fear.

This isn’t to say that Ancient Irkens were at the bottom of the food chain however. Irkens are omnivorous, and even though they survive off of nothing but carbohydrates (sugars, sugar substitutes, flours, starches and honey) now, back then Ancient Irkens had a much more varied diet, eating anything they could gather or catch.

Pretty much the entire Irken Stone Age was spent underneath the planet’s surface, being preyed upon by various creatures. But that all changed at near the end, as Irk went through a massive change.

That change was a massive heat wave lasting for several thousand years. Think “the earth ice age, but reversed”. The planet’s temperature soared to never before seen temperatures and winter completely disappeared, resulting in several large changes all across the planet.

The first big change was the extinction of many species, especially the creatures that lived on the planet’s surface. The sudden switch from cold temperatures to warm temperatures resulted in the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands of different species that simply weren’t built to handle the heat. This included a large amount of predators, along with almost all of Irk’s ancient megafauna.

The second big change was to the entire planet’s underground. It started heating up fast. The underground was already the warmest place on Irk and retained heat extremely well, so the sudden increase in temperature essentially made the giant cave systems into giant ovens. Many creatures died out from the heat, especially larger predators. This sudden increase in heat is also what got Ancient Irkens to the surface, as tribes of them migrated to the surface to escape from the heat of the caves. It was still hot on the surface, but it was cooler than the caves.

When Irkens officially started living on the surface, a turning point considered to be the beginning of the irken Bronze Age, they still weren’t done with being preyed upon. Despite the extinction of many different predators, irkens were still far from the top of the food chain, and predators that were able to survive the ongoing heat wave still preyed upon irkens, with irkens unable to do much to consistently kill threatening creatures. Their primitive weapons could kill a few smaller predators, but were ineffective against larger threats, especially the hamster-like creatures mentioned before, as they survived the heat wave with relative ease and were now even more common than before since irkens were now living on the surface, where these things spend most of their lives.

Not all Irkens left the caves when it started getting hot however, and the many that stayed had similar experiences, but the biggest threat was heat instead of hamster-creatures. Still a hard existence though.

The Irken Bronze Age was mostly spent like this. Irkens were prey, but they had basic metal weapons and could defend themselves now. They were still preyed upon, but were slowly becoming harder to hunt. The construction of walled cities also made things harder, especially since these walls often had no doors or surface level entrances, as the Winged Irkens of old could just fly over the wall.

Near the end of the Irken Bronze Age came the end of the endless heat wave. The planet started cooling down to its usual 5-ish degree Celsius average temperatures, the underground started cooling down, all that. This resulted in the extinction of even more creatures, which had become accustomed to the higher temperatures and were taken by surprise when the temperature started dropping.

The beginning of the Irken Iron Age was the turning point for the entire Irken species. The invention of stronger tools and weapons made from stronger materials made Irkens finally able to take the fight to the predators. The Iron Age also marks when armour became widely used by irkens, made of thin metal plates that protect the wearer while also not making them too heavy to fly.

All these advancements meant that Irkens could now semi-consistently kill much larger predators, a fact that Ancient Irkens around the world used to their best ability. The Iron Age is known for the hunting of large creatures, with a large majority of the things found from that time period depicting mighty irkens hunting down and killing monsters of all shapes and sizes. It took a while, but Irkens eventually managed to get themselves to the top of the food chain, driving many of their former predators to extinction, including the hamster-beasts.

However, irkens were still hunted by a few particularly dangerous creatures. Creatures that sat at the absolute top of the food chain until they were eventually finally driven to extinction thousands of years later when things were finally invented that made irkens strong enough to challenge them, mainly the invention of gunpowder.

[leravat-lat]

I think it would look something like this :^

[sakura-roses46]

New invader zim OC just dropped

Meet Glory, the successor to Red and Purple. Why did I make her?

Me and my boyfriend are working on creating a (headcanon heavy) history for the irken empire, which includes their evolution, early societies, and wars following the creation of the empire.

I thought it would be interesting to expand on the future a bit, so I created Almighty Tallest Glory.

She is the successor to Red and Purple- rising to power after the florpus hole incident. She saw how Red and Purple were.. less than ideal leaders, and made up her mind to never follow in their footsteps.

She is actually a really good leader compared to Red and Purple. She is intuitive and Calculative, always doing what is best for the empire. She can be considered ruthless, too- with how she squashes rising rebellions under her foot.

Overall, she is both beloved and hated by the Irken empire and other races with close (not always positive) ties to the empire.

If you guys want to hear more about the history, just ask, and I'll be happy to share what me and my boyfriend have worked on :]

[mrehkka]

Never posted any of my Mrehkka art here! Despite it being the character I used for my username lol

(Also forgot to note on the images, but the tail is retractable like the arms!)

so Mrehkka is from an ancient book about his life- how he went from being a simple and beloved model to Irk's greatest hero, saving them from annihilation from an invading species they used to share the planet with. .....it's also famous among other aliens for being Irk's only (surviving) love story, though in modern translations, the romantic bits are downplayed and translated out. Only those chosen to learn Classic Irken (rare) get to read the original (it's their only surviving text written in Classic, anything else has just been translated INTO Classic). No other alien knows Classic as they keep it highly classified (they use it for military abbreviations).

And as it was written in a time before PAK's, many aliens use the story to study Irken psychology and what they might be like if they didn't have PAKs.

THEN there's Squin-Zinn (sometimes spelled Squin-Zin). They are a third species that also lived on Irk back then. Also Mrehkka's lover 😌 they're the one who warned Mrehkka and his people about the incoming army. Though, they eventually regret this, as it's eventually made clear that Mrehkka will die fighting to protect everyone, and they beg him to stop and run away, but Mrehkka tells them "I would fight for you, if it meant I could die in your arms". ...which he then proceeds to do.

the story in modern Irken culture is framed as, Mrehkka died protecting his people and you should be just like that :D aaaand they kinda downplay Squin-Zinn bc they don't want anyone to end up thinking "Mrehkka fought to protect one person, and died for THEM not Irken society" bc that could be bad...

[messinwitheddie]

There hasn’t been any attempted raids on the Hymenopteracian Queen's homeworld since Cini died, right?

How’s Gir doing after Zim finally pass away?

I have been waiting for so long for someone to let me info dump about about my ETF space bee head canons! :D (brace yourself)

First off, the Hymenopteracians, aka Space bees, would highly appreciate the fact you referred to them by their race's proper name. (To them, "bee" is a derogatory slurr that Irkens call them). Expect a meteorite at your doorstep filled with jars of honey, a bottle of mead, a small batch of honey buns, a book of pressed exotic flowers from their homeworld and a seemingly endless scroll of hand written thank you notes in an unreadable and misspelled language from billions of pupas (school-aged Hymenopteracian children) in the near future. (Princess, worker and male drone Hymenopteracians)

1. To answer your first question, no. The Hymenopteracian homeworld, which consists of the planet itself and its' seven moons when translated into English is called, "All-Hive", has not been raided by the armada since loooong before Cini's death--

*lots of head canons ahead. You can skip over it if you like. The asterisks will signal when my bs is through.

***

Because All-Hive was colonized and forced to ally with the Irken Armada CENTURIES before Cini was ever born. Cini was only there to renew a longstanding treaty between the two races.

The Hymenopteracians were the second race of sentient beings the Irkens came into contact with since the beginning of the Control Brain takeover (the first being the Vortian).

When the Irkens first landed on All-Hive, they were awestruck.

All-Hive was a paradise absolutely overflowing with natural resources, including sugar cane, molasses, wheat, rice and dozens of other staples in the Irken diet. Of course, Irkens were introduced to the miracle that is honey (and The Hymenopteracians were introduced to the miracle that is natural Irken silk).

All-Hive, pre Irken contact, made the garden of Eden look like a dumpster covered in bird shit, the planet was SO beautiful and fertile.

The seven hives populating the planet, until Irken contact, existed in near perfect harmony (most conflict that occurred only occurred within each of the 7 hives themselves and set conflicts consisted of petty royal family drama. The seven queens of All-Hive rarely conflict without reaching a peaceful resolution) Such conflicts paled in comparison to the bloody wars waged between the hives of old Irk.

Their culture puts cooperation as the highest priority... Unlike Irkens, who only resemble insects at a glance, Hymenopteracians ARE a race of hive-mind insects, though sentient. (No, Irkens and Hymenopteracians cannot successfully crossbreed with one another.

The Hymenopteracians had developed little tech in terms of weapons, defensive or offensive. The Irkens took advantage of this/ their traditionally peaceful nature and easily claimed All-Hive and the entire solar system it orbited in for themselves and began developing the first "snacking system", Producia (the main source of nearly all raw materials/ ingredients harvested and distributed to the other Irken snacking systems to this day.)

The Hymenopteracians were forced to relocate their hives to their planet's moons, which the Irkens had taraformed into MASSIVE commercial farms, while their home planet was developed into restaurants, shopping cities and other such atrocities. Their workers were forced to quadruple their productivity during harvests, straining the planet/moons environmentally and compromised the health of the worker populations to the point of societal collapse. An outrageous percentage of their harvest was taken by the Irken empire. Many Hymenopteracians starved and the Queens of that era birthed meager swarms.

The Irkens even toyed with the idea of eliminating the queen system altogether and just slapping a smeetery on All-Hive designed to produce only worker bees. The Hymenopteracians feared extinction for the first time in their history.

Riots and sniper stinging operations were launched in protests. Smear campaigns were streamed throughout the empire to villainize the Hymenopteracians in retaliation. (Now you know why Zim dislike bees! A stretch, I know, but hey, everyone has their fan theories...)

Eventually, the Irkens noticed that the quality of their the snacks, which was sinfully DELICIOUS at the beginning of the Hymenopteracian takeover, started to decline. Everything tasted AWFUL. Discourse erupted throughout the empire.

Tallest Greezee, who was determined to build the snacking system, Foodcourtia, first made sincere attempts to negotiate with the Hymenopteracian queens. He invested shmillions of monies, countless hours of in-person meetings and several armies of drone power into restoring All-Hive to it's formal glory.

Well... close to it. The Hymenopteracian race is still in full service to the Irken Empire. All-Hive is still the capital planet of the snacking system, Producia, and an obscene amount of All-Hive's harvest goes to making snacks for the empire.

But All-Hive's environment has been restored to near-perfect condition in modern times. The planet is 88% reclaimed by the Hymenopteracians and they have full sovereignty over their involuntarily taraformed moons.

Classified Irken history dictates that Tallest Greezee had actually fallen in love with one of the seven Hymenopteracian queens (well, smeets are told Greezee fell in love with Hymenopteracian cuisine, which is true, but he fell deeply in love with one of the queens first.) Tallest Greezee wrote the peace treaty between the Irkens and Hymenopteracians himself in an attempt to ask for her hand, which she accepted, only because he kept his word and drastically changed the policies that were oppressing her people.

[Late Tallest Greezee "negotiating" with one of the 7 queens of All-Hive.]

The treaty states that All-Hive is permanently under the Irken Armada's protection. In addition, every ruling tallest has to visit All-Hive at least 3 times every century, discuss important matters with the queens and renew the treaty. The renewal of set treaty involves accepting at least one of the seven Hymenopteracian queens as a permanent ally (life partner, politically speaking, though participating in the Hymenopteracian Queen's repopulation rituals is required to a certain extent. Some tallests are more receptiveto this tradition than others.) It's a very complicated and messy treaty. It could and probably SHOULD be revised to promote policies that better favor the indigenous people of All-Hive, but it was a step in the right direction and all too necessary to keep the empire running. *

***

In the present.

Since the ETF incident, All-Hive and several of its' moons were severely damaged. So, you know, crop failure, rising snack prices, limited supplies, ect. ect. The empire's economy almost instantly takes a nasty blow. Huge headache for the tallests in command.

Tallest Red and Purple had to visit All-Hive and their chosen Hymenopteracian queens almost immediately after the Massive was recovered from the Florpis Hole to keep the peace and make plans for repairs.

(Red with his chosen Queen)

Now that Red has passed, Purple is handling the situation alone. As the control brains have advised him, Purple is not shirking his duties on this one. The only thing that will definitely inspire the average drone to riot/ rebell is a lack of snacks, after all.

He swiftly sent a taraformation task force to repair the damage Zim did to All-Hive. Purple's chosen queen, Cerana, of whom he affectionately refers to as "Queenie", and her fellow queens were outraged by the damage initially and skeptical of Purple's intentions to fix anything at first, but she is satisfied with his progress thus far.

Purple and Queenie develope a close, genuine friendship outside of their obligated alliance, especially since Red's passing. Purple occasionally makes casual visits to All-Hive to chat with, snack with and dance with his chosen queen in between mandatory visits to All-Hive. (It's purely a platonic friendship; both Purple and Cerana lead very lonely lives.

2. Gir is... very devastated when Zim passes. It hits him so hard, he goes numb for a while.

There is a long lapse between when Zim dies and when Gir manages to recognize his grief. Many of his close friends and family worry for him, because he seems so accepting of Zim's death for a while and just operates on auto pilot. He carries on his frylord duties. He smiles and laughs and goofs like usual, but once the emotions finally process...

It all flows out in tidalwaves. Luckily he has Yeet and Minimoose to carry him through the worst of it.

[candylitaaa]

I would like to have made it much longer, but since it was taking so long I decided to summarize as much as possible so that it would fit in 15 pages. Maybe I'll do a second part or just go directly to his adventures on the planet Glorbytan.

I also didn't translate absolutely all the words into english because I like the idea that Jess and Kira speak spanish because in the original version they speak spanish XD

[krii-bolts]

I uh, made a simple colored drawing of a few iterators of mine Plus a bunch of messy line doodles of them and others down below I Guess I can say this is for practice but eh.

Just had fun tbh (doodles below lol)

[dudesome]

Irken history be like:

-Zim goes for a walk

-50 million perish

[bamsara]

Hello

I was wondering where in the time line of the galaxy days/ cryptids series does dib learn what the Pak Zim gave him actually does?

Also maybe we get to see stich (IZ or SL) in a Halloween costume next month. I miss stitch.

Major Spoilers for Paklet AU since this was drafted for the written story but the chapter it belongs to isn't finalized or published anywhere

AFTER Galaxy Days was supposed to be another installment which would have been the last/second to last depending on the length, which would have brought upon the Intergalactic War against the Irken Empire and when Zim would have given both Dib and Gaz their Paklets.

Dib gets, uh, stabbed. Just like he was with the ghoul. You know. Really bad. Right through the gut. Yep. The kind that kills a human very quickly.

I won't tell you who does it or how he gets skewered because that's a major plot thing there, but I need you to know that the incident with the ghoul that started all this is how ends too.

✨It was foreshadowing all along✨ Or history just repeats itself when you learn nothing about taking up out-of-league battles you're far too confident, or emotionally invested about.

However despite the obvious and what is surely a catastrophic injury, Dib does not die though! Weird! It's almost as if there was something uh, keeping that from happening. It is REALLY not normal to stay alive after you get mutilated like that, much less heal within hours without so much as a scar.

Not gonna go into detail, but he figures out that the weird 'friendship' bracelet that Zim promised was just a signifier of their truce that prevented his death, and he has to figure out the extent of it all on his own because Zim isn't exactly available for him to confront about it.

(Also I might draw something for Stitch tbh, either in a Moon costume or a Gir Onsie)

[inbarfink]

It’s so funny how many fictional characters have Rogues Galleries and/or supporting casts who are like, darker reflections of themselves. Like they're [Main Character] but worse. Y'know, it’s good for the Themes. But meanwhile Zim is already so Baseline Terrible that instead he’s surrounded with characters who reflect him by being better versions of himself. "Zim but less awful"

Like, Dib is Zim but trying to stop Space Imperialism rather than contributing to it. Tak is Zim but hypercompetent. And Skoodge is Zim if Zim lacked his most defining trait and most crippling flaw - his self-deluded ego.

Skoodge and Zim seem to be the shortest Irkens to have been ever reached the Invader rank - they both must’ve been highly capable to make it through the Irken Societal Bias against the short. But of the two of them, only Skoodge is grounded enough to actually demonstrate it. While Zim’s ego and all that stern from it - the delusions, the absolute lack of threat-assessment, the inability to think ahead - makes him an incompetent bumbler despite all of skills.

On the other hand, Skoodge is the most competent Invader actually on the Empire’s payroll (Tak might be more competent but she’s actually less of a Real Invader then Zim is, so…). And yet… this lack of ego also makes him the Empire’s (and sometimes Zim’s) punching bag despite all of his skills. 

And, like, Skoodge isn't necessarily insecure. Especially right after his successful conquest of Blorch, he seems to have, like, a reasonable amount of healthy self-confidence you'd expect from someone who has achieved what he did.

He's just not as selfishly self-obsessed and absolutely disconnected from reality like Zim is. He is actually capable of distinguishing between the Empire's will and his own desires, he is capable of reasonably asserting threats, he does actually notice when he is being led into an Obvious Death Trap.

Even if the Irken culture of absolute obedience means he still has to go along with it.

Zim might be, you know, incapable of consciously recognizing that the Tallests hate him.... but his ego and his disconnect from reality actually allows him to put his own desires and his self-preservation instinct before the express orders of the Tallests by just... forgetting that they happened.

When I talk about the idea that Zim has all the traits the Irken Empire values (minus height) just twisted to unreasonable extremes - that’s the kind of thing I’m talking about. To survive in the Irken Empire you need to have some amount of ego and self confidence and self-interest. Being just a loyal vessel of the Empire

Just marks you as someone that can be easily exploited. No matter your other skills. Zim’s attitude is far too much on the other extreme - but it is not alien to Irken society at all. You're gonna need it to survive.

Skoodge is also a nice reminder how truly futile Zim’s desire for approval from the Tallests really is. Even if he was somewhat capable of recognizing his own flaws, even if he was capable of conquering Earth, even if he could wow everyone in the Empire with the greatest Invasion in known history - the only thing that will change is that instead of being hated and punished for being the Worst Thing to Ever Happen to the Empire he’d just be hated and punished for being short. 

[random-iz-stuff]

Can you tell me more about irkens when they were cave dwellers? Sorry If you have addressed this before i just want to know there features I heard something about wings so I would like to know about other features please!!

Irkens were cave dwellers from their Stone Age to the beginning of their Bronze Age. They were also cave dwellers before the Stone Age, but at that point in time they weren’t technically Irkens, but instead some sort of proto-Irken that could be compared to the apes that eventually evolved into humans.

Ancient Irk could be divided into two main sections: The Surface, which was consistently cold (just a few degrees above freezing on a normal day) and had plenty of biomes and life, and The Underground, a massive set of interconnected cave systems that spans most, if not all of Irk. The underground was much warmer than the surface and had its own biomes, life and all that. This is what I’m talking about when I say “cave dwelling”. I mean the massive underground.

A lot of Irken physical and mental traits come from their cave dwelling past.

Cave Irkens had sharp, clawlike hands that were evolved specifically to grip onto the rock walls and ceilings of the caverns they called home, along with digging out dens in cave walls. Modern Irkens still have clawed hands, but they’re much duller when compared to a Cave Irken’s, as Irkens have long since adapted to life outside caves where the extremely sharp claws weren’t necessary and actively hindered things like complex tool creation and use.

In the Irken Bronze Age (when Irkens initially moved to the surface), claws would often be filled down to make jobs like crafting and using tools easier. And eventually the species as a whole adapted to have duller (but still pretty sharp) claws.

Cave Irkens also had senses made for low light environments. Their eyes could see in almost pitch blackness and they had an acute sense of vibrations. Irken antennae can pick up nearly vibrations in the air and ground, letting the Irken “see” in complete darkness just as long as things are moving around and making vibrations in the air and ground by doing so. Very useful for hunting prey and escaping predators in very dark environments.

These senses made for low light environments are still found in modern Irkens, although they’ve changed over time.

For eyesight, Modern Irkens can still see extremely well in darkness, but their eyes have also adapted to handle bright light as well. Cave Irkens could handle bright lights, as sunlight could sometimes be seen in caves closer to the surface and fire was a whole thing that Cave Irkens had and used, but they weren’t made for it, and prolonged exposure to bright light would damage their eyes. After being forced to live on the surface, Irkens were forced to adapt to the much brighter environment. Modern Irkens can handle bright light and extreme darkness pretty much equally well.

For that vibration sense, Irkens still have it and consider it one of their six senses, but it’s significantly dulled over time. Cave Irkens could pinpoint the location of stuff over long distances just by feeling the vibrations in the air and ground around them. Even Zim, who has a better sense of vibration than most Irkens due to him being partially deaf (inner ear permanently broken) and constantly relying on his antenna for hearing, giving him a better sense of smell and vibration sensing (both things also use the antenna) in the process, doesn’t come close to how well Cave Irkens could sense vibrations.

Cave Irkens also had wings, used for flying and gliding through the massive caverns they lived in, resembling the wings of something like a dragonfly. Irkens actually had wings for the majority of their history, and the species as a whole lost them in conjunction with the rise of the PAK. (I go into detail on this headcanon in this post right here if you’re interested at all.)

Wing imagery is still important in modern Irk even with the loss of their wings (keep in mind that irkens had wings for about 90% of their history). A common thing seen on Irken ceremonial armour is four long but thin capes on the back that resemble the wings that Irkens used to have for example, and Irken special forces armour has four dragonfly-like wings as a part of it, used with the jetpack to glide and steer better when in-atmosphere. (I talk about Irken Special Forces armour in this headcanon post about Sizz-Lorr. Trust me, the two subjects are connected.)

Diet-wise, Cave Irkens were omnivorous, eating just about anything they could hunt or gather. Modern Irkens are also omnivorous and can eat most things (with the exception of most earth foods because of all the pollution and primitive preservatives mixed in there), but only need carbohydrates like sugar and flour to live. Cave Irkens also had a high carbohydrate requirement and could survive for a few days on nothing but carbs, but couldn’t go on subsisting on nothing but carbs forever like a modern Irken.

Cave Irkens were also ambush predators when it came to hunting, hiding on cave walls and ceilings and waiting for prey to come within range. They wouldn’t solely hunt via ambush and were more than capable of persistence hunting, with such a strategy becoming much more prominent as time went on, but Irkens are ambush predators at their core.

This past as ambush predators can still be seen in modern Irkens in a way. Modern Irkens are stupidly patient. It takes a lot to get an Irken to loose their patience with something, especially if they’re focused on something else. Even Zim, who is extremely impatient and impulsive by Irken standards (on a related note, most defects are actually just mental illnesses like PTSD, autism, anxiety and ADHD), will sometimes spend literal hours doing nothing while remaining completely motionless. Irkens can get bored just as easily as a human can if they have nothing to do or look forward to, but at the same time if they’re waiting for something to happen, they will wait for literal hours without loosing patience or getting bored. Just waiting for something to happen.

The Tallest spend over three hours listening to Zim babble on about nothing before finally loosing their patience with him, and this past as ambush predators, where the predator often needs to remain completely motionless for hours at a time while waiting for prey to come near, is why.

The Irken Stone Age is also believed to be where the height=rulership thing comes from. Back then, rulership would be determined by strength, and it just so happened that the strongest Irken was usually the tallest one. Or at least that’s one of the theories by Irken historians. Many, many other theories exist, all trying to explain where the height thing originated from. It’s one of the many mysteries of Irken history.

Same goes for the Irken rules regarding hands and feet, although it’s generally accepted by historians that these beliefs originated from somewhere around the Iron or Middle Ages. They just don’t know the exact time and origin.

Not much is actually known about a whole bunch of aspects of Irk’s pre-Great Unification (an important event that detailed the unification of the entire planet’s governments under one Almighty Tallest) history due to a lot of different factors. The terraforming of the entire planet destroying countless fossils and bits of history, the Unity War that came before the Great Unification (basically a Nuclear Armageddon-type war) destroying even more countless bits of history, and so on.

Irkens don’t actually know how they reproduced prior to the invention of randomized genetic cloning because literally no accounts detailing it can be found anywhere. Turns out no irken thought they’d need to write down or depict how they naturally reproduce, and if they did, however they wrote it down or depicted it was destroyed in one way or another. And due to Irkens (accidentally) removing all reproductive organs and desires from themselves with genetic tampering and randomized genetic cloning and the extinction of all other life on Irk, Irkens have no idea how they reproduced naturally. Irken biologists regularly argue over if their own species lays eggs or not because there’s absolutely nothing in their biology or history that confirms or denies it in any way. There’s no evidence to suggest anything when talking about how Irkens reproduced.

[leravat-lat]

Потім зроблю версію на англійській мові :)

[ms-scarletwings]

A Speculative Analysis About Irkens No One Asked For: Part I

Dem green fellas. Them lil guys, they’re an interesting pack of critters, aren’t they?

I used to really fixate on them back in middle and high school, stronger than everyone else seemed to be on the spazz in the dog costume. Jhonen Vasquez’s worldbuilding has always towed a very fine line between nonsensically ridiculous and surprisingly logistical, and this balance is typified in everything we know, and can infer, about these bug-eyed imperialists at the center of everything Invader Zim. So, let’s infer, and take a crack at it since no one’s stopping us anyway- More specifically, some thoughts and ponderings I had about how they “tick” as a fully realized society, not just a sci-fi monster..

A Homeworld Obscured 

Now, to really understand the history and “deal” of any civilization, or any animal, usually you would turn to their environment first to give you some handy clues and context.

Small problem, though: We actually don’t get much in the way of direct, explicit showing or explanations about Irk itself when it comes to the show. This makes some sense, given that the whole of what they do worth showing (and the most notable members of their kind) exists almost entirely off-world. So instead, we mostly find out more about Irk from what Invader Zim does tell us about its natives. As far as confirmed canon goes, we know that Irk’s atmosphere appears red, its surface is entirely and densely urbanized, and it’s long been depicted in starmaps with a set of Saturn-like rings. 

  This last fact is probably the most interesting, because planetary rings are usually something we, in our own little solar system, would only associate with massive, gaseous worlds, not terrestrial ones.  What These rings are made of is really anyone’s guess- could be ancient debris from natural satellites, Water-ice particles, maybe even some form of artificial defense network put into orbit by the Irkens themselves. If they aren’t artificially created, this would suggest that Irk has quite a strong gravitational field- greater than that of any of our neighborhood’s rocky planets. This is the common theory I personally like to subscribe to, because it would also go hand and hand with explaining why the average height of the irken race is so much shorter compared to that of an adult human. It fits neatly into the “why” question for the sort of athletic skill and agility we’ve seen invaders able to demonstrate on Earth, too, for otherwise being of meek physical prowess. It even adds some credible context for why the very achievement of growing to a more substaintial height is both uncommon and associated with extreme survival fitness to them.

A Fun fact that’s about to be relevant: “Rayleigh scattering” is the term given to when light wavelengths become shifted and scattered through an atmosphere medium. Long story short, it’s the reason our sky has color to it during the day. Stay with me on this.

I’ve also seen some people take a go at the red-looking surface, guessing a different gas makeup than the elements on earth responsible for our blue skies. I’m gonna go against the grain here, and actually contest that. I think that Irk’s atmosphere is coincidentally extremely similar to Earth’s. We know well enough that they both have a similar composition of gases breathable to both societies, given that Zim, Skoodge, and Tak all seemed pretty comfortable without some form of assistance on the same dirtball as humanity. Instead, I propose that Irk’s magenta skies are actually the symptom of heavy pollution. Sunsets and sunrises in the real world are known to make the sky appear more reddish-orange, even pink, as is. Usually, Rayleigh scattering has the light From the sun appear bluish in full midday, but during low sun, the rays are coming at an angle making them have to travel farther before reaching us, so you have already stretched light waves getting the same treatment from the air and, well, a higher frequency blue turns down to the lower end of the spectrum, red and yellows.

And wouldn’t you know, air pollution can actually do the same thing. THIS is why there's a scary ass orange haze known to accompany the presence of massive forest fires and volcanic eruptions. Earth’s most polluted cities even experience longer and redder sunsets for the same reason. 

Left: Image of a lilac sky over a Chinese city experiencing heavy smog levels Right: Intense red haze spotted over towns in Indonesia in the wake of rampant rainforest fires

On Earth, Zim stared directly into the midday sun without hesitation, nor concern that it would literally blind him. I think the planet hue and this is plenty enough to guess the likely case that Irk’s surface probably doesn’t get a lot of direct sun on an average day as is, and the sheer amount of unbroken cityscape that covers the homeworld would be the more obvious suspect than just having a more distant star from them. If they overcrowded to the point of their expansion, why build their civilization deeper into the ground, instead of up? Maybe there's actually a good reason or two they don’t raise their young topside.

A Psychology Molded for Domination

As well, I want to chirp about real world space again for a second. So, anyone up to the buzz in geek circles and aware of the math on the matter probably got the memo: humanity is almost matter-of-fact certainly not alone in this sandbox of a universe (or at the very least, we won’t always be alone). Like, about as certainly as we were about Black holes’ existence before we up and observed the real thing. And while it’s probably not going to happen in any of our lifetimes, sci-fi and media generally have been trying to take a crack for years at what the theoretical first contact with an alien civilization is going to look like. 

And I’m gonna go ahead and say it, 

As “cliche” and Hollywood as the conquering little green/grey dudes trope might have become… it’s actually not a wild take after all. The little and green thing, that’s creative liberty, but the part about them being hostile and something we may not actually even WANT to be aware of our existence? That’s an idea that even the smarty pants experts have been fearing the realistic odds of, even including the late Stephen Hawking .

The Evolution of intelligent life is a hard thing to really pin down and predict, given that we literally only have the one example to study. Under the right conditions, what reason would another advanced species NOT have to be equally as expanding, as exploitative of its resources, self-destructively short-sighted, and as supremacist as humans have already demonstrated themselves to be capable of? There is a lot of very interesting literature that suggests BOTH empathy/altruism and or aggression/tribalism to be (at least in the short term) very rewarding characteristics for an intelligent social species to develop.

And that’s the thing about the behavior of the Irken Armada I think has always been fascinating. Their drive to be the biggest definitionally invasive species across the cosmos is framed exactly as irrational, bumbling, and pointless as it deserves to be; however, is it not just the extended conclusion of every empire that has existed here on Earth, if only it had survived long enough to achieve the technology of Irk? And yet, it’s reminiscent, like the rest of their design, to the far from sapient, yet very real world creatures they appear to be most inspired by: hive and colony building arthropods. Whether the next point I'm about to touch on should be seen as a rejection of that resemblance, or further elaboration of it is anyone's to answer.

Transhumanism, or.. Transirkenism, in this case?

Like the specifics of what Irk really looks like and how it realistically works, a bunch about the aliens’ physical biology is left to scattered tidbits to ponder and piece together into a bigger picture. A few of those tidbits are as follows, drip-fed to us over the course of aired and scripted but never released episodes:

+ From the mouth of Vasquez himself, it has been confirmed that Irkens lack any form of reproductive organs. Instead, they rely on industrialized facilities to grow and produce them in a factory sense.

+ Yet curiously, they still demonstrate something akin to sexual dimorphism, or at least the cultural existence of masculine/feminine genders, where females are aesthetically set apart by the presence of curled antennae, eyelashes, and higher voices.

+ Irken lifespans are able to stretch far past that of an average human’s (Zim himself is cited to be around 2 centuries old in earth years).

+ Invader class soldiers have been implanted with surgical upgrades to their eyes.

+ Every Irken is fitted with a PAK that serves a wide array of utility and life-sustaining functions for its owner. These units are physically and neurologically connected into an Irken’s spine from “birth” and contain a cybernetic backup of an individual’s personality, assigned occupational programming, and memories. 

That’s not close to a complete list by any means, but it’s got the gist of what I want to dwell on most, starting with the last bit; because the PAK isn’t done true justice in one statement. It is not an extra addition the way a prosthetic enhancement is, and it is not a tool the way armor and weapons are. It is literally analogous to a vital organ to these aliens, and they are shown to die within 10 minutes of being forcefully detached from their own.

The degree to which Irken bodies and minds rely on this technology, and how seamlessly they are integrated into it, ALONG with their completely artificial life cycle all directly points to the fact that their civilization has advanced into a cyborg-like stage of evolution. It may even be on track to reach a post-organical peak in due time, phasing out more and more of their “vestigial” and feeble meatsuits until they’ve become a true drone army. And that actually begs some huge questions now that we realize we will never know how much of the Irken anatomy was ever originally a natural feature. An Irken’s own brain practically comes secondary to the superior efficiency of the supercomputer on their back, capable of literally holding their own essence and being in the form of code. A code that can preserve the “self” even in the event of meatbody failure, being uploaded post-mortem into the Control Brains’ collective data and repurposed for a future generation of workers. It absolutely would stand to reason that the species has continued this biological self-tampering to other heights- extending their lifespans, incorporating untold amount of mechanical upgrades into their bodies, and maybe even genetically engineering their smeets to be so compatible with this technology.  The control brains themselves are a mesmerizing reflection of this change over time- the result of an evident shift long ago from technology serving them, to them serving the directives of computers. When you really pay attention to the control brains’ role in the series, it comes clear to you who (or what) is really in charge of their society. The Tallest still maintain their symbolic/cultural importance to the Irkens, but outside of their part in spearheading the active intergalactic invasion, they ultimately are figureheads when it comes to actually running the homeworld and ruling the lives of Irk’s inhabitants. If I had to bet money, I would say the Brains may even have the ability to choose and predetermine the next Tallest when a replacement is needed. But what does that make the Tallest? A meaningless title and transformation, chosen arbitrarily by the AI overlords? Well, I don’t think so, actually… but maybe that, and more on the “meaty” morphology of their race is all a tangent fit for another day and post ;)

[agtartzz]

What are Voss and Zim’s love languages?

And how long have they known each other?

They've technically been aware of each other's existence since their Irken Elite academy days, but didn't really form any kind of relationship until years later. As for the love languages, I always imagined that the two have different primary love languages, but share a secondary love language, being Acts of Service. Whether it be doing basic chores around the house or making food or giving a massage, they tend to show affection through actions. Voss' primary love language is Quality Time, while Zim's is Words of Affirmation. I think Zim needs explicit demonstrations of love, gratitude, and affection. He's a very self-conscious and paranoid person, and has a history of overtly praising himself (possibly to compensate) and being told he's doing a good job or that he's intelligent and capable itches something in his silly little bug brain. He needs encouragement and support in order to feel loved and valued. Voss likes giving Zim his undivided attention, and values those who are engaged in conversation with him. He's a very perceptive and enigmatic person, and appreciates physical presence. He'll take a night of intimate lounging in the living room over elaborate public dates any day.

[khaliarart]

Irken questions:

Do you see Aka as someone in charge of overseeing Smeet's development? hypothetically speaking, something like a parallel work option.

(I found a really cool drawing of a Smeet and decided to compare their heights again.)

Is Aka taller than Sun? I don't know, I just love Sun's design.

Honestly why not. Smeets are tiny, I can imagine some higher-up seeing Aka and thinking “well at least she can’t squash them by stepping on them by accident”.

Plus Aka is great at multitasking and very compassionate for an Irken. She doesn’t even particularly love smeets, but she is pro-empire so every job they encode her as would be perfect, right🤷🏻‍♀️

Aka and Sun have the exact same height! It’s a history repeats itself kinda situation.

I’m also glad to hear you like Sun! I should draw her sometime but her lore is just so depressing,,

[candylitaaa]

idk if this are correctly translated, but here i leave a part of the history of Jess:

Jess is an irken invader who was assigned together with his S.I.R (who prefers to call her Kira) to invade the planet Glorbytan, which takes a journey of no more than two months from his home planet and four months from the central ship irk (at that time). Their disguise is well planned and done so it would be very strange if they discovered that they are not from their planet, there are only a few cases in which Jess and Kira continue to study their culture, biology and so on, causing slight or great suspicion from time to time. having no idea what is going on. Although Jess wants to destroy and conquer the planet Glorbytan, he usually thinks that it's not so bad and that he could live there instead of being forced to obey whatever he is given, thus taking away his freedom. However, he does not want to fail the army and disrespect the Tallest, so he usually tends to take their calls and do certain minor things to simulate a breakthrough in conquest. Kira is a robot which is used to collect data and information from the planet assigned for conquest, and although Jess knows that the more serious her S.I.R is, the better she will do her job, Jess prefers to have someone by her side who has even a bit of personality and own tastes so as not to feel alone on an unknown planet, so he has done the above to feel accompanied, thus creating a new robotic friend disguising himself as a typical Glorbian pet

Glorby: these beings live on the Glorbian planet where Jess was assigned to conquer, hiding among them with a disguise made with the help of his irken technology.

They are mute because they communicate bodily (fur, eye and ears) and do not have a mouth. They are viviparous. They feed by the antennae, absorbing Glorbian energy that comes out of the fungi, shrubs, trees, flowers and other living beings that live on their planet (including their own kind). Their antennae can vary in length as long as they do not exceed their shoulders (when curled up). Their ears are almost never the same as the rest. The same with his eye. Their pupils thicken when they are happy or anxious. Male Glorbys have light colored coats and females have dark colored coats. Some have spots on their bodies and some do not. They can have different shades as long as they are based on a main color. 15% of Glorbys have more than one color. Their defense mechanism is their claws that they can pull out voluntarily. Its maximum adult height is 1.90m They can be mute and communicate physically, but they also use a written language to communicate over a distance. They live in a society; There are buildings, flora, fauna, language (not so used), technology, jobs, their own money, clothing, culture and legends.

Glorbian alphabet here!

This can be change or can be continued in the future