Random Oddswitch!Vykker stuff, because @francoisl-artblog got me inspired with their interpretation of the Vykkers in the Oddswitch AU, and I wanted to expand on the idea a little:
One of the reasons for the canon Vykkers various quirks, like their general lack of compassion towards other beings and each-other, their self centred natures and the fact they’ve evolved to be self-impregnating hermaphrodites is due in part to the environment they originally evolved in. As they lived in dense forests and jungles, primal Vykkers developed into highly territorial, solitary ambush hunters. In a way similar to earth tigers. Only breaking their solitude in very specific circumstances, such as to raise young, defend thier territory from rival Vykkers or to find a mate (the latter type of encounter being much rarer since, as mentioned before, Vykkers are able to reproduce asexually).
While Vykkers of the Oddswitch timeline tend to have a reputation among Mudokons and the other societies of oddworld for being sadistic and remorseless monsters that actively enjoy inflicting pain on and murdering living creatures, most Vykkers are generally indifferent to other creatures unless hunting or defending territory. Most Vykkers do lack empathy, but this in itself doesn’t really make them malicious or evil. It’s just that the whole empathy and compassion thing isn’t really something that comes naturally to them. Though, there are certainly some individual Vykkers that can take their hunting and defence of their territory a step to far and like toying with their prey/would be intruders a bit too much… or they can just be real jerkasses. Plus, there are some Vykkers born with a different neurological wiring that makes them more inclined to be empathetic and/or compassionate towards other creatures, or simply other Vykkers.
Although in the oddswitch timeline Vykkers are far more primal (being similar to primates such as chimpanzees in thier demeanour) and haven’t developed a society, let alone a civilisation anywhere near as advanced as others like the Mudokons, Glukkons or even Sligs, Vykker individuals are still a lot smarter then you’d expect. Being highly curious and fast learners, they’re able to craft simple, rudimentary tools by carving wood and rock with the highly developed, almost tusk like teeth on their lower jaw. A valuable skill among many which they learn from their parent (or in some cases, parents) before becoming fully independent and going out alone to find their own territory.
They use tools like these to build traps for catching prey, protecting their territory from intruders, and, in some cases... create art. Such examples of this include carving and painting images of various prey animals on the walls of their shelters and whittling and carving crude, vaguely Vykker-like figures from wood and soft rock. All of which were found in abandoned shelters within hollowed out tree trunks later cut down and discovered by Mudokons.
Unlike the trap crafting tools of the Vykkers, the exact purpose or significance these pieces remains unclear...
I imagine at some point in the canon Vykkers early history, individual Vykkers became somewhat less possessive of their territories for whatever reason and began to more regularly encounter other Vykker individuals. They learned to get along with, or at the very least, tolerate one another, form groups and share knowledge. Thus rapidly evolving into the highly intelligent and scientifically knowledged society we know in the canon timeline. In the oddswitch timeline, several factors lead Vykkers potential development of civilisation to become stunted. With a big one being Mudokon civilisation rising to power earlier than the Glukkons in the canon timeline. They increased their consumption of Oddworld’s natural resources like wood, leading to large amounts of jungle and woodland areas being cut down by the Mudokons, who only left certain trees untouched for religious purposes and for fruit and spooce shrub agriculture. Through this, Vykkers lost much of their territory, became further isolated from one another and far more ruthless, tactical and sadistic when protecting what remained of their territory.
Very little is known of Vykker biology and behaviour by advanced civilisations of Oddworld such as the Mudokons. There are many reasons for this lack of research. Such as Mudokons highly biased views on the Vykkers. Dissmissing them as nothing more than animalistic, savage beasts getting in the way of valuable resources (despite the overwhelming evidence to support Vykker intelligence, such as the aforementioned tool making and surprising creativity skills), and thus most of the Mudokon scientific community see no reason or value to studying them. Another big reason mentioned in François’s original post is that Mudokons are absolutely terrified of Vykkers! As many expeditions and group ventures into their forests result in mass casualties and comeback with very few survivors if any. Hence, these days, Mudokons tend to stay far away from Vykker forests. They are also still in the process of figuring out ways to exterminate the Vykkers without destroying their trees, as many Vykkers have resorted to making their shelters within the trees Mudokons hold as sacred as well as larger fruit trees.
The Vykkers themselves have become something of a legend, with the horror stories left by survivors of Vykker attacks making their way to the “”civilised”” world. Notably, being told by some soldier mudokons to Glukk slaves as a way to scare them off from the idea of escaping their captivity and into the wilderness, where savage and sadistic Vykkers will surely be waiting to trap any unfortunate Glukks foolish enough to leave their Mudokon masters.
