#rayman headcanons

Before the Universe was made there was one giant single fundamental lum. Contained within that lum was infinite stars, galaxies, infinite possibilities for new life. It was the embodiment of reality itself. Where did it come from? No one knows. Yet here it was floating in a void of perfect harmony with nothing to disturb it. Absolutely nothing at all it was perfect and it was so very very boring.

On this void of nothingness, this entity longed for something more something meaningful. At first it tried to find that meaning through creation. To make something more by creating life. In doing so they created the first ever form of life that many would consider to be Gods, powerful deities with control over natural elements, concepts, free will and thoughts themselves.

The Muse of Poets a deity of creativity, Leptys a god of power and night, Greek Gods, Norse Gods, Kami, Orishas, and countless more. The new gods of this world proceeded to fill out the void of nothingness with the concept of change and evolution. To bring about new never before seen elements from color, sights, smells, taste, emotions. The Muse inspired by these new concepts brought to life epic tales of adventure, heroism and romance. Other deities got to work on conceptualizing where they would reside within this void. 

Yet as change came this entity lum continued to feel empty. It still felt alone, they may have created life but there was still no one like them to relate to. Until one day it did something unthinkable. It had a dream, a dream that was shared by everyone. A dream where it was everywhere and no where at all. A dream where a part of itself was someone new, someone never seen before. This unprecedented feeling was so overwhelming that both its mind and body shattered.

The shattering of this entity was felt across the cosmos, the first big bang. Infinite galaxies came about populating the void bringing light to what was once darkness. So the primordial deities scattered to explore this new world. 

As for the fate of this unknown entity. From its destruction it was reborn into something new. Instead of one singular lum there was infinite lums everywhere and in this explosion came the birth of the final new deity. Born from the shattered remains that gathered together. They named themself…Polokus.

I personally think the Glade of Dreams formed in an event similar to the Big Bang, but the Lums fused their energy and consciousnesses to create Polokus first. Polokus would remain dormant for centuries as he dreamed up a world and inhabitants to occupy the sort of limbo surrounding him, with the Lums continuing to use their power to form the Glade itself. Afterwards, the newly small and energy-drained Lums would become residents of the Glade, while their residual magic combined with Polokus’ dreams to create people and creatures to populate the world.

The Glade functioned a lot like the Garden of Eden in its early days as its people acclimated to simply existing, slowly developing ideas like art and language on their own as the distant Polokus produced more dreams. They were only loosely aware of Polokus’ existence, learning about him through the Lums, before Jano was brought to life from Polokus’ first nightmare and the people began theorizing that a greater pantheon of gods existed. The Muse of the Poets was why they were blessed with the ability to make art and tell stories, the Leptys was why some creatures like the Knaaren had the primal instinct to fight, and many more aspects of the world were attributed to new figures the people imagined. Polokus didn’t really mind as these new deities could shoulder the burdens of these ideas so he could solely focus on developing his world, but he reached a point where he was satisfied and could finally explore the world he spent centuries building. The Muse of the Poets eventually created his Four Masks as a wedding gift to him and a way of protecting him against anyone who would seek his power, whether it was the Nightmares they were fighting or an outside force seeking to destroy the Glade entirely.

Here’s a few of mine, Knaarens are actually feathered. They use to grow these bright, vibrant and beautiful feathers on their body. What was once a wonderful tropical paradise over a thousand years ago became The Desert of Knaarens we know today. As resources died out, chaos erupted. Friends became enemies as the desperation and diminishing resources grew. Over time adopting a toxic might makes right society. One punishment many Knaarens went through was to be plucked of all feathers as a way to ostracize those who lost. That is until ancient Knaarens of Gumsi’s lineage led the charge to overthrow the first ruler and install themselves as the new king of the Knaarens.

After the Robo-Pirates’ invasion, people became incredibly skeptical of technology. The Glade isn’t primitive, but it definitely isn’t where we are now in terms of modernization. While it put people off of the idea of innovating and automating things, it did reinforce the need for personal connection and community projects as the Glade rebuilt. The Fairy Council revamped the postal service so it runs fast enough to keep up with people sending each other letters, Clark and Rayman led a community-based operation to fix villages and farm land, and more people began pursuing education in areas like philanthropy and psychology to help people recover mentally. The Glade wasn’t divided by any means, unless you count Dreams and Nightmares conflicting, but recovering from a traumatic global threat will put things into perspective and cause people to seek connection.

Because their structures and weaponry weren’t as advanced or “scary” as the Robo-Pirates, probably just because they were goofier and seen as less of a threat, the Hoodlums’ tech was partially adopted by people who lived where they set up bases. Families used their structures as scaffolding or support to build their homes, with some areas becoming full-on towns built on the Hoodlums’ work, and nonlethal weaponry like explosive plum juice and blunderbusses were adapted to deter animals from farm land.

Teensies of different tribes are prone to bickering for power when they meet during solstices, much like the Grand Minimuses in Rayman 2, but they will unite without hesitation in times of crisis. It’s more of a friendly rivalry between tribes than actual competition or violence, but they take it kind of seriously because they still want to prove their people are the best. One minute a tribe leader will be making rude gestures behind another’s back and calling them a “big old meanie”, but the next they’ll be eagerly coordinating trade maps in case one tribe’s harvest doesn’t pan out.

The Teensie Doctors have been trying to make major medical advancements using Robo-Pirate and Hoodlum technology, whether it’s using their scrap metal to make an adjustable medical table or seeing if Black Lums’ ability to reproduce can accelerate recovery from an injury. They don’t get many volunteer test subjects so their progress has been slow, but they continue to work for the Glade’s sake.

There is a blanket category of “fairies” among the Glade’s population, but there’s a social/magical hierarchy of their subcategories. The Muse of the Poets (Goddess) > Betilla and her sisters (Nymphs) > Ly and other Phrysians (standard Fairies) > Fairy Council workers (Ludivs, Greenbottles, etc.) > Lums

Lums are at the bottom of this hierarchy because they aren’t sapient like the other fairies, but their power and the fact that they made the world are still highly respected. If I were to place Black Lums separately from non-corrupted Lums, they’d rank above Fairy Council workers due to how quickly they multiply and how they operate as a hive mind, as well as the fact that André developed arms and the ability to speak like other fairies. The Robo-Pirates were a threat because they were unfamiliar to the Glade and were highly advanced, but the Hoodlums were a threat because they were corrupting the Glade’s life force and slowly chipping away at the world’s ability to recover from their onslaught. It’s also suspected that Lums have some kind of invulnerability or hyper-longevity if they aren’t often outright immortal; pure Lums have lived for longer than people cared to record (the only known exception being the Yellow Lum Razorbeard ate), the Hoodlums lived in conditions that would be highly hazardous to other fairies in the Hoodlum HQ, and André survived being eaten by Globox.

YEEEE I love going into the ecology of fictional worlds! I’m more of a casual Monster Hunter fan as I’ve only really played the spinoff MH: Stories games, but that’s what got me into the more realistic aspects of worldbuilding.

It has been theorized by some that Nightmares can be created from negative energy also known as bad mojo, bad vibes, etc. Hatred, greed, apathy, jealousy, fear and bigotry all of these can create negative thoughts and in turn negative energy.

This metaphysical energy exists within the universe itself like mana and can build up around the world to create nightmares or if it builds up within one person they too can into a nightmare.

Red lums transformation into black lums and hoodlums is the result of that as their fears became synchronized with that negative energy turning them into black lums.

Similarly the Zombie Chickens are a result of that too. Let’s say person wanted to play soccer but due to an accident they can never play it again and now feel jealousy and anger towards the sport. This will create a soccer ball based nightmare monster.

For another example let’s say one has a collective fear of needles and another has a fear of bugs if that fear and hatred is strong enough a nightmare insect made of needles can be created from that.

In times of peace this energy is negligible and is barely a threat. However sudden increases in negative energy from constant battles, monster attacks and other horrifying situations can create these nightmares born from negative energy.

This has a lot in common with how I think nightmares are formed! I don’t think we see any nightmares that aren’t formed by Polokus or Jano, at least in terms of what’s explained in the canon lore, but it’s interesting to see that it happens to a lesser extent with the Glade’s inhabitants. The idea of multiple people’s fears combining to form nightmares is also interesting, which makes me wonder if a nightmare of everyone’s fears could manifest, like if the Glade’s collective trauma from the Robo-Pirate invasion could create a huge robot-based nightmare. Or do you think there’s some kind of threshold that limits how much fear can create a nightmare at a time?

He once had to confront the destructively childish fairy king who’s mischief was tormenting and annoying countless villages with his all-powerful magic all cause he got bored of his responsibilities as a king and decided to take a “vacation”.

He once had to mediate and broker peace between a kingdom of toads who was in a century long war with a neighboring Globox nation a conflict that started over an argument of who owned a sacred springs that both kingdoms used to house and raise their respective eggs as they mature.

What sorts of adventures you think Rayman has had that we haven’t seen?

These are such fun scenarios! I also read and enjoyed your other post about Rayman’s off-screen hijinks. I haven’t given much thought to what Rayman does outside of the canon lore (probably because I fixate on the games like my cats with fried chicken), but his status as Guardian of the Glade of Dreams means he probably would end up on more wacky adventures to keep the peace. Between the Glade’s wackiness and the looseness between the games’ individual lores, the sky’s the limit for shenanigans.

A family can be a thingamajig in a friend group consisting of a dog-man, a red head lady, and a lac-mac who have to raise a baby fairy after they all escaped from a circus while on the run from a cop.