Disclaimer: I do not own ThunderCats 2011; I am just playing around with some of its characters in my own creative way.
A/N: This is my own short take on the history of the Monkeys, or Monkians, as they're also known. It's written for entertainment purposes only. If I think I've done a good job on writing this, I may write other ThunderCats fanfics about the history of the Animals of Third Earth, like the Birds, or maybe the Dogs.
Animal History: The Monkeys
In the beginning of their existence, the Monkian race was one of the proudest, strongest, and cleverest of the races of sentient Animals that existed across the galaxy and took refuge on Third Earth in later ages. However, despite their pride, they were not arrogant, for the most part, like some members of the Bird race were. The unknown force, god, or evolution that created them, singled them out to be the strongmen of the galaxy, swinging through the high trees, fighting fiercely to protect their territory and their clans, and generally living with an innate zest for life. Though most of the Monkeys weren't singled out for special destinies, they felt like a people who understood how life should be lived if it was to be enjoyed: to live in the moment, to the full, to the end of their days.
Monkey culture was simple. Like ordinary monkeys and apes, the Monkians were under strict laws to use simple tools made from nature, to get their food and water, make their homes and beds, treat their illnesses and injuries, and various other everyday tasks, including leisure and amusement. The Monkeys were a very conservative people, protective of their traditions, and preferring to be set in their ways. They also loved storytelling, and though they wrote no books, Monkey parents and elders told many a tale to the younger generations during social gatherings and nights by a campfire. Some of them even had an affinity for songs and music, particularly bongo and tribal music.
Although the source of their creation remains largely unknown, the Monkeys did have figures of great renown and even heroism from time to time, and the oldest members of their kind were regarded as angelic gods to them. It's said that the galaxy's oldest Monkey was a large gorilla-man with shimmering silver hair, named Silvertone. This ancient one was the first patriarch of the Monkeys. He ruled from a seat of natural green vegetation that only a Monkey could think of as reverent, and he governed his kind as a strictly primitive people. He would not allow the Monkeys to get involved with the technological gadgets of other races, like the Birds and the Thundarians, although he did allow some to participate in simple forms of science. Silvertone dressed in a skirt of bamboo and a crown made of beads, and his favorite element was the ice, because he was as hard as an iceberg and unmoving in his beliefs, yet his heart could melt like that of an adult seeing a sweet baby.
Sitting beside Silvertone on his throne was the second oldest Monkey, and his faithful mate, the female gorilla Goldeck. Her long hair shone golden-brown, even under the cover of a rainforest canopy or on a cloudy day. She was the diplomatic helper of Silvertone, and brought many early conflicts between the Monkeys to a peaceful resolution. Her element was the water, for the gold color of her fur rolled off her body like a stream of water, and she was revered for having the attributes of water, as well. Goldeck could be gentle as a slow-flowing river with those who pleased her, and with those she pardoned for former crimes, but she could also be unforgiving as the raging rapids, or the ocean, to those who committed unpardonable crimes or would not repent of their corruption. The Monkeys feared and loved her more than any other of their race, and Mumm-Ra, the Ever-Living, despised her the most of all the Monkian species for her purity of heart, but didn't dare use his powers against one as righteous as her, for fear of her mysterious powers.
These were the original rulers of the home of the Monkeys, the king and queen of their people. But they were no more immortal than any other natural sentient being, and ultimately they passed on, leaving their duties to their children.
As stated above, several other Monkeys stood out in the history books, despite their being a simple, conservative people. Eight generations after the passing of Silvertone and Goldeck, another female Monkey who, like Goldeck, worked as a diplomat, was one of the first Monkeys to achieve interstellar space travel. She was an orangutan, red as redwood, and her name was Denali. She, along with several others of the Monkeys, found the old planet Thundera and met with the mighty ThunderCats who were the indomitable warrior guardians and chosen ones to rule and protect the Thunderian race of Cats. Denali, in her forest-green uniform, was presented to the then-Lord of the ThunderCats, Leopardo, and his cleric, Siberio, and the messenger and her hosts elaborated on the history of their own peoples. Denali stated that she had the permission of the Monkians to seek out other races and species in the galaxy and, if those races were willing, make peace treaties and alliances with them.
Leopardo and Siberio agreed to this, and soon, the home worlds of the Monkeys and the Thunderians were formed into a loose confederation, which both planets hoped would one day evolve from a confederacy into a strong union.
During her lifetime, Denali found two other sentient Animal races in the galaxy, the Birds and the Dogs (and also the Jackals, which, in essence, were Dogs), and eventually brought them into what they called the Animal Confederation. Denali didn't like the way some of the leaders of the Birds put on hubristic airs, and the Dogs were a little aggressive with her initially, but both races desired peace more than war, and they wanted to respect Thundera, too, if only because it was one of the most powerful and mystical of the Animal races' worlds in the galaxy. After she died peacefully in old age, Denali was commemorated as a heroine of the Monkeys.
Some other Monkeys, however, differed with each other when it came to respect and honor. Once, in later Monkian history, two brother chimpanzees and their best friend, an adolescent bonobo girl, lived during a time when there was a civil war between the Monkeys and a disgruntled faction of the Birds, who claimed that the Monkeys owed them more payment in return for being part of their Confederacy, and that the Monkeys were holding back something the Birds said was rightfully theirs: a test subject from the Monkey race of the Birds' choice to learn about how the brains of other sentient races worked. The two chimps' names were Dukot and Twiright, and their bonobo friend's named was Emerset. The brothers volunteered to fight on behalf of the Monkeys, while Emerset begged them to stay home, that the war was a stupid, unjust one, and that she didn't want to lose them, not only in life, but also in sanity. But Dukot and Twiright insisted, and they were on their way to war, though they both promised they would always love Emerset.
For months, Dukot and Twiright fought, side by side as often as possible, in their dark blue fighting skirts and tough, metal helmets, while Emerset was taken care of by a gracious family of baboons. They won numerous victories and suffered many defeats, but they thought nothing could break their spirits. That is, until that fateful day when the war ended, with the Monkeys having the victory. They were ready to go home and meet their friend again, but when they got there, they discovered that most of the baboons that took care of Emerset had been slaughtered by Bird troops that had invaded civilian grounds, and that poor Emerset had been killed, too.
It must be said here that the brothers had different ways of handling themselves as soldiers. Dukot was a professional who managed to stay calm in the face of pressure and stress, while Twiright was a very passionate Monkey who could get excited over anything. Another difference was that Dukot preferred the light, while Twiright preferred the darkness. When they learned how their friend had been murdered in a war they had previously said was worth fighting, Dukot was moved to tears and sought solitude in his home for days. But Twiright became quite mad, and started to attack anything or anyone that got in his way, breaking things in his house, overturning his bed, screaming and yelling, and there was nothing the Monkeys around him could do about it. It was natural for Monkeys to be excitable, and Twiright smashed and danced around until he lost almost all his energy, and then went to his own room, slammed the door, and kept to himself for weeks. After his time of mourning was over, Dukot tried to convince Twiright to let go of the past, because nothing was going to bring back Emerset, and she had moved on to a better place than those battlefields, anyway. It took a long time, until finally, Twiright, with an effort, pulled himself out of his funk and apologized to everyone he had abused during his tirade. But although the brothers were considered heroes of the Monkey-Bird Civil War, neither of them, nor any of their relatives, felt celebratory about their achievement again.
It also took time to smooth relationships between the Monkeys and the Birds again, but with the help of Thunderian and Dog diplomats, ultimately, the two species made peace again, at last. But another dark age for Monkeys was yet to come, several generations after Dukot and Twiright's deaths, and it was the same for many other Animal races across the civilized galaxy. Mumm-Ra had shown himself openly at last, and with his powers provided to him by the Ancient Spirits of Evil, he enslaved the Monkeys and many other Animals in the Confederation, and forced them to serve him as an unwilling army. This lasted for quite some time, although the Thunderians somehow escaped Mumm-Ra's persecution for the time being. But after some years of oppression, some of the races found heroes among their numbers who led them out of slavery, and later, those races freed the other races, too, including the Monkeys.
Then they all escaped on a giant spaceship, which, unfortunately, fell off course and crash-landed on Third Earth. But the Monkeys soon learned to adapt to their new home, and over many more generations they rebuilt their simple, primitive civilization. Officially, the Confederation didn't exist anymore, but the Monkeys and their neighbors still kept in touch and cooperated with each other willingly when necessary. The Monkian society continued to live up to their name as primitive, but highly intelligent, simians with unique talents that other Animals couldn't copy. But few Monkeys have risen to prominence on Third Earth since their arrival generations ago, and during the present, the only one who had distinguished himself was a savage, gorilla-like Monkey with white skin and hair, a red skirt, and a spiked helmet, named Addicus. Unfortunately, he is one of the least honorable of his kind, living his life as a criminal, antagonizing the Bird Nation for no particular reason, gorging on his kills like a cannibal, and quite generally being the greatest ass in the history of the normally peaceful Monkian race.
Now, however, Addicus has been recruited by Mumm-Ra to be one of his army generals, along with Slithe the Lizard, Kaynar the Jackal, and Vultaire the Vulture Bird. And what sort of worse damage can he and his cohorts do as the leaders of an army commanded by a purely evil entity like Mumm-Ra? What will become of the rest of the Monkey race?
Only time will tell, I guess.