A/N: I'm sorry for the long delay before writing this, the continuation of the ThunderCats 2011 Animal History series, but I've been so preoccupied with writing down other ideas for stories. There will be just three more after this one, because I know almost nothing to write about the creature that looked like Mon*Star from SilverHawks. They are the Tigersharks, the Rats, and the Cats. I'm saving the Cats for last, because they're the central characters in the ThunderCats cartoon, and thus the stars.
Disclaimer: I do not own ThunderCats 2011. Warner Bros. and Studio 4C own it.
Animal History: The Lizards
It was said that in one section of the galaxy somewhere, there existed yet another species of sapient Animal people. They were often looked down on by many other races, and they did not take kindly to it. They were the Lizards, a race of reptilian humanoids with slick, scaled, green skin and red eyes, and an air of malice about them, due to their long history of persecution by other Animal races throughout the galaxy. But they were also known for being vengeful and angry, as well as desiring power for themselves, and this would get them in serious trouble one day.
Although many ordinary animals existed on the Lizards' ancient home world, they were evidently in strongest kinship with reptiles, like snakes, normal lizards, and crocodiles. Some even liked the turtles and tortoises. Their society was primitive, and they lived lives of eating and running, for they were also a very warlike people, fighting wars for a variety of reasons, sometimes even just for the sake of it. The Lizards alternated between getting on well and quarrelling violently with each other relentlessly, like the race as a whole was plagued by mood swings. This was, in fact, part of the reason for their lack of popularity with the other races, many of whom preferred peace to war, but the Lizards always blamed those other races instead of themselves, thinking that they were such poor people that they deserved to be respected by all just for that. Some Animal races interpreted this attitude as arrogance, even the Birds, who were often arrogant themselves, but the Lizards insisted that the whole galaxy just misunderstood them, and tensions remained tight between them and their neighbors.
Not as many Lizards had known or recorded stories as in most of the other races, but there were some that stood out well, either for good or bad reasons. In their ancient years, a great Lizard man named Tauro stood up as a champion of the Lizards because he was a powerful warrior who united the Lizard people into a society. Tauro was a revolutionary who didn't like the disorder present on his world or with his people, and he wanted to lead them into a new era of peace and order. He formed his own grand army of loyal followers, and traveled the globe they lived on, rooting out troublemaking Lizard rogues and rebels, and destroying them or forcing them to surrender to the might of his army on the condition that they stop coming up in arms against their own people. Over a course of ten years, Tauro continued to fight for his people, cleansing the planet of rebels, until the whole of the Lizard community had been united together. Then he was hailed as a mighty hero, and became a legend of the Lizards for generations. Unfortunately, his greatness wouldn't be remembered forever. Mumm-Ra would see to that, generations later.
Lizard civilization remained rather primitive, though, because Tauro couldn't do much to improve its lowlife culture. Years after Tauro's death in a skirmish, however, another Lizard called Mamal surfaced, and while he could only provide the very basic technology for the Lizards, he started to develop a better culture for his people. He brought in many mystical theories about the universe for Lizard thinkers to debate, and he developed a spiritual base for the lives of the Lizards, involving the worship of the Crawling Gods, reptilian gods that lived hidden on their world and provided their food, water and air for them, because they cared about the Lizards who were their children more than any other race in the galaxy. This appealed greatly to many Lizards, and scholars ranging from Tahk the Wise to Nauros the Indefatigable made many interpretations of the words of these gods and wrote books about them for the Lizard population to learn from. Mamal became a highly revered spiritual figure in the eyes of his people; in some people's eyes, he was almost seen as an idol, although he didn't wish for that kind of reverence.
But this venture into spirituality only served, in the long run, to make the Lizards have conflicts with each other again, for there were so many fascinating theories and interpretations of the Crawling Gods' words to their children, that the Lizards began taking sides and quarrelling with each other once again, this time over the meaning of life and what it really meant. Mamal's plan for a better and wiser Lizard world backfired, and ultimately the spiritual religion the Lizards had embraced so readily was abandoned by well over half the planet's population. Some Lizards still adhered to their own viewpoints on the subject, but most were disillusioned and lost their faith for good.
As for Mamal himself, he was lynched and hacked to death by some disgruntled former followers of his, who now saw him as a wise guy who thought he had the answers for everything, but couldn't make up his mind exactly what those truths were, or worse, wouldn't reveal the simple, straight truth at all. His remains were fed to some of the lizards that Earth citizens would have called "Komodo dragons."
The Lizards got on with their lives, no longer entirely trusting anybody to give them the true meaning of life. They did become part of the Animal Confederation at one point, but they had noticeably less enthusiasm for it than most of the other races, and this only widened the gulf between them and the others. But it was only destined to get worse.
At last, the day came when Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living emerged from his pyramid and used his great powers to capture so many of the Confederation's Animal citizens, including the Lizards, and forcing them to do his bidding as part of his private army of darkness. The Lizards, along with the other Animals, suffered greatly under the whips of Mumm-Ra and his creatures, and they always feared for so many years that there was no escape.
But generations later, two Cat heroes named Leo and Panthera came out of the dark, and teamed up with a Jackal hero named Shen, and a Lizard hero named Rezard, to free their people and all the other slaves, and overthrow Mumm-Ra. The coup against Mumm-Ra worked against all odds, and the Animals were freed, with Rezard leading his people to a glorious victory over their oppressor, although they had to crash-land on the planet Third Earth in the process. After this had happened, and the Animals had emerged from the pyramid, they saw the wide, open lands around them and marveled at the diversity of Third Earth's landscapes. The Animals went their separate ways to reform their societies as they saw fit on their new home, effectively forgetting all of their past history forever, and four of the races protected Mumm-Ra's Power Stones from his hands so he couldn't re-energize his full power upon them.
Unfortunately, the other races somehow hadn't forgotten about their sour feelings toward Lizards in general, and many of them continued to persecute the reptile men in various ways. The Cats were especially guilty of this, believing that the Lizards, even with their traditions, were one of the basest races on Third Earth, at least when it came to the Animals. The Lizards chafed under the Thunderian arrogance that was constantly directed at them, and began looking for ways to get their dignity back and get vengeance on their neighbors, particularly the Cats.
And ironically, they found it in the form of their old enemy, Mumm-Ra, who was almost finished recovering from his previous defeat. They pledged their support to him and expressed desire to serve as his army, if he would provide them with high military technology necessary to overpower the Cats, as well as great power with which to emerge mighty and powerful over the other Animals. Mumm-Ra agreed to oblige them, with help from a treacherous Cat named Grune, and together with a fat but strong Lizard General named Slithe, the Lizards went to war against the hated Cats.
But the ThunderCats, the most powerful of the Cats, were able to repel them many times, to their embarrassment, meaning that they had many defeats as well as some victories. And what was embarrassing for Mumm-Ra was that the Lord of the ThunderCats, Lion-O, had more compassion for the Lizards than most other Cats, and was convincing many of the Lizard soldiers to leave Mumm-Ra's army and go back home to live in peace with their families. So Slithe and Mumm-Ra's army and plans started to go downhill, until Mumm-Ra and Slithe enlisted the help of two new Generals, a Monkey named Addicus, and a Jackal named Kaynar, two vicious warriors with an appetite for blood and a thirst for battle, to ensure that the rest of the Lizards stayed in line and didn't attempt to desert, too.
The Lizard army continued to fight the Cats for many days, with their Generals dogging them all the way. Despite being a Lizard himself, the greedy Slithe had little compassion or feeling for life, and didn't mind risking expending some of his soldiers, such as Kask, Khamai, and Sauro, three Lizard scouts he sent into a forest to follow the ThunderCats. But with their advanced military and civilian technology and their strong industrial base, the Cloud Peak Mine mining complex, the Lizards were nonetheless strong enough to keep up the fight against the ThunderCats for their lord, Mumm-Ra, the Ever-Living.
Perhaps Mumm-Ra can be defeated one day, and the Lizard race can finally see the light? Could it happen? We may never know. Perhaps, it will never happen to these poor, wretched souls with a ravaged history.