The World of Tak (Part 1)
The Nicktoons have given us worlds that will forever remain with us.
Some that were relatively grounded in our reality like Bluffington, Hillwood City, Royal Woods, and pretty much all the settings of the Klasky-Csupo Nicktoons.
Some that had more fantastical elements like Dimmsdale, Retroville, Amity Park, Tremorton, O-Town and whatever the name of the city Invader Zim takes place in is.
And some that just go full on fantastical like Bikini Bottom, The Four Nations, and Petropolis.
But one world that has always fascinated me because of its potential was that of Tak and the Power of Juju.
Tak's world stood out from the other Nicktoons for being a not only being a fantasy world, but a tribal fantasy world.
Which is something that's really seen in media.
Most fantasy worlds are usually European inspired.
But with that, it was really disappointing that we never really saw a truly fleshed-out vision of Tak's world.
The games never really went into depth on anything, despite throwing in some interesting concepts and revealing some interesting lore.
And the TV show didn't even fucking try.
Well, recently, I've been working on my Nicktoons Re-Unite series.
Which I initially gave up on but eventually decided to revamp it into Nicktoon Heroes.
A lot of the elements from Re-Unite will be carried over into Heroes, and among them (specifically on the planned side) was to give more of a focus on Tak.
Particular with a series-long character arc of finding his parents.
Funnily enough, he isn't the only member of the Nicktoons team that has gone through that.
Along with touching on his status as a half-human/half-Juju hybrid.
Which was introduced in the show, and this version of Tak is an amalgamation of the games and the show.
And on the topic of this post, fleshing out his world.
Particularly, I want to give Tak's world more of an identity.
So sit back, grab a snack, stop looking at your drawing tablet, and let's dive right in!
So perhaps the most interesting bit of lore we receive for the Tak world is from The Great Juju Challenge.
Here it's revealed that there are other tribes besides The Pupununu.
Those being The Jibba Jabbas, The Grammazons, and The Black Mist.
We also get two more additions in the Game Boy Advance version with The Mind Raiders and The Zoopians.
Speaking of which, in that version, we also get to see where each tribe lives.
My goal here is to give each of the tribes their own unique identities and more specifically, give them strong cultural inspirations.
Akin to The Four Nations, with how they're each based on a section of Asian and Indigenous culture.
Starting this off we have none than the tribe of Tak himself: The Pupununu.
The Pupununu Tribe would be heavily inspired by the tribal cultures of The Amazon, Western Africa, and Southeast Asia.
The village is comprised of huts, stilt houses, vernacular houses and other types of structures made from wood, mud and clay with either thatched and wooden roofs akin to ones found in Western Africa and Southeast Asia.
The Chief and his family live in a omo sebua, a type of traditional house style of the Nias people from Nias Island, Indonesia
Going back to how they were described in the original games, The Pupununu people are peaceful, progressive and benevolent people.
They typically wear loinclothes, dresses, skirts, tunics and shúkàs of varying colors.
And adorn themselves with cool-colored tattoos, feathers and feathered headdresses, earrings, necklaces and bracelets made of colored beads, seeds, shells and animal teeth, beaded collars, brass neck rings, metal cuffs, ear weights, and headwraps.
As for their way of life.
The tribe practices in the ways of animism and shamanism.
They also perform ancestor worship, hold festivals to honor the jujus, and have community meetings and events in a maloca.
In their spare time, the tribe often make various crafts such as pottery, textiles, featherwork, jewelry, totems, masks, weave-work, metalwork, basketry, wood and stone carvings, and bead-woven accessories.
Although The Pupununu People are peaceful, they aren't afraid to step up and fight back against threats.
Among their weapons, they utilize blowguns and special types of darts with varying effects, swords like macanas and mandaus, spears like assegai, daggers like kpingas and krises.
When it comes to food, The Pupununu are primarily foragers, farmers and fishers.
They don't hunt very often.
The tribe forage and grow rice, plant roots and tubers like yams and cassava, corn, beans like soy, cacao and coffee, peas, grains, sugarcane, spices, and fruits like berries, citrus, coconuts and bananas.
Their livestock include cattle, pigs, goats, chicken, water buffaloes, and of course, sheep.
The Pupununu Tribe lives in The Great Jungle, a vast region of tropical forests, grasslands and wetlands.
The jungle is home to various animals including various types of macaws and parrots, howler monkeys, spider monkeys, poison dart frogs, toucans, tortoises, boas, anacondas, various types of butterflies, beetles and spiders, marmosets, iguanas, sloths, armadillos, anteaters, tapirs, river dolphins, crocodiles, caimans, piranhas, electric eels, lungfish, goliath catfish, arapaimas, capybaras, jaguars, harpy eagles, peccaries, river otters, elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, baboons, mandrills, colobus monkeys, lemurs, lions, zebras, giraffes, rhinos, hippos, leopards, gazelles, wildebeests, cape buffaloes, kudus, warthogs, okapis, giant forest hogs, marabou storks, pythons, giant toads, ostriches, jackals, hyenas, vultures, fish eagles, falcons, hornbills, meerkats, bongos, manatees, hyraxes, clawed frogs, orangutans, pangolins, macaques, proboscis monkeys, tigers, bats, cobras, flying lizards, clouded leopards, sun bears, spotted deer, porcupines, turtles, monitor lizards, tarsiers, giant hornets, peacocks, mouse deer, gibbons, and palm civets.
The world of Tak is also home to animals of both the past and of legend & fantasy.
And here in The Great Jungle.
For the former, there's the likes of titanboas, giant snapping turtles (Carbonemys cofrinii), rhippos (toxodons), giant crocodiles (Acherontisuchus guajiraensis), giant river dolphins (Pebanista yacuruna), giant sloths, shovel-jawed elephants (Gomphotheres), terror birds, wild horses (Equus neogeus), glyptodons, mastodons, sabre-tooth tigers, short-faced bears, dire wolves, horse-apes (chalicotheres), long-nosed llamas (Macrauchenia), downward-tusked elephants (Chilgatherium), giant hyraxes (Megalohyrax), thunder rhinos (Arsinoitherium), hyaenodonts, pig hippos (Anthracotheriidae), four-tusked elephants (Tetralophodon), hipparions, giant boars (Nyanzachoerus), okapiraffes (Palaeotragus), short-necked giraffes (Sivatherium), spotted antelopes (Parmularius), giant otters (Enhydriodon), king elephants (Palaeoloxodon), giant buffaloes (Syncerus antiquus), giant warthogs (Metridiochoerus), giant lions, giant baboons (Dinopithecus), killer pigs (Entelodonts), orango-bins (Khoratpithecus), bear-dogs (Maemohcyon potisati), sabre-tooth leopards (Longchuansmilus), river pigs (Anthracotheriidae), jungle beavers (Steneofiber siamensis), six-teethed hippos (Hexaprotodon), giant tapirs, long-horned water buffaloes, orango-kongs (Gigantopithecus), giant pangolins and cave hyenas.
As for the latter; there's Woodies (returning from the games), giant carnivorous plants, Mapinguaris (massive hairy, sasquatch-like creatures with one eye and a massive mouth on their stomachs), elemental serpents (massive snakes that can control the elements; coming in water, earth and fire variants), Iaras (wicked mermaids who use their beautiful voices to lure wary travelers, particularly men, to a watery grave), Yacurunas (a race of fish-like humanoids who protect the rivers and sources of water of The Great Jungle), Curupiras (a race of dwarfs who possess backward feet), swamp dragons (aquatic dragons that reside in the wetlands that possess venomous saliva), Jengus (benevol mermaids who possess the power to use water to heal and serve as protectors along the river), Adzes (a race of vampires with insect-like wings that often disguise themselves as fireflies), Asimen (another race of vampires, that can transform into a ball of light and fly through the night sky to hunt for human prey) The Mat Swindler (a malevolent trickster gnome who always carries around a mat and will grant who's ever willing to snatch his mat rich. If they don't, they'll be cursed with bad luck), Mmoatias (fairies that aid humans, particularly shamans, with finding herbs), Leyaks (shape-shifting practitioners of black magic who roams at night as a floating head with a protruding tongue and fangs, seeking to consume human flesh), Nagas (powerful multi-headed serpents that serve as protectors to the lost and weak), Garudas (a race of half-human, half-bird creatures that possess divine wisdom and intelligence), Tikbalangs (A race of towering, horse-headed humanoid creatures that protect the jungle and its inhabitants), Belus (a race of giant, cannibalistic orges), and Ngepets (a group of boar-headed humanoids who steal from humans and animals alike).
As I said before, I really wanted to give the world of Tak a much more fleshed-out identity, since it clearly had a lot of potential to do so.
Let me know what you guys think about this, and I'd to hear some ideas on what the cultural inspirations for the other tribes should be.