But in the wild they wouldn't be wearing heavy masks, now, would they?

And we aren't suggesting full blown swimming, at least in their current form. More like crocodiles in a bog.

Besides, we are discussing recent slig evolution. They won't have always been in that form.

Read what I said. I was talking about them holding their heads up whilst crawling, not swimming.

Then again...those crawling Sligs we do see are all in a panic and a rush, going as fast as they can. I can't see them keeping their head up like that for long periods of time. The pic of one we see in the AE manual is much more calm and relaxed.
Their heads are still at least the body's total weigh, and crawling Sligs don't wear masks. They get them with their pants. At least, I don't see a mask.
The crawling Sligs may not always have been in that form, but from what I can see, they're degraded from more powerful, bipedal animals to ones lower to the ground, making crawling around in sludge much easier.

You never know, their heads might be buoyant.

...or just very thick.
So, were Glukkons once tree dwelling? or did they just use their arms for something else?

They were actually specified to be of swampish descent.

Where they? It was just mollusc-like descendants to my knowledge, explaining the head. That doesn't mean they lived in swamps.
But...that raises another question. How did Glukkons lose their legs? For vestigial legs to be there, usable elgs must have been there before. So why did the Glukkons lose their legs?
If you're talking about Glukkons and their current build, what is known is that they once were at peace with the Mudokon tribes. I presume Glukkons formed vaguely similar tribes of a sort on plain, flat ground. The long arms and all would be well suited to walking quickly across such an environment. Except now they were very restrictive suits. For some reason. Morons.

Mudokons used to cut off Glukkons legs and fry em up for Sunday Dinner. :p

I think it shows a sign of evil. When a Villain is missing something.

Glukkons: Legs
Sligs: Arms
Hitler: Testical
Slogs: Hands/ other two feet?
Interns: Mouth
Vykkers: Nothing. But I don't consider them to be evil. I consider them more like The Ferengi. Wishing they were evil but actually they are quite weak.

That assumes that humanoid bipedals are the normal, acceptable morphology. It also assumes Glukkons and Sligs are evil. They’ve just got different priorities because their social evolution led them there.

No, I think he's talking about human literary narrative, where 'bad guys' (which sligs and glukks certainly have been so far) are often disfigured (eg Bond villains with scars, Captain Hook missing a hand, etc) whereas 'good guys' tend to be perfect specimens.

To actually answer Zerox's question, they lost their true legs over experimentation, in making their hands fit Abe's moon. Ever since, they couldn't go outside, use their arms, and they weren't beautiful anymore.

Why must we all slave away to science and beauty! WHY?

Oh... I know. the Moolah involved.
Thank you for answering my question Bullet Magnet.

So they got to such a stage, then gave up?
And how long ago roughly was this then? Were Vykkers with their current technology still around this long ago, to manipulate the Glukkons?
And...did you make that up, or is it official?

That was from the old, old oddworld.com website, predating MO. It explained the history between the gluks and muds in that the moon gave the muds a feeling of superiority and they did some less than honourable things because of this. This brought them into confrontation with the Gluks, who were an enlightened, philosophical race. The glukks attempted to use science (in their Age of Alchemy) to disprove the significance of the moon and/or actually change their own bodies to match it, until an 'accident' occurred that killed most of the glukkon race and left the rest stunted and mutated.

For more reading material, check out TOE. Wish we still had the original wording though.

In any case, it's not clear how much of that is still regarded by owi as canon, as Lorne has hinted that the pawprint on the moon was created as Abe was escaping from the stockyards.

We do; it’ll be amongst the Scriptures, like it was before.

He never did. Abe Babe and Pilot did, and they later clarified:

I see that Nolyblab is Babylon backwards.
But what did Glukkon come from?

it's a mix between Glutton, and mollusk.

Right thanks Arxryl
I need to look at the AOWI again
Does anyone know the full story of why Blisterz and Boyzles broke up?
All I remember reading they were in the same gang but one liked attacking towns.

To give a further answer, I do believe Glukkons had done the whole tecnology thing on their own. If I do remember, after they lost all hope of changing, the Glukkons had decided to join the Industerial side. Also, Glukkons appeared to have had the ability to experiment when they had the chance. And I do believe this happened over a thosand years ago.

Ah, I thought it would be. I just got confused when the Scriptures heading (and absence of a link) was not huge and flashing at me.

So it appears it's improved since then, but was still good, and the Glukkons behaviour has also changed. And over this time, the Mudokon race has fallen.
I'll check out TOE then.

Who's Da Bad Guys In This??
 

I don't think sligs and Glukkons are evil. If you look at it through their eyes, they're are just as good as mudokons, helping their own race to survive. i'm not sure about vykkers, any help on wether or not they're baddies?

The true evil on Oddworld was to be rumored Khanzumers, since they orginally started the Industerial world. They were the ones that opened their arms to all of the aggressive species looking for a home.

Now, that may not be true. In reality, all species on Oddworld are not evil, nor truly good. Vykkers are just in this because they want their knowledge to spread beyond anyone else's imagination. In fact, the so called "bad guys" are really just species locking themself into a battle of progression.

OK, want a better answer? The reason why there are species that seem to be selfish and greedy, is because when later on in history, Oddworld species that were close to each other began to have differences and they hated each other for having them. An example is Glukkons and Mudokons. The two species argued on ethics, beliefs, religion, etc. until one of the species tried to prove that they were right. These were called the aggressive species, being that they eventually developed a sense to join the Industerial family. Those species often targetted their occupations to the 'peaceful' races, since they were the ones that tried to remain sanity in true native beliefs. And now, you see through the eyes of 'peaceful' races, since they often care more about what is around them, than rather what is made. And in a way, they are trying to rid the other species of their evils.

Sad to say, it was originally the Mudokons who claimed supremacy over the Glukkons, and in doing so they set in motion their own downfall by making the Glukkons jealous.

I would love to see their civilisation at its peak...

Its former peak or its potential future peak? Both would be interesting. Of course, we know that the Mudokons did some morally questionable things in their history, things they wouldn’t be proud of if they ever uncovered that history. Contrariwise, who can predict their social evolution in the future?

Actually Max, I, in a way, said that. I claimed that the two species had agruements over their differences. The Mudokons claimed that they were better since their belief was that Abe's moon was a sign from the gods. The Glukkons claimed that there was no proof on that.

Now on the whole peek thing, it does seem like that Mudokons already have a conflict of their own. Mudokons have developed rude behaviour against others that disagree with them. This could result in homicide for those who have high anger. But still, that is what Big Face is for.

Big Face....hm. that is an "odd" little guy isn't he?
When playing the game in Ab'es Oddysee, I heard his voice and it sounded almost exactly like Ab'es when he was tlaking to the other muds. Is this a kinda hint that he was once a mudokon savior? Or just coincidence that he and Abe have almost identical voices?

I don't remember him speaking. I do remember a "Whooooa" when he came to rescue Abe, though.

Well, if you get the bad ending, you can hear him tlaking to the other muds and they are debating wether to save him or not.