[Wil]

I love you Volsung.

About Glukkons and Mudokons being a different species, I only agree if we're not talking in metaphors. These creatures wouldn't be alien to each other, as they've actually evolved and developed alongside one another over millennia, and probably wouldn't be consumed by culture shock if they entered each others' settlements. Shocked and disturbed, likely, but not totally alienated. In that sense, I agree that species on Oddworld do indeed represent different sides of humans: broadly speaking, the natives and the industrials. Of course, there are subsets within them - the industrial world seems to be divided into families that dominate different factors of society (science, manufacturing, economics etc), which are a reflection of their development and individuality as species. However, Oddworld is a large place, as PA said, and species from opposite sides of the planet will indeed be alien to one another.

About intelligence, I haven't got anything remarkably deep to mention, but I reckon humans are the most intelligent species ont he planet, but only in terms of knowledge. When it comes down to knowing the planet, knowing nature, and knowing who we really are, we're more than likely in the lower echelons of intelligence. We grow so dependent on technology, but when civilisation is removed, we do actually forget about it. When the Romans had to abandon their empire to protect Rome, within 300 years the natives had resorted to tribal conflict, unindistrialised and totally uncivilized. Even in the ruins of Rome, farmers kept watch over the flocks with only the most obscure of myths to keep the memory of Rome alive. When money was reintroduced to Europe from the Arabic countries in the Tenth Century, it was considered a form of magic. Even today we haven't yet reached a single currency or language. This just goes to show how superfluous society really is.

I won't go into how I believe this may very likely happen again very soon. And when I say again, I'm not referring to Rome, I'm referring to whatever advanced pre-human culture constructed Nan Madol, Yonaguni, the Baalbek Trilithion and the Spynx.

EDIT: I'm going to split the thread and send the latest topic budding to Off-Topic.