Difference between revisions of "Zoid"

Revision as of 00:22, 14 July 2015

This page concerns the titular mecha. For information about the brand/franchise itself, see Zoids.

Zoids are extraterrestrial biomechanical life forms.

Overview

Broadly speaking, Zoids are alien mecha which resemble extant and prehistoric animals such as mammals, reptiles, fish, arthropods, etc. They come in many shapes and sizes, ranging from forms the size of insects to Godzilla sized behemoths and everything in between. Zoids are not merely machines or vehicles: they are sentient life forms, with instincts, minds and feelings just like our own earth animals. The name "Zoid" is a contraction of Zooic Android. They inhabit a distant world known as Planet Zi, which is known in one continuity as Zoidstar. Zoids can be feral beasts, or domesticated for various tasks, such as transportation, companionship, construction, and combat.

There are many conflicting origin stories for these incredible techno-organic beasts. Depending on the continuity, they may form an evolutionary grade or a monophyletic clade. In one continuity, they are metallic life forms which just happened to evolve along similar lines to life on earth, which were subsequently reverse engineered into mighty war beasts. In another, they were the creations of the warmongering Zoidaryans, which turned against their masters and then upon each other. Others claim that all Zoids trace their origins back to a single godlike ancestral Zoid known as Zoid Eve. Another claims they were built by a race of advanced Sky People, left behind after an ancient apocalypse. Another still claims that human terraformers seeded the biomechanical life forms of Planet Zi with DNA of species from their home world, explaining why these extraterrestrial organisms counterintuitively resemble terrestrial fauna.

Zoids exhibit varying degrees of intelligence. Most are sentient, but non-sapient, while others, such as Zoidzilla, Organoids, Wendeen and Ultimate Xes, are shown to be self aware. Though Zoids may be referred to with gendered pronouns by their pilots, or exhibit sexually dimorphic traits based on their animal type (such as the manes on various lion types), Zoids officially do not have genders and reproduce asexually by laying Zoid Cores. Zoids fuel themselves by consuming minerals (eg: Zoid Magnite, Deochalcum and Reggel), by preying on other Zoids (as the Wild Purebred T-Rex is said to do), or by absorbing energy from power sources such as Zoid Eve.

Types of Zoids

There are many different sub-types of Zoids which are distinct in some way from the standard type. For all their diversity in form and function, all Zoids share one thing in common: the presence of a Zoid Core, which is the source of a Zoid's powers.

• Wild Zoids: The original biomechanical life forms from which the domestic varieties were reverse-engineered.
• Blue Zoids: The original traitorous creations of the Zoidaryans.
• Red Zoids: Zoids with red-hot, tempered bodies that allow them to function in inhospitable subzero climates.
• Dark Zoids: Zoids from the continent of Nyx, which consume the mineral deochalcum to enhance their battle prowess.
• Transfighters: Small Zoids which can transform into weapons and link up with other Zoids.
• Organoids: Human-sized Zoids which can beam inside of a larger Zoid to enhance its fighting abilities.
• Zoidians: the native sapient humanoid inhabitants of Planet Zi, which are actually a type of Zoid themselves.
• Sleeper Zoids: Unmanned Zoids which are guided by computers instead of pilots.
• Ultimate Xes: Legendary Zoids with the ability to predict an opponent's moves and adapt to changing combat conditions.
• Blox: Zoids with artificial cores that can combine with each other or regular Zoids to become Fuzors.
• Chimera Zoids: Unmanned blox with ferocious dispositions that combine features of two or more animals.
• Gravity Zoids: Zoids with special antigravity generators which grant them special abilities.
• Bio Zoids: Saurian Zoids with skeletal Hell Armour.