Eternia (ie the World of He-Man and the MotU)

[Alzrius]

Does anyone know anything about that War?

I was under the impression that this was the invasion of Eternia by the Evil Horde (who, don't forget, come from Etheria). When you consider that Hordak got close enough to the royal palace to kidnap Adam's twin sister (I forget her name...she eventually becomes She-Ra), it's easy to see how they nearly conquered the planet (and are the ruling power on Etheria). As I recall, they lost the battle for Eternia only because that's when Skeletor, Hordak's disciple, made his move and turned on his mentor.

Before the plug got pulled, Mattel entertained the notion of a series set on the pre-history of Eternia, dinosaurs and all. The planet was governed by King Hisss and his Snake Men, and was battled by an ancestor of Adam/He-Man, called (I kid you not) He-Ro.

I haven't thought about that in forever!

However, what I remember was slightly different. I recall seeing a commercial (and maybe a friend's little bookletsthat came with an action figure) something to the effect of Skeletor and He-Man being sent back in time, either accidently or on purpose, by King Hisss. I'm not sure if he went too, but he ruled there. He-Man and Skeletor each had dinosaurs with some weird cybernetic enhancements to them...I think it was Skeletor who had a tyrannosaurus that had a compartment open in its belly, and release a moving wheel with two little claws.

Matthew, thanks for the recap of the new series! I haven't seen it yet, but it sounds cool. I personally thought the 1980's series was pretty good, though never all it could have been, since it didn't (and couldn't) take advantage of the new characters and their backstories that kept being released.

About the towers...something's off. I remember there was a playset, but as I recall, it had Greyskull, Snake Mountain, and a third tower (as an aside, King Hisss and the Snakemen didn't reside at Snake Mountain, since that was Skeletor's base...where did they set up kip?) that was unclaimed. This last tower was extremely mysterious, and was brimming with extreme but chaotic magical power. I think it's entrance was designed to look like some kind of snarling cat. It supposedly held incredible secrets, but it (and the secrets once you were in) was very hard to access...it was so eldritch, though, that even entering could cause changes to happen to you; Hordak entered once, but was almost immediately forced to leave (by He-Man?) and found he'd lost his hurricane powers, instead gaining his buzzsaw ability.

 

[Klaus]

The "He-Man and Skeletor transported through time" was the lame He-Man and the Glactic Guardians (iirc) series, where both foes were transported to the far future (complete with starships and stuff). He-Man had short hair (and later a ponytail) and wore blue pants.

Emiliano Santalucia (the artist of the He-Man comics from Image, and founder of the Masters of the Universe Unbound) did a massively cool and humongously well-crafted fan comic (before working on the official comic) called "Homecoming".

I must urge everyone who has the slightest interest in He-Man and Eternia to check this amazing comic: http://free.imd.it/masters/special feature/homecoming/homecoming_introduction.htm

And get ready for surprises!

 

[Brakkart]

Well while I have no intention of using Eternia as a setting (too much work, not enough time in which to do it, mores the pity), after reading through Klaus' website section on the MotU I decided to include King Hsss and the Snakemen into my current FR Rise of the Snakemen campaign. Still working on converting them to D&D, but gonna have them as a Yuan-ti NPC party, as I figure they'll provide some interesting and varied foes for the PC's to go up against.

Ohh and if you ever get the time Klaus, please do some more art of your versions of the Eternian characters, cos the ones you've done so far rock, especially Dakhor/Hordak and Lynn the Evil/Evil Lyn.

 

[Klaus]

I've been meaning to do Beast Man (bugbear ranger) and Mer-Man (sahuagin prince) for more than 4 years!

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I know that there is a thread somewhere on the WotC boards that have a lot of the characters from MotU statted out. I looked for it last night, but couldn't find it.

 

[Benben]

Ohh and if you ever get the time Klaus, please do some more art of your versions of the Eternian characters, cos the ones you've done so far rock, especially Dakhor/Hordak and Lynn the Evil/Evil Lyn.

Yes! If you have any more inspiration and time to do this please continue the work you've done on this. It's great and I really like you conversion thoughts, and as always the art is great.

 

[Hairfoot]

Ooh, ooh!

Can the PCs swap limbs, like you could with the action figures? He-Man always looked better with Skeletor's purple arms attached.

And what feats does the ram-guy have?

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

And what feats does the ram-guy have?

Improved Bull Rush and Power Attack, but of course.

 

[Klaus]

And Powerful Charge and Greater Powerful Charge (from Eberron Campaign Setting).

In my view of Eternia, Ramman is a dwarf, and the brother of Dunkan, the man-at-arms (or is it dwarf-at-arms) that is Theela's foster father.

Now that Eberron gave us the Artificer, I'd guess that Dunkan is a Fighter/Artificer and Ramman is a fighter/barbarian.

 

[M.L. Martin]

I was under the impression that this was the invasion of Eternia by the Evil Horde (who, don't forget, come from Etheria). When you consider that Hordak got close enough to the royal palace to kidnap Adam's twin sister (I forget her name...she eventually becomes She-Ra), it's easy to see how they nearly conquered the planet (and are the ruling power on Etheria). As I recall, they lost the battle for Eternia only because that's when Skeletor, Hordak's disciple, made his move and turned on his mentor.

Not quite. They kidnapped Princess Adora and nearly grabbed Prince Adam too, but Man-at-Arms disrupted the plot. Hordak escaped, Skeletor betrayed him to the good guys and (according to some material) sealed the dimensional gate connecting Eternia and Etheria, keeping Hordak from returning for many years.

However, what I remember was slightly different. I recall seeing a commercial (and maybe a friend's little bookletsthat came with an action figure) something to the effect of Skeletor and He-Man being sent back in time, either accidently or on purpose, by King Hisss. I'm not sure if he went too, but he ruled there. He-Man and Skeletor each had dinosaurs with some weird cybernetic enhancements to them...I think it was Skeletor who had a tyrannosaurus that had a compartment open in its belly, and release a moving wheel with two little claws.

<snip>

About the towers...something's off. I remember there was a playset, but as I recall, it had Greyskull, Snake Mountain, and a third tower (as an aside, King Hisss and the Snakemen didn't reside at Snake Mountain, since that was Skeletor's base...where did they set up kip?) that was unclaimed. This last tower was extremely mysterious, and was brimming with extreme but chaotic magical power. I think it's entrance was designed to look like some kind of snarling cat. It supposedly held incredible secrets, but it (and the secrets once you were in) was very hard to access...it was so eldritch, though, that even entering could cause changes to happen to you; Hordak entered once, but was almost immediately forced to leave (by He-Man?) and found he'd lost his hurricane powers, instead gaining his buzzsaw ability.

Your memory's pretty good. www.he-man.org , the web's premiere MotU site, has all of the mini-comics that came with the figures online--legally, even. The ones related to this arc, Alzrius, are "King of the Snake Men", "The Ultimate Battleground", "Enter: Buzz-Saw Hordak", and "The Powers of Grayskull--The Legend Begins!"

Matthew L. Martin