Meech

Meech sketch by Steven Olds

Meeches are an extinct species of pack hunter endemic to Mudos. Mentioned only in passing at the start of Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee and in fan relations material, it was intended for them to been seen later in the Oddworld Quintology.

Population

The environmental conditions required by Meeches were much more fragile than those of most creatures; subsequently, Meeches were endemic to the immediate area around where RuptureFarms 1029 was built—thought to be open fields and plains, possibly savannah—where they hunted Elums in huge packs. Their confined distribution ensured that the habitat loss and hunting of Meeches lead to their rapid decline in their population numbers and inevitable extinction.

It was once rumoured that a population of Meeches was discovered atop a plateau, but the Glukkons immediately relocated them to one of their hunting preserves. Alf’s friend Buddy lost huge amounts of weight on the South Meech Diet, but offered no proof that it was truly Meech he was eating. Alf has repeatedly tried to suggest that there may still be free Meeches.

Physiology

Not much has ever been seen of Meeches, and their appearance detailed here has been deduced from one colourless concept sketch by Steven Olds and descriptions by Lorne Lanning and fan liaison Matt Lee. Meeches were brown, and stood about 3·5–4 feet (1–1·2 m) tall on two three-toed legs. Red stripes ran across their armour-plated back, which had large spikes running down their spine. Their mouth was Scrab-like, but they had four jaws. Their foreclaws (two per hand) were tiny and attached to their body by no visible arm.

In other societies

In industrial society

Meech meat is eaten by consumers. Because Meeches could only be found in the area in which RuptureFarms was built, there was never a very big population of them, so their meat was rarer than other kinds (like Scrab and Paramite, and subsequently rather more expensive; some even considered Meech meat a delicacy. RuptureFarms 1029 was built in their natural environment, causing habitat loss, while it hunted Meeches for their meat to be made into the novelty meat snack Meech Munchies. However, these combined made short work of the Meeches, who are now thought completely extinct. This extinction appears not to have been publicly admitted by RuptureFarms.

In native society

Mudokons revere Meeches in the same way they do all wildlife, but it has been questioned whether they worship them in the same way they do Scrabs and Paramites. No temple or tribe dedicated to Meeches has ever been explored, although Alf has admitted (however truthfully) that had Meeches remained extant for Abe’s Temple Trials, he would have had to endure a third adventure in what the questioner named Meecharnia and the Meecharnian Temple; Alf later referred to ‘the Meechonian temple of the Mudmeechee lines’.

Production design

Meeches were always drawn and painted in concept art as being fairly green, but when they were modelled, animated, and actually running around in large packs in the Abe’s Oddysee game engine, they were made brown with red stripes running across their back. No images or videos of these were archived before they were removed from the game, but the original data still exists.

The reasons why Meeches were removed from Abe’s Oddysee are not known, but although their only appearance in the games so far has been a fleeting mention by Abe in ‘This is RuptureFarms’ and the Meech Munchies poster, Lorne Lanning intended for Meeches to be seen later in the Oddworld Quintology so they could be brought back from extinction. At one point, Oddworld: The Hand of Odd was going to set before Abe’s birth, when Meeches still existed in the wild, and might have featured in the game.

Meech social structure is based on that of wolves or hyænæ, while their body is reminiscent of dinosaurs: their weedy hands seem based off of those of tyrannosaurus rex, while their red striping is inspired by velociraptors.