Vorticon
The Vorticons are a fictional race of bluish, dog-like, bipedal aliens featured in the Commander Keen: Invasion of the Vorticons computer games. In the series, the Vorticons are the primary enemies that Commander Keen faces. The Vorticons were created by Tom Hall.
History
Commander Keen first encounters the Vorticons on Mars in episode 1, Marooned on Mars, when he discovers they have disassembled his spaceship and scattered the pieces across the planet.
In the second episode, The Earth Explodes, Keen encounters a Vorticon mothership stationed above Earth, armed with eight X-14 Tantalus Ray cannons, each of them preparing to destroy eight of Earth's major cities. Using blueprints of the Vorticon Mothership he took from one of the Vorticons he defeated, he was able to infiltrate the ship. Keen fights the Vorticons and their robots, and eventually disables each of the Tantalus Rays in the Mothership, foiling the Vorticon attack. The Vorticon Elders, who are wise, peaceful beings kept in stasis chambers, reveal on the mothership their race's history; the Vorticons were originally a peaceful race, but became enslaved through telekenesis by the "Grand Intellect" and were turned evil and belligerent.
In the third episode, Keen Must Die!, Keen travels to the Vorticons' home planet, Vorticon VI to search out the Grand Intellect. Keen travels across different islands on the planet, through caves and Vorticon homes, battling additional Vorticons. In the end of the game, the Grand Intellect is revealed to be Mortimer McMire, Keen's arch-rival at school. Mortimer built a device called the "Mangling Machine" inside his castle to protect him, but Keen is able to defeat the Mangling Machine and Mortimer, setting the Vorticon free. The Vorticon King awards Keen the "Big V" in order to show him his gratitude.
Types of Vorticons
Several different types of Vorticons are featured throughout the Invasion of the Vorticons series. Vorticons start out as small, bluish, juvenile citizens, usually called "youths". They possess considerable hyperactivity and can temporarily stun someone upon impact. Female Vorticons are rotund and resilient, and protect their children by fireballs. Male Vorticons are armorless grunts in the Army. Some grunts are Vorticon Elite warriors, wearing pink-and-blue outfits and carrying a Vorticon HyperPistol, a special raygun reserved specially for them. The land-based defense of Vorticon VI is composed of the VortiNinjas, ninja experts in hand-to-hand combat and very difficult to take down. The Vorticon Elders, wise masters of lore and common sense, are kept in stasis and possess knowledge from before the time of the Grand Intellect. They appear only in stasis prisons on the Mothership in The Earth Explodes. The Elders are kept in the Mothership to serve as a source of knowledge in the most difficult Vorticon missions. They give advice from their stasis chambers telepathically to Keen.
Home planet
Vorticon VI is the home planet of the Vorticons, featured in Keen Must Die. Its surface is covered mostly by water, and it has at least four continents or large islands, and one smaller island. The soil of the planet has a purplish coloration. The Vorticon live mostly on two of the continents, in several villages and a large city. Another of the continents is reserved for military installations, while another features mostly caves. Travel between continents is done through teleporter. Vorticon VI is covered with buildings similar to those on Earth, featuring houses, garages, schools, and recreational areas with fountains and trees.