Lord Jimenez

Lord Jimenez was born on Planet Squid 17 years before Book 1. He was the son of King Haile Selassie of Planet Squid, and was originally named Prince Ukuza. During Ukuza's early teen years, a man named Jermie was corrupted by Shadow Magic, causing a war between Haile Selassie's army and Jermie's army. Eventually, Haile Selassie was killed when his army was defeated at the Battle of Old Duvai Gorge, making Jermie King of Planet Squid. However, Ukuza was found by Tristan, with whom he created an army that removed Jermie from the throne. Once Jermie was sealed away in his jungle prison, Prince Ukuza is kidnapped by Monquistadors, who take him to their home planet of Rinascita. On Rinascita, Ukuza is trained in all the Monquistador ways of combat, and his name is changed to Jimenez since the Monquistadors could not pronounce Ukuza. Once Ukuza was 15 years old, he ran away from his Monquistador captors and stowed away on a cargo ship to Planet Squid. Upon landing, Jimenez returned to Squid Town, where he tried to declare himself king. However, the throne he wanted to take was not empty: it had been seized by Elliot, a skilled warrior who could best everyone who went up against him in combat. One day, Jimenez challenged Elliot to a duel. Predictably, Elliot won easily and Jimenez was left with a large scar on his chest from one of Elliot's attacks. However, even though Jimenez could not outmatch Elliot, he could outsmart him. Jimenez went to the Sook (market) one day and told all the people in town that he was the lost Prince Ukuza. His father's royal necklace was all the proof that the citizens needed, and the revolt this created was so huge that Elliot had no choice but to leave the city. During his rule, Elliot had committed unspeakable atrocities against the inhabitants of Squid Town, and this was evident as soon as Jimenez reclaimed power. Jimenez styled himself as a benevolent ruler and began many public works projects that accelerated the development of the city. Meanwhile, Elliot was reduced to a mere merchant in the Sook. One day, Jimenez got the downright insane idea of modernizing Planet Squid with technology from Ishgabangaloodoo. In order to even have a chance at that, he would need to get the technology from the Ishga royal family. However, the Ishga royal family was extremely greedy and insular after millennia of inbreeding, and they had never given their technology to an outsider before. However, around the same time, the Ishga throne passed to Michael, a different kind of ruler. Michael agreed to provide Squid Town with Ishga technology if he married Michael's cousin (Michael was trying to both end the inbreeding in the Ishga Royal Family and spread its influence elsewhere). Jimenez obliged, marrying Michael's cousin. The two bore a son a year later, and this son was named Prince Jack. Meanwhile, Ishga technology began flowing into Squid Town, replacing the traditional dhows with steamboats and replacing torches with lightbulbs. After a few more years, trouble once again began brewing on Planet Squid. Tate--an evil warlord seeking to use Shadow Magic to rewrite the fabric of the galaxy--seized control of the Key of the Jungle (the key to Jermie's prison cell), landed on Planet Squid, and busted Jermie out of his prison. In exchange for teaching Tate Shadow Magic, Jermie was promised the throne of Planet Squid. Jermie planned to become a legitimate king be reuniting the pieces of the Muungano Crown (an ancient crown that the first kings of Planet Squid wore before it was split into pieces and distributed among each of the tribes of Planet Squid). Unbeknownst to Jimenez, Tate dethroned the Shaka Zebu (king Zebra) and installed a compliant ruler. The new ruler's armies snuck into Squid Town in the dead of night and kidnapped Prince Jack. Enraged, Jimenez declared war on the Zebras. This went all according to Tate's plan, as it distracted the planet's tribal governments, which in turn allowed Jermie to collect the pieces to the Muungano Crown unimpeded. However, Weasel and his friends arrived on the planet a week or so later. They eventually managed to free Prince Jack from Tate and reinstall the rightful Shaka Zebu, returning Jack to Jimenez. Jimenez then stopped the war with the Zebras and promised to recommit his forces to the fight against Jermie. However, less than 5 hours later, Weasel and his friends had already killed Jermie at Mirror Lake and Tate had already left the planet. Once Tate had left, Jimenez continued modernizing the planet, setting up power grids, building factories and replacing bows and arrows with guns. A few months later, Weasel and his friends appealed to Jimenez again for help. Tate had decided to wage war on the entire Aurean-held portion of the galaxy, and Weasel asked Jimenez to join the war and allow the Aureans to construct a military base on their planet. In gratitude for freeing Prince Jack a few months earlier, Jimenez allowed this. The Aureans sent a few planes and tanks to the planet, as well as a construction crew to build a base. However, the base had only made it into the planning stage before Tate defeated the Aureans at Awal Kabab, took control of Aurea, banished Weasel into exile, took over the Aurean Military, and declared himself Emperor of the Galaxy. Planet Squid was immediately placed under Tatian occupation. However, Jimenez managed to find the Aurean plans for a base on Planet Squid before the Tatians could and burn the plans. Since Jimenez and Prince Jack were among Weasel's highest-profile allies, they were now wanted men in the new Tatian regime. As a result, Jimenez gathered his family and fled to Ishgabangaloodoo for the time being. Jimenez was not the same without being able to rule over his people, quickly sliding into depression as a result of not being able to serve the Squidian people as the King of Squid Town. As a result, Jimenez got into gambling, and nearly gambled away his new apartment for an illegal Wyvern egg (he got lucky and won, though). Once he had this Wyvern egg, his wife convinced him to stop gambling. When the Wyvern hatched, he named it Freezerburn since it was an Ice Wyvern. However, Jimenez had no idea how to care for such a creature, since it refused to eat the meat Jimenez tried to feed it. Jimenez did some research and figured out that he'd need to purchase Wyvern milk from the Black Market since that's the only thing it would eat. Jimenez considered doing this, but then he remembered that the Black Market served as a source of revenue for Tate and his empire, and he would be helping the enemy by buying anything from them. After doing some more research, Jimenez found out that a working subsitute for Wyvern milk could be made by boiling charcoal, saltpeter, and sulfur in mammoth blood. The mammoth blood was easy enough to acquire at a supermarket, and the other ingredients were also relatively easy to find in various stores. This finally worked, and Jimenez was now able to keep Freezerburn as a house pet. Around this time, the Aurean Alliance (a group dedicated to overthrowing the Tatian Empire) was formed, with Ishgabangaloodoo at its head. The leaders were Michael and none other than Ryan, one of Weasel's friends who Jimenez had met earlier. Jimenez quickly joined the Aurean Alliance, and was thrilled to find that Planet Squid had thrown off Tatian control and joined the Aurean Alliance. Jimenez then returned to his home planet with his royal family, reinstating himself as king and moving back into his old palace. This also solved the problem of Freezerburn growing too big for his old apartment, since he simply had a massive barn built into his palace courtyard to house the Wyvern. Since all of the other Squidian kings had either been killed by the Tatians or were off fighting with the Aurean Alliance, Jimenez was able to become king of all of Planet Squid. For the next decade and a half, Jimenez continued modernizing Planet Squid until the planet was virtually unrecognizable from its pre-war self. 19 years after Tate seized control of the galaxy, Weasel was brought back from exile on Arturia, Aurea was reconquered, and the Aurean Alliance was reorganized into the Aurean-Ishga Empire, with Jimenez gladly agreeing to make Planet Squid a member planet. Soon after this, Weasel made Jimenez the leader of the new Squidian Brigade, a force of 100 elite soldiers from Planet Squid. Jimenez led the Squidian Brigade on many successful missions, such as a hit-and-run attack on Loudoun and a flanking maneuver on Somerset. However, his mission with Weasel's army on Olympia failed and the Squidian Brigade's mission on Atlantea went even worse, with the entire Squidian Brigade being annihilated and Jimenez sacrificing his life for Planet Squid and the Aurean Empire. His son, Prince Jack, was crowned King of Planet Squid the next day.