#Irken society

[khaliarart]

Downtown Conventia

#invader zim #iz #iz announcer #invader zim announcer #irken #irkensona #conventia #2d animation #irken society #my art

[verm1c1de]

honestly a too-oft furgotten part of irken society is that,,,, theyre really not that great at inventing ((except zim)). they just make ofur people do it fur them/steal it and then kill/conquer the original inventors. take vort fur example! just like real capitalism <33

#iz #invader zim #irken society #a new tag sorely needed......... #not really a headcanon so unsure what else to tag this as #iz analysis #maybe?!?!?!!!??? ehhh #vermi.txt

[random-iz-stuff]

hey irken culture headcanon person here again. for the specificity i just kinda really want a master doc of headcanons on iz although mainly i’d also like to know ur headcanons on like ethnicities of irkens, if you get what i’m saying. like one of my headcanons for irkens is that they’re bug-based. so different types will classify as different races, like a roach-based irken would be a different race than a moth-based irken and then the species of said bug would count as ethnicity cause a bunch of different irkens probably live on a bunch or different planets cuz invading and all that and im turning off anon cause i need to write abt this on my tumblr and just like share it with the world cause im actually getting somewhere in this au okay IM DONE TALKING

My version of irkens are rather different compared to that.

Because my versions of Irkens don’t have differing types and don’t really HAVE different ethnicities in their culture, at least not anymore. They’ve all been either merged into one singular “Irken” ethnicity or destroyed, both accidentally and on purpose.

I say accidentally because the Irken race has a LOT of destructive wars and culture destroying moments in its past, especially one known as The Unity War, which was a massive nuclear war that almost wiped out the entire Irken race as a whole and ended with all of Irk uniting under a single government that would quickly become the Irken Empire we know today, and on purpose because the Empire went out of its way to destroy, assimilate and merge as many ethnic groups and cultures as possible into one singular ethnic group for control reasons. It’s easier to control a population if said population is made up of one singular group of people instead of many.

Combine that with the fact that all planets with smeeteries on them (Irk may be the Empire’s capital and the planet that makes the MOST smeets, but it’s not the only planet where Irkens are born) are located deep within Irken territory and rather close together on a cosmic scale and you don’t have many (or any) purely Irken ethnicities apart from the basic Irken one.

However, there are many differing sub-cultures within the Empire. They all connect back to the Irken Empire and it’s one ethnicity and culture and share those core values of the Empire with the Empire always coming first, making them sub-cultures of the main Empire culture instead of real cultures of their own, but they do exist and they can be found all through the Empire.

Many things can affect the sub-culture of an area. What other races exist nearby, the general use of that area to the Empire, the presence of other sub-cultures, etc.

Starting with that first thing, “What other races exist nearby”. I can’t find the exact post, but I mentioned in a different ask about Irken romance and courting stuff that Irkens don’t have actual courting rituals or traditions of their own because their own culture related to love and romance has been completely obliterated over time, so they tend to borrow the traditions of other races they encounter and use those instead. It’s the same thing for Irken sub-cultures, but on a larger scale. They have no purely Irken cultures besides the singular one, so many Irken systems located near the systems of other races will borrow some of the the cultures and beliefs of that other race and incorporate it into their own sub-culture.

Due to Irkens and Vortians being really friendly with one another until rather recently with Miyuki’s death and Spork blaming said death on the Vortians because she died in a Vortian Scientific Station, Vortians had a rather large influence on many Irken sub-cultures, with Vortian elements being present in many of them. But it’s not just Vortians that have their cultures borrowed from and incorporated into an Irken sub-culture of some kind. Basically any race besides the Meekrob can and have had elements of their cultures borrowed by Irkens.

This also affects religion. Surprisingly enough, the Irken Empire doesn’t really have many rules against religions. As long as the Irken puts their loyalty to the Tallest and the Empire as a whole first and doesn’t let their beliefs get in the way of efficiency (and the religion in question doesn’t go against the cultural rules and traditions revolving around Irken hands because that will ALWAYS go first), the Irken is free to worship whoever or whatever they want. The Empire CAN get involved if they deem it necessary, but they rarely if ever do.

The closest thing the Irken Empire has to an official religion is worshiping the Tallest themselves, and that doesn’t often get in the way of other religions that worship actual deities. If anything, it helps the Tallest remain popular because religions Irkens will often find ways to fit the Tallest into the religion they worship by themselves like believing that the Tallest are appointed or chosen by the top god of that religion or something like that.

Invaders and other Irken jobs that involve a lot of travelling also help in this regard, as they go all over the galaxy and experience a lot of different cultures and often intentionally or not bring elements of those cultures back with them when they go back to Irken territory.

Secondly, what the area is used for. A system populated by a lot of scientists and scientific stations will have a very different look and feel compared to a system filled with military stuff. And that affects the local sub-culture by quite a lot. A military-heavy area is more likely to borrow and copy the cultures and beliefs of a more militaristic and strength based culture, a science-heavy area would naturally gravitate towards more science based cultures and be more interested in those beliefs, etc.

Thirdly, interactions with other sub-cultures. Sub-cultures, like regular cultures, change over time, borrowing and incorporating new elements, dropping older things that no longer work, merging with other, similar sub-cultures, new sub-cultures splitting off from older ones, the like.

The Empire itself also keeps a close eye on all of its many sub-cultures, getting involved whenever it believes that one of them is getting too far away from the Empire’s core values. It’s very rare that this happens, but whenever the Empire decides to crack down on a particular sub-culture for whatever reason, that sub-culture and everything similar to it is doomed, often being completely destroyed or at least reduced to just a few members in a matter of weeks.

#invader zim #asks #headcanons #irken society #Irken culture #irkens: one main culture and ethnicity. many smaller sub-cultures #I have a lot of headcanons for irkens and their development and culture #just look up ‘irken society’ or ‘Irken culture’ or something like that on my blog if you’re interested #and at least something will show up #I’d make a masterpost of headcanons but I have too many older posts and there’s no way I’d be able to find all of them #so I keep the ones that are most important to me in a little document #and pull them out when needed #also bonus headcanon: #Since Irkens borrow the courting methods and general romantic stuff of other races #because they don’t have any romantic stuff of their own #If Zim was interested in romance he would use a mix of Human and Vortian courting methods #Human because he’s spent a long time on Earth and it’s all he knows #and Vortian because he’s spent a lot of time with a lot of Vortians during his time as a scientist #and learned about Vortian courting methods from there #also bonus bonus headcanon: Zim attended the wedding of Prisoner 777

[ionroir]

PAKs, Control Brains, and the Collective (they’re all connected lads)

[this is all just my personal headcanon]

It is commonly stated that PAKs hold an Irkens personality, and can imprint it onto another living thing or advanced computer. This is somewhat true.

When it comes to personality and memory, PAKs work in tandem with the organic brain. They work off each other to create both a ‘thought version’ and a ‘code version’ of an Irken’s memories, filling in each other’s blanks. They are constantly ‘updating’ each other, but you need both the PAK and organic brain to get the full picture when it comes to memories. This is why in trials and existence evaluations the Irken is still connected to the PAK when memories are being viewed, it wouldn’t be fully accurate otherwise. Going of organic memories alone leaves room for lying or misremembering, and going off of PAK memories alone would leave you with a very streamlined, exclusively Empire focused perspective, which can be incomplete, out of context, or otherwise inaccurate.

Only the Control Brains can fully process an Irken’s memories, as they are the only AI powerful enough to do it (it also helps that they have the power to bypass PAK defenses - unlike more unauthorised methods) Via the Control Brains is also the only legal way to access and download memories, and it is very invasive and uncomfortable for the Irken in question. Attempting to do illegally to someone else would land you quite a severe assault charge.

In terms of personality, the PAK by itself contains.. a version of the Irken’s personality, but not their entire one, only the ‘Empire Approved’ parts. The ‘efficient’ parts, which would make them a Good Irken and Soldier in the eyes of the Control Brains. The PAK personality is still unique to each Irken and bares resemblance to their actual personality but it’s also less whole, more robotic. There are a few reasons for this.

The first (and main) reason is that while you can code a personality into an AI software, no computer holds the processing power to wholly translate and replicate a pre-existing organic personality to a code while simultaneously keeping up with the personality as it grows and evolves (and doing everything else the PAK does.)

This ‘simplified’ personality has some uses though. An Irken who is good at hacking can actually upload it into a computer/device, which can give them (well, that version of them) control of the system.

This is the sort of thing Tak did with her ship. (The PAK personality works a little different when there are defects in the PAK though - hence why Tak’s ship is closer to her actual personality than it would normally have been)

The second reason is simply that from the Control Brains’ perspective it’s easier to control a PAK when its main code is more predictable and also aligns perfectly with your goals all of the time.

The third reason is linked to the second one, and that is the Collective.

The Collective is the complete source of post-PAK Irken knowledge. It (or at least, part of it) is where existing PAKs get their occupational encoding and also where non-defective PAKs have their ‘personality’ and PAK memories uploaded when their Irken dies. The Collective is essentially the universe’s most complex computer and it is also what powers the Control Brains.

So what are the Control Brains? They are the sentient (semi-sentient?) part of the Collective. The main three brains run the judicial system on Irk, and they can be split/duplicated into less complicated smaller brains which can be allocated to other tasks as needed.

The Control Brains always make decisions based on what will bring the most benefit to the Empire. They are the closest Irkens would have to a god/afterlife and they are treated as such, and they aren’t discussed too openly. Their decisions are final. After all, they are the combined consciousnesses of the Irkens’ past and present, if they act for an Empire, surely that’s the best way for them to be?

Well, not really. As I said earlier, only the simplified PAK personality is updated into the Collective, and be default, the Brains. And only ones that aren’t deemed defective at that (and the number of ‘defectives’ being found is only growing)

So.. the Control Brains are made up of consciousnesses that the Control Brains deem appropriate, but only as collected by the machines that are built to streamline everything to the Control Brains’ goals, which the Irkens believe are the ultimate goals of their race.

But in actuality it is a vicious cycle of constantly furthering an empire that benefits nobody all because of a semi-sentient super computer based on biased an incomplete data which is being allowed to make decisions for a people that it isn’t actually as much a part of and isn’t acting in their best interest as much as everyone seems to think.

Now surely, some Irkens have figured this out with all their technological knowledge? Surely a few have managed to get past PAK blocks and share their realisations? Well, of course. But anyone doing that would be committing treason, blasphemy. Anyone doing that must be defective.

And the Control Brains have no tolerance for defectives in the Empire.

#invader zim #control brains #iz pak #iz headcanons #irken empire #iz au #not saying that some Irkens aren’t really inpirical bastards. they are. but their whole system is fucked from the get go #irregular satellites au #<- that is the name of my au btw which I will definitely be posting more about #just tagging it cause this is canon to that au #so far it’s all just floating around in my head though so it doesn’t really matter yet #the collective #irken society

[ms-scarletwings]

Roughly 2 minutes and 30 seconds of ZiM being an irredeemable monster

#iz #invader zim #iz clips #Irken zim #iz zim #villain appreciation #menace to society #green bastard

[momo-roo]

This must have been done a thousand times over, but I haven't seen one yet so here it is.

#my only contribution to society #that is only ID we are ignoring irken dib #and treating movies dib and comics dib as the same #which they are not #invader zim #dib membrane #dib #concept dib #pilot dib #etf dib #enter the florpus #series dib #zib #fanart #meme #my art

[irkendogma]

tak programmed her bootleg sir unit to be able to taunt enemies, stare vacantly when idle, and express unhappiness when physically harmed. her self-constructed ship has a fully functional, slightly-modified copy of her own personality and a physical design that gives it not only limbs but actual body language when acting as land transport. what's her problem? is she lonely?

#i would be willing to bet that the answer to this as it is with many irkens living in a loveless-by-design society is yes #but like not nearly enough to overpower her other traits or priorities that would preclude seeking connections with others #bandaid on a head wound but she's got bigger more irken-acceptable wounds to treat so talking to herself in two different forms it is

[mrehkka]

Zim eventually figures out how to weaponize his defective pak- basically what happened to the control brains when they plugged into it, except Zim figures out how to detach it without touching it, gets it to crawl onto other Irkens (promptly freaking them out!!!) and short out THEIR paks lmao

This is absolutely deranged and unhinged behavior, which is par for the course for Zim lol

#invader zim #iz zim #my art #can you imagine if a human being pulled out their brain and tried to cram it into your head to disarm your own brain's functions temporarily #zim becomes even more creepy in Irken society #nobody's even sure which rumors are true and which are a myth at this point #zim is like a cryptid to other Irkens haha

[ghostorbz]

Irken sign off messages with little faces!!

Though not always

Humans don't seem to do it (this was the only example I could find)

Actually, little faces and smileys seem to be recurring in irken society

I wonder if it's because the massive or really anything Irken related has a smiley/symbol?

Interesting :3

#invader zim #infodump #kind of #irken society is so interesting to me i need to know everything #nickelodeon

[emeraldspiral]

It took me 23 years to realize that "My Tallest" is the Irken equivalent of "Your Highness" and Jhonen thinking it'd be funny if that honorific were literal is probably the entire reason Irkens have a height-based class system.

#invader zim #almighty tallest #this is also compatible #with my #peg membrane #concept #like if she introduced human fairy tales into irken society #and they thought royalty were literally the tallest members of their society #because they were called #your highness #and the control brains just decided to go with it #when they took over #because it seemed like an easy way to organize their society

[satirn]

what if in irken society, the pak would represent life and morality? seeing that irkens can only survive 10 minutes without it, and its assumingly a irken-only invention and can be connected to the tallest/armada as a whole. the pak can physically embody irk and its beliefs, beliefs that while morally bad to us and most of the universe, are morally good to people of irk. so, believing that irk even has the arts, the pak can share the same symbolic properties as the human figure, heart, or brain in earth’s culture art stuff. someone please make a irken verison of the creation of adam painting.

this was a conversation i had with a discord friend of mine but i think a tall tale they may have because of this is a pakless irken. in my headcanons, irkens are much more relient on their paks then they let on, we get a glimpse of this in ten minutes to doom. i like to imagine that the paks help regulate their breathing and circulatory system, taking over certain organ functions [i headcanon that irkens dont actually grow certain organs necessary to function separated with the pak, mostly the irken equivalent to the liver and pancreas and half of lung function.]. The reason they die in 10 minutes is because their circulatory system physically cannot circulate to their brain efficiently enough without the pak’s assistance.

so, an irken being capable to be independent from the thing actively keeping them alive is a different kind of horror. its like they're dead, but  somehow they’re still standing.

#ahhh idk #invader zim #headcanon #irken society/ culture is so interesting to me i wish we saw more of it #P♡G☆

[khaliarart]

CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF DOOM- Volume 3

First || <-Previous | Next-> (TBA)

First || <-Previous | Next-> (TBA)

Thank you so so much for the continued support on this project!! Did I already say it means the world to me because it does!!!💜

I‘ll start on Volume 4 soon. If you like this project you could consider checking out my Ko-fi where I'm posting step-by-step progress of the pages for supporters.

Again, thanks so much for reading! These take months to make and I‘m so grateful for all your kind interactions that keep me going🙏🏻

#as always i wanna hear all your thoughts thx #where my irken society nerds at #share what you think life for drones is like #cloudy with a chance of doom #invader zim #iz #irken oc #irkensona #iz announcer #iz tallest #iz fanart #webcomic #my art

[verm1c1de]

Zim music headcannons? ( Like what he might listen to )

Sorry if someone already asked ;-;

it was but im happy to answer this one bcs the anecdote is always funny

i dont think hes much of a mewsic purrson!

its not like irkens dont listent to mewsic, but they dont really Make any unless its fur advertisements,,,, and of course, the armadas anthem itself. most of what they listen to is the advertisement jingles and glorified elevator mewsic. sometimes stuff made by ofur aliens

zim isnt much diffurent. but if mew gave him simple really really electronic mewsic, he might enjoy it

but if mew ask the zim that lives in my brain he will say without a doubt: taylor swift

#ask #vermi.txt #irken society #iz headcanons

[random-iz-stuff]

Irken beauty standards:

Height. Obviously.

Body shape. Being thin and slim is considered attractive. This is best seen with Skoodge, who is considered ugly in part due to his body shape, along with a slew of other factors. However, unlike height, this doesn’t have any actual societal effects besides surface level beauty, as people like Sizz-Lorr still have high ranking jobs like Frylord despite not being thin.

Posture. Stand up straight. It makes you seem taller and slouching is viewed as unattractive unless you’re already extremely tall, like the Tallest are.

Cleanliness. Although the extreme germaphobia and hatred of messes that Zim shows is unique to him (and Tak), irkens still view cleanliness as synonymous with attractiveness to a certain degree.

Antenna. Short antenna are viewed as unattractive, but so are antenna that are too long, so you want antenna that are right in the middle. Not too short and not too long. Luckily, antenna can be strategically cut to increase/decrease their length.

Symmetry. A more symmetrical face is considered very attractive. It’s like how we humans are attracted to symmetry, but taken up to eleven in terms of just how important it is. Just for example of how valued symmetry is when it comes to irken beauty, Tak’s beauty mark is considered ugly by irken standards simply because it throws off the symmetry of her face.

Many irkens will use makeup to either hide things that make their faces unsymmetrical or add identical things that mirror the imperfections to make it symmetrical. (For example, Tak using makeup to either hide her beauty mark or add a second beauty mark that perfectly mirrors her real one on the other side of her face.)

Eye colour. Irkens can naturally have just about any eye colour besides black, white and grey. And although Red is the most common eye colour, followed closely by purple, eye colours besides that aren’t uncommon.

The rarity of irken eye colours goes like this (in descending order from most to least common):

Red

Purple

Orange, Yellow, Green and every other colour that isn’t Red, Purple or Blue.

Blue

What eye colours are considered more attractive than others depends heavily on other popular irkens with said eye colour. For example, currently, red and purple is considered in style because of the current Tallest, but there are other factors that can play into all this as well, like popular Announcers with certain eye colours for example. Different irkens can have different colour preferences as well.

Blue eyes are the only eye colours that are always considered attractive, due to them being the only eye colour that’s actually rare, being a recessive trait that only appears if the irken gets extremely lucky when being made in the smeetery, as their genes are randomized. Blue is considered a rare, desirable and almost exotic eye colour, and is always considered very attractive as a result of that.

Brighter coloured eyes are considered more attractive than duller eyes.

Surprisingly enough, Zim is considered to be pretty damn attractive by irken standards, with a slim build and symmetrical face, along with antenna that are just the right length and bright red eyes. He also has excellent posture and is probably one of the cleanest irkens you’ll ever meet due to his hatred of dirt, grime and germs. The only thing he doesn’t have is height, being slightly shorter than average. This can also be said about Tenn, with them being Zim’s twin sibling.

On the other side of things, Skoodge is considered ugly by irken standards because he’s short and chubby, along with having antenna that are too short and stubby, an unsymmetrical face and dull red eyes. The fact that he’s often seen in dirty clothes doesn’t help.

Tak is slightly taller than average and has a slim body shape, along with bright purple eyes and excellent posture and cleanliness, which should make her extremely attractive among irkens, but her unsymmetrical beauty mark and the holographic system that she installed into the side of her head, which also isn’t symmetrical, is considered very unattractive at the same time, so that isn’t really the case.

Tallest Red and Purple are considered to be the most attractive and beautiful irkens in the entire empire because of their extreme heights, slim builds and bright eyes, along with the fact that they rule the entire irken race and insulting them can very easily get you killed.

#invader zim #headcanons #irken culture #irken society #irken beauty standards #I don’t know what inspired this post #but something did and now it’s here

[ionroir]

Obsessed with the idea of a predator similar to the one in Nope existing on Irk. Partially because I’m just a sucker for the ‘Irkens aren’t apex predators’ idea, but also because the concept of a creature on Irk that evolved the ability to interfere with all technology in a certain radius is such a cool coevolution with Irkens as their prey,

#this would mean it is technically inaccurate to call Irkens Irkens as their not the only species from Irk but that’s a whole other thing #irken society #irk #invader zim #iz

[spaceboibrainrot]

#invader zim #iz #iz smeet #Irkens society #smeeteries #Irken professions