The Savage Land was an artificially created tropical forest region nestled amidst a ring of volcanic mountains on the icy continent of Antarctica. Ages ago, an alien race known as the Nuwali created the Savage Land as a kind of wildlife preserve where Earth's life forms could be studied under relatively controlled conditions. The Nuwali created this "preserve" on behalf of their employers, yet another alien race which has not yet been identified. These same employers also had the Nuwali establish similar preserves on other planets. The Nuwali constructed advanced technological devices within caverns beneath the Savage Land that helped to give it a tropical climate. But the main means of heating the Savage Land was the ring of active volcanoes surrounding it. Presumably the Nuwali chose the site of the Savage Land knowing that the volcanic heat would enable them to create a tropical environment best suited to the life of that era in isolation from the rest of the planet.
Within the Savage Land the Nuwali preserved many of Earth's life forms past the point that their species became extinct in the outside world. Hence, plant and animal species from the Triassic period (the beginning of the "age of dinosaurs") through the Pleistocene (the "Ice Age") continued to flourish there.
Into the Savage Land the Nuwali also brought the Man-Apes, an evolutionary forebear of Homo sapiens, and early examples of Homo sapiens itself.
Finally, however, the Nuwali's employers lost interest in the Savage Land and the similar habitats on other worlds, and so the Nuwali abandoned them. All of the habitats collapsed except the Savage Land.
In the centuries before the worldwide disaster known as the Great Cataclysm, in which the continents of Atlantis sank, Atlantis built a great worldwide empire and achieved scientific and technological heights still unsurpassed in many areas of research today. Several small tribes of nomadic Atlanteans sailed to Antarctica and lived within the great caverns lying beneath the frozen wastelands bordering the Savage Land. Eventually, these Atlanteans discovered an immense cavern containing the machinery that helped to regulate climate conditions in the Savage Land. Atlantean scientists made considerable improvements in the machinery and extended its range to cover certain areas of the surface beyond the Savage Land. The scientists used other technological devices left behind by the Nuwali to create incredible means of amusement for their people. The Atlanteans soon named their Antarctic colony "Pangea," after their word for "paradise."
Word of Pangea spread back to Atlantis as well as to other nations of that time, such as Valusia. Soon, Pangea became a leading center of trade and the world's first amusement and recreation center. The Savage Land served as stock lands for various forms of wildlife, many examples of which were imported into Pangea.
The Atlantean scientists in Pangea turned their attention to genetic engineering, experimenting upon Man-Apes they had brought from the Savage Land, and using equipment left behind by the Nuwali. Thus the Atlantean scientists genetically altered the bodies of the beast men into bird-people (the Aerians), monkey-people (the Tree People), fish-people (the Tubanti), and other animal-like races, all of which had human-level intelligence. The Atlanteans initially used these animal-people as laborers in the Pangean amusement center.
The animal people grew increasingly restive at being treated as slaves, and eventually the Atlanteans of Pangea built fully automated, self-repairing maintenance machinery, eliminating the need for the animal-people to work as laborers. The Atlanteans then confined the animal people to a sector of Pangea far removed from their own. The animal-people finally rose in rebellion and, after weeks of warfare, defeated the Pangean Atlanteans. The animal people demanded equal rights as sentient beings, and so the Atlanteans further extended the range of the climate control machinery so that it turned all of the frozen wasteland above the underground Pangea colony into a tropical environment. The animal-people then settled in unpopulated areas of the surface of Pangea.
When the Great Cataclysm struck, the continent of Atlantis sank and the Atlantean Empire came to an end. The Cataclysm caused the Savage Land and Pangea to sink below sea level, but thanks to the surrounding mountains, neither area was submerged beneath the sea. The climate-control mechanisms were so well built that they survived the sinking of the landmass and continued to be operational.
However, three fourths of the human population of the Savage Land and Pangea were killed in the upheaval. The rest sank swiftly into barbarism, and soon as a result of widespread violence, only a tenth of the human population that existed before the Cataclysm was still alive. Peace eventually returned, and the human beings of Pangea and the Savage Land struggled back upward towards civilization, forming tribes such as the Fall People.
The British Lord Kevin Plunder and the American Shanna O'Hara, better known as Ka-Zar and Shanna the She-Devil, came to live in the Savage Land in recent times, and in exploring the Savage Land and Pangea encountered many of its diverse races and tribes.
Recently, the alien marauder Terminus wreaked extraordinary destruction within Pangea and the Savage Land, destroying the climate-control machinery and snuffing the volcanoes surrounding the Savage Land. Terminus slaughtered great numbers of the sentient beings living in Pangea with the vast destructive energies he wielded, and, with the volcanoes extinct and the climate-control machinery wrecked, virtually all the other inhabitants of these two regions were soon slain by the Antarctic cold, which swiftly spread over both the Savage Land and Pangea. Ka-Zar, Shanna, their sabertooth tiger Zabu, and a small number of Savage Land natives are known to have survived the disaster; the mutate Vertigo either left the Savage Land before the catastrophe or managed to escape it later. It is not known how many other survivors there may be.
A number of the races of sentient beings that once dwelled in the Savage Land and Pangea are described below. This list is by no means complete: there were many other races inhabiting these two lands, such as the Lizard Men of the city of Vala-Kuri in the Savage Land, the nomadic Cat People of Pandori in Pangea, and the amphibious fish-tike Tubanti of Pangea's inland Gorahn Sea. The full number of races that lived in the Savage Land and Pangea may now never be known.
Months later, the Savage Land was restored to its tropical state by the villain known as the High Evolutionary, who planned on using the land in experiments in forcibly jump-starting Earth's evolution to greater developments. Heroes from the West Coast Avengers and their ally Bill Foster stopped his plans. It is not know at this time how many races, if any, still survive to this date.
Man-Apes
Base of Operations: The Savage Land
Special Adaptation: None
Type of Government: Tribal, highly primitive
Level of Technology: None beyond making simple weapons using stone (such as spears)
Names of Representatives: Maa-Gor
First Appearance: X-Men #10
Notes: The Man-Apes were primitive, savage cave dwellers who had not yet evolved into true human beings. (In fact, it is likely that they were not members of the species Homo sapiens.) They were the first human-like beings native to Earth who inhabited the Savage Land. Atlantean scientists used them as subjects in the experiments by which they created the various non-human races of Pangea.
The members of the tribe of Maa-Gor are said to have been the last living Man-Apes in the Savage Land. Ka-Zar killed the last male Man-Apes of this tribe except Maa-Gor himself.
Lemurans
Base of Operations: Lemura, an area of the section of Pengea known as Zarhan
Special Adaptation: None
Type of Government: Monarchy
Level of Technology: Comparable to that of medieval Europe
Cultural Traits: Strong loyalty to the monarch
Names of Representatives: Leanne (queen), Ular, Kamin
First Appearance: KA-ZAR THE SAVAGE #1
Notes: The Lemurans were longtime allies of the Aerians longtime foes of the Pterons. The name "Lemura" suggests that the Lemurians might be descendants of the human denizens of pre-Cataclysmic Lemuria. Perhaps the Lemuran's ancestors settled in Pangea to escape the tyranny of the Deviants, who had conquered Lemuria. Queen Leanne of Lemura was an enemy of Ka-Zar and Shanna.
Pterons
Base of Operations: The caverns of Athmeth beneath Pangea
Special Adaptation: Pterons greatly resemble pterodactyls (winged reptiles), and like them, have the ability to fly using their enormous wings.
Type of Government: Monarchy
Level of Technology: Low
Names of Representatives: Khalf (king of the Pterons), Phangor
First Appearance: KA-ZAR THE SAVAGE #2
Notes: The origin of the Pteron race is unknown. Presumably Atlantean scientists created the Pterons through genetic engineering. It is possible, however, that the Pterons may have originated in a manner similar to the means by which Karl Lykos became the pterodactyl-like Sauron. The Pterons launched a war against the Aerians, which ended when much of the Pteron race was killed in a cave-in.
Sun People
Base of Operations: The Sun Empire, within the Savage Land
Special Adaptation: None
Type of Government: Empire ruled by a priestess queen
Level of Technology: Low
Names of Representatives: Zaladane (priestess queen)
First Appearance: ASTONISHING TALES #3
Notes: The Sun People were the most powerful grouping of sentient beings in the Savage Land, within which they had established a small "empire" through conquest. In conquering other peoples and other lands, the Sun People believed they did honor to their Sun God, Garokk. Their leader, the priestess queen Zaladane, was a sorceress who twice attempted to conquer all of the Savage Land and once allied herself with a human being who had taken on the appearance of Garokk.
Tree People
Base of Operations: Botor, a treetop village in Pangea
Special Adaptation: The Tree People have long, prehensile tails.
Type of Government: Tribal
Level of Technology: Low, capable of making primitive weapons
Names of Representatives: Mele, Leila, Paru, Jeerka
First Appearance: KA-ZAR THE SAVAGE #13
Notes: Shanna was briefly married to Mele, one of the Tree People. Presumably, Atlantean scientists created the Tree People through genetic engineering.
Swamp Men
Base of Operations: The swamplands of the Savage Land
Special Adaptation: None
Type of Government: Tribal
Level of Technology: Comparable to that of Europe's Dark Ages, highly skilled in devising weaponry
Names of Representatives: The Savage Land Mutates are Swamp Men who were subjected to mutation by artificial means
First Appearance: X-MEN #10
Notes: The Swamp Men were continual enemies of Ka-Zar. For much of their known history the Swamp Men worshipped Umbu, a gigantic robot constructed by the alien Sagittarians.
Zebra People
Base of Operations: A swampland area of the Savage Land
Special Adaptation: None
Type of Government: Tribal
Level of Technology: Low, capable of making primitive weapons
Names of Representatives: Charn, Sharka
First Appearance: KA-ZAR, LORD OF THE JUNGLE #12
Notes: Also known as the Swamp Tribe, the Zebra People are a racially integrated society made up of both whites and blacks. Perhaps in part to de-emphasize racial differences, members of the Zebra People wore makeup over their body in the form of stripes, and the black Zebra People wore white stripes.
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