 This article belongs to the Classic Continuity
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| “ | We are the Contumelia. But our fifth-dimensional forms cannot be seen by your eyes, what you are seeing is only a projection of the thing that holds the most sway in your hearts. | ” |
– The Contumelia explaining the nature of their appearance.[1] | ||
The Contumelia are an alien race of neutral, cosmos-travelling "observers", and the original creators of the Annihilarrgh.
Appearance[]
The Contumelia are fifth-dimensional beings whose true forms cannot be perceived by three-dimensional beings, who would instead see a Contumelia as an animate projection of what holds the most emotional sway over them. Known examples include:
- living Mr. Smoothy mascots for Ben Tennyson
- copies of Rook Da for Rook Blonko
- copies of Max for Gwen Tennyson[DJW 1]
- copies of his car for Kevin Levin[DJW 1]
- copies of his version of Grandpa Max for Ben 23[DJW 2]
- duplicates of himself for Maltruant
Slime-Biots instead see a Contumelia as a mass of energy.
Behavior[]
The Contumelia are intelligent and seemingly wise beings, who are known to use the Anihilaargh to create new universes as experiments.
The Contumelia are completely neutral in outside affairs as "observers", and will not get themselves involved in any transpiring events, even when said events threaten to disrupt their experiments and create an entirely different universe to the one they'd intended.
The Contumelia allow outsiders to partake in their experiments as guests and invite stray Slime-Biots, like Skurd, to participate in seeding life in the universe.
History[]
The Contumelia's existence pre-dates the universe.[DJW 3] To this day, they are known as stories which state they would travel across the multiverse and play practical jokes on the inhabitants. If they did not like a particular universe, then they would use the Anihilaargh to reduce it to nothingness.
Though these stories mention that the Contumelia were wiped out long ago,[2][3] the Contumelia are still alive. Furthermore, the true purpose of their Annihilarrgh is to create new universes as experiments.
In So Long, and Thanks for All the Smoothies, a derelict Contumelia Ship which had been left automatically teleporting between universes arrived above Earth, carrying an Annihilarrgh.
In A New Dawn, Maltruant, followed by Ben and Rook, travelled through the timestream to a Contumelia ship within a timeless void, where three Contumelia were about to activate the Anihilaarg in the oblivion to create the prime universe. The Contumelia explained what they were doing to Ben and Rook, and tolerated theirs and Maltruant's presence on their ship as their guests. However, as observers, they observed and didn't intervene, as Maltruant attempted to derail the universe's creation and use a different, modified Anihilaarg to instead create a universe in his own image while Ben and Rook attempted to stop him from altering all of history in the process.
After Ben thwarted Maltruant's plans, the Contumelia resumed their plans, commenting that it would seem from what they'd just seen of Ben and Rook that their universe would be the most interesting one yet. The Contumelia released their unmodified Anihilaarg to create the universe, then released the Slime-Biots (Skurd included among them) who carry samples of DNA and spread them across the newborn universe to begin mixing and depositing DNA among the universe for eons, before Professor Paradox arrived to take Ben and Rook home and to take away Maltruant's parts.
Trivia[]
- The Omnitrix does not contain, nor can it accept, Contumelia DNA because they do not have genetic material equivalent enough to DNA that can be stored.[DJW 4]
- The concept of the Contumelia being perceived differently between individuals is very similar to the Marvel Comics character Galactus who is also perceived differently depending on the race of the observer.
- The Contumelia's appearance depending on what the onlooker most values is also much like the film Contact, where the aliens take on the appearance of the protagonist's father in order to set her at ease.
- The Contumelia are also similar to Mr. Mxyzptlk of DC Comics, as both are fifth-dimensional beings whose true forms can't be perceived by third-dimensional beings.
