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The Origin of the Masked LLama
15 years ago
Okay, first the disclaimer that this character is a comedy character. I say this so you're not rolling your eyes at his origin's goofiness. Its supposed to be silly. Not that I think you would, but its a standard disclaimer given every time I tell this story. Also, historical portions may not be factually accurate.
The story starts out in England back in the days of King Arthur. The Round Table was engaged in an epic fight with some Saxons attempting to seige Camelot. While all this was going on , our llama hero was simply a beast of burden working in the fields of a local farmer. One day the brave Sir Tristan showed up on the farm, in need of a new steed. The farmer offered up the llama as a replacement steed and Tristan accepted, but the pack animal had no training, so as always, when England is in need, Merlin appears. The wizard awakened the llama with enough intelligence to understand and perform as a war mount steed, but also tweaked his mind so that he'd obey the orders given to him instead of running away at the first sign of combat. A side effect of this was that he needed to give the llama the ability communicate as well. So, Sir Tristan rode his new steed into combat.
So now that we've established the secret backstory, we can answer the question of why he's wearing a mask.
During the battle, the llama charged and headbutted an enemy's horse, which distracted the fighter enough to give Sir Tristan the advantage. However, since the llama wasn't wearing war tack, while his target was, it gave the llama a really nasty gash right between his eyes. When the battle was over, Sir Tristan could see that his magical mount was very self-conscious and ashamed of his battle scar, so the knight quickly grabbed a black cloth and fashioned it into a mask that covered the injury. He explained that this mask was an award given to mounts that showed great bravery. While the mask has had to be replaced with newer more sturdy models since then, the llama is always seen wearing it. In fact, the newer masks give him the ability to turn into a anthropomorphic version of himself to better fit in with the other anthro's.
Whew! And there ya have it. The FA version of his origins.
The story starts out in England back in the days of King Arthur. The Round Table was engaged in an epic fight with some Saxons attempting to seige Camelot. While all this was going on , our llama hero was simply a beast of burden working in the fields of a local farmer. One day the brave Sir Tristan showed up on the farm, in need of a new steed. The farmer offered up the llama as a replacement steed and Tristan accepted, but the pack animal had no training, so as always, when England is in need, Merlin appears. The wizard awakened the llama with enough intelligence to understand and perform as a war mount steed, but also tweaked his mind so that he'd obey the orders given to him instead of running away at the first sign of combat. A side effect of this was that he needed to give the llama the ability communicate as well. So, Sir Tristan rode his new steed into combat.
So now that we've established the secret backstory, we can answer the question of why he's wearing a mask.
During the battle, the llama charged and headbutted an enemy's horse, which distracted the fighter enough to give Sir Tristan the advantage. However, since the llama wasn't wearing war tack, while his target was, it gave the llama a really nasty gash right between his eyes. When the battle was over, Sir Tristan could see that his magical mount was very self-conscious and ashamed of his battle scar, so the knight quickly grabbed a black cloth and fashioned it into a mask that covered the injury. He explained that this mask was an award given to mounts that showed great bravery. While the mask has had to be replaced with newer more sturdy models since then, the llama is always seen wearing it. In fact, the newer masks give him the ability to turn into a anthropomorphic version of himself to better fit in with the other anthro's.
Whew! And there ya have it. The FA version of his origins.
At this point the mask is worn primarily as a source of pride for his bravery in battle and because it helps people differentiate him from the other llamas.