The question at hand is where does the Mook race in Wizardry 6-7-8 comes from? I don't mean the definition given in the Wizardry game manual, but where did the idea of the Mook race come from? Call it conspiracy theory or coincidence, but there is a reference to it way back to the original Apple II version of the first Wizardry scenario Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. Let me explain. In the first scenario on level 6, at 7 north, 19 east, a strange message appears as follows:

SUDDENLY YOU SEE A GROUP OF 3 HUMAN-

OIDS.  ONE IS A BARBARIAN WITH A SWORD

THAT GLOWS, ONE IS A SEXY FEMALE MAGE,

AND THE THIRD LOOKS LIKE A HUGE OGRE!

THE BARBARIAN POINTS TO THE END OF THE

CORRIDOR AND YELLS "ARIEL.. OOKLA..

THIS WAY!! " AND THEY ALL RUN OFF!

The message appears only in early releases on the original Apple II versions. This easter egg, a one-time event in the game, had been accidentally disabled on the more commonly distributed v2.1 22-JAN-82 release of Wizardry. You can still see it the game code with a scenario editor on line 159 of the game text database. The message can be brought back with the change of just one byte on the disk. Those are the reasons why many Wizardry maps out there don't even show it.

You may ask: What has this got to do with the Wizardry 6-7-8 scenario? What is the relation with the Mook race? Those three humanoids represent the characters of what started out as a 1977 television anime show titled Thundarr the Barbarian. Ookla mentioned in the Wizardry Proving Grounds text above is the name of one its members that is of a sentient race called Mok. Mok = Mook !!!

Click on this link---> link and see how the action figures of the Mok and his friends look like and read on, fascinating! You can also search YouTube to watch the anime series.

Here is a picture of it: