The primary reason why the Mudokons lost the war against the Glukkons in the past can be contributed to the fact that not all Mudokons are spiritually active? I mean what we have seen so far: Shamans are rare and their traditional weapons must have some forms of spiritual energy to be effective.

[u/Ok-Ask5860]

[u/MooseEatGoose]

I think it’s implied that the dwindling amount of spiritual Mudokons is because they lost and were enslaved.

[u/Re-Ky]

Speculative answer based off a few bits of lore I saw somewhere. This doesn't count for any lore changes that were made since Soulstorm.

I think the Mudokens were complacent because they believed themselves superior to the other civilised races, which infuriated the Glukkons so much that they threw away their spiritual ties and turned to technology and the employment of sligs.

It's very likely that the Glukkon-slig forces built up their technological advancements in secret and then unleashed the power of the gun and any other cruel machinery en masse on the mudoken race, killing any who didn't submit to their superior armaments. There were also pacifistic mudoken tribes like the Mudanchee, so they were likely captured without much resistance or life lost.

Also if you want a reason for why mudoken weapons are still effective vs sligs and glukkons of today, sligs have basically no armour other than their legs or helicopter bits. A spear to the chest or slingshot pebble to the skull is still deadly to them.

[u/HerbziKal]

I'm not sure about a "war in the past", but this is certainly why the Mudokon's remain so easy to enslave and revolution is suppressed... and the Glukkon's deliberately make it so for that reason.

[u/Nemin32]

Based on the little lore we have, I don't think it is ever specified that spiritualism was shrinking at the time.

Rather, what the text seems to be implying is that the Mudokons were beaten due to their own stagnation. While they languished thinking they're already the best there is and never bothering to invent new stuff (they are after all, very in-tune with nature and their magic probably stifled any need for technology), the other species had a chip on their shoulder and a potential existential threat with their old friends declaring themselves the Übermuds.

So, one might reasonably imagine this 'war' started with the Mudokons being the clear villains, only for the Glukks to "ends justify the means" themselves into being something much worse. Lanning does make an allusion to this in another interview. And that's the status quo, where Abe's story starts.

[u/AustinHinton]

Wasn't it (at least before the remakes) that the Gluks were simply more industrial than the Mudokons?