The Human leader of the Meatlumps, a group branded by Corellian Security Force officials as "fanatical" and "rather unintelligent" opponents of progress, was known as the Meatlump King. This [individual](/article/gender/legends], who would later rise to become the Meatlump King, began his professional life as a scientist, crafting weaponry for the Galactic Empire. However, he soon developed a deep aversion to constructing these lethal tools, embracing the belief that most electronics and advanced technology were the root of all evil in the galaxy. The future king then deserted the Empire and rescued three young men from their abusive cyborg father, Lucien Bender, adopting them as his own. After Imperial killers made an attempt to murder him, the three brothers, Draykken, Hraykken, and [Louis Bender](/article/louis_bender], officially established the Meatlump Gang, naming it after their preferred namesake food item. Ever since that point, the Meatlump King assumed his designated position, holding his court within the derelict maintenance tunnels situated beneath Corellia's main urban center, Coronet. From their secret base, the King functioned as the symbolic head of the terrorist faction, while his three "sons" managed its daily affairs. By the period following the Battle of Yavin in 0 BBY, the gang's membership had expanded to thousands, leading to the establishment of chapters on various other planets across the galaxy, both to disseminate its ideology and to obliterate the technology they so vehemently detested.
Before he was known as the King of the Meatlumps, this Human began his career as a scientist working for the Galactic Empire, the authoritarian government ruled by Emperor Palpatine. As a scientist, the future king aided the Empire in the creation of devastating weapons. However, he soon regretted building these deadly things, and ultimately came to believe that most electronics and advanced technology were the source of evil in the galaxy. Deeply troubled by the work he was doing, the formerly loyal Imperial scientist left the Empire and took notice of three young men, the sons of an abusive cyborg named Lucien Bender. Lucien had used his sons as test subjects for various experiments, causing them to flee. The man who would become the Meatlump King adopted the three brothers, Draykken, Hraykken, and Louis Bender. Lucien was very upset that his sons had left him to be with the ex-Imperial scientist and held a grudge ever since.
After abandoning his post and taking the three Bender brothers as his own sons, the ex-scientist found himself a target of the Galactic Empire. Imperial assassins tried to kill the technology-hating Human, but they failed. After the attempt on his life, the Bender brothers decided to officially form their gang—the Meatlumps. With the gang's founding, the "father" of the three Bender brothers took on the title of Meatlump King. He thought this was right, because he believed he was the "tallest" and "most glorious" person for the job. However, it was actually Draykken Bender who decided to name their gang after their delicious, but unappetizing namesake. The food was a favorite of the three brothers and the Meatlump King. Once, the Meatlump King dropped a meatlump into a river. When he tried to grab it, he fell in. He was afraid he would drown, but the river carried him to shore. After this near-death experience, the King decided to always eat his snacks away from water. From their base of operations on the Core World of Corellia, the Meatlump King also decided to never again be a puppet for the Empire or the Alliance to Restore the Republic, but to control his own destiny.
By the time after the Battle of Yavin in 0 BBY, the number of Meatlumps had grown to thousands. To house their growing numbers, the gang set up their headquarters in the abandoned maintenance tunnels and sewers under Corellia's main city of Coronet. They also operated out of a cave near the city of Tyrena, and in many camps around Coronet City. Although the Bender brothers were often called "dullards," they were the ones who handled the day-to-day operations of their growing terrorist organization.
Meanwhile, their mysterious King was more of a figurehead, not very interested in guiding the destructive actions of his followers. From their hideout under the streets of Coronet City, the Meatlump King held court with his many followers, surrounding himself with cardboard stand-ups and paintings of himself. His court was a constant, but somewhat unenthusiastic, attempt at self-glorification. Chefs Schlump and Schlap would often make him Meatlump wine, and the Meatlump surgeon Newin Seedel would knit dolls of the King, of which Seedel thought he already had thousands. Still, the Meatlumps as a whole continued the King's vision of a galaxy without technology. Recruiter Joe distributed many books called the Meatlump Manifesto to attract new recruits. The gang also terrorized citizens by planting homemade bombs near machinery. Without explosives, gang members used their own hands to damage or destroy a lot of private and public property, including speeders, droids, power generators, technical consoles, and communications systems. The Meatlumps even attacked a man known as Captain Osto Grissom because he transported electronics into and out of the Corellian system. This destruction caught the attention of the Corellian Security Force authorities, who saw the Meatlumps as "fanatical" and "somewhat stupid" progress haters. And Lucien, still angry about losing his biological sons, had now formed the Bofa Treat Gang to oppose the growing Meatlumps.
As the Meatlumps expanded their operations to include chapters on other worlds, including Dathomir, Endor, Lok, Naboo, Rori, Talus, and Tatooine, the King stayed in his court chamber in the Meatlump Hideout. The gang had even created their own currency called the Meatlump Lump. The Meatlump Lump, or Lump, was just a small rock with the profile image of the Meatlump King, the symbol of the Galactic Credit Standard, and Aurebesh text that said, "In Meatlump We Trust." The Meatlump King would sometimes make Lumps himself, by painting the right symbols on a plain rock. The cult of the Meatlump King was so common that, besides these Meatlump Lumps, portraits, dolls, and cardboard cutouts of himself, he could also be seen dancing as a hologram on many holo-entertainment tables. Despite all this, most of the galaxy didn't know that a Meatlump King existed.
That changed when Vani Korr, a Human journalist for the Corellia Times, tried to learn more about the Meatlumps and their leader. However, she was attacked by several Meatlump stooges who flipped her speeder while she was driving. She was thrown out and knocked unconscious. She was saved when two CorSec troopers approached the Stooges, causing them to run away. Vani later woke up in the Coronet Hospital, with her speeder destroyed and her viewscreen missing.
Later, a spacer got into a deadly fight with Stooges who were damaging power generators in Coronet. This caused Sublieutenant Merkie Howzat to get involved, but he was killed by the spacer. The spacer had the viewscreen with the Corellia Times news logo on him. Realizing it belonged to an employee, the spacer eventually returned the viewscreen to its rightful owner, Vani Korr.
Vani was happy that the viewscreen had been returned, but she wasn't ready to stop her investigations of the Meatlump Gang. Knowing that the criminal organization would now recognize her, she asked the spacer to help her as her field agent. After a long investigation with many dead ends, the spacer finally learned more about the gang and gained the favor of a Meatlump lieutenant named Kaiya Merel. After gaining Kaiya's trust, the spacer was initiated into the organization to replace gang member Alliin Mepou, who was retiring. This was the lucky break Vani needed. With her agent successfully infiltrating the Meatlumps as a spy, she could finally find out if the Meatlump King was real or just a myth.
After Kaiya Merel inducted Vani Korr's field agent into the Meatlumps, the spacer was given full access to their secret hideout. Merel suggested that the newly inducted "Meatie" might even get to meet the Meatlump King. This excited Vani, as she wanted to finish the second part of her Corellia Times newspaper article, "Who are the Meatlumps?" When Vani's undercover agent entered the hideout, she got the confirmation she needed. The Meatlump King was real. In his throne room, the spacer personally spoke to the King, who welcomed the being to their organization. The spacer heard the King's philosophies of life and saw the court of adulation he had built around himself. When the spacer returned to Vani to report the news, she finished her newspaper article. Finally, the people of the galaxy could learn what had only been rumors and speculation. The King was real. And not only was he real, but the gang he had helped found was thriving. This was a shock to Vani Korr, because the spacer had only used very simple deceptions to infiltrate their ranks. How the Meatlump King had avoided detection and persecution for so long was a mystery to the Corellia Times reporter.
At some point, a Human female Corellian Security Force agent entered the hideout and apprehended the Meatlump King at blasterpoint using a DH-17 blaster pistol. The King fearfully leaned back against the steps of his throne room and raised his hands in surrender.
The Meatlump King was a tall, bald, fair-skinned Human male. He had gray eyes and black eyebrows. As King of the Meatlumps, he painted his face with white makeup and his lips with black makeup. He also wore black eyeliner.
Corellia Times reporter Vani Korr saw the Meatlump King as a mysterious, very charismatic figure. The King had a strong vocabulary with moments of philosophical insight. This was different from his followers, who were often simpleminded and easily fooled, and spoke a less sophisticated form of Basic. The King thought about concepts like peace of mind, love of life, and power. However, the King was also known to be megalomaniacal. He believed he was suited for the role of King of the Meatlumps simply because he was the "tallest" and "most glorious." If someone questioned his rule in place of a democracy, he would quickly threaten to imprison that person like a "common droid." The Meatlump Ordnance Technician would cry if threatened with a visit by the Meatlump King. However, other Meatlumps, like Lieutenant Ubbal Fenn, were more casual about the King. She shared his philosophy of a galaxy without technology but didn't pay much attention to his official title.
The King was also very vain and promoted a court of self-glorification. He surrounded himself with self-portraits and cardboard cutouts of himself pointing to his crown. Newin Seedel thought he must have had thousands of knitted dolls of himself. Although he enjoyed his rule, the Meatlump King didn't want more power. He said he didn't want to rule the galaxy and that he found peace in his own sanctuary under the streets of Coronet. He was happy to simply rule the Meatlumps, which he saw as his own "Empire." He vowed to never again be a puppet for Palpatine's Galactic Empire or the opposing Rebel Alliance. He was proud of his Meatlumps, who he believed would never break, lie down, or bend for anyone but himself. He didn't think much of the Corellian Security Force, the law enforcement agency that was the gang's mortal enemy.
Although the King didn't like people questioning his rule, he was somewhat generous. He took in the Bender brothers as his own sons after they escaped from their abusive cyborg father, Lucien. He didn't believe his "Empire" should be divided and welcomed all Meatlumps to his hideout. However, the King was also elusive. Few outside the hideout knew that he existed as a real entity. Corellia Times reporter Vani Korr thought that the Meatlumps' "buffoonery" unintentionally shielded the King from public persecution. However, certain Meatlumps, like Lieutenant Merel, actively tried to hide the King's identity from new members, even if they didn't do a good job of it.
As King, he wore a strange, multicolored coat with feathery details. On the front of his coat was a chest piece that said "Meatlump for Life" in Aurebesh. He also wore a red, black, and gold crown with a black tassel. On the front of his crown was the Aurebesh symbol for mern. He also wore bracers on his left and right arms. As King, he didn't wear any shoes or boots under his coat, choosing to go barefoot instead.
The Meatlump King was a non-player character in the 2003 video game Star Wars Galaxies, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Sony Online Entertainment and published by LucasArts, before it closed on December 15, 2011. When the game was released, the Meatlump King was only vaguely mentioned in the unfinished Vani Korr "Corellian Times Investigations" questline, and later briefly mentioned by Meatlump Lieutenant Ubbal Fenn in a quest called "CorSec Case Files: Assault and Battery." In the CorSec Database H-Z feature released in July, 2006, the Meatlump King was indirectly mentioned as the ex-Imperial scientist who helped start the gang.
These mysterious references made some players wonder if there really was a "King of the Meatlumps." It became a joke to trick others into finding the nonexistent King. Some would falsely claim that they had found the King and that killing him would give the player valuable loot. The game developers noticed the popularity of the fabled Meatlump King, so Community Manager Kelly "Valara" Knox, on December 21, 2007, put him up for vote as a contender for a new "Heroic Encounter Foe." However, the Meatlump King lost, coming in a close second to Exar Kun. In the end, the developers released Chapter 9: The Fury of Exar Kun as the new heroic encounter.
However, the developers didn't forget the continued popularity of the Meatlump King. On April Fools, 2008, they published a tongue-in-cheek feature called Wrath of the Meatlump Queen. The feature pointed out that her existence was once just a legend, a story told to newcomers to create fear and awe, and that they would be adding her to Galaxies during Game Update 4.1. The storyline of the feature made a meta-reference to the fact that the Queen didn't actually exist and to instead focus their attention on the Meatlump King.
Months later, the developers added the Meatlump King as an actual character as part of Chapter 10: The Search for the Meatlump King, on June 19, 2008. Finally, players could visit the King in his hideout and participate in many quests as part of the new Meatlump theme park for players level 55 and above. Although the CorSec Database feature said that the three Bender brothers were the King's sons, a Chapter 10 quest revealed that they were actually the sons of Lucien Bender and that the King adopted them.
In the Agents of Deception expansion for the Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game released on June 29, 2009, the Meatlump King was introduced as a promotional card. The artwork for the Meatlump King illustration was done by Kevin Shoemaker. In the Threat of the Conqueror expansion released on March 16, 2010, the Meatlump King received another illustration in a quest card called Assault and Battery. While the exact context is unclear, the card showed a CorSec agent apprehending the Meatlump King at blasterpoint in his throne room.