Ancient leader of the Cherokee Clan

Sonichu character
Ancient leader of the Cherokee Clan
Date of birth	N/A
Gender	Male
Height	N/A
Weight	N/A
Parents	N/A
Species	Human

Chris has at least one Cherokee ancestor, about whom he absolutely knows nothing. When Chris was making the early issues of the Sonichu comic, he decided to establish a backstory for why he had the power to transform into a super powered fursona. He hit the wigwam, and eventually came up with an "ancient Native American prophecy" as his explanation. This gave him the opportunity to talk about his alleged cultural background in the comic. Being that he knew nothing about real Cherokee (and even less about his ancestor specifically) he instead decided to just make up his own version of the Cherokee and his ancestor, and assumed it was true to life.

This lead to the creation of the bizarre "Cherokian Clan" featured in the Sonichu comic. Since Chris was making up the whole thing, he also declared his fictional ancestor to be the leader of the entire Cherokee Nation.

Chris's Cherokee ancestor was introduced in Sonichu #2, which was completed on 3 May 2005. The ancestor was long assumed to be nonexistent, but on 16 January 2025 - 19 years and 8 months later - the ancestor was discovered to be real by CWCki editor Cilria2. Polly "Cherokee Mother" Cherokee (abt 1703 to 1790) is Chris's 7th great-grandmother.

Character

It is explained that the Cherokee and Wasabi clans were at war in the ancient past over both the Cherokian Crown and the Queen of the Cherokian Clan, the Ancestor's wife. However, the two clans would later ally to fight off Count Graduon, a new evil who first came to power around that time. They sealed him away, but their power of prophecy told them that he would come back one day. They then set up safeguards, such as the transformation powers, so that the three of them (the Leader, the Queen and the Wasabi Rival) could eventually destroy him in present day CWCville. Hundreds of years later, the king of the Cherokee Clan would be reincarnated as Christian Weston Chandler. His present day self would go on to fulfill the prophecy with his queen and rival, guided by an avatar of his ancient alter ego.

The character is never given a name, and so Chris only ever refers to him as "Ancestor."

Role in the comics

Sonichu in "Anchuent Prophecy"

The Ancient leader appeared only very briefly in Episode 7 of Sonichu #2. His only purpose here is to explain to Chris that he is his reincarnation, tell him the evil Count Graduon is coming back, and ask if he's a bad enough dude to stop him. Chris gets his powers then and there and pisses off to go train with Sonichu.

Christian Chandler in "McAttack Part 2"

The Ancestor appears once again in Sonichu #4, acting as the resident Deus Ex Machina in Sub-Episode 5 of that issue. He randomly pops into Chris's head as he's getting the shit kicked out of him by W-M-Manajerk, and tells Chris that he can use the Heart Torch of Fail to bring his imaginary twin sister, Crystal Weston Chandler into being. Chris does so, and the ancestor dissappears again.

Christian Chandler in "Off-Target Part 2"

The Ancestor appears one last time in the series after that, in the final Sub-Episode of Sonichu #4. When Chris is about to fight Mary Lee Walsh at the Private Villa of Corrupted Citizens, the Ancestor appears in his head to encourage him, telling him to focus and remember all the friends he made during his Love Quest, as if he were a supporting character from a children's anime or Saturday morning cartoon.

This tactic fails not due to the realization that Chris's Love Quest has accomplished nothing, but rather because Chris was actually so badly beaten by that point that he couldn't even remember a single friend he'd made on the Love Quest so far. No, not even his Myspace friends. The Ancestor then suggests that he call upon the ancestral spirits for a morality boost, and surprisingly, this DOES work. Apparently ancient Native American spirits are interchangeable with Care Bears. Chris then transforms, beats up an old woman, and the Ancestor disappears into the aether once more, never to be mentioned again.

Given his frequent appearances in Sub-Episodes, it is reasonable to assume that the Ancestor was once meant to be a recurring character, but for one reason or another (perhaps under pressure from his mother), Chris abandoned the concept after he abandoned Sub-Episodes.

Appearance

According to the Anchuent Prophecy, Christian is in fact the reincarnation of this figure, which apparently explains the many dreams and visions in which the ancestor reveals new anchuent powers for Christian to use to fight mall security. As Chris didn't care enough to research the culture he is allegedly descended from, the ancestor looks absolutely nothing like a genuine Cherokee, being a white child-like man. Judging by the size of his head, he appears to be encephalitic.

Befitting his status as a Native American chieftain, he is always depicted wearing a gold and purple, vaguely Greco-Roman-looking breastplate (with sculpted abs) and the coveted Cherokian crown, items of metallurgy that the Cherokee did not possess. All this supports the theory that Chris just knows jack shit about actual Cherokees and their culture.

Chris and reincarnation

Although Chris is said to be the reincarnation of the Ancient leader, and several references are made to "previous lives," several factors seem to contradict the idea. For one thing, none of the supposed reincarnations of the ancient Native Americans seem to have any memory of their previous lives after the prophecy is fulfilled, and none of them really seem to see their ancient alter egos as iterations of themselves. Sarah refers to the Ancient leader when told about him by the Queen of the Cherokian Clan as "your husband," even though he should technically be her husband too if she were a reincarnation. Also note that Chris and friends seem to hold actual conversations with the ancient Native Americans, even though they were supposed to be long dead.

tl;dr: Chris probably doesn't know what "reincarnation" means.

Actual Cherokee ancestor

Polly Bowman "Cherokee Mother" Cherokee (abt 1703 to 1790) was the 7th great-grandmother of Chris and Chris's actual Native American Ancestor. She was the wife of Joshua Odum (1700 to 1745) and had one daughter Melissa Talivia Odum. They married in 1719 (when she was 16) in Orangeburg, South Carolina. She was born in the Cherokee territory of South Carolina.

The line of descent is as follows:

Polly Cherokee (1703 to 1790) - > Melissa Talivia Odum (1720 to unknown) - > Mary Brigman (1755 to 1822) - > Druscilla Dearman (1778 to 1870) - > Curtis Teer (1807 to 1886) - > William Teer (1837 to 1919) - > Mary Frances Teer (1873 to 1914) - > Jean Hollomon (1906 to 1945) - > Robert Franklin Chandler Jr (1927 to 2011) - > Christian Weston Chandler (1982 - present)

This means that Chris is 1/512 Cherokee, or 0.2%. This aligns with the 0.2% Siberian DNA that registered in a 23andMe test (Siberian peoples and Native Americans are closely related genetically). Chris could register as a Cherokee as a documented descendant of a Cherokee – there is no blood quantum requirement. However, other online sources dispute the Odom-Cherokee connection, saying "There are no records of any Cherokee women by name until late in the 18th century. Interracial marriage was illegal, so if you have found a marriage record for the couple, the wife was not Native American. The white traders who married Cherokee women lived in the Cherokee Nation with their wives, not in white communities. Joshua Odum and Polly Bowman were married in Burke, N.C. In 1821, not 1741."

South Carolina banned interracial marriage in 1717, 2 years before Polly is stated to have married Joshua by familysearch.

See also

• Cherokian Clan
• Wasabi Clan