The Temple of the Exploding Head

HAITATHE WARRIORS are legendary creatures on Kana.

In the early days of the League, they settled on the bountiful world of Kana at the beginning of the EX time epoch. The 25 Elders, whom the League served, made an occasional habit of introducing alien species into their midst with the thought of enhancing their genetic make-up.

Shortly after arriving on Kana, the Elders introduced the Haitathe, a bizarre hermaphroditic alien species of giant size. The Haitathe were warlike and savage, much larger and more powerful physically than the League. They thrived in the northern reaches of Kana and began a long and rather bloody reign of terror over the League, especially over the tribes of Vith and Esther. They developed a distinct “taste” for Vith flesh and began harvesting them for food. Seeing their extinction at hand, the League prayed to the Elders for help. Initially telling the League to solve the problem themselves, the Elders soon saw how dire the situation was and bestowed The Gifts upon the tribe of Vith. It was hoped these Gifts would allow the Vith to better fight back against the Haitathe. They marked the Vith as Blue, indicating that they had the Gifts.

With their new abilities, and under the leadership of Homma of Telmus Falls, the Vith rallied and slowly pushed the Haitathe out of their northern stronghold. After centuries of bloody conflict, the Elders removed the Haitathe from Kana, sending them back to wherever they had initially come from, though, a few remained in the dark places of Kana, hiding there to the present day.

The Haitathe were bizarre male/female creatures of giant size. They began life looking like a rather tall League male and became more and more female as they got older. The average size of these young male Haitathe was 6’5 to seven feet. A young Haitathe could be fairly tame and agreeable. As the Haitathe aged, they began growing additional female parts, including arms, breasts, genitalia and a head which would remain small and hidden until needed—they added one full set every twenty years. It was thought that each set of female parts maintained its own consciousness and therefore the Haitathe would hear many voices in its head, each struggling for control. Normally the most domineering and brutal voice would hold sway. Having both male and female parts, Haitathe always self-replicated. Unlike the League, who were engineered to remain young throughout their lives, the Haitathe aged and became old at a slow but progressive rate (In the notorious case of Lord Milton, it was thought he had Cloaked himself to appear old, but his withered face was real).

The Haitathe’s head was not a critical area, and would quickly grow back a new female head if the male head was lost. If the Haitathe possessed four sets of arms, it could lose up to four heads—losing the fourth however would be fatal. The female arms were very strong and were rather rubbery, able to stretch quite a distance and flatten out against their bodies as to almost be invisible. They could also stick to walls and scale them like a bug. They also had the unusual ability to remember everything experienced and were capable of performing incredibly complex mathematical computations all in their head without error.

If a Haitathe became enraged, they would grow, often times, to about twenty feet tall. Occasionally a Giant-sized Haitathe would become stuck in such a state and be a distinct target. Their demeanor was extremely war-like and brutal, and they could be just as nasty to themselves as to the Vith. Blood feuds between Haitathe were horrific affairs. To the Vith and the rest of the Elder-Kind they were singularly cruel, enslaving, then feasting upon them.

There were a number of documented instances where a Vith hero was able to tame a Haitathe to a certain degree, as with Holt of the Mountain. They admired strength most of all, and if a Vith hero demonstrated enough strength, then the Haitathe would sometimes calm and offer the Vith respect, loyalty, even love. It has been said that the ancient, and gigantic, Vith Queen Emmira was in fact a Haitathe in disguise. It is also thought in some teachings, that the original Sisters had a strong Haitathe ancestry.

It should be noted that much of the richness and history of the Vith culture and mythology derives either wholly or in part from their dealings with the Haitathe. Images of the Haitathe appear emblazoned on many Vith Great House coat-of-arms, including House Blanchefort, Bloodstein and Durst, Tartan and Clovis. Additionally, many Vith Great Houses can trace Haitathe blood somewhere in their history.

copyright 2011, Ren Garcia, Eve Ventrue and Carol Phillips