World of Kralis

Ha'Vatu

(pronounced: hä-vaatoo)

Ha'Vatu are distantly related to the Chovah, being one of the species that was mutated by Chaos into their forms. They represent the purified essence of the Chovah desire to build, engineer and discover new things.

They are dichotomy being on the one hand a contemplative and calm species, driven by ambition and a desire to understand the world and the Omniverse, and on the other being somewhat mad, in that they once they have chosen to begin something, they fling themselves into it, often risking themselves and others as they pursue their creations or knowledge.

They are taught from an early age to master every field of study they can, and to pursue their goals with a steadfast and unerring zeal of purpose.

They are highly creative with a strong leaning towards engineering genius, with a calculating and cold thought process, their exotic behavior of such headlong into projects, and missions buts many of other non-Ha’Vatu species on edge. They come across as cold, uncaring or even desensitized to the world around them, but this is a by product of their own mind as they are super focused.

Their species has long been recognized for their out-of-the box thinking and analytical skills. A trait that has made them brilliant strategists and tacticians in the art of war.

Ha’Vatu are well known as the “Mad Mages of Aradgah” for as it seems as long as there has been technology, the Ha’Vatu seem to have always been in the middle of it. They are well known as Tech Savants.

Despite their size, they also find themselves as warriors surrounded by devices and odd armor. They have very little use for their deities and very few priests. When describing what Ha’Vatu look like, it may seem that you are describing a Chovah. This is not far from the truth. Ha’vatu are smaller and shorter than Chovah. But they tend to be thinner, and are lacking the sagittal crest on their skulls. They are very strong for their size, packing on sinewy muscle over a lithe frame with broad shoulders. They also have a keen beard fetish, keeping them neatly trimmed and frequently braiding them with strands of silver.

Most Ha’Vatu have dark to ashen colored skin, with lighter brown and blond hair and eye colors mostly running the ranges of blue and green. They stand between three and three and half feet tall, and weigh 100 to 150 pounds.

Nearly all Ha’Vatu belong to a house, much like Chovah and Rhakas have clans, these houses are the top of the social class of Ha’vatu society. Those that are apart of a house are considered to be actual descendants of the original groups of Ha’vatu that came into existence during the Great War of Chaos.

As a species Ha’Vatu are very specific in how they view the world. They see the world as a place that they can improve upon with their inventions. They do not have a deep connection to the earth like Chovah nor are they built for war as are the Rhakas. Ha’Vatu are most renowned for their inventions, tinkerings, alchemical knowledge and alien-like technologies. Their skill with machinery is in high demand in progressive human cities, and often Chovah employ these little inventors to develop new defenses or conveniences. Ha’Vatuian inventions may be odd, sometimes dangerous, but they are nearly always useful.

Ha’Vatu are the distinct off-shoot of Chovah created several millennium ago during the many wars that Chovah have had with Chaos. Where the Rhakas are the perverted, dark side of Chovah, Ha’Vatu are the focused technological mindset of the Chovahian species.

To be a Ha’Vatu is to look upon the world to see everything that is wrong with it and want nothing more than to create, build or improve on what they see. To them the wild is to be conquered, the civilized improved upon and the edges of the map filled and the unknown explored. In Ha’Vatuian thinking there is always dullness, which leads to boredom which leads to death of mind and soul.

For other species, understanding Ha’Vatu is a difficult task. Though descendants of the Chovahian species their mindset is an alien one, altered sages believe by the Chovahian wars against chaos that spawned the Ha’Vatu. They have a very strong connection with all things mechanical, both powered by energies (magical or otherwise) and by springs, cogs and other mechanical movement.

The inquisitive nature of the Ha’Vatu is the driving force behind why they set out from their secluded islands, conclaves and homes their desiring to see the world and make it better through their technological minds. On one hand Ha’Vatu have no tolerance for the mundane, yet on the other hand, they are able to tolerate the vast amounts of time they spend on constructing, tearing apart, and reconstructing new technological items.

Ha’vatu are amongst the smallest of the “civilized” species of the Omniverse (along with Manax, Aelwyn, and Ba-Liyan), but are amongst the strongest of the smaller species. They have lithe, sinewy bodies that are tightly packed with muscle that are incredibly flexible.

Psychology

Most Ha’Vatu are driven by two needs: one) to understand a situation and master it; two) develop the next advancement in aradgah and its technology. Though not all Ha’Vatu are driven towards the development of new or unique ardagah, some are driven to find the flaws and strategy’s in a target’s defenses, others are driven to locate and defeat the latest assassins guild.

Ha’Vatu do not like to lose and they feel that at having a greater understanding than their opponents will allow them to to win, or least not lose completely. Despite their “madness”, most Ha’Vatu are patient, relaxed and reserved. They are viewed as cold and calculating by those that do not understand them or their great focus and their inborn trait not to get upset or flustered.

For most Ha’Vatu, their drive for understanding is often superseded by having the need to master new things as they come across them. Once a Ha’Vatu has decided that he has mastered a task to her satisfaction they will enthusiastically move on to something new and more exciting. Those that are not pulled deeper into their machinations and creations, fulfill this craving for new knowledge and understanding beyond their own towns and cities to the wide Omniverse beyond.

While their drive for mastery of things pushes each Ha’Vatu to new heights, rarely does this drive manifest itself in other ways other than the personal desire to know more. Their society is not an overtly, complex or hierarchical social structure. Their drive is not to be at the top of the hierarchy, but to be the most knowledgeable.

Despite their natural reserve, all Ha’Vatu love a good joke and often set up friends and family members in extravagant pranks all in the name of fun — a trait not always appreciated by other species. They have a deep seated obsession with building or enhancing things in new ways. This seems to be an trait found in all Ha’Vatu, making them gifted engineers, mechanics, tutors, and sages. Some regard the tendency to invent and play, combined with their desire to pranks, as exceedingly dangerous.

Ha’Vatu prefer not to fight — at least not fairly — and will go to some lengths to assure that when they do have to fight the odds will be in their favor. They will work to outwit and out plan most opponents when given the opportunity, but always have one or two things up their sleeves for the unexpected. To underestimate a Ha’Vatu is to surely play with fire, fire that will likely explode in your face.

While there is strong push towards conformity within the Ha’Vatu communities and that going against the grain is not encouraged, Ha’Vatu also have a reputation of being highly individualistic, a kind of ruthless individualism to assert themselves within their communities are get lost in the blandness of others.

Society and Culture

The main social bond that a typical Ha’Vatu has is to his community (khomoon), then to their guilds or cabals and finally to their Great House, if they are associated with one.

Ha’Vatu Houses, known as Shoselet are the backbone of the entire species. There are twenty known Great Houses. The Houses themselves are not used to divide Ha’Vatu by wealth, but by accumulated knowledge. Within each house, Ha’Vatu further divided themselves into sub-houses called Shosulak, which tend to be further divided into sub-sub houses known as Shosaluk. With each sub-division becoming more specific in knowledge.

The Houses of Ha’Vatu are all numbered and are made up of numerous families, often holding their direct ancestry in high regard. Within Ha’vatu culture, each member of the House are considered nobility, and lesser nobility depending on if you are an original Shoselet, a Shosulak or a Shosaluk, and are often afforded numerous titles. Among them include:

• mother/father (often named head of House or individual family - sometimes also known as regent)
• daughter/son (offspring of the House head or one of those considered next in line for the title)
• speaker (representative for a family)

The Ha’Vatu are a matriarchal society and as such the daughters of specific houses are always the first to be considered as heir to a family name, but if no female heirs have been produced, males are also accepted in this roles without question. When a Ha’Vatu or a member of a family chooses to forsake their title and position in a House, their names are often struck from the House.

Even non-house Ha’Vatu that are employed by the Great Houses can be inducted into a Great House, but are not given titles or positions of representations. These houses are the political factions within the world of the Ha’Vatu. Nearly every cabal or guild is associated in one way or another to a Great House. Typically each house has some control over the flow of aradgah that they are known to focus on, controlling the supply to the rest of the world and the Omniverse and provide to the overall functioning of the Khomoon.

The overall population of each of the houses can range from 5,000 (minor houses) to 10,000 individuals or more (greater houses). Houses and their representative can range from the Isles of Cuthia to powerful, though distant, voidstations and everything in between. Dardura Sheva alone is home to 12 House Representative Cabals.

Family and Structure

Families are called shephak, and are made up of a core family of parents, young children, the wife’s sister, and her parents. These shephak form communities called cabals. Each cabal forms the basis for the Ha’Vatu Houses, with support and training. Ha’vatu grow up within the cabal where they learn a profession, taking up tools, weapons or books based on their skills and interests.

Each cabal consists of between two hundred and four hundred members. At any given time, more than 90 percent of the cabals members are working and living within the community.

Unlike other species that take time to move from infancy to adulthood, Ha’Vatu are born into this world ready and immediately alert. Nearly all Ha’Vatu are able to move on their own within a few days, walking with little assistance in a few weeks as well able to talk in this short time. Only the Manax species has a faster rate of growth.

Shortly there after most Ha’Vatu children have begun to discover their species primary aptitude: curiosity. It is through this innate curiosity that Ha’vatu children begin to de-construct the world around them. From birth to the age of 10 Ha’Vatu children are often grouped together in a large enclave under the watchful eye of caretakers.

These ganadhe (child care) are used to allow Ha’Vatu children to learn through experience with various wondrous objects from small clockwork toys to large intricately designed clockworks with various power sources. Ha’Vatu children are not told what they must do only what to expect and are allowed to go from there. So long as the child is not in a potentially fatal situation they can explore, construct, de-construct to their hearts content. It is through this play that Ha’vatu children become adapt at their species basic skills: engineering, alchemy or smithing.

In a similar vein to Chovah, Ha’Vatu children, once they reach ten years of age are moved from the Ganadhe into a more formal education within the community to begin work as an apprentice as either an engineer, researcher, inventor, technologist, warrior or priest. As well as a number of other specialties.

Adult Ha’Vatu, similar to their distant cousins, are hard working and do so at a fever pitch. Combine this work ethic with their natural curiosity and Ha’vatu push the limits of what can be done through magic, Ha’Vatu aradagh, and alchemical miracles.

Ha’Vatu do not think in the same way as others do, they think in a very alien way and react entirely differently to situations. They are wired in such a way as to be attuned to that of action and reaction, of motion and non-motion. When they look at a tree they do not simply see a tree, they see its dimensions, the cutting points, the way it will fall when it is struck at the right point and the design within the wood that they can coax out of it.

Because of a Ha’Vatu desire to modify, enhance and alter clockwork beings and creatures, Ha’Vatu can be easily subverted to an evil cause, blinded as they are by their desire to build the most unique mechanical thing they can. Which is evidenced in history as they were designers and creators of vile machines, and mechas for the armies of Chaos and Azahak.

Community

Where Chovah rely upon the heavily constructed concept of clans, Ha’Vatu live in a number of small interconnected communities (khomoon) that humans or other species may call a “town”. Each of these communities are home to 30 to 40 families, and each family is made up of a few extended families on the females side. Where they can, they build these communities in hills and mountains where they can link these various villages with interconnecting tunnels. Many times these villages are built continuously from below the earth to above the surface.

Typically, Ha’Vatu are not concerned with politics,though the Great Houses and their nobility are involved with politics in the greater world and Omniverse, and while they do have a of government, their small populations and natural care for one another defeats the need for a overtly complex system.

In most day to day activities the Ha’Vatu cabals draw from a pool of elders from each family, who meet to discuss serious issues such as war or trade along with the Great Houses. To an outsider, this method of organization appears more like anarchy. It is hard for an outsider to find a Ha’vatu “in charge”, a fact that is nerve-wracking for some. At its heart Ha’Vatuian society is a matriarchal ruled and most family property is held and bequeathed from mother to daughter, Ha’vatu firmly believe that the mother to be the most important person in society.

In Ha’Vatuian society, women usually rule the domestic realm while the men take the political and industrial leadership roles. However, both genders feel the separation of powers keeps them on an equal footing. Upon marriage, every woman acquires her own sleeping quarters. The husband may sleep with her, but must leave early in the morning to have breakfast at his mother’s home. At age 10, boys leave their mother’s home to stay in Ha’Vatuian men’s quarters to learn practical skills such as engineering, alchemy, teachings. While the community chief (mefarseh) is always male, women select the chief and can remove him from office should they feel he failed to fulfill his duties. They are culturally and naturally proud people, they also have traditional belief of egalitarianism, they speak a language closely related to Azhedhak, which was considerably freer of hierarchical connotations.

Because of the high importance of learning, discovery, experimentation, and pushing the traditional engineering limits, Ha’Vatu are heavily sought after by various sages, libraries and knowledge conclaves through out the world.

In addition to being renowned as engineers and technologists, Ha’Vatu have also produced some of Ta Los’ most influential poets, writers, statesmen, and scholars.

Art

For Ha’Vatu, art is both a luxury to have and a purpose of their constructions and engineering feats. Pure aesthetics, creating art for art sake, is not something that most Ha’Vatu adhere to, though there are those “odd-ball” cases that do believe that creating art is an engineering feat in itself.

Most Ha’Vatu have a strong appreciation for art, they have an eye for what is beautiful there is no doubt. But this view often only goes as far as their designs and builds of whatever aradgah they are working. While they work on the various elements of the design they are also adding detail in to their design.

These details often come in the form of stylized circles, triangles, knots and other unique designs, often these are pressed into the metals they use, or welded on to the surfaces of their designs.

Ha’Vatu communities are often a living museum of crafts and aradgah filled with clockwork statues as well as carved statues made from marble, granite and the occasional red steel ore.

Customs, Traditions and Beliefs

For Ha’Vatu there is only one, true real belief: either build it or make it better. While each community has a handful of believes and traditions regarding mothers, births, deaths, and marriages; the most important focuses on their species natural ability to envision new ways of doing old things. What makes a Ha’Vatu a Ha’Vatu is their tinkering in new technologies, new engineering principles, new alchemical concoctions and the weaving of the magical and the mechanical. For a Ha’Vatu the creating of a new, unheard of technological advancement is the pinnacle of their beliefs.

The Ha’vatu are considered one of the Six Ancient Civilizations and it boasts a vast and varied rich and profound culture. Their customs, traditions and beliefs, while diverse and unique, yet are harmoniously blended.

While each Ha’Vatu community has its own unique traditions and customs, they each adhere to some common species traditions common to each community.

Behekor: Often referred to as First Design is a celebration that occurs when young Ha’Vatu, especially those inclined towards engineering, completes her first working design. This is actually similar to birthdays in other species. It is generally celebrated only by the shephak but occasionally a design and creation is so “revolutionary” in its design that the whole khomoon celebrates the design and the Ha’Vatu on the day of its reveal.

Rhanguhk: The first day of the third month is referred to as the rhanguhk, it is similar to the celebration of the New Year in many other species. However, rhanguhk is better translated as Day of Rest(ing). It is a 24 hour period where all Ha’Vatu stop working on designs, and take up a period of silence and meditation. During this time no fires may be lit, no work may be accomplished, no talking takes place, and no travel, or leisure activities occur.

Mhakez: Despite the fact that Ha’Vatu are focused on building and enhancing their constructs, equipment and aradagh, there are numerous groups that have mastered and use their designs and constructions to perform Mhakez. Best thought of as puppeteering, the Mhakez is a festival of the best performances of miniature constructs that they have spend months, even years perfecting. The Mhakez is a week long series of performance competitions between rival cabals, including other cabals from distant locations. This generally occurs in the month of Tavaz on the 5th day. These festival competitions have been known to create intense, though rarely bitter, rivalries between the top Mhakez players.

Akleehak: While Rhanguhk is the day of resting and symbolizes the Ha’Vatu new year, Akleehak is a weekly tradition that all Ha’Vatu partake in. Many view it as a religious ceremony, though all Ha’Vatu will tell you that it is not, but it is a recognizing of the sheer spectacle of the Omniverse. Akleehak translates into First Rising. Akleehak is the beginning of the day, where all Ha’Vatu that are up and moving take a moment to face the rising direction of the sun, stand still with arms spread to their sides and breathing deep taking what the Ha’Vatu call yatvah (universal energy) and prepare themselves for the day.

Marriage

For Ha’Vatu’s marriage is something of a contractual obligation that takes place between to individuals, sometimes this contract is more than just that, it often is based on mutual respect, love and caring for a partner.

Ha’Vatu society has no influence on who can marry who viewing homogamy marriages or partnerships as valid and important as heterogamy marriages or partnerships. These relationships can be modified, via new contracts, if the couple feels that it needs adjustment, or can just as easily end the contract, either by having it written into the original contract or an addendum added.

It is, however, rare for Ha’Vatu relationships to end by contract, but more often because of the death of one of the partners, either by accidental death caused by work being done on a new concept; or by death while exploring and adventuring.

In the case of a partners death, most Ha’Vatu spend a year in mourning and focusing on their creations to help move past any trauma that the death may have caused.

Holy/Dates of Importance Because of a lack of believe in deities or lack of faith in deities, the Ha’Vatu culture does not necessarily celebrate holy dates. Though there are many dates of importance that are recognized by the Ha’Vatu calendar.

Beyond the four traditional dates of Behekor, Rhanguhk, Mhakez and Akleehak, there are numerous dates of importance that are only recognized within each of the various communities.

Recognized among the Chovah and Rhakas species as well, the end of the Great War of Chaos marks the “birth” of the Ha’Vatu species. This day is called kahledat and is celebrated on the 11th day of Magatos. It is celebrated with great feasts of favorite foods as well as groups of young Ha’Vatu dressed in demonic masks running about the communities throwing black beans others who yell back “sha’at khal ak efek arhvek”, translated into “Out with the demons and blessed with luck!”

Dress/Clothing

Ha’Vatu prefer simple, comfortable clothing that can with stand the various daily duties that they go through, including the occasional explosion or alchemical mixture spill. Most of the fabrics come natural sources such as cotton, wool and linens, these are then reinforced with leather made from cow, sheep or horse. These reinforcements range in thickness from thing and supple to thick and sturdy.

They tend to have a variety of colors ranging from deep blues and maroon reds to deep oranges and soft browns. They also wear an emblem of any associated house, their cabal and any other designations they may have. These are generally only worn when they are within their local khomoon. Those that explore and adventure do not necessarily wear these, as some feel it will bring a house, khomoon or cabal dishonor if their actions are less than “acceptable”.

Food

Ha’Vatu have a deep love for wines. They make and produce a great number of different types of wines. Their most potent is called Maroon Moon. A single cup of this deep red wine is strong enough to cause drunken state within a few minutes and as such this wine is sipped slowly through out a meal.

Having its origins from the Islands of Cuthia, the Ha’Vatu have a regional specialty that Ha’Vatu have a fondness for. Made from the flesh and skin of various types of fish, the khulura is cured with salt and various hot peppers. It is often served with a variety of vegetables and fried rice.

Among the variety of dishes that Ha’Vatu eat, and perfect, the khabkhu is a mixed dish of rice, meats, and a mixture of spices. It is served with a flat type of bread that is used to eat with. Its often served with a side of soft cheeses.

Religion and Spirituality

Within the Ha’Vatuian life, there is very little reliance on the gods. This is not to say that they do not believe in their deities nor ask for the occasional blessing, but they are of the firm belief that their fortunes, their futures and their lives do not rely on the whimsical nature of gods but rather in their own hands and minds. While the pantheon of Ha’Vatuian gods includes the underworld, life, war, death, dying and wisdom, Ha’vatu are not constrained to believing in the power of the gods. But they do venerate them much like the Ta’Jahu do, beings of great power (and technology).

Ha’Vatu do believe in the existence of a spirit, or energy, that transcends the mortal life and world. It is this energy that the Ha’vatu believe gives the species, indeed all species, their unique capacity to grow beyond any limitations.

The Gods

Most Ha’Vatu do not necessarily have a disbelieve in deities or deny that they exist, rather they have a lack of belief in that the deities are really nothing more than ascended intelligences of ancient powers. Most Ha’Vatu see other species deities as well as the more common named beings as a unifying force amongst those species, but they are not directly opposed against the belief in deities.

Death and Funerals

Overall, Ha’vatu funeral customs are relaxed and designed to accommodate the personal preferences of the shephak. In general, they can be characterized by simplicity and flexibility.

The customs are largely based on the species teachings regarding consciousness and the soul.

At the core of the of the Ha’Vatu spiritual thinking is the unity of all things. They tend to regard the various deities to be a representation of the ascended energy of great heroes or beings.

In terms of death, the Ha’Vatu spiritual thinking teaches that there is a separate consciousness or soul for every being. Upon death, this energy is relieved of its mortal bonds and enters the spiritual world, a timeless extension of the universe.

Ha’Vatu customarily do not believe in embalming process nor the cremation of the dead. The bodies of Ha’Vatu that have passed on is prepared by washing and wrapping in a white shroud. It is then wrapped with bindings that are inscribed with the inscription “I came forth from the Omniverse, and thus I return to it”. The body is then placed in a coffin for interment. Traditional practices require that the body is buried within one day’s travel time from the place of death. It is felt that this discourages others from becoming attached to any particular geographic site.

After Life

The concept of the afterlife is a strange concept for the Ha’Vatu. Unlike many other species that have a distinction between a celestial place of good and a infernal place of evil, the Ha’Vatu believe that the energy that is a soul does not necessarily travel to either place but makes a journey from the mortal world through the underworld to face the retribution of the Omniverse and face their mortal death, to move through an ascension to a higher plane of existence where the Ha’Vatu’s soul either ascends to become one with the Omniverse, join the Karzat of Ancestors or return to the mortal world to learn lessons that it did not during its last life.

Language

Ha’Vatu speak Jauzah. It is similar to that of Azhedhak but without the strong, chesty sounds, rather a more vocal-throaty sound. It, like Azhedhak, relies heavily on the use of consonants more than vowels. The structure of Jauzah is the verb first, followed by the adjective or adverb then the subject or noun.