my good comrade blingley released this album. the first track is called "INTRO NOISE" and that should be enough to get you to put the whole thing into your body but if that's not i invite you to listen to the second track and just try to resist being transported to a club scene in an n64 game made in funk hell
(also i remixed one of his tracks using a tool i found that algorithmically generates lyrics and he remixed a track of mine from my 2013 album "Let" and those are both neat)
Average Height: 5'11"-6'9" standing upright, 4'10"-5'8" hunched over as normal
Weight: Varies greatly depending on Subspecies
Common Traits:
Frequently muscular with hard, leathery skin
Wear lavish silks spun from Spinneschaf pelts, durable enough to function as armour
Average human speed for land-based movement, but their huge wings enable them to fly swiftly
Most live in a multitude of clans under rule of might
Live on a number of islands, with a love of raiding foul heretics and punishing them for their sins
Physiology
The Hai are large, land and air-dwelling creatures who possess semi-humanoid forms, but with a number of key differences. They stand from 5'11" to 6'9" in most cases, with great variance, though most appear shorter due to the common nature for being hunched over. Their weights vary greatly depending on role, and general size - larger Hai can weigh dramatically more than one hardly shorter than it, depending on wingspan. They possess two large bat-like wings, folding under their long arms, leathery and attached to their fifth fingers. They have long tails that act as rudders in the air to help them guide their paths, with a fin on the top and bottom much like a shark would have. A shark-like head with almost a missile-like shape crown the tops of their torsos, holding two large black eyes, an extremely potent nose, able to detect the scent of blood and it's source from almost a mile away, and a mouth full of sharp, pointed teeth, designed for usage in combat and eating their primary meals - meat and sometimes bone. Atop of their heads is a solitary fin, long and exceptionally tough compared to their other fins, with a ridge of cartilage along the front - a primary component in social interactions.
Culture
Hai Culture is bizarre to most, a mix of old traditions and ones brought in by their upbringing under the Vierfrass. They live in clans totaling between fifty to four hundred, under the rule of might makes right - the strongest and most respected Hai is the leader. They live in large tents made from bones, stone, or wood, and covered in the silk and leather of Spinneschaf, silk wool covered creatures with eight legs and eight eyes, largely docile and generally sheered or skinned for the valuable properties of both. Their silk is exceptionally hard and their leather is very good at insulation, leading to the common use of both materials in buildings. They have large, independent markets which are always a neutral ground between clans, and the most common place that they hold discussions both diplomatic and religious.
Common clothing for Hai is silk garments, trousers or skirts for either sex, and shawl-like garments for tops, with no shoes for their clawed feet and tight, silken gloves with leather gripping pads. Also common in three applications is their top fin, known as the neckfin. It is often wrapped partially in silk of various colours and patterns, often in striking contrast to the rest of their garb, and the front bit of cartilage is pierced to hold religious symbols that wrap down and around their necks like amulets, or ones that curve down their backs and arms to rings on their fingers. The back, also cartilege, is used most specifically for status - the more incisions given to their neckfin, the more notable they are. However, this goes to a point - a lack of neckfin is a symbol of only one thing.
Exile.
The Hai eat large meals, typically entire beasts, though only have two - one at morning's rise, and one when Gelieb finally moves under the horizon. Gelieb, of course, being the name they use for the sun - they are Zentruists, after all. They will eat anything and everything with meat on its bone, though humans are nowhere near as much a treat as a succulent Orc or, on a successful hunt, a proper dragon. Some view their eating practices with disgust, but they only eat those that are already dead - eating a thing while it's still breathing is considered disrespectful.
Stabbing it multiple times and then eating the newly-formed corpse, however, is a different story.
They are, despite their tribal nature, and general isolation, by no means a poor race. With their enlightenment from the Wollekin, they found themselves a fantastic trade partner, and the finely detailed and made silks they produce make a positive killing in markets, though whether they sell their quality garments is something a Hai would never truthfully tell you.
Their clan structure is simple, and is lead by might and status, not by blood. There is a High Chief or High Chieftess leading each clan, with their Shamans and individual Chiefs and Chieftesses underneath them, forming groups of anywhere from fifty to over five hundred under a single Chief. Naturally, this means clans can in theory become enormous, but it is rare any one High Chief can unite more than even two clans.
Regardless, the large, multi-leveled tent-like towns are a sight to behold, with a constant hustle and bustle amongst all inside, with typically a large barracks, training the numerous Hai to fight, hunt, raid, pillage, and, most importantly to them, crusade. A Hai who cannot raise at least a quarter of it's populace for war, raids, or hunting is frequently regarded with scorn, or at the very least with a hearty scoff.
The neutral grounds between clans are five large holy cities based around their largest temples, which exist only as a place for clans that may otherwise be at each others throats to meet, trade, and conduct diplomacy - more benign aspects of the frequently warlike Hai. But the concept of spilling blood on their holy sites sickens the Hai considerably, and as such, not only do such cities remain independent for the purposes of non-bias, but generally are one of the few places where crime and violence between Hai is rare.
One interesting tidbit about Hai culture is their insistence on not fixing things past their creation. Even their writing is designed to be naturally difficult to fix if you make a mistake. Mistakes themselves are seen as learning experience, and most Hai do not understand the point of changing something past its creation. If it is done, it is done, and you can only move on and take the lessons you've learned. A mistake is not something to be ashamed of, just something to take in mind for your next endeavour.
Religion
Similar to the Wollekin, the Hai are Zentruists - taught by them, and shown the ways of Zentruism as needed. There is one major, crucial difference between Hai and Wollekin religious practices. Whereas the Wollekin are more passive about it, the Hai most certainly are not. To call a majority of them zealots would be an understatement, and most find any and everyone who defies their religion to be an outright insult to them and all they hold dear.
Zentruism is a sort of animism, worshiping all the spirits of the world, most prominently them Bodenkern - the spirit of the world below, and Gelieb, Bodenkern's lover and the spirit of the sun. The religion originates from Wollekin beliefs, and was introduced to the Hai in the period when they became enlightened, and went from tiny, uneducated, warring clans to the power they are today. Not much difference with clan wars, however.
Either way, the common practices of the land are generally offensive, most of all the lack of contempt for the Seibenbilderstürmer, their own title for the seven major dragons. They feel that the concept of anyone who does not themselves worship Bodenkern claiming to meet them is heresy, and needless to say, most Hai do not like dragons. Also found in poor taste by the Hai are those who would use magic without worshiping Gelieb - it is of Hai belief that physical form was made by Bodenkern, and that spirit and soul were made by Gelieb, so to use magic without worshiping either is taking claim to owning magic oneself.
Again, severe heresy.
A raid on a ship, city, town, or a caravan of non-Zentruists is seen as justified, and in a similar vein, as are threats to destroy whatever they wish to, so long as the target is not a Zentruist. For heresy is to be destroyed and discouraged, and nothing is considered unjust if it is a step towards their religious salvation.
Those who do not follow Zentruism, or at least don't follow it as passionately, generally join one of three major trade houses (though more, smaller trade houses exist) - Pratinbrick, the largest, most general in terms of goods, and most traditional of the three, Messingrüstung, the prime exporter and importer of weaponry, and Wismuþander, the most commonly found trade house in external areas, with barely any actual land located in Hai territories.
Technology
The Hai, although not terrifically advanced, possess an interesting spectrum of technology. They possess nothing traditionally advanced - they fight with falchions of steel and bone, and harpoons shot from air-guns that fire a special bolt, poisoned to prevent blood clots and with a tube down the center, spraying out a fine red mist after it hits a critical vein or artery.
Perfect for their noses to smell out.
The main notable innovation of the Hai is their clothing - and armour, for that matter. All is designed from a silk-like material, excreted in a fur of sorts by one of their common livestock, the Spinneschaf - a weird, multi-eyed, eight-legged creature covered in a fibrous pelt. Stronger than steel, the garments made expertly from it can take a musket bullet like no other fabric does, though the silk does not resist blades alone - thick sheets, however, make for excellent and light armour, perfect for flying creatures such as the Hai.
They use intricate designs, multitudes of colours, and many layers covering their entire bodies, leaving a squad of flying Hai, with their military scares - twin tails of cloth flying behind them - seeming like a cornucopia of colours, with the only truly uniform hues being the bone white and steel grey of their blades, ready to rend any foe asunder.
Most Hai technology, however, is far more primitive, generally designed for simple purposes from simple times. They have no need of improving their tools, and as such, do not bother. Most of the time.
Note: I probably will add more later for the sake of completedness
Comrade Viktor Disque from The Hai asked me to sing over this awesome track of his, and I did, and he nailed the production. Asked for something drunk and anxious. I wrote a song about two terrified losers who want to murder someone popular at a party but don't have the guts to go through with it.
