The Hetwans are a species of extraterrestrial insect creatures.
Biology[]
The Hetwan are large, sentient insectoid aliens that seem to exist as a collective hive rather than as a group of individuals. Male Hetwan consist of two arms, a pair of wings, fly-like eyes, and three constantly moving claws near their mouths. The claws are used to grasp a tube that is then used to project the Hetwan's acidic saliva. They continue moving at a slower pace after death. Female Hetwan are flying translucent sacks of organs. They travel in packs, where, upon encountering male Hetwan, are savagely torn apart, thus birthing perhaps a dozen Hetwan on the waist of the male.
History[]
Little is known about the Hetwans' life before Everworld, but like all alien species (those not from human mythology), they were brought there from another world (not "our" world) by their particular deity, the dread-god Ka Anor. They then began to conquer everything they came across, while collecting gods for their deity to consume.
Ka Anor is the deity of the Hetwans whose goal is to devour all the gods in Everworld. He is also one of the main antagonist of the series. Its unknown when he appeared in Everworld, but he was one of many alien pantheons to invade the realm bringing with him his followers. He is known to have devoured Ganymede and the Daghda. It was believed that he also ate Thor, but really Thor was actually held captive by Hel through a deal with her father Loki.
Ka Anor began to work with the trickster god to gain access to Senna Wales, a witch who could act as a gateway between the Old World and Everworld. To acquire her, Ka Anor gave Loki a bit of his power to open a brief door to the Old World to snatch her. It's unknown as to why Ka Anor would want to acquire her, either to collect her to prevent the other gods from using her to escape Everworld or to use her to open a door to Earth so he many challenge the deities that remain there.
After Ka Anor's deal with Loki fail to bring him Senna, the god of the Hetwan proceeded to focus his attempts to conquer Everworld. One of his targets turned to conquering Nfilheim by tunneling his armies beneath the Earth so he could defeat the gods of the Underworld. Later after failing that he then focused on Mount Olympus and began a war against the Olympian gods. After soliciting the aid of the Coo-Hatch who have grown disilluisoned with their gods, he obtained gunpowder and cannons from them to wage war against Mount Olympus.
After the humans from the Old World of Earth aided the acrimonious Greek pantheon, Ka Anor schemes to try and put the gods against one another by offering to cease all hostilities against Mount Olympus in exchange for all but five gods. The plot nearly worked but after much warnings from their human allies Zeus finally realized he was being made a fool and rejected Ka Anor’s offer.
Culture[]
The Hetwan worship Ka Anor, the dread god of terror, and serve his will to devour all the gods in Everworld. Though aliens, the Hetwan have no high-tech weaponry. They do, however, wield devices similar to long straws (nicknamed "Super-Soakers" by the main characters), out of which they shoot a burning, venomous acid. The Hetwan themselves seem to feel no fear of death or anything. As repeatedly stated by them they exist merely to serve Ka Anor and are absolutely loyal to him.
The Hetwan live in a great city that resembles a giant needle sticking out of a pit (referred to by Chris as "Junkie Dreamland"), with an assortment of strange creatures from their home world.
The Hetwan kingdom in Everworld alternates between perfectly hemispherical hills and gullies, giving a scooped-out appearance. The alien trees make strange musical sounds. The Hetwan capital, where Ka Anor resides, is a massive tower (dubbed "Junkie Dream Mountain" for its needle-like appearance) in the middle of a lava and glass filled crater. The only transportation across this gulf is by means of the "Red Wings", giant insects that can carry passengers.
Interestingly unlike many of Everworld's inhabitants that are stuck in cultural and technological stasis imposed by their patron gods, it is not so with the Hetwans. Evidently the Hetwans allow many peoples and nationalities into their lands, which gives them access to purchase goods from abroad, acquiring news ideas in the form of books, marvels, and machines.
Religion[]
Ka Anor is depicted as a ravenous cannibalistic god by the other pantheons, but it seems, that at least through his proxies is willing to negotiate with his prey. Though this may only out of necessity to further sate his hunger and agendas. It should be noted that while Ka Anor is depicted as a ravenous beast, an eldritch horror, fear incarnate, it should be noted that accounts of his personality are biased as they are from the human perspective. Human logic thus should be discarded when trying to divine an entity of extraterrestrial origin.
Ka Anor being an alien god has different motivation unlike the other gods, who are focused on their vanities and worship. From his actions through his minions and plans speak of an being with an high intelligence. Unlike the other gods in Everworld that hold a lack of concern for their lives due to their immortality, Ka Anor appears to be more driven towards survival perhaps due to his hunger.
The god appears to be more subtly crafty than his terrestrial counterparts, and more focused on the bigger aspect of things, as evidence when he relayed a message through his emissaries to try and turn the Olympian gods against one another in order to disrupt their united front.
Not only that the fae of Fairy Land claim that Ka Anor fears or is at least wary of letting the Hetwan starve. In turn this may explain the devotion the Hetwan have for Ka Anor, sacrificing their lives for his desires and plans. Additionally while most gods tend to hinder human development technologically and socially in order to keep them dependent on them, Ka Anor does no such thing. Instead he freely allows new inventions and ideas into his realm, opening its border to traders from other realms and allows their ideas to be assimilated into his people's culture.
Ka Anor also appears to recognize restraint when necessary so as to not let his hunger blind him, as he previously allowed foreign gods to pass through his realm unmolested if they were not his primary targets, displaying an understanding of international diplomacy. Only choosing to revoke such diplomatic immunity when his realm was ready to conquer another god's territory.
Ka Anor is described as a mix of horrors, ever changing form: from a volcano in eruption, a Hetwan with a hundred eyes, etc. He's depicted as a god fear and terror. While he possesses the moniker of God Devourer, its curious as he appears to be a pantheon of one, and its unknown if there were other gods of the Hetwan. But its possible he devoured them all and the hunger for new gods to consume may have what brought him to Everworld in the first place.