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The Miagani, otherwise known as the "Bat People" and previously known as the "Deer People," are a tribe of early humans who based their lifestyle around bats, supposedly as a result of feats by a man of bats, and eventually had descendants that gave birth to that very man.

History

17000-16000 Before Common Era

The "man of bats," emerging from a cave that had once been home to the Old Man, assisted the tribe in evading destruction at the hands of Vandar Adg's Blood Tribe while wearing a cape formed from the corpse of a giant bat, and utilizing unknown projectile weaponry. In his honor, the former "Deer People," led by Hath-Set, renamed themselves the "Bat People" after Adg was excommunicated from his own tribe due to a bad omen (a solar eclipse) on the day of his fight with the man of bats.[1][2]

Over time, the Miagani carried bat-relics across the Siberian bridge into Europe, including the cape worn by the man of bats (the Batsuit) before he had exited the cave.[3]

17th Century

By this point in time, the Miagani had developed many weapons, sophisticated for the time, with black bat insignias on them, such as darts with fletching in the shape of black bat wings. They had also taken to unique cultural practices, like sleeping upside down by hanging from ceilings of their cave, much like bats themselves. They also had taken up the cave that the "man of bats" (Batman) had come out of as their home.

Captured by Blackbeard and mistaken for the "Black Pirate", the "man of bats" emerged from the time stream into the 17th century, where Blackbeard was planning on stealing the fabled "treasure of the Miagani." Just as the Black Pirate defeated Blackbeard in combat, Blackbeard's allies planned on killing Jack Valor, one of their crew. However, within seconds of the challenge, two of the pirates were dead by Miagani darts. This left only Blackbeard and his closest ally, Hands. Both of them had made the original threat. The remaining Miagani people recognized the man of bats. They led him into the most sacred part of their cave, guarded by the deity "the Lord of Night and the Dark Sun", who they believed to guard them against the future event they called the "All-Over". At the back of the cave was the cape of the Lord of Night, originally worn by the man of bats when he was initially thrust back in time and made a holistic object by the Miagani people. As a result, he was given back some of his own memories, due to regaining the cape. When he left the cave, he gave his blessing to Jack Valor to take on the identity of the true Black Pirate.[3]

19th Century

By the time of Jonah Hex, the Miagani were infamous as being capable of "turning the sky upside down", and were the owners of the box containing something allegedly capable of ending the world, given to them by Jack Valor at the behest of Batman. Catherine Van Derm, wife of Alan Wayne, was a descendant of the tribe, believed to be one of the only people capable of opening the box, as she knew the whistled code of the Miagani that functioned as a key.[4]

On Prime Earth, some members of the tribe remained active at this point, and were still in their cave, the Van Derms having branched off from them. These people, however, were considered an extinct tribe by Dr. Amadeus Arkham. Even so, they used the same weaponry of old, and they still proved dangerous to Dr. Amadeus Arkham and Jonah Hex. Though initially defnsive,[5] when the explorers killed a giant bat and showed them its severed head, they accepted the two. In exchange for the defeat of the mutant bat, they directed Arkham and Hex to the specific crevice leading out of the cave.[6]

20th Century

The Miagani tribe itself did not survive to the 20th century, destroyed in the making of the modern Gotham City on the gravesite of Doctor Gotham possibly by Blackfire[7]. Still, their cave remained, along with their holistic object, the Batsuit that Batman had worn when he shot Darkseid.[3] All that remained was their descendants, Batman, and his family.

Paraphernalia

Equipment:

  • Various traps, including electrical ones, hidden in their cave.


Weapons:

  • Various bat-marked weapons.

Trivia

  • In Batman: Arkham Knight, one district of Gotham City is named Miagani Island, which, according to the Riddler, was named for this tribe.
  • The Riddler adds that the Miagani had a Bat deity, implicating this god was probably Batman, or possibly Barbatos.

See Also

Links and References

Footnotes


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