| “ | You cannot stop slaughter by closing the door. | „ |
| ~ Tom Haan to David Laylow. |
| “ | Walking over to the pile of old bibles he picked one up and started to distractedly leaf through it. He started talking again, asking if I knew that one of the reasons the Romans persecuted early Christians was because they believed them to be cannibals. Most people, he told me, assumed it was due to the Romans being confused over the nature of the “body and blood of Christ” that the early Christians were consuming, but that Octavius of Minucius Felix listed all sorts of grotesque accusations, including initiation rites that involved the murdering of an infant and drinking its blood. | „ |
| ~ Craig Goodall describing Tom Haan. |
Haan Tao, also called Tom Haan, is a supporting antagonist of the Rusty Quill horror podcast The Magnus Archives.
He was the nephew of known cannibal John Haan and was inspired by his uncle's philosophy regarding the consumption of human meat. This led to him becoming a servant of the godlike entity known as the Flesh, becoming an embodiment of the devout anthropophagy, and working towards a ritual called the Great Feast, to bring his master into the world. After the failure of this ritual, he would ultimately lose power and gradually fade away until his death.
Appearance[]
Tom was a thin Eastern Asian with pale skin and black hair. He apparently spoke with a high-society British accent.
Personality[]
| “ | Tom Haan might be a bit more of a problem, as it looks like he also survived, but I’m hopeful he has been weakened enough by this failure to not be an issue in the near future. Hopefully, he’ll fade away or burn out as they tend to when robbed of their purpose. Still, I should keep a watch on him in case of any erratic behavior that might lead to complications. | „ |
| ~ Gertrude Robinson on Tom Haan. |
Tom Haan's philosophy on humans and meat was initially inspired by that of his uncle, who believed that the meat of a human and the meat of an animal were no different, making it hypocritical to eat one and not the other. Tom agreed, but took the concept further, believing that the only way to truly honor the soul was to eat the flesh. He showed contempt for religions that did not view meat this way and seemed to think that the worship of the Flesh was the only true way to full the natural cycle of consumption. To this end, he was fiercely loyal to his "god", to the point of seeing no point in existing once he had failed to serve it.
Tom Haan generally came across as unassuming and charming, although he generally did not try to hide his belief and showed little to no empathy to other human beings, enjoying having power over them. He was very well-educated and talkative, and described as a bit pretentious about his ideology. He had a vague dislike of the world and society as it was and wanted to change it.
Biography[]
Bringing About the Last Feast[]
Haan Tao was born in China and moved to England in late 2003 when he was a young man, changing his named to Tom Haan. There, he lived with his uncle John for several months, working at the man's takeaway. During this time, he saw his uncle murder his wife and dispose of her body by putting it in his food and feeding it to his customers. He was eventually caught and arrested, at which time Tom went off the radar.
Shortly afterwards, Tom became a devout worshipper of the Flesh, and began working towards the Last Feast, a ritual that would twist reality in such a way that would bring the Flesh into the world and allow it to twist it in its image. To this end, he began collecting massive amounts a partially alive meat and recruiting other worshippers of the Flesh to help him. He also reached out to Jared Hopworth, the Boneturner, asking him to help, which the man refused.
In 2008, Tom finished his preparations for the ritual and brought about the Last Feast. When the time came, he drove all his meat and his distorted meat-like creatures to a temple in Istanbul, which had a giant pit-like mouth in the floor. Tom and the creatures began feeding the mouth by throwing pieces of meat individually into the pit, and as his allies came, they joined him. At one point, the ritual was interrupted by a tourist Lucia Wright, who Tom forced to join in. Several days passed where they threw meat into the hole and occasionally threw in servitors of the Flesh who had collapsed from exhaustion. However, as the ritual reached its climax, it was interrupted by Gertrude Robinson, who had planted bombs all over the temple, and blew it up, ending the feast.
Fading Away and Burning Out[]
Purposeless now that his ritual had failed, Tom returned to his uncle's takeaway, now abandoned. There, he seemed to live for some time, seemingly mutilating and eating various people who trespassed. One of the trespassers was a man named Craig Goodall, who Tom cut on the Achilles Tendon with a pair of bolt cutters and tied up. When Craig awoke, Tom cut off three of his fingers, before explaining to him his ideology. However, as he spoke, Tom was attacked by a friend of Craig's named Leroy Yates, who threw him to the floor and released Craig. As they did this, Tom fled the takeaway.
Tom began working at a slaughterhouse owned by Aver Meats, where he stayed for three years. At one point, his co-worker, David Laylow requested a move off the killing floor, something Tom seemed to find pointless. Shortly thereafter, Tom discovered a way into a trance where he ended up in an infinite slaughterhouse, created the Spiral, to help him kill himself. Tom found the center of this infinite slaughterhouse, where he found a bolt gun, and began using it on himself for several hours, until he was covered in bloody wounds. At this point, Laylow entered the slaughterhouse's center, and saw Tom. Tom handed him the bolt gun, and Laylow bolted him one final time, killing him.
Trivia[]
- In the season 4 Q&A, Jonathan Sims, the shows head writer, explains that MAG 5's main Entity is intended to be The Flesh, as an early version of Tom Haan. It was based on notions of removal and transformation of body parts, surplus, and overproduction. Due to the early writing and production of this episode, several thematic elements of this Entity had not yet been fully nailed down.
- Jonathan Sims has apologized for the unintentionally racist portrayal of the Haan family as it leant into the cannibalistic stereotypes of Asian cultures.
External Links[]
- Tom Haan on the The Magnus Archives Wiki
