Heyra the Horned (Revived)
Unofficial revival of Bando's Heyra the Horned for RimWorld 1.6. All original art, lore, and content belong to Bando. This is a ground-up code rewrite with bug fixes, new features, and full 1.6 compatibility.
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Race
Heyras settled in the Rimworld a long time ago. They possess a unique psychic ability to occasionally hear whispers in their heads. Despite these whispers being mostly scattered words, Heyras believe they are the oracles of God. We do not know if these whispers are real, but it is confirmed that Heyras have a higher psychic sensitivity. Other than that, stats for Heyra are similar to human.
Heyran factions are medieval level. However, with the help of your colony's technology, you may craft spacer-level Heyran gear for your colonists.
This mod also features the Rong — the nemesis of the Heyra. A small group of fierce barbarians who make a living through constant raids. The Rong are technologically advanced and can build War-Automata to make up for their disadvantage in numbers.
Ancestral Recall — Transformation
Heyras can transform into their beast form — armed with razor-sharp claws, protected by hardened scales, and swiftened by the Blessing of Air. A transformed Heyra can take on several enemies single-handedly.
This state expires and causes extreme exhaustion afterward. All gear is stashed during transformation and restored when reverting. Post-transform fatigue recovers over weeks. Transforming again during fatigue stacks it further — at extreme or near-lethal severity, transformation is fatal.
No Heyras are born with this power. You'll need a Seed of Awakening, crafted at the Heyran Altar.
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What's New in the 1.6 Revival
Complete code rewrite for RimWorld 1.6 — not a patch or quick fix. The original C# has been rebuilt from scratch with dozens of bug fixes and improvements.
MoHAR Dependency Removed
The biggest barrier to updating this mod was MoHAR (More HAR), unmaintained for 1.6. This revival removes it entirely. All MoHAR functionality — animated motes, effecter VFX (flamehair, spark ring, slash trails), and hediff-linked visuals — has been replaced with custom C#. No more waiting on a dead dependency.
Transformation — Now a Proper Toggle
Change Form now works as a true toggle. Activate to transform; activate again to revert early. On revert, apparel and weapons are automatically restored. Post-transform fatigue stacks with each use — two rapid transforms can push fatigue to lethal severity.
Beast Form Combat — Updated for 1.6
Dragon Breath beam, Electric Field turret aura, and Khanzio Sword slash trail have been refactored to VEF's 1.6 weapon framework. Same abilities, same behavior, updated internals.
Biohorn Visuals — Preserved via AncotLibrary
Miracle Seed horn upgrades produced visible texture changes in 1.4. To preserve this in 1.6, the visual swap system has been reimplemented using AncotLibrary's render node framework. Each biohorn tier has its own texture, reflected on your pawn immediately after surgery.
Custom Naming Systems
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[*] [b]Heyra pawns[/b]: Chinese-style names (e.g., "Lin Meiling", "Bai Yunxi")
[*] [b]Rong pawns[/b]: Mongol/Turkic steppe warrior names (e.g., "Altani Temur", "Khatun Baatar")
[*] [b]Settlements[/b]: Thematic combinatorial names — nature-themed for Heyra ("Jade Pavilion"), dark/harsh for Rong ("Iron Pit", "Khar Gol")
[*] [b]Factions[/b]: Hundreds of unique combinations per faction type
[*] [b]Ideology[/b] (DLC): Custom ideology names, festival names, and leader titles for both cultures
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Xenotype & Gene Integration — New
The original mod predated Biotech's gene system. This revival adds full xenotype definitions:
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[*] [b]Teller-Blessed[/b] (Heyra): Natural grace, exotic beauty, flame-touched, strong Plants aptitude, prehensile tail, and more
[*] [b]Severed[/b] (Rong): Feral reflexes, primal ferocity, umbral adaptation (negates darkness penalties), and more
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Faction-spawned pawns now arrive with their correct xenotype.
Text & Lore Polish
Over 70 fixes across backstories, apparel, weapons, quests, and item descriptions. Typos, grammar, gendered language for an all-female race, duplicate labels, and placeholder flavor text all addressed.
Three New Scenarios
Original 1.4 scenarios crashed under 1.6. Replaced with three new ones:
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[*] [b]New Horizons[/b]: Standard Crashlanded-equivalent — 3 colonists, balanced supplies
[*] [b]The Blade Unsheathed[/b]: Two elite Forbidden Army veterans, excellent gear, recruitment critical
[*] [b]The Long March[/b]: Six colonists, scarce resources, tribal-level survival
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Additional Fixes
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[*] Lightweight headwear now shows hair instead of making pawns bald
[*] Heyra and Rong now have a targetable tail in the health tab
[*] Automated machines rebuilt without FuelPoweredSpawner dependency; now include fuel sliders
[*] English quest dialogue cleaned up; Chinese localization preserved
[*] Certain Heyran apparel now provides toxic and vacuum resistance (Anomaly/Odyssey compatibility)
[*] Melee Animation (Epicguru) weapon tweak data for all 11 melee weapons
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Dependencies
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[*] [url=https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2009463077]Harmony[/url]
[*] [url=https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=839005762]Humanoid Alien Races[/url]
[*] [url=https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2023507013]Vanilla Expanded Framework[/url]
[*] [url=https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2988801276]Ancot Library[/url]
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Compatibility
[b]Combat Extended[/b]: Not currently supported. A CE patch may be created later.
[b]Melee Animation[/b] (Epicguru): Fully supported. Khanzio Sword intentionally excluded — it's a scabbard; the VFX slashes imply the blade is drawn too fast to see.
[b]Saved games[/b]: New package ID — NOT a drop-in replacement for Bando's 1.4 mod. Start a fresh colony. If adding mid-game, RimWorld should prompt to add factions automatically.
[b]MoHAR / FuelPoweredSpawner[/b]: No longer required. Both replaced with built-in systems.
FAQ
[b]Quest site layouts?[/b] Yes, lab and palace quests work. They use vanilla map generation rather than the original KCSG layouts.
[b]Pawns are huge/tiny?[/b] Known HAR issue. Enable "Disable texture caching" in VEF mod options.
[b]Biohorn upgrades?[/b] Craft Miracle Seeds at the Heyran Altar, apply via surgery.
[b]Royal title clothing?[/b] Yes, Heyran apparel satisfies requirements.
[b]Can't find Rong settlements?[/b] They're hidden factions, like mechanoids or ancients.
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Bug Reports Welcome
This is my first big RimWorld mod. I've tested thoroughly, but with a mod this size some things are bound to be broken. If you run into issues, please leave a report — include your mod list and log file if possible. I appreciate every report.
Credits
[b]Original mod by Bando[/b] — all art, lore, race design, factions, equipment, and original code.
[url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2689852146]Original mod page[/url]
[b]1.6 Revival by Foxed[/b] — complete C# rewrite, 1.6 migration, bug fixes, and all new features above.
[b]Framework teams[/b] — Oskar Potocki & the Vanilla Expanded team, erdelf (HAR), and Ancot (AncotLibrary). This revival stands on their work.
[b]Community support[/b] — [url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2692925855]Japanese translation by Lucifel[/url] [url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2923708274]Facial Animation patch by 塔洛斯_Talos[/url]. [url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3686763186]Chinese translation by Momaomao[/url]
