Mayakai The Mayakai people lived in Polynesia before European colonization . Culture . The Mayakai believed themselves to be the chosen people of the " Moak " , meaning " god " or " giant " ( albeit giants of spectral rather than physical nature ) . They were said to be able to " step out of time " with the same skill as the Doctor . ( PROSE : " The Adventuress of Henrietta Street " ) The Moak also taught them to " read " the bones of any animal . As a result , the Mayakai viewed all animals as weapons and were obsessed with animal biology . Simply by pointing bones at enemies and performing small rituals , they could cause cardiac , nervous , and muscular system reactions in targets . The six male chiefs of the Mayakai council of war wielded ornate and fearsome bone - staves . In late 1769 , one of the few Europeans to ever encounter a Mayakai war party suffered from apparently inexplicable and severe brain damage . ( COMIC : " Political Animals " ) The Mayakai felt they had a special relationship with time , and their language abounded in words describing the shape , size , and direction of time . As a result , their culture let them see the world like tantrist s , but without muscular techniques or rituals . ( PROSE : " The Adventuress of Henrietta Street " ) Mother Francesca of Faction Paradox believed the culture had been designed as a weapon during the War . ( COMIC : " Political Animals " ) Mayakai tradition held that men were less able than women to perform rituals . Woman were only initiated after having sex , and they shaved off all hear from their scalp except for a small patch , which they let grow indefinitely , letting the strands fall loosely over their faces . ( PROSE : " The Adventuress of Henrietta Street " ) Fall . In 1773 , less than a decade after the first European contact with the Mayakai , a South American survey of their native island found " a blasted and appalling land . . . bodies lie wasted on the shore , and no man has reason to give them decent burial . " Many believed that it was European disease which had decimated the population , as with so many Polynesian peoples . While the few survivors did mention a European disease ( which they inaccurately called " pox " ) , they had a different reason for the destruction , saying that it had to do with a generations - long war the Moak had suffered . Their opponent , the ( untranslatable ) Na Koporaya , had smote many of the gods , so the greatest Moak passed onto the Mayakai the duty of guarding the ancient wisdom , ready for the day when they would return to the world to reclaim what had been lost in the battle . ( PROSE : " The Adventuress of Henrietta Street " ) Survivors . An American naturalist named Fischer captured a Mayakai warrior they called " Mayakatula " and brought her to England as a diplomatic gift for King George III in 1774 . ( COMIC : " Political Animals " ) She escaped her bonds and went on a killing spree , but she didn ' t kill Isobel when she had the chance . Instead , she trained her in Mayakai ritual . ( COMIC : " Bêtes Noires & Dark Horses " ) By 1776 , Mayakai survivors were taking refuge in Europe and the Americas . In this year , Sabbath first met Tula Lui , then a ten - year - old girl , who was younger than seven when she escaped into the Western world . By 1780 , he took her in as his apprentice . The oldest known surviving member of the ' pureblood ' Mayakai line was an old woman who lived in St . James ' . Her joints had become paralysed and her breathing was stifled by a growth on her lungs . She rarely spoke , and when she did it was in a croaking , snapping Polynesian language . In 1783 , she blessed Scarlette upon her marriage to the Doctor ; Scarlette saw her among the ruins of the Mayakai homeland in a vision of the Kingdom of Beasts . ( PROSE : " The Adventuress of Henrietta Street " ) Tuluku Venn was a descendant of the Mayakai . His ancestors came to Britain in the eighteenth century wearing bones in their ears . Tuluku married Fiora James and taught her how to read everyone ' s invisible spirit - guide , telling her , " We ' re all half - man and half - beast . " He died in 1891 . ( AUDIO : " Movers " , " A Labyrinth of Histories " ) By the middle of the nineteenth century , the genetic survivors of the Mayakai people had interbred and assimilated to the point of being unidentifiable . ( PROSE : " The Adventuress of Henrietta Street " )