The Jungle Empire of Toahca

Cities

Oma’Zum

Oma’Zum could be more related to a military garrison more than a residential settlement, though the Toahcan do not share the standing military design that many other empires and kingdoms do. Rather, the Toahcan train all their people in some form of combat alongside their trades and other skilled jobs, and it is Oma’Zum where the bulk of this training takes place. This settlement serves as a barrier on the northern border to prevent unwanted or unsuspecting travellers and poachers from entering the jungles.

Acol’Zoc

Acol’Zoc is the most central city in the Toahcan Empire nestled alongside the Anotoahctlan River. Amidst the many small docks where shipwrights craft the boats that sail up and down the river, is an avian menagerie where varieties of birds are expertly trained for a multitude of tasks such as message delivery, hunting, and personal assistance.

Qyzi’Cotl

Qyzi’Cotl is the center trade hub of Toahcan Xithinthax. The city is built as a grand marketplace pavilion, one that could be boasted as an architectural marvel. The city outskirts are host to an innumerable amount of market stalls. Further in reside the more permanent production workers who live within the city, and at the city center is the residential area, with the absolute center of the city being home to the chieftain.

Myzit’Ica

Myzit’Ica is a wonderous cityscape built of stone that interweaves the natural pathways of the Anotoahctlan River and the functional workings of the city into a form of artwork. The flowing river moves the several water wheels underneath the stone causeways to give the people a constant source of running water within their homes and throughout the city. The architecture is built as a platform above the water, and so the river remains undisturbed while still providing a great resource for the city’s denizens.

Na’Qual

Na’Qual is the primary temple to the water god, Asqulor. The temple resides on the southern-most tip of Xithanthax in the Menetona marshlands. The temple itself was built in a lowland area with three floors above ground and two floors below. When the temple was completed, the builders then carved out artificial rivers that allowed the sea water to flow into and around the temple, causing the land to become an artificially made marsh. Since then the temple has sunk further into the ground with the lower three floors now flooded purposefully so that the temple of Asqulor would house its sacred element.

Milint’Iual

Built near the northern region of the jungle is the temple of Ardensor. Milint’Iual was built in the most elevated region of Xithanthax so that it would be closest to the sun. Rather than cutting down trees to make the grounds for the temple, the region was systematically scorched and the trees burned to ash. The ash subsequently became the base material of the concrete used to build the temple. The temple itself is built with a massive pyre in the center that is kept burning by the keepers.

Culture

The Toahcan people of Xithanthax, while mostly secluded in the jungles, have been known to trade primarily with their closest neighbors in Amon’Kas. Their settlements all reside along the Anatoahctlan River which they use to travel up and down the peninsula. The river is an essential part of life in the jungles, and so every city does not stray far. Most of the smaller villages also reside along the river, with few others leaning more towards the coastal area of the peninsula.
The empire is built upon a meritocracy wherein the majority of the city rulers are decided upon by their service to the empire as a whole. The empire itself is ruled by a theocratic oligarchy. There are three heads of state chosen by the temples of Ardensor and Asqulor. One who is chosen by the clergy of Ardensor, one who is chosen by the clergy of Asqulor, and the last chosen by the current ruling body.
The Toahcan people maintain a mostly self sufficient civilization, relying on all the abundant resources of the jungle. A great deal of their resource gathering, such as mining, logging, and fishing are all done via supernatural means using druidic or elemental powers. Aside from iron mines, the jungles have been known to also have several eternium deposits in the northern regions. Because of this, many of the tools and weapons used by the Toahcan people are made from an iron-eternium alloy. Despite living along the peninsula, they have no real sea based mercantile trade beyond smaller personal fishing vessels. They stick near the Anatoahctlan River and survive well off what it and their surrounding areas provide.

Holidays

Inec oa Tletl, “Birth of Flame”

Among the northern people and worshipers of Ardensor, the most holy time of the year is the month of July, when the days are longest and hottest. The people burn gifts and offerings all month in homage to their deity. Legends of the holiday have noted that it was started as a means of appeasement to their god, giving him enough that he would be sated for the length of winter. This soon also became a practice of burning old belongings as a sign of growth, giving away the old to their god to show that one was ready to move on for the next year.

Natiulatl, “The Long Storm”

In the southern regions, during the month of January, Asqulor is paid tribute with gifts of stored goods, artisan creations, and also the preserved remains of the dead. While the followers of Asqulor believe that they must be buried in water, it is treated as a great honor to specifically have one’s body given to the ocean during this month. Many of these offerings are performed as a way of sharing their knowledge and experience of the surface world with the Anterian Kingdom before death. There are many who treat this holiday as a time for new ventures, marking its passing as the time to begin a new experience that they may share with the sea and their god.

Political Relations

The Toahcan people deal primarily with the Jaxuarian and other beastkin of Amonta’Mazi and the Z’Hadeem of Amon’Kas. With Amon’Kas, they trade mostly in etherium and other precious stones and metals in exchange for more practical goods that the jungle cannot provide, such as glass. Previously, the trade between the two peoples were far more scarce, but after the Demon Wars, the empire chose to more strongly solidify their relationship with Amon’Zod. Since then, there has been a more clearly established trade route through the Mountains of Sid between the two.
Relations with Amonta’Mazi are as best as any nation could reasonably get with the secluded beastkin. The Amontan push away most who venture into their territory, but over time the Toahcan earned their trust enough to open trade between the Toahcan game hunters’ bulk of animals and the Amontan rarer medicinal and valuable herbs that can’t be found elsewhere in the jungles. Even still, the Amontan only trade with those who have passed certain trials and received a marking indicative of being one with the deep jungle’s denizens.

Notable Figures

Necalli Xintoeca

Necalli is one of the three current rulers of Toahca, chosen by the previous Ardensor appointee. He is a fearsome warrior hailing from Oma’Zum, who before his appointment, was one of the best combat trainers in the city. The elf is fiercely devout to Ardensor, which some say has manifested itself in the form of his ability to exude flames from his body and even breathe fire. Others have rumored that he is a descendant of a fire dragon, a gift only for the prodigal chosen of the Oracle Flame.

Omacatl Atal

Omacatl is one of the three current rulers of Toahca, chosen by the previous Asqulor appointee. They were previously clergy of the Milint’Iual temple, and when time came to divine who the replacement would be in the Empire’s council, they were shown. Their command over the elemental powers of water come from their many pacts with elemental spirits, which many claim to be the agents of Asqulor.

Teoxihuitl Xintoeca

Necalli’s twin sister, Teoxihuitl was chosen to be the third member of the ruling council by the predecessors. Spending much of her time in the city of Qyzi’Cotl, she worked diligently in studying and mastering the trade of architecture and was the proprietor of several innovations in the mechanics used within the city today. She designed a pulley and rope system that allowed the transport of goods from end to end of the city along the ceiling of the grand pavilion, which was ultimately the deciding factor in her appointment.

Mythology & Lore

Izui Tuacl

The Toahcan people firmly believe in the principle of the “Butterfly Effect”, and attribute its history to Izui Tuacl. Izui Tuacl is depicted as a four-winged creature, and deemed a bringer of change wherever it flies.
Legends have said that it was Izui Tuacl who created the events that gave way to the birth of Ardensor and Asqulor. In the early years of the Golden Age, a stone sat blocking the flow of the Anotoahctlan River and the people reliant on its resources began to die, while the land and trees withered. Izui Tuacl’s followers prayed to it, asking for aid, for they could not move this stone as much as they tried.
Izui Tuacl answered their prayers when it flew overhead, creating a powerful gust that shifted the stone. With that, a small stream of water flowed from the opening that was created. This stream eroded away at the ground and stone, growing larger and larger with each hour until the water pushed the stone completely out of the way. Down the river bed the stone rolled ahead of the rushing water, until it slammed against another larger boulder, cracking in half with a spark.
Half the stone fell into the waters while the other half fell into a ditch where fallen trees and brush had laid. The sparks fell with both halves of the stone into the water and brush. The brush ignited, heating up the stone half, while the water submerged the other.
The fires burned around the stone and the waters soaked into the other, and from the two emerged the gods Ardensor and Asqulor, given life by the the act of Izui Tuacl and the essential life-sustaining nature of the Anotoahclan River.

Demonym

Toahcan

Government System

Meritocracy

Economic System

Barter system

Official State Religion

Ometeme