Eztiali

The secret heart of Tlatoani Eztiali, the Land of Blood, does not lie in its lush port cities with their rich merchants-spies, maneuvering priests, and seamy underbelly. Nor does it lie with the hundred thousand villages that pay tribute to its Flayed Ones. And it especially does not lie in the teeming rebel city of defiant immigrants holding off the combined might of the Eztiali by sheer grit. No. The heart of the empire lies in ruins beneath the blasted desert. Amid scorching sky and barren land, lies an immense obsidian circle, fully 1000 feet thick at its center, a mute testament to the power that destroyed the last world, readying it for its current inhabitants. Eztiali scholar-priests say that the seven Chained Gods lie deep beneath the obsidian circle, that they emanate the magic that all the Eztial use. Maybe it’s true. It doesn’t really matter to you though. No human can dig deep enough to find out. The best you can hope for is to scavenge at its edges, hoping to find a new fissure cradling an ancient artifact. Or so they say.