The Maztl Kingdoms
Structure
The Great Sun King is the great lord of all the city states, and is considered chosen by the cycle itself to lead. Their word is law and absolute. Under them are the Ahaw, lesser kings in charge of the individual city states, in which their are six great city states. Ruling alongside them are the priests who choose new members in a festival amongst the schools and help the kings lead the city in the way the many gods of sky and land intended, and of course handle sacrifical rites and the entombing of the dead. Under them of course are the various noble houses, merchant famalies, and workers and such.
Culture
The land of the Maztl was at first thought to be nothing but scatterted tribes of barbarians according to the foolish Frontier Princes. What they found was instead an incredibly welathy and advanced civilization, with their buildings and armor said be the most beautifully colorful works they have seen. They wield strange lightning and sun powers, and are said to have many terrifying and strange constructs that they can create. While such a nation could represent a world power, the Maztl are insular people, though do still war with outsiders in grand crusades to get sacrifices for the altars, and glory in battle. However, in recent years more and more travelers and traders of the Maztl have wandered around the wider world, giving glimpses into their life back home. While travel is not restricted to the mainland, it is dangerous due to its location, however travel by river ways is the safest (if more expensive) method to get in.
To live in the land is to know that the gods live and watch you, for though they do not always reside in the constructs, they can use them as a means to interact with their people. This, coupled with the knowledge from these gods, has led to the Maztl being one of the more advanced nations in the land, being able to make constructs for various work duties and for combat. Constructs, unlike dwarves seeing them as useful tools, are divine constructs, where the lesser constructs have the gods bestow but the smallest, tiniest fragment of their being into them to give them life of their own. Some rumors abound that some of the honored dead amongst their people have their spirts sent into the constructs as entombed warriors, but these rumors are unproven as of yet.
Regardless, everyday life is a matter of faith and of doing ones duty. While every citizen is given some amount of martial training, most do not pursue soldiering as a full time career, and continue being farmers or river traders for the majority of the time. While combat is not the only means of advancing ones place in society, it is definetly the most bold and respected means of doing so. Most of the nobility are soldiers who have proven themselves, or the children of great soldiers who can continue the tradition. Of course, soldiers are still expected to be well educated and presentable, with the Maztl Kingdoms having a system of mandatory education where schools teach the young in all skills they will need later in life. If one proves profienct in specific fields like religon or astrology, they can be called to serve in orders dedicated to those fields.
Community and family are close to the heart of any Maztl citizen, and its common for people wandering far from the jungle homes to bring a trinket of their home to help them with their homesickness. Such family ties can lead to both eternal friendships said to last through several cycles, and feuds that end in horrific woe. Many such plays exist of tragic famalies being torn apart by ancient feuds and young lovers being seperated by family squabbles. In the end however, the Maztl people seek to make the world a better place as they see it, for they are the true keepers of the cycle that outsiders fail to understand. They fight the demons that jealously cling to their bodies from past cycles and invade the present, and the greedy who seek to simply defile and ruin their homes for coins of gold. So they seek to do right by their ancestors and their peers, and enjoy the fruits of their fertile fields and beautiful streets of art and color.
One of the most striking cultural notes of the Maztl is their diversity and their style of clothing. Their clothing regurarly incorperates feathers and other motifs of varrious animals, being both seen as pretty and can also embue attributes of various animals into the wearers. Fierce animals are commonly worn by warriors, while other animals are used for wisdom and good judgment, even rabbits are seen as a sign of fertility and so clothing incorperating rabbit fur is used when courting for love in the hopes of enhancing ones "vigor". Regardless, the style of dress the Maztl wear is both easily identifiable, and strikingly beautiful. The higher ones status, the more extravegant the clothing can be. Clothing aside, the Maztl are incredibly diverse, being many diffrent tribes now united under a great empire of kingdoms. For example. the Actam people occupy a curious place in Maztl society, being considered those who serve the empire as scholars and shamans. They are animistic like shamans, who though are expected to serve their betters are curiously also respected and regurarly trusted to give good advice to nobles and leaders, not too disimlar to council members or court wizards. Another such group is the yamantlaca, one of the frontier towns that have become famous for raising llamas and even using them as war mounts, with these llamas being as strong as horses. These are but one of the many peoples that inhabit the kingdom, as some of the frontier tribes bring with them their own customs and belifs that are largely allowed to exist, so long as they embrace the main gods of the Maztl pantheon.
History
Legends tell of legends lost to the infinite blackness of time. Of times before time had name and life had light. Near the land known commonly as the Frontier Princes, lies a land shrouded in endless seas of forests and shades, and in this land lies the beautiful cities of the Maztl, If the stories are to be believed, they are almost as ancient as the Shezarkai themselves, wherever those long dead people may be. Their origins are shrouded in mystery, though they have tales of their own where they may have came from. THey believe that the world has been here in cycles, signaled by the collapsing of the sun, only to be reborn again and allow new life to seed the world in cycles. The fall of the Ishtar Empire is seen as the end of the fourth cycle, and so the fifth cycle is where the Maztl begin their new lives.
Mortals would migrate from the Ruins of Ishtar to the wider lands of Nilush, though some would travel northwest and find old dilapedated buildings of stone and vines. These temples housed giant statues in them with carved bodies both terrifying and awe-striking and with the feathers of many birds who made them their nests. The early Maztl were not a united people, and due to this the tribes would seperate amongst the temples and build up and around them. Soon the temples were restored, and the people worshiped the great statues in each temple. Such as the warrior like Mautla kingdoms, the wise shamans of the Actam peoples, the reclusive river trades people of the Koichti, the bands of tall golaith like people in mountains known as the Kuatla, the serpant like people of the Kichtin, monkey like humanoids known as the Osomti, and finally the bone wearing peoples of the Ichomli. The tribes warred with each other quite regurarly, however in the end the Mautla would conquer the other tribes, with the Actam being last to fall. When upon the final battle near a great river, it is said the sun god Apuinti told the warrior chief that he would grant him victory only if he showed restraint with the fate of the Actam and obeyed his word. This warrior chief defied the god, calling him fake, and taunted and insulted him that his only power was rotting statues in old temples. What happened next can only be described as a nightmare given form.
The statues were not statues at all, but constructs long without any means to power them. Yet, the gods revealed themselves as they breathed but a small portion of themselves into the many constructs to inhabit them, and they did emerge from the temples and bring about fire and doom to those warriors under the warrior chief that stood with him in defiance of the god. In a horrifying display, the warrior chief was slain, his skin peeled off and flayed from his screaming body, and his heart ripped out for all to see. Seeing this as a sign, the second greatest warrior in the Mautla fell to his knees and pleaded for the Sun to calm, to grant mercy. Amazingly, Apuinti was merciful and so did he and the gods calm, as the new chief (a man named Nochtli) would unite the tribes and city states at last under the name of the Maztl Kingdoms, becoming the first Great Sun King. The God Machines would return to their temples, but impart wisdom and learning upon the now united tribes people. With their combined knowledge. they would begin to create wonders quickly. The river folk showed how to drain and fill river ways, creating cities surronded by beautiful rivers, and the shamans and other tribes would impart their wisdom together as well. Thus the city states became massive, beautiful works of art and advanced in the ways of science and other such studies.
However the Maztl never forgot their roots as warrior like peoples, and with the land united there was less death and sacrifice, which meant the cycle was imperiled. While the forest held demons from the previous cycles, wandering outside the forests amongst the river ways and trees led to the Maztl discovering their neighbors, the first being the many Frontier Princes. They would raid in campaigns to attempt to expand their empire and get more sacrifices to preserve the cycle. However the unstable nature of the Frontier Princes, along with how utterly infested with monsters it is, led to little territorial gain but plenty of sacrifices. This eventuaully led to after a period of quiet amongst the Maztl, the Frontier Princes, sponsored by Diosian merchant prince, would launch an invasion, not realizing the Maztl were as numerous and powerful as they actually were. Though they did make off with many riches, as the discovery of how big the kingdoms were led to more mercenaries being drawn in, eventually in the end the Maztl repelled the many invaders. While a bloodyperiod, this did led to the other nations coming to discover the Maztl Kingdoms, with one famous account being a wandering band of Vestoni Knights who passed by the lands and, proving themselves to be honorable warriors, were allowed to return home with some trinkets and gifts to give to their king. Since then, the Maztl have been a warry, isolationist people, but still allow merchants and adventuers to wander into the lands via the riverways. However the kingdom has its own problems to attend to, as demons and other monsters appear more and more, and some of the tribes on the outskirts of their lands whisper rebellion. To make things more taxing for the kingdom, many foriegn powers seek to entrety and bargin with them in exchange for their rare minerals and vast wealth, with some deals being more deceptive than others. It is a time not too disimilar to an end of a cycle, but perhaps through sacrifice, blood, and faith can the cycle continue for longer. under the feathered banners of the many gods.
Demography and Population
Many of the species one can imagine can be found here, as well as many other more curious folks. Some small examples being the monkey-like humanoids, the snake like folk that are strikingly similar to the Yuan-Ti. and dragonborn that trace their ancestry to the feathered serpant dragons known as coatl.
Territories
Inhabbiting a jungle like area encased in mountains and rivers, the lands of the Maztl encompass primarily the 6 great city sates. Being the capital of Tlapochca, as well as the other cities of: Acan, Himixotl, Manautla, Tepeco, and Itan. While they have made small settlments on the outskirts of what land they have been able to conquer, they are not as big as the grand city states.
Military
As stated, every citizen is given at least bare bones instruction on warfare, but pursuing life as a soldier is not required. However those that do pursue soldiering full time can expect glory and honor should they be able to prove themselves. Warrior orders have formed of warriors who have the honor of wearing the skin and visages of animals like jaguars, egales, and leapords who only accept the bold and best amongst the army.
Technological Level
Maztl cities are advanced, with constructs being able to help with life and the harder tasks, and education being required amongst the cities. Some of this technology is also attributed to the rare minerals of the land, from strong steel and a magical mineral that bears striking resembalnce to the mythical jade of far off Catai, though not as powerful for whatever reason. Such jade is sometimes incorperated in armor and clothing as a means of showing power to onlookers.
Religion
The Matzl have many gods who were survivors of the previous cycles.
- Chotec is the terrifying skeleton headed god of death and the underworld. He is one of the chief deities of the Matzl as death is a regular fact of life, and praying to him grants one a better afterlife, as well as honor the fact that he will meet everyone in the end.
- Tilalocztl is known as the God of Eyes, The God who never Sleeps, or The Great Watcher. He is in charge of lightning, water, and the infinite knowledge of the cosmos.
- Itxechtl was the goddess of fertility, art, and the moon, and is considered wife of the sun god. She helps the Matzl love, and grants them beautiful gifts of light at night and arts.
- Apuinti is the God of the Sun, and the secondary chief deity of the Matzl. He gazes down upon the world, but he is also a god quick to anger, and if not appeased, will bring about the end of the worlds cycle.
- Kuekixzl is the Many Headed hawk, and is the god of wind and weather, and is said to be in nearly every bird of the land and rides atop the great clouds.
- Xicotl is also known as the Flayed Lord, or The Flayed God, is a god of flayed skin, with his skin stretched and hung around his flesh around his eyeless face. He is god of life and rebirth, as well as agriculture and intense warfare. Some of his priesthood and followers wear the skins of their enemies, or even flay themselves in honor of their god.
- Ozolti is the Druken, howling Monkey God. He is god of wine, adventure, and the wild nature that sets men and women free. He is also seen as a patron saint of travelers and adventuerers, and its common for Maztl adventuerers to have a necklace depicting a drunken monkey to grant them good fortune.
- Ketsacoatl: The dragon like goddess of Maztl, said to be mother goddess of the Coatl, snakes, art, literature, and gems and other such stones. She is depicated as a beautiful mother that takes the form of a great Coatl, and is rumored to reside amongst the many mountains around the land. Snakes are also seen as lesser forms of her divine self, making yuan-ti similar to assimar in Maztl society
Foreign Relations
Due to its positon on the very border of the Ruins of Ishtar, and near the great mountain rangers of the Empty Range, it is hazerdous to travel to the land, which in the end the Maztl prefer. It helps keep invasions of their land difficult to achieve, and in the end the Maztl are still a isolationist like people. However, the borders haven't been closed by any offical decree, and so those adventuerers or merchants brave enough or rich enough to travel there can find a remarkable land to quest in or vist. As long as you don't mind the monsters infesting the forests of course.
"For our ancestors and the cycles!"
Type
Geopolitical, Kingdom
Demonym
Maztl
Government System
Monarchy, Absolute
Location
Official Languages
Neighboring Nations
