Yaoqui Alliance

In the Pachu jungle dwells a civilization in hiding. The city-state of Yaoqui stands deep in the jungle built by a race of kobold like creatures. Because of their isolation from the rest of the world the quetzalli have developed their own art, architecture, music and dialect of draconic.

The city-state of Yaoqui is around 5,000 square kilometers with the urban core of Teocuitlaxolal being 30 square kilometers.

Urban Core

Map of Teocuitlaxolal

In the city center are the pyramid temples where the quetzalli venerate their gods and where they perform their sacrifices. The Temple of the Gods sits atop the pyramid of the sun, the largest pyramid of the city. Apart from the urban core the buildings are made with fired bricks made from the surrounding soil. The temples and pyramids of the urban core are made with limestone.

Palace of Quetzalpapalotl

The palace is the seat of power for the Yaoqui Alliance and is the most spectacular building in the urban core. All manner of precious gems and metals decorate the interior.

• The current Tlatoani is Cuezaltzin

Economy

The yaoqui city-stare lacks any industrial capacity owing to a lack of strong metals anywhere near the city. As such they mostly focus on agriculture and art. Any strong building materials they have are usually stolen from their kobold neighbors to the south. They do not have trade relations with the major powers of the area.

Population

The city-state boasts a population of 800,000 with half the population being concentrated in the urban core. The quetzalli are an evolutionary offshoot of kobolds better suited to surviving in dense jungles which has led to them acquiring a bird like appearance complete with feathers. Unlike kobolds they are not inherently evil though they are still violent. They do retain their scheming nature but do have a reduced reproductive rate and longer lifespan. This causes them to be extremely defense minded. They do set up traps like kobolds but they also go the extra mile to hide themselves and their buildings from prying eyes. The last difference is their language, they speak coatlahtōlli, a dialect of draconic.

Politics

Politically the Yaoqui Alliance is an elective monarchy. The Tlatoani of the Yaoqui Alliance were chosen by a council of elders, nobles, and priests. He would be selected from a pool of four candidates. Tlatoani serve for life but once they die his heir(s) are not added to the pool of candidates to prevent concentration of power.

Religion

The quetzalli have taken to sun worshipping, naming the sun Nanahuatzin. Unaware of their true origin they call themselves children of the sun as opposed to normal kobolds whom they refer to as the children of gaia. One of the most important beliefs is that the gods require the blood of mortals to remain alive. As such they tend to end festivals and religious holidays with sacrifices. Usually they select the sacrifice from their own people. Raising them from birth with everything provided so they remain worthy of the gods. On special occasions quetzalli have been known to capture warriors of other races to use as sacrifice.

Military

The Yaoqui Alliance has an army of 50,000 warriors with 15,000 of those warriors being cavalry and 10,000 being skirmishers. Without large sources of iron the quetzalli have taken to using stone weapons and leather shields. A typical soldier carries a macuahuitl (a wooden club with obsidian blades embedded into the sides), a large leather shield and several javelins. Cavalrymen use a tepoztopilli (a pole arm whose spear head is constructed much like a macuahuitl) and a small round shield. Skirmishers use javelins, slings and a spear thrower in place of a bow. The dense jungle environment makes a traditional calvary force impractical. As such the Yaoqui warriors use terror birds as their mounts.