The Fall of Camazotz: The Four Pillars

 The people of the Fourth Sun are at each other's throats, family against family and city against city.  The seven Great Cities rely on Third Sun technologies to grow food they can eat and hunt for their meat.  Sorcerers scientists from the previous age grow few, targeted in the Flower Wars and their hearts fed to Camazotz to keep his unlight burning.  Their position precarious King Yat Balam, Lord of Teotihuacan, has called for the 13 best and brightest to sit beside him and plot a path for the future.

Yat Balam arranged for the sharpest eyes and most calculating Astrologers to chart the future, and predict the Fifth Sun, upon a great round stone.  A reminder of their cause, Yat Balam seeks to extend the Fourth Sun as long as possible.  The four spiritual pillars of Mexica society will sift through their inititates, sending only the finest to Teotihacan.

Modeled off of the 6 Viziers system in the FATE Toolkit (p. 90) reduce Refresh by 1.  Affiliation with one of the 4 pillars grants a Virtue (an Aspect that can be tagged ), a Vice (an Aspect that can be compelled), and Domains.  When using Skills listed in the Domains, the effects are magical.  You also get two of the associated Blessings. I'll elaborate on those later.

Coryphee - When the world lacked the order of predation, the Spider took up her loom and put everything in its place.  A chain of consumption was formed and She maintained the fabric of All.  As lesser Powers rose, coalescing cults of followers She grew jealous and shook the Web of Creation.  Prey ate predator, the dead would not stay in their graves, and hearts sickened the Sun.  A group of ritual dancers silently placated her, the grace of their limited limbs entrancing.  Now they silently keep the Spider calm and moving things in their favor.
Virtue: Foresight
Vice: Jealousy
Domains: Athletics, Decieve, Investigation

 

Black Brides of the Death Bat
The King of Bats' immortal harem, they now speak for him in his transcendence with unquestioned authority.  None knew his desires or his secrets as well as his multitude of lovers, knowledge they now use to manipulate the Great Cities.   Pursuing their own agenda, no affiliation carries as much power or suspicion as the Black Brides.
Virtue: Secrecy
Vice: Gluttony
Domains: Provoke, Resources, Stealth

Skullfaced Ministry of Mictlan
In the Age of the Fourth Sun death and the afterlife are a judicial bureaucracy. Demises are appraised, arged, and uploaded to their just reward.  Reliant on Third Sun technology to maintain the uplink, the Ministry seeks a Third Sun wonder - Tapac-yauri, the Golden Staff.  Believed to lie south of Green Hell, they have invested heavily in expeditions to the region especially because the waters continue to rise and the land bridge may soon be submerged.
Virtue: Endurance
Vice: Sloth
Domains: Shoot, Lore, Empathy

The War Lodges
Robbed of existence the spiritual echoes of previous Suns rage in Shadow at their lot and will not be kept silent.  Bearing their Voice the War Lodges advocate a conservative course for the future, supporting further efforts to scavenge Third Sun technologies.  Incidentally the Lodges possess the largest stockpiles of Third Sun technologies, many courtiers fear the War Lodges may lead coups against the decadent nobility of the Great Cities.
Virtue: Strength
Vice: Wrath
Domains: Fight, Rapport, Notice

Blog Carnival: 5 Suns and Counting

 

The word apocalypse is derived from the Greek word "apokálypsis" which means "uncovering," a literal translation means "disclosure of knowledge" or "revelation."  Out of the Cold War's shadow, the Western world's apocalypse is mostly final with a faint scrim of humanity re-purposing the leftovers of before to prolong existence.  The prophecy of climate change and environmental collapse color this further, bleaching hope from a better tomorrow.  Every American generation likes to think that they lived under the Finale's oppression, our history is littered with false prophecies and lazy nostalgia cursing tomorrow with woes unborne.

Before the United States the New World was already home to several apocalypse cultures, at least the Olmecs, the Mayans, and the Aztecs.  They each provided their own perspective on the cyclical nature of the past, present, future, and the cosmos overall. Each epoch was marked by a divinity sacrificing their existence and donning the mantle of the Sun, the central celestial figure, stepping into a divine bonfire to burn saway everything nonessential but their core nature.Though a calamity wipes the world clean, there are  always survivors but they don't stay human.  This parallels the Norse Ragnarok and Jack Kirby's Fourth World,a succession of existences destroyed providing the bones for future histories.

The 5 epochs known are:

• Nahui-Ocelotl (Jaguar Sun) - The world was inhabited by giants, devoured by jaguars. The world was similarly consumed.
• Nahui-Ehécatl (Wind Sun) - Inhabitants survived by taking the form of monkeys. This world was torn apart by hurricanes.
• Nahui-Quiahuitl (Rain Sun) - A rain of fire pelted down, reducing the world to slag. Only birds and bats survived the catastrophe.
• Nahui-Atl (Water Sun) - The waters rose over neatly everything, inhabitants survived by becoming fish. A couple escaped by becoming dogs.
• Nahui-Ollin (Earthquake Sun) -The modern era, this world will be torn asunder by earthquakes.  None can say who will survive and what will be left of us.

 

The Nahui-Quiahuitl broke into countless pieces and fell to the world, wreaking havoc and scattering the Divine Bonfire.  Heavenly embers rode the seven winds and the sky was lit by the afterglow.  In his Inverted Palace the Lord of Bats demanded the divine flame's recovery, his subjects blotted out the glow with countless squewaking forms carrying out his command.  With no sunrise to break the search King Night was successful and gathered the remnants in the Inverted Palace.

Camazotz- Lord of Bats, King Night, Unslaked Thirst, The 4th Sun

Gulping down the Divine Embers, Camazotz stoked the Bonfire in his belly and ascended into the sky.  The Night Sun bathes the world in unlight, weirdling energies, and ultraviolet radiations.  Camazotz returned the transmogged refugees to  human form before he was consumed by his new role.  The Old Ways were reinstated, city-states were reborn, the castes were reformed, the War Lodges took their place in the Flower Wars, and priests freed courageous hearts from ribcages atop stepped pyramids.

 

Without a Sun to challenge their heat, the Volcanoes stilled their hearts and Killing Obsidian has become rare.  A scarcity forcing the War Lodges to scavenge the prevalent ruins of the technologically advanced Third Sun Empire and recover the secrets of Edged Light.  More dangerous to the user, initiates to the War Lodges have ample opportunities for practice outside of the Flower Wars, hunting down the wretched mutant beasts that stalk the 3 Lands. Great Hunts for these mostros are increasingly called as outlying settlements are found destroyed or submerged. 

In the Fall of Camazotz you are recently initiated Totem Warriors who are tasked with slaying a Rough Beast, but waters rise up from the Cenotes and rumors bubble that the Night Sun and his Empire must fall to have any hopes for the future.

This month's theme is the Apocalypse and the gameable bits of the End Times.  Tune in next week for Battledancers, Brujas, Death Priests, Totem Warriors, and more for Fate.