The Fortunes Of Xochiquetzatlan

Xochiquetzal by Dragonfly929

The city-realm of Xochiquetzatlan is under the sway of the goddess Xochiquetzal and her consort Xochipilli. Xochiquetzal and her consort are associated with fertility, flowers, butterflies, romance, love, lust and life. Like many deities worshiped in the Sixth World, they are have dualistic aspects; in the case of these two deities, they are those of being the twin sources of life and the twin fonts of excess and filth. The abundant and decadent Living City that names itself after the goddess and her consort very much mirrors their dual aspects.

Xochiquetzatlan's people are experts at terraforming. The Living City has developed the most extensive chinampa system in the Sixth World. As a result of this system, the city produces a great agricultural surplus. Some of this surplus is rendered as tribute to the Olmeca. However, these food-tributes do not usually impose great hardship on the city's peasant producers. The agriculture here is that abundant.

While the Living City has temples to many of the gods worshiped in the Sixth World, the greatest temples in the city are those of Xochiquetzal and Xochipilli. These temples play a central role in guaranteeing both the city's rich harvests, and the fertility and health of its population. The people of the city are the picture of perfect health; people of all social classes are unusually beautiful and lacking in physical imperfections.

The temples' influence on life here also promotes hybridity and mutation, and as well as morphogenetic and phylogenetic proliferation in the animal sphere. Temple naturalists are identifying new species all the time. The temples are responsible for the existence of more than a few ab-humans, summoned creatures, and flower-creatures* in the Living City as well. Many of these are temple-summoned beings and magical creations derived from human and animal stock.

Many are slaves.

The temples derive significant revenue from the trade in ab-humans, summoned creatures, and flower-creatures. But they may become the city's downfall. Every year, the peasants become more and more dependent on their help, as the chinampa network expands ever-further into the great lake at the heart of the Living City. And these abject populations are restless and unhappy. The entire order of the Living City may change if such being rebel against their masters.

*Special beings, often hybrids and chimera, bred and conjured by the sorcerer-priests of the Temples of Xochiquetzal and Xochipilli.

The Fortunes of Xochiquetzatlan

• Virtue: Fertility - Growth
• Fault: The Satyr - Indulgence
• Fate:  The Cockatrice - Corruption vs. Recovery