Tzilekal
Tzilekal
Religion
Traditions
+15% Siege Ability
+2 Tolerance of Heathens
Ozyl the BetrayerThe Windhowler Gnolls of Fangaula lacked the great stature of their cousins to the north and east, instead being closer in size to a man, though still much more deadly. As a result they developed a tradition of irregular warfare and stealth tactics, often employed as assassins and spies by Binwarji nobles or merchants looking to damage their rivals without personal culpability.\n\nOne such assassin, Ozyl Seeker-of-Secrets, was a Windhowler djinni planetouched with an almost legendary reputation as a murderer and saboteur. His skills saw him climb the ranks of the Viakkoc pack and earn command of their western provinces when they marched to war with Kheterata and Gnollakaz in 1441. As soon as they were engaged with the enemy, he betrayed his masters and arranged the murders of any Seascourge commanders still in the area. Shortly after, he raised a great host of Windhowlers and marched south to invade Binwarji, taking the capital of Sigilan in 1443 with the aid of gnollish mercenaries and spies already within the city.
+1 Diplomats
+20% Spy Network Construction
A Dream of GeniesOzyl I was obsessed with his planetouched heritage and held a hugely inflated view of himself, believing his lineage made him superior to others. This obsession extended to all things related to the ancient genies and he would go on to build a huge collection of relics, each accompanied by an array of tenuously-linked texts. He would even gather a menagerie of planetouched slaves to serve as court administrators, as well as a harem of other planetouched gnolls in an unsuccessful attempt to create planetouched heirs.\n\nThis obsession was passed on to his heirs and a general culture of imitation took hold. The gnolls of Tzilekal adopted a wildly inaccurate set of genie fashions and supposedly genie social structures. Future rulers began to adopt the ancient title of Sultan, or Zuultan in gnollish.
+1 Monthly Splendour
+1 Yearly Prestige
Superficial SwindlersThe gnollish obsession with genie relics and culture was often little more than skin-deep, the appearance of having a large collection more important than the actual authenticity of the items. This tendency was so pronounced that enterprising merchants would go on to manufacture tens of thousands of cheap fakes to sell to those looking to grow their collection. Rumours of the vast quantities of genie relics being 'discovered' in Fangaula spread throughout Sarhal, even reaching Cannor and Bulwar, and soon many foreign merchants were arriving in the bazaars of Tzilekal to purchase relics. Tzilekali merchants would make it a point of pride to con gullible foreigners into paying extortionate prices for obvious fakes; many of their folk tales involved heroic swindlers duping ignorant and brutish outsiders into leaving with their pockets empty of gold and full of junk.
+10% Trade Efficiency
The Illustrious Port of Zitan TomonThe port city of Zitan Tomon had been the main raiding base of Viakkoc prior to their ousting and served as the capital of Tzilekal until its eventual collapse. Rather than continue their predecessors' piratical ways, once the Cannorian trade routes around Sarhal began to emerge they focused on drawing in trade. The gnolls often used human Fangaulan middlemen to conduct business with the understandably wary Cannorians.\n\nZitan Tomon hosted a rich stock of Sarhaly goods and a convenient location as the first major port beyond the hostile Sandspite. This led to the establishment of a major foreign quarter along the docklands. Soon, new ideas and technologies from Cannor were spreading throughout western Fangaula and the canny merchants of Tzilekal were making a fortune from them.
+20% Institution Spread
Xholameenic ArchitectureBorn in 1532, Zuultana Xholameen, later known as the "Most-Magnificent", was responsible for the introduction of a visionary architectural style in the region. She designed and built a series of palaces based on the designs of ancient genie structures, blending their graceful features with the practicalities of gnollish engineering and the striking art styles of the Binwarji. Her reign left an enduring legacy of palaces, temples and public buildings throughout western Fangaula.
-10% Construction Cost
Fangaulan Cultural ExchangeThe Windhowler gnolls had a long history in Fangaula, beginning with the Planetouched Warlord Biakata, a former human slave woman who united a horde of gnolls and humans in the western Salahad and went on to conquer much of Fangaula, establishing the Second Fangaulan Empire. Biakata would settle many of her gnolls on the borderlands of Fangaula as a deterrent against the more savage clans that remained in the desert.\n\nSince that time, Windhowlers have been found throughout Fangaula, with the two peoples having a long history of conflict but also coexistence, particularly in Binwarji. The Tzilekali Zuultans would build on this legacy as they came to rule over more and more humans, adopting a number of Fangaulan cultural traditions. Eventually, they would abandon the Xhazobkult in favour of rehabilitating and returning to the pantheon the Fangaulan Gnoll Goddess, Goxma.
+20% Improve Relations
+1 Max Promoted Cultures
Junansuar's BlessingIn the twilight years of the Zuultanate many of the noble houses had become entwined in decades long feuds that the Zuultan found himself powerless to stop, most of these houses having employed private armies of assassins to conduct a shadow war against each other.\n\nIn an attempt to rein in the wayward nobles and restore order, Zuultan Mexhed II led an expedition to the volcano of Junansuar in 1633, attempting to utilise the rumoured efreeti forge within its heart to create powerful weapons of war, enchanted with fire magic to crush his rebellious vassals. The expedition never returned, the volcano erupting shortly after they entered the caves below.\n\nThe resulting eruption and mass devastation across Fangaula and beyond would lead to the collapse of the Tzilekal Sultanate and the subsequent colonial period under Busilar. Large numbers of Windhowlers fled to other gnollish states in the east to escape the wave of persecution that followed, with many local humans blaming the gnolls for the eruption of Junansuar.
+10% Land Fire Damage
Ambition
-10% Core-Creation Cost
History
TBD
Strategy
TBD