The Four Quarters of Nahuac

The Nahuac Coalition consists of dozens of separate nations under one realm. These nations are distributed among four social and cultural általid, or ‘quarters’, effectively dividing Nahuac in four regions of roughly equal power. This is the origin of the word Nahuac, which means “At the Four Places”.

While there are peoples of all kinds in all quarters, giving their life and work to their corresponding community, each of Nahuac’s Four Peoples - Source-gifted humans, buunkun, bendavee and mortal humans - rules its own quarter.

Each of the Four Quarters is like a separate Realm, with a distinct culture and ethnicity, but they all follow the same laws and allow free trade and transit between their borders.

Mígtal, the North Quarter
A strip of territory bordering the Sea of Nahuac at the Realm’s North edge, Migtal is the domain of the Nine Human States of the Coalition. The North Quarter is a realm of dark nights and cold winds, of strong magic and ancient knowledge. The Nine Lords of Death, the quarter’s mahau rulers, are incredibly powerful undead sorcerers, and among the greatest wizards in Valerna.

Other states regard Míg tainn people with mistrust because of their practice of Xibac magic, which most other Náhuinn consider a perversion of the Source. But the Nine Human States are as loyal and dedicated to the ideals of Náhuinn culture as anyone else, and they retain their place in the Council despite a long history of misunderstandings and conflict with their more orthodox peers.

Ad’tal, the South Quarter
Located along the border with the Jeweled Desert and in the Cipác peninsula, the lands of Ad’tal alternate between humid swamps, thick jungles and dry barren wasteland. And the bendavee, the stoic lizardfolk of Nahuac, are equally at home in all of these territories.

The South Quarter contains seven states, spearheaded by the strongest bendavee tribes, whose warlords are collectively known as the Seven Thunders. These seven warlords and their tribes are the most ferocious warriors in Nahuac, and the strong arm of the Realm’s military.

Tlátal, the East Quarter
The largest and most powerful region of Nahuac is Tlátal, the East Quarter; the domain given to source-gifted humans. It occupies the eastern half of the Realm, from the Allarian border, following the Primalian Mountains down almost to the Jeweled Desert. It contains seven states, including the Four Ocelinn Lordships, the lands of the jaguar people and the greatest states of Nahuac, plus three other states, belonging to the mun kisuut, maame and cuhinn peoples - respectively bat-kin, deer-kin and wolf-kin.

The source-gifted build great and ostentatious cities, as all humans do, but they respect nature’s forms and spaces, as Náhuinn peoples should. In a council of equals, where every speaker has the same voice and the same right as everyone else, the four Ocelinn lords are more equal than others, and their voices always carry authority and demand respect. The great city of Nahuacáinn, the unofficial capital of the realm, is one of the Four Ocelinn Lordships and the strongest state of the Coalition.

Iltal, the West Quarter
The oldest quarter of Nahuac, Iltal was settled when the early buunkun and bendavee nations seceded from the Scaled League before the time of Altan, at the dawn of human history. Later, when the Altanesi Empire also fell, the buunkun brought their human allies to the region, creating the Nahuac Coalition, but the buunkun domain remained roughly the same across all the intervening eras.

Iltal is a windy, mountainous coastal region, where the buunkun build their aeries - sanctum cities located far above the ground - and pursue their cultural practices; mostly art, magic and philosophy. The quarter contains thirteen states, whose rulers, the Thirteen Flying Sages, serve as the senior members of the Coalition, not leaders but mentors to the other rulers. While the Thirteen can’t match the power of the Ocelinn States, they more than make up for it with their wisdom, which even the Ocelinn bow to. When there are disagreements or crises within the Council of Speakers, it falls on the Thirteen Sages of the West to mediate and set things right.