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Tlatlacah

Tlatlacah (meaning ‘The People’ in their tongue), also called 'Serpentmen' by other races, are the most ancient civilization that inhabited the continent and that, guided by their deity Aspidis, reached the pinnacle of technique and science in times long forgotten even by the Elves and the Ilthir. What remains of their civilization are only the ancient, imposing, but crumbling ruins of their majestic cities, now buried by the shifting sands or under the overgrown vegetation of lush jungles.

The few scattered remains of this ancient race find refuge in some of the nooks and crannies of their old cities, but most dwell within the Depths, surviving under the protection and alliance of the Ilthir.

Tlatlacah are commonly thought by humans to be touched by some unknown ‘dark forces’ or to derive from the union of twisted cultists with snakes and demons. The reality is unknown, however, as their racial origin is lost in the millennia to even themselves.

Members of this race are generally secretive with a societal tendency towards rational, goal-oriented, and scheming behavior that may appear as cold or cruel to most. However, even if they would seem insensitive or very slow in reacting to others, they would still be capable of feelings, albeit showing them in much more private settings.

Biology

The physical forms of Tlatlacah lay on the spectrum between more human-like and almost entirely snake-like (pureblood). Every member of the species displays at least some serpentine features, and their bodies are generally covered in scales ranging in color from green to dark brown, while other features can vary greatly between individuals: some Tlatlacah sport a tail, while others own a very long, bifurcated tongue or additional features such as yellow slitted eyes, particularly elongated bodies, or more rarely their entire upper body that would remind someone of an actual snake. 

​Serpent-like traits are also highly sought after in the rare instances these entities feel the urge to procreate, as they are considered the mark of nobility and those of purest blood. Legends of the Tlatlacah claim that the bloodlines of those with fewer serpentine traits were born out of mixing with the inferior Humans. However, this is easily proved as false as Tlatlacah are, in fact, utterly incapable of procreating with other races. Though it is rumored that radical groups of alchemists are experimenting on unions with some groups of ‘unorthodox’ Ilthir that would be willing to mix their blood, convinced that the union may be a necessary evil to enable the survival of their species.

At a significant disadvantage with respect to other races, unfortunately, the gestation period for a Tlatlacah is exceptionally long, typically requiring several years. Such is the length of their reproductive cycle and sexual maturation that their population naturally remains at a mostly stable level, which leaves them incredibly susceptible to external events. Some of the most serpent-like Tlatlacah, called Motquiticil or ‘The Pure’ among their people, will often retire from their public lives to hatch their eggs in private for the full duration of the cycle.

 

A remarkable advantage that the Children of Aspidis have is their ability to enter a short hibernation period lasting from a few days to a week where their primary sex organs completely reconfigure which enables any two Tlatlacah to reproduce should one be in a receptively fertile period.

This trait even allows rare individuals to reproduce asexually through parthenogenesis, though the offspring produced through this manner are almost universally female.

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Due to their especially low metabolism, Serpentmen are may suffer in cold climates and almost always go out of their way to avoid them, though they are able to withstand them for short periods out of necessity. Instead, the Children of Aspidis prefer to reside in hot and humid environments such as steamy jungles or the caves found therein.

Tlatlacah can live up to 100-120 years due to their slower metabolism, and reach maturity at a similar age as humans.

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Society

Present day Tlatlacah society is almost impossible to describe in useful terms, as individuals of this ancient people are so few and scattered that they are nearly incapable of forming small communities or extended families. Still needing the stability that an organized society can offer however, the Tlatlacah congregate in Ilthirri settlements or cities instead, where often the eldest or most religious individual becomes the de facto leader. Even when living amongst the Ilthir, they often stick together with their own kind to pursue their private lives. Indeed, although they oftentimes willingly integrate themselves into Ilthirri communities, the Tlalacah rarely fully assimilate. Only the new generations, having grown so accustomed to living and growing among Ilthir, seem to be having a deeper appreciation for their society, resulting in greater integration than had been enjoyed before. Thus it is a growing sentiment that the Depths are their new place in the world; where the younger generations often wear the same clothes and share similar values as their Ilthir hosts within the cities, going so far as to allow several Tlatlacah and Ilthir to form some kind of friendship over time, despite the frown of the more traditionalists among the Church of the Weaver, and Tlatlacah elders.

Eons ago, when their society spanned the known world, the Tlatlacah were ruled by a very strict patriarchal theocracy led by the priests of Aspidis, their patron deity, who is depicted in the shape of a snake inhabiting the outer sky. Wealthy males formed the majority of the ruling class, as well as taking on the roles of warriors, engineers, and scholars. While the least affluent were employed in the fields, or as traders and artisans, or any profession that was more humble. In contrast, female Tlatlacah were instead kept in their houses, tending to their households and offspring. Only the wealthier women could spend their hours reading, discussing philosophy and political matters, influencing their husbands or those they held sway over. However, everyone in society would have had access to education; be it practical or scholastic, which allowed the Tlatlacah a great degree of social mobility

Education and values

 

Tlatlacah are usually given a proper education and, from a young age, are taught about the greatness their ancient civilization once held, next to mathematics, astronomy, and in general logical thinking. Additionally, the Tlatlacah that aspire to positions of leadership or importance within their communities are usually given carefully designed challenges where their rationality and cool-headedness is put to the test: further highlighting the traditional importance of such traits among the their people,, in contradiction to how Ilthirri or Human societies might value piety, diplomatic, leadership, or physical skills instead. Consequently, this stronger focus on logic, calculation and deduction adds to the Tlatlacah being thoughtful, slow to decide, cool-blooded creatures, which often leaves them with a calm though fact-over-feelings attitude. Despite this, religion continued to hold a central role in Tlatlacah groups, where it is often naturally intertwined into the teaching of other skills.

 

Another notable characteristic of these people is how restrained they appear in public. In fact, despite their perhaps extravagant dresses, the Tlatlacah are usually quite reserved in behavior, valuing a calm and calculated demeanor while wearing their scaly faces like one would wear a mask—something which might not at all reflect their more expressive personality in private. Hand in hand with their restrain, cool-headedness, and slight lack of facial expressivity, Tlatlacah rely more heavily on body language and its interpretation and are on average good at interpreting even the one of other races.

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Contemporary Communities

 

In their contemporary communities, Tlatlacah tend to maintain a semblance of their ancient ways where the females focus more on housekeeping, lore keeping, and social roles such as diplomacy, or entertaining relations with others that are not considered a threat. Meanwhile, the males tend to be responsible for the more ‘daring’ affairs, such as infiltrating foreign communities, long distance trading, dealing with religious matters, or roles that involve leadership and decision making.

 

The higher class still exists among Tlatlacah, thanks to strict customs and laws on inheritance, but especially thanks to their genetics. In fact, the more the body of a Tlatlacah resembles that of an actual serpent, the closer they are considered to Aspidis. Quite naturally then, the priest caste is always made up of the most pure-blooded Tlatlacah that are available, or those who possess more of such important traits.

 

In contrast, those unfortunate enough to have less of these traits are relegated to the bottom of society, without a real chance of redemption or opportunity, often mocked and insulted by others of their kin, based upon the unfounded prejudice that these people were born out of mixing with lesser races. However, this last rumor might easily be proven false as Tlatlacah are, in fact, infertile with any other race. Indeed, with the conviction that increased numbers might bring to a resurgence of their kind, radical and potentially shady groups of alchemists are experimenting on unions with some groups of even more ‘unorthodox’ Ilthir that would be willing to mix their blood, or even with goblins, convinced that the union may be a necessary evil to enable the survival of their species.

 

Last but not least, at the very bottom of their society there were, and still are, slaves, though contemporarily these are fewer in number due to the secondary position Tlatlacah often cover in Ilthir society. In particular, while they are usually allowed to own slaves anywhere in the Underworld, it is not so uncommon for settlements to prohibit Tlatlacah from owning Ilthirri slaves, as the Ilthir consider the practice immoral. Additionally, even the ownership of any non-surface slave can be forbidden, something which is seen more frequently in smaller Ilthirri settlements where proper slaves are harder to come by, and their ownership wants to be monopolized.

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Preservation of culture

 

Within the last thousand years, many of the Tlatlacah have dedicated themselves to chronicling what remains of their traditions and accumulating artifacts belonging to their ancient golden age. Some of these chroniclers hold out hope that this effort will one day be used to rebuild their lost civilization, while others are aware that such a period of their history will likely never come back, which leaves this great endeavor as an attempt to keep their lore as a monument of ancient glory, and therein the ability to remember it.

 

There is a minority of Tlatlacah who consider this monumental effort towards recording the history of a ‘failed civilization’ a waste of time however, arguing how their race should focus on actual rebuilding instead, by locating and gathering the myriad of their disparate groups. But all of these views—each somewhat opposed to the others—are faced with the harsh reality that the sparse communities scattered around the world may never be enough to rebuild or even maintain a functional society.

History

The Tlatlacah once spanned the known world, having dominated the regions of the continent which they found habitable, while the rest was left to the other races of that time, with these places referred to as the “dregs of the world” as they saw them. Their deity, Aspidis, once said to be greatly favoring them at the cost of an imbalance with the other deities, not unlike the ‘New Gods’ currently favoring the Human race. However, with the coming of humanity, the Tlatlacah found themselves rapidly and vastly outnumbered, as for every Human they managed to kill or subdue, ten more were born someplace else. Ultimately, even in its infancy during their stone age, Human biology simply proved superior, with much higher birth rates and a greater adaptability to different climates, causing Tlatlacah population numbers to slowly dwindle as their slowly were forced to concede their lands, until there were not enough to maintain even their once eternal cities. One by one, the large palaces and gardens, libraries and academies, and even the roads and aqueducts were slowly abandoned until the Tlatlacah were forced to retire into smaller and more practical settlements. Even these smaller settlements, though, were eventually threatened by the rapid cultural and technological growth of the Human race, and with it, the Tlatlacah would eventually seek refuge among the Ilthir, slowly fading away from the surface world.

Appearance

Most Tlatlacah have a body type that is similar to other humanoids, although they are often slimmer than average in shape, and have several features strongly reminiscent of serpents, such as a green-to-brown skin covered by soft scales that can be quite prominent, as well as slitted eyes, a tail, extremely small ears or slender faces, and more. Furthermore, the height among Tlatlacah can vary greatly between individuals, some being surprisingly tall and long-limbed. Tlatlacah clothing is often a mixture of styles, especially for the ones that live in Ilthir society since a few generations. These differences lie between their traditional clothing of silks of single monochrome color and feathered ornaments, to the more modern Ilthir fashion of black, white, and silver. They greatly appreciate jewelry and, not differently from Ilthir woman, the Tlatlacah do not mind showing their skin. Then there are those few who try to make a living upon the surface, who instead tend to wear more ‘practical’ clothing, traditional or not, as they are forced to put a greater focus on survival and hiding, and less so on thriving within an established society. Tlatlacah would sometimes gift clothing items or accessories made of serpent skin to people, including the members of other races as a sign of great respect. Though others wearing similar kinds of items is often taken as an offense, even if it is, in most cases, an involuntary one.

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Relation with other races

Tlatlacah in most cases live inside of Ilthir’s society, where they integrated quite well in the arch of the last few hundred years. Especially their youngs, while all maintaining respectful distances, improving and learning a great deal from each other. They would also be well aware that a low standing within that society, would likely mean a miserable life, if not endanger their entire community, which is why they tend to be extra careful when dealing with their ‘hosts’.

They consider Ogroids, Humans, Faefolk and Dwarves essentially all the same, just some inferior form of life with rights little more than an animal, with some particular hatred towards Humans, which they would appreciate only as slaves material, otherwise seeing them (rightfully) as the main cause of the end of their civilization. Surface Elves are seen not too differently than humans, but as victims, therefore with no hatred but some pity and contempt for the entirety of their race, as they chose servitude to inferior beings. Beastkin would be seen as indeed nothing more than filthy, dangerous beasts with no direct use due to their aggressiveness.

How to play

  • Tlatlacah are a species at risk of extinction, and are aware of how precious the life of every single one of them is. Despite the differences that they might have among them, each member of this dying people is aware of the burden they carry, to keep their people and their legacy alive.

  • Tlatlacah live together with ⁠ilthir, integrated at various degrees in their society. Only a few very small and isolated communities reside in the warm jungles, though these become rarer and rarer, and often still have to rely on their dark-dwelling allies for their survival.

  • The Tlatlacah are not a race of warriors, but an ancient civilization of sages, alchemists, diplomats, and priests. Your life is precious: avoid physical confrontations and any unnecessary risk at all costs. Use diplomacy, alliances, rituals, poisons, and artifacts to secure a future for yourself and your community, to make it thrive, and overcome your enemies from a safe spot.

  • Tlatlacah tend to be -or at least look- cold and rational, slow to make decisions, but they can like the pleasures of the flesh and can be played as a decadent society as well, especially when living in a thriving Ilthir community. They rarely show any emotions, and less so in public, even if they are quite capable of feelings

  • Tlatlacah would never have a friendly relation with anything they consider too uncivilized, and indeed have strong opinions about which races are superior to others.

  • Tlatlacah feel very strongly that Humans are the cause of the ruin of their ancient splendor.

  • Tlatlacah are very traditionalist and fervently religious; all of them worship ⁠aspidis at least primarily, although some might worship other deities alongside him. Some hide among humans with the purpose of acquiring resources and knowledge and spreading the cult of the Sibilans (see ⁠aspidis ).

  • Tlatlacah can settle only in the ⁠underdark, or in the Jungle

Characteristics

  • Darkvision

  • Languages: Vulgar Ilthirri, Tlatlacahan

  • Height limits 153 to 198 cm

  • Natural Venom

  • Weak to Cold

  • Animal Unease

  • Tlatlacah can change their skin color of a few shades, and tighten their muscles to make their skin smoother, to pass as other races. Their pupils can similarly greatly dilate to take a circular shape, even if that might make them to some look either high or aroused, especially if during the day. If another character touches, or even more so, caresses or otherwise feels the skin of a Tlatlacah that is trying to 'hide', you should allow an appropriate roll to realize that something is off. Your tail (if any) can not be made to disappear, and must be cleverly hidden.

Authors: Rashan

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