Locations/Kulatya

Kulatya, City of the Southeast

Deep in the Jungles of the Southeast, not far from the Ruins of Rathess, there exists a tribe of dark-skinned and militant warriros. They are known as the Golden Ones, due to the bright golden war-paint that they wash over their bodies during their frequent raids on surrounding tribes. Dwelling in the shadow of a great Pyramid, called Kulatya, these warriors wage an unending holy war.

the City

In the dim past, when the age ended, the few remaining inhabitants of the Human Octad of Rathess fled the city that they had existed among since time untold, into the Jungles of the East. There, they constructed a city of their own -- laboring for years to raise a great steppe pyramid to honor the sun, and their goddess. The jungle was cleared, more buildings were raised, and the streets paved with stone. The city of Kulatya is still primitive indeed compared to the ancient glories of Rathess, or even other cities of the Threshold. In the eyes of the Golden Ones, however, it is a paradise and a holy place.

Most of the buildings are constructed of stone and mud-brick taken from the nearby streams, housing an extended family within their walls. The city itself is quite cramped and confined, with a population of only seven thousand warriors. The greatest of these warriors taken feathered plumes, naming themselves as Nobles and living in the grand Yellow Palace before the Shinging Pyramid. The rest merely live with their families, forming the head of the households and watching over their elders and wives as best as they can. Anyone of Kulatya who is not a warrior is a wife, or an Elder; if one is young, and male, one either learns the arts of war or is exiled. The goal of every warriors life is the same: captives must be caught, and delivered to the Yellow Palace so that they might be sacrificed upon the Shining Pyramid.

When their husbands and sons are not off engaged in war, the other residents of Kulatya see to the running of the city itself. Women engage in every function and position not involved in war, and even construct the weapons and armor worn by the Warriors of Kulatya. The city itself maintains a number of small fields, where the women who do not have more important jobs in the city see to the necessity of raising enough food and produce to feed the people of Kulatya. The enemies of the city sometimes try to strike at these cities, only to find that the women of the fields are every bit as brutal in war as their husbands -- few attacks at the cities fields are successful.

The city itself is ruled over by a number of the greatest Warriors, too aged to fight, and now titled as Chiefs and adorned with many-plumed headgear that marks their station for all. These men direct the cities day to day activities, especially those of war.

NPCs of Kulatya

Feathered Snake\\ Feathered Snake, a quiet and serious 16-year old woman, is the current High Priestess of the Bloody Goddess, and she takes her position seriously. Trained from birth in the ways of the Knife, she has in truth become something not entirely healthy. The service to her Goddess is overpowering, and she does not truely feel alive unless her knife is digging into struggling flesh and blood is flowing over her cool hands. The screams of the sacrificed are like music to her, and she serves Shining Flower vigorously by commanding the Chieftans to raid more and more often and gather more and more sacrifices. She has also directed war parties against travellers through the jungle, almost unheard of previously; only the blood of the ancient enemies of the tribe was worthy of the Pyramid. "Ancient Enemy" was a dignity that could be earned quite quickly, but seldom did the people of Kulatya raid among caravans purposely looking for warm bodies.

For the time being, Feathered Snake has been moving with some caution. She knows that if she causes the tribes of the ancient Lunar too much trouble, he will destroy her people utterly. For the time being, he views them as an interesting trial -- a testing ground for his warriors, and a fitting punishment for those who are too weak to defend themselves. So, she keeps her ambitions -- uniting the tribes of the Jungle under her leadership, into a great and bloody empire -- to herself, for now, biding her time for an opportunity.