Xumaquixtzin
Azlotl's dragon, called the Feathered Serpent by those who'd rather not try his name. See Dragons document for how dragons, courts, Regents, and Seneschals work in general.
Name¶
Xumaquixtzin (shooma-KEESH-tseen) is the name Azlotl uses: his Draconic name, Ušum-guškin, "dragon of gold," worn down by local speech. Ušum became xuma, guškin softened to quix, and the honorific -tzin was added on the end. Outsiders mostly call him the Feathered Serpent, after the iconography his court builds around him.
Overview¶
The first dragon with a confirmed identity, domain, and location. He works with either of the organizing themes in the Dragons document: he's old enough to remember an Azlotl that wasn't goblin-held, and he's thoroughly domain-themed around wealth, tribute, and personal loyalty.
Presentation¶
He oozes charisma and gold in equal measure. He rules through magnetism and largesse as much as raw power: the kind of dragon whose court wants to please him, not merely fears him. He fits Azlotl's aesthetic directly, with feathered-serpent iconography, jungle, volcanoes, and, deliberately, more gold in the ground than the rest of the map's fair share. Azlotl's unusual gold wealth is as much a reason he settled there as anything else. See Azlotl document.
The Feathered Court¶
His court, the Feathered Court, sits at the neck of Azlotl's western peninsula (the Baja analog), on the chokepoint that controls the only land route onto it. Anyone going onto the peninsula by land goes past him.
The Goblin Problem¶
His court runs on goblin labor and goblin numbers, and that's the source of his one real ongoing struggle. Goblins are demon-worshippers by nature (see Religion and Goblins documents), and their actual devotion runs to their volcano-patrons, not to him. He commands through charisma, gold, and no small amount of direct power, but keeping goblin minions in line and functional is a constant, active effort rather than a settled fact. This is a good source of court-level friction and adventure hooks: goblin factions within his own court who chafe at, resent, or occasionally test that control.
The Regent and the Seneschal¶
Both roles are filled by remnants of the peoples who used to hold Azlotl: a few Dwarves and Catfolk, survivors or descendants of those who never fully left when the goblins took over. They hold real, high titles in his court, and they are absolutely sick of the goblin underlings they have to manage day to day. This makes his court a strange pocket where fragments of two lost civilizations outrank the population that replaced them. It's a live, personal thread back to the Catfolk Diaspora and the lost Dwarven kingdom of Sonnengruft, playable at the table rather than just referenced in the past tense. See Catfolk and Dwarven Kingdoms documents.
Open: the Regent and Seneschal as characters, including which of the two is the Dwarf and which the Catfolk; and how exactly the Dwarven and Catfolk remnants ended up there instead of leaving with everyone else.