Tlāltonatec (Tlahl-toh-NAH-tek)

Major Domains:

  Civilization Domain:   Focuses on the foundation and expansion of society. Its power strengthens community bonds, fosters cultural growth, and protects the structures of settled life.   Law Domain:   Focuses on order, justice, and the enforcement of divine will. Its power compels truth, punishes oath-breakers, and upholds the codes that hold society together.   Sun Domain:   Focuses on the raw, life-giving power of the sun. Its power brings light to darkness, promotes growth, burns away impurity, and provides warmth and sustenance.   Agriculture Domain:   Focuses on cultivation, harvest, and the fertility of the land. Its power encourages abundant crops, protects against blight and drought, and ensures the community is fed.   Protection Domain:   Focuses on defense, resilience, and safeguarding. Its power shields individuals and communities from harm, strengthens walls, and bolsters the spirit against fear and chaos.   Knowledge Domain:   Focuses on learning, memory, and measurement. Its power grants insight, preserves history, reveals secrets, and is the source of understanding astronomy, architecture, and law.  

Minor Domains:

  Domain of the Market:   Focuses on fair trade, honest weights, and equitable commerce. Its power compels merchants to be truthful, exposes fraud, and ensures that the exchange of goods strengthens the community's economy and trust.   Domain of the Builder's Hand:   Focuses on sacred geometry, engineering, and construction. Its power guides the hands of artisans and architects to raise enduring structures, precise irrigation canals, and temples that are both mathematically perfect and spiritually resonant.

1. The Sun's Path is the Only Path.     There is one proper way to do things: the measured, efficient, and orderly way. Deviation from the agreed-upon law and tradition invites chaos and endangers the entire community. Efficiency is a form of piety.   2. The Community is the Body, The Law is its Soul.   The individual is secondary to the health of the whole. Your wants must be weighed against the needs of the city. To break the law is not merely a crime; it is a sickness that weakens the entire body politic.   3. Measure Twice, Act Once.   All actions should be deliberate, planned, and purposeful. Rashness is a vice. Study, calculate, and ensure your actions contribute to long-term stability and growth. A well-kept ledger is a sacred text.   4. Offer Your Chaos to the Altar of Order.   The beast within is a source of power, but it must be harnessed. Your shifting gift is a tool to be used for the benefit of the community—to build, to defend, to feed. Letting instinct rule you is a betrayal of your divine potential.   5. Build Enduring Things.   A sturdy wall, a straight road, a full granary, a faithful family—these are the true testaments to Tlāltonatec's favor. strive to leave behind something stronger and more orderly than you found. Your legacy is measured in stone and harvest.

Millennium's ago, Xiuhtlapal (Shee-uh-TLA-pal) - "Turquoise Leaf" witnessed the constant strife between the animal-totem tribes of the Quatzels. He saw the cycles of predation, rivalry, and chaos as a dead end. He had a powerful vision not of a single animal, but of the sun itself; a constant, unwavering force that provided for all equally, without favoritism. He preached a new way: unity through shared purpose, law, and agriculture. He united the people from different tribes, founded Axayacca, and instituted the importance of the sun as a symbol of order and the moon as a symbol of the inner world. He was a brilliant administrator, creating the first irrigation systems, and laws.   Xiuhtlapal was a mortal Makasi man, a great leader and visionary from one of the Quazel tribes. In an age of chaos, when the Makasi were fractious tribes of Quatzels constantly at war with each other (Eagle vs. Jaguar, Snake vs. Deer), he foresaw that this path would lead to their extinction against the encroaching civilizations of other races.   He was a Beasthide shifter of immense willpower, but he believed his gift was a tool for protection and building, not for hunting and war. He had a powerful vision quest where he did not see a single animal, but the sun—a force that gives light and life to all equally, without favoritism. It saw the entire jungle, the entire plain, as one.   He attempted to unite the warring tribes not through conquest, but through wisdom and a compelling new philosophy: "We are not Eagle or Jaguar. We are Makasi. Our strength is not in our claws, but in our unity." He founded the city of Axayacca, instituted laws, and introduced advanced agriculture. He taught that by measuring the sun's cycles, they could master the land and build a society that could stand the test of time. He is the founding father of the modern Malinalli culture.   Upon his death, his successor declared that Xiuhtlapal had become Tlāltonatec's spirit had not faded but had instead ascended to join the sun, becoming one with the principle he championed. The people, who owed their prosperity and safety to his laws, believed it. Their collective faith, focused on this incredibly influential founder, slowly transformed his spirit into the divine entity now known as Tlāltonatec. He is the memory of the perfect ruler, the ideal of law, and the gratitude for civilization's safety.   Tlāltonatec's teachings frame shifting as a gift to be used for the benefit of the structured society he created. A Razorclaw's precision is for surgery or artisanal work. A Longstrider's speed is for carrying messages between cities. The beast is a tool to be used, not an identity to be embraced. It must serve the sun, not the moon.