The Yektiktlani Crusade

The Time Before Madness

Once, in the Age of Myth, there was a small and isolated human nation, deep in a Ghyranite jungle. They worshipped the Everqueen, offered sacrifices in her name, and believed that she would watch over them. When the Age of Chaos came, they fought the foul forces of the plaguefather, and lost. The survivors hid themselves away, praying to their goddess and awaiting a salvation that did not come. They never abandoned their faith, though, even as the land rotted around them, and food became scarce. Not even when they were forced to resort to cannibalism to avoid starvation did they give up hope.

Then one day, their prayers were answered. A stranger arrived upon a mighty, winged beast, and under his guidance, they drove off the hated foe. He healed the land, and they called him saint. Time passed, and the people grew strong. So strong, and so confident, that their mightiest warriors did not hesitate to step forward when their saint asked for volunteers to accompany him halfway across the realm. This would be a noble quest, he said, to keep a sacred relic from being claimed by Chaos.

The Delusion

Army Overview
Hailing from the far-off jungle land of Yektiktlan, the two halves of this tribal crusade set out in tandem from their small country’s only settlements — the twin cities, Tlaamico & Tlakuaco — before joining forces and beginning the long and arduous trek overland, by foot, towards the Slidecrown Isle, where the saint who leads them has foreseen that they will be needed. These unarmoured and under-equipped humans are not alone, though, lest they would never dare such an ambitious venture. In the skies above, flocks of angels watch over them, singing the hymns of Alarielle, both to inspire those below and to ward off the evil creatures which would do them harm.

The Huntbands
Organised into bands a half-score in number, these are lean, athletic men & women who serve their people primarily as hunters, but at need, they make fierce warriors as well. Like all Yektiktlani, the hunter-warriors are an olive-skinned and dark-haired folk, whose attire consists of breechcloths and, amongst the women, sarashi as well. These garments are all elaborately decorated with vibrant petals, lacquered in tree sap to harden and preserve them, then layered to give a scale-like effect. In addition to this clothing, each bears a few pieces of solid gold jewellery, typically in the form of piercings or bangles. They wield short, obsidian-tipped spears and obsidian hunting knives, which though very sharp, are more brittle than metal weapons, so better suited to use against unarmoured foes.

The Huntmasters
Elevated in rank due to their experience and to successes both on the hunt and in battle, these veterans are frequently entrusted with the command of a couple huntbands each. They tend to be somewhat older than the majority of their subordinates, but no less muscular. Aside from age, another indicator of their rank is that they will always be adorned in more gold than the common warriors.

The Two Chiefs
Tezcacoatl, Chieftain of Tlaamico, and Eloxochitl, Chieftess of Tlakuaco, are the son & daughter of the saint who saved the tribes. Determined to prove themselves worthy of their birthright, they are both much brawnier than their troops, far better fighters, and have a good few inches in height over most of them as well. Both wear at least as much gold as any huntmaster, alongside individual tweaks to their attire which set them further apart; Tezcacoatl has a pair of purely decorative bracers coated in the same scale-like petals which adorn all Yektiktlan clothing, while Eloxochitl pins back her hair using a clasp adorned with a lacquered magnolia flower.

The Angels of Alarielle
Standing head & shoulders over even the chiefs, and no less muscular, the angels are something more than human. Reborn in sacred rituals, they now each sport a large pair of wings upon their backs. At first glance, these wings appear to sport feathers in every colour of the rainbow. Upon closer inspection, however, those feathers are actually huge, feather-shaped petals. In addition to their physical differences, the petal-scale breechcloths they wear are much longer than those of the hunters, almost ankle-length. In battle, they raise their voices in song, reciting hymns of the Everqueen so sacred that evil ears cannot hear them without rupturing.

The Archangel
The first angel raised up by the saint, and the woman who later became his wife, Xochiatlapal is much like her angelic kin, but for three key differences. First, just as the huntmasters and chiefs wear more gold ornaments than the common warriors, so does she wear more than any other angel. Second, she has a smaller pair of petal-feather wings just above her primary ones, which make her even more manoeuvrable and graceful in flight than her peers. And finally, when the archangel sings, radiant light pours forth from her eyes and mouth, burning away heresy and purifying all it touches like sacred flame.

The Great Coatl
A winged serpent as large as any dragon. This majestic creature bore the saint across the skies when he came to Yektiktlan in its time of need. Its shimmering scales in every colour of the rainbow were the inspiration behind the petal-scale decorations that the Yektiktlani adorn all their garments with, in reverence of this heavenly beast.

The Saint
Named Matlalhuitl, this man is marginally taller and stronger than his son & daughter, yet is still dwarfed by his angelic wife. Like the chiefs, he dresses similarly to a huntmaster, but for a single, additional item of note. In his case, this item is a pauldron of solid gold upon his right shoulder, cast in the form of the Great Coatl’s head and decorated with a frill of blue & green feathers.

The Reality

Army Overview
Crawling out of foetid pits in some nameless jungle, two heaving swarms of ghouls have run together and combined into a single, frenzied mass, then set off under the direction of an archregent and his spawn. He has come to know of the plight of Slidecrown Isle, and in his deranged mind, sees himself as its would-be saviour. The journey there will be hard, but made a little easier by the colony of bat-like flayers that flap along overhead, their deathly shrieks warding off all but the most desperate predators.

The Ghouls
Hunched, emaciated things with a complexion somewhere between lifeless grey and jaundice yellow, with matted, black, body hair and bald or balding heads. Wearing little (if anything) more than shards of broken bone jabbed through their skin in crude approximations of piercings, and wielding only their own black-rotten teeth and nails, these deranged, barely-human men & women scramble through the undergrowth in small packs, falling upon anything they encounter with rabid ferocity and a complete lack of self-preservation instinct.

The Ghasts
Having somehow lived longer than most of their kin, despite the near-suicidal manner in which the ghouls hunt, these mordants adorn their bodies with many more bones than their fellows, and can often be seen to shriek and gibber, while frothing at the mouth, rather than restricting themselves to animalistic snarls and growls. Occasionally, the rabble even appear to heed their “words”.

The Abhorrants
Ghoul King Scaboffal & Ghoul Queen Slopgruel are in some ways vastly different from the starved cannibals that surround them, but in others, very similar. They are vampires, tall and muscular… yet still bestial and ugly creatures. They do at least wear filthy loincloths along with their bone piercings, making them marginally more presentable than their minions. Each also has a unique, secondary piece of attire: Scaboffal binds the fingernails and toenails of his victims upon his forearms, while Slopgruel has a severed, pickled hand nailed to the side of her head.

The Flayers
These hulking, mishappen behemoths loom over even the abhorrants, and can take to the skies on barbed, bat-like wings, making them much more manoeuvrable than their hunched aspect implies. Though they lack forelimbs, this is of little consequence, given the powerful talons on their feet and the ear-splitting screeches they emit, which can disorient, torment, or even slay their prey outright.

The Infernal
Just as the ghasts are the pack-leaders of the common ghouls, so this four-winged monstrosity is the alpha of her flock. Unlike the lesser flayers, she does not merely screech, but instead exhales clouds of noxious fumes upon her prey.

The Terrorgheist
A titanic, undead bat. Once the mount of the archregent, back when he was but a ghoul king, now it flies alone, as no other abhorrant or mordant has the gall to believe themselves worthy of riding it.

The Archregent
This abhorrant, named Marrowclot, looks much like his two subordinates, though slightly taller and brawnier. Like each of them, he bears a unique piece of equipment. In his case, this is a scratched and battered gold pauldron, decorated with a frill of flayed skins.