A warlike human kindom destroyed during the Bloodstained Aeon. It was noted for producing The Crusaders of Cicazl.
The Empire of the Moon God Intli is considered by some to be a successor state to the Cicazl, descended as it is from one of their colonies; this, combined with their reticence and the eerie quality of their technology, led to a reputation as dark sorcerers that the Intli'Zatlu, perhaps, don't deserve.
Territory
Their capital was located in a meteor crater in the Acara Desert; it is now known as Tlapili.
People
The Cicazl were a strange mixture of warlike and intellectual. Their warriors were literate and educated, but also highly effective and brutal.
Physically, they were a tall, handsome people, olive-skinned and hook-nosed, with piercing gray eyes and black hair.
Technology
Not very advanced, from most accounts. They certainly had ironworks, although not steel- the relics of the Obalaski. They also had baloons- although these required no great technology, merely reasonably tightly-woven cloth, directed fire, and the knowledge that warm air flows upward. They were able to take down the Grand Dirigibles on more than one occasion, although a surviving codex indicates that the air-battles during the Bloodstained Aeon were more acts of piracy, with Panther-warriors boarding the zeppelins, rather than downing them; indeed, the two Dirigibles thus siezed were later recovered, one by the Sun Lilithians and one by the Northern Orcs when the Cicazl were finally defeated. The third grand dirigible, taken by the Cicazl colony in Zikal several hundred years later, was downed by a combination of sheer numbers and pure, dumb luck.
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| Cicazl Balloon Warfare. Anonymous Cicazl Scribe, circa 470 A.S. |
Government
Culture
Religion
Evidently a bloody one. Very little survives- there are seven temples in Tlapili, but it's doubtful they correspond to the pantheon of Intli in any but the remotest sense. They seem to have held a god of water and/or a god of the heavens as their chief deity, accompanied by a god of war, a god of disaster, and a handful of fertility goddesses; it's unknown if their beliefs were as idiosyncratic as those of the Empire; certainly Astronomancy and Mathematics were important to them, and they had a sophisticated calendar. Human sacrifice was also prominent, as was religious warfare (which was considered another form of human sacrifice).
History
The ancestors of the Cicazl were an agricultural people, inhabitants of the lowlands north of the Acara desert- pottery echoing the distinctive style the Cicazl would later develop has been found dating back to first half of the Age of Blessings. According to the surviving history of the Cicazl, held by the Intli'zatlu, they were they were hit with a decade-long drought in the early years of the Time of Poorhouses.
A visionary leader, Talpizahui, arose and led a fraction of the people southward, into the desert, promising that they would come to water; eventually, they did, in the form of a great meteor crater with a small lake in the center, fed by a spring. They built up a city in the walls of the crater, growing crops on their roofs. They soon became a hub of trade between the fishing communities of the south and the farming peoples, hunter-gatherers, and Wood Lilithians to the north- they did not, evidentally, have contact with Nherru at this point.
Records speak of a warrior people, the Obalaski, coming out of the desert wielding swords and shields of iron, and laying siege to the city of the Cicazl; The Cicazl were clearly outmatched, having previously relied on the expance of the desert to keep out invaders and, at any rate, being confined to weapons of obsidian set in wood.
Fortunately, a peace accord was reached before too much bloodshed, and the Obalaski were integrated into Cicazl society.
The city was radically restructured; the Obalaski doubled the population, literally overnight; they brought with them metalworking technology, powerful magic, and a love of mathematics, all of which benefitted the city. Unfortunately, they also introduced a brutal, warlike religion which gained popularity among the people and doubled the toll on the desert city's limited resources. When, a few years later, geological activity shut off the spring, the city seemed to be facing death. The Obalaski warriors called for a sacrifice, and sent construction crews to the mountains to find sources of water. A freak wet period enabled the city to survive until the Aqueducts were built, and led to an upsurge in the Obalaski religion, and the popularizing of human sacrifice (the Cicazl had previously practiced Human Sacrifice, but only in times of great distress, or solar eclipses.)
Over the next hundred years or so, the Cicazl expanded, dominating the peoples on the perifery of the Acara desert, and monopolizing trade. They were driven to warfare by the religious fervor that the Obalaski, by now fully merged with the Cicazl, and by a purely pragmatic desire for military expansion.
The Aqueducts, too, had a minor effect on their culture, but one which would prevent their complete annihilation. They had always watched the stars, but a desert culture centered around a constantly-flowing spring has little need of a calendar. This changed with the shift to the aqueducts, and subsequent dependency on the ebb and flow of the meltwater streams that fed them, a way of charting the seasonal changes in the far-away mountains was needed.
Of course, the seasonal fluctuations in temperature many miles to the north were completely imperceptable in Tlapili; other cycles were required- and were found in the clear desert skies.
(I'll add more later. We've got the Bishop in Battle, and their relations with Nherru at the very least to do. Also, the development of their calendars.
-A)
Population
International Relations
They had an odd relationship with The Children of Nherru, a sort of reluctant alliance. The Cicazl believed warfare was a sacred duty to them, a sort of human sacrifice, but, for pragmatic reasons were unwilling to war with Nherru directly. They became a sort of unwitting vassal state- unable to stand against Nherru's superior force, they allowed themselves to become a mercenary army added to Nherru's already considerable forces.
Economy
World-View
Evidentally very bloodthirsty and warlike, but also pragmatic and scientific; they were a religious people.
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