Zanayotl

The Zanayotl (Pronounced Zan-ah-yo-tahl, meaning “cosmic serpents”) are a serpentine, slug-like race hailing from the “lost continent” of Leide. According to their oldest myths, they were the children of the Sun and Sister, the planet Tyrrell orbits. Born from this divine union, they were placed into Tyrrell’s oceans, their parents deciding that they needed a world of their own. The oceans soon proved inhospitable and they emerged upon the shores of Leide, a land floating alone in the cosmos, a place that they alone were worthy to rule. 

They would quickly conquer their birthright, becoming the living gods of the Lesserkin of Leide. They would raise temples and palaces of crystal, ivory, mahogany, jade, and obsidian. Places of splendor, worthy of their greatness. Those chosen by them would be allowed to wield their power, magics that defied the material rules of the world and tapped into energies only the Cosmic Serpents could see and comprehend. In reality, the Zanayotl would control their new hosts, in the old days via burrowing directly into their skulls and taking control, and then later via magic. 

Over time this parasitic relationship would change, and favored thralls would be allowed to inhabit a more symbiotic relationship. Great contests and trials would be held for prospective hosts, all offering themselves up as tribute to the Cosmic Serpents. Many countries would form across Leide, all jockeying for dominance and each trying to fully conquer Leide. An event that, if the histories were true, had only occurred once during its early history. As the various nations of Leide readied themselves for a climatic war, something unexpected would come across their shores. Paleskinned and long eared, so called “elven” explorers from outside of the world's boundaries. These new peoples would, unknown to anyone at the time, cause the end of the world as the Zanayotl knew it.

Once the undisputed gods of their continent, the Zanayotl were knocked off of their high thrones and forced to wage a desperate war for survival and freedom. Their fall came at the hands of marauding Ciradoni Elven invaders, primarily from the Three Dynasties. These elven heretics descended upon Leide in a frenzied gold rush after its discovery. Dazzled by the continent’s fabled riches, these invaders dismissed the slug-like Zanayotl as “repulsive filth,” merely the pets of foolish lesserkin. The elves did not understand and did not care to understand the underlying rites and ways of the peoples of Leide. 

Over the following decades, the invaders tightened their grip on Leide’s coastal regions, erecting fortresses and claiming dominion over its shores. Yet, the heart of the continent remained an impregnable bastion where the Zanayotl still reigned supreme. From the outset, the Elderkin were stunned by the ferocity of Leide’s animals, beasts straight out of myths and the pages of old cyclopian tomes, somehow fighting as allies alongside the Lesserkin armies. They would also witness lesserkin able to wield fieldic energies, something believed impossible for those without a strong connection to the field, and thus without souls. 

As the conflict escalated, the invaders, branded cozahatuli (vultures) by the Zanayotl, faced an even greater terror. The Yoacoalli, War Temples. These towering, golemic constructs, made of stone and obsidian and jade, somehow enchanted without runes, contained within them the divine fury of Leide’s true gods. The War Temples, piloted by the Zanayotl, would be universally feared by the coazhatuli. The invaders would come to realize that Leide would never fully bend to their will, and an uneasy understanding was established upon the continent. The Zanayotl would join the other Elderkin of Tyrrell. Albeit as the least among their number.

Zanayotl resemble rabbit-sized slugs, distinguished by strange, plume-like protrusions across their bodies, features that have led many to mythologize them as distant descendants of featherdrakes. They are born from eggs which are laid in clutches of 1-3. By the time they reach adulthood, they’ve grown to the size of a large rabbit. Though capable of speech, Zanayotl vocalize at frequencies too high for most other races to hear without magical assistance. On their undersides, they possess a small but powerful beak, sharp and durable enough to crack bone. While their beaks may be powerful, the remainder of their bodies are not and a human child is fully capable of killing an unprotected Zanayotl. As heretical as such an action would be. 

In a similar manner to octopuses, Zanayotl can magically manipulate both the texture and color of their skin. Many display vivid, personalized patterns, often signifying family lineage or serving as “war paints” during times of conflict.

Their most infamous trait, however, is their natural ability to dominate living creatures by burrowing into their skulls and seizing control of their brains. Victims of this process become thralls. Mindless puppets entirely under the Zanayotl's command. While this practice has largely fallen out of use in modern times, its effects have been faithfully replicated through magic, a field in which the Zanayotl are particularly skilled. 

It should be noted that if a creature is physically thralled, they are effectively turned into a brain-dead puppet. In contrast, if a creature is thralled via magic, they will regain control of themselves and their bodies as soon as the spell ceases. On average, a Zanayotl lives for around 500 years, though with good health, hygiene, and access to the proper sustaining magics, they can (rarely) live as long as 800 years. 

Due to their fragile skin and physiognomy, Zanayotl are extremely susceptible to both toxins and pollution, and as such, must protect themselves when journeying into polluted human nations, else they will suffer ill health and even death from blighted air and water.

The most famous of the Zanayotl magics is their ability to control other bodies, whether biological or artificial. This comes naturally to their race, to the point where switching bodies can be seen in the same manner as another race would change clothing. With minimal effort, a Zanayotl can enthrall a Lesserkin, fully overriding its will and controlling its movements and tapping into its senses. While inhabiting such a host, the Zanayotl retains access to its own fieldic powers, enabling it to cast spells through its thrall. 

This phenomenon led to the widespread, though incorrect, belief that the Leide Lesserkin could fully connect to the field and use magic. In terms of artificial bodies, a team of Zanayotl can control large golems, all forming a symbiotic fieldic link with each other and taking orders from the commanding Zanayotl.

While extremely uncommon, a Zanayotl may overwhelm another elderkin and take over their body, which results in an immense surge in magical capacity as the host’s fieldic potential is added to the Zanayotl’s own. However, what happens more often is the Zanayotl is relegated to a subordinate position where they are treated as a living artifact whose primary use is ensuring that the “true” mage is able to concentrate on actual magic. The Zanayotl “merely” helps them to focus, channel energies, and prevent them from burning out. However, if both the Zanayotl and the other Elderkin work in tandem and as equals, they can become a truly terrifying font of magic.

The most powerful of the Zanayotl can control the greatest of fieldic beasts, whether those native to Tyrrell, such as dragons or krakens, or those of the Forgotten, who have been separated from their masters and bound to the will of the cosmic serpents. Regardless, such a creature, piloted by a fully thinking being, is one of the greatest terrors one can face in Tyrrell.

Additional types of magic perfected by the Zanayotl include floatation and weight reduction magics, which they use to float around, and to reduce the weight of their golemic bodies. Mind reading magics, whereupon the Zanayotl can read the thoughts and memories of their hosts if given sufficient time to do so. There is also is feather, obsidian, geodic, and jade enchanting, through which the Zanayotl weave together fieldic energies and natural materials to create robust runeless enchantments. They can also use magical plants in a technique they call “flower magic”, to achieve similar effects.

Work in progress

As the nations of Western Ciradon were pulled into the first conflict of the Third Age, colonial Zanayotl were called up to serve their mainland rulers. At first, little was expected of them except to be more warm bodies for the front lines. However, as dwarven nations worked tirelessly to invent ways to even the playing field, new, clockwork golems would be developed. 

While at first these golems would be relegated to use in golemic assault units, it would quickly be determined that they were well suited to serving as artificial Zanayotl bodies. These golems, based upon the most recent advances in magical weapons and armors made by Coriale forces, would help to turn the tide across multiple battlefields. Suddenly, the Coriale was forced to treat the Zanayotl with the respect that had been denied to them for millenia. 

After the war’s end, many Elderkin nations across Tyrrell began to seek out the services of the Zanayotl. Sailing across the three great oceans to Leide’s golden shores, through the vast jungles and mountain ranges, to their temples and palaces of crystal, ivory, mahogany, jade, and obsidian. Where, once more, the proper respect and deference was paid to the living gods of Leide. 

• The Zanayotl were created by UsedHatSalesman on the World of Tyrrell Discord.