[Xiuhcoatl]

post save for all the juicy stuff

[Xiuhcoatl]

sparknotes until i can get shit organized:

sun is source of life, wisdom, soul and warmth. fire is at its core.
since birds fly highest to sun, birds are considered the most divine of mortal creatures. messengers and harbingers to the gods.
the sun, fire, birds and and feathers are utilized as symbols of divinity, the gods, and of divine right within the tribe. crowns of fire and feathers are often seen etched in relics as symbols of past Phoenixes.
there are several gods, but their most revered is Xiuhcoatl, a fiery, feathered serpent-wolf deity. He is considered the patron deity to Syn Cardrys and its peoples, and is a hot-tempered, fierce warrior sage. He lives in the sun and his fire-singed furs, scales, and feathers ward off the encroaching cold of the outside world. He is passion, he is war, he is the blood that flows through each and every Syn member, and if push comes to shove he is merciless.
Aviaris were bred from local hellhounds hundreds of years ago in attempts to emulate their patron deity. Aviaris are considered blessed, though to boast divinity would be blasphemous, so they toe a careful line between the two.
their creation story has Xiuhcoatl at its center, fiercely defending the tribe's territory as the epicenter of all the world from a plethora of cold, of ignorance, of sin and barbarism. this created an innate worry deep in the tribe's culture regarding the outside world, leading them to always be selective about who can enter, and when. However, in recent generations, this bias mutated to outright xenophobia, cutting off Syn Cardrys from the rest of the world, with their bloodlines thinning and suffering as a result.

[Xiuhcoatl]

still working on this, oops ORIGINS of SYN CARDRYS       The epicenter of creation, of all land, is the island territory the Syn Cardrys have claimed as home. Xiuhcoatl himself descended from the sun to chase away the cold and desolace that consumed the rest of the world. His ferocity and dedication brought life, and the beings that came to find shelter under his divine protection.       The first Phoenix of the tribe was named Ferus, a proud and brave warrior-leader who called himself the first Son of Xiuhcoatl. Borne of the god, forged from the sun's rays and the fires within the god's core. He claimed to have been bestowed with a holy ray of vision from the sun, foreseeing a powerful destiny and a tribe so prestigious and spectacular that envy would brew from all around the world. It was through his command that the maze cave tunnels, once easier to navigate and travel through, were obscured and complicated. He also fended off countless invasion attempts, using strategic defensive maneuvers and his fearless tenacity. Ferus was not without complication, as he was often accused of being ruthless with his own people, though his ability to keep the newborn tribe safe was incredible.       There are many feats the first Phoenix accomplished, most if not all written records of him have been lost, worn away from the stones they were carved upon. With how old the tribe is, his memory has become a blur between fact and fiction. A legend lost in history. ORIGINS of the AVIARI       Some 300 years ago, a wave of fanaticism swept through the Syn Cardrys. They were successful with crafts, inventions, knowledge, feats that would boast them superior to their outside neighbors. Their elaborate cave system promised secure borders, protection from anything remotely hostile or risky,  though with a balanced and steady inflow of new blood. With this in mind, their motivations focused inward.       The Council, which at the time was tilted to disproportionately favor the Griffins, began to focus on the legends of Xiuhcoatl, and how he was able to father Ferus into a mortal being. They, too, wanted to strive for a holy merge of their mortal beings with their patron deity’s qualities.       Not six months prior to these private discussions between the Griffins, a family of hellhounds had passed entry tests and gained citizenship within Syn Cardrys. After the Council’s meetings, they were then "disappeared".       The Griffins had recruited them for a (then) private breeding project. They didn't have feathers, per se, but they demonstrated exceptional fur and bristles that the Griffins felt they could potentially reproduce. This breeding project initially meant to be private, but as idle questions about where these new hellions went to began to surface, The Council acted quickly. They turned around and announced a Holy Endeavor - Xiuhcoatl's blood would flow through the tribe. With effort. And time. It bought them the complicity they needed to continue their efforts.       It took several generations for Aviaris to become real.       First attempts brought about traits that weren't what they were looking for. The ones that did work were few and far between, some with health defects that brought about early deaths. In the end, the Griffins who envisioned the merge of holy and mortal did not live long enough to see the fruit of their efforts. Documentation of this legendary feat mark them as brilliant heroes, covering up the deaths and atrocities that followed in their wake.       The Crystalline are largely considered to be the first official Aviari family. Though this may be propaganda that previous Crystallines kept repeating to make true - the timeline of the first Aviaris and the beginning of the Crystalline family doesn't quite add up if someone really wants to think about it.