Rough ideas for an Aztec/South America campaign setting.

Okay, in the Race forums I suggested adding Ahuizotl as a playable race primarily because I consider them to be a really interesting creature. However, this is the MLP universe we are working in and the only example this race seen in the series was one villain in a Daring Do story. So, I've been doing a little research into Aztec mythology (read: brousing Wikipedia and searching through Google) to get a better idea of what sort of land ahuizotl might come from and possible adventures that might be had there.

This is kind of a messy list of ideas and information I've found that might someday become a usable setting, or more likely just serve to inspire someone.

Tenochtitlan - The capital of the Aztec Empire, built on islands in the middle of a lake due to a prophecy that the wandering tribe would find the site for their great city at the place they see an eagle eating a snake while sitting atop a cactus. They saw this on a small swampy island on Lake Texcoco and the city was built there.

In the setting, Ahuizotl are adept at living in the water so its quite possible that the swampy lake could have been their original home until they started building things on top of it. Other races including the various cats, and other animals likely helped pitch in with the construction. The MLP version of Tenochtitlan could be a sort of meeting place between the "creatures of the water, the land, and sky" with the lakes and rivers around it, the roads, and the tall pyramids and buildings that reach to the sky. Expect lots of marketplaces, temples and government offices, and other utilities to help keep the various races in the area working together.


Drunken rabbits - known as the Centzon Totochtin, they are 400 divine rabbits who are collectively the gods of drunkenness, well known for having parties. Their drink of choice is Pulque, a milky white alcoholic beverage made from the sap of the maguey plant.

For the sake of this setting, we could say that rabbits in this part of the world are very fond of cooking, making drinks (not all alchoholic), and just partying in general. Angel is seen tossing a salad and doing other chores for fluttershy, so he's obviously intelligent. No stretch to say that rabbits in other parts of the world don't do the same. It's just the rabbits in these lands tend to take care of themselves and party like there is no tomorrow. These rabbits could all live in big groups with members coming and going between groups as they please so long as they all pitch in. They alternate between partying, cleaning up, gathering more food, and reproducing, denfending against predators, and all that other stuff. Each group has to have at least one rabbit who's responisble for making sure things get done (since the rest are likely too busy living it up to deal with the problems that will inevitably befall them).

These rabbits are well known for the drinks they make up, they probably make trade with other races by gathering food or berries, turning them into booze (or cider or some other tasty drink) and then selling or trading it to others.

The site godslaidbare.com also mentions Ometotchtli who is one of the named rabbits. It also mentions that in various trades and professions had their own Ometotchtli as a sort of patron (I think). I suppose one could expect various shops and tradesmen to have a rabbit as a pet or assistant to help them out. Hopefully they get one of the responsible ones instead of the ones that party all the time.


Double headed serpent - A real life statue currently in the British Museum. No real information on what it symbolizes but serpents are a major part of Aztec myth and this one has two heads (much like the Sapphire Statue that Daring Do got).


Sea serpents / dragons - Quetzalcoatl is a major figure in Aztec myth and is a feathered serpent deity.

In the MLP verse, there are a wide variety of dragons and even sea serpents. A feathered dragon would fit right in.


(more to be added)