Pachatupa

Pachatupa
[[File:{{#setmainimage:Ixalan map.png}}|250px]]
Information
Plane	Ixalan
Part of	Sun Empire, Ixalan

Pachatupa is the former capital of the Sun Empire on Ixalan. After New Phyrexia's Invasion of the Multiverse, the capital was moved to Orazca.

Description

Pachatupa is located on the Sun Coast on the eastern side of the continent of Ixalan, where the coastal plains rise into the high mountains. The river bordering Pachatupa feeds the city freshwater from vast inland mountain ranges, plunging from Itlimoc through heavily irrigated floodplains. It is the most populous and developed city-state in the Empire, and all roads in the empire lead to the city. The city surrounds and builds to Tocatli, once the Imperial citadel complex where the emperor and their closest dynastic relatives resided. Pachatupa's terraced farms, titanic stone buildings, sprawling irrigation systems, and sturdy walls are a testament to the engineering skill of the Sun Empire.

Tocatli

The emperor's citadel, Tocatli, is a glorious, fortified palace at the heart of Pachatupa. The palace encompasses many noble mansions, belonging to the various dynastic relations and their offshoot houses. Tocatli's spacious grounds also include three temples, each devoted to one of the Threefold Sun's three aspects: Kinjalli, Tilonalli, and Ixalli. This grand complex was exclusive only to the highest classes of Imperial nobility and citizenry before the invasion, a metropolis atop Pachatupa from which the common folk were excluded. However, during the invasion, Tocatli was the center of the Imperial war effort, its exclusive plazas and manors opened to the common people of the Sun Empire through necessity. After the invasion, this once exclusive palatial complex is open — with some restrictions — to the people, a symbol of the new emperor's love for his subjects, enforced by the will of an emboldened people who the emperor's stewards wisely seek to placate.

History

Pachatupa was the seat of the Imperial dynasty following the empire's abandonment of Orazca centuries before the golden city's rediscovery. In its heyday, the Imperial capital was the singular axis of the empire, where all noble families kept some property — politics demanded proximity to the emperor — and where the lion's share of tribute, taxes, and harvests flowed.

During the Phyrexian invasion, the city became swollen with refugees from across the empire, Pachatupa's clean, exclusive avenues became blood-and-oil-slick battlegrounds, where peasant levies fought shoulder to shoulder with the emperor's guards against the Phyrexian horde. Through their efforts, bolstered by the mighty siegeworks of the city, Pachatupa — and to an extent, the Sun Empire — survived the invasion.

Pachatupa after the invasion is more egalitarian than it was before the war, but its luster has diminished. The city's mighty walls and dense streets are haunted by the traumas of the invasion and the terrible siege the city and her people weathered. Immediately after the invasion, Pachatupa was the primary target of reconstruction, but despite the massive cleanup and rebuilding effort, the old capital lost much of its draw. The emperor returned the throne to Orazca, the first capital of the Sun Empire, and therefore took the locus of political power with him. Outside the citadel complex, a newly enfranchised ignoble population now see themselves as the owners, defenders, and heirs to Pachatupa. In the past, all roads of the Sun Empire led to Pachatupa; now, the people of the ex-capital can look to each corner of the compass to see all roads leading out.

Etymology

Pachatupa may be formed from the Quechua words pacha ("place") + tupa ("noble").

In-game references

Referred to:

• Tocatli Honor Guard