Sun Empire

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Sun Empire
[[File:{{#setmainimage:Trifold Sun.png}}|150px]]
History
Founded on Ixalan
Active For many human generations
Status In power on Ixalan
Organization
Purpose Rule the continent of Ixalan
Type Empire
Values Tradition, Dinosaur mastery, sun worship, warfare
Membership
Founded by Chacanto Intli
Leader

Chacanto Intli (former)
Huatzan I (former)
Huatzan II (former)
Apatzec Intli I (former)
Apatzec Intli II (former)
Intli III's mother (?-c. 3 BD)
Apatzec Intli III (c. 3 BD-4 Dawn Era)

Apatzec Intli IV (minor, 4-Present), Atlacan Huicintli (steward)
Notable members Atla Palani, Caparocti Sunborn, Caztaca Huicintli, Huatli, Inti, Saheeli Rai, Wayta
Game Information
Colors {R}{G}{W}
Mechanics Enrage, Dinosaurs matter
Races Human
Other types Dinosaur
Sources
Ixalan, Rivals of Ixalan

The Sun Empire is a prosperous empire on the continent of Ixalan, which is located on the plane of the same name.[1]

Description

The Sun Empire spans the breadth of the continent of Ixalan.[2] Composed of four major city-states, Pachatupa, Atzocan, Otepec, and Orazca, and hundreds of minor villages, fortresses, and towns between, the Sun Empire is rich in material wealth, natural beauty, arable land, biodiversity, and people.[3] The Sun Empire has a central power structure, but while the other large cities are nominally aligned to the capital, that hold is tenuous at best. The human warriors of the empire cooperate with dinosaurs, and they are protected by the magic of their sun priests. Their cities were built to accommodate dinosaur riders, with high arches to allow their knights to pass through unobstructed.

Notable locations

Map of Ixalan with the Sun Empire in the east
  • The Sun Coast, the eastern coast.
  • The four city-states
  • Other
    • Quetzatl state. An inland state with no cities, only holding small towns and maize, squash, and bean farms.
    • Little Pocatli. An inland city that was destroyed by the Phyrexians.[4]

Culture

The people of the Sun Empire take great pride in their traditions and heritage. The title of warrior-poet is bestowed on only one person in a generation. They kept the stories and weaved events into words. To earn that title, one must demonstrate excellence in service to the kingdom.[5]

The Canchatan, the temple soldiers of Pachatupa, are specially chosen and blessed by the priests of two of the Temple of the Birthing Sun and the Temple of the Consuming Sun.[6] Though they are technically two military forces, they have a single commander. meanwhile, the Emperor's Guard is an elite military force housed in the palace of Tocatli, which answers directly to the emperor. Its soldiers are divided into seven squads, each with its commander, called an intical.[6] Sun empire warriors carry macuahuitls.[4]

Dinosaurs are important to the Sun Empire's sense of national identity. The empire's people used dinosaur feathers as decorations and as inspiration for design motifs in everything from jewelry to architecture. They believe that the Immortal Sun first gave their priests the ability to call and command the dinosaurs, so maintaining this command is a way of clinging to their ancient heritage. These creatures are not tame. Whenever a dinosaur moves through a Sun Empire city, it is under someone's direct control—and there's always the risk of it breaking free. This is part of the Sun Empire's worldview: nature (embodied in the dinosaurs) is a tool to be wielded, bent to human will, but it is a constant test of will and strength. Nature can't be tamed, but when humans live alongside nature they are made stronger.

The Sun Empire worships the sun, which they believe to display three aspects. Temples to various aspects of the sun exist, but any land touched by the sun's light is considered sacred.[3][7]

Their native language and script is called Itzocan,[8] which is divided into "High" and "Low" dialects.[9]

History

The people of the Sun Empire are said to have been formed from the clay by the loving hands of Kinjalli, the Wakening Sun.[10] In reality, they descend from the Komon Winaq, the original people of Ixalan's Core.[11]

Early history

The Sun Empire was first founded from Orazca by Chacanto Intli, who united the various city-states into a central empire.[6] Following a devastating war with the River Heralds under Apatzec Intli I, who used the power of the Immortal Sun without restraint, their civilization was reduced to a few coastal cities, with Orazca being lost to them.

Revival

Whereas the River Heralds - who lived there long before the humans - had once controlled the continent, under the leadership of its new emperor Apatzec Intli III, the Sun Empire had cemented its grip on the land.[5] The empire still confronted the Heralds on its borders. Apatzec III was responsible for the new assertion of control and a mood of expansionism that had gripped the empire following his mother's death several years before.

The Sun Empire was besieged by pirate raids by the Brazen Coalition and the advance of the Legion of Dusk. Caught between the invaders from the sea and the wall of the jungle behind them, the Sun Empire rose with the ferocity of a dinosaur and the righteous light of the radiant sun to fight off its enemies.

With Orazca retaken, the Sun Empire pushed the Legion of Dusk back to the sea, capturing and reverse engineering their fleet in preparation for an invasion of Torrezon.[12] Forests were felled to raise a new fleet, known as the Dawn Fleet. Hundreds of ships were built, and nearly ten thousand soldiers and sailors crewed them. The ships were launched to Torrezon, and their last known location was the midway point between the two empires. However, when New Phyrexia's Invasion of the Multiverse started, the Sun Empire was forced to join forces with the Legion of Dusk to defend the plane.[4]

Phyrexian invasion

During New Phyrexia's Invasion of the Multiverse, the Phyrexian vanguard landed near Atzocan, surprising the Sun Empire and overwhelming the unprepared defenders. Within days, tens of thousands of Phyrexianized Sun Empire citizens and many regiments' worth of quetzacama — dinosaurs — were ready to march on the rest of the empire. The campaign that followed pitted beleaguered Sun Empire regiments against a dauntless tide of their Phyrexianized comrades, with Imperial forces forced into a constant, demoralizing, and costly series of covering and screening maneuvers: a route by any other definition, but one that bought time for the Imperial capital, Pachatupa, to prepare its defenses.[3]

The Imperial decision to defend only the capital exposed the rest of the empire to the Phyrexians: the machine's forces swept over the cities outside of the Imperial core, encircling the capital and committing it to siege.[3] A desperate mission to Orazca by Huatli and her commandos, to call the elder dinosaurs to Orazca and break the siege of Pachatupa, saved the Sun Empire and Ixalan from falling to the Phyrexians.[4] Near the end of the invasion, Emperor Apatzec Intli III was assassinated by Phyrexian sleeper agents, and was succeeded by his young son Apatzec Intli IV.[9][3]

Rebuilding

Following the invasion, Orazca was revived and declared the new capital and a home for refugees across the continent, as tens of thousands of people came there after the invasion left their home states ravaged and inhospitable.[2]

Before the invasion, the Sun Empire was a highly stratified society, where priest- and warrior-caste nobility lorded over merchants and peasants.[3] In the wake of the invasion, when every Imperial subject who could carry a weapon was pressed into the defense of the empire, few were willing to return to the ways of the old world. Priests and warriors still lead and protect the empire, but they are no longer occupations exclusively open to the nobility. Owing to the vacuum left by the casualties the invasion claimed, these professions have been democratized, the doors of their academies and temples open to the peasants and laypeople who defended them. Old corps of aristocratic priests and praetorian knights remain, but the ranks of these professions are now dominated by Imperial subjects without noble blood.

The invigorating effect of this inclusivity has revitalized the empire. Lay priests trek across the empire, spreading the Threefold Sun's grace, power, and acumen in vulgar Itzocan.[3] Communities outside the four city-states have made the logistics routes of the invasion permanent, building out new infrastructure with Imperial support. Agricultural and labor collectives struck out into Ixalan, working to clear the continent of Phyrexian remains and inert oil, laboring to reestablish and repopulate towns and villages destroyed in the invasion as well as rehabilitate the ancient jungles, fields, lakes, and rivers that also suffered in the invasion.[2] The Imperial army, long an unchanging body managed by noble commanders, is now led by a canny, brave, and consummate officer corps, the majority of whom were once lower-class soldiers, battlefield promoted during the invasion.

Having moved to Ixalan after her desparking, Saheeli Rai became a citizen of the Sun Empire and entered the politics of the court after impressing the boy-emperor with her automatons in the image of dinosaurs which the emperor coined "mechanoquetzacama."[9] Atlacan Huicintli, the emperor's steward, planned to resume the war against Torrezon, commissioning a new Dawn Fleet of ten thousand ships and dozens of mechanoquetzacama.[9] In response, Huatli planned to depose Atlacan, defang the emperor's guard, and move Caztaca Huicintli into power at the emperor's side.

Trivia

In-game references

Associated cards:
Depicted in:
Referred to:
^† Scryfall does not record flavor text for digital cards. See Alchemy: Ixalan/Flavor text

References

  1. ↑ a b Blake Rasmussen and Alison Luhrs (August 30, 2017). "Magic Story Podcast: Ixalan". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  2. ↑ a b c Harless Snyder, Natalie Kreider, Miguel Lopez, and Ovidio Cartagena (October 23, 2023). "The Lost Caverns of Ixalan #41: The Origins of Ixalan, Part 1". The Magic Story Podcast.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Miguel Lopez (November 10, 2023). "Planeswalker's Guide to the Lost Caverns of Ixalan". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  4. ↑ a b c d Miguel Lopez (Mar 21, 2023). "March of the Machine - Ixalan: Three Hundred Steps Under the Sun". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  5. ↑ a b R&D Narrative Team (September 13, 2017). "A Question of Confidence". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  6. ↑ a b c R&D Narrative Team (November 1, 2017). "Planeswalker's Guide to Ixalan, Part 1". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  7. ↑ Sunpetal Grove
  8. ↑ Valerie Valdes (October 20, 2023). "The Lost Caverns of Ixalan - Episode 1". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  9. ↑ a b c d Valerie Valdes (October 20, 2023). "The Lost Caverns of Ixalan - Pawns". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  10. ↑ Explore the Planes: Ixalan
  11. ↑ The Preview Panel at MagicCon: Las Vegas 2023 (Video). Magic: The Gathering. YouTube (September 22, 2023).
  12. ↑ R&D Narrative Team (February 14, 2018). "Wool over the Eyes". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
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