Chay Q'umir Reino
Across the vast emerald jungles of the southern continent lie the scattered city-states of Chay Q'umir Reino — a fractured network of mostly human civilization, built atop cliffs, ziggurats, and massive stone terraces swallowed by the rainforest
While a unified empire, the jungle villages, towns and cities are isolated from one another by impossible terrain and relentless dangers. Every city survives as its own independent power, linked only through fragile trade routes, ceremonial alliances, and ancient shared traditions.
The Jungle
The rainforest itself is treated almost like a living enemy.
Massive ceiba trees blot out the sun. Thick vines consume abandoned roads within weeks. Rivers shift course after every storm season. Strange cries echo through the night canopy.
Traveling between cities is perilous and rare.
Common threats include:
- Packs of raptors stalking the undergrowth
- Giant constrictor serpents worshipped as jungle spirits
- Tyrannosaurs that wander ancient migration paths
- Territorial herbivores capable of destroying entire villages
- Carnivorous insects emerging after monsoon floods
Entire trade caravans disappear regularly.
Because of this, most settlements are heavily fortified despite existing in dense wilderness.
The City-States
Each city is effectively its own kingdom.
Their architecture consists of:
- Stepped stone pyramids
- Rope bridges over deep jungle ravines
- Defensive palisades reinforced with obsidian spikes
- Terraced farms carved into hillsides
- Massive signal fires atop temple towers
Most cities maintain:
- Beast hunters
- Jaguar warriors
- Sling and atlatl regiments
- Dinosaur wardens who understand migration behavior
- Priest-astronomers who predict seasonal dangers
Some notable cities:
Kotal-XanM
A wealthy cliffside city famous for obsidian weapons and eagle-mounted scouts.
The Moss Thrones
A loose alliance of swamp cities connected by canoe canals and hidden waterways.
Chulac-Tor
A grim militarized city built around enormous walls blackened by centuries of warfare.
The Undead Pygmies
Deep within the oldest regions of jungle dwell the Whisper Tribes — small humanoid peoples corrupted generations ago by a death cult tied to ancient ruins beneath the rainforest.
Now many exist as semi-undead cannibalistic hunters.
Characteristics:
- Gray or bark-like skin
- Teeth sharpened into needles
- Ritual bone charms
- Blowguns tipped with corpse poison
- Ability to move silently through dense foliage
Some are fully undead:
- Mummified jungle stalkers
- Rotting shamans carrying fungal plagues
- Head-hunting revenants
- Child-sized skeletal hunters riding small dinosaurs
They emerge mostly at night or during heavy rains.
The jungle kingdom fears them more than dinosaurs because the undead pygmies think strategically. Entire villages can vanish without a sound.
Religion
The people worship celestial and natural powers:
- The Sun Jaguar - Aka Eldric
- The Feathered Serpent - Aka Dagmar
- River Mothers - Aka Janna
- Ancestor spirits
- Storm Eagles
Priests use:
- Blood offerings
- Hallucinogenic visions
- Astronomical observations
- Sacred fire ceremonies
Many believe the jungle itself remembers everything spilled upon it.
Some temples predate humanity entirely.
Technology and Warfare
Technology resembles late bronze/early iron-age Mesoamerican-Andean fusion:
- Obsidian-edged weapons
- Bronze axes and ceremonial armor
- Quilted cotton armor resistant to arrows
- Blowguns, slings, and atlatls
- Massive drum communication systems
Dinosaurs influence warfare heavily.
Some cities tame:
- Hadrosaurs as pack animals
- Raptors as hunting beasts
- Pterosaurs for scouting
- Massive horned herbivores for war platforms
But true control over large carnivores is considered madness.
