I must have somehow come across last years image then, yeah. Hadn't realised you'd been running it for multiple years, that's cool :-)

Has this swapped place with the week 2 on the main image, or is week three going to be something else?

Do you actually need plastics for latex? Sure, plastics make it easier to mass-produce artificial latex, but the original (natural) latex is just taken from a variety of plants.

Could there reasonably be a plant in Eorzea that functions like the Rubber Tree?

That said, Matlaktome is not intended to be accurate, just informed, and I wasn't really intending to have a Dia de Los Muertos.
But the research was fascinating, and has improved my understanding of the Ash Shaman (who replaced the Allseer we had in September due to fitting the setting better).

Bit late on this one, because I got sucked into a whirlpool of information on real world history can culture of the regions Matlaktlome is based on. Short version: It's unclear whether Dia de Los Muertos syncretises any native tradition of is just based in Catholicism alone.🧵

the Ash Shaman always seeks to preserve knowledge in more lasting ways, and thus her followers run schools, libraries, and other places of learning. They don't seek to recover lost knowledge, nor particularly actively seek new knowledge, but rather they seek to ensure that nothing now known is lost.

The dead spend some time in the underworld/spiritual realm/Mictlan before generally being reborn/recycled, and she can speak to them through the ashes and bones - but also their memories essence can be absorbed by consuming the bone ash.
But as neither of these keep the knowledge in perpetuity🧵

- as in our history, vibrant purple dye is rare and hard to come by in most of the world, and often a symbol of royalty. Matlaktlome can make it more easily, and it doesn't have any royalty per se, but the association in the rest of the world makes it valuable.
#Worldbuilding #NovemberWorldbuilders

Beyond that, I suspect that there are a lot of Jade Statues in the ruins of the old Serpent Empire. It's not something we've really detailed yet, and there might be a reason it doesn't make sense, but jade statues of the great kings and heroes of the Coatli just feel right.
#novemberworldbuilders

and that strongly shapes the culture - wars over farmland aren't a factor, because you can pluck food from the trees or build farms on water or stone.

The Tetocani have upset that situation, because their hives tend to take and enclose large regions for themselves, but the culture holds for now.🧵

But also the current Delver, the leader of underground explorers, is a Tetocani prince who has chosen to abandon the call of the nest in favour of exploring the wonders of the world he finds himself in - seeking not to conquer, but to understand.

#NovemberWorldbuilders #worldbuilding #fantasy

Two of the Iconic powers of the setting are Tetocani. The Broodmother, who leads the invasion from an offshore hive, is the obvious one - her influence is seen throughout the Tetocani population, and the lands that they have conquered. She sees the inhabitants of Matlaktlome as wayward drones🧵

That said, the royals are people - and specifically, are within three generations of the invasion of these lands - to a certain extent they can be associated with the Conquistadors, making the fact that they produce liquid gold (honey) ironic - especially as those who are peaceful trade it widely.🧵

The role of the Tetocani in the setting is primarily adversarial - they make great antagonists for a #13thage or #dnd campaign because only the royals of the hive are sapient individuals, the workers/soldiers have as much free will as a zombie, and thus they can be slaughtered without moral qualms🧵

Now, for the sake of being able to use stock art, we may well extend the Tetocani and allow them to take other insectoid appearances, but at the very least the original hive will be wasp-like, likely based on the Mexican Honey-Wasp.🧵
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brachyg...

The civilization that dominates those mountains is The Graven Court - composed of ancestral spirits bound in stone. They make great use of blue gemstones in the decorations of their immortal stone forms, using it as a symbol of their superiority.
#NovemberWorldbuilders #Worldbuilding

Blue is a rare and expensive colour on the eastern coastal end of the river - artificial blue pigments require alchemical techniques that aren't readily available, and the Lapis Lazuli required to produce naturally stable blue pigment comes entirely from the mountains at the western end.🧵

I'd say it's about as pleasant as Victorian London. Which is to say, not very - but you get used to it, and you get to be proud of the fact you manage to live there!

Once you leave Altepetl, red becomes a much less prevalent colour - the vast rainforest of Matlaktome does have some red fruits, many of which are either spicy or poisonous, and some rare animals with red markers - but for the most part, Red is a signature of The City.