Tikras

Tikras is a semi-independent settlement hidden in the southern jungles of Ixtal, reached only by a secret path that its people keep concealed behind them as they travel. A small village governed by a prefect, its elders greet visitors with the arms-crossed Ixtali salute, and though the settlement rules itself, they receive the Yunalai of the ruling Yun line, based in the grand arcologies of Ixaocan, with deference. In recent times Tikras came under pressure from outlanders. Piltovan miners and mercenaries pushed into the jungle to fell trees and open a mine, and the village's prefect was killed trying to stop them, a lifeless Piltovan machine left standing in the plaza as spoils from the skirmish. When Qiyana, a Yunalai and Child of the Yun, learned of the prefect's passing, she followed the hidden path to Tikras and offered herself as a more capable governor, one strong enough to stand against the outlanders and their toys. The elders refused her. Qiyana's own sister, Mara, had already been installed to govern the settlement, and they reaffirmed that the position was hers so long as she proved capable. Dejected, Qiyana left, but as she walked back toward Ixaocan she deliberately left the secret path uncovered, laid bare in the late sun for anyone to follow. The consequence came the next morning. The miners found Tikras and leveled it, killing half its people and driving the rest into hiding. Mara barely escaped through the jungle and returned to Ixaocan in tears, conceding that Qiyana should have been made prefect, exactly as Qiyana had intended. What remains of the settlement endures in the shadow of that betrayal.