Quetz coatl
Quetz couatl
- This article is about the type of coatl. For the pterosaur , see quetzalcoatlus.
Feathered serpents that serve the highest powers of good, coatls1 are not only powerful creatures but also powerful symbols of goodness. The most common variety of coatl is the quetz coatl.23
Appearance
A quetz coatl has the body of a huge snake with very brightly coloured iridescent blue-and-green scales. Large avian wings covered in feathers of a myriad brilliant rainbow tones grow from its back. The average quetz coatl is around 10 to 20 feet long4 with a wingspan of 15 feet and a weight of about a ton.56 A quetz coatl is such an impressive sight that it can awe more primitive peoples into believing it to be a god.5
Abilities
Quetz coatls can dazzle creatures with the light emitted from their plumage. They can grab creatures with their venomous jaws and can then constrict the enemy within its coiled body. They produce holy quetz coatl venom, that is especially noxious to unholy creatures resistant to poison, though harmless to those immune to toxins.6
Habitat and ecology
Quetz coatls are most often found in warm forests, particularly the rainforests of the Mwangi Expanse.5 It is in the Expanse that quetz coatls face their most hated enemy, the baregara, who are cruel, simian, demon minions of the demon lord Angazhan. The baregara return this hatred in a mutual enmity between the creatures because of the quetz coatls' good nature.7
Quetz coatls dedicate themselves to teaching the virtues of goodness, knowledge, wisdom, and justice,586 to those they encounter and are considered paragons of wisdom and beauty, with some even regarding them as gods. While quetz coatls do not encourage this reverence, they tolerate it if it helps them spread their message. Despite their outsider nature, quetz coatls still have to eat, preferring the small birds, reptiles, and other animals favoured by the snakes they resemble. However, they have also been known to consume the bodies of fallen enemies. Sometimes if a quetz coatl favours a person, it offers some of its feathers to be used to summon it later.58
References
For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.
- ↑ Paizo referred to coatls as couatls until the publication of Monster Core.
- ↑ . “Bestiary” in For Queen & Empire, 86. Paizo Inc., 2016
- ↑ In the Bestiary section of For Queen & Empire, Paizo started to discuss varieties of coatl renaming the standard coatl documented in the Bestiary a "quetz coatl" and introducing new coatl variants. This page discusses the standard couatl (sic) found in the Bestiary, while the coatl page now discusses the broader family of outsiders.
- ↑ In Bestiary (First Edition) 49 they are stated to be 12 feet long.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 . “Monsters A to Z” in Bestiary, 49. Paizo Inc., 2009
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 . “Quetz coatl” in Monster Core, 65. Paizo Inc., 2024
- ↑ . “Bestiary” in Sanctum of the Serpent God, 81. Paizo Inc., 2011
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 . “Couatl” in Mythical Monsters Revisited, 11. Paizo Inc., 2012
External links
- Quetzalcoatl (real-world deity) on Wikipedia