Quetz couatl
- This article is about the type of couatl. For the pterosaur , see quetzalcoatlus.
Feathered serpents that serve the highest powers of good, couatls are not only powerful creatures but also powerful symbols of goodness. The most common variety of couatl is the quetz couatl.12
Appearance
A quetz couatl has the body of a huge snake with very brightly coloured scales. Large bird wings covered in feathers of myriad brilliant tones grow from its back. The average quetz couatl is around 12 feet long with a wingspan of 15 feet. A quetz couatl is such an impressive sight that it can awe more primitive peoples into believing it to be a god.3
Habitat and ecology
Quetz couatls are most often found in warm forests, particularly the rainforests of the Mwangi Expanse.3 It is in the Expanse that quetz couatls 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 couatls' good nature.4
Quetz couatls dedicate themselves to teaching the virtues of goodness and wisdom to those they encounter and are considered paragons of wisdom and beauty, with some even regarding them as gods. While quetz couatls do not encourage this reverence, they tolerate it if it helps them spread their message. Despite their outsider nature, quetz couatls 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 couatl favours a person, it offers some of its feathers to be used to summon it later.35
References
For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.
- ↑ Garrett Guillotte, Steven T. Helt, Luis Loza, and Stephen Radney-MacFarland. (2016). Bestiary. For Queen & Empire, p. 86. Paizo Inc. ISBN 978-1-60125-836-6
- ↑ In the Bestiary section of For Queen & Empire, Paizo started to discuss varieties of couatl renaming the standard couatl documented in the Bestiary a "quetz couatl" and introducing new couatl variants. This page discusses the standard couatl found in the Bestiary, while the couatl page now discusses the broader family of outsiders.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Jason Bulmahn. (2009). Bestiary (First Edition), p. 49. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-183-1
- ↑ Jesse Benner, Rob McCreary, and Neil Spicer. (2011). Bestiary. Sanctum of the Serpent God, p. 81. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-307-1
- ↑ Jonathan Keith, Jason Nelson, and Anthony Pryor. (2012). Mythical Monsters Revisited, p. 11. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-384-2
External links
- Quetzalcoatl (real-world deity) on Wikipedia