"Quetzalcouatl, the Lawgiver, figures in most of the Mesoamerican cultures as a returning savior figure. One could not paraphrase a Mesoamerican nation without having at least a fleeting reference to him." -Illwinter

Suitably named after Aztec Hell, Mictlan has always been isolated; any of its neighbors and visitors have long-since learned that keeping contact with them would end in them being either enslaved by the Kings or exsanguinated by the Blood Cult. However, a new era has dawned under the rule of the Lawgiver who abhors blood sacrifice. Which isn't to say that the kingdom is any less brutal or isolated, you just have a better chance of keeping your blood where it belongs. The mage-priests of the Lawgiver worship his two Faces (the Sun & the Moon) and its two Domains (the Rain & the Forest), with an added appreciation for the Sky.

Mictlan is no longer the hungry Blood nation it was in EA, replacing all of it's Blood in two specific ways. First, there are now three Air mages available to recruit, all of them holy, two of them cross-paths, and one of them being strong in Astral as well. Second, the priests of Mictlan are even stronger than they were in EA, adding three new priests of increasing power. Another side effect of dropping blood is that most of your mages are cheaper, but money shouldn't be any concern for your nation considering how poorly-equipped your units still are. This is a nation that gives you all the flexibility in magic you could ever want, but takes a lot of planning to see it's true potential.

(This page borrows from the EA Mictlan page, and so has some references to blood magic that aren't relevant in MA. Feel free to fix any such errors or add them to the TO DO list in the discussion page - TitledEel)

Jaguar Warriors are pretty cool guys, able to heal afflictions that they will no-doubt acquire due to their Wounded Shape. They're not as good as in EA since you can't recruit them off-capital, but they are still worth it if you need a few bruisers for your army.

Eagle Warrior, now these guys really get a glow up in MA. While they aren't quite as powerful as the Jaguar Warriors, they hit twice as much, and more importantly, can fly once they get blessed. Add on the fact that they can be recruited off of any province with a temple and the fact that they are damn cheap for a Sacred unit, and you have an opportunity for some interesting Bless shenanigans.

Nahualli are your best off-capital Mages. They can Contact Couatls in case you need your capital recruitment for something else. Do not be fooled by their goofy looking Turkey form. Having a force of relatively cheap, flying Astral mages is no joke when you can drop a communion on your enemies at any time.

description of the workhorse options, for the sake of sanity better skip the clearly subpar and generic stuff (no h1 unless special qualities, no 40, 60 leadership dudes that are average, no scouts

Pretty much all stolen from the EA Mictlan page, please let me keep my blood.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Scout 25 1 1	stealthy(50) mountain survival forest survival	SCOUT 2: Return of SCOUT
	Tribal King 90 15 1	Sacred taskmaster(1) slaver(Slave) forest survival	Chaff-collector and competent leader.
	Mictlan Priest 65 1 2	11100% 7 Sacred forest survival	Basic research monkey with an added magic path lottery!
	Sky Priest 70 1 2	11010% 7 Sacred forest survival patrol bonus(10) fortune teller(5)	More expensive than the normal Priest, but you get reliable Air with a small chance for another path. Fortune teller might be worth it if you have misfortune scales.
	Nahualli 125 1 2	12010% 11 supply bonus(20) Shapechanger(Turkey) spirit sight forest survival	Couatl-summoner & off-cap Mage. Can run Communions for your Coatls or Moon Priests, or even each other. The Turkey shape is divine, don't let anyone tell you differently. The Turkey form turns your mages into competent raiders as well when given N gems. Set them to cast swarm and profit! After procuring a Thistle Mace you might want to empower into water to open up Foul Vapors as it is a hard counter against nations like Ulm; who in turn counters you.
	Rain Priest 125 1 2 Capital Only	22 9 Sacred forest survival	Not great for evocations, but useful as a utility mage. Use for national summons (ie. Summon Tlaloque & Jade Serpent), forging, site searching, anti-thugging and occasional ritual/combat casting. They seem useless now, until you are facing up against an army of toads backed up by Quagmire and Heat from Hell casted from your Sun Priest.
	Moon Priest 125 1 2 Capital Only	22 9 Sacred Darkvision(50%) forest survival	Communion Master. If your game isn't cheesy enough, give em a pair of Turkeys each and watch them spam Soul Slay.
	Sun Priest 135 1 2 Capital Only	22 9 Sacred forest survival	A decent fire mage for niche situations, kit with fire boosters and Fire in a Jars to boost effectiveness. Use this mage defensively and take advantage of your heat dominion. A Sun Priest with a fire booster can cast Heat from Hell and Flaming Arrows, add in an army of Sun Warriors and javelin/sling variant Warriors, and they can be pretty effective when keeping raiders or smaller armies at bay. You can also spam Fires from Afar, but it is quite costly and the gems could be put to much better use. You can also empower in astral to cast Solar Eclipse, but breaking into blood kind of defeats the purpose of this, as your demon summons can cast Darkness.
	Priest King 210 5 2 Capital Only	23010% 9 Sacred taskmaster(1) slaver(Slave) supply bonus(20) forest survival	4-squad leader and slaver supreme. Potentially outmatched as a Nature mage by the Couatl, but that Leadership is no joke. Just give him a bit of armor, since he's got practically none, also give them a Rabbit Foot Charm to counter spells like Seeking Arrow if fighting any nation with air magic, as Seeking Arrow causes AN (armor-negating) damage. As mentioned with the Nahualli, it might be worth empowering this guy in water, so he can cast Foul Vapors with a Thistle Mace. Who needs elephants when you got Monster Toads?
	High Priest of the Sky 225 1 2 Capital Only	231100% 10% 11 Sacred flying forest survival patrol bonus(20) old age (55/50) fortune teller(10)	Old A2H3 mage with 1 extra random path, can offset the old status by getting the Unaging bless. Casts air spells and Divine Blessing. Also a good raider that synergizes well with Turkeys since they too can fly; just give them air gems and watch them fill the field with Air Elementals.
	Couatl 300 1 4 Capital Only	3122100% 100% 10% 17 Sacred poison resistant(15) magic being cold blooded flying swimming forest survival swamp survival supply bonus(10) inspirational	A very flexible mage. Maybe good for a thug chassis. Slightly different than summoned Couatls in that they might get some Nature replaced with Air.

description of the workhorse options, for the sake of sanity better skip the clearly subpar and generic stuff (common indie like units with no gimmicks), merge units into a single description entry if functionally similar battle roles with only minor differences in gear.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Warrior 9 1 7	forest survival	Slinger with Shield. Archers prefer shooting at low prot targets so they can keep the heat of Jaguar Warriors while still being more protected and can trade because of their shields.
	Warrior 9 8 7	forest survival	Slinger with Shield and armor. best suited as lance catchers, being cheap but will still last longer than the barechested warriors.
	Warrior 9 10 7	forest survival	A good expanding alternative to your sacreds. Javelins give them an advantage over low prot indies that would normally shred Jaguar Warrior like barbarians.
	Warrior 9 13 7	forest survival	The above warrior but "better" melee weapons and armor at the cost of map movement. Stick to Moon Warriors and the above variant. Maybe recruit if you need that extra javelin to pop glamourous ponies.
	Moon Warrior 12 14 14	darkvision(50%) forest survival	Warrior with Greatweapon and darkvision. These are your mainline infantry next to your sacreds, always recruit these. Moon warriors start getting useful when you start amassing your demon army and learn how to cast the Darkness or Solar Eclipse spells. Make great fort recruits when going a Darkness army strategy.
	Feathered Warrior 18 13 21	standard(1) forest survival	Boost the morale of the Warriors he is with. Sacreds have good moral but boosting higher it can be important especially when there are so many abilities that force you to roll it many times.
	Jaguar Warrior 26 4 31 Capital Only	Sacred wounded shape(Were Jaguar) forest survival	A decent sacred in-game being a greatweapon guy with a second werebeast shape with 3 attacks, only held back by their capital-only recruitment. Beware of mass firepower, they don't have high prot or shields.
	Eagle Warrior 15 3 14	Sacred ambidextrous(3) flies-when Blessed forest survival	Possibly your best sacred in MA, if only because it can be recruited anywhere for fairly cheap. Gains the ability to fly when blessed, so can assassinate commanders in the rear like other flying nations. Also suffers the same weakness as Jaguar Warriors, but worse as they do not have another form to rely on.
	Sun Warrior 18 15 18 Capital Only	Sacred resist fire(5) forest survival	Another sacred, being an armored warrior with javelin and resistance to fire. Less appealing than the other sacreds in terms of offense and competes with the recruitment of Jaguar Warrior. Ok during early game expansion depending on blessing when keeping expansion party casualties low is important. Best used in heat dominion on the defensive to synergize with your Sun Priests.

any breakout hits that might sway someone towards luck or away from it ?

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Mictlipoctli - King of Legends Hero turn arrival limit:(5)	333 17 Sacred undead inanimate need-not-eat spirit sight pierce resistant fire vulnerability(10) resist cold(15) resist poison(25) reanimator-priest reanimation bonus(2)	A Mound Fiend with blood magic, breaking you into both blood and death before getting Summon Tlaloque. Always nice to diversify your assets.
	Topiltzin - Priest King Hero turn arrival limit:(5)	22324 23 Sacred swamp survival forest survival swimming resist poison (15) supply bonus (20) Shapechanger(Feathered Serpent)	Just as the Nahualli transforms into a form delicious to humans, Mixcoatl transforms into a form delicious to Couatls! Has full magic item slots, but be careful as shape changers can destroy items if they shift to a form that can't hold them.
	Mixcoatl - Priest King Hero turn arrival limit:(5)	3323 21 Sacred swamp survival forest survival swimming resist poison (15) resist shock (10) supply bonus (20) Shapechanger(Feathered Serpent)	Just as the Nahualli transforms into a form delicious to humans, Mixcoatl transforms into a form delicious to Couatls! Has full magic item slots, but be careful as shape changers can destroy items if they shift to a form that can't hold them.

Without Blood, what does Mictlan have? Well, the five paths listed above, in order from most-common to least-common. Notably, Mictlan gets a bit more magic diversity off-capital than its early version.

Mictlan's Sorcery (Astral & Nature Magic) are its strong points. The Empire gets higher-level Nature than Astral off-capital, and higher-level Astral than Nature within the capital. For the "big" mage and the off-capital "battle" mage, however, Astral and Nature come together. Without boosters, you can comfortably get 3 and 3. Since your "big" mage has such a bad set of item slots, however, climbing up with boosters is difficult; you won't be able to get past 3, and attaining the ladder cap of 6 requires either a Faery Queen or a slightly-earlier Ivy King.

Mictlan's Elements are in a somewhat-sorrier state; having 2, 2, and 2 respectively means that you won't be able to help your Fire or Air with boosters, and that you won't be able to do the traditional 5-7 ladder-climb (both boosters + Sea King + Water Queen) until after Construction 6. You can at least summon a Faery Queen to get 3; Fire will stay at 2. Unlike Early Mictlan, Middle Mictlan can get elemental randoms off-capital, which will allow them to site-search more and play with extra income.

Mictlan's biggest gaping hole has always been its complete lack of Earth Magic. This is the case even for Middle Mictlan; it can patiently wait for Construction 6 and Conjuration 7 to get a Tlaloque with 3 (and potentially 2) and then summon a Tlahuelpuchi for 1, or pray that one of its most-spammable national mages will have 1 or 1, but it has no national Earth whatsoever. Lack of Earth Magic means Mictlan's best protection is Barkskin, its best troop-pinning spell is Prison of Fire, and its chance of casting Weapons of Sharpness without a Pretender is close to nil. It also means you'll have to delve into the School of Enchantment for Shock Resistance; not that that's a bad thing in general, since Nature Enchantments include Regeneration and Haste while Air Enchantments include Mass Flight, but it may split your Research focus a bit more than you'd like.

Middle Mictlan also has only some Crosspaths, and these are fairly limited in what you can do with them. Astral/Nature, outside of summoning Couatls and climbing Nature another level, only provides Curse. Air/Nature provides Sprites, Amphipteres, and Healing Mists, and that's about it. Air/Water can surprise foes with Freezing Mist, but you'll need a Water booster. Air/Fire provides Sulphur Haze with 1, but that's all, unless you're Empowering or trading for boosters.

national spell or summon cost and use case, judgment if it's good.

• Summon Jaguar Toads: 2 Conj 1.11 ( Jaguar Toadx2) they are small tramplers (only running over common infantry) and spit armor ignoring mortal poison, while also poisoning anyone that don't use spears. They are easy to summon them but They are easy to kill and Undisciplined makes them hard to buff.

• Summon Jaguars: 25 Conj 3.21 ( Jaguarx17) like weaker Ozelotls that come in greater numbers using nature gems. Great and a efficient use of nature gems spending if you have a good bless for them and desperate need lots of troops.

• Summon Jade Serpent: 3 Conj 4.2 ( Jade Serpentx1) a big bag of hit points that's a sacred standard and a high strength poison bit. Mix some into troops to improve their morale and way to kill high armored enemies.

• Summon Tlaloque: 60 Conj 7.4 ( Tlaloque of the East, Tlaloque of the South, Tlaloque of the West, Tlaloque of the North). Great dump for your Water gems in the late game. Often don't see one unless in a longer game as Mictlan often have other pressing research priorities then reaching Conj 7,

• Summon Monster Toads: 2 Conj 5 8 (summon 3 Monster Toad). Sacred Tramplers that spread poison with their Poisonous Skin and Poisonous Cloud. Likely to Die, but will kill formation as the toads will suicidally trample to the middle of it to spread the poison cloud.

• Contact Couatl: 40 Conj 6.11 ( Couatlx1). You can recruit them from cap but getting a upkeepless vertion with guaranteed 3 while freeing up space the other cap only mages is still too good.

• Bind Beast Bats: 8 Blood 2.1 ( Beast Batx3). Come online early in-game. not as good fighters as Ozelotl but deal a significant amount of fatigue if they can wound with their poisonous bit. Mixing in some can quickly put monsters to sleep if you can overcome their prot and defenses.

• Bind Jaguar Fiends: 16 Blood 4.11 ( Ozelotlx3). Your Greatest Damage dealer troops. Want to spam a lot of them for your armies when the blood economy is set up.

• Contact Civateteo: 36 Blood 5.22 ( Civateteox1). You need your other nation blood mage summons to make her but she is a great stealth Deamon army raider. Also, a Reanimator Priest to free spawn some extra Longdead during downtime.

• Bind Tzitzimitl: 10 Blood 6.22 ( Tzitzimitlx1). Moon Priest can summon these demons which are mini evocations mages in a Demon's body. Lot protection but great at being artily, Hurling their steller bolts.

• Contact Tlahuelpuchi: 42 Blood 6.3 ( Tlahuelpuchix1). a Demon Assasin. Ok if you need a Death mage now and don't have the time to Reaserch Blood 7.

• Contact Onaqui: 101 Blood 7.4 ( Onaquix1, Beast Batx3). Summon a stronger blood Death mage than the Tlahuelpuchi, being a few boosts from summoning Vampire Lords. Onaqui are 2311100% mages who will freespawn a few Beast Bat each turn in friendly Dominion.

Discuss the top few generic spells that most increase a nation's combat power or synergize with national strategies. These will generally be early-to-mid game spells since individual spells matter much more during those periods of the game. Some examples are Foul Vapors for MA C'tis, Horde of Skeletons + Sabbath Master/Sabbath Slave for the Niefelheim line of nations, Mother Oak for the Pangaeas, Wailing Winds access, etc. For broader advice on magic use, link to Not-Lola's Basic Magic Use Guide.

This is also a good place to point out notable magic weaknesses, such as a lack of nature access making a nation vulnerable to Foul Vapors.

List and describe any unique national items or discounts in this section, discuss and compare with similar generic items. Also, discuss generic items that are useful and accessible for the nation. These may include:

• Thug gear (if the nation has good thugs)
• Research boosters (particularly if the nation needs help researching or is already very good at researching)
• Other items that synergize with the nation (e.g. Dwarven Hammers for MA Ulm)

• Jade Knife Const 2, 55, 11: grants useer Adept Sacrificer, granting you +2 priest levels when using blood slaves to expand your domions.

Definitely a mid-tier nation but can be really good in the hands of a capable player. It suffers from not having a native blood mage, but if you manage to get a Garnet indy province, or put blood on your god, you can break into blood magic and start summoning your iconic summons. Although it isn't mandatory to break into blood if your bless is sufficient enough to carry you.

Early game is the most important for this nation because making one mistake in the expansion phase can really make or break your chances of survival or even winning a match. Be very wary of what provinces you are attacking and avoid heavy cavalry provinces like the plague. Do not get greedy, if you aren't confident in your expansion army's capabilities then wait for reinforcements or hire mercenaries.

Try to avoid fighting nations like Ulm or Pythium in the early game unless you have a coalition running against them.

List some example expansion strategies here. If a strong bless or pretender is required then leave the specifics for the pretender section.

List some example pretender builds. Try to use the following format to keep authorship and pretender design rationale clear.

Flight but also not really by Shinuyama/Not-Lola

Nations
Early Ages	Arcoscephale • Ermor • Ulm • Marverni • Sauromatia • T'ien Ch'i • Machaka • Mictlan • Abysia • Caelum • C'tis • Pangaea • Agartha • Tir na n'Og • Fomoria • Vanheim • Helheim • Niefelheim • Rus • Kailasa • Lanka • Yomi • Hinnom • Ur • Berytos • Xibalba • Mekone • Ubar • Atlantis • R'lyeh • Pelagia • Oceania • Therodos
Middle Ages	Arcoscephale • Ermor • Sceleria • Pythium • Man • Eriu • Ulm • Marignon • Mictlan • T'ien Ch'i • Machaka • Agartha • Abysia • Caelum • C'tis • Pangaea • Asphodel • Vanheim • Jotunheim • Vanarus • Bandar Log • Shinuyama • Ashdod • Uruk • Nazca • Xibalba • Phlegra • Phaeacia • Ind • Na'ba • Atlantis • R'lyeh • Pelagia • Oceania • Ys
Late Ages	Arcoscephale • Pythium • Lemuria • Man • Ulm • Marignon • Mictlan • T'ien Ch'i • Jomon • Agartha • Abysia • Caelum • C'tis • Pangaea • Midgård • Utgård • Bogarus • Patala • Gath • Ragha • Xibalba • Phlegra • Vaettiheim • Atlantis • R'lyeh • Erytheia