House of Ixchel

Centuries ago, King Drosst of Uskala made it a point to recruit a large number of camazotz into his kingdom in order to have some terrifying hired muscle that can fly.   He generally viewed the bats as a blunt unsubtle instruments of terror. Ixchel was extremely intelligent, and was the first camazotz into the Uskalan Magic School and became one of the most powerful camazotz mages in recorded history. Drosst did not think much of this, as exceptional individual pop up in almost every group.   Ixchel was intending a magical weapon to use against the kalazotz and developed a spell to interfere with sonar rendering it worse than useless. The spell worked, but it proved to be just as dangerous to camazotz as it is to kalazotz.   She chose to share this spell with King Drosst anyway. Impressed by her show of loyalty, Drosst opted to ennoble her and her family for all time, creating House Ixchel and bestowing Ixchel herself the title of ajawnok, a hereditary position bestowed on her strongest daughter and daughter's daughter and so on. Technically, the position is unisex but the camazotz lean matriarchal and very few males have held the title.   The ajawnok answers directly to King Drosst and directs all Uskalan camazotz under Drosst's name, but the Uskalan camazotz are too numerous and widespread for the ajawnok to directly oversee all of them all the time, so there are many lesser leaders below the ajawnok, but none of these lesser leadership positions are hereditary.   House Ixchel is very large, and most don't hold a formal title, but lesser leaders among the Uskalan camazotz are disportionately drawn from the Ixchel line and the family name commands respect both within the camazotz and outside it, famed for having both brains and brawn in abundance. Ixchel camazotz have access to formal training that most other camazotz do not have and almost all camazotz wizards are of the Ixchel line.   That said, the camazotz don't put as much stock in birthright as humans do, and the camazotz do not follow weaklings or fools. Male and female camazotz with the Ixchel name that demonstrate foolishness or weakness are often put down by their kin.   Most of House Ixchel are literate, a rarity among camazotz and while it is not hard to find Uskalan camazotz who speak Common in addition to their native Zocatec, many Ixchel camazotz pick up a third or fourth language too.   In response to the establishment of House Ixchel, some of the other Uskalan camazotz have formally chosen bloodline or clan names, but as of yet none of them wield a fraction of the power or status of Clan Ixchel.