Zomoc

Zomoc was a general and later, one of the Revered Counsellors of the great Nexalan empire whose rule was known for the Last Conquest of Nexal, over a hundred years before the arrival of the Golden Legion in 1361 DR.

History
By the time he became the Revered Counsellor of Nexal in the, Zomoc was one of the most prominent military leaders of the empire. Zomoc's predecessor – the Revered Counsellor Totep, spent six years of his reign among his concubines instead of ruling Nexal. He was assassinated via poison by the Nexala generals, including Zomoc, who was also Totep's nephew.

Early on, Zomoc decided that his tenure as the Revered Counsellor would be that of the greatest military conquests of the empire to compensate for the failures of Revered Counsellor Totep. Good military strategist, Zomoc, learned from Neal's history and avoided a conflict with Otom and Kultaka. Instead, Zomoc targeted the faraway Kolan to the southwest of the Valley of Nexal. Kolans were a significantly less civilized tribe that consisted of several small villages on the Western Ocean shores. Despite the distance and inaccessibility of Kolan, Revered Counsellor Zomoc sent armies across the deserts and waged a twenty-year war against the Kolan tribes, who proved to be more formidable than Nexala expected. As the campaign went on with mixed results, Kolan tribes were torching their own villages rather than having them fall into the hands of bloody Nexal. During the entire two decades of the war, Zomoc remained at the Heart of the True World, delegating the command to general Coyo.

By the, Zomoc's subjugation was successful, and the Nexala raised temples in the surviving Kolan towns in favor of the Bloody Zaltec, the Maztican deity of war. The empire gained a slew of slaves from the campaign but little else as Kolan had little of value. As a reward for his successes, general Coyo was promised a year of feasts, attention of concubines, and celebrations, along with being immortalized in the annals of Maztican warfare history. Zomoc kept the promise, and exactly a year later, he enlisted the aid of the patriarch of Zaltec to remove Coyo, a likely future political opponent. During the last grand celebration, Coyo was placed under the cleric's magics, sending the general into an ecstatic zeal. Zomoc declared that Coyo was to honor Zaltec, and the general, his mind clouded, willingly volunteered his heart to the bloody deity. The sacrifice was performed at the top of the Great Pyramid with the entire Sacred Plaza filled with cheering Nexala in the.

The cruel betrayal affected the rest of Zomoc's life. He spent it under a crushing feeling of guilt and in a constant state of terror, suspecting all of his many wives, generals, couriers, and bodyguards of planning his assassination. In hysterical terror, Zomoc sent many of his closest people to the sacrificial altar of Zaltec. Zomoc's death came five years after the grand victory over Kolan. He died in his sleep of terror if the slaves were to be believed. His body was found in the in a curled-up position, and a grizzly mask of deathly terror etched into his cold, unmoving face.

Zomoc's reign was followed by the Revered Counsellor Izco, selected by the nobles of Nexal. Ironically, Izco was not only a descendant of Revered Counsellor Ipana but also a nephew of Coyo.