By Alejandro Melchor
"What is this, tenochcans? What do you do? How can cowardice exist in the people of Huitzilopochtli? Wait, ponder a while, let us all together seek for a means for our defense and honor and let us not deliver ourselves shamefuly into the hands of our enemies. ¨Where will you go? This is our center. This is the place where the eagle spreads its wings and destroys the snake. This is our Kingdom. ¨Who will not defend it? ¨Who will lay his shield to rest? Let the rattles sound amidst the dust of battle, announcing our voices to the world!"
- Tlacaelel. "Tlacaelel", Antonio Velasco Piña
Come here, young one, join your brothers in arms".
"You can call me Cuauhtecuhtli; the Lord of Eagles; I have come to take you to your rightful place at the center of the Four Ways, for your bravery and honor has earned you entrance into the Cuacuahtzin; the Eagle Knights".
"Yes; many think us dead, but our Order was preserved from the powers of the Spaniards when they invaded our beloved land; the Order fought valiantly, but we had been betrayed from the beginning".
"Huitzilopochtli? Speak that name carefuly. You are right, the Cuacuahtzin once fought in the name of the Left-Handed Hummingbird; we were his chosen. But the Conquest shed a light that since the founding of the Order had not shone; we served a Vampire; a creature of darkness".
"Yes, child; Vampires exist, and it is our sacred duty to protect our kind from their depredations, for we must never forget where we come from; we are human".
"Don't be mistaken; our humanity doesn't limit us; on the contrary, it gives us power and understanding of the Four Ways".
"The Four Ways were shown to us by the true Gods when we were at the brink of joining the Sun in his daily journey; for the Cuacuahtzin have ceased to be the simple warriors that the Vampires desired as servants; now the Way of the Warrior, shown to us by the true Huitzilopochtli, is not the only one we follow; Tezcatlipoca, the Night Lord, taught us the Way of the Sorcerer; Quetzalcoatl, Prince of Knowledge, gave us the Way of the Leader, and Xipe Totec, the Skinned, pointed the Way of the Worker. In all Ways lies honor, so never scorn any".
"The Ways are part of the Fifth Sun; surely you know the legend; Five Suns have been created, Four have been destroyed. We live the Fifth Sun; Ollin Tonatiuh, the Sun of Movement, and Ollin is what gives us power; the eternal movement, the eternal change until the end of this age".
"Our war is neverending; we fight against those who would make humans their slaves or who would destroy them; our enemies are many: the Vampires of the Sabbat and the Mictlan and those of the Camarilla, who want nothing but to feed on men; some Tribes of werewolves who would gladly see us all dead; the Tradition Mages who disdain us as inferiors; the Technocracy, who desire to rule a sea of sleeping minds; the Nephandi and the Wyrm, who would see all of existence destroyed".
"Do not be dismayed, young one; our war is not futile for every victory is cause of rejoice; every life you save from the fangs of a vampire or from the magick of a mage is a battle won".
"We are human, child; but we must be more than human; never forget that".
The origin of the Eagle Knights is open to much debate; some place it early in history, when the Mexica were still a nomadic tribe and Tenochtitlan was but a dream in the horizon. It is said that the priest Aacatl separated a group of Mexica and gave them weapons and made them warriors; this might be true, but it doesn's mean that they were Eagle Knights.
At the beginnings of the 15th century, when Europe was barely rising from the muck of the Middle Ages (according to the Technocracy, of course), in the land of Anahuac the Triple Alliance was being formed between the city states of Texcoco, Tenochtitlan and Tlacopan or Tacuba. This Alliance would serve as a joint army to overthrow the tirany of the Tecpanec rule of Azcapotzalco; Prince Nezahualcoyotl of Texcoco sealed the pact with emperor Izcoatl of Tenochtitlan. The Alliance would serve many interests; Nezahualcoyotl, a Galliard of the Ehecatl Tribe would free his people and allow more werewolves to reach his domains unmolested; Izcoatl, a human, would gain great political advantages, but Izcoatl was not the mastermind behind the Alliance; it was rather Tlacaelel, an Archpriest who later became the ghoul of Huitzilopochtli, an insane vampire that had erected himself as god of the Aztecs and demanded blood to "keep the Sun going".
Tlacaelel did great things for the Empire, and between those things was the revival of the old toltecan Orders of Knighthood. The fact that the Eagle Knight should rise from the ranks of the Jaguar Knights was a move by the priests of Tezcatlipoca, for the main body of the Jaguar Knights were Nahual, a dark tribe of werejaguars, and their kinfolk.
The Cuacuahtzin were elite warriors. For the people, the Cuacuahtzin were heroes, almost demigods for when they died in battle they became Cuauhtecatl, spirits that joined the Sun in his eternal fight against darkness.
Yet for the High Priests, they were cattle.
Huitzilopochtli once in a while decided to Embrace; the choice was a priest most of the times, but Huitzilopochtli would hear about the deeds of one of his chosen, and would make him a vampire through one of the priests at the sacrificial stone, at a private ceremony in the Knights' chapterhouse, which was located right next to the Templo Mayor. The Knight, sure that he was dead, truly believed that he had become a Cuauhtecatl upon embrace, and obeyed the priests blindly. The inability to stand the light of day was explained as the warrior being condemned to night so as to fight it.
In fact, the Knights were partially Awakened; they could not command the awesome Disciplines of Clan Huitzilopochtli, nor had the Gifts of the Jaguar Knights, but had the uncanny abilitly to sense the unnatural and improve their bodies and minds.
Tlacaelel, close to his death and dismayed by the fact that Huitzilopochtli had no intentions of Embracing him, performed a ritual that enabled him to contact the European Kindred, inviting them to come to the New World.
And they did come, and their efforts brought along with them the might of the Celestial Chorus and the rising Technocracy, both intent on destroying the magickal paradigm of Anahuac.
The Eagle Knights fought valiantly the army of Hernan Cortes, but the Spaniards were equipped with superior magicks, courtesy of the Technocracy and, in 1521, the Aztecs surrendered their city. The Knights protested this decision, but Cuauhtemoc, the last emperor, urged them to lay down their arms. Cuauhtemoc, whose name was "Eagle that falls", knew very well who was behind many of the politics at his palace, the ghoul Tlacaelel, a man that should have died half a century before. While a prisoner of the Spaniards, Cuauhtemoc discovered the full truth about Huitzilopochtli and managed to warn one of the Knights before the European Kindred, counseled by Tlacaelel, killed him.
The Knights were dismayed; they were about to launch a counterstrike when they learned the news: a creature of darkness had been ruling them, and their founder had summoned more monsters from the east and was even now a part of them.
Their hesitation allowed Tlacaelel to attack them and almost wipe them out, but many did survive and fled to the countryside, where they had to hide their nature, for many were the people that hated them because of Aztec expansionism.
Leaderless and disorganized, the Knights thought they had seen the end of all they had held dear.
In desperation, a young Knight, whose name is lost in history, sought out the help of the Dreamspeakers and Verbena, and was greeted with a message from the Gods: they must not give up the fight, for they were now the land's only protectors.
With the Dreamspeakers' aid, this Knight traveled to the Realms of the Gods: North, where Tezcatlipoca lived; East, where Quetzalcoatl had his home; South, where the true Huitzilopochtli awaited his Knights, and West, where Xipe Totec built his dwelling.
And so goes the litany of the Four Ways, chanted whenever a new Cuacuahtzin joins the ranks:
"Travel then where the gods call.
In the cold of the North awaits Tezcatlipoca,
Smoking Mirror, Wind of Night.
Black is his simbol, for he is the Night.
Learn from Him the Way of the Sorcerer.
In the unknown East awaits Quetzalcoatl,
Precious Serpent, Feathered Serpent.
White is his simbol, for his is the Wisdom.
Learn from Him the Way of the Leader.
In the warmth of the South awaits Huitzilopochtli,
Left-Handed Hummingbird, our true father.
Blue is his simbol, for he rules the Sky.
Learn from Him the Way of the Warrior.
In the lands of the West awaits Xipe Totec,
He Without Skin, spiritual master.
Red is his simbol, for his is the growth of the soul.
Learn from Him the Way of the Worker.
Back from the Ways, stare in the center,
see the force of the Sun, of Nahui Ollin.
Feel the Movement and the strength,
Feel your Awakening to yourself.
Welcome then, from the call of the Gods".
The Toltec legend marks the beginning of the Fifth Sun when the Gods gathered in Teotihuacan; the world was in darkness and they decided to make the Sun; for this, they prepared a huge bonfire and asked for a volunteer to jump into it; Tecciztecatl, a richly dressed god, offered himself but, when he had to jump, he stopped in fear. Tecciztecatl tried two more times, but fear gripped him and he didn't jump.
It was then that Nanahuatzin, a poor and warted god, offered himself in Tecciztecatl's place; he prepared himself and sank fearlessly into the fire. Tecciztecatl, ashamed, jumped afterwards.
In the horizon, two suns appeared and the gods, angered at Tecciztecatl's cowardice and dishonor, threw a rabbit at the second sun and turned it into the moon.
The sky now had light, but something was wrong: the Sun was not moving. It was then that the assembled gods made an offering of blood, which started the Fifth Sun's movement in the sky; forever chasing the moon and keeping the night at bay.
This was then Ollin Tonatiuh, the Movement Sun, a neverending cycle that the Eagle Knights embraced and found within themselves; the energy of change, of a circle of life that will end in a series of great earthquakes; the Sun of Movement ending in a Great Movement.
When Tlacaelel burned the records of Azcapotzalco, he equaled his Sire, the vampire Huitzilopochtli, with the Sun of Movement, a Sun that demanded blood in order to keep moving, usurping both the names and functions of two Celestines: Huitzilopochtli the Warrior and Tonatiuh, the Nahui Ollin.
But the gods reached the disheartened Cuacuahtzin and told them the truth and pointed them to a new path.
The embracing of Ollin changed the Knight's view of the world; they now saw the world as a neverending cycle, a constant, ordered change and evolution. This view has put them in good terms with many Garou as well as with the Verbena, Dreamspeakers and the ocassional Euthanatos (Death is also part of the Ollin).
In this way, they deny stagnation and are almost always at the vanguard of human evolution; they fight the forces of the mad Weaver and the Technocracy, whose wish is to stagnate reality; they also counter the traditionalist views of certain Garou Tribes and of Traditions like the Order of Hermes who can't see past their laws and customs into the necessary change.
The foreigners
For the three centuries after the Conquest the Knights launched a guerrilla war against the Spaniard government, but their exploits never made it into the history thanks to the growing power and influence of the Technocracy; only they remember their past adventures.
Decades of war against the invaders led the Knights to reconsider their position on the whole foreign issue; they were the first to aknowledge the intercultural richness and mixed ancestry of Mexico, and began accepting mexicans of whiter skin into the Order, since for the first hundred years of the new Cuacuahtzin they only accepted indians.
Women in the Knighthood
"We women will know how to defend our gods, our homes and our crops, let us take the weapons from the hands of those who have not known how to use them and let us go with Moctezuma, to organize at once the defense of our city".
-Citlalmina. "Tlacaelel", Antonio Velasco Piña
The philosophy behind the Ollin allowed the admission of women in the Order centuries before the first feminist consciousness and movemements; their beliefs said that a host of women warriors accompained the Sun in the second half of its journey through the sky, so it was only natural to accept women into the new Order, putting the Knights at ease with the Black Furies; women can achieve the same rank and the same power as any Knight and it's frowned upon that any male Cuacuahtzin discriminates any of his female fellows.
From the day the Four Ways were accepted, the Knights devoted themselves to the protection of humans, specially against the supernatural. They hold a special jyhad against vampires, all vampires. The Cuacuahtzin abhor Kindred politics, although they keep tabs on them. Many times they have completely undone Camarilla and Sabbat plots; in their role as hunters, the vampires have tried to manipulate them to attack political opponents, only to find their own havens burned and Childer staked.
But the protection goes beyond killing the predators; the Cuacuahtzin patrol the country as the European errant knights, looking for ways to help the people, assisting when natural catastrophes strike, such as the 1985 earthquake in Mexico City or the Paricutin eruption, many of them hold jobs that strive to help their communities.
Despite the change of the Ollin, the Knights cling to a strict Code of Honor, similar in many ways to that of Garou.
Coatlicue: "Skirt of Snakes", the Mother Godess; Gaia.
Xiuhcoatl: "Fire Snake", the weapon of Huitzilopochtli, the rays of the Sun. The vampiric Discipline of Xiuhcoatl is considered a blasphemy.
Cuauhtecatl: "Eagle Companion"; when the Cuacuahtzin die, they go to the the Realm of Helios; sometimes they go to the Aetherial Realm to join the court of Hyperion.
Cuauhtlehuamitl: "Darts of the Eagle"; a magic-charged missile.
Ollin: Movement; the backing philosophy of the Cuacuahtzin.
Ollin Tonatiuh: "Sun of Movement", the Fifth Sun of the legend, the current era.
Cuauhtecuhtli: "Lord of Eagles", the leader of the Eagle Knights.
Mictlan: "Realm of the Dead"; the name for a Far Shore in the Underworld, sometimes used to describe Erebus. Also an organization of Mexican vampires similar to the Sabbat and the Camarilla.
A council of Masters (Rank 5) chooses a Cuauhtecuhtli; the Lord of Eagles, to be the Leader of the Order; he is advised by the Four Masters of the Ways, who are also Rank 5 and have achieved the Fifth Level in their Way of Journey. The five Masters compose the leading organ of the Order.
Journey
The Knighthood divides itself in four groups corresponding to the Ways: Leaders, Sorcerers, Warriors and Workers. Each Journey is semi-independent of each other and has it's own hierarchy. The Journey a Knight chooses affects his training and his view of the world.
Way of the Leader: Knights who choose this Journey are often the leaders of their Company, but they are also mediators and scouts; they believe in the power of organized groups and strive to unite the efforts of their fellow humans. As their patron is Quetzalcoatl, they hold knowledgeable and kind people in respect.
Way of the Sorcerer: Regarded with suspicion, the Sorcerers see the world as a place where magic is power, and the only way to get things done is by learning the secrets of the occult and bend them to their wills. Their patron, Tezcatlipoca, makes them a little untrustworthy, though their loyalty to the Order is unquestionable.
Way of the Warrior: Rash with pride, many Warriors see themselves as the original Eagle Knights. Conflict is what moves the world for them, and they intend to win the upper hand. They tend to be strongly individualistic and self reliant. Their patron Huitzilopochtli demands from them great deeds of battle.
Way of the Worker: The Workers are a simple lot, or so many believe; they think that anything is possible if one just works hard enough for it. They see the world as a workshop and circumstances as tools to make one's own destiny. Xipe Totec is a complex god; he represents the growth of the spirit by the shedding of the material.
| Trait | Cost |
| New Ability | 3 |
| Willpower | Current rating |
| Abilities | Current rating x 2 |
| Attributes | Current rating x 4 |
| Ollin | Current rating x 4 |
| Way of Journey | Level of the Way x 3 |
| Other Way | Level of the Way x 4 |
| Rank | Glory | Honor | Wisdom |
| 0:Novice | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1:Initiate | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2:Knight | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| 3:Captain | 3 | 5 | 4 |
| 4:Elder | 4 | 7 | 6 |
| 5:Master | 6 | 10 | 8 |
| Rank | Glory | Honor | Wisdom |
| 0:Novice | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1:Initiate | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 2:Knight | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 3:Captain | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| 4:Elder | 4 | 6 | 8 |
| 5:Master | 7 | 8 | 10 |
| Rank | Glory | Honor | Wisdom |
| 0:Novice | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1:Initiate | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 2:Knight | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 3:Captain | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| 4:Elder | 7 | 6 | 5 |
| 5:Master | 9 | 9 | 7 |
| Rank | Glory | Honor | Wisdom |
| 0:Novice | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1:Initiate | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 2:Knight | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 3:Captain | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 4:Elder | 6 | 6 | 7 |
| 5:Master | 9 | 9 | 9 |
The Movement is the Eagle Knight's connection to existence as well as their understanding and control of this force of change; in game terms it might be a mix between a Garou's Gnosis and a Mage's Arete.
It is composed of permanent and temporary dots. The permanent points indicate the understanding of the Movement and how it affects all things and beings. Permanent Ollin is used to roll for the effects of the four Ways in the same way as a Mage's Arete, with the difference that the effects need not be coincidential and they don't cause Paradox. Ollin is rolled against a difficulty of the effect's Level+3 in all Ways but the one corresponding to the Knight's Journey, in wich case it is the Level+2 instead.
Temporary Ollin is stored Quintessence and can be stolen by a mage with the Prime Sphere. For vampires, the Blood of a Knight is richer the more Ollin it had stored; for every temporary Ollin more than 5, a Blood Point is worth an extra point. Temporary Ollin cannot excede the number of permanent Ollin, as the Knight can't store more than he can understand and control.
Each time a Way is used succesfully, a temporary Ollin point is substracted from the total, except all effects in the Way of the Knight's Journey, which are free.
Temporary Ollin can be easily recovered by a succesful Perception+Meditation roll against the difficulty of the Gauntlet. The Knights believe the Earth to be an enormous Node. The number of successes mean the number of Ollin points recovered up to the character's maximum.
The Four Ways are very different from Magickal effects; They don't cause Paradox as they are more akin to Garou Gifts, for the gods provided them, save for the fact that they are fueled by the Knight's own understanding of the Movement.
The Way of the Leader
** Eyes of the Eagle: The Knight gets a mental image of the terrain in which she stands; this is called 'bird's eye view' by the younger Knights, as it provides the user with vital information such as ambushes, obstacles, hiding places, persons (the identity is provided only if the Knight knows the individual in person), etc. The more successes, the larger the area covered.
*** Call to Battle: The Knight can call all his allies or persons that have the same goal as the Knight that are in the vicinity, and can give them an immediate awareness of the situation at hand and the actions needed, thus winning initiative for them. Note that not only battles can be confronted with this effect, but also other kinds of crises such as natural disasters, accidents, rescue missions, etc.
**** Inspiration: Similar in some way to the Ahroun Gift, this effect causes that all of the Knight's allies gain an automatic success in whatever they are doing at the same moment. This requires the expenditure of 1 temporary Ollin point per turn in addition to the one needed to fuel the effect.
***** Link of Battle: This makes the Knight and allies present to act as one; this creates a dice pool equal to the sum of the Willpowers of everyone linked. Any participant in the link can draw from this pool to add to any kind of roll until the pool exhausts, at which point the effect ends.
** Astral Quest/The Sight: By sinking in deep meditation, the Knight can separate her spirit body from the physical, traveling in the Umbra as if she was a spirit. She can achieve great speeds in this way, but cannot affect anything in the physical world. Consider the spirit form as having 10 Power for each permanent Ollin point.
The Sight is the name of the ability of any Sorcerer to see the spirits around her, including those of the dead; it's automatic upon reaching this Level in the Way of the Sorcerer. A roll must be made in order to interact with the spirits.
*** Step Sideways: As the name implies, the Knights can, by using this effect, travel to the Umbra carrying along their physical bodies, as the Garou do. The Knights, however, don't need a mirror. The difficulty can be raised by the Gauntlet, but it will never be less than 6.
**** Eagle's Wings: This effects works in two ways: in the Umbra and in the physical world. In the Umbra, the Knight assumes the form of a gigantic eagle, roughly the size of a human. The eagle form has double the number of Health levels and the following adjustments: Strength +3, Dexterity +1, Stamina +2; Charisma -1, Manipulation 0, Appearance -3; Perception +3, Intelligence -1, Wits +1. This lasts as long as the Knight desires.
In the physical world, the Knight turns into a royal eagle slightly larger than the normal animal; the attribute modifiers are Strength -2, Dexterity +2, Stamina +1; Charisma -3, Manipulation -3, Appeareance -2; Perception +3, Intelligence -2, Wits +2. This effect lasts as per the following chart.
| Successes | Duration |
| Botch | The Knight loses three Ollin points and is stunned for the following three turns. |
| 0 | The Knight loses the Ollin spent. |
| 1 | 5 turns |
| 2 | 10 turns |
| 3 | 1 hour |
| 4 | 6 hours |
| 5 | A day |
| 6-7 | A week |
| 10 | The Knight can transform back and forth as many times as he wishes for the entire Story. |
| Difficulty | Damage | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Roll | Umbra | Physical | Umbra | Physical |
| Talon | Dexterity+Brawl | 5 | 6 | Str+4 | Str+1 |
| Beak | Dexterity+Brawl | 6 | 7 | Str+3 | Str |
| Dive | Stamina+Brawl | 7 | 5 | Str+5 | Str+3 |
| Wings | Intelligence+Brawl | 6 | 8 | Thrown back | Stun. |
| SPECIAL NOTE: Sorcerers with a nahual can choose to shapechange into their nahual instead of into an eagle; in the Umbra they inhabit their nahual. | |||||
***** Rituals: Upon achieving Level 5, the Sorcerer can learn and enact any kind of ritual; including Garou, Kindred and Hedge; at the Storyteller's discretion, they may also begin to learn Garou Gifts, Thaumaturgical Paths and Hedge Magic; to activate them, the Knight must roll for this effect (Ollin vs 8) regardless of the Gift's or Path's Level and ignoring any other required rolls.
** The Sun's Rage: This works exactly as a Garou's Rage; success grants extra actions to the Knight and enables him to ignore the effects of wounds but also risks Frenzy. If the Knight rolls a number of successes higher than his current temporary Willpower, he goes into a Berserk Frenzy, avoidable with the expenditure of a Willpower point.
*** Eagle's Talons: The Knight can grow black talons from her fingers, adding three dice to any Brawl and Damage roll. The damage done is aggravated. The talons lasts a turn per success.
**** Cuauhtlehuamitl: Any missile can be imbued with the Sun's Power with this effect. The missiles can range from a rock to a bullet and the damage they cause is turned into aggravated. The number of successes indicates the number of missiles empowered in this manner. The visual effect is quite spectacular, as the missile trails fire in it's path; this fire can ignite anything it touches (including the target!) if the item, animal or person fails to soak at least three damage levels.
***** Inner Burst: The Knight can awaken the power of the Fifth Sun in any object and being in this world, causing the target to burn from the inside out. This causes a base damage equal to the target's total Health, effectively reducing it to cinders. If the target is sentient, it can resist this effect with a Willpower roll against the Knight's Ollin, reducing the damage by a Health level per success. Even if the target resists successfully, it is considered Incapacitated and in need of urgent medical care. The sight can send any vampire into Rotschreck. If the Knight chooses to awaken the Sun inside herself, she burts in a fiery explosion, burning in a ball of fire of 6 feet in diameter. This is extremely dangerous, and is only used in desperate situations. In this fiery state, the damage dealt by any of the Knight's attacks is considered aggravated and is also augmented by 5 automatic successes; anything she touches begins to burn, even if the material is non-flammable. This effect lasts as many turns as the Knight's Ollin and in each turn, the Knight must roll Willpower against her own Ollin to avoid burning to death. Each turn the Knight suffers three levels of damage, which must be soaked with the Willpower roll; if any roll botches, or Health is reduced below Incapacitated, the Knight dies. When the effect ends and if the Knight is still alive, she is reduced to Incapacitated status.
If the Knight wants to sacrifice herself, the burst can be worth 10 health levels per Ollin point plus 10 more per success achieved in the Ollin roll. This is a mighty explosion that effectively kills the Knight, sending her spirit to Helios.
The most misunderstood Way is one of the most powerful; the Patterns it works are actually the Patterns of Life, Matter and Forces as understood by the Magi. Thus, a Worker effect deals with the fabric of reality. Worker effects take precedence to Disciplines and Gifts, but give way to Sphere Magick; thus, a Tremere lifting a table with Thaumaturgy can be stopped easily by a Knight strengthening the Pattern of gravity; but the Knight can also easily be stopped by a Mage with the Forces Sphere.
** Strengthen the Patterns: Ollin can be used to strengthen Patterns in a variety of ways limited by the player's creativity. The base mechanic should be based on the successes achieved in the activation of this effect. A Knight can harden her skin with the Life Pattern (create a Stamina modifier equal to the successes), make an object unbreakable (likewise), make a light brighter or a fire hotter, etc.
*** Repair Patterns: Used mainly for healing and mending; successes restore levels of damage to persons or objects, by realigning their Patterns. Other uses can be found, though.
**** Crafting: The Knight uses this effect to create special objects by tying patterns together; electrical swords (tie the sword Pattern to a Forces Pattern), medicines (tie the medicine's material with a Life Pattern), etc. There must always be a material component, and the successes required depend on the complexity of the task (Storyteller's discretion). Some items take much time to complete. It is rumored that the Knights are beating the Technocracy in the implementation of cybernetic parts by the use of this effect.
***** Pattern Weave: Knights who journey the Way of the Sorcerer have discovered the advantages of the Way of the Worker, as the Pattern Weave allow for the creation of facsimile magick in the Spheres of Life, Matter and Forces (up to level three). These effects can be dismantled automatically by a Mage with at least a dot in the appropriate Sphere. Some Workers have experimented with Weaving the Pattern Web, which opens a universe of possibilities: the Gauntlet can be weakened or strenghtened, reality can be calcified or decalcified, Weaver Spirits can be dominated, etc. Effects with the Pattern Web should require a huge number of accumulated successes, making it mandatory for several Workers to work in unison in order to complete an effect. Messing with the Web instantly attracts the attention of Pattern Spiders.
These rituals are human ritual; hedge magic that has been preserved over the centuries by the faithful Cuacuahtzin; anyone can participate, but the enacter must know how to perform the rituals, be it Hedge Magician, Thaumaturgist, Garou or walker of the Way of the Sorcerer (a simple Willpower roll against a difficulty of 3+level; it's not necessary to have achieved level 5, but dufficulties rise by 1.
Ollam (Level 5)
This is the traditional ball game where two teams of players strive to push a ball through a wall hole by using only the head, elbows and hips. The two captains must know the ritual. One team represents Day; the other, Night. both the outcome and the play itself are omens. In the times of the Aztec, the winners were sacrificed; the Cuacuahtzin no longer practice this.
Both captains make the Willpower roll; they average
| Successes | Result |
| 1-2 | A very vague clue in the form of a riddle |
| 3-4 | A cryptic answer |
| 5-7 | A clear clue for the knowledgeable |
| 8-9 | The signs couldn't be more straightforward | 10 | Exact visions from the future and the possibilities therein |
Chart the Tonalamatl (Level 3)
At the moment of a child's birth, the Cuacuahtzin make a horoscope which foretells the fortune of the child. This reveals if the child is marked by a Destiny or a Dark Fate, for example, or if his Avatar is strong enough to Awaken later in life; if the child will become a hero or lead a normal life. Use the chart for Ollam for determining results.
Journey into Mictlan (Level 4)
All the Mexican supernaturals are intrigued by death; the Knights are no exception. This rite can only be enacted by a Sorcerer able to Step Sideways. After the ritual is finished, the Knight can Step into the Shadowlands of the Wraiths instead of the living Umbra. For each success, the Knight can remain in the lands of the dead for a day. At the end of the duration, she is pushed out, emerging in the spot corresponding in the physical world.
Vampires: The Kindred occupy one of the driving pilars of the Order: they must be destroyed. The Cuacuahtzin hold a special grudge against them, for it was they who exploited them before and destroyed all they held dear after the Conquest.
The Eagle Knights are not blinded by hatred; they know the battle is hard and most of all in a country dominated by the Sabbat; they keep a Masquerade of their own even more strict than the vampires', lest they be discovered by their enemies. The Cuacuahtzin tactics are akin to the guerrilla fighters: small companies striking fast and hard, suicide is the only option to capture.
They also keep tabs on the local vampire scene; tracking the kindred to their havens; they possess a large amount of data of their foes' political and economic influences, and they pull their own resources to counter the vampires'. Many a Knight has been put in a moral dilemma when a vampire's plan actually benefits the mortal community while furthering the undead's goals.
Werewolves: The Knights prefer to avoid the Garou; they feel the sharing of goals on battling corruption and the defense of the country, but it's in the matter of methods that violent disputes have been known to arise.
The Garous' feelings are alike; they respect the honorable Knights, but they are still homids.
So far, there haven't been declarations of war thanks to the efforts of both the Garou and the Cuacuahtzin elders, but the younger members clash constantly more than cooperate.
A lever some of the Garou try to use is that the Cuacuahtzin hold a number of caerns that they want to claim. The Eagle Knights are not willing to surrender their sacred grounds without a fight, so tensions are high.
Mages: No quandaries exist with the mages save with the Order of Hermes, which was partly responsible for the destruction of the ancient temples.
The Ascension War has the sympathy and wholehearted support of the Cuacuahtzin, and they will help mages in their plans against the Technocracy. The Knights' chapterhouses have given refuge to a great number of fleeing mages, and some of the Sorcerers and Workers have cooperated to ease mages out of Quiet.
There have been occasional conflicts with some mages stealing Quintessence from the Cuacuahtzin, but they are the exception to the rule.
Wraiths: If there's a group of supernaturals completely at ease with the Knights, it's the Wraiths. The lone spirits are considered to be still within the Knights' responsiblity, more so as the Knights honor their ancestors, and do all within their power to help wraiths reach Trascendence.
Few Cuacuahtzin become wraiths; their spirits go to the Sun as Cuauhtecatl (some Restless believe this to be instant Trascendence). Only those who died ignominously and still have scores to settle remain in the Shadowlands, but their high spirituality allows them to Trascend upon resolution of their Passions and Fetters.
On November 2nd, the Day of the Dead, the Eagle Knights welcome all ghosts and honor them with altars filled with fruit, bread and wine; ritualy prepared so as to have existence in the Shadowlands. As they are partly Awakened and hold no fear of death, the mere presence of a Cuacuahtzin is enough to drop the Shroud a little.
Changelings: Arcadia had little presence in the affair of ancient Mexico, save for a few scattered legends, most of them in the Mayan regions (where the Faerie are known as Aluxes). This partial absence has prevented the Knights from acquiring complete knowledge of the inhabitants of Arcadia and the ones left behind, so a Changeling will be judged on an individual basis upon contact: if she is potentially harmful, she is captured and delivered to the Garou.
The Wyrm: All manifestations of the Wyrm are anathema to the Knights; they recognize It's existence and influence. Pentex, Black Spiral Dancers, Sabbat, Nephandi and Spectres: they are all enemies of the Knights as they all seek to harm humankind, and they are battled on all levels.
Governments: The Eagle Knights try to avoid interfering with politics, but recent events have made them push their influences to the defense of their beloved land; it's unknown what part they play in the Chiapas uprising, but that they are there is a fact.
On more local matters, some officers within the police are Initiates, and the Knights have influence in the Army (they don't belong to it, it would interfere with their prime mission) and with some minor government agents; they are beginning to infiltrate the U.S. government thanks to the chicano population; their final goal is to ease the rather edgy relationship between the two countries, by the propagation of true information so as to destroy stereotypes on both sides of the border.
The Inquisition: Despite the common goal of exterminating vampires, the Knights abhor the Inquisition and it's Hunters; all sects and orders branching from it are considered untrustworthy and unreliable; no Knight will help a member of the Inquisition; if innocent lives are at stake, the Knights will put aside any qualms of fighting humans and attack the Inquisitioners with vicious ferocity.
This hate is reciprocated by the Inquisition; those who know of the Cuacuahtzin consider them devil-worshippers and figure in their hit list just below the supernaturals.
The Arcanum: The Knights know of the Arcanum, they have even asked them for help when trying to document supernatural activity; they exchange information and sometimes perform as active members in information gahtering missions.