House of Chel
| House of Chel చెలె నిమిహ Chel Nimja Xiu Chib'al | |
|---|---|
 The Moon Symbol, Glyph-Emblem of the House | |
| Country | Mutul |
| Founded | 20 April 1304 BC (mythical) |
| Founder | Ix Hun Ajaw (mythical) |
| Current head | Chak W'e Kaban |
| Titles | Noj Chit K'utzmil Halak Winik others |
| Motto | To'one' mistik ik koil yolob (We sweep the wind of madness from their hearts) |
| Cadet branches | Many |
The Chel Nimja (Mutli : "Great House of the Moon Goddess") is one of the Mutuleses families recognized as “aristocratic” by the Divine Throne. They are of Xumanese extraction, with their homeland located in the Bay of Ekab, on K'utzmil island more specifically. The island has always been a holy place dedicated to Ixchel, the Mutulese Moon Goddess, and the family first emerged as a dynasty of leading figures in the goddess' clergy, to the point that their House was named after their patron-deity.
The affilitation with the Moon Goddess is still relevant, even in the modern days: the current Patriarch of the Chel, Chak W'e Kaban, is the Noj Chit, "Great Father", of Kuzam Ix Chel Nah (House of Lady Chel of the Colibris), one of the most important pilgrimage site of the Mutul with the city of Sakal Witz. Other members of the family not only serve high-ranking members in the clergy, but also civil administrators and politicians, with Chak W'e Kaban also serving as Halak Winik of the island and having a seat at the Ox Bitzpop, for example. The current queen of the Mutul, Ix Kib Chel, is the daughter of Chak W'e Kaban, granting to most her parents the courtly rank of "Non-Dynastic Relatives".
Beside their involvement in Mutulese politics, the Chel' main lineage are, through their company Kuzk'ay Holding, of a number of Mutulese newspapers, Chel Insurance... but more importantly Kuzk'ay Holding possess at 81% Xuman Chemicals, the largest chemical producer in the Divine Kingdom, and all of its subsidiaries. The Chel, always through their familial holding, are also major players in the tourism and pilgrimage industry, owning numerous Hotels across the kingdom. 91% of all hotels on Kuzamil Island are owned by the Chel, and they have a similar control over other services such as restaurants. They are major investors, alongside the Ilok'tab of Ekab Ferries and Xuman Air, who link the island with the continent, among other destinations.
As a result, the Chel are considered to be the secondmost important House in the Mutul after the Ilok'tab themselves, be it politically, economically, or religiously.
Overview
To be recognized as an aristocratic lineage in the Mutul, one must be able to trace back his roots to at least one ancestor recognized as "divine" by the Divine Throne. The Chel are no different. On the contrary their story, validated by the Divine Throne, is one of the most prestigious: they claim to be the direct descendent of Ix Hun Ajaw, "Lady One Lord", who was the mortal aspect of the deity Ix Chel herself. This tie the House of Chel back to the legend that it was Ix Hun Ajaw who brought the ancestors of the Xu people to the Xuman Peninsula, and to the Ekab more specifically, in 4.11.13.0.0 8 Pax 4 Ajaw (20 April 1304 BC). It's the descendents of Ix Hun Ajaw who then erected the first temples that would become the Kuzamil Ix Chel Nah.
The historical legitimacy of this story is, of course, tenuous at the very best although it does seem to imply that the Chel claim to tie their family back to the first Macro-chan populations who settled the area. There is, however, no way to infirm or confirm such a claim from historical records or archeological evidences only.
Kazumil and its temple to Chel are already mentioned during the days of the Second Ytze Kingdom. The island was a major partner of a federation with Ekab and other cities of the bay formed to oppose the Ytze, and was already mentioned as an important site of pilgrimage for the Xu people, even for those in the Ytze Kingdom. The priests of Chel were especially sought after for their medical knowledge. The first mention of the Chel proper was in 450 CE, on stelae erected in Ekpan to commemorate the coronation of Hunak K'el Kawich as a vassal-king of the K'uy Dynasty, where one of the guests is a woman labelized as "from Kuzamil" and wearing the Moon-Glyph as an earring. Historians often consider her to be the oldest ancestor from which all Chel lineages can claim to be tied, although it is unclear to which extent.
As a Xu lineage, the Chel do not necessarily follow the conventions of other Mutuleses aristocratic houses. Notably, they have kept a tradition of Absolute Primogeniture when it comes to succession, as opposed to the male preference of the Ilok'tab Dynasty, which is itself a far-cry of the patrilineal heritance of other lineages of K'iche origin. This is the main reason why there is still, to this day, an undisputed Chel "main lineage" around which the House is structured.
The Chel' mythic blood ties to Ix Hun Ajaw also ties back to an important Mutulese tradition: God Impersonation, or K'o. Like the Ilok'tab who claim to be the Blood of Ch'akh, the Lineage is considered to be the Blood of Chel. And like the Ilok'tab, the Chel can undergo a certain ritual that allow their Patriarch or Matriarch to become the physical incarnation of Ix Hun Ajaw, the "mortal aspect of Ix Chel". As a fellow God-on-Earth, the Patriarch of the Chel Lineage, who is also the Noj Chit, or head-priest, of the Kuzamil Clergy, enjoy many privileges and duties with the K'uhul Ajaw, further strenghtening their ties to the Divine Throne.
History
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With their powerbase so distant from the core of the K'uy Dynasty, the main authority over the island of Kuzamil was the Kawkom Dynasty with whom the Chel collaborated, to some extent. Members of the family became scribes, priests, and officials in Ekpan, the capital of the Jasaw Yajawil, and the Chel solidified their position as necessary middlemen between the Yajaw and the cities of the ex-Ekab Federation. They notably use their position to secure the Ekab - Yaxuna - Ekpan trade road, transporting goods and wares in both direction, as well as protecting pilgrims who wished to visit Kuzamil.
In the late 9th century, the Xiu revolted against the Kawkom Dynasty, massacring almost all of its member except for one, who was away on a commercial venture at the time and managed to flee to the Kayamuca Empire afterward. The main lineage of the Chol had no love for the Kawkom, who were plotting to secede from the Mutul, threatening Kuzamil' interests. However, the Chel who had served in the Kawkom administration were threatened by the Xiu and the rebels. Mo Chel, such a notable and priest who had served the Kawkom, fled not to Kuzamil, but to Kanma, where he founded a new House who joined force with two other local dynasties, the Pech and the Keh, to continue the fight against the Xiu. This new branch of the Chel became central to the cult of K'inich Ajaw, centered around the city of Kanma, who remain today the fourth most popular pilgrimage destination of the White Path.
Following the Xiu Revolt, K'in Chan Chak, a K'uy prince was sent to re-establish order in the Xuman Peninsula with the military position of "Kaloomt'e of the North". Two years later, the K'uy would fragment into a collection of competing Mutals, or successors-states, and K'in Chan Ch'ak became one of these claimants to the throne.
Contrary to other Mutals, the Xuk'uy were at their strongest by the time they faced the K'iche: they had secured the Xuman Peninsula, had a well-behaving and functioning court, and could levy armies as they pleased without it representing a threat to their solid economy. They were notably on their way to conquer Tzib’ajal from the Western Mutal and give the finishing blow to the K'ol Mutal when the latter surrendered to the K'iche in exchange for their protection. Under the Northern Mutal, the Chel power and influence dwindled, with only their cadet branch of Kanma managing to cut a position for themselves within the Kaloomt'e and his descendants' court. Under the Nimabal K'iche, they would remain similarly overshadowed by other families in the eyes of the central authorities. By the time of the Ilok'tab dynasty, they had even lost the position of head-priest of Kazumil.
The Chel returned to the forefront during the Belfrasian Crusade, where Chel aristocrats are noted among the Captains of the Ilok'tab Army sent to Norumbia. Once on the other side of the Kayamuca, Suhuy Sakt'e, the youngest son of the then Patriarch of the lineage, married into a clan of ex-Kayamuca settlers, and established his own branch of the family. This bridgehead into the Northern Continent would prove invaluable to the Chel as a whole, who had know eyes and ears into the ultramarines markets, and they spent the following decades building up favored relations with various Norumbian city-states, taking up an important role as both traders and Captains for the Mutulese Fleet.
To help build better relations with their Norumbians partners, many Chel offered their services as religious healers, spreading with their methods the faith in Ix Chel. When the Bitzk'uh was published during the 14th century, the Chel took it with them to Norumbia, spreading it with their medico-religious practices and inadvertently becoming the first proselythizers of the White Path. To this day, White Pilgrims represent around 30% of the total Belfrasian population, and are especially concentrated in the south of the country, where the Chel once operated.
Traders and healers in the north, the Chel did not participate in the Run to the West like dynasties from western Mutul did. This, in turn, locked them away from the Mutulese Empire and its profits as their late investments in the Nuk Nahob gave them little to no control over them.