Red Gardens

We who now fight upon the face of the Icons, bow before you all.
We shall fight the Spirits of the past and we shall be victorious.
May the Icons look up towards us and smile.

-Popular Quexochilatli statement for the opening of a performance

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The Red Gardens are a traditional ritual practice of the Xupantla people that comes in many forms. The most common is the use of large arena spaces, the Red Gardens, where ritual combat will be commenced between chosen warriors and, traditionally, prisoners of war.

In the modern age, it is more common for criminals to volunteer themselves to the Red Gardens so that they may possibly do well and commute their sentance. More heinous criminals are put into the Gardens with no intention of letting them out. They will die there, bleeding as all others have.

Those chosen warriors, the 'Quexochilatli' or Gardeners, fulfill a more specific ritual purpose as they play out myth and legend, historical retellings, and petition the Icons and Wyrms for aid and succor. It is a sort of living theater where all combatants are actors, wether they wish to be or not, and while the stories are often well known by the viewers, the details change depending on the events of the battle that unfold, and a good speaker can satisfy the crowd no matter the outcome.

Related Organizations

• The Union of Xotlac

Related Ethnicities

• Xupantla

Surprisingly, the Quexochilatli are not guaranteed to win within their performances. Sometimes a group of prisoners manage to organize and fight back effectively enough to draw a stalemate or even win themselves, leading to a reversal of fortunes in whatever story or ritual is being performed.In other instances, such as historical or mythological tragedies, the Quezochilatli are intended to lose, or at the very least suffer heavy casualties.
In the days of Xotlac's Flower Wars, if prisoners survived and played their part sufficiently (if they were aware of their role or not) their could earn their freedom and their life. Now, that is far less common as the stories of the Red Gardens have become far more rigid.