'Cottonmouth's empire', among the Diamond Empire|Diamond and Jaguar
Empire|Jaguar empires, was a major Human settlements|human settlement
that existed pre-Scorching.

## Description

Cottonmouth's empire included clearings, boulders, mountain slopes, and
pine trees that swayed gently in the breeze. The empire also included
southern villages.

## Notable features

##### Emperor's City

An overlook upon one mountain, through the trees, displayed the
Emperor's City. It was organized and partitioned into squares,
rectangles, and ovals, with long, flat lines running between all of
them. Many of the sections contained cubic structures, giant boxes with
ornate roofs, or taller, tower-like structures. There was an arrangement
of roofs around an open square that Luna suspected might be a market; in
addition, all of the empire's layers were spread out next to one another
instead of being stacked. Some of the areas were for growing food
plants, and these were large and open to the air; they were also
arranged around the city's outer edges, while the inner sections were
crammed with cubes, towers, stepped temples, and stone-paved courtyards.
The small shapes of humans could be seen moving along the long, flat
lines. The structures covered everything, and every spot of land seemed
to be cordoned off, built on, growing something in straight lines, or
swarming with humans.

## Society

The humans within Cottonmouth's empire were loud and wore clean, fancy,
elegant clothing that was decorated with small swirls of silver thread
along the edges in delicate filigree patterns. They played a kind of
ball game, and were ruled by an emperor with advisors that were implied
to be structured in a hierarchical system. Before the events of the
Scorching, they were at war with the Diamond Empire and Jaguar Empire in
order to gain new territory.

## History

### The Lost Continent Prophecy

left
The Flames of Hope
While Dusky and Luna
were trapped within the mindspace, they began to relive Cottonmouth's
memories. Argyll, Cottonmouth, and Coyote were searching for dragons
along one of the mountains surrounding the empire, but they soon gave
up.

In a later memory, Cottonmouth and Coyote were on a snowy mountaintop
alongside several other members of the empire. Luna soon realized that a
dragon was residing in a nearby cave, and as soon as the dragon left her
home, Coyote and several others raced inside to steal one of her eggs.
Cottonmouth then ordered them to steal the other eggs as well, and when
one guard protested, Cottonmouth stabbed him through the stomach.

In the next memory, Cottonmouth and Coyote were seen arguing about
Cottonmouth's plan to capture and control dragonets during another
mission to steal dragon eggs. Cottonmouth vowed that he would eventually
be successful in making them weapons. As soon as the eggs were brought
to Cottonmouth, he ordered everyone to return home, despite several
humans still being trapped with the dragon. They were quickly killed.

In the memory after that, Cottonmouth was seen to be probing a dragonet
during its hatching, immediately clamping an iron ring onto its neck
after it had broken free of the egg.

In the next memory, Luna glimpsed a room with at least thirty cages for
young dragons. Cottonmouth then stormed through the room, arguing with
one of his fellow citizens.

## Trivia

  - Cottonmouth's empire was the first among the three empires to begin
    stealing dragon eggs.