As the rivers of coin flow, they bring light and change to every corner of the world.
Tekatli is the Saint of Trade and Commerce, raised up by Bakharos for her vision and ambition foremost but also for her boundless generosity and constant drive to empower others to chase their own dreams.
Tekatli holds the following to be the greatest virtues amongst her followers: to be insightful enough to spot an opportunity and clever enough to take advantage of it, to have the courage to take a chance and possibly lose, and to be willing to spend your wealth and even give it to others who are in need.
You must pay attention in order to see the opportunities to profit as they appear, and be ready and clever in order to take advantage of them. Tekatli prizes those amongst her followers who use their insight into people, markets, and situations to find ways to flourish. She teaches that you must be able to read the people around you, understand the flow of coin and goods and services, and then turn your mind to finding ways to exploit what you know to make a profit.
The courage of a merchant is not that of a warrior. It is the willingness to bet, to place money, resources, time, and effort into something in the hopes that it turns a profit, and to do so again and again and again until you win or lose. Tekatli asks her followers to be brave enough to reach out and grasp the chances that they see, to take the gamble and put their fortunes on the line so that they can make a bigger one. She does not demand that you risk it all, of course — only that you be willing to take risks in your business, rather than always playing it safe.
Never hold onto wealth for no other reason than to have it. Spend what you have to make your own life better or to improve someone else’s, or invest it so that you can further increase your wealth. Money or wealth that remains static slows down the holy flow of trade, and Tekatli will not abide hoarding behavior in her followers. Moreover, she teaches the philosophy of the Golden Spiral, believing that the judicious spreading of wealth to those who can best make use of it to lift themselves up is a sufficient net good that all of her followers should seek such souls out. Her lesson to her followers is this: give your wealth to those who can make better use of it than yourself, and you will be rewarded in time, whether directly or indirectly.
Tekatli holds the following sins to be the gravest amongst her followers: to be idle and indolent in the pursuit of profit, to take foolish risks and ruin yourself or others, and to bring disease or squalor with you in your travels and trades.
Never be content to sit and wile away the day, when you could be out there making more money or helping other people make money. Trade depends on hard work, not just luck or cleverness, and Tekatli looks poorly upon those who are lazy and act like they can just wait for wealth and fortune to fall into their laps.
There is a time and a place for courage and cleverness and being willing to bet it all on the possibility of profit, but there is a fine line between being clever and brave and being a fool and throwing your money away. Tekatli teaches that her followers must always be aware of that line, and weigh the risks of their endeavors with equal consideration to the possible benefits and losses; courage lies in taking the risk, but wisdom is shown in realizing that a risk is too great for your current circumstance and turning away from the glimmering possibility of profit.
Trade is a source of great wealth, but it can also be a vector for disease, and Tekatli will not tolerate her followers being the cause of a great plague or other similar calamity. She insists that all who follow her edicts cleanse themselves regularly, either magically or via bathing and good hygene. She demands that any merchants who are in a place that is plague-stricken either do what they must to absolutely ensure that they will not spread it to other areas when they leave or to stay and do what they can to help the afflicted region. Any who are careless or selfish enough to ignore these directives and bring a plague with them are struck down, their fortunes ruined and their lives reduced to the same level of squalor as they brought with them.
Tekatli appears as a stout and bronze-skinned human woman in her late forties, with a few lines in her face and her hair just starting to turn grey, wearing fashionable and expensive attire matching that of a successful merchant in whatever culture she’s appearing in. She always has at least one brightly-colored feather in her hair, and snail-shell jewelry somewhere on her person. Her fingers and lips are always depicted as being coated with gold in artwork, which apparently is quite accurate according to the testimonies of those to whom she has appeared personally.