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Well, this is where they prove themselves a new power. Or don't.

Or maybe it's just a simulacrum, and the real test will come when they face the strongest realms of this new world. Anyways, after this short conflict they have become overconfident, everything can happen now.
 
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Aye, there is still much work to do. But still a good first outing, as it were.
 
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Chapter 6: Maya Warfare, 177- 175 BCE
Chapter 6: Maya Warfare, 177- 175 BCE

The war against the Mayan confederation was short, as the defenders could manage to kick out the Mayan invaders and push into their lands quickly enough to make them surrender. This war was followed by an attack by the Exiles to gain the territories of their enemies, this provided more farmland to the Exiles, who were already enjoying good economic times.

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The first steps of expansion

The quick victory over their enemies made the council ask Zinnridi Yujnegi for an attack on the Kingdom of Ajaw, as Kujy u’id was the rightful heir to that throne, the Exiles believed themselves superior to the Maya and with the help and knowledge of the Olmecs that war could be easily won in less than a month. Things were made easy when the usurpers from Ajaw declared a war of conquest over the Ben’zaa of the Kingdom of Edrolik, based on Mitla, this was the opportunity that the Olmec prince was awaiting for.

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So in 177 BCE the fleet of the Exiles went into Ajaw with thousand of warriors from diferent origins, Taino, Maya, Olmec and the Phoenician themselves went to restore Kujy u’id to his throne and they believed that after the victory over Mo’ the mayan chieftain that usurped the Olmec throne they could conquer the entire peninsula of Yucatan if they wanted, the superiority of iron weapons over the wooden ones of their enemies were to be the decisive factor here.


But the Mayans had spies amongst the combined armies of the Exiles, so, while the fleet sailed from Oq Ykayo to Ajaw, a mayan army went from Ajaw to the lands occupied by the Exiles. The complexity of mayan politics was an alien thing to Zinnriddi, who never expected a strike from Ajaw trespassing the kingdoms and chiefdoms between his enemies and himself. Then, and because of this mistake, Bomilcar Yujnegi, his favorite son, chancellor and heir, was sacrificed to the gods of his enemies after being captured in the raid on Oq Ykayo in 176 BCE.

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A great loss
Zinnridi was shocked when we learned about this, and ordered a retreat from Ajaw, but it was too late, as the victorious mayan army that had recently conquered the Ben’zaa of the north, now were marching into the capital of the enemy Kingdom, and while the Exiles were retreating into their ships, the mayans took the city and the port, more than 800 of his people died in the battle of Ajaw that preceded the retreat from the old Olmec lands.

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The first battle lost to the maya peoples
He knew that he could not afford more losses, so he ordered all his people to flee to New Gadir. He and his entire army would be waiting for their enemies to come to them in Oq Ykayo, defenses were being prepared.

While they waited for their enemies to come, Zinnridi Yujnegi and Kujy u’id were co-ruling over the Exiles, Olmec and Phoenicians alike, taino and maya peasants. They had developed mutual respect between them, as both had ancient royal blood and were “kings” in exile, and ruled over what they considered the last of their kind.

Mayan warfare was limited by the agricultural cycles and limited food supplies, so, the enemy armies took their time to prepare their time to attack the Exiles.

Then, in the autumn of 175 BCE, the enemy appeared outside Oq Ykayo.
 
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Yeah, maybe they were overconfident. But I think they'll pull through this. Or at least I hope they will.
 
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Time for a proper showdown.
 
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Chapter 7: The Battle of Oq Ykayo, 175-174 BCE
Chapter 7: The Battle of Oq Ykayo, 174 BCE

The Olmec (1) were an ancient and proud people, they were the first civilization to exist in Yucatan and from them the Mayans learned the basics about city building, religion and culture. Now, after the fall of the Kingdom of Ajaw in 186 BCE at the hands of the Maya, the last Olmecs were allied with the Phoenician exiles that had recently arrived in Yucatan, and were fighting their last battle against being erased from history.

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The defenses were ready, and the troops motivated to fight the Mayan usurpers.
The Battle of Oq Ykayo started at dawn, with the mayans charging violently against the position defended by the Exiles. Zinnridi Yujnegi was surprised about the Mayan ability to fight, he knew that these peoples were more worried about religion, trade and cultural brilliance than about warfare, so the fact that they excelled in this area too, and that his advisors didn’t told him about this before starting this war bothered him. This situation was a trap tended to him by his Mayan and Taino allies? Was the war against the weak tribes who inhabited the territories near Oq Ykayo part of it? He didn’t knew the answers at the time, but he was still worried about being betrayed by his recently acquired allies… but at least he knew that the Olmec were fighting for the same he was. Survival. At least he knew that he could trust Kujy u’id, their leader.

The leader of the Phoenicians was in the rear, commanding his men to fight against the Mayans and trying to use the terrain to his advantage, his Olmec friend and son in law, Kujy u’id , was defending the base of the hill that was the principal line of defense of Oq Ykayo. The battle was to be won, as they were defending a good position and the invaders were apparently fighting like a rabble of disorderly and barbaric peoples. Zinnridi was observing from a tower, and ordered the Taino infantry to flank their enemies as the opportunity presented, he had no cavalry, as he sent all the horses (as they were the most valuable possession of the Exiles) to New Gadir in the case they were overrun by their enemies, and he didn’t expected the Mayans adopting horses for warfare so early.

He realized too late that this was a mistake.

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As the Taino infantry were charging against the unprotected flank of the Mayan army, a sound of galloping horses came from the jungle. The newly adopted Maya cavalry charged violently against the Taino, who now were running in terror to the forests where another Mayan group was expecting them with spears and clubs to finish the job.

The war was now in favor of the Mayans as most of the Phoenician troops, seeing their Taino friends being annihilated fled to Oq Ykayo, and seeing the situation lost, Zinnridi sounded the retreat, he could not allow himself to lost more people. Kujy u’id commanded his people to follow the Phoenicians but then, the Mayan cavalry ran to Kujy u’id position and captured him. Most of the Exiles troops successfully entered the city and fortified their positions there, preparing for the inevitable siege.

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But even with supplies being transported by the Exiles fleet across the sea, Zinnridi knew that this siege could mean the end of his people, so, he asked for a parley and it was conceded, there, he surrendered to his enemies trying to save his son in law from being executed.

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And to his surprise, Mo’, the New King of Ajaw, didn’t asked for more territory, he only wanted the promise that the Exiles would never attack Ajaw again, some monetary concessions to pay his troops and a trade deal. The leader of the exiles was happy about this treaty, as he was more accustomed to the ways of the old world , with his people becoming slaves and their lands taken away…. but this was not all, the Mayans wanted one more thing , and, according to them, was the most important of them all.

They wanted to keep Kujy u’id as a prisoner…and that was not negotiable.

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1. To this day, we don't know how the "Olmecs" called themselves, this is an exonym used by their successors to describe the ancient civilization that "disappeared" in this timeframe. Modern scholars think that they spoke in a zoque-mixe proto language and i did not find anything, even in spanish, that contradicts this claim.
 
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That was a better peace than might have been.
 
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The immediate peace is good, but it sounds like some kind of violence is soon to happen again.
 
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That was a better peace than might have been.

Mayan Warfare was not always about conquest, but more about prestige and honor. Also, ck2 mechanics xD.
The immediate peace is good, but it sounds like some kind of violence is soon to happen again.

In that moment of history, that was how nations were built after all.
 
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Chapter 8: The last of the Olmecs, 174 BCE
Chapter 8: The last of the Olmecs, 174 BCE

After the end of the war, Zinnridi was invited to Ajaw, the city founded by the ancestors of his son in law, Kujy u’id, there, he wanted to negotiate the release of the husband of his daughter, not just because he was a friend of the Olmec, but also because he had a lot of his subjects living now in his lands, and having their leader executed was not a good idea for stability.

Walking through the streets of the old city made Zinnridi envy in a certain way and the lost greatness of the Olmecs made him remember his own people, expelled from their lands by civil wars and the Iberian invasion. As Leader of the Exiles, his mission now was to sign a good peace treaty with the Mayans so that the rest of the city-states of the region would have respect for the defeated newcomers.

Because in this world, everything was based on the respect and prestige of the ruling class.

The Olmec for centuries had been the source of knowledge and power in this part of the world and their rulers had invented a myth about their supernatural origin, the rulers were half human, half jaguar, and this made the rest of the inhabitants of the the region look at them with respect and even with some fear.

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The Maya nobility, in turn, deformed the skulls of their newborn to look different to the commoners, as they were blessed by the gods themselves to rule over them. Good harvests, success in wars, and the general prosperity of city-states depended on the relationship that the ruling class had with the gods.

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Zinnridi thought about these differentiations, and that he would have to think about some form of exercising power through symbolism in order to rule over his people ... the diversity between Phoenicians, Olmecs, Tainos and Maya was so big, that could destroy his Kingdom in a matter of years if he could not elaborate some way to consolidate his power over them.

Also, the way in which Zinnridi faced this defeat was what would make the Exiles strong,or destroy them completely. He felt as if he were in a historical juncture, the decisions he took in these critical days would decide the centuries to come. It was a heavy task and the goddesses had put this weight on their shoulders, he could not fail this task.

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After signing the peace treaty, which declared the friendship between the two peoples in conflict and the end of the Olmecs, Zinnridi was invited to a ceremony at the top of the main pyramid of the city.

He climbed the stairs with the greatest dignity, each step, meant an effort, and behind his back, the Mayan people of Ajaw watched closely what happened, Zinnridi tried to maintain the solemnity of the moment despite his fatigue, but seeing his friend tied on an altar of stone as if it were an animal soon to be sacrificed, made anger fill his mind, fortunately he knew how to maintain his composure.

Then, the last of the Olmecs, Kujy u’id, was sacrificed like an animal on the top of the altar, the people below shouted with religious fervor and Zinnridi Yujnegi, the leader of the Exiles, understood the message.

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That was the price of defeat.

And he remembered, that this was what his son, Bomilcar, suffered some years ago because he let the mayans sack his capital, when he was far away, invading this city at the start of the war.
 
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The price of defeat can be terrible, one must redouble one's efforts to see that one's foes are the ones that pay it.
 
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The price of defeat can be terrible, one must redouble one's efforts to see that one's foes are the ones that pay it.
Thats what Zinnridi learned the hard way, i hope that his successors can do better in this new world.
 
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Chapter 9: The Odiq’e. 171 BCE
Chapter 9: The Odiq’e. 171 BCE

After the wars against the Maya, Zinnridi Yujnegi had become the ruler over a diversity of peoples, the last olmecs from Ajaw, the Taino from New Gadir and the allied tribes, the Maya from the recently conquered lands, and the Phoenicians that have followed him from the old world. This diversity of cultures and interest proved a difficult gap to fill, even with all the wealth that the Phoenicians had accumulated for the last 30 years, but Zinnridi was sure that these differences could be eliminated if he worked hard to do that, so he ordered all his priest to go to teach all his subjects about the culture of the Exiles, with the religion of the triple Goddess at the center of everything.

Dido Yujnegi, his daughter, was busy raising her first child, Mathos, born briefly after the death of her husband, sacrificed by the Mayans of Ajaw some years ago.

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Following orders from his father, she, for the last 3 years traveled to every village, city or town under the banner of his father, reinforcing the sovereignty of the Exiles over these lands, using the religion to unite them as a people, teaching the nobles the language of the Exiles and about the triple Goddess. As a holy woman, the role of Dido was of vital importance for the survival of the Kingdom that Zinnridi was building, and she knew that. So, she was also preparing his son to be the King of the Exiles someday, as Mathos had the blood of the ancient Olmecs and the blood of the ancient Ishfani, she believed that he would have a big role in the future, even against her own brothers who had better claims to the throne.

After three years doing her missionary duty, Dido was summoned to the capital city of Oq Yqayo because his father had arranged her new marriage, this time, to a Ben’zaa prince, another old kingdom in the region that had fallen against the might of the mayans.

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The ceremony was short, because Zinnridi had organized an ever greater ceremony, he had summoned all the important people on his kingdom and invited the nobles of the mayan tribes nearby, because he would host a ceremony to crown himself as the Great Jawoh of the Great Republic of the Odiq’e.

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Odiq’e was the term used to describe the Exiles in the old language of the Ishfani merchants, and Zinnridi thought that was a good idea to stop calling themselves the Exiles in all the local languages if they wanted to remain in this side of the world and be accepted not as foreign invaders but as friendly neighbors, now, they would have an identity based in shared cultural and religious values. He took to himself the title of “Great Jawoh” because he will be the Judge of all his people from now on, not a King, not a Chieftain, but their Great Judge, the embodiment of the law itself. And he would rule over a Republic (a great one), because all the titles under him would be elected between the nobility, so his successors would have to hear all the demands of their subjects and would not be tyrants over them. Even the charge of the Great Jawoh would be subject to election between the members of his family, to prevent to repeat the fate of the old Yujnegi dynasty of Ishfania. This, was the only way, Zinnridi believed, that his people could persist over time as rulers of different peoples, and the cultural assimilation of everyone under the banner of the Odiq’e, would be the central task of the government for the years to come.

Now the Odiq’e were part of this world, but they would endure with their new Great Republic in an age where the supremacy of the Maya was indisputable?

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So a sort of double-assimilation appears to be going on.
 
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Chapter 10: The New Order, 171-160 BCE
(after taking a short vacation -its summer here-, i return to write this)
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Chapter 10: The New Order, 171-160 BCE

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Zinnridi Yujnegi, 1° Great Jawoh of the Great Republic of the Odiq’e, founder of the Great Republic, leader of the Exiles and 4° Exiled King of Ishfania

Son of Hanno, son of Hannibal, son of Dido, daughter of Ayzebel, daughter of Yzebel, daughter of Similce, daughter of Sophonisba, daughter of Sophonisiba, daughter of Mago, founder of the Kingdom of Ishfania.


After he crowned himself as Great Jawoh, Zinnridi Yujnegi started building defenses in his new domain, and for the next nine years, his rule was characterized by the continued work of his people to build walls where once there were forests, and great fortresses where before there were only small towns. That's how thanks to the wealth obtained trading animals from the old world and technology to the mayan kingdoms, the Odiq’e strengthened their position at the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula.

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Literally building a Kingdom from scratch
But this work wasn’t without problems, because there were still differences between the ways his subject communicated between themselves and how they perceived the world around them, so his daughter, Dido, continued her mission to teach the natives the ways of the Odiq’e, so, as the great priestess and with the help of the priests of her holy order, she taught them the language of the old Ishfani merchants, the techniques to build the great ships who were now reaching every corner of this new world to trade with different people, and the divine importance of the tools made with the metal bought by the ishfani to this part of the world. But the most important mission of Dido was to teach them about her new religion, about how the exiles that crossed the sea from where the sun starts to rise, where here to be one people with the natives and how everyone would become divine beings after death just accepting that fact.

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Following the example of their Ishfanian antecessors, Zinnridi wanted to create alliances and good relations with his neighbors, s over the years he sent diplomatic and merchants to the different city-states of the region, so he could secure the borders of his dominion and also, prepare the intelligence required for the inevitable expansion of the Odiq’e inwards, into the very heart of the Mayan lands.

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As the Odiq’e were creating their new nation, the Mayan aristocracy started to see them as an example of government culture, so the old system of city-states started to slowly fade, to be replaced with the idea of a nation, something unthinkable in this part of the world until now, and maybe, in the next centuries Kingdoms and Empires would rose to challenge the very existence of the Odiq’e…

In 160 BCE, and at the old age of 67 years, Zinnridi Yujnegi, the first Great Jawoh of the Odiq’e, died from natural causes, and just as he decided years ago when he founded the Great Republic of the Odiq’e, the nobles gathered to elect his successor, and Baalhaan Yujnegi, one of his sons, was elected as the next Great Jawoh.

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An "ordinary" death. That, I think, is surely a sign of progress
 
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