Mea culpa.
#2manycomets - 1500 to 1511
We end up waiting a while for the Europeans to show up. Irritated investigation shows the Spanish exploration fleet sitting, leaderless, attriting to death in the southern Caribbean.
In the mean time, Huitzlihuitl passes on, leaving the reins of government to his nephew, Ahuitzotl, second of his name. His high administration score will be a great asset in days to come.
At last, something curious crests over the horizon, like a pair of trees moving on the water, before it vanishes into the distance again. It's the Spanish explorer Vicente Yáñez Pinzón, successor to the Spanish crown's previous, failed Caribbean expeditions. Though he didn't catch a glimpse of the great Tarascan Empire on his first voyage, he would return several times over the next five years, bringing the first accounts of life in the New World back to Europe.
Soon, all of Iberia is aflame with excited rumors about the Lands of the Dog Warriors (generally rendered Tierras de los Guerreros for short), where cities of spires and pyramids float on lakes and gold bubbles freely from every mountain spring. Hundreds of Portuguese and Moorish peasants, eager to leave the Castilian-dominated homeland behind, flock in droves to cross the seas and strike out a new fortune in the continent which soon becomes called Guerreria.
The cazonci Ahuitzotl is more than a little wary of the foreigners arriving south of his borders. The people are more fearful and wary than ever, questioning even the ancient ways religious practices of the P'urhepecha people. The last thing he needs is nosy foreigners and their strange cross-god stirring up civil disorder even more.
The problem becomes more apparent yet when the King of Spain leverages his influence over the Papal Curia to call a holy war against the 'infidels' of Guerreria, promising to save the souls of all the 'savages' dwelling there.
Wishing to understand this potential threat more readily, Ahuitzotl decides to take charge of the situation, and have a closer look at the raw men from across the sea. He leads a military expedition against the Pipil principalities around Lake Managua, annexing the region and sending the captives back to Tzintzuntzan for sacrifice.
What he finds disturbs him.
The raw men sail across the sea in mountains made of wood, and use weapons that spit fire and bark like hounds. Their blades easily penetrate even the most complex Tarascan armor, and they ride enormous deer into battle. Everything the Tarascans encounter is more confusing and awe-inspiring than the last. The meaning of all this is clear: the foreigners have the advantage, by far, and if the Tarascan Empire is to survive, it must adapt.
The establishment is unhappy to say the very least. Nobles and priests conspire to overthrow the cazonci and his subversive ideals, while ethnic and religious minorities at the empire's fringes threaten to roil over into open rebellion. Provided that these inside influences can be kept at bay, however, the empire perhaps stands a chance against the coming tide of colonialism.
As the Tarascan Empire takes its first, trembling steps into this new world, they become aware of just how big the wider world is. Tales arrive of the cities and riches of Europe, the jungles and deserts of Africa, the veiled mountains and teeming multitudes of China.
Plus one little island that makes the cazonci nervous; he feels as if it's watching him, with judging eyes.
As the first horses and shipwrights are stolen away from Spanish encampments in the dark of the night, the empire's military rapidly approaches western standards.
And as a last-ditch effort to save the empire from the maw of destruction, Ahuitzotl makes a somewhat more shocking choice...
(I was already at -3 stab from westernizing, so why not?)
#YOLO #Purhepecha #2manycomets