alternatehistory.com
Intro and Table of Contents - In the Light of the Sun
The year in 1551. The Tawantinsuyu Empire is battered and broken, but not yet dead.
Quisipe-Tupac reigns in Qusqu, his traditionalist, anti-Kitan faction stands triumphant over the empire. But such a victory came at a price. He has made a devil’s bargain to keep his throne. The Northern reaches of his empire have been signed away to the Welsers and the Spaniards, and Europeans now roam freely in his empire. In Qusqu itself the Spaniards watch with a careful eye over Quisipe-Tupac’s court.
In Tumbez Cristóbal Vaca de Castro sits in triumph. A new land has been subjugated for His Majesty Charles, and more is surely soon to follow. Now he begins the process of incorporating a new land into Spain’s ever-growing empire.
But all is not well for Castro. Jealous eyes turn on him, just as they turned on Cortes. Reports from the south are sparse, and to his north there stands a colonial rival, something he has never faced before.
With a well-timed betrayal the Welser family and their agent Philipp von Hutten have taken the farthest northern reaches of the empire. The great city of Kito is likened to the city of El Dorado, and there is plunder aplenty. Yet they have never governed such a civilized area as Kito, and many veterans from the region remember they betrayal of Quisquis. And they will find no sympathy from the Spanish, who are suspicious of this altogether German project. In Bogota the Governor fears encirclement.
In the South Manco-Capac has submitted to Quisipe-Tupac’s reign, but not his power. A great number of Spanish have found themselves assailed by “bandits” and placed under the “protection” of the Apu. In Quillota the Tawantinsuyu have begun to master the art of steel, and gunpower is being created, though it is useful for little more than intimidation. Manco-Capac has been using his new discoveries to keep the subjected Mapuche in line, but in the east a threat looms.
Mapuche exiled after Rumiñawi’s conquest have formed a loose confederation on Río de la Plata after driving out the natives. In doing so they saved the struggling Spanish colony of Buen Ayre and struck up an unlikely partnership. A Hispano-Mapuche Alliance dominates the basin now, but the Spanish have regained their footing, and now look outward. They have heard the tales told by the Mapuche and wish to use their allies to find a route to the riches of the Andes and bring the good word of Christ. And some Mapuche want to use their new allies’ obsession with conversion as a way to reclaim their homeland. And a small but devoted group of Mapuche want to do both at the same time. To their north lays the young Portuguese colonies who unknowingly sit above a rival.
And so South America is set up for a new act but the players to not yet know their partners. Knives will soon be drawn, yet where their target lays no one, not even their wielders, knows.
Across the sea Charles cares little for the games being played half a world away. He needs funds. And when Castro’s first shipment of gold and silver arrives Charles is ecstatic. And when the Welser family agrees to increase their loans to the empire in exchange for a confirmation of their rights to the land they have been granted. Perhaps he can force the French can now be forced out of Italy, or the Lutherans brought to heel.
Yet the world is changing. England’s boy king drags his nation kicking and screaming towards Protestantism, his three sisters waiting in the wings. In Portugal eyes turn towards Brazil, dangerously close to Spanish interests. And to his south Charles faces a Franco-Ottoman alliance with a stranglehold on the Mediterranean.
And all through Europe, the sailors talk. Rumors at first, but as men return from the New World the rumors became an odd sort of truth.
A great power sits in the far west. A power so great that even the might of Spain could not fell them. And now their goods were flowing into Europe. Gold, furs, silver and a strange leaf can now be found flowing from Spanish trade houses, bringing much needed wealth to the ailing Hapsburgs.
And so the crowned heads of Europe begin to ask themselves.
Why not them instead?
The Sons of Inti Shall Not Perish
An Alternate History of the Tawantinsuyu
***
Book 2: In the Light of the Sun
***
Setting Up the Pieces
The Woes of the Welsers
The Long Walk to Kito
Demands
Of Gods and Suyus
A New Crown
High Tide for Now
Settling In
Let He Who is Without Sin Cast the First Stone
A Southward Path
In this sign, you shall trade
Christmas Special
The Cliff
Détente
Smoke and Iron
The Black Horse
A Game of Gods
A Great Many Crowns
Quisipe-Tupac reigns in Qusqu, his traditionalist, anti-Kitan faction stands triumphant over the empire. But such a victory came at a price. He has made a devil’s bargain to keep his throne. The Northern reaches of his empire have been signed away to the Welsers and the Spaniards, and Europeans now roam freely in his empire. In Qusqu itself the Spaniards watch with a careful eye over Quisipe-Tupac’s court.
In Tumbez Cristóbal Vaca de Castro sits in triumph. A new land has been subjugated for His Majesty Charles, and more is surely soon to follow. Now he begins the process of incorporating a new land into Spain’s ever-growing empire.
But all is not well for Castro. Jealous eyes turn on him, just as they turned on Cortes. Reports from the south are sparse, and to his north there stands a colonial rival, something he has never faced before.
With a well-timed betrayal the Welser family and their agent Philipp von Hutten have taken the farthest northern reaches of the empire. The great city of Kito is likened to the city of El Dorado, and there is plunder aplenty. Yet they have never governed such a civilized area as Kito, and many veterans from the region remember they betrayal of Quisquis. And they will find no sympathy from the Spanish, who are suspicious of this altogether German project. In Bogota the Governor fears encirclement.
In the South Manco-Capac has submitted to Quisipe-Tupac’s reign, but not his power. A great number of Spanish have found themselves assailed by “bandits” and placed under the “protection” of the Apu. In Quillota the Tawantinsuyu have begun to master the art of steel, and gunpower is being created, though it is useful for little more than intimidation. Manco-Capac has been using his new discoveries to keep the subjected Mapuche in line, but in the east a threat looms.
Mapuche exiled after Rumiñawi’s conquest have formed a loose confederation on Río de la Plata after driving out the natives. In doing so they saved the struggling Spanish colony of Buen Ayre and struck up an unlikely partnership. A Hispano-Mapuche Alliance dominates the basin now, but the Spanish have regained their footing, and now look outward. They have heard the tales told by the Mapuche and wish to use their allies to find a route to the riches of the Andes and bring the good word of Christ. And some Mapuche want to use their new allies’ obsession with conversion as a way to reclaim their homeland. And a small but devoted group of Mapuche want to do both at the same time. To their north lays the young Portuguese colonies who unknowingly sit above a rival.
And so South America is set up for a new act but the players to not yet know their partners. Knives will soon be drawn, yet where their target lays no one, not even their wielders, knows.
Across the sea Charles cares little for the games being played half a world away. He needs funds. And when Castro’s first shipment of gold and silver arrives Charles is ecstatic. And when the Welser family agrees to increase their loans to the empire in exchange for a confirmation of their rights to the land they have been granted. Perhaps he can force the French can now be forced out of Italy, or the Lutherans brought to heel.
Yet the world is changing. England’s boy king drags his nation kicking and screaming towards Protestantism, his three sisters waiting in the wings. In Portugal eyes turn towards Brazil, dangerously close to Spanish interests. And to his south Charles faces a Franco-Ottoman alliance with a stranglehold on the Mediterranean.
And all through Europe, the sailors talk. Rumors at first, but as men return from the New World the rumors became an odd sort of truth.
A great power sits in the far west. A power so great that even the might of Spain could not fell them. And now their goods were flowing into Europe. Gold, furs, silver and a strange leaf can now be found flowing from Spanish trade houses, bringing much needed wealth to the ailing Hapsburgs.
And so the crowned heads of Europe begin to ask themselves.
Why not them instead?
The Sons of Inti Shall Not Perish
An Alternate History of the Tawantinsuyu
***
Book 2: In the Light of the Sun
***
Setting Up the Pieces
The Woes of the Welsers
The Long Walk to Kito
Demands
Of Gods and Suyus
A New Crown
High Tide for Now
Settling In
Let He Who is Without Sin Cast the First Stone
A Southward Path
In this sign, you shall trade
Christmas Special
The Cliff
Détente
Smoke and Iron
The Black Horse
A Game of Gods
A Great Many Crowns
- King of the Uzbeks
- Word Count: 830