Land of Sweetness: A Pre-Columbian Timeline

[fraa Jad]

I like the operatic format. I'm trying to imagine what Isatian opera looks like physically. I have a close friend who's an opera singer, she's a mezzo-soprano.

 

[fraa Jad]

So we just had a few beers with her and I just showed her this thread and she imagines XŌCHIPIL being a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramatic_soprano

 

[LunazimHawk]

Perhaps these Isatian Operas will become a symbol of Native culture and resistance towards the European invaders. It might be like the songs and martial arts of the Afro-Brazilians during slavery, a way to maintain their culture.

 

[Every Grass in Java]

The army of CEMĀNĀHUATĒPĒHUANI lands and marches on Mayapán. TĒZCATL proceeds with an army of his own, complete with SOLDIERS and the generals MEZOLLI, TEZOLLI, and EZOLLI, all three of whom earlier in the opera accepted the bribes of and told TĒZCATL to support the rebellion, unlike their colleague CEMĀNĀHUATĒPĒHUANI.


TĒZCATL: We will proceed to Huiciomīlco [Isatian for “Judgement Field”]

And see what judgement the gods have for us.

Jungle paths from here to Huiciomīlco

Not even the villagers know;

We will follow these paths and ambush the foe,

They will be caught unawares.



TĒZCATL’S SOLDIERS: They will be caught unawares!



TĒZCATL: We will proceed to Huiciomīlco

And see what judgement the gods have for us.

The enemy is led by a mighty man,

The most cunning of those who’s served me;

But no matter how far he may know, see, and hear,

He will not imagine these paths.



TĒZCATL’S SOLDIERS: They will not imagine these paths!



A SOLDIER: My lord, why must I fight when my village is starving away?



TEZOLLI: My lord, kill this cowardly man!



TĒZCATL: No, no –

I will answer him.

A long time ago I strived to follow only the path that was straight,

Every night watched the mirror – my namesake the mirror –

And my reflection there admonished me,

A long time ago.

I know no longer what path I am leading,

Only crooked, only narrow, only dusty,

And I know I will fall, I, broken Tēzcatl!

I have a mirror in my palace,

The mirror that’s my name.

I have a broken mirror in my palace,

The broken mirror that’s my name,

It broke ten years ago on my wedding night,

I told Xōchipil it always was broken,

And who else knew but her and me?

But now you know!

And I know I will fall, I broken Tēzcatl!

Not today – they will be caught unawares – but someday I will fall,

The mirror that wobbles will always break,

The man who strays will always fall!

But I do not turn back,

I do not surrender,

I do not return to trace back my path!

A wicked man follows only the winding path,

And he knows how winding it is,

But he does not turn back because he is a man.

The mercenary follows a most venal path,

He tears up men’s chests for a trinket here or there,

He leaves children to starve for a bag of cacao beans.

The mercenary is not a righteous man.

But he does not turn back –

In death the mercenary’s chest is bloodied-torn, his back is smooth –

He is a man, no righteous man, but still a man.

Follow me, soldiers, or follow me not;

The choice is for you, in this world in between.



Exeunt half of TĒZCATL’S SOLDIERS.



TĒZCATL: Which men have left, and which men have stayed?



EZOLLI: The Maya men leave, your old followers stay.



TĒZCATL: I am blessed; that’s how it should have always been.



ALL: We will proceed to Huiciomīlco [Isatian for “Judgement Field”]

And see what judgement the gods have for us.

Jungle paths from here to Huiciomīlco

Not even the villagers know;

We will follow these paths and ambush the foe,

They will be caught unawares.



Enter CEMĀNĀHUATĒPĒHUANI and his SOLDIERS.



CEMĀNĀHUATĒPĒHUANI: They will proceed to Huiciomīlco

And see what judgement the gods have for them.

Jungle paths from here to Huiciomīlco

They do not know that we know;

We will follow these paths and ambush the foe,

They will be caught unawares.



CEMĀNĀHUATĒPĒHUANI’S SOLDIERS: They will be caught unawares!



CEMĀNĀHUATĒPĒHUANI: They will proceed to Huiciomīlco

And see what judgement the gods have for them.

The enemy is led by a mighty man,

The most cunning of those I’ve served;

But in his most secret rooms I know, see, and hear,

He will not imagine my spies.



CEMĀNĀHUATĒPĒHUANI’S SOLDIERS: They do not imagine our spies!



(CEMĀNĀHUATĒPĒHUANI and his SOLDIERS hide behind the trees. When TĒZCATL and his SOLDIERS pass by, they emerge in an ambush. The two sides fight. Most of TĒZCATL’S SOLDIERS, including EZOLLI, are taken by surprise and killed. Exeunt TĒZCATL, MEZOLLI, TEZOLLI, and the surviving SOLDIERS.)



CEMĀNĀHUATĒPĒHUANI: They proceeded to Huiciomīlco

And saw what judgement the gods had for them.

Jungle paths from here to Huiciomīlco

They did not know that we knew;

We followed these paths and we ambushed the foe,

They were caught unawares.



CEMĀNĀHUATĒPĒHUANI’S SOLDIERS: They were caught unawares!



Exeunt ALL.



Enter TĒZCATL, MEZOLLI, the surviving SOLDIERS, and TEZOLLI dragging the SPY.



TEZOLLI: My lord, an enemy spy!



TĒZCATL: Speak, spy, or I’ll dig out your eyes,

How did you know these paths that should be unseen,

How did you know these plans that should be unknown?



SPY: Spies, Tēzcatl, spies far better than I!

(For the best of all spies never go remembered as such.)



MEZOLLI and TEZOLLI: I know who the spy is!



TĒZCATL: Who?



(Simultaneously)



MEZOLLI: Tezolli!



TEZOLLI: Mezolli!



TĒZCATL: Stop, you idiots, the spy is laughing at you.



SPY: It’s always darkest under the brazier, fools,

Beneath the mirror [tēzcatl] the least is seen.

 

[Al-numbers]

So, who is the spy?

 

[MbokDarmi]

<spoiler> the unnammed servant from the beginning </spoiler>

 

[Every Grass in Java]

After interrogation, the SPY reveals that the defeat at Huiciomīlco was because the plans were revealed by XŌCHIPIL. The outraged TEZOLLI and MEZOLLI slaughter the queen in Mayapán. TĒZCATL executes his two generals, then flees alone in disguise to the coast before the advance of CEMĀNĀHUATĒPĒHUANI’s army. He meets a FISHERMAN there.


TĒZCATL: What news, good man, from Mayapán?



FISHERMAN: They say Quetzalcōhuātl has returned to the land,

Our lord Quetzalcōhuātl has returned to the land.

He forbids the sacrifice of human hearts

In the city of Mayapán,

He sacrifices snakes and butterflies

In the city of Mayapán,

And he says,

“I have returned to conquer the world.”



TĒZCATL: I had the god Quetzalcōhuātl in my service, and did not recognize him!



FISHERMAN: Who are you?



TĒZCATL: I am Tēzcatl, mercenary, king… Man.



FISHERMAN: Tēzcatl, what will you do?



TĒZCATL: Give me your worst fishing boat;

I will sail into the ocean sea and come back not.



FISHERMAN: I will give you my best boat instead.



TĒZCATL: You are kind.



FISHERMAN: What do you think will become of this world when you are gone?



TĒZCATL: Everywhere,

Throughout the world,

Where was the foundation of the throne,

The mastery, the power, the glory, the fame?

And when, and where,

Was the Ever-Nigh invoked,

The Ever-Present supplicated,

The Feathered Serpent worshipped,

The Night and Wind reverenced?

Indeed, since ancient times.

When was it, in Mayapán?

When was it, in Chichen Itza?

When was it, in Tollān? [Major Central Mexican city, from c. 900-1150]

When was it, in Huapalcalco?

When was it, in Xōchatlapan, in Tlamohuanchan, in Yohualichan,

When was it – in Teōtīhuacān? [First major Central Mexican empire, from c. 100 BC-550 AD]

And when will it be?

When will it be, in Tiho?

When will it be, in Tetzcoco?

When will it be – in Tenōchtitlan?

But bring me my boat!



(FISHERMAN drags his boat and sets it afloat on the water-filled section of the stage. TĒZCATL steps on board.)



TĒZCATL: Alone I go to the ocean sea,

See what things she has in place for me.

The earth is a slick and slippery place –

“Above the earth,” not “on the earth,” [1]

Today I leave it all,

And die on the sea.

No man has drawn lines on the sea,

No roads cut up the ocean blue,

Every path on the sea that you take is as straight as you want it to be,

And that is a proper thing.

Water has no color,

But the sea is blue,

For the sea reflects the sky.

The sea is the mightiest mirror of all,

It’s the mirror of the world and all that’s ever in it,

And the sea never shatters.

Ah, I shatter, every mirror shatters, the sea never does!



Enter the ghost of KING.



KING: Farewell, Tēzcatl, I hate you not;

I know your heart, I understand.

When on the ocean sea, desperate alone,

And the depthless waters call on you to die,

Remember me, not how I died,

But the jokes we shared, the wars we fought.



TĒZCATL: You are dead and I have killed you,

But still you live in my mind and my tears,

A man is not dead so long as one person still cries for him.



Enter the ghost of XŌCHIPIL.



XŌCHIPIL: Farewell, Tēzcatl, I hate you not;

I was loved, you were loved, you loved me, I you,

Remember that.

I betrayed you at Huiciomīlco, yes,

I betrayed you and the world was blurred with tears,

For I loved you more than I ever loved my father dear,

But a woman has a duty, just as mercenaries do.



TĒZCATL: I know – you, woman, are the braver man,

I loved you and so I strayed,

You loved me, but you did not stray,

Even when the abyss called to you.



XŌCHIPIL: Do not recall the battles that were lost,

Only the quiet of my embrace in yours,

Do not recall the pitfalls that were missed,

Only our songs on the ocean paths.



TĒZCATL: Farewell, farewell, farewell!

With ghosts I go to the ocean sea,

See what things she has in place for me.

It matters no more to me.



Exit TĒZCATL, rowing out of the stage.

[1] In Isatian, humans are said to live "above the earth" (tlalticpac) instead of "on the earth" (tlalpan) because human life on earth is thought of as more of walking along the edge of a knife, or a tightrope, rather than walking on a flat surface.

 

[Every Grass in Java]

OCC, what the names of the characters mean:

• Pōchtēuctzin: "Honored merchant lord." It's actually grammatically incorrect, the proper Nahuatl should be Pōchtēuctzintli. His historical equivalent in the ATL is the Maya rebel king Ahau Nanal Tzab.
• Tēzcatl: "Mirror," as has been repeatedly hammered in. The important Aztec war god Tēzcatlipōca literally means "Smoking Mirror."
• Xōchipil: "Poor little flower." His historical equivalent in the ATL is the Mayapán princess Ix Kichpam Pepem.
• Attendants of Pōchtēuctzin: Tōchpōl "Lousy big rabbit," Ozomapōl "Lousy big monkey," Xocpōl "Lousy big slug"
• Generals of Tēzcatl: Mezolli "Lousy agave," Tezolli "Lousy stones," Ezolli "Lousy beans"
• Cemānāhuatēpēhuani: "Conqueror (tēpēhuani) of the World (cemānāhuatl)." On his historical equivalent in the ATL, more will be said...

 

[Roger II]

We need a recording of this

 

[Al-numbers]

And so ends the tale of Tēzcatl. Tragic, foolish, brave, and cunning. He is all and more, and I think that's what the operamasters want to remember him by.

 

[Stalingrad]

“Has anyone told you about the Mexicans in Cocopan? These folks build stone mountains, too, in their ward by the harbor. Every day they hold a lottery, and the Mexicans kill whoever is selected the next day. They carve the hearts out, like some other people do down south in the city.” “Have you seen those Mexican lotteries, uncle?” “Well, no, but what they say is…”

Just started reading it, this is from the first page...
But I believe you meant Mexicas, as the Mexican identity only formed after the independence from Spain.

Anyways, this is quite interesting.

 

[Wolttaire]

Just started reading it, this is from the first page...
But I believe you meant Mexicas, as the Mexican identity only formed after the independence from Spain.

Anyways, this is quite interesting.

the whole timeline has changed everything by a large amount and when the expedtions not the amazons happened how did they interact with the huge native civilisation in the area

 

[Stalingrad]

the whole timeline has changed everything by a large amount and when the expedtions not the amazons happened how did they interact with the huge native civilisation in the area

Oh no, I meant...it was from the first page and the first post, I highly doubt POD already affected that beginning.

It's just a small detail, I just meant to say that the term "Mexican" wasn't around at that point (and it's the start of the TL so I doubt it was intentional or caused by butterfly effect...)
I insist, it's just a small detail.

 

[Every Grass in Java]

Thanks for reading!

But I believe you meant Mexicas, as the Mexican identity only formed after the independence from Spain.

This is intentional, actually. Prior to the formation of modern Mexico, Mexicano "Mexican" was a very common translation of of Nahuatl Mēxihcatl (pl. Mēxihcah). Obviously, there is no United States of Mexico ITTL, and "Mexican" continues to refer to the Mēxihcah.

it's the start of the TL so I doubt it was intentional or caused by butterfly effect...

The first post actually takes place around five hundred years after the POD!

 

[Stalingrad]

Thanks for reading!


This is intentional, actually. Prior to the formation of modern Mexico, Mexicano "Mexican" was a very common translation of of Nahuatl Mēxihcatl (pl. Mēxihcah). Obviously, there is no United States of Mexico ITTL, and "Mexican" continues to refer to the Mēxihcah.


The first post actually takes place around five hundred years after the POD!

About the five hundred years POD;
Woah!
Apologies then! Sheesh, this will be an interesting TL, always wanted to see something like this.

Thanks for clarifying!


Regarding "Mexican", interesting, I didn't know the word was a common translation for the native term.
Once again, thanks for your kindness in clarifying this.

 

[Wolttaire]

Do yuctan merchant carbian merchant exc has there trade network hit the middle of the missipi the great cities there won't the sails be very useful or them

 

[Every Grass in Java]

THE TAIGUANO PROPHETESS — Part I​

Birth​

The hagiographies say that the Taiguano Prophetess was once the daughter of a petty Haitian nobleman.

The name of Prophetess’s family goes unmentioned in any of our sources. The early Taiguano elite must have wanted to avoid anyone other than the Prophetess’s direct descendants, the dynasty of the Camaicids, from claiming hereditary authority. We do not even know from which kingdom of Haiti she came, and all five claimed her birthplace.

Her birth—traditionally dated to September 17, 1342, the date 11.6.0.0.0 in the Maya Long Count calendar—was miraculous, say most hagiographers. The moment she was born, ghostly songs issued from the dust of the air and petals descended like rain from the sky. The feathers of exotic birds whirled around her parents, and a stylus of light hovered above the clouds, inscribing patterns of geometry on the dome of the heavens.

This miracle birth was doubted by some of the more learned theologians, who pointed out that Lord Bacocolon, the Taiguano god, was no conjurer who would resort to the supernatural. But no matter how much they decried these superstitions, the common people continued to believe.

However, even the most cynical of the theologians accepted as gospel one incident in the Prophetess's infancy. Soon after her birth, everyone knew, her mother was visited by two old men. One had tears in his eyes; the other, smile lines around them.

"Lords, why do you cry and why do you smile?" The mother asked.

"The fate of your child will be most wretched among all people on earth," the crying man said, "and I weep for her."

"That is true," said the other man, "but it will be a life as noble as it is wretched, and I smile for her."

Childhood​

The Prophetess was a prodigy. She learned to speak at the age of one month, read and wrote by the age of six months, and composed perfect poetry before she was two years old.

Like all little girls, the Prophetess delighted in her parents, and they delighted in her. Every time guests came to her household, her parents would talk of nothing but their daughter: see how smart she is, how beautiful she is, how eloquent, how elegant, how unique... And even the most skeptical of their guests could only marvel when they came face-to-face with the child, the three-year-old girl who spoke to them in metered rhyme. "This girl has been blessed by the gods," everyone said.

The Prophetess had only one sibling, a brother older by eight years. The boy's name was Guaiqui. Had Guaiqui been a meaner boy, he would surely have been jealous of his little sister, but the child's heart was too tender for that. The boy loved the Prophetess as much as her parents did, feeding her sweets and laughing to see her laugh, marveling too at how intelligent his little sister was. Whenever the other boys bragged about what they had, Guaiqui would always say, "But you don't have a little sister like mine!"

When the Prophetess was seven years old and Guaiqui fifteen, her parents showed her the idols and took her to the blood sacrifices. She was terrified of the priests and their blood-reeking attire and the ugly idols they served and how they tore the heart out of the poor man. As the priests raised the still-beating heart on the stool, the girl ran out the temple.

Her parents and brother found her cowering under a rock, and her face was in tears.

"Mother, father," she whispered, "don't worship the idols, don't sacrifice for them ever again—look, mother, they're just stone and wood, they can't move themselves, can't feed themselves, they are nothing like what people are—the gods in the temple are incapable of anything on their own, don't sacrifice people for them."

Her parents said, "You will understand in time."

She said, "No! I wish I'll never understand."

And Guaiqui stood silently. When his parents left, he hugged his sister and she hugged him back, and the Prophetess knew that things would be alright.

Adolescence​

After her flight from the temple, the guests no longer thought that the Prophetess was blessed by the gods. They began to whisper that perhaps she was possessed by the ghost of some foul heretical scholar, some phantom who had chosen to possess a poor girl's body rather than slink off into the land of the dead.

Her parents and brother were undaunted. They always spoke of the Prophetess as the best daughter and sister they could have, no matter how much the people whispered. One day, when Guaiqui was seventeen and married, his new wife asked him, "Why do you love your sister so much? They say bad things about her."

"She is my little sister," he said, "How could I not love her?"

By the time the Prophetess was fourteen years old, she never went to the temple at all and never spoke of the gods. Instead she talked of another god, one she called Bacocolon. This god, she explained, was the patron of humanity. A long time ago, the world had no humans. Because there were no humans, there was no generative force; everything was either stagnant or being destroyed. The god Bacocolon had mercy on the world and created humanity, so that they could create anew and thus maintain the world.

Humans were therefore the most noble thing on earth, and it was a terrible sin to be sacrificing human lives for false gods.

The idol-priests heard her words and were outraged. They began to barricade her house, telling her parents to drag her out in chains so that she could be sacrificed for her blasphemies. Otherwise the gods would curse them terribly. Her parents were still idolaters, and the gory detail of the curses that the priests shouted out unnerved them to the core of their bones. But her father said,

"Even if, as the priests say, our feet were to be burnt black and our eyes were to sink in sea water—even if, as they say, we will be buried alive in earth—we cannot give up our daughter."

And her mother said,

"That is right; we love her."

And together the parents climbed up the roof of the house and shouted, "Sacred priests! We know we are doing a grave wrong in the face of the gods, and we will take whatever punishments the mighty gods dole out, but we cannot dare sacrifice the daughter who we love."

Eventually the priests dissipated.

Captivity​

In the Age of Caciques, say the hagiographers, even Yucayans were taken slaves as if they were mere savages.

When the Prophetess was sixteen years old, the slavers came. They took an entire border village of serfs captive, one hundred forty-seven men and one hundred one women and two hundred seventy-two children. Because the captors already had enough serfs for their own purposes, they decided to sell them to Mayapán.

The nobleman who had owned this village presented himself to the royal court and said, "My honored king! I have been dispossessed of my possessions."

The king compensated him with a new town of serfs.

The next day, the lone refugee from the enslaved village came and said, "My honored king! I have been dispossessed of my home and companions and family."

The king said, "How dare such a filthy and lowly creature come to my regal court! His stink is too much to bear; have him carried off!"

The man wept and asked, "My king, can you do nothing?"

The king said, "It is the invariable principle of the world that the strong take and the weak are taken, that the strong possess and the weak are dispossessed."

The Prophetess heard the news and went to the slaver ship. She traced her noble lineage before them, and they were astonished of her lofty pedigree. Then the Prophetess said that she would willingly enslave herself if the five hundred and thirty were set free. She knew that the Maya paid much higher for noblewomen. The slavers accepted. The serfs were emancipated.

The Prophetess's family heard the news and rushed to the ship, tumbling on their tears. Her father said in a shaking voice, "I will buy her back for six hundred of my serfs."

The slavers considered the proposal when the Prophetess shouted, "I refuse, father! I am one person, not six hundred."

The Prophetess's father cried, "Girl, you barely understand! Do you not know what they do to women on the slave ships?"

The Prophetess said, "I know, father. I have read about it all, and I have seen it all with my own eyes: the abuse, the bruises, the broken voices, the bodies thrown into the sea. I know as much as you do," and her voice cracked as she said this .

The Prophetess's mother said, "So you know, my daughter. You know, so how could you do this to yourself?"

The Prophetess said, "Because I knew. And they were one hundred and one women, and I was one."

And the Prophetess's mother could not say another word. At long last her father spoke again, asking the slavers for a final moment with his daughter. The slavers acquiesced. The Prophetess's father gave his daughter a single nightshade berry. She looked at it, wondering, and her father said, "This is a special breed of nightshade. It kills swift and painlessly."

Guaiqui had been silent all the while. And as the ship left, Guaiqui finally shouted out, "I love you, sister." And the Prophetess said that she loved him too.

Abuse​

The hagiographers usually describe in detail the physical and sexual violence that the Prophetess endured at the hands of the slavers. This cruelty was central to later Taiguano theology; even after such trauma at the hands of her fellow humans, the Prophetess did not lose her faith in humanity and in the god of humanity. As this text is not a Taiguano hagiography, we see little reason we should list the gory details.

One night, following days of soul-breaking abuse, the Prophetess lay chained and contemplated the berry she had hidden away. It looked very appetizing. She opened her mouth, painfully—her face was all bruised—she regretted everything. She remembered her mother and her father, and her brother Guaiqui, who had said he loved her. She wept bitterly.

Her tongue rolled out and touched the glistening black of the berry.

Then the god Bacocolon was before her. He did not speak. But she understood and cast the berry aside.

The next day, the ship arrived at the port of Mayapán.

* * *

For the original version of this entry that the posts below discuss, click this link.

 

[Wolttaire]

 

[EnvarKadri]

View attachment 418594

Why?

 

[LunazimHawk]

Woah there, now that's a bit far. Will Cemānāhuatēpēhuani become canonized as a God in Mayapan legends, similar to how people literally worshipped Julius Caesar.