The New World of the White Huns

[Practical Lobster]

Are there still Buddhist in Scandinavia or have they all immigrated to Russia?

will there still be an update on Scandinavia?

how are the Baltics?

To the extent there were Buddhists in Scandinavia it was always very syncretic and confused - compared to the Rusichi, "Buddhism" in Scandinavia was always oral, and was more or less a veneer over pagan practice that the Norse in Sweden were happy to adopt if it meant closer bonds with their Gardaveldi cousins. Thus it existed primarily at the elite and "urban" level (insomuch as medieval Sweden had an urban level) - and there was never a big monastic presence to really spread any kind of orthopraxy or even ensure that the ideas the Scandinavian Norse subscribed to were recognizably Buddhist. This timeline necessarily treats Buddhism broadly - acknowledging a common origin for practices as diverse as Russian forest mysticism and Chinese Chan Buddhism. But I never envisioned Scandinavian Buddhism as something that would withstand the test of time, much as Saihism as an evolution of Arabic paganism was inevitably doomed to be crowded out by more compelling and more powerful movements.

There will be an update, eventually. I'm moving on to Solvia and East Asia for the time being though.

Can you be more specific? What do you want to know?

I definitely like the idea of the Draugr essentially becoming the Norse equivalent of the Wendigo.

Are the nations in East Asia going to be involved in colonizing the New World?

Yay! I'm glad that's a good idea rather than (as I feared) a cheesy one.

Very much so. Already there are East Asian merchants and explorers traveling to the New World sporadically. The problem is making these trips sufficiently worthwhile from an economic standpoint. Transaction costs need to lower to see more East Asian involvement in the New World.

 

[penquista]

In the last couple of weeks I read The Rise and The New World of the White Huns and it has been a great adventure.
I will wait with patience what will we see happen in South Solvia, and maybe what TTL Chile would look in the future
thanks for your great work

 

[Practical Lobster]

In the last couple of weeks I read The Rise and The New World of the White Huns and it has been a great adventure

Thank you and also wow! That's a lot of reading.

I will wait with patience what will we see happen in South Solvia, and maybe what TTL Chile would look in the future

I have good news for you! I intend to cover South Solvia shortly, with some help from Hobelhouse, who has been invaluable in providing sources on the Andean region.

If anyone has any sources they can offer, any contribution will likely expedite the process.

 

[Practical Lobster]

Kadaka

After a week of hiking across ravines and mountains thick with chaparral, the wanderers came to a beautiful and fertile country. It was hard to imagine a place more pristine than the valley where they found themselves.

With great excitement, they offered prayers to the gods and their teachers. In the evening, when they had built a fire, one took up his snaplock and brought down a roving elk. They ate well and greedily. Those who were indigenous to the country watched them with suspicion but not fear, and the wanderers knew of their presence only from footprints and other small signs.

They made a simple bivouac and in the morning when they awoke the air was cool and dry and smelled of bay laurel. The sun crept up over the back of distant mountains and dangled over hills blossoming with hyacinth and poppy flowers. Herds of elk grazed in the interior shadow of ancient oaks and older redwoods. Cool, glassy streams of meltwater flowed through a land that seemed to the wanderers to be almost cultivated in its perfection. It had been a long voyage from Andhra, but the place they had come to must have seemed like paradise after months aboard ship, sucking down salted lime and ganji.

They traced the course of the streams southwards, until they merged with greater rivers and passed into a green and brackish bay, rimmed with salt marshes and tidal flats. On the surface they could see enormous flocks of canvasbacks, and although they did not know it, there was a greater bounty still in bass, sturgeon, shark and anchovy.

Later comers would find the bay had many strong currents which made navigation tricky. But in time there would come boatsmen who made a science of understanding the treacherous currents and difficult conditions. They identified safe anchorages, smoking bhanga wrapped in banana leaves and scowling at the omnipresent western wind. In those days, the ships were always coming. There was silver in the southern hills, in Tolteka. There was gold and there were rumors of gold, and both were great motivators.

On the coast, near one of those safe anchorages, a town was founded, called Lingapur. In time, further inland they founded a fortress-town called Kadaka, building walls out of brick and plaster. But that was still to come, and the wanderers did not know that they camped on what would one day be the capital of an empire. For now they just knew that they had land which was be fertile and prosperous, a place to plant orchards and herd sheep and goats. They knew also, although they had met few natives, that the people who lived here were few in number and easily dispersed. The wanderers knew that they could become rich. Even the lowest among them would be able to own land - and perhaps even have servants. Maybe they would even find the gold that everyone in Tolteka was talking about.

As they returned to their ship, which was moored some distance out, they talked to each other with increasing enthusiasm and avarice. They just had to figure out a way to get people to come.

Fortunately, that would not be hard.

[I've been busy, here's a teaser.]

 

[Practical Lobster]

Siddhapura and the New High Round

At the turn of the fourteenth century, Siddhapura [OTL Beira] was a city on the rise. Along with her sister cities, Ihosi and Ramamida, she was one of the greatest cities of the "Kapudesan Coast" - a region that far exceeded the formal authority of Kapudesa. The blend of Izaoriaka, Arab, Persia, and Indian culture which made up the region persisted, as did the veneer of formal equality within city-states that was always illusory. Guild allegiance came with it a notional sense of formal equality - the idea that the lowest member was still a member. But at the end of the day, there were always elites and then there were common people. The wealthy were associated with the great banking houses of Sri Lanka and Tamilakam. If anything had changed, it was that while the northern cities of the coast had increasingly adopted (or at least co-opted) indigenous African groups into their society, while the southern cities had made no such moves. They considered themselves to be more like the Randryan of Watya - aristocratic and aloof, keeping their tea and spice plantations and not intermingling with those they considered their societal lessers.

The economic and social disparity between the elites and the commoners was vast, but it paled in comparison between the disparity between the coastal elite and the inland peoples. A little way inland from their cities, the Bantu people of the coast lived in small villages marked primarily by houses of clay and sticks, with thatched roofs made out of palm leaves. In the center of the town there might be a small communal hall or other structure of stone, but these were rare. These communities had, in the view of the coastal cities essentially nothing to offer, and thus existed in a state of subsistence poverty utterly dependent on good weather and harvests. They did not participate in the slave or ivory trades and accordingly existed at the periphery of society. They were further alienated by the migration of the Shona-speaking Uteve and Barve peoples, who in the early fourteenth century pressed towards the river Save, primarily in the form of cattle-raiders in small bands. They typically avoided attacking the well-fortified brick plantation-houses and mills of the coast. Along parts of the Save and Zambezi, estates called Pannai developed, producing tea, spices and texiles. Where gold was located, inland pannai were created, typically heavily fortified. During the early fourteenth century, the Uteve and Barve assaults became a primary source of slaves for these new Pannai.

Unlike further north, where stone construction was nigh ubiquitous, the southern cities were marked by a pronounced disparity not merely in wealth but in material culture - a disparity which mirrored the Izaoriaka settlements on the Watya Cape. The people of Siddhapura could read the latest philosophical texts from Sri Lanka by the light of green ceramic lamps imported from China. They had lush carpets and fine wooden furniture imported from Iran. Their servants cooked for them in the Tayzig style - communal barbecue served in earthenware. Meanwhile, nearly adjacent, there were people living lives that were essentially unchanged from centuries ago - a sharp disparity that spoke to the stratification of Siddhapuran society.

While the northern cities of Kapudesa has begun, in a steady and aggressive way, to press inland and begin the steady process of plantationization, developing their own pannai system, the southern cities had relatively less impact on the inland. Like Watya, the focus had always been on resource extraction, but unlike Watya, settlers had been faced with armed and warlike peoples in the interior. Where the Bantu migrations threatening Watya were disruptive, the Musengezi, with their horses and their steel, were simply an unremovable obstacle.

This prejudice was helped along by the spread of Chiwarism, which centered on the worship of the god-goddess Mwari-Dzivagaru as mediated through the vanyai priests. Nedanga, the King of Inyati, ruled from 1277 until 1306, dying on the verge of his planned holy war against the coasts. But in that time he had rallied an immense state under his banner, a polity frequently called the Musengezi Empire (although such a term is anachronistic at best). The Musengezi Empire is perhaps best depicted as a theocracy. In addition to the priesthood, the royal bureaucracy was ruthlessly focused on establishing religious uniformity and equated any deviation, including but not limited to traditional ancestor worship, as treason against the state. In this way, the monarchy was made the center of all devotion. Traditional cultic practice was forced deep underground, and became a symbol of dissent almost overnight.

The King required mandatory participation in routine, yearly rituals related to rain-making and fire-kindling. From these requirements came a further degree of central control. The mukomondera - a system of organized grain loans - furthered central control. Essentially, the provinicial government (which was staffed almost exclusively by priests) loaned grain from central stores with the expectation that farmers would repay it come harvest time. The debts that accumulated fostered reliance upon the royal authorities and created a permanent system of patronage.

After a period of relative anarchy following the death of Nedanga, a new Mwene, Chirisa Torwa, emerged in 1315, with his reign centered not on Inyati but on the inland city of Khami, which he fortified with immense defensive walls - thick enough to require prolonged cannon fire to damage. The period of over-grazing and economic hardship that had seen the collapse of the High Round was essentially over, and although the northern hemisphere was wracked with famine, the early fourteenth century was generally a prosperous time for the new High Round. Chirisa, like his predecessors, was Shona-speaking, but throughout his reign he would be confronted with the reality that there was no true sense of unity between various Shona-speaking peoples outside of Mwari-worship.

However, Musengezi armies were not weak. Striking out across the Limpopo basin and even further south, they often won through brute force conversion and submission that could not be otherwise acquired. And at this time, when local elites in Rutara-Ganda were being subsumed by foriegn capital, the sheer military and religious power of the Musengezi allowed them to pose a significant threat. They could not easily be bought out because they equated wealth with cattle and freedom with the mobility afforded to them by their horses. Becoming a glorified plantation overseer was culturally and ideologically incompatible with their lifestyle. Furthermore, as mounted cavalry they could pose a threat to the tufenj-armed forces of Siddhapura that the Rutara-Ganda complex, lacking horses due to the tsetse fly, simply could not.

Siddhapura depended almost entirely on trade with the interior, as did all their fellow cities. Apart from the luxury goods provided by the Pannai, it was trade in ivory, slaves and gold that they depended on. Limited quantities of gold could be acquired from interior trading outposts, but great quantities of gold and ivory were not easily obtained without the trading network that had largely collapsed without the High Round as middleman. From approximately 1277 until 1320, the coastal cities were largely cut off from any resources outside their immediate hinterlands and the Pannai. The Musengezi state was simply too powerful and the Izaoriaka and Kapudesa, both traditional guarantors of these lesser cities, were distracted with internal matters or concerned with different spheres of influence respectively. In 1315, with the ascension of Chirisa, the Pannai came under direct military threat for the first time.

With the Musengezi once again unified from the Zambezi to the Limpopo, Chirisa began what Nedanga had not been able to achieve - an outright assault on the Pannai. He understood the risks, but he was a gambler. Chirisa hoped that by striking hard against the Siddhapura, he could negotiate beneficial trade agreements and ensure that his own people maintained ownership of the Pannai, at least de facto. It was a bold move, and one likely to incite some form of reprisal. But Chirisa felt he had no choice if he wished to maintain anything more than nominal sovereignty over the sprawling territory he claimed to rule.

Siddhapura was a part of a massive and interconnected web of capital. Her guilds and companies were financed by wealthy interests abroad - the same sort of wealthy interests who feared the Second White Elephant Concordat and the machinations of the Cevirukkai. These trading houses were afraid that the city of Thana would become the pearl of the Indian Ocean. One of the most outspoken advocates was the Valanjiyar, a company which had begun as a guild of professional weavers but had expanded over the past two centuries into a major lending institution for overseas plantations as far afield as Majachaiya and Kapudesa, petitioned King Maravarman Pandyan to act.

And thus, when her financial troubles began to threaten the great stock companies of the Tamil, an expedition was assembled - one of the greatest in the history of the world to date. Hundreds of ships, ranging from warships with dozens of cannons to supply ships carrying water barrels and rice, set sail. Thousand of tufenj and cannon were transported across the Indian Ocean, along with thousands of professional soldiers, raised and paid by the Pandya King in the Chandratreya style. Kudiraichetti, the horse merchants upon which the South Indian kings relied, chafed at the new fixed prices at which they were mandated to sell their horses. These soldiers were augmented a core of mercenary veterans of the recent wars in Kannauj and the Pajcanada. They were well-drilled with polearms and tufenj (able to fire as many as two rounds a minute in volley), backed by Gurjar horsemen and dozens of war-elephants, who were useful both for hauling cannon and for charging already routing enemies. Led by the King’s own second-in-command Cheran Senaiyaar, the entire voyage must have involved over a hundred thousand soldiers, sailors and support staff - an impressive display of force for a country that paled in comparison to the vast resources of the (still at this point vital and powerful) Chandratreya or Pala. The entire operation was bankrolled by enormous low or no-interest loans organized by the Valanjiyar with the assistance of other, more prominent houses such as the Ayyavole.

Intervention

The arrival of the enormous Tamil expeditionary force in 1321 changed Mwene Chirisa’s calculus almost overnight. The past year and a half had been spent ravaging the Pannai and besieging Siddhapura, but the sudden landing of nearly forty thousand armed soldiers to his north necessitated a rapid retreat backwards. Arriving at the peak of the dry season, the Tamil army advanced rapidly, their fleet tracing their march south and serving as a mobile resupply system.

The Tamil army in time hooked westward, trying to cut off Mwene Chirisa’s route of retreat. They were not successful - the Musengezi forces managed to pull back in time, however. Rather than give direct pursuit, the Tamil forces advanced steadily and slowly up the Save River, using barges to haul food and water. It was a ponderous advance, and pickets of Tamil cavalry, although well armored and in almost every respect technologically superior to their rivals, found themselves disadvantaged by the speed and resourcefulness of the Musengezi, as well as dismayed by the fanaticism which individual Musengezi warriors displayed. Only the superior discipline and drill displayed by the Central Asian mercenary horse prevented a series of skirmishes from becoming outright defeats, and by and large the South Indian cavalry, despite themselves having fine mail and good equipment, gave a poor account of themselves, largely attributable to their relative lack of combat experience.

The bulk of these early engagements were fought against a tribal group called the Vuhera, local subjects of Chirisa, but not all alleged subjects of the Musengezi were so loyal. A riverine tribe known as the Hlengwe, who were neither agriculturalists nor worshippers of Mwari, were eager to assist the invaders, hoping to establish themselves as a pre-eminent power in the region with the assistance of the Tamil. While they were relatively few in number, they knew the land. Some of them were traders, familiar with the easiest routes to take. Others, hunters, were skilled in tracking local game and helping the army feed itself.

However, as the year wore on Chirisa realized that it would not be sufficient to have his subjects fight and die for him, and that the skirmishing was not having the desired effect of slowing the steady advance of the Tamil armies. Furthermore, his army was very much confederal - drawn from the numerous nations that made up his polity - and he was keenly aware that the aristocrats who made up the bulk of his forces were tired of waiting and watching. Unable and unwilling to let his army melt away, Chirisa realized he had to stage an attack. However, even with some minor attritional losses, the Tamil army vastly outnumbered his own, and in terms of equipment was far superior. The typical Shona footsoldier carried a large hide shield and a bundle of throwing spears. The wealthier among them would carry axes and longer thrusting spears. Those who could afford horses had access to many additional weapons - long lances, imported swords, and similar sidearms.

It was an army that might have seemed vaguely familiar in composition and tactics to the Tamil of five centuries ago, although with a far greater reliance on cavalry. It was an also an army that numbered at its peak no more than twenty thousand, and it had been seriously bled away.

Chirisa’s strategy was a simple but intelligent one under the circumstances. He hoped to wait until the Tamil left the river to march on Khami - moving into territory that was often rough and essentially uncultivated in many places. Once they did so, he positioned the bulk of his forces in such a way as to block the Tamil advance at a place where they could not easily deploy the entirety of their own army against him at once. He further reserved a good portion of his horse behind a series of hills, and had them delay their assault until the main battle had begun.

The strategy, to his credit, worked in large part. The sudden arrival of thousands of Shona cavalry threw the left flank of the Tamil army into utter chaos. The Tamil cannon were continually frustrated by the loose formation of the Shona infantry. But at the same time, the Shona infantry could not dislodge the Tamil army and were rapidly put to rout by a cavalry charge. And the polearms and tufenj of the Tamil, once their forces rallied and reformed, were able to blunt the cavalry charge in the end. Although it was a bloody fight, the Musengezi aristocracy lost their stomach for further conflict and largely dispersed.

In the aftermath of the battle, northern kingdom such as the Chidima and Dande, residing along the Zambezi river, broke away permanently. The Musengezi would essentially have their control limited to the highlands, a blow from which they would not recover. Nevertheless, by maintaining control over the highlands they endured. The Tamil remained for another year - obliterating Khami with their cannons and demanding the submission of Chirisa, who fled into exile among the Tswana rather than surrender. He would remain there, buying favors with gold and exotic goods, for a few years, until he was confident the Tamil would not return.

Siddhapura was confirmed as the local regional hegemon, if embarrassed that said confirmation came only with the backing of foriegn armies. Still, the threat of a Tamil return, even partial, was a dangerous one, and the Tamil commander had permitted a number of mercenaries to remain behind and work for Siddhapura, which was a great benefit to its ability to project power. Within a generation, the Pannai system was more entrenched than ever, although still limited insomuch as it failed to penetrate the highlands.

 

[LostInNewDelhi]

Absolutely surreal reading some of these names and realizing "Wait a minute, I actually know how to pronounce these!"

Also,

a sharp disparity that spoke to the inability of the

Chirisa, like his predecessors, was Shona-speaking, but throughout his reign he would be confronted with the reality that

some sentences seem to have been cut off.

 

[Practical Lobster]

Thanks and good catch. I got distracted halfway through writing this post, and I suppose it shows.

 

[Hobelhouse]

So, working with PL, I have been writing a few updates on South Solvia... enjoy!

The Antillian Coast and the rise of Sugar

While the islands of the Antillian Sea, like Haiti and Antillia [Cuba] itself, would maintain their independence for quite some time, the northern coast of South Solvia was rapidly subsumed under overseas influence. Ispanian voyagers had mapped much of the coast by 1240, and a papal grant gave Ispania a "duchy" consisting of "the lands drained by the Trinidad [Amazon] and Espiritu Santo [Orinoco] rivers, and points beyond". Asserting this claim effectively would be another matter entirely, however. The Fula were already present in the region and would become even more well established with the founding of the dependent Fula kingdom of Tatolamaayo east of the great river they had already named Ningatu. After two decades of back-and-forth the Ispanians would control of the fortress of San Marcos [Fortaleza, Ceara] and points west, including the mouth of the Trinidad, while the Fula maintained de facto control of points east and south.

Ispanian nobles had come to Solvia seeking land, and land they did get, but this was, to their eyes,mostly miserable jungle. Novo Olispo [Caracas] and Porto-del-Rey [Belem] would remain minor outposts for several decades. Their turn to glory would come with the arrival of Bharukacchi shipping concerns, and, specifically, the sugar industry. By the 1270s the sugar industry was making inroads into Tatolamaayo, and the Bharukacchi's rivals in the Red Swan Association of Khambhayat sought their own sources to compete with Bharukacchi's prices. They found it in the Ispanians. With an injection of foreign capital and expertise, sugar plantations began springing up from the mouth of the Trinidad all along the Antillean coast.

The Trinidad itself remained a vast enigma. Its native societies had cultivated vast stands of managed orchards, transformed the soil itself into fertile black earth, and cut roads and canals through the forests, all with a stone age level of technology. They had little gold, however, and little else the foreigners found worth trading aside from exotic feathers. Accordingly the natives, already scarred by plague, would be further decimated by Ispanian slave raids seeking workers for these new plantations. The island of San Paulo [Trinidad] would soon be another prized jewel in the Ispanian crown, with vast plantations worked by Solvian slaves and African and European indentured servants.

As Ispanian merchants became increasingly wealthy, their European competitors did not sit idly by. From 1270 to 1300 the European colonial powers would continue to expand their holdings. The Twin Crowns' possession of Rijkhaven [Puerto Rico] would soon become another Bharukacchi supplier, and the Twin Crowns would expand their holdings to the smaller islands to its west in the northern Cursarines [Lesser Antilles]. Aquitaine maintained its outposts in the Lucaias [Bahamas] and expanded to the southern Cursarines and mainland Satanzes [Florida].

Aquitaine soon came into particular conflict with Ispania. With the founding of the outpost of Sant-Prosper [Cartagena] in 1259, Aquitaine had already established its first foothold on the mainland of South Solvia. While Aquitaine was known in Europe as a place suspiciously tolerant of heretics like the Tinaeans and Autotheists, it still produced many second sons of a Votivist bent. Accordingly Sant-Prosper became a "home base" for various Votivist expeditions as well as Aquitaine's later mercantile interests. In 1263 Raoul de Lemoges conquered the tribes around Lagua Santa-Maria [Maracaibo] and established a fort at Nome-de-Dieu [Trujillo]. In the same year Philippe Godolin explored the Isthmus of Cuna [Panama] and became the first Aquitanean to set eyes on the Procellaric Ocean; He established the settlement of Betelem [Nombre-de-Dios] near a narrow point in the isthmus. With the rise of the sugar industry in the 1270s the region would see increasing prosperity and attention from Bordeu, and soon Ispania tried to assert control over the region, citing the Papal Bull which they claimed granted them all of south Solvia. Aquitaine and Ispania both would argue their cases all the way to the Pope. Pulling a few strings with Aquitainean moneylenders and the most Votivist cardinals. the Pope was persuaded to proclaim the historic Bull of Aichs, which, paraphrasing the previous bull which had granted Ispania the Trinidad and Espiritu Santo rivers (and ignoring the "points beyond"), granted Lagua Santa-Maria and lands west to Aquitaine "so that they may continue to proclaim the faith in foreign lands". This was fortunate indeed for Aquitaine, for though they did not know it, they were on the cusp of acquiring riches to rival those of the great Nfansou himself...

Conquest of the Moisca
The Moisca, or Chibcha, were not a kingdom exactly, but rather a confederation of highland peoples who resided in the uplands south of Lagua Santa-Maria and east of the river Calvario [Magdalena]. More precisely, they were a union of smaller confederations: foremost, a southern confederation headed by the religious leader, the Zipa, who ruled from Bacatta [Bogota]; ans well as a military ruler, the Zacay, who ruled from Hounza in the north. Underneath them were various chiefdoms, further subdivided into tribes and villages, of varying degrees of direct subordination. The Moisca did not have major urban centers - though the seats of the Zipa and Zacay, and a handful of other locations, like Sogamuse, had large ceremonial temples which were sites of pilgrimage:
Temple of the Sun in Sogamuse. The Iraca, who dwelled in Sogamuse, was the high priest of the Sun, and was the third most important ruler within the confederation.

The Moisca consisted mostly of self-sufficient agricultural communities. However, they were well-known to mine for salt, and engaged in trade for emeralds with the Muzo to their west. The Moisca were known to mummify their ancestors for display in caves and temples. The Moisca were, also, to their unfortunate detriment, known to be excellent workers of gold, and to posess plenty of it.

By 1272, the Aquitaineans had a consolidated hold on the coast of their new lands. Raoul de Lemoges was named the new Exarch of Nova Aquitainia, in honor of his accomplishments in taking over the Lagua Santa-Maria and, subsequently, expanding up the Calvario. He established a series of outposts on the river and engaged in further reconnaissance of the new lands. Rumors of the king of the Moisca bathing in gold [1] were circulating in Sant-Prosper when a small flotilla arrived from the homeland.

The flotilla contained an expedition sponsored and led by the second son of the Duke of Gironde, Thomas d'Arcachon. Sponsored by rich Aquitainean Votivist nobles, and, unofficially, several fanatic Votivist orders of the Catholic military, the expedition consisted of a mixture of sons of the Aquitainean noble elite and a contingent of several dozen Knights of the Tyrrhenian, an order that had strong roots in western Mediterranean nobility. With a full complement of cavalry and a dozen fine cannons, the 550-man expedition was the largest-yet seen in this part of the New World. On hearing of the riches of the Muisca, d'Arcachon abandoned his previous target of Lagua Nicoya [Nicaragua] and divided his forces into two blocs, of 200 and 350 men. The smaller bloc was sent south in boats, up the Calvario, to determine its source; the larger bloc, commanded by d'Arcachon, went overland towards the highlands.

After a harsh trek that cost the lives of 80 of his men from the elements and minor skirmishes with natives, D'Arcachon's bloc arrived outside the Moisca domain in early 1273. While the Moisca had heard rumors of the white men encroaching on the coasts, few had encountered them before. At the same time, their bearded appearance caused some hesitation among the Moisca. Bochica, messenger of the supreme god Chimichagua and legendary founder of the Moisca Confederation, was said to have been a bearded figure that came from the east; might these bearded figures coming from the west themselves be divine? Their benevolent nature was quickly disproven as they asserted their authority over the natives, proclaimed the conversion of the Moisca nation, and began looting temples and caves of gold and emerald funeral goods. Yet, many suspected the invaders had divine powers, and little was done to halt their advance until they reached the capital of the Zacay at Hounza. An Aquitainean delegation met with the Zacay, whose name was Popon. Popon was informed, through native translators, that his lands were now part of the Exarchate of New Aquitaine and that all native chiefs of the land owed fealty to d'Archacon, the newly-dubbed "Duke of Moisca". Popon was not a fan of this idea. After a night of deliberation, Popon launched an attack on the Aquitaineans camped outside Hounza. Several dozen Aquitaneans were killed, particularly by poison arrow, but the native forces were utterly routed and the Zacay himself was killed. D'Arcachon had the Zacay's chiefs swear fealty to him and marched on Sogamuse. There, the warriors of the Iraca were again hesitant to fight the bearded invaders, but were rallied by the Iraca and engaged d'Arcachon's forces. The Iraca's warriors staged a retreat as it became clear they were outmatched; upon which the Iraca and his warriors barricaded themselves in the Temple of the Sun. D'Arcachon ordered the temple burned, resulting in the death of the Iraca, the destruction of the fine statues and tapestries within, and general outrage among the Moisca. D'Arcachon was forced to return quickly to Hounza to head off a rebellion among the former Zacay's chiefs, and he adopted increasingly draconian policies against rebellious villages to subdue the countryside.

The smaller bloc of Aquitaineans proceeded up the river Calvario steadily. They had a much more unfortunate time of things - a series of disastrous native guerilla skirmishes and crocodile attacks reduced their numbers, and barely 100 of the original 200 men survived to follow the Opon river up into the highlands. By the time they entered the lands of the Zipa in the southern Moisca lands, the Moisca had no more illusions of Aquitainean divinity, and attacked the contingent aggressively. They suffered heavy casualties and were forced to hole up in an easily defensible village near Bacatta until d'Arcachon's forces marched south the next year to complete their conquest of the Moisca. There were only 63 men of the 200 remaining, including the commander, Henri Garat, and two of his brothers. Thomas d'Arcachon would establish a new palatial ducal estate in Hounza. The Knights of the Tyrhennian established the fortress of Sant Clement-de-Solvia near Bacatta. Garat and his men would be granted minor holdings. Most of his men were pleased enough, but Garat was not satisfied. The ambitions of the Garat brothers would, soon enough, see another, even richer nation lit aflame...

[1] A kernel of truth; the Zipa was coronated in a ceremony where he was covered in gold dust and jumped into Lake Guatavita.

 

[A Repentant Heretic]

I guess we will see the horror of American chattel slavery and trade TTL as well.

Wonder what Aquitaine would find, since Muisca doesn't seem to be THAT rich. Perhaps Cerro Potosi?

 

[Practical Lobster]

I guess we will see the horror of American chattel slavery and trade TTL as well

Certainly. I've detailed the three major types of slavery/plantation structure that will emerge in a prior post. The initial slavers and conquerors will not be picky who they can force into the back-breaking and gruesome work of sugar creation. The only difference is that indigenous slaves are so much more susceptible to disease, and the shaking fever is rapidly spreading across the marshes and wetlands of the New World.

Right now the bulk of would be conquerors are thinking (1) about gold and (2) slaves.


And thanks again to Hobelhouse, for providing a look into a long overlooked segment of this world.

 

[Hobelhouse]

New update. I'd like to point people back to Jon's excellent post on the region before contact for extra context!

The Cursarines
The islands east of Rijkhaven and north of Nova Ispania had acquired a certain reputation for being a refuge for corsairs raiding the burgeoning shipping passing the Antillean sea. A few Fula warlords, or rather pirate lords, most notably the king of Guada [Martinique], had established themselves in the region, and a Canary Norse haven had for quite some time existed on the western side of Rothulland [Guadeloupe]. A Taino chiefdom existed on Piragua [Dominica] and the eastern half of Rothulland was occupied by the chiefdom of Cahaya, both of which of whom were happy to raid passing ships, and both of which gained population when Aquitaine and the Twin Crowns asserted their authority over the northern and southern Cursarines and pushed out or enslaved their remaining Taino inhabitants. The Islas Sucradas [St Vincent and the Grenadines] and especially, Sant-Joan [St Lucia] would become major Aquitanean sugar producers as well as stopover points for ships coming to and from Nova Aquitainia. The Twin Crowns claimed all lands north and west of the island of Santafides [Antigua], though in practice the islands would be sparsely settled at first and home to a number of Breton and Neustrien ventures. The New Vriesland colony [South Carolina] would be established in 1320 essentially as a giant rice plantation so that the islands of what would later be dubbed "New Zeeland" could devote themselves to cash crops even more seriously...

The island of Barbuta [Barbados], however, may have been the most infamous pirate port of all, despite being nominally claimed by Nova Ispania. The small Ispanian fortress of San Martin and the Mauri outpost of Novupoltu were quickly eclipsed by the Masamida treaty port of Salli, which became home to corsairs, prostitutes, and freebooters of all nations. It was here that Sergio Agus, a captain of Mauri/Ispanian descent, made an early mark. Leading a coterie of Mauri, Ispanian, and Masamida sailors, and a smaller group of Fula and Italian muscle, his red flag would terrorize Bharukacchi ships and ports until in 1280 the Bharukacchi seized a the bright idea: to pay Agus to target Red Swan-affiliated settlements instead - like those of Nova Ispania itself. Accordingly, Agus would mount successful raids on San Paolo and Porto San Francisco [Cumana], only to be repulsed at Novo Olispo. He and his crew took their three remaining ships and sought to repair and recuperate at Sant-Prosper, which still maintained itself as a neutral port. It was here that he would have an encounter with destiny...

The Conquest of Toumpes
One of Nova Aquitainia's most prominent subjects was Phillippe Godolin. The first Aquitanean to discover the Procellaric ocean, and Western discoverer of Lake Nicoya [Nicaragua], he had also explored much of the Pacific coast north of the equator and was familiar with sight of groups of Solvians visiting the coast in large balsa wood rafts. Logically, he had deduced, they must come from someplace. He was approached by Henri Garat, the second son of the Comte of Bearnia [Bearn], accompanied by his brothers Marcos and Frederic. The Garat brothers had heard from returning scouts of rumors of a land of "large villages" to the south. Finally, they thought, they could conquer a realm like that of the Moisca, and attain a worthy title and riches to match Duke Thomas of Moisca, who Henri still somewhat resented for not rewarding him after his arduous portion of the campaign. Godolin and the Garats both had brothers back in Aquitaine petitioning at court to advance the family interest. The fourth Garat brother, Augustin, received a boon from the Aquitanean king for a discreet favor and returned to their ancestral estate near the Vasconian border to raise additional troops. He would travel to the New World with Phillippe Godolin's brother, Charles, and a group of a dozen cavalrymen and 36 footmen in heavy plate. Along with Godolin and the Garat brothers' existing followers, which had expanded as Aquitanean venturers were drawn overseas, this created a force of 157 Aquitanean men-at-arms. This was impressive, but Garat knew well that he would prefer a larger number still to mount a Votive campaign, especially given their possession of no cannons and rather small number of cavalrymen.
The expedition set out nonetheless in 1281 with supplies provided by Exarch Raoul de Lemoges, with a promise to donate a half-share of any seized wealth to the Exarch's treasury. They would board ships constructed by Godolin's men and sail south, toward glory and infamy. They would first encounter a balsa raft outside of a city, which the native translators claimed was called "Toumpes". The raftsmen were perhaps not as surprised to see a strange vessel like this as might be expected, as, after all, Toumpes had been visited by the circumnavigating Fleet of Fu Youde decades before. Then, Toumpes had been a recently-abandoned shadow of itself, devastated by plague. In the intervening years the city had been re-occupied and was beginning to approach something akin to its old population again. The Westerners would march into town, flanked by citizens richly clothed in wool and cotton cloth, and summarily turned a meeting of parley into a play for hostages, taking the leader of the city and the heads of several elder families hostage and asserting control over the city with little bloodshed. As leader of the largest band Henri Garat was proclaimed the "Duke of Toumpes" while the Westerners regrouped, ready to venture further south after consolidating their position. Frederic Garat was sent north with proof of their spoils to recruit additional men for the next leg of their expedition.

In stepped Sergio Agus. His ships were badly damaged and he would need to spend quite some time repairing them in Sant-Prosper. However, he was approached by Frederic Garat and offered the opportunity to reap the benefits of a new Votive expedition. Salivating at the chance for a share of spoils like those of the Moisca, Agus accepted, providing two small, portable cannons captured from Ispanian fortifications, and bringing in his polyglot collection of toughs and rapscallions. Along with a few more Aquitainean latecomers, this brought the total manpower of their expedition up to 232. Henri Garat and the Godolins had some reservations about the rough nature of these recruits but accepted that they would suffice for their Votive purpose. Ahead of them, the natives of Toumpes told them, lay the golden lands of the Chimor and the Chincha...
The Kingdom of Chimor
The thirteenth century had been a time of turmoil and upheaval in the Andes. The Wari and Tiwanaku polities had collapsed, and regional cultures were increasingly asserting their own influence. Foremost among their successors was the empire of the Chimor. Their capital, Chan Chan, was situated on the desert coast of the Moche Valley was surrounded by hundreds of square km of irrigation works. The capital itself was dominated by the Citadelos, enormous palaces owned by the nobility, who were a caste apart in Chimor society. The Chimor monarchy was traditionally succeeded by his most capable relative; the other direct descendants of each monarch venerated their progenitor's mummified body and inhabited a large palace compound in Chan Chan surrounded by adobe walls and full of large storehouses, the sprawling Citadelas. From within, each royal clade managed the lands conquered by their ancestor and other tribute. The Chimor monarchy compelled the best artisans of all subject nations to reside outside the walls of the Citadelas in Chan-Chan, often subject to the clade that had conquered their lands. The Chimor also had a number of dependent cities subject to varying degrees of tribute and controlled the nearby Chicama and Viru valleys. Their craftsmanship and control of the trade of Spondylus shells, a precious resource in Andean cultures, gave them a dominant position in regional trade, matched only by the Chincha.
Chan-Chan. The largest city in the Andes, with a population of 40,000 and covering 18 sq km.

The kingdom of Chimor, due to its size, had its power proportionately less affected than its smaller neighbors by the the plagues of the 1250s and in 1271 the king Yasencor invaded the neighboring northern Jetecapete Valley, bringing its Sican inhabitants under direct control. The Sican were cousins to the Chimor with a similar pantheon and desert lifestyle, and were governed from the regional capital of Farfan, built on top of a razed Sican settlement. The monarch Yasencor had died in 1277, and his clade controlled much of the tribute from the newly conquered lands. His nephew, the new king Choumuncor, had need of tribute of his own, and mounted a campaign to bring the lands south down to the Casma valley into deeper tribute relations. He had just begun construction on a new regional outpost at Manchan in 1282 when 180 men from the Votivist expedition departed Toumpes heading south to the rumored land of gold...

The Gates of Chan-Chan
When the Votive flotilla reached sight of Chan Chan, the Westerners were stunned. "It is the Solvian Babylon," wrote Fr. Joan de Vilay, a priest travelling with the expedition, "a city of mud brick citadels and artisans of a thousand tongues, of pack drivers leading laden Calcal [1] from distant provinces, of riotous tapestries, of golden opulence and the blood of sacrifice. Some men wondered aloud if they had died unknowing and passed into Paradise, so strange and wondrous were the things we saw in those days." The Votivists had hoped for a rich target but had not expected to find a city that could rival any capital in Europe in size and especially, splendor. Henri and Augustin Garat, Phillipe Godolin, and Sergio Agus went ashore with a few dozen followers while the ships remained at anchor in sight of the city. A crowd had gathered to watch them come ashore and they were quickly greeted by a richly dressed envoy of King Choumuncor and ushered into his palace, still under construction, to meet with the King.

[1] Chimor for llama

The walls of the Citadela d' Choumuncor

The king was treated with total reverence by his subjects; they were not allowed to address or look at him directly, and a servant was employed to lay crushed Spondylus dust before his feet so that his path might always be blessed, when he was not being carried by manservants on his palanquin. Henri Garat, Phillippe Godolin, Fr. de Vilay, Sergio Agus, and a few select retainers were received in a wide hall draped in colorful patterned tapestries and intricately carved and painted walls.

The exact words that were said have been lost to history, but general accounts of the conversation they had remain consistent. Choumuncor congratulated the Westerners on their conquest of Toumpes and offered the Votivists "twenty calcal loads of fine goods and textiles" as a "token of his abundance and generosity". The king then asked the Westerners if they came to Chan Chan in peace or in war.

For previous Votivists this had always been an unambiguous answer. However, the sheer size of the city and the power it represented had terrified the Westerners. A kingdom like this might be capable of raising an army of thousands... The Europeans knew from experience that their arms and armor gave them an utterly dominant edge over the natives, but at the same time, the Votivists had only ever fought native bands numbering in the hundreds at most. They decided to adopt a more diplomatic approach.

Henri Garat introduced himself as the emissary of the Empire of the Franks, and Fr. de Vilay, of the Pope. He explained that he had been sent to expand the trade of his master the King of Aquitaine, and to spread the faith. He explained that they had come from across the sea and were quite grateful for the hospitality; and that they had only the best intentions for the Chimor king and his people.

To Choumuncor this made a certain amount of sense. The limited habitat of the spiny oyster, or Spondylus, was in the waters off Toumpes and points north; thus whoever controlled Toumpes, controlled what the Andeans considered a very valuable resource. The Aquitaineans must, he thought, desire to leverage their new near-monopoly on the shells. Choumuncor offered to host the delegation and open trade with their ships, much as had been done for Fu Youde in years past, hoping to wine and dine them into offering an equitable deal.
Spondylus

A few weeks passed. More and more Europeans began to come ashore and the exchange of information between Andeans and Europeans progressed. Learning that the king had been considering a campaign against the remaining Sican cities in the Lambayeca Valley, Henri Garat proposed a deal to the King: the Europeans would lead a campaign to conquer the valley, and in turn receive a half-share of the valley's tribute. They would also agree to pay a regular tribute of Spondylus to the King "in exchange for his protection". This amounted to a proposal to become the King's mercenaries and subjects. Choumuncor was somewhat suspicious of the motives of the Votivists in offering this, but was in the end tempted by the bargain deal he had been offered in terms of tribute; the shells were, after all, worthless to the Europeans and so they could afford to be generous.

In early 1283 a group of 100 Europeans, including Phillippe Godolin, Marcos Garat, and Sergio Agus, marched at the head of a 1,500 strong Chimor army towards Tucumay, the capital of the Sican polity.

Tucumay was a city of earthen platforms and mudbrick pyramids atop which the nobility dwelled. The largest of these platforms was nearly 1 km long.

The battle that ensued was a one-sided slaughter. The Sican army was comparable in size to the Chimor's, but the Europeans were close to invincible as far as native weaponry was concerned. The men armored in heavy plate could deflect any blow from the bronze weapons or stone projectiles used by the natives; and the natives had no idea whatsoever what it meant to experience a cavalry charge. Men in lighter mail or plate could still survive blows that would have killed native soldiers. The Europeans had virtually no losses while Sican warriors died in the hundreds. The sack of Tucume was similarly merciless.

Pacatnamo
The general of the Chimor, Pacatnamo, was impressed by the Europeans' arms. He was an extremely capable general, one that many had thought would succeed Yasencor, and he had come to the sudden realization that they far outmatched not only the Sican army, but likely the Chimor's as well, and knew they must be kept appeased. Pacatnamo called Garat, Godolin, and Agus to meet in his camp, and had what turned out to be a very productive discussion. The Europeans would back him in a bid to take the Chimor throne; in return, he would appoint Phillippe Godolin lord of all Tucumay (rather than half) and Pacatnamo would agree to learn the ways of their strange god.

Messages were sent to the Europeans remaining in Chan Chan about the plot, and informed to wait until the army appeared at the gates of the city to attempt to take Choumuncor hostage from the inside. In late 1283 the Chimor army began a return march south, leaving behind Phillippe Godolin, the new "Duke of Tucumay", and some retainers to secure the valley. Choumuncor got wind of the plot, however, while the army was still in transit; furious, he attempted to have the Votivists killed. A group of 20 Aquitaineans managed to flee through the northern gates and rendezvous with the main group. 12 men were cornered into a storehouse in Choumuncor's half-finished Citadela; they were subsequently killed when it was set on fire to root them out. The remainder escaped to the ships, still anchored out at sea.
King Choumuncor marched out with an army 1,000 men strong and forced an engagement at a narrow pass, which he hoped would nullify the advantage of the European's horses. However, he had not counted on the two cannons, which were granted a wide field of fire from the high ground. The cannons terrified the king's army and the Europeans still had a dominant edge on foot. The battle was lost and Choumuncor himself was slain, some say by a cannonball, others say by Pacatnamo's elite warriors.

The new King Pacatnamo installed himself in Choumuncor's old palace but it soon became obvious that the Europeans were pulling the strings. Garat began construction on a port outside of Chan Chan he named Morlans after his family's ancestral seat in Aquitaine. Europeans were assigned the choicest honors and offices, enraging the other members of Pacatnamo's clade, who had hoped to benefit from his rise. The Europeans became increasingly rapacious for tribute, especially in the form of gold. The question of faith remained dicey: Pacatnamo allowed himself to be baptized but refused to condemn the traditional priests and, especially, the ancestor cults of the nobles. It was all rendered moot, however, when the shaking sickness passed through Chimor for the first time in 1285.

The Deluge
The mosquito-borne plague had already burned a path through Nova Ispania and Nova Aquitania, devastating both native and foreign men alike, though the Fula and other Africans tended to fare better than most. It had a devastating effect on the Chimor, killing thousands in Chan-Chan and striking down, among others, King Pacatnamo, and also killed a swathe of Europeans.

The Votivists now had no pet monarch. Pacatnamo's clade raised one of their number, a lord Hoscanamo, as new King, and attempted to destroy the Votivists as swiftly as possible. Many were scattered across the Chimor kingdom and were picked off one by one. A large fraction had already departed south, commanded by Sergio Agus, who intended to secure a duchy of his own by conquering the valley of the Itsma. A force of 40 men were waylaid returning from a mission to bring the cities around Manchan to submission. Trapped in a fortress in the desert with its only water source cut off by the Chimor, they would lose a substantial number to thirst before staging a desperate breakout that would see only 13 survivors limp to safety in Tucumay; Frederic Garat was among their losses. Another 40, including Marcos Garat were driven out of Chan Chan and into the highlands, to Hoscanamo's later regret.

Sergio and his forces had easily subdued the Itsma and established a camp at the oracle of Pachacamoc. Returning by sea to Morlans, he was surprised to find it had been set aflame. He gathered a few survivors and set sail for Tucumay, to confer with Henri Garat and Phillippe Godolin over how to respond. There, the three commanders compared notes. 77 of the original 232 were present in Tucumay; 48 had been left in Toumpes; and another 29 remained in Itsma. The rest were dead or otherwise unaccounted for. It was decided that Sergio and Henri would sail north and return to Sant-Prosper, to petition the Exarch for additional reinforcements....

 

[Salvador79]

This is epic. Loved it!

 

[LostInNewDelhi]

Very interesting that the Aquitanians are working through the framework of Andean politics, and acknowledging Chimor's nominal oversight. If the Aquitanians technically don't run the Andes, then Ispana won't have a claim to the region after taking over Aquitaine... of course they could put technicalities aside and go to war, but that'd be war against other Europeans who know the land, can call on local resources, and have native allies in the thousands.

 

[Practical Lobster]

Killing it as always, Hobelhouse!

The Europeans have a huge advantage in technology, but that isn't always enough - especially when you consider the rugged terrain and presently divided nature of the Andean peoples. There's no infrastructure, no imperial structure to coöpt. The Chimor Empire is a tiny sliver of the Inca Empire in terms of size. While multi-ethnic empire is hardly unknown to the Andeans, this is a period of regionalism that, in TTL, is rudely interrupted by Europe before any universal state can emerge and start trying to run everything.

So any conquest is going to look a lot more piecemeal and halting, no matter what. And even in the event of some absolute European victory, things are going to take a lot longer to get going. And @LostInNewDelhi makes a good point as well. In inheriting the crown of New Aquitaine, Ispana doesn't entirely know what it signed up for if it really wants EVERYTHING Aquitaine claims.

 

[Hobelhouse]

Part III of IV...

A Royal Proposition
The returning Votivists were a bit disappointed in the reaction they had gotten in Sant-Prosper. Sure, they had brought back many fine gold and silver treasures - but New Aquitaine could spare few men to bring back more. The shaking sickness had decimated the European population, and many of the remainder were presently engaged in putting down a Moisca revolt on their new feudal estates. Exarch Raoul de Lemoges, however, was impressed by the quality of the finds, and what the newly discovered southern kingdoms could mean for his own position. Therefore, Henri Garat, Phillippe Godolin and the Exarch would travel together to their home country to petition at the court of the king himself.

The journey had a miserable start - the Exarch was killed in a bout of cholera picked up in a stopover on Sant-Joan. In 1287 however, their ship would dock at Bordeu - and make a splash at court. Phillippe Godolin, who had always possessed a daring streak, brought in twenty chests of Chimor gold and silver and dumped them at the seat of King Raoul's throne, saying "My liege, we stand before you offering to give you more counties, than your family patriarchs bequeathed you cities." [1] The king was astounded both by Godolin's impudence and by the treasure itself. The civilized world had long known of Nfansou - the king who conquered the Tolteca and the richest cities of the further west, ehich were ruled by his descendants to this day. The adventurers were likely exaggerating the size and richness of their new lands, but if they were even a fraction of the size of Tolteca, it could make Aquitaine the wealthiest realm in Europe. Thus, the king was persuaded to sponsor a fleet of ships for a new Votive expedition. Phillippe had talked his way into being granted the title "Prince of Chimor", an invented position giving him overlordship of the Chimor heartlands, save Chan-Chan itself. Garat would be granted the title "Prince of New Bearnia", giving overlordship of Manchan and points south heretofore unknown.

The 1000-man expedition that departed Bordeu in 1288 was a rather more varied crowd than even that of d'Arcachon's Moisca expedition. Godolin had recruited 150 Aquitanean, Pictavien, and Breton noble sons in northern Aquitaine, who were inspired by his boldness. Ftor his part, Garat travelled to his family seat at Morlans and was granted fifty of the Garat family's retainers by his eldest brother and now Duke, Matieu. He recruited another hundred and fifty men in Vasconia and southern Aquitaine. King Raoul's second son, Julian, headed a royal delegation of 400 troops, and had been appointed Exarch and commander of the expedition, to the chagrin of both Henri Garat and Phillippe Godolin, who had coveted the position themselves. Rounding out the expedition were a new delegation of 150 Tyrrhenian Knights (many Italian exiles) and a contingent from the Order of the Martyr St. Lorenzo, or Lorenzians for short, one of the slave soldier orders springing up in an increasingly Votive Europe at the time. The remainder consisted of a collection of mercenaries and minor Ispanian nobles willing to swear fealty to Aquitaine.

When they arrived in Sant-Prosper in 1289 they were joined by another force - Sergio Agus had made a tour of the Cursarines and recruited a seasoned force of nearly 200 sellswords. All nominally Catholic of course - but mostly faithful to the promise of gold. He was furious to find that no-one had bothered to account for his interests in Bordeu - his claimed "Duchy of Itsma" was now supposedly part of the Garat lands. To secure his loyalty, the new Exarch Julian leaned on Garat to transfer Toumpes to Sergio, dubbing him "Prince Sergio of Transcunania", which also included extensive tracts in and south of Cuna [Panama], including the settlement of Betelem. Sergio was not fully mollified as he well knew the real riches of the Solvians lay much further south, but he joined the expedition nonetheless, hoping to find a way to stake a claim to some part of the coming conquests.

[1] Hernan Cortes inserted himself into the king's carriage to say something similar OTL.

The Interval
When the expedition arrived in Toumpes, the returning Votivists were not surprised to hear Solvians were still ruling in Chan Chan... But were surprised to find out who.

The forty Votivists led by Marcos Garat had been chased into the highlands years before by Hoscanamo - where they had run into the lands of the kingdom of the Gusmango, whose capital was at Caçamarca. Gusmango had also recently entered an expansionist phase and become a rival to Chimor. When Hoscanamo began embroiled in a power struggle with Sepipinco - the great lord of Choumuncor's old clade - the Votivists were able to convince Gusmango's king to strike. An army of Gusmangans defeated the divided forces of Hoscanamo and Sepipinco, sacking Chan Chan's Citadelas and carrying many of its artisans off to bondage in Caçamarca. A Gusmangan governor was appointed, backed up by Votive swords, and Hoscanamo retreated north to Farfan, a former Sican city, reconstructed as Chimor provincial capital; Sepipinco went the other direction, to Manchan, which had been recently expanded. Hoscanamo was ultimately overthrown by a Sican revolt and killed, while Sepipinco and a ragged army of loyalists maintained a shaky grip on the southern valleys. Meanwhile in Itsma, the group of former pirates left behind by Sergio Agus had established themselves as unquestioned overlords of Pachacamoc, taking multiple wives and enslaving many of the inhabitants.

This was the situation confronting Exarch Julian and the Votivists when they arrived in late 1289. The arrival of a new, significantly larger fleet of foreign ships caused much consternation among the surviving residents of Chan Chan. Would their sorrows ever end? Exarch Julian demanded the surrender of the city, sending Fr. de Vilay and a small delegation as messengers. The Gusmangan governor refused to surrender despite the urgings of Marcos Garat and the other Votivists who had up this point been supporting his rule. This governor was only familiar with Marcos's lightly armored compatriots, and would be given a rude education in Western arms and armor when his garrison met the Votivist force en masse just outside the ruins of Morlans. Aquitanean cavalry charges utterly annihilated the garrison and a full barrage of cannonfire finished the job. Exarch Julian was now unquestioned possessor of Chan Chan; and he began reconstructing Morlans as a fortified port while he pondered his next move.

What happened next would be a turning point for the history of the Andes, and mark the foundation of a new empire. Exarch Julian was a literate man, with a healthy command of the classics, particularly the accounts of the rise of Rome and Alexander the Great. He also had a cunning, strategic mind and an ego to match. These made him receptive to a suggestion provided by Fr. de Vilay, who had a talent for languages and had become familiar with the Chimor religion and culture.

Chimor legends said that the first king of the Chimor, Tacaynamo, had arrived from across the sea in a balsa raft, supposedly sent by the king of a distant land; after, he lived in a cabin by the sea for one year, learning the Chimor language, and emerged to introduce the Chimor to civilization, and lead them to control of the Moche valley. Fr. de Vilay suggested that Julian take advantage of these legends to establish his rule over Chan Chan. Julian, then, would be the new king of Chimor, sent from across the sea by the representative of the one true God, the Pope, and his own father, the King of Aquitaine. He had come to introduce the Chimor to the true message of the Creator, the Gospels. Henceforth, there would be no need for propitiatory sacrifice of children or the mass sacrifice of women during noble funerals; for Christ had been the one sacrifice that paid all men's debts, and the Creator assigned life in the next world based on service to Him, not by caste or ritual. Julian then offered the Chimor people an opportunity: serve him and devote themselves to Christ and the Creator, and God would bless them by leading their people to new heights.

This pitch proved to be a stroke of genius. The noble clades, who venerated their ancestors's mummified bodies and would have been most opposed to this revolution, had already been devastated by infighting and then by the Gusmangan invaders. The common people had seen rather more devastation inflicted on them by the Gusmangans than the previous group of Votivists, who had demanded increasingly large amounts of gold but had not directly harmed them as much as their Andean enemies. Additionally, the egalitarian message of Christianity had a definite appeal in the caste-based society of the Chimor. A large fraction of Chan Chan's population were baptised in mass, and they would ultimately become the core of Nova Aquitainia's class of native administrators and civil servants. Chimor who resisted vigorously were bound to new feudal estates, headed by Europeans but ran on the ground by Christianized Chimor overseers.

With a backing population of Chimor conversos, the Votive expedition turned into a tidal wave that swept over the Andes until it reached the limits of Western manpower. The Sican rebels, whose culture had a similar figure to Tacaynamo called Naylamp, were offered the same pitch and surrendered in short order. Sepipinco died leading a futile defense of Manchan. The Gusmangans resisted heavily, and were punished in a fashion that would become a standard practice in New Aquitaine: a Westerner and his retainers were put in charge (in this case, Marcos Garat), Chimor were installed as administrators and middlemen (in this case, many recruited from the recently taken slaves), and the natives were treated in proportion to their degree of resistance. Most were bound to a yearly season of corvee labor, a familiar concept to Andean empires. Heavy resistors and potential leaders were enslaved or bound to the land. Gusmangan slaves would soon be put to work reinforcing existing roads and building new ones between Chan Chan and the new conquests.

The wave did not stop until it reached the western shores of Lagua Titicaca. The pirate lords of Itsma were overthrown in an uprising and bloodily executed, only to have their revolt crushed soon after. Henri Garat would find satisfaction in tracking down one of the richest places in the Andes: the valley of the Chincha. Chincha traders ventured far both inland and oversea on their balsa wood sailboats, and correspondingly their capital city, also known as Chincha, rivalled Chan Chan in splendor. Garat was granted special rights over the valley as "Comte de Chincha" and began construction on another new town, Orthez. His collection of followers fanned out into the surrounding highlands and brought many of the nearby Quechua cities to heel.

While European nobles established themselves as feudal lords, the martial orders came to fill similar roles. The Lorenzians would be granted overlordship of the Wanca polity and soon swelled in numbers, recruiting teenaged youth from enslaved natives and inducting them into their ranks.; they would ultimately construct a network of fortresses further and further east as the martial frontier pressed on. The Tyrrhenian Knights were granted lordship over the Chachapoyas and constructed a new fortress in Chan-Chan converted from Choumuncor's still-unfinished Citadela. Sant-Matieu-de-Chimor would become headquarters of the Knights in Solvia; and they too built a string of castles on the eastern frontiers.

Sergio Agus still would not find much satisfaction. Shortly into the campaign of conquest, he was promised the position of "Sea Lord of the Procellaric", which granted him the Ica Valley and all coastal lands further south. He soon brought the Nasca people to submission but was frustrated again to find that Andean civilization - and wealth - seemed to fade further and further southward. His resentment of Exarch Julian and the other leaders of the original expedition would play a pivotal role in future events.

The New Empire
By 1296 the Votivists were beginning to run out of steam. As they progressed further and further into the Andes, their manpower grew increasingly stretched, even accounting for the force multiplier of Chimor and other Christianized proxies. Exarch Julian decided a period of consolidation was in order. A system of roads was under construction between Chan Chan, Morlans, and the provinces; port facilities were expanded and a new haven constructed at Punt d'Or on the Procellaric coast of Cuna, enabling portage over the isthmus to the port of Betelem. Shipment of gold and silver to Aquitaine began as a spigot, and then increasingly became a flood, attracting massive attention and jealousy in Europe. The Masamida treaty port at Sant-Prosper boomed, and to this day the 'Moorish Quarter' remains one of the most picturesque places in the city. Julian continued to expand and integrate New Aquitaine, but at a slower pace, and the new domain settled into a system where Votivists, regardless of origin, would be granted what they could take by force of arms. Large numbers of Aquitaneans took up this offer, joined by Vasconians, Ispanians, and Bretons eager to claim the riches of the new world for themselves. Most notably, a Vasconian expedition sent in 1301 would conquer the Lagua Nicoya region, and Ispanian knights under Diego de Suevia conquered the former Wari heartlands west of Lagua Titicaca. Further away from the Chimor valleys, native resistance among the Quechua and Aymara inhabitants seemed to increase, and Votivist brutality grew in proportion. Large numbers of enslaved natives were sent to work sugar plantations in the north near Sant-Prosper and Nome-de-Dieu. Populations were deliberately split up to diminish ethnic and tribal unity; the creole language of "Aqitan" soon spread among the northern slaves, based on a simplified Quechua grammar but with an extreme influx of Romance, Moisca, and Aymara vocabulary.

King Raoul increasingly had more gold and silver than he had things to spend it on. His first investment was in a new fleet of multi-masted Carracks, built to withstand oceanic voyages and bring back further riches to the homeland. For his next project, he laid the cornerstone of the new, lavish, Basilica of St Mary, which would remain the largest cathedral in Europe for more than a century. A new royal palace was built, surrounded by extravagant landscapes and grounds. With money to burn, the house of de Agde could patronize the finest artistic talents in Europe, and Bordeu became the center of a new artistic movement. The 'Bordeu School' would make an impact in all kinds of artistic fields; the sculptor and painter Michel Vittorio, the architect Alois Castels, and poet-troubador Paulo de Narbo all saw their careers blossom here. The court of King Raoul acquired a somewhat unfair reputation for hedonism, and jealous elites across Europe spread rumors that King Raoul was a secret Tinaean, or maybe Autotheist. This would prove very unfortunate for his dynasty in years to come...

King Raoul was known to do his duty toward Christendom, however. When the first of the great Votive Wars kicked off, he mobilized the kingdom's martial nobility and recruited a large peasant army with promises of generous payment. He was able to lend, among others, King Charles of Burgundy vast sums of money (at no interest) to support their own Votive efforts, and paid for a fleet of galleys that, in a combined action with the Two Africas, trapped the main Xasar fleet in a pincer maneuver near Rhegion, dealing a crippling blow to the Xasar navy and opening up Sicily and south Italy to African armies. When he died in 1311, he had every reason to feel the future of his dynasty, no less than Christendom itself, was bright....

 

[Practical Lobster]

For your OTL analogue, it's a crusader state smashed together with the Inca and the OTL Spanish Empire in terms of general, uh, vibe.

In less than twenty years, Prince Julian de Agde conquered an empire over a million square kilometers in some of the harshest terrain imaginable, with some of the largest untapped silver reserves outside of Tolteca. But for now, they're barely even tapping that wealth - most of the loot returning to the new world so far has been stuff taken from the natives.

Imagine what happens when they really get going.

 

[Xenophonte]

Interesting though given the feudal character of this TL conquest could aside more autonomous relate with TTL Motherland/Europe, have as a consequence an earlier, than OTL, the formation of independent nations or even of an Empire, in the new conquested lands. I think that would be possible that the Exarch (and/or his heirs) perhaps could imitate the example of his king and he too would become in a Mecenas for both local (natives and Creoles) and European artists...
Also, seems that in Sergio Agus could be TTL Diego de Almagro...

 

[Practical Lobster]

If nothing else, it's fun that the term Exarch, which historically died out in the middle ages, is still around thanks to a weird situation where a specific dynastic of Roman pretenders in Italy kept it around. Although I assume it would be closer to Exarca in most of the romance languages. Nova Aquitania is going to have a long and interesting history, which Hobelhouse I believe should be laying the groundwork for shortly.

As far as the local government becoming patrons of the arts, well, they have more silver than they know what to do with even with the onerous burden of shipping it home, so yeah I'd expect some patronage of the arts. However, I would not expect heavy patronage of native artistry, at least not at first. The major coastal cities where the elite live are also the places that are the most European in character, and the elite have all the cultural biases of their time and place. There is intermarriage (you can probably guess which half of those marriages is European) and there is cultural exchange but at this point that sort of thing isn't happening at the level of the Exarchal court, and they're they guys with the real money and influence in the early post-conquest era. The other lords will take at least a few years to a decade more to set up anything more.

What is going on in a big way is cross-pollination of Andean cultures. The Europeans are relying heavily on Chimor administrators, auxiliaries, translators, guides, etc. - basically all the legwork of running an Empire that they don't have the manpower to achieve. Those Chimor are in turn now the de facto government of an enormous land empire and that's going to have some knock on effects, especially as the Chimor begin reshuffling people in their mass enslavement process. I don't want to spoil anything, but one of the first processes you'll see is a rapid acceptance that the (Christian) Chimor have an intrinsically higher rank in the indigenous caste system - a "most favored barbarian" status of sorts.

And of course assimilation is a two-way street. The new European elite will be just as susceptible to it in the long run. However, as a militarily dominant culture who tends, to some degree, to self-segregate, they're still going to put on airs of being as European as possible for a long time to distinguish themselves from the "heathens" whose labor they exploit.

 

[LostInNewDelhi]

they're still going to put on airs of being as European as possible for a long time to distinguish themselves from the "heathens" whose labor they exploit.

And when they stop putting on those airs, maybe they'd consider a name change? Nova Aquitania really does fit the time period, but it'd be kinda weird if Latin America today still featured a New Spain and New Granada.

The Masamida treaty port at Sant-Prosper boomed, and to this day the 'Moorish Quarter' remains one of the most picturesque places in the city.

I like this touch, but ooh man we're setting a dangerous precedent. NovAq is on the Pacific, and on the other side of that ocean are the unsheakeable Cham sea-lords! This whole "treaty port" game is gonna have some pretty high stakes. Are any Buddhists trying to blend in among the Moors, or does NovAq let them trade openly?

 

[Hobelhouse]

And the finale! Map to come. This should answer many of your questions

Pirates of the Antillean
1300-1325 would constitute a golden age of piracy in the Antillean Sea [1], due to the confluence of several favorable trends. First, more gold than ever was moving overseas, presenting many rich targets. Second, these targets were not yet particularly well defended. The Aquitaneans did not have the naval strength to protect the sealanes at all times, and, seeking safety in numbers, instituted a well-protected flotilla which became known as the Golden Fleet, sailing between Betelem, Sant-Prosper, and Bordeu. Red Swan and Bharukkachi merchants were only allowed to trade with the Christians under certain restrictions (though they were full of loopholes), and were far from the metropole meaning they mostly had to take care of themselves, even as each guild not-so-secretly sponsored privateers against its competitor. The Ispanians and Masamida tended to look the other way of their merchants' 'aggressive acquisitions', jealous as they were of Aquitaine's new riches. A Papal bull split the Cursarines between the Twin Crowns and Aquitaine "to suppress the evils of Piracy"; Aquitaine's invasion of Piragua [Dominica] was successful but they were embarrassingly defeated by the Fula "Corsair King" of Guada [Martinique], who had rallied a force of Norse and Taino corsairs from the other islands. A succession of Corsair Kings, often of short reign, would rise and fall over the next several decades, a parallel and usually more heeded alternative to the Aquitianian and Twin Crown "governors" that were periodically sent to impose order, until the islands were finally subdued for good by the Anglish and Bretons.... but that lay in the future.

Most infamous of the Corsair Kings was Erik "Firebeard" of Rothulland. He earned this appellation by his orange-red mane as well as his particular habit of wearing lit fuses in his beard during boarding actions. While he earned his initial fame from a raid of the Tolteca coast, he long had his eye on the Aquitanean treasure fleet. In 1316, as the first Votive War against the Xasars was winding down, he managed to catch a substantial fraction of the Golden fleet undefended while repairing in port in Sant-Joan after getting separated by a storm, and liberated them of their cargo of gold, silver, and other valuables. His most infamous exploits were , however, yet to come...

[1] This is a retcon for the "Aravacian Sea". The ethnic *Arawak lived in the area, but the tribe that gave them their name lives in Venezeula, so there's no reason that name would get attached to the group TTL. The new name draws on the medieval "phantom islands" of southern Antillia and northern Satanzes, which were rumored to be full of serenely virtuous Christians and demonical reprobates, respectively. Cuba is fittingly named such by the Autotheists, and Florida is mistaken for an island at first TTL...

Robbing Peter
King Alphonse of Aquitaine had developed a habit of making extensive and expensive financial commitments. When the Golden Fleet was raided in 1316, and especially when many ships were sunk in a hurricane in 1317, he found himself suddenly unable to pay all his debts. His decision to skimp on payments to peasants returning from the Votive Wars was unwise, to say the least. This decision kicked off a series of peasant revolts that required the intervention of Ispania to put down, and ultimately allowed King Francisau to ingratiate himself to the nobles of Aquitaine, which he would exploit later.

The Kingdom suffered a bigger setback in 1321, however, when Erik Firebeard accomplished one of greatest deed of his life. Knowing the Golden Fleet itself was well guarded, he mounted a raid on its home port of Betelem - two months before the Fleet was due to return from Europe. Marching overland, he was able to take the defenders of Punt d'Or by surprise and steal nearly the whole year's worth of tribute from the storehouses. With enough gold to hire a small army, he would proceed to do exactly that... with consequential effects on Toltecan history. That, however, is a story for another time.

Back in Europe, King Alphonse was once again forced to rob Peter to pay Paul. This time he decided to renege on several commitments to building projects, putting local lords on the hook for his largesse, to their immense displeasure. Most significantly, he foisted the bill for the final additions to the Basilica of St Mary on the local archbishop, who could come nowhere close to covering them. The architect responsible for the dome, Alois Castels, appealed his case to local Seneschal's tribune. The Tribune ruled the royal estate was, not, in fact, responsible for the debts, and furthermore questioned the legality of suing the King in his own court. This stuck the church with the bill and sparked a cycle of appeals and counter appeals that spiraled out of control until Pope Boniface V had to personally get involved. This would also bode ill for the king in the future...

One Weird Trick To Reduce Your Loan Payments

When the Division of Aquitaine was accomplished in 1325, all parties expected a hefty profit from the deal. As the new King of Aquitaine, Francisau used his authority to forgive Burgundy's heavy Votive debts. He took the further step of forgiving a portion of the debt owed by Neustria and the Two Africas, quite literally buying off Ispania's neighboring realms. King Francisau himself was, however, expecting most eagerly to profit from the shiploads of gold, sugar, and other valuables that poured into Aquitaine yearly.

This was not so easily accomplished, however. As a subject of the King of Aquitaine, New Aquitaine was now technically subordinate to King Francisau. The Exarch Julian de Agde, would have none of it. Hearing the news from the returning Golden Fleet (which had spirited away many members of the extended de Agde family and their loyalists), Julian declared the Division utterly illegitimate and declared himself the rightful King of both old and new Aquitaine. The Golden Fleet did not return to Bordeu that year, and Francisau did not have to be a genius to guess the significance of that. If Ispania wanted the gold of the Andes, it would have to fight for it.

Francisau appealed to the new Pope, Innocent IV, who was now in a bit of a bind. It was true that previous Popes had granted Ispania the "lands beyond" the Espiritu Santu [Orinico], and that even without that, Francisau was now technically king of Aquitaine. However, the deposition of King Alphonse had been a travesty of justice and everyone knew it. Moreover, it did not seem proper or pious to condemn the new King Julian, who had overseen the greatest expansion of Christendom till the Xasar wars, as a heretic. The new pope was unable to reverse the decisions of his predecessor but refused to either excommunicate Julian, or declare his claim to New Aquitaine officially illegitimate.

Ispania would have to resort to arms. A 1500-man expeditionary force was dispatched to the New World with a fleet of Ispania's finest carracks. The fleet sailed into harbor in Sant-Joan, which surrendered without a fight. A smaller flotilla sent to the Lucaias and Satanzes had a similarly easy time taking control. New Aquitaine would not fall so easy, however, and the commanding Admiral Josue Esmita knew it.

The Ispanians had an ace in the hole, however. Conducting a secret correspondence with the now-aged Sergio Agus through Masamida intermediaries, the Ispanians offered the Prince of Transcunania the position of Exarch, should he back their armada. A few other lords of Ispanian origin were also recruited to their side. And so, in 1328, the Ispanian expeditionary force landed at Betelem with Prince Sergio's blessing and crossed the Isthmus of Cuna unopposed, taking Punt d'Or by surprise once again.

King Julian had expected an attack by Ispania, but had not expected it quite like this; he had spent considerable sums fortifying Sant Prosper and Betelem to prevent an attack from the sea, only to have his opponents just walk past his defenses. The Ispanians could not scrounge enough ships in the Procellaric to mount an assault on Morlans directly, however, and had to transport their army piecemeal to Toumpes, giving King Julian valuable time to mobilize his levies.

The Battle of Caçamarca would ultimately prove decisive. Burdened with garrisoning the many sullen valleys of the Andes, only about 900 Westerners could be mustered on short notice to meet the Ispanians, who with Agus's retainers and some Ispanian turncoats, numbered nearly 1,700. However, the New Aquitaineans could also count on a force of nearly 1,000 native auxillaries, most distinguished among them the Lorenzians, who had honed their teenaged charges into a fanatical fighting force, and who were much better armed and armored than the warriors of the Andes a generation before. The New Aquitaneans were also veterans of constant frontier warfare, while Ispania had sat out the first Votive War and many of their troops had never seen blood. Forcing an engagement on the outskirts of the city, the Ispanians were decisively routed, though Henri Garat died leading one last charge against their lines. Sergio Agus was captured and beheaded. The fleeing army was harried overland from Toumpes, to Hounza, to Novo Olispo, which King Julian subsequently captured from Nova Ispania. This he used as a bargaining chip, returning it to Ispanian control and lifting his siege of San Francisco [Cumana] in exchange for a grudging acknowledgment of Julian's sovereignty over New Aquitaine.

The New Order
Over the remainder of his reign, King Julian oversaw the continued expansion of his realm. As King Francisau pointedly forbade all his subjects from travelling to New Aquitaine, Julian began to recruit from increasingly unorthodox sources. Some Aquitaneans and Ispanians made the trip indirectly, stopping first in Rijkhaven or Barbuta, then boarding another realm's ships. The kingdom recruited Votivists travelling from increasingly farther afield, particularly Neustria and Angland, which had a surplus of fighting men. Many were recruited as indentured soldiers, fighting a fixed term in exchange for passage and a small share of plunder. The port of Morlans, which had grown large enough to be more-or-less contiguous with Chan-Chan itself, became defacto capital of the new realm, being far enough north to communicate with the Atlantic and far enough south to maintain control of the Andes.

Sant-Prosper became known as a haven for dissidents and exiles of all stripes. After the Burgundian conquest of Narbo, thousands of Autotheists had fled the city, fearing persecution by King Charles II. Some wound up in Africa... a sizable number, however, made the trip to the Island of Antillia, joining the previous settlements, where the educated Autotheists, many middle-class merchants and artisans, had an initial culture clash with their bucolic predecessors, but soon enough found a role in their theocratic society. King Julian had never truly trusted the Papacy again and was willing to be lenient on settlers' strict orthodoxy, so long as they worshipped the Son of God. A smaller fraction of Autotheists were allowed to settle in New Aquitaine, settling predominately in Sant-Prosper and around Lagua Sant Marie. Connections between these Narbonese exiles would draw Antillia into the New Aquitainean sphere over time; they would also eventually be key in the royal expansion of trade up and down the Procellaric coasts of Solvia. The restrictions on trade with Indian merchants were enforced on an increasingly theoretical basis.

The new kingdom was modelled on Feudal Europe, yet also revealed its Andean roots. A diverse array of mostly Aquitanean, but more generally Frankish, nobles held fief in the valleys of the Andes. Yet, the King himself remained immensely powerful. In addition to being direct overlord of several valleys on his own, he retained controlling ownership over all mines in Aquitaine. The Royal Armory was built in 1327 and staffed with a core group of Narbonese craftsmen. This would become an institution of the new kingdom, controlling the vast majority of the production and distribution of firearms, armor plate, and, later, other manufactured goods. In many cases the King appointed mayors and governors of Chimor ethnicity to administer his lands and settlements, preserving a fashion of continued prosperous existence for a segment of the Chimor elite. This also bound the loyalty of the Chimor directly to the King as their ethnic patron, especially as they tended to have a significantly more subordinate role in the other counties, duchies, and lordships in the realm.

King Julian, in his later years, styled himself "the Conqueror, King of New and Old Aquitaine and protector of Chimor", and had himself carried in a palanquin like Andean monarchs of old. He died in 1337 during an outbreak of cholera in Morlans; his son Jerome, age 31, inherited a realm stretching from Lagua Nicoya to the far flung lands of the Aymara. In the south, a group of Anglish venturers had recently had the fortune to stumble on a mountain seemingly made of entirely of silver ore... In the north, slow expansion was bringing New Aquitaine increasingly closer to the lands of the Maya and Tolteca. He had two sons and a daughter with his wife Emilia, the eldest of Phillipe Godolin's three daughters. Standing astride two oceans, with a sizable fleet and money to burn, New Aquitaine was destined to become a major player in the new global age...