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The Rise of a New World
Book 1: The Immortal Apu-Inca
Prologue:
The year was 1742…
The place was an area in the west of what was then known as the viceroyalty of Peru, known as “El Gran Pajonal” (The Great Grasslands), which was the entry to the Peruvian Amazon…
And the man in who started it all was a young “Indio ladino” going by the name of Juan Santos Atahualpa.
Little is known about this man; or even if that is his true name. Information about him is scarce on the historical records.
From what could be extrapolated from the vague sources available, the man was born in the early XVIII Century on the city Cusco, ancestral capital of the ancient Incan empire, now an important city of the Viceroyalty of Peru.
According to the Franciscan testimonies, the man was raised and trained by Jesuits, a religious order already under heavy suspicion from the royal authorities. According to them, it was the so-called “Company of Jesus” who had inspired him to “betray the crown and instigate a revolt against the King and God’s righteous rule.” Raising an army composed of several ethnic groups scattered throughout the jungle, Juan Santos managed to drive away the Spaniards and crafted a small-scale new Incan kingdom, with him as the ruler.
His charisma was undeniable; he managed to cater straight to the various complaints the local Native American populations, uniting them under an anti-clerical, messianic and nativist ideology that blended a bare-bones basic Christian theology with ancient pagan traditions and the stated intent to drive out the Spaniards out of “his righteous kingdom”, restoring the ancient order of the Incas in a prophesized “Pachakuti”.
For over ten years, Juan Santos Atahualpa fought the Spanish forces to a standstill, but when it seems he could actually succeed in his revolt, he vanished from historical records.
This is the story of his revolt, and an alternative to how his rebellion could have developed, and how the effects of his revolt would be felt across the entirety of the New World and beyond.