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THE UNBROKEN REED: INTRODUCTION

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Flowers spring along songs in Mexico and Tlatelolco,
in the hearts of warriors and wise men.

We know it is true
that we must perish,
for we are mortal men.
You, our Blessed Progenitor,
you have ordained it.

We follow your command,
and work these blessings
into immutable reeds.
We are mortal men.
But your gifts are so much more.

- poem in dedication to Ce Acatl Topitzin Quetzalcóatl, anonymous c. 1480 CE
Excerpt from The Shields of the West: The Birth of Iron in Mesoamerica, Diego de Valladolid-Portilla;

“...No one is sure as to what exact decade that iron work in came to the fore in Mesoamerica, let alone the year. One Codex of Sahagún mentions that the lords of Cholula were presented with gifts of ‘immutable and dark silver’ as early as 1370 CE. The latest accounts claim that it was only in the reign of Montezuma II that iron and small amounts of steel became common place among the Aztec toolkit. However scholarly consensus puts the date of the Mexica being introduced to iron around 1478 following Axayactl’s capture and sacrifice by the Tarascan Purépecha. Historians still are unsure as to how the Tarascan state managed to fast track through the Bronze Age within half a century, something that took the majority of Old World civilisations a millennium to do. While finding traces of tin among copper objects from classical and medieval Mesoamerica is common, the advent of an abundance of pure bronze objects ranging from hatchets to headdresses starting in the 1390s seems to point at chance discovery of Bronze by a single person which was then further replicated in rapid succession by fellow smiths. But what seems even more fantastic is the possibility that the same man who started the Bronze Age in Mesoamerica also kickstarted the Iron Age and may have been on the path to refining steel working. Xumatzipiri, or as his name translates The Cloud of Flames, is a semi-historical personage amongst the Purépecha who upon divine revelation managed to become the greatest Smith in the world and was the first to discover iron upon his forge. While this may seem fanciful the seals and glyphs of a cloud in fire on at least 5% of all findings in Michoacán can only help further this theory. The Aztecs, for all their pride, also managed to jump in on this legend and proclaimed that such a personage was actually sent by Quetzalcóatl from Aztlan to humble the Mexica for their brashness under Axayacatl and the nameless man spent many days and nights upon the great Toltec ruin of the pyramid of the moon in Teotihuacan where he finally found how to work this great ore. While Nahuatl legends do not give his name, going as far as refusing to give this stranger one, they do confer upon him a title; Cemiacacatl or the Eternal Reed. Interestingly this title shares its name with one of the noble house of de Xiqetenque’s favoured relics, an all steel dart that was gifted to them by Montezuma II himself. What’s even more interesting is that this dart upon its tip holds the glyph of a cloud wreathed in flame. To me this indicates that even if Xumatzipiri does not hold up to historicity a school of design based around the legend came to dominate and completely change the Mesoamerican way of life within a century...”

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For all of the people who have read my other TLs such as Ai Orsa or After Tarain (supposedly a TLIAW) or even my ASB Scholar Titanica you all should see a pattern emerging: I’m not good at finishing off what I start :p. However as I find myself once again gain a small time to write I’ve noticed that I don’t currently feel like writing a narrative style TL and actually want to see a piece of writing by myself finished.

I have always had an interest in New World cultures and while what I had learned until recently was restricted to Andean cultures, doing a course on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico and reading Bernal Diaz’s writings alongside Cortes’ political manueverings has had me enraptured. Learning that the Tarascans had an advanced understanding of copper working as well as an immense availability of good quality tin via a few university papers left me dumbfounded as to how Bronze working never picked up.

So without further ado let the butterfly net that is the Atlantic Ocean come undone as due to some more intense politicking by Velazquez, Cortes’ expedition sets out two years later than it did OTL with more Horsemen but missing figures like Sandoval (who actually married into a rich family and has settled down in Santa Domingo) and Aguilar (the other one)...
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