Records: Aztecs adopt the Magna Carta

## **It Had Been a Careful Cultural Exchange...**

The Aztecs were a warrior race – it was in the very fiber of the culture – but they'd sufferend the liabilities that had come with that. Their stonemasons were extraordinary, but their metallurgy and mining had been largely left behind. Their bloodlust, like that of their Mayan neighbors, had been extreme enough to tilt the culture into a very narrow scope of development.

When the megafauna hit, it became a bloody blame game. When the undead – or specifically, the *undying* – were exacerbated the bloodlust, it had nearly crushed them. The introduction of steel hadn't much helped, but the return of the RANP/OM had stabilized the situation as only they could – with perspective inspired from beyond their own time or experience.

It was that experience that had taken magic to the heart of the MesoWestern cultures, and in this case, the Aztecs specifically. Not simply the arcane magic, or divine healing magic, but the mundane, non-magical magic of an advanced legal system and beyond.

There was history there, with Olmec roots that went back at least two and a half millennia. There was power in the distinctive Aztec identity: the courage to explore, to fight, to persevere. The RANP/OM preserved that, while infusing them with the ability to interact and survive with cultures that hadn't simply learned advanced metalworking, but now advanced magic.

### **The Trials of the Gods**

The megafauna, giant snakes and scorpions, had accelerated their path to destruction. The time of the *Undying* had taught them a great deal more, and by the time the RANP and company had made it to them, they were firmly convinced the gods wanted them dead.

The appearance of the eastern ships was a different signal. Like the light of the dawn to the east, it was an alternative. With the demonstration of magic's power, the language of the warriors now had a conversation. In the last two years, the wide-ranging city-states of the Aztec culture had unified on their own.

Now, under one king, guided by the New Dawn, the Aztecs solidified their alliance with the one group that had ensured their survival: *the Noble Plantagenet*. They'd since adopted a pared-down, Jesuit-style Christianity, adopting some of their old gods as saints, now even tolerated the Mayans (and others) because of their newfound compassion.

*To a point*.

There was no shortage of rage against the old gods, or whatever they were.

## **The Aztec Charter**

The Aztec king had brought the RANP, the OM, and especially the CMC Sergeants-at-Arms as advisors into his innermost circle. In turn, the OM had made every bit of *Book of Learning*education and training available to the king and an ever-widening circle of royal lieutenants.

That brought the eventual realization that the Aztecs needed to adopt their own version of the Magna Carta – and with the assembly of an Aztec parliament, did exactly that. With magically-enhanced oaths to follow and uphold the new constitution taken across the range of nobilty, the Aztecs now became one of the strongest unitary governments *in the world*.

Two weeks later, the Ricardian Crown was present as magically-enhanced oaths were taken: both the service of the Aztecs to the CMC, and the CMC's inclusion and protection of the Aztecs. While there was already a Beothuk Duchy and the Principality of Kaskaskia to the north, the Aztecs were the first full WestHem *kingdom*.

### **The CMC Agenda**

This was a critical step forward for the Ricardian Crown. They needed a trusted agent, a WestHem resource and base of operations that could accomplish any task necessary for the defense of the planet and the preservation of humanity upon it.

The CMC poured resources into the Aztecs, assisting them in finding mineral-rich geology, growing their own mining, metallurgy and magical industries. In turn, the Aztecs were staunch CMC allies. Within a year, they'd have their own Royal Arms training facility, their own *Regiment*, and their own defense industry to support it.

### **The Regional Responsibility**

The CMC-NP's March Duchies were already a source of income to the Aztec king, They already had their own native *Regiments*, portaled, trained, equipped and portaled right back. As far as western expansion, that duchy was the line of demarcation.

What the CMC needed was for the Aztecs to bring the more northern megafauna under control. They needed to stabilize what tribes survived to the north toward the Great River and the pueblo tribes. They needed to monitor for any new changes (like the dire bears that had just been introduced), and spread the light of the Magna Carta.

The Aztecs accepted this charge as a holy duty...