Aztec Empire (Concordant)

The Aztec Empire lies in the southern part and central plains of North America with the Mayan Empire to the south in Central America, the Nippon Empire to the west/northwest and the overseas territories of the Britannic Empire to the north (Nouveau Aquitaine) and east/northeast (Nuevo Castile). The core southern portion, equivalent to mundane Mexico, has existed since the migration of 1517 CE (11017 WF) to escape the mundane conquistador invasion; while the northern portion of the central plains was annexed in 1755 CE (11255 WF) with the agreement of the Britannic Empire at the request of the various indigenous native tribes wishing to escape the mundane expansion into their lands.

The Empire is essentially a combination of a class system and meritocracy, with a hereditary upper class of rulers and nobility, middle class of warriors, urban dwellers and skilled workers and lower class of laborers and unskilled workers, often outside the cities. Upward mobility is based on ability. Women, wixen, and non-wixen are equal under the law and in society. Women are equal to men and can divorce, own property, inherit, etc. In general inheritance is non-gender-specific, although the throne is male-preference primogeniture.

## Summary

### First Rulers

Emperor Totoquihuatzin of the Imperial House of Aculnahuacatl, established 11017 WF (1517 CE)

### Founding of the Empire

The Empire was founded in 11017 WF (1517 CE) when the Gods instructed the devout of the city of Tlacopan to lead an urgent migration of devout Aztecs to the magical wixen world, thus escaping the death and destruction of the imminent conquest by the soon invading conquistadors in 1519 CE (11019 WF).

### Current Ruler

Emperor Huitzilin Itzcoatl of the Imperial House of Itzcoatl, born 11406 WF (1906 CE) reign starts 11458 WF (1958 CE)

## History of the Empire

*[purely mundane history will be marked and written in italics]*

*The Nahua peoples migrated to central Mexico from the north in the early 13th century, the culture organized into city-states, some of which were joining and splitting to form various alliances. Most of the existing settlements had been established by other indigenous peoples before the Mexica migration. The Mexica were the last of the Nahua migrants to arrive in modern Central Mexico and entered the Basin of Mexico around the year 1250 CE. The Mexica moved to an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco where an eagle nested on a nopal cactus which was interpreted this as a sign from their gods, and founded their new city Tenochtitlan on this island in the year 1325 CE.*

*Tenochtitlan quickly grew is size, strength and power becoming a major city-state of the region through a series of wars and conquests. In 1430, Tenochtitlan formed a treaty known as the Triple Alliance with two other major city-states, Texcoco and Tlacopan, all three centered around Lake Texcoco. The leaders agreed to cooperate in future wars of conquest. Land acquired from these conquests was to be held by the three cities together, and tribute divided in five parts; two parts each to Tenochtitlan and Texcoco, and one part to Tlacopan. The three kings assumed the title "huetlatoani" ("Elder Speaker", often translated as "Emperor"), each holding de jure position above the rulers of other city-states. This alliance become the core of the burgeoning mundane Aztec Empire. In the following 100 years, the Triple Alliance of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan dominated the Valley of modern Mexico and extended its power far beyond to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific, Tenochtitlan gradually becoming the dominant power in the alliance.*

*Itzcoatl of Tenochtitlan consolidated power in the Basin of Mexico and began to expand beyond its borders; these conquests provided the new empire with a large influx of tribute, especially agricultural goods. When Itzcoatl died, Moctezuma I was enthroned as the new Mexica emperor in Tenochtitlan. Reforms were instigated to maintain control over conquered cities. Uncooperative kings were replaced with puppet rulers loyal to the Mexica. A new imperial tribute system established Mexica tribute collectors that taxed the population directly, bypassing the authority of local dynasties. Moctezuma issued new laws that separated nobles from commoners and instituted the death penalty for adultery and other offenses. A religiously supervised school was built in every neighborhood by royal decree; and commoner neighborhoods had a school where they received basic religious instruction and military training.*

*The Aztec Empire was an example of an empire that ruled by indirect means. It was ethnically very diverse but was more a system of tributes than a single unitary form of government. The Aztec empire was an informal type of empire in that the Alliance did not claim supreme authority over its tributary provinces, who were merely expected to pay tributes. The empire was also territorially discontinuous. The hegemonic nature of the Aztec empire can be seen in the fact that generally local rulers were restored to their positions once the empire conquered their city-state; Aztecs did not interfere in local affairs as long as the tribute payments were made.*

*By the reign of Ahuitzotl, a grandson of Itzcoatl, the Mexica of Tenochtitlan were the largest and most powerful faction in the Aztec Triple Alliance. Building on the prestige the Mexica had acquired over the course of the conquests, Ahuitzotl began to use the title "huehuetlatoani" ("Eldest Speaker") to distinguish himself from the rulers of Texcoco and Tlacopan. The alliance still technically ran the empire, but the Mexica Emperor in Tenochtitlan now assumed seniority. Ahuitzotl was succeeded by his nephew Moctezuma II in 1502. Moctezuma II spent most of his reign consolidating power in lands conquered by his predecessors. At the time of the Spanish Conquest in 1521, the Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlan was among the largest cities in the world, with perhaps as many as 200,000 inhabitants.*

*The Spanish expedition under leader Hernán Cortés arrived in the Yucatán in 1519; eventually landing at Cempoala, a tributary province of the Aztec empire, and began working his way inland. Cortés and the other Spaniards entered the city of Tenochtitlan, where they were greeted as guests and given quarters in the palace of former emperor Axayacatl. After staying in the city for six weeks, Cortés used an altercation as an excuse to take Emperor Moctezuma II prisoner. Moctezuma continued to run the empire as a prisoner of Cortés for several months. A second larger Spanish expedition arrived in 1520 providing reinforcements. The Spaniards massacred a group of Tenochtitlan nobility, and the Aztecs retaliated by attacking the palace where the Spanish were quartered. Cortés took Moctezuma up to the roof of the palace to ask his subjects to stand down. However, by this point, the ruling council of Tenochtitlan had voted to depose Moctezuma and had elected his brother Cuitláhuac as the new emperor. One of the Aztec soldiers struck Moctezuma in the head with a sling stone, and he died several days later, though the exact circumstances of his death are unclear.*

*The Spaniards retreated and made their way to Tlaxcala where they recovered and prepared for the second, successful assault on Tenochtitlan. After this incident, a smallpox outbreak hit Tenochtitlan, killing more than 50% of the region's population, including the emperor Cuitláhuac, as the indigenous of the New World had no previous exposure to smallpox. The new emperor Cuauhtémoc dealt with the smallpox outbreak, while Cortés raised an army from the many discontented vassal states. Eventually, the Spanish-led army assaulted the city both by boat and using the elevated causeways connecting it to the mainland, actually aided by Texcoco. The attackers took heavy casualties, although the Tenochtitlan were ultimately defeated. The city of Tenochtitlan was thoroughly destroyed in the process. Cuauhtémoc was captured as he attempted to flee the city. Cortés kept him prisoner and tortured him for a period of several years before finally executing him in 1525.*

*It is worth noting that the Aztec family pattern was historically bilateral, counting relatives on the father's and mother's side of the family equally, and inheritance was also passed both to sons and daughters. This meant that women could own property just as men, and that women therefore had a good deal of economic freedom from their spouses. At times women even came to lead some of the Aztec noble houses, although the rulers were still male.*

[wixen history]

There were few wixen among the population of Tenochtitlan, or Texcoco for that matter; they being uncomfortable with the overly aggressive militant stance of the two senior partners in the Triple Alliance. They gravitated to the third junior partner city-state, Tlacopan, which maintained a more peaceful posture under its rulers; who were in fact wixen themselves although they tended to downplay if not outright hide this fact from the other two Alliance city-states.

Dire warnings from the wixen seers and messages from the Gods in dreams became more prevalent at the end of the 15th century; and the ruler of Tlacopan, Totoquihuatzin, son of King Chimalpopoca who died in 1489 CE (10989 WF), become more and more anxious awaiting to see how the senior partners of the alliance would respond, fearful of them turning on him if he made too much of an issue of it.

In 11017 WF (1517 CE) the Gods appeared to Totoquihuatzin, telling him the rulers and elite of Tenochtitlan and Texcoco had turned against their Gods, now only worshiping their own power and feeling of superiority and undefeatability. If any were to be saved from the coming end he must act now. They explained in detail about the magically created world and what he must do; and that the fleet of the Phoenicians would soon arrive under spells of invisibility to assist him in the migration of the still devout to the new magical lands.

So, in 11017 WF (15l7 CE) Totoquihuatzin quietly entered an activated portal to the magically created lands, and performed the Rite of Claim for the equivalent territories of the Aztec empire, followed by the Rite of Empire due to the urgency, becoming Emperor Totoquihuatzin I of the Imperial House of Aculnahuacatl of the magical Empire of the Aztec. He was gifted with the transformation to the American Quetzalcoatl or Feathered Serpent Dragon.

Upon his return, as decreed by the Gods that the new Empire be run differently, he issued his first Imperial Proclamation that, first there would be no slavery of any kind in the lands of the new magical Empire (strange to them); second that women would (as always) be equal to men with regards to rights, wealth and ownership and inheritance of property, including nobility although the throne would remain male-preference; third that for their class, all subjects of the empire be they wixen pureblood, halfblood, squib or non-wixen would be equal. The Gods had also vehemently let it be known that They neither required nor wanted the copious amounts of blood spilled in Their names by the priests who acted solely only to aggrandize themselves.

Plans for the very quiet low-key migration of devout wixen and the non-wixen selected by the Gods proceeded with the Phoenicians whose skyships had quickly but quietly arrived undetected. They would provide transportation of the critical livestock, goods and people as needed. Totoquihuatzin contacted wixen of high position in other city-states he trusted, and after receiving magical Unbreakable Vows of obedience as he was far from naive, used the Rite of Transfer to delegate magical control of territories and also responsibility for their migration needs to be coordinated with the Phoenicians.

In 11019 WF (1519 CE), the first news was received of ships with strange Spanish warriors having landed on the Gulf Coast near Cempoala; and in order to concentrate on the migrations Totoquihuatzin decided to "die" in the non-magical world leaving the mundane throne to his son Tetlepanquetzal to manage. In 11021 WF (1521 CE) the Spaniards arrived in Tenochtitlan, and the migration became a veritable flood of activity, much of it poorly prepared. With the final fall of Tenochtitlan and the mundane Aztec Empire to the Spaniards, quiet undetectable migration activities continued to proceed; Tetlepanquetzal "dying" in 11025 WF (1525 CE) to join his father leaving the now meaningless non-magical throne to whatever happened. Migration efforts continued in more distant cities further from the sight of the Spaniards.

By 11027 WF (1527 CE) all the migration efforts were as complete as they could be; with aid having come from the neighboring Mayan Empire, and large quantities of gold donated by the more distant Empire of the Inka to pay for the goods supplied by the Phoenicians; who asked only that the Aztec remember, and should the opportunity arise, they in turn help others in need. Not without a bit of feeling of satisfaction, the migrated Aztecs watched the continuing genocide of the arrogant dead mundane Aztec empire, and the traitorous city-states who assisted the Spaniards.

In perhaps a show of spite, or perhaps precaution, Emperor Totoquihuatzin built his palace, government complex and parks on the island in the mundane Lake Texcoco, renamed Lake Tlacopan, which had been the site of the city of Tenochtitlan; a district now to his larger capital city of Tlacopan; as well as forbid cities being built on the sites of mundane Texcoco or Tlaxcala. He also issued an Imperial Edict that throughout the Empire, no city, settlement or place would ever be named Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, or Tlaxcala; and that the names Moctezuma, Axayacatl, Ahuitzotl, Cuitláhuac (Tenochtitlan rulers), Cacamatzin, Cuicuizcatl, Coanacoch (Texcoco rulers), Xicotencatl and Maxixcatzin (Tlaxcala rulers) were forever forbidden to be given to any member of the nobility or imperial house.

The magical Aztec Empire expanded through much of mundane modern Mexico abutting the Mayan Empire, and north into mundane Texas. Emperor Totoquihuatzin died in 11146 WF (1646 CE) at the age of 182 having reigned for 129 years; his son Tetlepanquetzal succeeding him, dying in 11177 WF (1677 CE) at the age of 187 having reigned for 31 years.

It was in the 113th century WF (18th century CE) under the rule of Emperor Tezozomoc II [b.11135-11295 WF (1635-1795 CE), r.11177-11295 WF (1677-1795 CE)], the grandson of Tetlepanquetzal, that things changed as aggressive and genocidal colonizing was foreseen to proceed against the native tribes of the plains of the modern mundane America. The shamans and wixen of the tribes appealed to the Aztec for help.

Still keenly feeling the history of their own genocidal invasion by the Spanish conquistadors and not wanting to see a repeat, and remembering their promise to the Inka in their own time of need, in 11255 WF (1755 CE) the Aztec negotiated with the Britannic Empire to acquire the yet unclaimed central lands between the settled East and the Nippon Empire on the west coast. After formally acquiring and magically claiming the territory, with the once more assistance of the Phoenician skyships, the Aztec assisted the migration of the wixen of the native tribes in establishing their own settlements in the magically created lands which would be under Aztec protection and oversight. In the mundane world the Aztec worked hard to establish magically hidden territories and assisted with a move to the hidden lands of the many magical enclaves in order to hide many of the non-wixen native tribes from the encroachers. Judicious use of magic and illusion convinced the invaders of their triumph.

## Information

### Major Religion and Gods

* Huitzilopochtli, God of the sun and war
* Quetzalcoatl, God of wind, sky, and stars
* Tezcatlipoca, God of the night, magic, prophecy, and fate
* Tlaloc, God of rain and storms

In their creation mythology Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl appear as allies defeating a giant crocodile Cipactli and requiring her to become the earth.

#### Other Important Cities

Xochicalco (northwest coast), Xiconaque (north border), Centicpac (west coast), Tanallan, Tuxpan (east coast), Teotitlán, Tlapan (coast)

Native Tribes: Crow, Sioux, Shoshone, Cheyenne, Navejo, Pueblo, Apache, Comanche

### Magic Schools

Quetzalcoatl Academy of Magic, in Tlacopan, founded in 11237 WF (1737 CE)

### Currency

gold Teocuitlatl = 20 silver Iztāc; 1 Iztāc = 40 copper Tepoztli

## Rulers

### Imperial Dragon Form

American Quetzalcoatl or Feathered Serpent Dragon

### List of Rulers & Houses

#### **[pre-migration Tlacopan]**

* King Chimalpopoca 1396 - 1489 CE (age 93) reign ???? - 1489 CE (??? years)
* King Totoquihuatzin 1464 - 1646 CE (age 182) reign 1489 - 1519 CE (30 years)
* King Tetlepanquetzal 1490 - 1677 CE (age 187) reign 1519 - 1525 CE (6 years)

#### **Imperial House of Aculnahuacatl, established 11017 WF (1517 CE)**

* Emperor Totoquihuatzin 10964 - 11146 WF (1464 - 1646 CE) [age 182] reign 10017 - 11146 WF (1517 - 1646 CE) [129 years]; son of Chimalpopoca
* Emperor Tetlepanquetzal 10990 - 11177 WF (1490 - 1677 CE) [age 187] reign 11146 - 11177 WF (1646 - 1677 CE) [31 years]; son of Totoquihuatzin
* Emperor Tezozomoc II 11135 - 11295 WF (1635 - 1795 CE) [age 160] reign 11177 - 11295 WF (1677 - 1795 CE) [118 years; grandson of Tetlepanquetzal
* Empress Apozanolotl 11170 - 11357 WF (1670 - 1857 CE) [age 187] reign 11295 - 11357 WF (1795 - 1857 CE) [62 years]; daughter of Tezozomoc II

#### **Imperial House of Itzcoatl, established 11357 WF (1857 CE)**

* Emperor Camaxtli 11237 - 11408 WF (1737 - 1908 CE) [age 171)] reign 11357 - 11408 WF (1857 - 1908 CE) [51 years]; son of Apozanolotl
* Emperor Ahuatzi 11295 - 11458 WF (1795 - 1958 CE) [age 163] reign 11408 - 11458 WF (1908 - 1958 CE) [50 years]; son of Camaxtli
* Emperor Huitzilin born 11409 WF (1906 CE) reign starts 11458 WF (1958 CE); grandson of Ahuatzi