Time and History (Maztica Supplement)
History of Maztica[edit]
Blue Age (??? — ???)[edit]
In the beginning, the Prime Material plane was home to a number of nigh-omnipotent beings known as the Overgods suspended within endless phlogiston. Each of these gods sought out to create their vision of reality, inevitably leading to division, so rather than collaborating, each god shaped a crystal sphere in the phlogiston.
Among these Overgods were Ao the Hidden Watcher and Maztica the Mother of Life. While Ao had grandiose visions of balanced dualism; good and evil, order and chaos all balanced in an eternal struggle, Maztica simply desired a home and a family. While Ao shaped Realmspace; the planets in their orbits around the Sun, and gave life to his first gods, Shar the Mistress of Light and Selûne the Moonmaiden, Maztica drew earth from the seas of the primordial world Abeir-Toril, created her husband Kukul, and lit the Darkfyre in her land's highest peak so that no other god, not even Ao, could enter her home without her permission.
Shadow Epoch (??? — 35,000 BDR)[edit]
The land was peaceful for a time. Maztica covered her land with all manner of primal beasts and spirits while Kukul painted the sky with stars. Both acts surprised Ao, but did little to disrupt his plans, nor were they intended to do so. In this time, the Mother of Life's finest creations were the primordial tlincalli who lacked skin and chitin to protect themselves.
This peaceful home came to an end, however, with the Dawn War; when the primordials, beings of unrestrained entropy from the chaos that surrounds the Elemental Planes, sought to destroy all creations of the Overgods. On Realmspace's front, an army of celestials, beasts, and humanoids lead by Ouroboros the World Serpent, the greatest of the primal spirits, fought back endless waves of elementals, fiends, and giants on Abeir-Toril, while the gods and primordials did battle in the Astral Plane.
Toward the tail end of the war, Realmspace was all but lost. The primordials had infested Death's Reach, a part of the Shadowfell where the souls of the dead rested at the time, giving them even greater power by consuming the souls of mortals, and Dendar the Night Serpent, a powerful primordial, had swallowed the Sun, freezing Abeir-Toril and much of the gods' mortal forces. It was only through the primordial Ubtao the Deceiver that the gods wrested back control of the Shadowfell, and by his own hand that the Sun was ripped from Dendar's stomach and that she was thrown into the Fugue Plane to haunt nightmares until the end of the world.
Days of Thunder (35,000 BDR — 30,000 BDR)[edit]
Abeir-Toril lay in ruins, as did many of its species and gods. In this time, most of Maztica still lay under glacial sheets of ice and snow from the centuries that the Sun was absent in the far north of Merrouroboros, Abeir-Toril's pangaea. Maztica and Kukul's children had been shattered into fragments of themselves, and though the tlincalli still worshiped these fragments, their population had become small and weak from the war and cold. Instead, the two imbued these fragments with new life, becoming the continent's new gods.
Lopango became home to what few tlincalli remained, though these remnants were forced to flee to tunnel systems deep within the warm rock of the volcanoes around 33rd century BDR when the powerful Batrachi Empires spread their furthest border to the peninsula, though this empire would cease long before the Days of Thunder would due to the already-rising Aeree Empires, and from numerous calamities that would result in the Tearfall, when Abeir and Toril became separate planets.
Dawn Age (30,000 BDR — 24,000 BDR)[edit]
By the Dawn Age, Maztica's children had become bored. They were gods with no subjects; children with no toys. They were enamored by the tlincalli, but much of the True World was still unsafe for their kind.
First, Azul took clay from the riverbeds and fashioned them into men. The men of clay were writhing creatures that could not stand, and the rivers washed away their features. They would continue to struggle for millennia before the sun baked them into the first tlalocoatl.
Next, Watil took the branches from her trees and carved them into men. The men of wood floated in the water unchanged, satisfying the gods, but they moved much too slow, and many were consumed whenever storms shook the True World. In time, the oldest would become Maztica's first treants.
In their final attempt, Eha took the gold from the mountains and forged it into men. The men of gold were beautiful, unweathered by water and fire, but they did not move; there was no life within them.
As the gods despaired, Kukul took pity on his children. Reaching out, he severed his fingers upon the True World, creating the first humans. The gods rejoiced, finding endless amusement with the scurrying creatures.
The Gifts of the Gods (24,000 BDR — 12,000 BDR)[edit]
As humanity spread across Maztica, the gods delighted in giving humanity goals and trials, but mankind forgot too easily the nature of their gods, so the gods thought long on gifts to not only remind them, but to achieve even greater feats.
Qotal was the first, imbuing mankind with the ability to learn. From Zaltec came the courage and honor of a warrior. From Tezca came fire and from Azul came clean water. From Plutoq came creativity. From Kiltzi came love and joy. From Watil came agriculture. From Nula came hunting. From Eha came procreation.
It was in this time that Qotal first envied the worship of his mother, greatest of their pantheon. To earn a greater portion of humanity's worship, he gave the gift of maize, a bountiful crop that greatly reduced the number of lives wholly dedicated to acquiring food.
The First Cities (12,000 BDR — 2000 BDR)[edit]
With the gift of maize, mankind began to gather in villages, then towns, then the first cities: Olbi, Esh Alakar, and Tewahca. With the first cities came the first pyramids, the greatest of which were dedicated to Qotal, save for Tewahca's Pyramid of the Gods, which was dedicated to Maztica and Kukul.
Zaltec was furious that one of his siblings would dare stand as honored as their parents, and worst of all that it was not him. He descended to the fiery depths of Mount Zatal, where he dwelt for ages working fire, venom, and his own nature into a gift greater than even maize. When he ascended, Zaltec gave humanity the gift of hishna, magic fueled by violence.
The gift of hishna began the long string of Hishna Wars; tribes and citystates rising up and crushing their enemies before being crushed themselves, destroying all involved. It was also in his toil that Zaltec discovered the strength that human sacrifice gave his kind, and with each battle his power grew.
The Ultimate War (2000 BDR — 1000 BDR)[edit]
Qotal pitied humanity's suffering through hishna and implored Maztica to save them, for he lacked the power to do so himself. Knowing that it would be Qotal who would stop Zaltec, Maztica gave him the gift of pluma to give to humanity. Slowly, the Hishna Wars came to an end, and an era of piece dwelt within the True World.
This act enraged Zaltec; the denial of his gift, the favoritism toward Qotal, that Qotal was given pluma while he had to toil over hishna's creation. Zaltec stormed the Pyramid of the Gods and slew his mother with his maca. This transgression erupted into an all-out war between the gods, with Maztica's sons siding with Zaltec and her daughters siding with Qotal. As the gods warred with each other, so too did their worshipers, drenching Maztica in blood. Amidst the fighting, Kukul wept for Zaltec and wailed for Maztica. He would be shattered by the loss, and his fragments banished himself from the True World.
The two warlords eventually decided that the final battle of the Ultimate War would be atop the Pyramid of the Gods. Before the battle, Zaltec has 10,000 of his finest warriors sacrificed in his name, growing his already-considerable power. When it came time for Qotal's own sacrifice, he instead released thirteen butterflies from atop the pyramid who spread light and life across the True World, earning the favor of what remained of Maztica and Kukul within the True World and besting Zaltec. As the new head of the pantheon, Qotal tended the Darkfyre with a swarm of couatl and used its power to temporarily banish his murderous brother as punishment.
The Zatecan Empire (1000 BDR — 200 DR)[edit]
In the wake of the Ultimate War, the gods finally understood the harm their actions could cause. While they did not abandon their peoples, there would be no more gifts. As citystates recovered, the Zateca began to emerge as a dominant power, wielding copper from Mount Chalcopan, the magic within Mount Zatal, and the fertile valleys of modern day Huacli. The Zatecan Empire spread their influence across all of Central Maztica and beyond, leaving marks on Maztican society that are still felt today.
Zateca dominated for over 500 years until the reign of Revered Counselor Yomopovo, who reigned from the Flat Mountain, a mountaintop city in Central Maztica that served as the empire's center for both trade and administration. Yomopovo was a cruel, fickle man who drank deeply from Zateca's wealth. Knowing that this would almost certainly bring about his downfall, he cursed himself with undeath using the Talisman of Perpetual Life, and dragged his subjects along with him with the Knife of Perpetual Service. With the imperial center occupied only by the mictlaneca; shambling undead forced to relive their lives over and over, the Zatecan Empire shattered back into disparate citystates from which most of the modern nations draw their names from today.
The Payit Empire (200 DR — 600 DR)[edit]
As formerly Zatecan citystates warred with one another, the nation of Payit in Eastern Maztica and Far Payit was notably peaceful, only fighting the occasional skirmish with Pezelac or halfling tribes. When the other nations had finally exhausted themselves, Payit moved to establish its own empire, bulldozing across the continent.
Under Imperial Payit rule, centered in the coastal city of Ulatos, Maztican art and architecture flourished. Every city was now marked with multiple pyramids, and even commonfolk ornamented themselves with gold and jewels. Under the cult of Qotal, life itself prospered as fields and households became bountiful.
But Qotal was still a jealous god. Seeing his empire thrive, he envied the love the humans shared. Abusing his authority, he bed Kiltzi, who in retaliation poisoned him, throwing him into a slumber for 10 years. As Qotal's pluma weakened and prayers to him went unanswered, crops began to fail. Diaspora rocked Payit cities, now unable to feed their sizeable populations, straining logistics. While rebellions were fought, it was ultimately feuds between rival nobles in the core Payit cities that collapsed the empire, having grown bloodthirsty and desperate for power amidst the chaos.
The Nexal Empire (600 DR — 1000 DR)[edit]
With the weakening of the Darkfyre in Qotal's absence, Zaltec directed a tribe of warriors from beyond Itzcala to journey to the Nexal Valley. Rather than settling along the shores of the Lake of the Gods, they settled in the flat, often-flooded island at its center, building it into a mighty fortress from which to conquer the rest of the valley. With the valley unified, they stormed the Darkfyre and slew Qotal's couatls, fully allowing their god to return and take control of it.
When Qotal awoke, he was horrified not only by Zaltec's return, but by his own transgressions against Kiltzi. Powerless against an empowered Zaltec, he banished himself, though he left a prophesy with his priests that he would return.
Emboldened and without a godly rival, the newly founded nation of Nexal conquered the True World, forming the Nexalan Empire. While famine once again subsided, it was blood that fed the fields, and while cities once again grew, this peace was ensured by a vast army and obsidian-edged justice.
Age of Slavery (1000 DR — 1385 DR)[edit]
By the 10th century DR, the Nexalan Empire had taken its toll on Maztica. Though the empire had morphed many times under the rule of many Revered Councilors, the early and mid Age of Slavery was marked by exceptionally brutal leadership that demanded greater sacrifices and levies each generation. Much of the population was enslaved for apparent apostasy, chafing Zaltec's siblings. Meanwhile, word traveled from the unconquered reaches of Far Payit that Qotal's return was imminent, further frustrating Nexal's rulers.
In 1361 DR, Maztica was 'discovered' by Amnian explorers led by Captain Cordell and his Golden Legion. Seeing a land apparently flush with gold, enough to ornament nearly every major structure in every city, held by a population that still used wood, stone, and leather arms, the invaders sought to take these riches for themselves.
Pushing through Payit and Pezelac, as well as parts of eastern Kultaka, Cordell's invasion considered their conquest of Maztica complete with the Night of Wailing, the time of Nexal's fall. As even the city's great pyramids crumbled, Qotal reappeared, defending the city in the form of a great feathered dragon, freezing Lake Qotal over to make routes for fleeing survivors and blooming foliage in the deserts they fled to, though the city itself was reduced to jagre-filled ruins.
In the so-called "New Amn", centered within the dual-city of Helmsport-Ulatos, temples to Zaltec and Azul were torn down, their stones and sites used to construct temples dedicated to Helm, the Faerûnian god of protection. Maztican natives were enslaved en masse in service of plantations and the whims of nobles, thrown to their deaths in search of Nexal's items of power or supposed treasure sequestered in the dense jungles.
Age of Freedom (1385 DR — Present)[edit]
In 1385 DR, the Year of Blue Fire, wild magic caused by Mystra's assassination shrouded Maztica, transporting it into the seas of Abeir. For the previous 20 years, survivors from Nexal had been gathering strength in Huacli, Kultaka, and Itzcala, and when New Amn sent out its ships in an attempt to establish new trade routes, they struck razing Helmsport and tearing down Fort Cordell. While the Valley of Nexal would stand as the land of the jagre, the Nexalan victory transformed Helmsport-Ulatos into New Nexal. Great stone walls were erected around the Gulf of Cordell, rechristened the Gulf of Zaltec, and those ships that laid eyes on the fires returned to Abeir's ports.
Payit and Pezalac had been weakened in its slavery, and though Nexal had won a great victory, it was not without cost of its own blood. Rather than an era of conquest and empires, the early Age of Freedom was one of rebuilding and defending from the horrors of the on-going Spellplague, though many of Maztica's nations still seek to claim the Darkfyre for their god.
In 1486 DR, with the end of the Spellplague, Maztica returned to Toril. Though many within the nations sharing a sea with Maztica looked upon it with greed just as Cordell had, his cruelty and ultimate defeat stood clearly in the minds of the nobility that would have to back such an expedition.
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