Overview of the Tenochca Empire
The first encounters with the Tenchoca Empire quickly revealed that they were an almost nightmarish Empire that used blood magic extensively, sacrificing both enemies and the devoted in rituals that use their life force to magically power spells. Western scholars had previously believed only the most powerful mages could do spells of the scale they produced regularly without Arcane knowledge. While the rituals take much longer to perform, their effectiveness is both sickening and frightening. Scholars believe that the Tenochcan's have somehow learned magics that had been destroyed during the reign of the K'Thonum. Trade with the Tenochcan's is banned universally, and even pirates won't deal with them for fear of being used as a sacrifice.
Geography
The Tenochca Empire stretches from its northern border on the Swamp Coast to the mountains of the Tawantinsuyo Empire to the south, and it stretches from the Atlantic westward to an unknown ocean in the west. Its geographical strength is derived from the fertile valleys and cooler mountain areas between the two oceans.
Magic and Technology
The secret of iron and steel weapons have only been recently recovered on a large scale in the Tenochca Empire. While they are rarer than in the Western Kingdoms, they are rapidly becoming standard for the army. The Empire lacks for anything that looks like a warship, the largest boats being only short-range fishing vessels and incapable of long-distance ocean voyages of more than a couple of days. The Tenochcans are very interested in this technology as they have seen its wonders and understand what it means. They are actively seeking ways of copying this technology either through purchase with gold or kidnapping and piracy if they can. When they do it won't be long until the isolation that the Western Empires engage in will be broken, and conflict between them will be seen on the open seas. However, the Kingdom of Castilia considers it an inevitability that there will be Tenochcan ships on the open seas one day, and thus they keep a sharp eye on the far western reaches of their trade lanes.
Magically, the Tenchoca Empire is very different from the Western Kingdoms in that they rely almost exclusively on occult magic, while the Western Kingdoms find arcane magics to be more reliable. The peoples of the Tenochca Empire have a variety of ways of powering their occult magic with varieties of blood sacrifice. Great stepped pyramids have been created with the sole purpose of gathering magic.
Ancestries of the Empire
| Orcs 25% |
Hobgoblins 25% |
humans 40% |
Cat Folk 20% |
The most notable of the various ancestries of the Tenochca people is the reclusive and warrior-like Cat Folk, whose pelts are often a deep black. These "Jaguar Warriors" are the most elite land units that the Empire can field, and have a reputation for striking at night with deadly effect.
Politics
Internal Politics
This is a true empire, with the capital city placed first along with its surrounding province and elevated in stature among the rest of the provinces. Few provinces dare to rebel for fear of the leadership and warriors being sacrificed to fuel the magic of the Empire.
External politics
No Western Kingdom has any formal ties to the Empire, most openly ban trade or discourse of any kind with them. While this is typically where pirates and smugglers might thrive, instead the western smugglers fear the empire even more then they do the royalty on the far side of the Atlantic and avoid trade with them as well. Indeed, the Kingdom of Castillia keeps active intelligence agents with the objective of heading off discourse with them.
Comments