Huemac Chichilcuautli
Huemac is either hero or villain to many. To those who admire him, he was a revolutionary hero of the Calmaxtec people, fighting to free them from bondage and indenture and restore them to dignity in their own land. To those who despise him, he was a terrorist cult leader who sought nothing but blood, chaos and self-aggrandizement.
He was born to Tzetzal debt-slaves in the silver mines of eastern Donava. His parents were peasant farmers who failed to pay their taxes in crops or silver to their jadigar and became indebted to the point that their lands were taken by the jadigar and they were sold to the mines to work off their debts. Huemac was their third and last son. His mother died of sickness when he was five, and his father two years later in a mine collapse along with his two older brothers. Orphaned, he grew up working in the mines.
Despite his misfortune, he was handsome, even for a Tztezal and a naturally cheerful boy and the women in the slave camp all mothered him and gave him extra food when they could. Because of this, he grew to be a tall, strong youth and work gang leader. He seemed to have a natural feel for the stone and was prized by his overseers for being able to spot new silver veins that others missed. He had ambitions of winning his freedom through his talent and hard work.
These dreams ended in a tunnel collapse. The other miners managed to make it out ahead of him through his efforts, but he escape was blocked. A large rock crushed his left leg and flying stone chips blinded him in his right eye. As he lay there, he understood he would soon be dead.
The stories told about him say that he called to Cihuacoatl to take him and let him be with his family. But in that dark tunnel, bleeding, he saw the tunnel wall to his right begin to glow red, then white hot. A being made of shining black obsidian stepped through the molten rock. It was the shape of a well proportioned, naked woman with glowing golden eyes and hair of red molten rock that continually dripped as if wet around her, steaming on the damp tunnel floor.
She spoke to him: “Your measure of life is not done, if you would have it so, child. But Great Mother would lay the burden of life on you once more.” “For what purpose? I am blind, broken, I am a slave. I am like dross.” he responded. “She has given me, her servant, leave to heal you, to save you, if you would serve her, O Huemac. She will free you, but you are called to in turn free the others forced to gnaw holes in her flesh for bits of ixtateocuitlat.”
Huemac felt a fire rise within him at these words, anger bound with hope. He choked out “It will be done, no cihuapilli.” She smiled and kissed him with burning lips. He felt the fire course through his body and mend it. Standing, without thinking, he reached out and touched the rubble in his path. It melted at his touch. He strode through the stone, as if through mud.
Huemac went on to use his charisma, intelligence and new found power to effect his Lady’s will. He freed his own camp, and then many others up and down the western foothills of the Rirha Mountains. In a year, his forces controlled the entirety of eastern Donava. Other Calmaxtec who heard of his exploits came to join him from north, south and east. Huemac marched an army west to Solkar, besieging the city and occupying the countryside. Rajan Mahar had sent messages to his cousin Ilan, Rajan of New Eshkar, but Huemac, having anticipated reinforcements from the east, activates secret forces in New Eshkar and the southern territories in Chol’um that have been drawing men to them in their forest encampments. Ilan as well as armies are forced to deal with rebellion in their own.
Behind his back, contact was established between Huemac’s lieutenants in Donava and New Eshkar, believed to have been arranged by Chol'ul merchants. Agreements were made that would end indenture and provide lands and autonomy to Calmaxtec people in exchange for betrayal of Huemac. He caught wind of this betrayal nearly before the trap was sprung, while he was in a small town just south of Solkar. Huemac managed to escape on stolen merchant vessels and fled south. No one heard from Huemac again and he his ultimate fate is lost to history.
Afterwards, the Eshtem lords honored their agreements. Slavery was made illegal in Donava and New Eshkar and its territories. Many Calmaxtec called the betrayal of Huemac accursed. His lieutenants were reviled and they lived out their days in seclusion on the farms given to them. To the present, Huemac’s name is invoked and offerings are made in his honor in prayers and ancestor rituals across Southern Kalmasa. Neither the United Temples or the Kalmasan government have been unsuccessful in stopping this practice.
It is encouraged by Chicahuacohtli who claim that Huemac was betrayed by Cihuacoatl herself and that he turned to Ucuriaztl for aid and that Ucuriaztl guided Huemac and his loyal followers to distant lands where they established a great city. There are prophecies that Huemac will return one day and finish what he started, completely free the Calmaxtec from Eshtem rule and drive the Eshtem back into the sea. Though slavery is illegal, with the wars and labor shortages, those imprisoned, especially for debt, have been made to toil in work camps, circumventing the law and this has only strengthened Chicahuacohtli’s influence.
Comments