The Founding of Acuecueyolotl's Temple

Founding

Approximately two centuries passed since the ancestors of the Calmaxtec fled the destruction of the Golden Lands and their great catamarans landed in this new land they named Calmaxtlan. For a generation they survived near the coasts, wary of the strange and dangerous beasts of their new home, completely alien to what they knew in their islands across the sea. But with blood and grim determination, they slowly won the knowledge they needed to not only survive, but thrive. They established for themselves a new home and had restarted their civilzation, when their presence was finally marked by others.

The Calmaxtec cleared forest, planted crops from their homeland and built defenses, first out of wood, then out of stone. But the first stone structure built was a cliff-side temple dedicated to Lady Acuecueyolotl, she who had shown the wave finders, her priests, a safe path across the great water. The founding of the temple marked a new age in their calendar, -8821 in the reckoning of the Eshtem.

Their new city, Nantzikax, became the seed for a hundred villages as the population grew and spread through the lands. The livestock they brought with them, pigs and the large, fat rodents called paltuc, had quickly fallen victim to the fierce native wildlife, but hunting was abundant in the forests, especially since the local wildlife did not know enough to be afraid of the new creatures.

A day came when many villages reported that people were going missing. Whispers of forest demons began circulating and the warriors and magicians of the Calmaxtec prepared themselves for this unknown danger. But no preparation was enough. The Calmaxtec had been discovered by scouts of the southern Tecuhtli empire, Sri'kua'ar. They were big and fast, strong and deadly. Wounds given them closed again quickly. The human warriors were no match for them. The magicians fared better, but only by using their magic to escape and hide some of their people. This marked the true beginning of a new age for the Calmaxtec, an age of suffering.