Chapter Summaries

Xolotl oversaw the settlement of sixty thousand Guachichil Dog-kin in River Mouth County and ordered their tribal warriors reorganized into a standing legion. He sent Avilot to deliver a letter to Alisa, and planned to meet with Caca, Ozoma, and Toltec that evening.

• Xolotl questioned Bertad about the Dog-kin settlement, learning that the tribes had been divided into eastern and western banner companies and that unrest had been suppressed.
• Xolotl ordered two thousand Guachichil hunters added to Monkey's First Spear Legion and directed Caca and Ozoma to reorganize their warriors into two six-thousand-man forces.
• Xolotl decided to form a standing Guachichil legion and arranged grain aid from the Alliance in exchange for bronze equipment.
• Xolotl sent Avilot east with his letter to Alisa, asking the golden eagle to carry it to Lake Capital.
• Xolotl asked Bertad about Toltec's recovery and ordered him to come to dinner with Caca and Ozoma.

Xolotl reorganized the Guachichil warriors into a formal legion and appointed Black Wolf Toltec as its commander, with Caca and Ozoma as deputy commanders. After the three swore to put aside their grudges and serve together, Xolotl welcomed the assembled chiefs and generals to a feast.

• Xolotl teased Caca and Ozoma about their studies with the priests, then offered to send them to Shenwei University, prompting both chiefs to insist they wanted to lead troops.
• Xolotl ordered the Red Frog and Red monkey warriors incorporated into Banner Units and formed a Guachichil Legion commanded by Toltec, with Caca and Ozoma as deputies.
• Xolotl praised Toltec for his service in the northern campaign and urged him to learn the broader duties of command.
• Xolotl assigned Toltec elite troops and ordered Caca and Ozoma to provide Red-hair Hunters for his direct command.
• Toltec, Caca, and Ozoma swore before Xolotl to obey his commands, support one another, and end their grudges.
• Xolotl invited the chiefs and generals to the front courtyard, where they feasted and celebrated through the night.

Xolotl reviewed reports on the Lake Kingdom’s population, harvests, and local administration, learning that Purple Grass County’s nobles resisted royal control and paid little tribute. He marked the kingdom’s regions on a map and resolved to visit Kuramo City after the autumn harvest.

• Xolotl and Bertad discussed reports that Guramo and Zotor’s noble faction obstructed royal rule and the spread of faith in Purple Grass County.
• Bertad reported that Purple Grass County held more than two hundred thousand people but paid only a fraction of the capital region’s tribute.
• Xolotl mapped the kingdom’s population and resources, noting the stronger royal control in River Mouth County and the capital region and the nobles’ autonomy in the south.
• Xolotl considered the kingdom’s growing strength and marked Kuramo City with a red circle as his destination after the autumn harvest.

Xolotl visited River Mouth Shipyard, where Pukuta presented the kingdom’s new Wind Canoe and Crocodile God Galley. He rewarded the shipwrights and pledged continued support for their work, while the Shipbuilding Department admitted it could not yet build the more advanced Sand Ship designs.

• Xolotl inspected the double-hulled Wind Canoe as craft apprentices demonstrated its speed and maneuverability on Lake Cuitzeo.
• Pukuta presented the Crocodile God Galley, and forty apprentices rowed it across the lake to demonstrate its power and speed.
• Xolotl promoted Pukuta to a Level 3 Divine Inspiration Priest and promised rewards and promotions to the shipwrights.
• Pukuta told Xolotl that the Shipbuilding Department could not build the Sand Ship design’s flat-plate keel and would need years of experience to attempt it.
• Xolotl assured Pukuta that the kingdom would supply the resources needed to keep improving its ships, and Pukuta pledged his loyalty.

Xolotl inspected spring plowing in a village near River Mouth County and saw how farming improvements were raising yields. The villagers’ short lives moved him to share his ideal that one in ten people under his rule would live to sixty, and he set out plans to inspect the Guachichil People's villages.

• Xolotl inspected the village’s altar, granary, mill, compost pits, priest’s report, and militia training, and learned that Dog-kin migrants were suspected of stealing turkeys.
• Xolotl refused the village chief’s feast and left rather than consume the village’s scarce food with his guards.
• Xolotl told Bertad that only two villagers over forty lived outside the chief’s and priests’ families, then shared his hope that one in ten people could live to sixty.
• Xolotl ordered Bertad to arrange a visit to the Guachichil People's villages and to inform Red Frog Tribe and Red Monkey Tribe and bring Black Wolf.
• Xolotl and Bertad rode through the heavy spring rain, affirming that their campaign had only just begun.

Axolotl, hiding his identity as Ano in a Guachichil settlement, kept the villagers working the fields under Priest Taiya’s guidance. Taiya gave him a bronze hoe and the Sutra of Ali, then planned to recommend him to the king during an inspection in one month.

• Axolotl prayed to the gods and ordered the reluctant Guachichil men to weed the fields, threatening to hand shirkers over to other tribes.
• Priest Taiya praised Axolotl for keeping the village’s spring plowing on schedule and gave him a sturdy bronze hoe.
• Axolotl pretended he had learned about bronze while being held in Death God's legion, and Taiya taught him to call the ruler His Majesty.
• Taiya gave Axolotl the Sutra of Ali and urged him to learn the kingdom's writing and memorize the scripture within a month.
• Taiya privately resolved to recommend Axolotl to His Majesty when the king visited in a month, hoping to advance them both.

During Xolotl’s village inspection, priest Taiya presented Ano as a devout Guachichil believer, and Xolotl appointed him a second-rank Missionary Priest. Ozoma recognized Ano as a true Red-hair Hunter and declared him an assassin as he pinned him with a war club.

• Xolotl praised Taiya’s village for meeting its cultivation requirements and asked how he had organized the Dog-kin.
• Taiya described Ano as an unusually devout believer who had learned to read and recite the Sutra of Ali in one month.
• Ano approached Xolotl disguised as a dusty farmer, and Bertad ordered him to drop his hoe and remove his cloak.
• Ano recited two passages from the Sutra of Ali, and Xolotl appointed him a second-rank Missionary Priest despite his modest performance.
• Taiya was promoted to second-rank Missionary Priest, while Ozoma recognized Ano’s hair dye as genuine wasteland dye, kicked him down, and called him an assassin.

Ozoma exposed Ano as a Red-hair Hunter, and Xolotl punished him for desertion before appointing him a missionary priest. After Axolotl was washed clean, Ozoma recognized him as the missing Red Salamander Chieftain, and Caca confirmed his identity.

• Ozoma accused Ano of being a Red-hair Hunter, and Caca confirmed the dye in his hair and the archer's calluses on his hand.
• Ano told Xolotl he had been captured, fled military service, and wanted to live peacefully; Black Wolf found no weapon on him.
• Xolotl ordered Ano bound and whipped thirty times, then demoted him and appointed him a first-rank Missionary Priest for nearby Guachichil villages.
• Bertad had Ano's wounds washed, revealing his face, and Ozoma recognized him as Axolotl, the Red Salamander Chieftain.
• Caca examined Axolotl and confirmed that he was the renowned Red Salamander leader.

Xolotl spared Axolotl after the former tribal chief revealed his identity and offered advice for governing the Guachichil villages. Axolotl joined the king’s personal guard under the name Ano, while Priest Taiya was reassigned as a missionary.

• Xolotl exposed Axolotl as a surviving tribal chieftain seeking revenge, and Axolotl confessed that his real name was Axolotl.
• As Bertad prepared to execute him, Axolotl panicked and pleaded to serve Xolotl, then proposed organizing villages through tents, naturalizing wasteland priests, and arranging hunts and markets.
• Xolotl accepted Axolotl’s advice and ordered rewards of red furs, feathers, or dyes for tribal warriors.
• Xolotl spared Axolotl and assigned him to the personal guard, renaming him Ano.
• Xolotl removed Priest Taiya from his position and transferred him to River Mouth Fortress as a second-rank Missionary Priest.

After returning to the capital, Xolotl confronted the kingdom’s shortage of slaves and the military demands driving further expansion. He ordered preparations to inspect two new bronze cannons, leaving the kingdom poised for more war.

• Xolotl organized the Guachichil Legion, strengthened royal control over its Banner Units, and assigned veteran warriors and War Priests to the Dog-kin villages.
• Xolotl received Alisa’s letter and learned from Alliance envoys that the Elder was gravely ill and his ninetieth birthday celebration had been canceled.
• Xolotl returned to Tzintzuntzan City in mid-September and reviewed the kingdom’s growing trade, gemstone-funded slave purchases, and an eighty-thousand-person shortfall in promised serfs.
• Olorosh, Oltar, Nekali, Ezpan, Etalic, and Monkey Kuluka urged Xolotl to wage further campaigns against border tribes, southern nobles, mining regions, and neighboring states.
• Xolotl ordered Bertad to notify Charape and Tiripi to prepare the Sun God Eagle Cannon and Rain God Tiger-Crouching Cannon for inspection.

Xolotl celebrated the successful casting of the two-pound Sun God Eagle Cannon, a bronze weapon that could threaten armored invaders and ships. He assessed the cannons’ production limits and portability, then prepared to test the lighter Tiger-Crouching Cannon.

• Farmers heard three thunderous blasts from the hills and prayed to the Main God as Xolotl’s party tested its cannons.
• Tiripi demonstrated that the Sun God Eagle Cannon shattered a tree at more than a li and explained its range, weight, and power to Xolotl.
• Tiripi described the years of failed molds and the eventual production of ten usable Eagle Cannons, while Charape and Bertad let the excited Xolotl celebrate.
• Xolotl asked about barrel life and production rates, and Tiripi estimated over a thousand shots per barrel and up to two cannons per month.
• Xolotl worried that the five-hundred-jin Eagle Cannon would be difficult to transport and turned to the lighter Tiger-Crouching Cannons.
• Tiripi invited Xolotl behind an earthen wall as gunners prepared to test-fire a Tiger-Crouching Cannon.

Xolotl tested the Rain God Tiger-Crouching Cannon, assessed its battlefield power and the kingdom’s limited copper supply, then ordered cannon production and training for the Artillery Battalion. He ennobled Tiripi for his work and demanded that all stored cannons be tested and delivered before October, as another campaign approached.

• Xolotl watched the gunners fire the Tiger-Crouching Cannons and saw them shatter a target at a hundred meters.
• Tiripi explained that the Bronze Workshop could produce twenty Tiger-Crouching Cannons or two Divine Eagle Cannons per month, while Charape cited labor and copper shortages.
• Xolotl ordered the workshop to cast one Divine Eagle Cannon and ten Tiger-Crouching Cannons monthly, and directed craftsmen to train and support the Artillery Battalion.
• Xolotl made Tiripi a hereditary noble for his cannon-casting work and urged him to improve cannon molds, barrels, bodies, and carriages.
• Tiripi reported that the workshop held ten Sun God Eagle Cannons and thirty Rain God Tiger-Crouching Cannons, and Xolotl ordered all stored cannons tested and delivered before October.

As the Tuntian Army prepared to march south for a campaign against the southern noble lords, Chiwako learned that northern forces were racing toward the Royal Capital. He discovered the approaching Guachichil Legion was allied with the kingdom and let its warriors enter the camp to rest and eat before continuing south.

• After the harvest, Chiwako told Weizti that the Tuntian Army was heading south to fight the noble lords of the old kingdom.
• A warning horn sounded, and Chiwako spotted a large force of red-haired northern barbarians approaching the camp.
• Chiwako and Weizti raised the alarm, and the Militia hurriedly formed ranks behind the camp fence.
• Black Wolf Toltec halted the Guachichil Legion and ordered it to rest briefly before continuing toward the Royal Capital.
• Ozoma presented the legion's token and explained that the force was answering the king's summons, so Chiwako opened the camp gate.
• The Guachichil warriors entered the camp and seized the prepared food while Chiwako predicted the southern noble lords would be stripped of their wealth.

Xolotl prepared to invade Purple Grass County despite Chief Minister Jatiri’s warning that war could destabilize the young kingdom. Jatiri agreed to support him after reviewing the Decree of Reduction and Reform, and Xolotl led the Imperial Guard south, summoning the southern leaders to an audience.

• Xolotl reviewed the southern campaign with his commanders as Jatiri arrived at dawn requesting a private audience.
• Jatiri warned Xolotl that war would drain the treasury, drive away merchants, and risk rebellion and disrupted farming, but Xolotl insisted the southern nobles had to be brought under the kingdom’s rule.
• Jatiri proposed that the Purple Grass Family and Palm Family surrender land and people in exchange for royal favor, but Xolotl refused and declared his resolve to act.
• Jatiri pledged the Missionary Priesthood’s support and asked Xolotl to spare the southern people; Xolotl showed him the Decree of Reduction and Reform.
• At the end of October, Xolotl ordered the Capital Region Legion, Guachichil Legion, and Second Spear Legion to march into Purple Grass County as southern nobles mobilized their forces.
• In early November, Xolotl led the Imperial Guard Legion to Oto and summoned the southern nobles, clan chiefs, and headmen to meet him within ten days.

The southern nobles debated how to respond to the Mexica king’s advancing army, with most favoring an audience before open resistance. Guramo quietly weighed his options and summoned his daughter Medina and the musicians.

• Zotor urged Guramo and the other nobles to raise troops against the northern invaders, but Guramo insisted they first hear the king’s decree.
• Zotor proposed killing the thousand Mexica garrison troops in Kuramo City, but Guramo refused to act before the royal army arrived.
• Zotor left to move his family into the southwestern mountains, while Guramo told the remaining nobles to prepare their forces as they sought an audience with the king.
• Citli confronted Guramo about his contacts with Purepecha nobles in the northern army, and Guramo admitted some had accepted gifts but could not be trusted.
• Guramo watched Citli leave, then ordered his guards to summon Medina and the musicians.

Guramo trained his daughter Medina in the Huastec Cat Dance and Mixtec Deer Dance, shaping each performance to captivate the king at an upcoming banquet. After perfecting the dances’ movements and expressions, he declared that the king would be unable to resist her.

• Guramo summoned Medina and had her perform the Huastec Cat Dance, instructing her on its seductive movements.
• Medina finished the Cat Dance with a playful catlike pose, and Guramo praised her performance.
• Guramo had Medina change into light-brown robes and practice the Mixtec Deer Dance, correcting her toe steps and leaps.
• Guramo noticed Medina’s pained, tearful expression as she danced and had a maid fasten prickling silver ankle bells around her ankles.
• Medina completed the final section, fell to the floor exhausted, and Guramo declared her performance perfect and said the king would not resist her.

King Xolotl reviewed the three routes into the south and planned to bring the region under direct royal control. After the Palm Family prepared to resist, he ordered an attack on Apatzingan City and arranged a demonstration for the southern nobles who had gathered.

• Xolotl studied the southern terrain map and noted that the Guachichil Legion had captured a noble who blocked the western route, while the Second Spear Legion advanced south unopposed.
• Xolotl rejected Guramo's request for a private meeting and said he would receive the southern nobles together.
• Bertad reported that Zotor and the Palm Family had mobilized at Apatzingan City and moved their women and children into the mountains.
• Xolotl ordered the Guachichil Legion to attack Apatzingan City, keep the Guachichil tribes under control, and prevent the nobles from fleeing without slaughtering commoners on a large scale.
• Xolotl directed the assembled noble prisoners and the Artillery Battalion to the drill ground to greet the arriving southern nobles.

Xolotl used the execution of the Yorodila family to demonstrate the Imperial Guard Legion’s cannons to the southern nobles and force them to fear the kingdom’s power. After the captives were killed, he ordered a banquet for his cheering army, while the nobles remained silent and terrified.

• Xolotl assembled the seven-thousand-strong Imperial Guard Legion and southern nobles to witness the execution of the Yorodila family.
• Tupa announced that the Yorodila family had rebelled, lost its fiefs, and had its male descendants sentenced to death.
• The Sun God Eagle Cannons fired stone shot into the woods, breaking trees and showing the nobles the weapons’ destructive power.
• The Rain God tiger-Crouching Cannons fired on the bound Yorodila captives, killing them as Guramo and the nobles watched in terror.
• Guramo concluded that the cannons were evil powers from volcanic demons, while Xolotl watched the nobles’ fear and the soldiers praised him.
• Xolotl ordered a banquet on the drill ground and called on his warriors to celebrate with him.

Xolotl hosted the southern nobles at a harsh military banquet, using war songs and Yorodila’s severed head to frighten them into submission. As he turned to discuss the southern fiefs, Guramo offered Medina, and Xolotl granted his request.

• Xolotl served the nobles coarse campaign rations, and Guramo praised the meal while urging Medina to eat before her dance.
• Tercer led over a hundred warriors in a weapon dance as Tupa sang a deadly war song, terrifying the southern nobles.
• Tupa presented Yorodila’s severed head, and Guramo warned Medina that failure would bring the same fate upon her and their family.
• Medina accepted the warning, while Guramo pulled off her veil and offered her to Xolotl.
• Xolotl agreed to Guramo’s offer of Medina.

Xolotl resisted Medina’s seductive dance and issued decrees stripping the southern nobles of most of their lands and ordering their families to relocate north of the Lerma River. He left the nobles facing a stark choice: obey the royal command or be exterminated.

• Medina danced and sang for Xolotl, then stumbled into his arms, but he set her down and ordered Bertad to distribute the redistribution documents.
• Guramo read his decree ordering the Purple Grass Family to surrender its southern fief, accept a smaller grant in Guamare State, and move north within a month.
• Citli read a similar decree reducing the Crow Family’s holdings and ordering it to relocate to Otopan State.
• The southern nobles pleaded for leniency and offered tribute, land, and women, but Xolotl rejected their pleas and threatened them with sacrifice or clan extermination if they resisted.
• Xolotl ordered the nobles to prepare to move, then returned to the great tent after glancing at Medina.