Chapter Summaries

Military-farm leader Tai Shishan visited Luo One-Arm’s relay station and saw how its post, land, and soldiers strengthened the kingdom’s presence along the roads. Luo One-Arm told him that Tlaxcalan warriors were coming from the south and that the village’s tortillas had to be reserved for them.

• Tai Shishan admired Luo One-Arm’s relay station and envied the land and hereditary station-master post he had earned through military service.
• Luo One-Arm prepared a meal while Tai Shishan spoke with Tecos warriors Luo Cang and Luo Jing, who said they were busy guarding the station from passing soldiers.
• Luo One-Arm relayed the scouts’ warning that Tlaxcalan warriors were coming from the south and ordered that the village’s tortillas be given to them first.

Tai Shishan and Luo One-Arm arranged food for a passing Tlaxcalan archer battalion despite the village’s shortage of tortillas. The battalion, commanded by E-Zhuo, hurried north to reach the great expedition festival on time.

• Tai Shishan protested that the village’s tortillas should not be given to the Tlaxcalan soldiers, but Luo One-Arm insisted the royal order required him to supply the passing army.
• Luo One-Arm proposed serving cured meat and meat soup instead, and Tai Shishan accepted the substitute reward for the village workers.
• A thousand Tlaxcalan archers arrived at the relay station, carrying bows, spears, and new paper armor.
• The chapter explained that the archers had been recruited from farming garrison tribes, assembled into a battalion, and placed under E-Zhuo’s command.
• E-Zhuo ordered the battalion to eat quickly and continue north so they would reach the expedition festival on time.

Woodpecker E-Zhuo led a thousand Tlaxcalan Bowmen north toward River Mouth County, reflecting on their discipline and their hopes of earning military merit. As the army neared its destination, he recalled the prosperous military estates and chinampas around Lake Patzcuaro and noticed a different kind of prosperity in the northern villages.

• Woodpecker E-Zhuo inspected his Tlaxcalan Bowmen, saw their submission and eagerness for military merit, and ordered them to march north.
• Tai Shishan doubted the bowmen could fight because they could not form ranks, but Luo One-Arm argued that their weapons, faith, officers, and lack of retreat would make them fight hard.
• E-Zhuo estimated that the roads would let his troops reach River Mouth County in time for the grand festival, and he recalled how military estates and chinampas had transformed the Capital Region.
• E-Zhuo remembered the region's population, farms, slave labor, and trading markets, seeing its prosperity as the result of conquest and military merit.
• After praising the kingdom's prosperity, E-Zhuo looked over the harvested fields and civilian garrison villages and recognized a kind of prosperity unfamiliar to him.

Woodpecker E-Zhuo’s battalion reached a prosperous military-settler village, where wary villagers housed and fed the tribal archers. After seeing the village’s defenses, harvest stores, and communal life, E-Zhuo rested and began composing a poem praising the Kingdom’s prosperity; he still had to march the next day past settlements of Dog-kin tribes.

• Woodpecker E-Zhuo led his tired battalion to a River Mouth County village, where hundreds of armed villagers formed a guarded reception.
• Priest Tu Niao arranged lodging and a full meal for the battalion, and warned E-Zhuo to use the latrine and avoid the deep compost pit.
• The village supplied food from its abundant communal granaries, while E-Zhuo reflected on the military-settler system and its collective farming and social ranks.
• E-Zhuo inspected the village chief’s longhouse and noticed signs that a retired Kingdom Warrior still kept weapons and armor there.
• E-Zhuo lit incense, praised the village’s prosperity, began composing a poem, and fell asleep before the next day’s march past Dog-kin settlements.

Woodpecker E-Zhuo left Tagu’s village and encountered Babei’s impoverished Bozalos Banner Unit on the mountain road near River Mouth County. The two groups avoided a fight and began discussing trade, leaving E-Zhuo curious about what the tribespeople had to offer.

• E-Zhuo praised Tagu’s hospitality and promised to return after the campaign, while Tagu feared the expedition might keep E-Zhuo away for years.
• E-Zhuo boasted that the Kingdom’s forces would conquer the Lake Chapala region and hinted at a powerful new camp unit before leading his archers onward.
• E-Zhuo spotted neglected sweet-potato fields near a Bozalos tribal settlement and stared angrily at the camp’s headman.
• Babei’s tattoo-faced warriors rushed toward E-Zhuo’s marching unit, but Babei raised the Main God and Kingdom market banners to signal peaceful trade.
• Babei recalled how his tribe had been moved south and formed into a small Banner Unit, and he wished the Great Chieftain had summoned them for the Western Expedition.
• E-Zhuo approached Babei and asked what goods the tribe had to trade.

E-Zhuo the Woodpecker inspected Banner Unit Captain Babei’s badly damaged loot and traded several artifacts for Copper Axes. He then reached a well-developed relay station guarded by Red-hair Tribe hunters and discovered they were running a trading operation much like one he had seen before.

• E-Zhuo criticized Babei’s hunters for damaging ritual objects and trading away valuable items for too little.
• Babei demanded Copper Axes instead of Cacao beans, and E-Zhuo traded three axes for a wooden board, Obsidian beads, and silverware.
• E-Zhuo’s battalion reached a relay station surrounded by cultivated fields and was stopped by over a hundred armed Dog-kin hunters.
• A red-haired guard identified himself as a personal guard of the Black Wolf Legion Commander and invited E-Zhuo’s battalion to rest and eat.
• E-Zhuo recognized the station’s stitched-together trade banner, and the guard explained that they traded goods from the Banner Unit.

Woodpecker E-Zhuo discovered that the Guachichil warriors were selling ancient, priceless ritual artifacts looted from Tlaxcalan and Nahua cities as ordinary “mountain goods.” After Mikui realized E-Zhuo understood the artifacts’ origins, he and the Red-hair Hunters considered how to keep him from exposing their hidden spoils.

• Mikui showed Woodpecker E-Zhuo bamboo baskets of gold, silver, jade, jewels, and ritual implements brought back by the Black Wolf Legion’s Guachichil warriors.
• Woodpecker E-Zhuo identified several artifacts, including a gilded Feathered Serpent statue, a silver-inlaid skull, and a Toltec mask.
• Mikui revealed that the artifacts had been seized during years of fighting in places including Four Snake City and Holy City Cholula.
• Woodpecker E-Zhuo sat stunned after realizing the baskets contained sacred inherited artifacts that the warriors were selling casually.
• Mikui and the Red-hair Hunters recognized that E-Zhuo knew the artifacts’ value and silently considered killing him if he refused to buy contraband goods.
• Mikui asked E-Zhuo which artifacts he wanted to purchase and offered to show him more from the cellar.

Woodpecker E-Zhuo recognized that the Wasteland tribes’ demand for goods could support a profitable trade with the Capital Region’s Military Merit Manors. The deal turned dangerous when Mikui revealed that the tribes wanted Kingdom military goods carried by E-Zhuo’s laborers in exchange for the ritual vessels.

• E-Zhuo agreed to buy Mikui’s precious ritual vessels and other mountain goods after Mikui threatened to sell them elsewhere.
• Mikui listed the tools, food, clothing, and craftsmen the Wasteland tribes needed, and E-Zhuo saw how the manors could supply them in exchange for tribal goods.
• E-Zhuo imagined building a recurring trade route between the tribes and the Capital Region and decided he would return early from the Western Expedition to manage it.
• E-Zhuo promised Mikui he wanted to trade repeatedly and make a major deal together.
• Mikui said the tribes expected to exchange the ritual vessels for official Kingdom military goods carried by E-Zhuo’s laborers, while Red-hair Hunters closed around him.

Woodpecker E-Zhuo agreed to trade some of his camp’s weapons to Mikui’s Red-hair Hunters, who wanted equipment for their Banner Unit fighters. As the exchange took shape, E-Zhuo reflected on the Royal Capital’s powerful Artisan Camp and learned that its celebrated Olmec Coating had been developed by an artisan who rose to Master status.

• Mikui pressured Woodpecker E-Zhuo to trade reserve weapons to the Banner Units, offering their support in return.
• E-Zhuo surveyed the surrounding villages and recognized that the numerous Guachichil tribes and veteran fighters could overwhelm his archer camp.
• Mikui explained that his men wanted Royal Capital bows, arrows, spear shafts, and lacquered leather armor for their fighters.
• E-Zhuo agreed to spare some equipment to help the friendly troops.
• E-Zhuo considered the Artisan Camp’s scale and status, along with his younger brother’s prospects as an artisan.
• E-Zhuo recalled that an artisan had become a Master Artisan after developing Olmec Coating, made with materials including rubber.

Woodpecker E-Zhuo struck a weapons-for-ritual-goods deal with red-haired leader Mikui and swore a blood oath to build a lasting trading partnership. Over drinks, he heard the Banner Unit’s veterans recall the Wasteland and reflected on how settled life might shape the tribe’s future.

• Woodpecker E-Zhuo and Mikui agreed to trade bows, arrows, and spears for ritual vessels and other goods, and E-Zhuo offered to sell the Banner Unit’s wares through his manor.
• E-Zhuo and Mikui swore a blood oath and celebrated with the tribesmen at the relay station.
• Mikui introduced the lame station chief Zu Shazi and explained how he survived a deadly cold tide and later retired after a battlefield injury.
• Zu Shazi and Mikui lamented that the Banner Unit’s children were less skilled at archery and hunting now that most could grow up safely and learn farming.
• E-Zhuo listened to the veterans’ Wasteland memories and imagined future generations settling into villages and merging with the Kingdom’s people.

As Mikui and Woodpecker E-Zhuo drank together, E-Zhuo received an ancient jade and acquired the Feathered Serpent Mask. Inspired by the settled tribes’ transformation through war and trade, he composed a poem and coined “Taixia” as an honorific for His Highness, leaving the Kingdom’s future name spoken for the first time.

• Mikui recalled the hardships of Wasteland life and praised the chiefs and Main God for the tribe’s newfound prosperity.
• Mikui gave Woodpecker E-Zhuo an ancient carved jade from the Totonac lands, which E-Zhuo examined and pocketed.
• Woodpecker E-Zhuo traded for the Feathered Serpent Mask and returned to the longhouse while the others slept.
• While studying the mask, Woodpecker E-Zhuo reflected on how the tribal Banner Units used warfare and trade to settle and develop the Kingdom’s lands.
• Woodpecker E-Zhuo composed a poem describing warriors as flowers, villagers as leaves, and tribal camps as fertilizer for the Kingdom.
• Wearing the mask, Woodpecker E-Zhuo named His Highness “Taixia” and declared the Lake Kingdom the Country of Taixia.

Woodpecker E-Zhuo arrived at River Mouth County for the Western Expedition’s Grand Festival and discovered that the Alliance had assembled a formidable army. The sacrifice began with a call for a God-descendant of the Sun Bloodline, leaving him horrified and wondering which noble family had been chosen.

• Woodpecker E-Zhuo and Red-hair Leader Mikui exchanged goods and discussed their plans before the expedition.
• Woodpecker E-Zhuo led the Tlaxcala Archer Camp to the festival grounds, where he saw the Alliance navy and a thousand heavily armored Temple Guards.
• Woodpecker E-Zhuo recognized God of War Elder Yazar, High Priest Marivelo, and Marshal Kuluka presiding over the ceremony in Prince Xolotl’s absence.
• God of War Elder Yazar praised Huitzilopochtli and called for a blood sacrifice of a God-descendant from the Sun Bloodline.
• Woodpecker E-Zhuo recalled the law replacing human sacrifice and realized that a noble family’s God-descendant was about to be sacrificed.

At the War Festival, God of War Elder Yazar presented Gorge Gold Clan Chief Pacho as a willing sacrifice, though Pacho had been drugged and forced into it for resisting King Avet’s centralizing reforms. Yazar then ordered Marshal Kuluka to kill Pacho before the assembled warriors.

• God of War Elder Yazar proclaimed Gorge Gold Clan Chief Pacho a devout volunteer for sacrifice, shocking Woodpecker E-Zhuo because Pacho was a powerful Alliance noble and legion commander.
• Temple guards brought the drugged Pacho to the altar while he struggled to curse the king and insist he was innocent.
• Yazar praised Pacho’s supposed bravery and the priests restrained him, covered his mouth, and gave him a calming potion.
• Yazar reflected that Pacho had been executed for opposing King Avet’s reforms and resisting transferred enfeoffment.
• Yazar addressed Marshal Kuluka and ordered him to take the obsidian dagger and sacrifice Pacho before the assembled warriors.

Monkey Kuluka sacrificed Gorge Gold Clan Chief Pacho at the Alliance festival, then used Pacho’s supposed final words to promise protection for his heirs and reduce the nobles’ hostility. The festival launched the Western Expedition against the Feather Prince, and God of War Elder Yazar ordered Kuluka to kneel and accept royal enfeoffment as a marshal with the divinity of The Sun.

• God of War Elder Yazar pressured Monkey Kuluka to sacrifice Pacho, explaining that the ritual would affirm the Alliance’s divine order and silence rumors about two suns.
• Kuluka learned that Pacho’s fief would be divided among his five children and transferred to Totonac, then proclaimed a death poem that entrusted the children to his protection.
• Kuluka killed Pacho with the sacrificial dagger as tens of thousands of warriors cheered.
• God of War Elder Yazar announced the divine decree for a Western Expedition against the Feather Prince, and the Alliance forces roared their approval.
• God of War Elder Yazar presented Kuluka with a Glory Feather Crown, a Marshal’s Scepter, and a royal Legion Flag, then ordered him to kneel and accept enfeoffment from Divine King Avet and the High Priest Council.

Monkey Kuluka refused Divine King Avet’s honorary enfeoffment, fearing it would destroy the trust of Prince Xolotl and leave him isolated between the Alliance and the Lake Kingdom. God of War Elder Yazar threatened that the Alliance could replace him as marshal and take control of the Western Expedition, leaving Kuluka shaken as Yazar urged him to accept.

• Monkey Kuluka refused the Divine King’s Glory Feather Helmet, marshal’s Scepter, and Divine Banner, while Chief High Priest Marivelo also objected to the enfeoffment.
• God of War Elder Yazar rebuked Marivelo, citing Alliance law and the High Priest Council’s authority, and Marivelo fell silent.
• Kuluka realized that accepting the tokens would alienate Prince Xolotl, the Lake Kingdom’s nobles, and Alliance local nobles, leaving him dependent on King Avet.
• Yazar reassured Kuluka that the enfeoffment would not change his command, but Kuluka refused again.
• Yazar threatened that the Alliance could appoint a new marshal, send its forces down the Lerma River, and take control of the Western Expedition and Lake Chapala lands.
• Kuluka panicked at the threat, and Yazar gently appealed to his loyalty to Prince Xolotl.

Kuluka threatened to sacrifice himself rather than accept the Divine King’s enfeoffment, forcing God of War Elder Yazar to reconsider how the ceremony could affect the alliance’s political struggle. Yazar compromised, and Kuluka began devising a way to handle the Divine King’s three tokens separately; the chapter ended before he explained his plan.

• Kuluka pressed the sacrificial dagger to his heart and declared that he would die rather than let the alliance and kingdom be harmed.
• Yazar recognized that Kuluka’s death could unite the Lake Kingdom and local nobles against the High Priest Council and make Yazar bear the blame.
• Yazar recalled how the High Priest Council’s voting factions had forced him to preside over the festival, despite his attempt to veto the decision.
• Yazar relented, stopped Kuluka from harming himself, and publicly praised the bond between the Divine King and Prince Xolotl.
• Kuluka and Yazar discussed the Divine King’s authority, the enfeoffment, and Kuluka’s loyalty to the prince as the crowds resumed cheering.
• Kuluka proposed handling the three tokens from the Divine King separately, but had not yet explained how.

Monkey Kuluka led the Western Expedition’s vanguard after navigating a political struggle between the Lake Kingdom and the Mexica Alliance. He worried that Divine King Avet would block Prince Xolotl’s return from the Eastern Expedition, while Xolotl himself discovered cassava on the eastern coast.

• Monkey Kuluka watched the Western Expedition’s vanguard march west and reflected on the danger of staking his life in political struggles.
• Monkey Kuluka agreed to enshrine the alliance’s feather crown and marshal’s Scepter in the Main God Temple, easing Lake Chief High Priest Marivelo’s concerns.
• God of War Elder Yazar departed for the Lake Capital with one thousand Temple Guards aboard more than thirty longships.
• Monkey Kuluka considered the Mexica Alliance’s growing power and worried that Divine King Avet would prevent Prince Xolotl from returning from the Eastern Expedition.
• Prince Xolotl examined a sprouting cassava plant on the eastern seashore and rejoiced at its potential to increase the population.

Xolotl inspected cassava with Chiwako and learned how its high yield and growing habits could help feed the Coastal Alliance. He ordered Miawa to lead cassava cultivation and explained that she would govern civilian affairs after he left the coast, with authority over the tribal militias.

• Xolotl asked Chiwako about cassava’s yield, growing period, storage, and preparation, and Chiwako explained that it could remain in the ground for years and needed careful processing before eating.
• Miawa brought water to Xolotl and Chiwako despite Xolotl having told her to rest during her pregnancy.
• Xolotl told Miawa that expanding cassava cultivation across the coast would be more important than conquering inland tribes and entrusted the task to her.
• Xolotl said Miawa would become one of the Coastal Alliance’s three leaders, responsible for civil governance and tribal militias but not the warrior legions or priesthood.

Xolotl reunited with the surviving members of the Eastern Sea exploration fleet and rewarded them for their perilous voyage. As he eagerly questioned Captain Chiwako about their discoveries, he postponed Miawa’s advances to spend the night hearing the captain’s stories.

• Miawa knelt and tried to seduce Xolotl, but he told her to stand, rest, and stop calling him master.
• After a two-year voyage, Chiwako’s battered longship and eighteen survivors reached Golden Bay City, escorted from the Silver Crow Tribe by kingdom warriors.
• Xolotl returned from inspecting the western colonies and launching the Black Wolf Legion’s eastern campaign, then welcomed and rewarded the fleet’s survivors.
• Xolotl promoted Mekat, offered Chiwako and his descendants a future favor, and heard that Chiwako’s son had remained with the Red Crow Great Tribe.
• Xolotl told Miawa to rest and said he would spend the night questioning Chiwako about the expedition.

Xolotl explained that the Kingdom needed hardier, higher-yielding potatoes from the Southern Continent to feed northern tribes, and Chiwako revealed what he knew about their origins. The chapter ended with Xolotl appointing Chiwako to lead a future expedition south, despite the old militiaman asking to stay home and see his son.

• Chiwako discussed cassava cultivation with Xolotl, who praised his practical knowledge and thanked him for bringing cassava and tung oil tree seedlings back from Cuba.
• Xolotl explained that cassava could not thrive in colder regions and that northern tribes needed cold-resistant potatoes to survive crop failures.
• Xolotl told Chiwako that the Kingdom’s potatoes were small and low-yielding, and that better varieties could be found on the Southern Continent.
• Chiwako said Maya merchant Tikalo had told him potatoes came from the south and had provided a sea chart of Chibcha, which Priest Mekat possessed.
• Chiwako asked Xolotl to let him avoid another voyage so he could see his son, but Xolotl appointed him captain of a future expedition to the Southern Continent.