Chapter Summaries

Xolotl publicly punished Tikalo for deceiving the Kingdom, then gave him a final chance after the merchant admitted his guilt. Tikalo revealed that Priest Pap planned to surrender with his fleet, shipwrights, and lumber, and offered to help Xolotl capture Hidden Snake Holy City.

• Xolotl ordered Ekat to whip Tikalo sixty times before the Main God's statue for deceiving the Kingdom and scheming against the exploration fleet.
• Ekat completed the whipping, and Tikalo admitted his guilt as Xolotl warned him that further deception would mean sacrifice on the altar.
• Xolotl ordered his guards to treat Tikalo's wounds with his own medicine.
• Tikalo called Xolotl back and revealed that Priest Pap intended to surrender with two thousand men, seven great oared sailing ships, shipwrights, and timber.
• Tikalo said Priest Pap promised to prevent the escape of Hidden Snake City's high priest and God-descendants, lead the Kingdom Legion into the city, and campaign in the eastern Maya lands in exchange for serving Xolotl.

Xolotl inspected spring plowing near Golden Bay City and backed Itri’s effort to turn the kingdom’s policies into religious scripture. He approved preparations for a new origin scripture, Record of the First Divine Revelation: Exodus from Aztlan, aimed at broadening the Main God’s faith while leaving the struggle with the Alliance unresolved for now.

• Xolotl praised the improved spring plowing and ordered Itri to spread agricultural techniques through the Main God’s priesthood and teachings.
• Xolotl read Itri’s Record of Divine Revelation in the Eastern Sea, which recast the king’s words and directives as divine teachings favoring the kingdom.
• Xolotl approved the scripture and proposed creating a Chief Scripture Priest to guide the kingdom’s priests along the righteous path of divine revelation.
• Itri proposed Aztlan as the basis for an origin scripture that would combine Mexica epics with the kingdom’s northern explorations and encompass all peoples.
• Xolotl cautioned that it was too early to remake the faith’s foundations, but told Itri to begin preparations for Record of the First Divine Revelation: Exodus from Aztlan.

Xolotl arrived at Lake Sacrifice City and discussed the eastern campaign and a proposed surrender with Black Wolf Toltec. He decided to return to the Lake Capital while ordering Black Wolf to remain on the coast and continue the conquest, then asked to tour the sacred lake.

• Xolotl's Royal Banner reached Lake Sacrifice City, where Black Wolf Toltec welcomed the king and reported that Hill City and Caotan City had fallen and Hidden Snake City was isolated.
• Xolotl asked Black Wolf whether the Kingdom should accept the surrender of Hidden Snake City's fleet commander, Pap, and Black Wolf supported the offer for strategic and naval reasons.
• Xolotl praised Black Wolf's judgment and said the eastern campaign would continue toward opening a route to Cuba.
• Black Wolf begged to accompany Xolotl back to the Lake Capital, but Xolotl ordered him to remain on the coast and lead the Black Wolf Legion.
• Xolotl told Black Wolf that the Kingdom and Mexica Alliance must not become enemies, then asked him to row a boat so he could see the ancient sacrificial lake.

Xolotl taught Black Wolf Toltec and Tupa how politics, power-sharing, and economic growth could help govern the conquered Coastal Lands. He asked them to join his ambition to unify the world, and both generals pledged their loyalty.

• Xolotl explained to Black Wolf Toltec and Tupa that politics meant managing people and winning their support, and that military victories should serve political aims.
• Xolotl used a Tortilla to show how he planned to distribute power among warriors, priests, local elites, and trusted followers.
• Xolotl explained that priests and local elites would gain influence by governing settlements and increasing the Kingdom’s productive capacity.
• Black Wolf asked who would receive the final share and where their political road led, and Xolotl declared his goal of unifying the world and integrating the tribes.
• Black Wolf and Tupa swore to follow Xolotl, who gave them pieces of the Tortilla and promised to share power as they advanced.

Xolotl laid out the kingdom’s eastern expansion strategy, assigning Bertad, Tupa, and Black Wolf roles in the conquest of the Maya coast. He left Black Wolf with a mandate to govern and brutally subdue the Maya lands.

• Xolotl described the Eastern Sea lands as the kingdom’s future expansion route and entrusted their conquest to Bertad, Black Wolf, and Tupa.
• Xolotl explained that the campaign would begin by taking the Central Maya Coast and using surrendered Totonac and Putun warriors as soldiers and settlers.
• Xolotl ordered the generals to build local armies and a powerful Eastern Sea fleet, and said the kingdom should pardon Hidden Snake City’s fleet commander if he surrendered.
• Xolotl announced that Bertad would become Eastern Sea Marshal after the first stage, while Tupa would command the Coastal Legion; Tupa accepted the appointment.
• Xolotl appointed Black Wolf Maya Jiedushi and ordered him to break the Maya’s old order through conquest, forced conversion, and widespread destruction.

Xolotl explained to his generals how the Kingdom could secure long-term rule over the Coastal Lands by linking military conquest and politics to economic integration and shared beliefs. He left them with a framework based on farming, war, trade, workshops, and faith.

• Xolotl and his generals arrived at Lake Sacrifice City and attended a feast of local foods.
• Xolotl told Black Wolf and Tupa that the coast’s scattered city-states formed closed trade circles because tropical produce was difficult to transport.
• Xolotl explained that economics supported politics and that stable rule required integrating production, trade, and the peoples’ beliefs.
• Xolotl said the Kingdom would establish militia-farming villages and Banner Units, spread improved agriculture and the Main God’s faith, and punish chiefs who resisted.
• Xolotl instructed his generals that the Kingdom’s political system depended on farming and war, with workshops, trade, and faith sustaining its rule.

Xolotl explained how the kingdom would expand through farming, war, state-run workshops and trade, while unifying the conquered tribes under Mexica rule and faith. He then ordered envoys to seek the surrender of Priest Pap and prepared to meet him at the Water Fort.

• Xolotl outlined a political system balancing warriors, Priests, and officials, with expansion and military service as the kingdom’s path to prosperity.
• Xolotl described state-run workshops and trade, stressing the importance of the Eastern Sea Water Fleet and the production of strategic goods.
• Xolotl told Ekat, Black Wolf, and Tupa that the tribes’ faiths and cultures must be unified under Mexica culture and the Main God, and warned that civil war would jeopardize that goal.
• Xolotl asked Black Wolf whether the Water Fort east of Great Fire God Mountain had been taken, and Black Wolf confirmed that the kingdom’s legions had captured it.
• Xolotl ordered envoys to contact Priest Pap about surrender and said he would take the Imperial Guard Legion to meet Pap at the Water Fort.

Linlang Mayakun confronted Priest Pap at the Sunrise Village Water Fort and demanded that his Water Fleet surrender to the kingdom. Pap let Linlang drink himself into a stupor, then agreed to surrender and told Chuchut to call him Chief Pap instead of Lord Priest.

• Linlang threatened Pap with the Kingdom Legion’s approaching forces and demanded the Water Fleet’s surrender.
• Pap served Linlang Xtabentun Wine, whose calming, trance-inducing effects left him increasingly drunk and disoriented.
• Linlang boasted about his ambitions and threatened to kill Pap and the Hidden Snake City warriors if they refused to surrender.
• Pap dropped his hidden killing intent, said he could control the Water Fleet, and promised to lead it in surrender.
• Pap ordered Chuchut to take the drunken Linlang to a side room and told him to call him Chief Pap from then on.

Priest Pap weighed whether to surrender the Water Fleet to the Mexica or lead it east to the Maya coast, while fearing the fleet’s Hidden Snake City warriors would resist joining the Mexica. He decided to bring the fleet and its shipwrights to the Mexica, using a scheme that would put him at risk of disgrace.

• Priest Pap told Chuchut why Lin Lang’s betrayals made him distrust the envoy and why surrendered Totonac commanders might oppose Pap joining them.
• Pap considered settling the Water Fleet at Red Lake Town, Bay Mouth Town, or farther east, but doubted he could secure those territories.
• Chuchut said the fleet had over two thousand men, including more than a thousand Hidden Snake City warriors who feared and hated the Mexica and might refuse to sail west.
• Pap resolved to bring the whole fleet to the Mexica and make his surrender more valuable by including twelve large ships and their shipwrights.
• Pap outlined a plan to Chuchut that would put the core warriors in control of the large ships while placing the Hidden Snake City warriors on smaller boats, accepting that his reputation might suffer.

Priest Pap led the Totonac Water Fleet west on a supposed death-bound raid to capture Death God Prince Xolotl, while secretly pursuing other arrangements. The fleet reached Great Fire God Mountain and found the Mexica forces waiting beneath the Black Wolf Royal Banner.

• Priest Pap rallied the Totonac warriors and led more than two thousand fleet members west toward Great Fire God Mountain.
• Linlang Mayakun, disguised among the warriors, worried that Pap would gain status if he met the Mexica prince.
• Pap sent small boats to contact the besieged Hidden Snake Holy City and nobles seeking to flee, then ordered the fleet to continue without stopping.
• After two days and two nights, the fleet reached the coast east of Great Fire God Mountain and spotted the Black Wolf Royal Banner.
• The Water Fort sounded its warning, and two thousand Imperial Guard warriors formed ranks as a king surveyed the arriving fleet through a brass tube and said its arrival was as agreed.

Xolotl demonstrated a newly made Divine Eye Telescope to Black Wolf Toltec as the Totonac fleet landed and charged toward his position. Pap abruptly revealed a banner of the Mexica Main God and led his followers in surrender, leaving the Hidden Snake Warriors surrounded.

• Xolotl showed Black Wolf Toltec how to use the Divine Eye Telescope and explained its limited magnification and blurry colored edges.
• Pap ordered the Totonac fleet to land and rallied his loyal followers and the Hidden Snake Warriors to charge toward Xolotl’s hill.
• After the Totonac troops came ashore, Xolotl signaled the Eastern Sea fleet and Imperial Guard troops to attack and cut off their retreat.
• As Pap approached within a hundred paces of Xolotl, he discarded his priestly garments and unfurled a banner of the Mexica Main God.
• Pap declared his surrender to Xolotl, and the battlefield fell silent as others also offered to surrender.

Xolotl’s forces crushed the Totonac Water Fleet, and Xolotl ordered Black Wolf to accept Priest Pap’s surrender and end their feud. Pap completed a blood-sacrifice conversion rite, but Xolotl halted the forehead-marking and ordered the remaining captives and surrendered warriors converted as well.

• Xolotl’s four thousand Imperial Guard warriors routed the Totonac Water Fleet, while many tribal warriors switched sides and the fleet’s survivors surrendered.
• Xolotl ordered Black Wolf to accept Priest Pap’s surrender and declared their grudges wiped clean under the Main God’s witness.
• Black Wolf slapped Pap, confirmed that Niuka had killed Tavalu, then ordered Pap to sacrifice Niuka’s heart and swear conversion.
• Pap performed the rite and proclaimed his faith in the Main God before Xolotl stopped the priest from carving the emblem onto Pap’s forehead.
• Xolotl ordered the accompanying Priesthood to convert the captured prisoners, surrendered warriors, and Sailors, but said not to mark the several hundred tribal warriors yet.

Shulot tested Pap's understanding of the Kingdom's four stages for integrating conquered warriors and asked him to propose how to unite the Coastal Tribes. Pap answered the first three questions cleverly, but the chapter ended before he could respond to the final order.

• Pap praised Shulot and swore loyalty after surrendering to him.
• Shulot explained the four stages that captives faced before joining the Kingdom's formal legions, and Pap interpreted their purpose as building the Kingdom's rule.
• Shulot praised Pap's insight and said the Totonac tribes would soon be ruled by one Great Chieftain.
• Shulot ordered Pap to devise a proposal for accelerating the Coastal Tribes' integration, threatening to send him to preach in the Wasteland for thirty years if he failed.

Xolotl considered Pap’s proposals to rebuild the Olmec eastern holy city and unite the Jungle Tribes under his nominal rule, deciding that the alliance could speed the campaign toward the Maya lands. He left the choice of the holy city’s site to Pap, who began to think it over.

• Xolotl praised Pap’s proposal to rebuild the Olmec eastern holy city and hold an ancestor-worship ceremony to draw the coastal and jungle tribes toward Mexica rule.
• Pap warned that campaigning deep into the jungle would strain supplies and allow the tribes to flee and return, and he proposed an alliance that would make Xolotl their common lord.
• Black Wolf grew angry at Pap’s remarks about the army’s limits, but Xolotl told him to let Pap continue.
• Xolotl accepted that the Kingdom would compromise with the inland tribes to open a route to the Maya lands sooner.
• Xolotl invited Pap to sit beside him and asked where the Olmec eastern holy city should be built, promising to pour him wine if he answered well.

Xolotl heard Pap explain the Coastal Lands’ waterways and the Olmec First Ancient City’s history, then chose its ruins as the ancestral holy city to rebuild. He named the future city Ancient Holy City, leaving the Kingdom’s plan to revive the ancient site formally proclaimed.

• Pap mapped the four major river systems, the Olmec ancient cities, and the Kingdom’s control of key routes and sites for Xolotl and the generals.
• Pap argued that the Olmec First Ancient City was the oldest and holiest ancestral site, and calculated from its Long Count Stele that it had been founded nearly 2,900 years earlier.
• Xolotl concluded that the First Ancient City was the most fitting shared ancestral land and proclaimed that the Kingdom would rebuild it as the Olmec holy city.
• Xolotl asked Pap for the city’s ancient name, but Pap said the records preserved only descriptions such as “the first ancient city” and “the ancestral holy city.”
• Xolotl named the city to be rebuilt Ancient Holy City, and the generals praised the decision.

Xolotl decided to rebuild the Olmec Holy City and compile an ancestral epic to strengthen the kingdom’s claim to cultural and religious orthodoxy. He assigned the task to the surrendered general Pap, who reluctantly accepted after asking what rank the position would carry.

• Xolotl dismissed the generals and told Pap that he had already forgiven his past and recognized his desire for a future in the kingdom.
• Pap eagerly chose Xolotl’s original offer of command in the Water Fleet.
• Xolotl instead appointed Pap to preside over rebuilding the Olmec Holy City and compiling an ancestral epic that incorporated the Alliance’s and kingdom’s histories.
• Pap questioned whether a surrendered general could handle the work, but Xolotl warned him that refusing would cast doubt on his loyalty and faith.
• Pap accepted the assignment and asked what status and priestly rank it would grant him.
• Xolotl considered how the holy city and epic could reinforce the kingdom’s religious claims and unite the tribes under a shared identity.

Xolotl offered Pap a high priestly rank for compiling an ancestral epic, but Pap asked for real military power and a secure place to rule. Xolotl agreed to reward him with territory if he captured Hidden Snake City and earned enough merit.

• Xolotl appointed Pap a fourth-level High Priest to administer the Olmec holy city and compile an ancestral epic, and offered him thirty assistants.
• Pap thanked Xolotl but asked to be made a third-level chief priest instead, admitting he wanted practical authority and protection.
• Pap requested ten days to lead tribal warriors to Hidden Snake City, evacuate the God-descendants' families and possessions, and capture the city for Xolotl.
• Pap explained that he hoped to command troops and eventually secure a defensible region on the eastern Maya coast.
• Xolotl ordered Pap to raise the kingdom's banner over Hidden Snake City before the rainy season peaked and promised him a place in the Maya lands if he earned enough merit.

Pap helped the Kingdom forces seize Hidden Snake City by betraying its defenders, and Black Wolf Toltec led the ensuing assault. As the city fell, Black Wolf revealed that the king had ordered him to limit harm to commoners and protect Pap.

• Pap escaped with trusted warriors after the Water Fleet's defeat and later infiltrated Hidden Snake City's eastern gate.
• Pap killed Tapatel, an influential God-descendant, and signaled the Kingdom army to enter the city.
• Black Wolf Toltec arrived with the Kingdom Legion, secured the gates, and sent Tupa to seize the central Temple district and capture the Chief Priest.
• The Kingdom forces swept through Hidden Snake City as Pap realized they intended to eliminate the city's ruling God-descendants and priests.
• Black Wolf confronted Pap about speculating on the king's plans, then told him the king had ordered restraint toward commoners and protection for Pap.

Black Wolf Toltec’s forces captured Hidden Snake City and surrounded its temple, where Coastal High Priest Atlcoyotltzin and the remaining priests set themselves and the shrine ablaze. Black Wolf ordered Chabo to extinguish the Black Oil fire and recover Atlcoyotltzin’s body, as the Totonac Vanguard Battalion began entering the city.

• Kingdom Warriors stormed Hidden Snake City, killed its defenders, and advanced toward the Temple of the Feathered Serpent and The Sun.
• Coastal High Priest Atlcoyotltzin appeared with a torch that kept burning in the rain, and Pap explained that it was fueled by Black Oil.
• Atlcoyotltzin and the priest elders declared that their gods and divinity would return, then ignited the Sea God’s gift and perished in the flames.
• Black Wolf Toltec realized that the High Priest might have died before his fate was confirmed and ordered Chabo to smother the fire and find Atlcoyotltzin.
• Chabo set off to bury the Black Oil fire, while the Totonac Vanguard Battalion entered Hidden Snake City to clear it.

Black Wolf Toltec inspected the burned head of Coastal High Priest Atlcoyotltzin after Hidden Snake City fell, while surrendered general Pap and Linlang Mayakun grieved over the death of their old faith. Toltec decided to turn the head into a magic tool for his sword and named the weapon Frostmourne.

• Black Wolf Toltec asked Pap to identify a charred head, and Pap recognized it as Atlcoyotltzin's and mourned the fallen high priest.
• Pap claimed Atlcoyotltzin's head carried sorrowful magic, but Toltec and Chabo could not feel it, so Toltec called for Linlang Mayakun to test the claim.
• Linlang recognized the head, broke down in grief, and cried that the old gods were dead and the Main God had risen to supremacy.
• Black Wolf Toltec took the head back and pressed it onto the hilt of his Eight-sided Qin Sword, declaring he would make it a sorrowful magic weapon named Frostmourne.