Time and History (Maztica Supplement)
History of Maztica[edit]
Time Immemorial[edit]
When the world was still the unshaped Abeir-Toril, the goddess Maztica and her husband Kukul shaped the first continent in its endless sea to be their home. With the birth of each of their children, Kukul cut the fingers from one of his many hands and shaped them into humans for the child to preside over as they saw fit. The children gave their humans gifts just as they had been given: speech and curiosity from Qotal, honor and courage from Zaltec, water and fire from Azul and Tezca, creativity from Plutoq, love from Kiltzi, agriculture from Watil, hunting from Nula, and travel from Eha.
However, Qotal envied the worship of his mother, greatest of their pantheon. This jealousy began a spiral that still engulfs the heavens of Maztica: Qotal earned the highest honor with the gift of corn, only to be overtaken by Zaltec's gift of hishna, whose great wars were stopped by Maztica's gift of pluma at Qotal's imploring. The Hishna Wars were fully brought to an end in a battle between Qotal and Zaltec, resulting in Zaltec's banishment for a time.
But Qotal was still a jealous god, and envied the love the humans shared. Using his authority, he bed Kiltzi, who in retaliation poisoned him, throwing him into a slumber for 10 years. This weakness allowed Zaltec to grow powerful enough to return, now strong enough to even slay Maztica herself. Unable to stop Zaltec, Kukul left the land of Maztica in honorable shame. When Qotal awoke, he too held shame not just for the death of his mother or Zaltec's ascension, but for his transgressions against Kiltzi, and banished himself, though he left a prophesy with his priests that he would return.
Pre-Spellplague[edit]
By the early 11th century, Maztican cultures had conquered much of their continent, stopping only at the southern edge of the Anchôromé archipelago and the northern range of the Lopango peninsula. Following a great golden age of architecture, artisanship, and pluma magic, feuds between rival nobles of the dominant Payit city-states weakened their hold over the other nations, shattering their hold over the continent and causing famine across their territory as client states refused their levies. Around the same time, newcomers from beyond Itzcala joined with the local Nexalan population, strengthening the otherwise small community of valley farmers.
By the 14th century, Nexal, the nation of Zaltec, ruled over the nine nations. In 1361 DR, the Year of Maidens, following over a decade of miraculous, but unattributed omens, Amnian general Cordell and his mercenary company, the Golden Legion, invaded the eastern coast of Maztica. Pushing through Payit and Pezelac, as well as parts of eastern Kultaka, Cordell's invasion considered their conquest of Maztica complete with the Night of Wailing, the day of Nexal's fall. As even the city’s great pyramids crumbled, Qotal reappeared, defending the city in the form of a great feathered dragon, freezing Lake Qotal over to make routes for fleeing survivors and blooming foliage in the deserts they fled to, though the city itself was reduced to ruins filled with jagre.
In the so-called "New Amn", temples to Zaltec and Azul were torn down, their stones and sites used to construct temples dedicated to Helm, the god of protection. Maztican natives were enslaved en masse in service of plantations and the whims of nobles, thrown to their deaths in search of Nexal's items of power or supposed treasure sequestered in the dense jungles.
The Spellplague[edit]
In 1385 DR, the Year of Blue Fire, wild magic Mystra's assassination shrouded Maztica, transporting it into the seas of Abeir. For the previous 20 years, survivors from Nexal had been gathering strength in Huacli, Kultaka, and Itzcala, and when New Amn sent out its ships in an attempt to establish new trade routes, they struck razing Helmsport and tore down Fort Cordell. While Nexal would forever stand as the land of the jagre, the Nexalan victory transformed Helmsport and parts of outer Ulatos into New Nexal. Great stone walls were erected around the Gulf of Cordell, rechristened the Gulf of Zaltec, and those ships that laid eyes on the fires returned to Abeir's ports.
Payit and Pezalac had been weakened in its slavery, and though Nexal had won a great victory, it was not without cost of its own blood.
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