Civilization VI: Azteca
With the end of the Classical Era, Moctezuma and Lady Six Sky have brought centuries of conflict to a close. (Probably a temporary state of affairs. She's already denounced me again. Oh well.)
In this alternate universe, the three founding altepetl
[1] of the Nahua people - the
"Triple Alliance"[2] - are Tenochtitlan, Xochicalco and Malinalco
[3]. Tenochtitlan sits at the confluence of the three great rivers of our people: The Chocón Machacas flows down out of the northern mountains, joins the Samalá, and together they become the Machacas
[4]. Those are the Spanish names. I don't know if I can manually change their names to whatever the indigenous people called them, if indeed they named their rivers. "Chocar" means 'crash' in Spanish, so we can imagine that the Chocón Machacas has a lot of rapids and waterfalls as it comes down out of the mountains. It probably gets insane in the Spring, as the mountain snowcap melts, with flash floods from breaking ice-dams (I've heard that breaking alpine ice-dams can sound like gunshots). It's probably freezing-cold, too. It's just a coincidence that I have yet to settle a city up the Chocón Machacas, but we can imagine it's not an easy place to live. Xochicalco, my 2nd city, is downriver on the relatively-placid Machacas. Malinalco, out on the grassy plains to the southeast, was Lady Six Sky's objective when she declared war on me.
Speaking of the wars
[5], they went pretty well, all in all. I brought the Mayan cities of Mutal and Xtampak into the empire, and my Eagle Warriors captured twelve Builders. Xtampak is a metropolis, and is now the largest altepetl in the empire, by population. More than a third of my people now speak Mayan as their first language
[6], rather than Nahuatl.
Mayan
Tzolk'in has become the dominant religion across the empire, espousing the principles of 'Feed the World' and 'Stewardship' and no doubt further spreading Mayan language and culture - the empire surely now uses the Mayan calendar, for example. With the additional food and housing, the two remaining Mayan cities under Lady Six Sky's control are both enormous, far larger than any of my cities. Sa'aal, the Mayan capital, is almost twice the size of Tenochtitlan. Xtampak, now the largest Aztec city, was the smallest Mayan city. While Mayan Tzolk'in emphasizes reverence for the rainforests in their natural state (the Sacred Path pantheon), Aztec Tzolk'in celebrates the cultivated crops. The Nahua people cherish their olives, bananas
[7], and varieties of chili peppers, and wear clothes of cotton (the
Goddess of Festivals pantheon seemed to fit thematically with
Gifts for the Tlatoani, and the extra culture will help my borders grow a little more quickly). No doubt that slight difference between the Aztec and Mayan versions of the same religion are the source of great consternation.
The end of the Classical Era and the Mayan wars coincided with the opening of several libraries across the empire, collecting
codices, scrolls and tablets and books of paper, leather, and cotton. All of those Mayan Builders I captured will soon be put to work constructing Entertainment Complexes and
Tlachtli across the empire. I'm already feeling squeezed, with only a couple more places for settling new cities, but I'm thinking I can use the "Bread & Circuses" project and Governor Amani's "Emissary" ability to flip a couple of bordering cities by Loyalty pressure when I get a Golden Age. Ideally, I could knock Lady Six Sky out of the game that way, although her cities will be so big, that could be difficult. There's at least one Mapuche city that looks ripe for the picking.
I'm also hoping to build the Colosseum in Tenochtitlan. No one has built that yet. I don't know if I overvalue the Colosseum or the AI undervalues it, but I find myself getting that one frequently, even at higher difficulty levels. From the spot I have picked out, its area of influence could encompass 8 cities, which would be awesome.
[1] An Altepetl was basically a semi-self-governing city-state, ruled by a Tlatoani. The Aztec 'emperor' held the title of Huey Tlatoani. It was sort of a feudal system.
[2] irl, the "Triple Alliance" of the Nahua people were Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan, on Lake Texcoco. Today, the entire area is Mexico City, and the lake is gone.
[3] One of the mods I use randomizes the order of the list of city names for each Civ, after the capital, so you don't get the same names every game.
[4] irl, all three rivers are in Guatemala.
[5] I say wars and not war, because while it was technically one, long war in the game, it stretched over centuries of history.
[6] irl, Guatemala today recognizes 21 Mayan languages and Mexico 8.
[7] They're probably not Cavendish bananas, as we know them. They're probably what we call plaintains. They're very starchy, almost like a potato. irl, corn was the staple crop of the Aztec cities.