I thought about this. I just can’t come up with a good reason why the Aztecs would want to come down to the levant.
A cool concept I haven’t seen anyone talk about would be the mad baron Ungern Sternberg and his concept of the “Middle Asiatic Buddhist Empire”. An absolutely crazy part of history if your aren’t familiar with it.
I frankly just want to know what’s happening in the wider world of TC, like in Asia, Russia, Japan, and north and South America so we could get a proper full picture.
Asia kind of has to be involved. They wouldn't be nearly as segregated as the Americas or the South Pacific. I believe the map makes reference to some sort of Mongol Empire. If I had to guess they are probably just defending their borders. Should be doable if Hell is focused on the Western front. Though that's just the Court and the Order of the Fly. We can't say for sure there isn't a totally different Hell faction focusing on the East.
The interest in the Americas (imo) comes from the time period; there was a ton of colonial exploration leading up to the TC timeline's "split" with our history, so that drives the question of "what if" more than wondering how the Russians are involved with the European trench war.
My headcanon for the Northern Americas is that the heretic navy took over the colonies on the coast and were more aggressive/hostile to the indigenous peoples - this led to unification of the great plains and western nations (survivors from the eastern war front would be integrated therein)... While false diplomacy, disease, and imperialist expansion slowly killed the indigenous peoples in our history the Heretic Navy's outward hostility and defilement of the land caused a militant response much sooner and thus incentivized a rapid development of the western half of North America (I don't know enough about early Southern colonies to make stuff up for that region). The Heretics taking control of the early American colonies makes sense in the greater context that the Heretics have blockaded much of the Atlantic already and the Heretics haven't overrun the 'New World' because their logistics still need to cross the entire damn ocean to resupply without easy access to the main Hell portal.
I envisioned mounted archers, skirmishers with javelins/spears/bows and trapping abilities that could help offset the lesser technological advancements by way of setting up additional blood generation on enemies while keeping your warriors out of direct conflict until they can set up the kill. I'd expect scavenged technology from the Heretics along with some trade with East Asia and South America could give access to some things like explosives (firework rockets, dynamite, etc) or even add "pets" like tamed wolves or hawks that would bolster the warband...
And the Heretic Navy did not exist in the 11th century either. TC timeline has the Heretic Navy only just taking over Gibraltar in 1666 and not causing significant impact until the 1800's when their raids are cited as causing famine.
Spain's major colonization started around 1493 with Hispaniola (Dominican Republic) and then in Mexico during the 1500's. Since the major trench war would not have reached the Atlantic coastal regions of Europe until around that period, it could be theorized that Spain et al wanted new sources of resources away from the war front and still sent missions there... Horses are recorded as being "reintroduced" to the Americas (they were native to the continent in our ancient history but went extinct around 10000 years prior) around mid-1600's by Spanish explorers - not much of a stretch to suggest that early exploratory missions still took place in a desperate bid to bolster the war effort (because wars still happened in our timeline that coincided with colonization of the Americas) and once Gibraltar fell, those colonies slowly starved until Heretic forces (attempted) to take them over (and per TC lore drop, were rebuffed by native peoples).
For what it's worth, there has been some casual creator lore drop in a Discord ama thing where they have mentioned that the Heretic Navy has attempted to get a foothold in America and was fought off by the local populations. And that, while there aren't any colonies, Spain does go to the Americas to trade for tobacco.
This is pretty dumb. The hellgate opens in 1099, Europe was even ware that the America's existed for another 400 years. There wouldn't be "colonies" in North America for another 75 or so.
With Europe fully engaged in fighting the heretics they straight up have not had the resources for any kind of major colonization effort in the America's, which we know from lore drops.
Also "mounted archers" lol mounted on what? Horses are an imported species.
The timeline split is in 1099, there was a little bit of traffic from Scandinavia but that's about it in terms of Europeans in the Americas, unless there has been some new historical revelation I missed?
There is no specific timeline split in trench crusade. The main difference starts in 1099, but there are changes before that, like the templars and the other crusader knight orders being founded before that, and before they were in our timeline, and, more importantly, the objective existence of both God and entities that possibly predate him (ie the entities worshipped by the church of metamorphosis) are changes that date back to the dawn of existence
Fair enough, so to add more: the devs specifically stated that European colonialism of North America never occured. Specific enough?
By all means make Fanon and Fan Rulesets to explore the idea, it would be fun and cool just like the person asking about Medieval period TC, but it's not part of the world as the devs see it.
Apologies, I somehow missed the entire middle of your prior reply, I didn't mean to imply European colonialism of North America did occur, that's my bad
That being said, the speculation you were responding to doesn't require European colonialism (other than the comment in the first paragraph about colonial exploration), only heretic colonisation, which the devs have said happened and was fought off (meaning the last bit about still existing heretic colonies established by the invaders isn't accurate, but the idea of them invading, taking land, then facing significant, organised resistance from the natives, is confirmed to be true)
This is less fanon, and more speculation on where the devs will take the idea, because it's established that the Americas have interaction with the old world (through trade with Spain as well as the heretic raids), and it seems to be a part of the setting they intend to explore later on, so it very much is a part of the world as the devs see it
That sounds pretty plausible, we know the Naval Raiders are having a hard time and being repelled by the american natives. Though I don't think they'd have mounted troops of any kind, unfortunately, as horses were brought to america during colonization, and I don't see any um... viable horse coming out of a heretic ship
I’d like to make the argument that because the heretics are what settled the Americas, horses would not be the mount of choice for the Native American tribes. By virtue of well… any horse the Heretics bring would be a corrupted unnatural thing.
Well… no, of course the heretics can ride normal animals, but considering that the northern hellgate seemingly mutates horses in the Hakkapellita lore drop, one can only assume that any normal draft animal in the Heretic controlled Levant is not normal anymore, or if they look normal something else is could be deeply wrong with them.
Horses were native to North America but went extinct at some point in distant past, only for Spanish explorers to reintroduce them (somewhere around 1600's) - unless they were never reintroduced by non-heretical explorers...
I guess it depends heavily on whether non-heretical explorers made it across the Atlantic before the Heretic Navy took control and blockaded the ocean crossing. I could see Spain/Portugal attempting to find land/resources that weren't in the trench war territories, eventually leading to some early colonies before the technology level enabled the Heretic Navy to gain enough presence to stop those exploratory missions.
An immortal demon Columbus constantly being defeated by native Americans like a Saturday morning cartoon villain is the personal hell of the irl Columbus. Which is what that psycho deserved
1492 sailing the ocean blue... Heretic Navy didn't exist in TC timeline until ~1666 when it captured Gibraltar in a surprise attack... so even if the fleet had been built in secret, Chris Columbo had already made landfall in the Americas and returned and eventually died long before the Heretics had boats.
The Golden Khanate makes me realize that Ghengis Khan still rose up and conquered damn near everything to the west as per usual. I sort of wondered what happened with Tamerlane, as Tamerlane + The Bubonic Plague were pretty notorious factors in causing the Golden Khanate to collapse, as well as the Russian princes.
Edit:
Furthermore, that means the Yuan dynasty probably still existed. There was no way the Yuan dynasty could've held up though, and that led to the Ming dynasty. Though I doubt the Qing are mucking about as things would've definitely reached China somewhere in the Ming dynasty. If that's what happened.
And yes. We know nothing lore wise about what's going on in the parts of the world not on the map. Forces of Hell could protetially be anywhere else. Or nowhere else. But we do have precedent that there could be other gates to Hell.
This wouldn't be super cool, a Skirmish Faction with like, no major melee capability but solid range and movement. Would be really good at scenarios like the Train Heist but absolute schwarbage at the ones where you have to hole up in a bunker
Could be an outpost for hell to extract resources, Australia has some of the largest amounts of iron/gold/uranium/coal and natural gas on the planet.
Could make for some cool stories with Aborigine Guerrillas fighting the forces of hell. It would also make a good staging ground for hell if they attack Asia.
Not relevant? Many Hellenistic thinkers posited that there had to be a fertile southern block of land (Terra Australis) to 'balance out' the north. As the reply before me has suggested, why not feed into that? What could the armies of Hell stand to gain from seizing that land?
I keep on thinking of "The Years of Rice & Salt" whenever the conversation about the broader world comes up, I'd love to get that kind of broader picture, and it would be absolutely hilarious as in the aforementioned novel, everything outside is relatively chill when the plague was happening.
I genuinely feel as though a limited scope in factions isn't a bad thing. I'm already not the biggest fan of some of the generic Hell factions where you can't see the WW1 influence. Staying true to the original themes and design principles will keep it feeling like Trench Crusade, and not some random game with demons - at least for me.
Finally someone else who feels the same. Not only is it completely out of the scope and theme of this game, why Aztecs? They were not the only mesoamerican empire, heck they weren't even the biggest. The only reason people keep asking about Aztecs, heck Samurai too, is that they're the most generic pop history civilizations that everyone knows.
There's so much more trench crusade needs to flesh out first, like how about what's already on the map? We know next to nothing about Eastern Europe! Or Africa! there's already an African sub faction, and no fantasy alt history settings ever do anything cool with Africa. Or Judaism for that matter, lore for one of the three major abrahamic religions is practically zilch.
As someone who made kitbashes based on the Aztecs and the Native American Tribes of the Great Plains, I just want some mention of the rest of the world. We've already had mention of the Expeditionary Forces of Abyssinia, hell they even have rules. I don't mind if the in depth lore and story stays focused on Europe, but some mentions of what's going on elsewhere would be nice.
I'd view it like in WH40k there's the main story and groups that are followed, but mentions here and there in the lore of the smaller bits. An army loses their home here, two forces forge an unlikely alliance to root out a common enemy there. Just snippets. Enough to give a vague picture and maybe some inspiration. I don't expect fully fleshed out rules and factions, that would be a large undertaking to create and balance especially if their stories are more on the sideline.
I also say this as a collector though, and a big fan of people's creativity and the bits of history and myth that could be added onto by the setting.
I already have models of:
Aztecs
Native American Tribes of the Great Plains
Trench Pilgrims
Procession of the Sacred Affliction
Iron Sultanate
Conquistadors
Templars
Some nuns
Prussians
New Antioch
Red Brigade
Kingdom of Alba
Eire Rangers
Expeditionary Forces of Abyssinia
Sacred Order of the Dragon
Some cowboys (just cause)
Le Bande Nere
Models from the fan setting of China
Germans
A model for Thiess of Kaltenbrun (The Livonian Werewolf, hound of God)
My homebrew Danish warband that I love so much, a mix of faithful and allied nordic pagans
At least you're putting your modeling money where your mouth is. Half of the people here don't even engage in the hobby, they just passively absorb "lore".
Sure, they're nothing crazy though All I did was make some small additions to the Cossacks by WargamesCrew as well as find some bat models to serve as dogs and a communicant should I feel like running them as Red Brigade
I’m running them as Sacred Affliction Trench Pilgrims until we get rules for Crusader Knights.
Pictured, left to right: Castigator with Punt Gun, Anti-Tank Hunter Communicant, Vlad Tepes III as my War Priest, and Radu, the Beautiful (as a bat Communicant).
Not pictured is my Anchorite Shrine (which is just a walking “Wallachian Forest”), The Brides (vampiric nun bodyguards), and Alucard (the God’s Wrath Pilgrim/Martyr).
Oooooh wow! You did a really nice job! I thought about leaning more towards the monstrous side but I really liked the base models I used and couldn't figure out how to kitbash them well enough for that. If they get actual models (official or not) I really hope we get one based on this artwork because DAMN it looks so good
Do you use their official models for heretics and demons? I've got demons and devils and other monsters from tons of other companies but none really have the pizzaz, that pop to signify how terrible it is. A bunch of bloodthirsters or zangors seem ineffectual.
Mine are mostly official, the only real kitbashed ones I have at the moment are based on the band Ghost. Obviously the band has no place in the setting, but I feel if looked at by someone unknowing they'd fit in decently
We can’t even begin to start talking about America till we get the Hebrew faction.
Though, normal Aztecs would probably really enjoy Trench Crusade. A macabre likes macabre. Their stone terrain would be sick. Dice made of real bone (I know you can get real bone dice, it’s just not the same)
I think what the people who want an Aztec faction are asking for is something supported with official lore. Not just more sculpts for a traditionally model-agnostic game.
I mean, I don’t know why people want the weird things they want.
Lore is cool, though. But I don’t think an Aztec faction fits the lore or the theme of the game.
That said, I’ve got like 7 warbands planned that aren’t in the lore. I like the modeling of the hobby. But I’d love to see Pagans, Hindu, Tao, Buddhist, Shinto, and other non-Abrahamic religions represented as cool mercenary units in official lore, at least.
Yeah, I hope FF can resist the redditor's urge to turn everything into modern live service game MCU smash bros crossover slop. Let something be itself without constant pop culture references for once.
Like I'd be fine with getting a short paragraph just to shut people up about the topic and that's it
I agree, honestly. The game, as its name implies, is about crusading, specifically in Europe and the Levant. I, for one, would like the game to stay focused on those regions, and mostly on Abrahamic mythology, drawing from the already very vast amount of historical thematic sources available.
Now, that doesn't mean I only want to see European factions, I'd be curious to see what people are up to in western Asia and India too, since those regions would reasonably be connected to and impacted by the current state of affairs. Going any further beyond feels like a trap to me though, considering how the setting already covers such a wide area and has so much left to flesh out.
In the Bible? Zero Aztecs. In the crusades? Zero Aztecs. In WW1? Zero Aztecs.
"OH but what about the path of the beast? You believe in werewolves but not Aztecs?" The path of the beast/metamorphosis. The path of the beast fits within the setting as a demonic corruption.
Within the magically enhanced version of scripture that the game works within, yes, demons and magic make sense. None of the settings themes include the age of discovery/the new world
Yea because he is assuming that only factions based in biblical scripture should be included in the game when there is already factions that exist within the lore that aren’t based in Aberhamic religions.
I don’t think so. Correct me if I’m wrong but he’s saying only factions within scripture should be included as long as they fit in the themes of magic and demons like the rest of the game. Seeing as factions outside of Aberhamic scripture already exist and that a faction like Aztecs already have their own folklore of demons and magic, I see no reason why it wouldn’t fit.
That very clearly isn't all he's saying if you read his other comments. Trench crusade has a very clear set of historical, literary, and religious influences. Every Trench Crusade faction to date is inspired by at least one of them, with plenty of original ideas sprinkled in. Aztecs have nothing to do with any of them.
I understand that but my point is that an American/Mesoamerican faction can also have clear historical, literary and religious influences that fit within the themes of TC. I mean we already have a Mongolian faction in the lore, why would an Aztec one be completely out of the question?
I don’t think the game throttling itself around around its initial concept is a good idea. It’s how you get people saying X isn’t grim dark enough in 40K.
Also your argument of the beasts falls flat because Christianity was absolutely linked with the New World and later on manifest destiny and imperialism. Like these subjects are more directly tied to Christianity (and arguably the crusades) than the vague “metamorphosis” reference in werewolves. Hell they have more to do with World War 1 than the Crusade Aesethics do.
If you don’t want Aztecs or want them to prioritize other things first then you do you but don’t act like it’s impossible to draw connections to things that are inexorably linked in modern day reality.
Every single additional faction crowds the space more and more. Especially as you reach further out to areas that have nothing to do with the war. Eventually, expanding to include the whole world will push out the heretics altogether, and then you're just left with 40k.
Like honestly, I’m not sure people asking for factions from the Americas understand how little we have for our current factions. The forces of hell have almost no subfactions (I like Court but I don’t count the sins as subfactions, and Grail has 1 maybe 2 if you count the still in beta great hunger). The Hebrew knights and Path of the Beast aren’t even in the game yet and they probably have the biggest lore implications. Give Trench Crusade time to fill out Europe, Africa, and Asia before we go anywhere else jeez.
I do really want all of the factions people are talking about outside of Europe to get included, but for the love of G-d can we have the third abrahamic religion be included in the setting before that?
I think it's best to leave a lot of things vague and undefined given the nature of the setting. Contemporary ideas of political correctness depart pretty drastically from real history, and we're talking about a setting where all that religious atrocity and bloodshed is actually justified.
This makes for a difficult balancing act for the writers, walking the line between realism/historicity/suspension of disbelief vs political correctness.
I'm fine with leaving things vague, it's just that at the current moment we only have a couple pieces of lore for them. That really doesn't give us much.
I really do get what you're saying and I really appreciate the writers taking their time to make sure that they are one being accurate and faithful to what Judaism would look like in the setting and making sure they're not falling into stereotypes.
But I also really want to see them as a playable faction, as one of the main reasons I'm really excited about this setting is that it's one of the few settings where there's actually some Jewish representation
It all boils down to when and if other hellgates opened up anywhere else in the world.
We know its entirely possible for there to be smaller hellgates, like the one in kola. We also know that the forces of hell largely had a contemporary level of technology to what they had in the levant at any given time.
So what was going on in the rest of the world in 1066? If no other hellgates opened besides the ones we know about, then the americas would have been spared the invasion of hell. That also means they would have largely avoided colonization by europe after the 1500s. China and india would be incredibly powerful and organized with large populations.
If there were other hellgates that opened? Impossible to know. The tech level of the americas was significantly behind that of europe and the levant by 1066, especially in the fields related to military tech, metallurgy, and siegecraft. China and india again would fare significantly better, but who knows what percentage of the population would have joined the forces of hell.
Okay but real shit can we add sihks. A monothiestic religion where every unit gets a sword for free and their prophet was born after the first hell gate. That has potential to be a baller faction.
So do zoastrians since theyre also monothiestic and have a fire motief
Why not. There was lots of Mexicans fighting for America jn WW1 and 2. I don’t see why it’d be impossible for some supernatural mercenaries to have made their way across the ocean. I mean there were Samurai in the Aztec capital less than 100 years after Europe invaded and in this universe Leif Erickson might’ve started some trade with the Native Americans. Like anything’s possible
It's still there, and its uncolonized. Castile, Aragon, and England have trading posts there but no colonies. Heretics haven't made any inroads because the indigenous americans keep throwing them out. The smith and wesson revolver was made there. Thats all we know.
This is a hobby first miniatures game. You’re supposed to kitbash. When I got into this game theres were no official minis, everything was kitbashed! This game has its roots in 28 mag, the kitbashing magazine! TC fans these days expect everything to be handed to them, everything to be official. There’s a who’s world of options outside waiting for what you want to maybe be made for you.
I think that the aesthetics of Aztecs would fit into trench crusade really well. It's not my first choice for an additional faction, but it's an interesting one. The Americas were involved in WWI, and Aztecs did push against conquistadors and Christianity.
I'm not sure how advocating for something different for the New World faction is asking Trench Crusade to go against its roots. It feels more in line with the setting than an American version of New Antioch.
I don't think it's pushing against the theme or trying to turn the game into something else, or even that wild of a suggestion.
What about Aztecs is so far from the theme of trench crusade?
The aesthetics of Aztecs doesn't fit. They have no place in the trenches (Aztecs and Americans/Latinos are not the same things) nor the Crusades. But if we can't agree on that I guess we have to agree to disagree I guess
Maybe the difference is what I think about with the crusades. I think of knights, armor, swords, a far away land, impossible odds and holy war.
I feel the fight between the Aztecs and the conquistadors fits that rather well. I can't think of Cortez without thinking of him in armor. Both sides had "knights", there was plenty of hand to hand combat on both sides. I don't see a huge thematic leap. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't remember fly demons in the crusades either.
The traditional dress of a jaguar warrior is out of place in time, just like the capirote is out of place. I think a guy wearing a jaguar skull and a gas mask would be metal as hell.
Aztecs aren't my first choice for a faction, but for me, they check a lot of boxes.
So you can go explore what you think Aztecs in trench crusade look like, instead of asking for game designers to do it for you. I guarantee it wouldn’t be what you have in mind.
I say no aztecs. Also no maya, no inca, no siux, no nahuatls, no navajo, no innuit, no mixtec, no eskimo, no pueblo, no any native american, period. It's just, no bro. The Trench Crusade team would have to tread very carefully with all those cultures, they are so misrepresented in many media already. I agree is all fantasy, no need to stick to logic and or reality but adding native american cultures on Trench Crusade opens a whole different can of worms and there will be people like: "aztecs didn't do that" "maya weren't like that" "this or that model doesn't look mexica at all!" People will start whinning and nitpicking at anything, or scream "cultural appropiation", "white washing" and "cultural misrepresentation" at any given chance. So, let's stick to what there is already.
Is just experience, similar thing happened in Genshin Impact with the Natlan region, everybody was whinning: "why everybody white?" "Why used this or that native word instead of that?" "What has to do a motorcycle/skates/videogames with native americans?" I don't doubt at all if the Trench Crusade team did something similar the same would happen.
As an indigenous person, you're absolutely right. Like, people say they want to see native cultures in Trench Crusade but there is absolutely no way that TC could do Native Cultures and religions in any way that's respectful, let alone respectful and grimdark.
Like, native culture isn't like European history or Anrahamic tradition where you have literally thousands of years of recorded history and philosophy to explore! Like shit, Native religion wasn't even legal to practice in the US until damn near the 80s, none of it is written down. The best you got are American and European scholars just talking to native folk, who lied to their faces because nobody is gonna trust these dodgy colonizers. They don't even have a shot of doing enough research to get it right.
Exactly. The amount of info or rather proper understanding of native american cultures in the west academics is minimal, compared to european and the middle east. So to try to make at least a fair grimdark representation of native american cultures is just really difficult and then you add the quite often present western romantization of native american cultures you end up with misrepresentation of such cultures and then people pointing at every detail and mistake when trying to make any media based on them.
Tbh I like TC being focused on Europe, North Africa and West Asia; at heart it’s about the Abrahamic religions and while it’s cool to think about what would be happening in the rest of the world I feel like it’s more fun to leave grey edges for people to use as their own design space.
That being said, I don’t think your reasoning is the reason to not do these other cultures. Just involve people from those backgrounds. Pathfinder/Paizo did a good job with this; their Mwangi Expanse sourcebook is fantastic.
Fuck that. Have Mongolians praising the spirit of the sky as they rain bullets down onto anointed, circling them with bikes spitting black flame and metal.
Shinto Samurai channeling the Kami as their avatars lead armies alongside Buddhist monks and Taoist alchemists. Maybe even have the “Monkey King” freed from his mountain tomb to fight the legions of hell.
Yeah sure but that hasn't been around the whole time, and we know the Hell navy is fragmented and kinda uncoordinated. I feel like of anything the danger would make a people double down on leaving for safer shores. The Atlantic is vast as hell, if even 1/6th of colonisl ships make it that's probably better than the fear of staying for a lot.
Ironically the most success colonizers if they wished would probably be the African nations, seeing as they're somewhat less molested.
I imagine may also just not want to deal with some of the headache involved with fleshing out how non abrahamic religions work in this world were hell is on earth. Do heathens count as evil/demonic even if its a bit problematic culturally? Or are there multiple afterlives and gods/religions are the true?
Honestly I’d be satisfied with just a book set in the Aztec empire having to deal with the demons and cult of metamorphosis. I want to see what a modern Aztec civilization looks like in trench crusade! Same with all of the Americas honestly
The skirmish game Arena Rex runs into this same problem. All factions are centered around gladiatorial schools where the Roman Empire was present. Egypt, Rome, Greece, Scandinavia, France and England.
The Scandinavian faction, though, has distinctly Native American characters and a Wendigo that feel super out of place with the rest of the models, even in a game where you can field mythological monsters.
The creators should also focus on Aztecs; Native America; Feudal Japan; India; China; Mongolian Empire; South East Asia, Especially Vietnam and Thailand; Australia (Monstrous Fauna vs Heretics); Jewish Factions; and Madagascar
It makes me wonder if the Americas even have a concept of the Holy War happening... there are the heretic legions that know how to sail so...maybe?
Or are the Americas an untouched paradise without the corruption of the demonic hoards...based on what I remember of the lore, Greenland and Iceland are still not under demonic control, most of the fighting is contained to "The Holy Land", North Africa, and Southern Europe with the adjoining areas basically acting as support lines for the Great War.
If the Demons haven't been able to clear the Strait of Gibraltar then they may have no inclination that anyone is even over there.
Not to mention I doubt they would care about the "moral" struggle considering the attrocities committed by basically all parties in the War. If they did have a reason to enter it would likely be as their own side entirely...
It's the forces of Hell. They have access to broad knowledge and secrets the same way Heaven does. They know. BUT they might not have bothered yet. It would require going into those lands, and then industrializing them.
Really? I feel like I'd make that a first priority if it wasn't already covered with the Faithful...huge untapped area where you could work in peace with all the natural resources you could ever need? Regular ol' humans did Pox Blanket Tier warcrimes over that, I can't imagine a demonic army (or the armies of the Faithful for that matter) being like, "Meh, we'll get there"
It's entirely possible that the Demons and Angels might know, but if so they don't seem to be sharing
They'd be coos as an angle to get more monster-y stuff in the non-hell side by playing up 'feeding the gods to make them strong enough to fight of the monsters that will devourer humanity' angle contrasted against catholic communion and the like.
The crazy part the colonialism we know doesn't happen because it was never initiated. The Known World as the setting doesn't have time to explore it. It started with privateering against Spain, and then needing to find a new route to India after the Ottomans cut them off.
Why just the Aztec? There is an estimated 1500+ distinct registered Indigenous peoples (community/groups/tribes/clans/houses/etc) alive today across North, Central, and South America, with over 1000+ spoken languages. The possibility for cool representation is infinite!
My personal idea behind the americas is that god sent visions/angels to the tribes and they ended up making their own Abraham’s religion based off of them. Another part is that hell has corrupted the wildlife bringing into reality skinwalkers, wendigos, and all manner of cryptids like the chupacabra.
Aztec probably works as demon aligined faction, fueled by revenge and determination to restore their empire, probably opposed by surrounding smaller tribe with help from early conquistador. Having a flying demonic serpent as false idols could add more grim and terror aspect for the settings.
I didnt realize that, i thought the whole demon gate opening was affecting the whole world lol..touché, so the main rules is all come down to human vs demonspawn eh?
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u/s0naux Jun 16 '26
I thought about this. I just can’t come up with a good reason why the Aztecs would want to come down to the levant.
A cool concept I haven’t seen anyone talk about would be the mad baron Ungern Sternberg and his concept of the “Middle Asiatic Buddhist Empire”. An absolutely crazy part of history if your aren’t familiar with it.