Xiomera

Huenyan Empire of Xiomera
Motto: "As The Sun Rises, So Does Xiomera"
Capital	Tlālacuetztla
Official languages	Huenyan, English
Recognised national languages	Huenyan, English
Religion	Huenyan indigenous religion
Demonym(s)	Xiomeran
Government	Autocracy, theoretical meritocracy
• Emperor	Xochiuhue
Establishment
• Formation of early āltepētl (city-states)	1100 CE
• Unification of Huenya under Xiomeran rule	1387
Population
• 2019 estimate	51,709,098
GDP (nominal)	estimate
• Per capita	44,740
HDI	0.903 very high
Currency	quetzal (QZL)
Time zone	XST
Date format	dd-mm-yyyy
Driving side	right

The Huenyan Empire of Xiomera is an autocratic state, styled as a meritocracy, in the International Democratic Union. It borders Legionas and Eiria and fully occupies the landmass known as Huenya in the far southeastern portion of the IDU.

History

Pre-Imperial era

The oldest known histories trace the beginnings of what is now Xiomera to roughly 1100 CE. As the ancient histories state, four different tribes came into existence in the land of Huenya: the Itotemoc, the Necatli, the Tepiltzin and the Xiomera. These four tribes began coalescing around nascent city-states which sprung up in four distinct regions of Huenya. In the far west of Huenya, in a dry and inhospitable region, the Necatli formed a state centered around the āltepētl of Necuatexi. To the immediate east of the Necatli, the Itotemoc state formed on a high plain around the āltepētl of Ixtenco. To the east of the Itotemoc, the Tepiltzin formed their state around the āltepētl of Oacalco, in a pleasant green lowland. And in the far east of Huenya, the Xiomerans formed their state in a lushly forested region centered around their āltepētl of Tlālacuetztla.

These pre-Imperial city-states were ruled by dynastic, militaristic tribal leaders known as tlahtohqueh. The city-states expanded rapidly during the period 1200 AD to 1325 AD, forming new settlements and claiming territory. By 1250 AD, most of the land in Huenya had already been claimed by one of the four city-states, leading to rising tension between them.

Era of the Warring States

From 1325 AD to 1372 AD, the four Huenyan tribes would fight both large-scale and small-scale wars for territory and economic gain. They would form alliances, and end them just as quickly, while trading with each other during brief periods of peace. As the four city-states were evenly matched, none of them could gain a significant advantage, or find a way to end the cycle of constant conflict.

The Plague of 1372

In the year 1372 AD, a major plague struck Huenya. The Itotemoc, Tepiltzin and Necatli tribal regions were devastated, losing thousands of lives and finding their militaries essentially crippled. The Xiomeran tribe, however, would be spared the ravages of this plague by an accident of geography and the scheming of a clever ruler.

The city of Zapotlán, under the control of Xiomera, was a natural chokepoint between western and eastern Huenya. It sat astride a series of passes which provided the only possible land entry into Xiomeran lands from the rest of Huenya. The Xiomeran ruler Quiauhticue, upon hearing of the plague spreading in his neighboring rivals, dispatched his warriors to close the passes at Zapotlán. Quiauhticue also set patrols on the waters and coastlines around Xiomera to prevent anyone from entering or leaving.

Quiauhticue’s reason for doing so was twofold: keeping the plague out of his lands, and also preventing any possible aid from leaving his lands to help the other three city-states. When his advisors warned Quiauhticue that this would spell doom for the other Huenyan tribes, the legend claims, Quiauhticue simply raised an eyebrow, looked at his advisors and said, “Yes. It will.”

Quiauhticue’s actions would set the stage for the foundation of an empire.

The Wars of Unification

When the plague finally burned itself out in 1375 AD, the Xiomeran state had been spared its ravages. As the rest of Huenya struggled to piece itself back together, they would face a new threat. Quiauhticue claimed the Mantle of Huītzilōpōchtli, divine right to rule all of Huenya.

Quiauhticue would start by invading the Tepiltzin lands in 1376 AD. Facing minimal resistance, his warriors would occupy the Teplitzin capital of Oacalco within a year, deposing and executing the Tepiltzin tlatoani Cuetzpalzoh. Alarmed by the easy conquest of the Tepiltzin, the Necatli and Itotemoc formed an alliance to try to counter Quiauhticue’s armies. Their alliance would not prove to be enough.

After taking another year to consolidate his gains and forcibly conscript the remaining Tepiltzin armies into his own, Quiauhticue would move next on the Itotemoc. His armies made slower progress against the more martial Itotemoc, reinforced by their even more warlike Necatli allies. But the Xiomerans outnumbered the combined Itotemoc and Necatli armies three to one, and were better provisioned. Within two years, Quiauhticue would seize the Itotemoc capital of Ixtenco, depose and execute the Itotemoc tlatoani Tlacaelel, and force the last remaining Necatli back into their own lands.

By 1380 AD, Quiauhticue was the undisputed ruler of three-quarters of Huenya. The Necatli, however, would prove to be much tougher to conquer. In 1380 and 1382, Quiauhticue would launch invasions of the Necatli state. Both times, his forces were beaten back by a determined Necatli resistance. After the 1382 invasion, Xiomeran armies were able to occupy Necatli lands along the coast. However, the Necatli retreated into their harsh countryside, where they were almost impossible to track or fight. Quiauhticue responded by surrounding the area and cutting off all supply routes, starving the Necatli into surrender. In 1387 AD at the village of Milintica, the last of the Necatli warriors made a desperate charge against the Xiomerans, and were cut down. All of Huenya belonged to Quiauhticue. The Xiomeran Empire was born.

Consolidation of the Empire

The years 1387 to 1515 would be a period of consolidation. The aftereffects of the Plague of 1372, and the following decade of war, left much of Huenya a shattered land. From the Xiomeran point of view, this was actually desirable. While it would mean a long period of difficult economic rebuilding, it also gave the nascent Xiomeran Empire a practically blank slate to establish (or impose, depending on one’s tribe and point of view) the mandates of Tlālacuetztla on the whole of Huenya.

From 1387 until 1515, Quiauhticue and succeeding Emperors would mandate the wholesale revision of Huenyan history, religion and politics to enshrine the Xiomerans as the pinnacle of their new Empire. Itotemoc, Necatli and Tepiltzin laws, literature and cultural artifacts were all ordered destroyed, replaced by Xiomeran ones strictly mandated by the Emperors in Tlālacuetztla. A mandatory two-track system of education was established, with schools called “telpochcalli” established for commoners and more rigorous schools called “calmecac” established for the nobility (and small numbers of especially high-performing commoners). After the formation of the Empire, Xiomera would allow the other tribes to continue selecting their own noble leaders (tlatoani). However, Xiomeran Emperors would install cihuacoatl (supreme judges and administrators) to monitor the other tribes’ tlatoani to make sure they were following the orders of the Emperor.

The period of consolidation was not without its moments of resistance. In 1486, the Itotemoc tlatoani Nenexahual would lead a revolt while the Emperor Ixpan was ill, and would manage to regain independence for a brief period before his forces were overrun by a counterattack after Ixpan died and was replaced by his son, Patonal. In 1511, the Necatli would revolt as well, and Patonal would be forced to send an army to quell them. Both revolts were spurred by resentment from the other tribes at Xiomeran mandates designed to eliminate their power and position.

The Era of Stagnation

The long period of Xiomeran history from 1515 to 1807 is called the Era of Stagnation by Xiomeran historians. There are several reasons for this. Xiomera would become more stable, and its Imperial system more firmly established, during this period. Tribal resistance would also cease to be openly hostile after the failed 1511 Necatli revolt, instead diminishing into a sullen passive resentment and resistance to Xiomeran leadership.

However, while a relative peace and stability would descend on the Xiomeran Empire during this period, it would be marked by a slow but progressive decline. The Xiomeran nobility would become more concerned with position and wealth than in ensuring the continued success of the Empire. Internal struggles for power, and the repeated overthrow of Emperors and lesser tlatoani by rivals, would also plague the Xiomeran Empire during this period. The single biggest factor in the decline of the Empire, however, is generally considered by Xiomeran historians to be the increasing autocracy of the Empire during this period. Xiomeran nobles began levying higher and higher demands on the common people of the Empire, in the form of higher taxation and mandated labor to support the nobles’ lifestyle. While this was occurring, legal and systemic changes would further suppress the lower class. Two major examples of this are the elimination of the “telpochcalli” schools for commoners in 1792, and the elimination of the noble title known as "quauhpilli" in 1796. That title had previously given commoners a chance to ascend to the nobility.

The First Great Reformation

In 1807, the Emperor Achcauhyotl would rise to the Obsidian Throne. Achcauhyotl was the first to recognize the systemic decline that had set root in the Xiomeran Empire, and would seek to reverse it. Up to this point in Xiomeran history, the other three tribes had been largely excluded from power. Achcauhyotl would make several significant reforms, ending the practice of having Xiomeran overseers monitoring the tlatoani of the other tribes and allowing the other tribes to freely select their own leaders without Imperial interference. Achcauhyotl would also create the Great Council of Xiomera, where the other tlatoani would be allowed to advise the Emperor and advocate for the interests of their tribes. Achcauhyotl also re-established schools for commoners, realizing that an uneducated populace would only fuel Xiomera’s continued decline.

Achcauhyotl made these systemic changes in the hopes of getting the other tribes to finally buy into being fully part of the Xiomeran Empire, and also out of the desire to counter the stagnation and corruption that had become so common in the Empire by bringing new blood into its leadership. However, Xiomera would not find these reforms to be enough; the newly empowered leaders of the other tribes soon became as corrupt and power-seeking as their Xiomeran ethnic counterparts. Achcauhyotl would succeed in ending the last resentments and resistance of the other tribes to being part of the Xiomeran Empire. However, it would fall to his daughter to take Xiomera in a new direction – and change its destiny forever.

The First Xiomeran Civil War

In 1838, Achcauhyotl died, leaving no male heirs. Xiomeran laws of succession up to that point had not allowed a female heir to take the Obsidian Throne. On his deathbed, Achcauhyotl ordered a change in the laws of succession to allow his daughter, Camaxtica, to become the first Empress (cihuātlahtoāni) of Xiomera.

This was a controversial decision for many reasons. Achcauhyotl mandated the change to the laws of succession despite the vocal opposition of his Great Council, the religious leaders of Xiomera, and the nobility in general. The Council had wanted the then highest ranking Xiomeran military officer, Tlanextic, to assume the throne and begin a new dynastic line, ensuring a continued unbroken line of male rulers. Achcauhyotl’s decision to ignore them and enthrone Camaxtica instead infuriated the nobility and religious hierarchy.

Camaxtica’s youth and inexperience was also a factor. She was only 19 years old when she became Empress, the youngest ruler before (or since) in Xiomeran history. The nobility fully expected her to bow to pressure and step down once her father died, or to be a pliable and cooperative figurehead on the Obsidian Throne to let them do as they wanted. They would be shocked and angered to discover that Camaxtica was anything but weak. The next twelve years would earn Camaxtica her nickname, “The Lioness of Tlālacuetztla”.

In 1839, Camaxtica’s cihuacoatl, Amoxlotl, discovered a plot by Tlanextic and the tlatoani of the other three tribes to overthrow the Empress. Camaxtica had proven unwilling to bow to their pressure or follow their orders, and the nobles had decided it was time for her to go. Camaxtica would not accept this. She ordered Amoxlotl to arrest the other three tlatoani, and Tlanextic as well. In response, the nobles declared a revolt, with Tlanextic as its military leader and planned replacement for the Empress on the Obsidian Throne.

As war began, in 1840, Camaxtica found herself in a very difficult position. The nobles controlled much of Xiomera’s armies, and with Tlanextic at their head, would pose a huge threat. Camaxtica could only command the loyalty of the Xiomeran tribe’s own soldiers, and even some of them refused to accept a woman as ruler. Camaxtica knew that only gaining the support of Xiomera’s much more vast population of commoners would save her reign, and probably her head as well.

In 1840, therefore, Camaxtica made two major edicts that would change the face of Xiomera forever. With the religious and noble hierarchy in open revolt against her, Camaxtica would declare that both were traitors, and declare that moving forward, the citizens would appoint their leaders, including their tlatoani, based on merit rather than noble worth. Camaxtica also declared that the commoners would have the same rights as the nobility, and that the labyrinthine system of laws designed to keep commoners repressed would be ended. This edict, known as the Xiuhtonal, would set the foundation for the meritocratic technocracy known as Xiomeran Meritocracy that governs the Empire to this day.

By 1840, the commoners were primed and ripe for revolt due to the excesses of the nobility and the elite military class. Camaxtica was the first Xiomeran leader to see this and turn it to her advantage. Styling herself as “The People’s Empress”, and promising to free the commoners from their state of peonage, Camaxtica turned the tables on the nobility by gaining a huge number of people willing to fight for her – many more than the nobles had at their disposal.

However, what Camaxtica gained for herself in 1840 was an army of peasants. Unskilled, many of them illiterate, and with only a basic military training, most of them were no match for the soldiers backing the nobles, who had learned how to fight from their early childhood. Without help, Camaxtica’s vast “army of the people” would be little more than cannon fodder. Camaxtica had an answer for that dilemma also, however.

In 1841, Camaxtica handed down the second great edict that would change Xiomera forever. Known as the Tlanextli, this edict would give Camaxtica’s army the edge it needed. From the late 16th century to 1841, Xiomera had been a closed country. Foreigners were not allowed into Xiomera upon pain of death, and all trade with the outside world was forbidden.

The Tlanextli would change all that. In that edict, Camaxtica threw the doors of Xiomera open to the world. She openly sought the help of foreign powers to train and equip her army with modern weapons. Since she controlled the Xiomeran capital, Camaxtica also controlled the vast Xiomeran treasury. She also offered to allow foreign trade after the war, assuming she won. This was more than enough to convince outside powers to trade with the Empress, and give her the modern army she needed.

The Xiomeran nobles’ armies were still equipped much as their forebears had been – arrows, spears, clubs and axes. The influx of modern weapons, especially firearms and cannon, would shift the balance of power decisively in Camaxtica’s favor. Combined with a decisive numerical advantage, the advent of modern warfare would ensure that Camaxtica would keep her throne. By 1850, the nobles’ revolt was defeated. Tlanextic died in the last battle at Huatl'pa, and the tlatoani who had revolted against Camaxtica were publicly executed.

The Second Great Reformation

With the last threats to her power ended, Camaxtica devoted the rest of her reign to making sure her promises to the people who had won her the Obsidian Throne were fulfilled. She abolished the nobility, and implemented a system of leaders chosen by councils of experts (ihuicatl). She also greatly expanded foreign trade, established diplomatic relations with other lands for the first time, and set up a foreign exchange system where Xiomeran youth would study in other lands and foreign youth could come to Xiomera to study as well. Foreign experts in a variety of specialist fields were also hired in the thousands. Xiomeran leaders would also tour many nations during this period to learn modern ways, leading to a state-led industrialization policy. These efforts fell in line with the Imperial goal of "using knowledge and learning to strengthen the foundations of Imperial rule and Xiomeran prosperity and success."

During Camaxtica's reign, Xiomera would make a rapid transition from being an isolationist, semi-feudal state to becoming a modern, industrialized nation. In line with the rapid changes Camaxtica had brought to Xiomeran politics and society, her reign would also bring about adopting scientific, technological and economic systems from around the world. Adapting these ideas to meet Xiomeran capabilities and traditions, these moves would spark an industrial revolution in Xiomera beginning around 1870. Economic and currency reforms, modernization of the Xiomeran transportation and communications networks, and embracing the ideas of a market economy and free market capitalism would transform Xiomera within a few decades from a mostly agrarian backwater into an economic powerhouse. Xiomera's military would likewise be reformed during this period, adopting modern technology and structuring itself on foreign models to complete the initial reforms begun when Camaxtica created her "army of the people".

At the end of Camaxtica's reign, Xiomera was a thoroughly modern nation ready to face the world. Camaxtica is to this day revered as the greatest ruler in Xiomeran history. There is some debate among historians as to her legacy, though. Some historians believe Camaxtica’s reformer label is undeserved, and that Camaxtica only enacted her changes to Xiomeran society because she had no other choice but to empower the commoners of Xiomera and arm them to fight in her defense. Those historians believe that Camaxtica was more pragmatic than idealistic. Most Xiomeran historians, however, still consider her to have been a great reformer.

Camaxtica’s reign came to an end in 1892 with her death at age 73. No Xiomeran ruler has lived or reigned as long as she did, or accomplished as much during their tenure. Camaxtica is especially honored by Xiomeran women, as her reign definitively freed women from the stigma of being “less capable” than men and ensured full and equal rights for Xiomeran women.

Lōpoch's Expansion

In 1893, the first new ruler in Xiomera's history in 55 years, Lōpoch, took the Obsidian Throne following Camaxtica's death. Lōpoch had a lot to prove. He was a relatively young Emperor, taking the throne at age 36. He was also the first Emperor to follow the legendary (and lengthy) reign of Camaxtica, an extremely tough act to follow. Ascending to the Obsidian Throne from the leadership of the Imperial Army, Lōpoch was the first in what would become a fairly recurring tradition of military leaders becoming Emperors. Eager to establish himself as a strong Emperor, Lōpoch set his sights on the first expansion of the Xiomeran Empire since its inception, and its first military venture beyond the island of Huenya.

Manauia Island, to the south of Huenya, was a conquest that Xiomeran Emperors had often dreamed of, but failed to accomplish. The Emperor Quiauhticue launched an invasion of Manauia Island in 1389; the Emperor Achcauhyotl would try again, in 1820. Both invasions would fail as the inhabitants of Manauia Island, the Teyatia, fought fiercely and refused to bend the knee to overlords in distant Tlālacuetztla.

Lōpoch was determined that his conquest, unlike those of Quiauhticue and Achcauhyotl, would succeed. He had an advantage his predecessors did not: the modern army, equipped with rifles and field artillery, and the supporting warships of the modern navy built by Camaxtica during her long reign. In previous battles, the Xiomeran and Teyatia forces had been roughly equal in technology and tactics. During Lōpoch's Expansion, the situation was severely unequal, in favor of the Xiomerans. The Teyatia, still using weapons and tactics of an earlier age, stood no chance against the Imperial Army and Imperial Navy. Within six months, Manauia Island was firmly under Xiomeran rule. Neighboring Cenotillo Island was also annexed a year later.

The 1 August Uprising

On August 1st, 1977, protests began in the Xiomeran capital of Tlālacuetztla. The protests initially began due to resentment among poorer Xiomerans about the high cost of living. However, the protests quickly morphed into a larger movement demanding democratic reform in Xiomera. Seeing democracies flourishing in many nations around Xiomera, many Xiomerans had begun demanding increased political freedom and civil rights as well. These demands were not welcomed by the Xiomeran government, and were seen as a direct challenge to the relatively new reign of the then-Emperor Xōlotl.

The protests spread to multiple Xiomeran cities from August 3rd to 6th of 1977, and began to hinder Xiomeran commerce. Protesters began to occupy public spaces, block highways and public transport services, and also began to occupy Xiomeran factories. Faced with serious pressure to address the matter decisively, Emperor Xōlotl fired the Security of Security, Paltec, on August 7th, 1977 and ordered the Xiomeran military to end the protests by any means necessary. Beginning in Tlālacuetztla, the Xiomeran army unleashed its full force on the protesters. While Xiomeran media censorship and destruction of records related to the 1977 protests have kept a full accounting of the events from being performed, it is widely believed that thousands of Xiomerans were either killed or imprisoned in order to put down the protests. The brutal backlash by Xōlotl's government to the protests left such a scar on Xiomeran society that no further serious agitation for democracy or protests were launched in Xiomera for over forty years.

Assassination of Emperor Topilpopoca, and the ascension of Empress Yauhmi

On September 8th, 2019, the longstanding Emperor of Xiomera, Topilpopoca, was returning from a trip to the Xiomeran possession of Manauia Island when he was shot in front of the Palace by a disgruntled former Cabinet member, Cētlalhui. Cētlalhui had been fired by the Emperor for incompetence, and sought revenge through the assassination attempt. Topilpopoca would die from his injuries on October 3rd, 2019. On November 3rd, 2019, the wife of Topilpopoca, Empress Yauhmi, was chosen to succeed him in the unique Xiomeran process known as the Great Selection. During her bid for the throne, Yauhmi promised many of her backers that she would rule in the same moderately conservative fashion that her husband had. But upon actually taking power, Yauhmi launched a series of reforms meant to bring greater civil rights, political rights and economic freedom to Xiomera. The reforms left many of her former conservative supporters feeling betrayed, and that she had gained the Obsidian Throne under false pretenses. Worse, many of them began to see Yauhmi's reign as a direct assault on the Xiomeran philosophy known as Xiomeran Meritocracy.

The Second Xiomeran Civil War

Dissatisfied with her reforms, a group of conservative political, business and military leaders planned in secret to overthrow Empress Yauhmi. On April 10th, 2020, at the opening session of a Huenyan Assembly meant to bring greater political openness to Xiomera, the Xiomeran military deposed Empress Yauhmi and placed her in prison, along with the other members of the Huenyan Assembly. A Provisional Imperial Government was formed by the Xiomeran General Staff, staging a complete takeover of the country. Martial law was declared throughout the country, and harsh measures taken to ensure no opposition. Domestic opposition groups were banned, and their members arrested. As a result of the coup, multiple countries, including Laeral, Legionas, Democratic Republic of Eiria and Kerlile, terminated diplomatic relations with Xiomera and refused to acknowledge the new government.

A government in exile was formed in Laeral, led by Crown Prince Texōccoatl, Yauhmi's son and next in line for the Obsidian Throne. The military junta in Xiomera responded by staging a Great Selection widely regarded as fraudulent, crowning Xochiuhue, son of Emperor Xōlotl, as the Emperor of Xiomera.

Major incidents of violence by the new government soon followed: the storming of the Palace of Flowers on April 10th; the seizure of the Telopec Palace on April 13th; the assassination of the entire Imperial Cabinet on April 19th; the violent arrest of reformist activists on April 22nd in Tlālacuetztla; the forcible overthrow of tribal leaders on April 25th; the violent suppression of protesters by Imperial soldiers and mercenaries from Shuell working for the government on April 28th in the city of Necuatexi; a similar violent suppression in the city of Acalan on May 19th. These violent incidents were followed by the widescale implementation of a plan to segregate people opposed to Xochiuhue's government into camps, along with a brutal campaign to suppress a rebellion by the Teyatia people on Manauia Island.

Despite the violence and threats of the new government, Xiomerans began refusing to obey its orders. On April 22nd, 2020, the entire 1st Fleet of the Xiomeran Imperial Navy defected to the government in exile in Laeral, marking the first major military defection. On May 31st, 2020, a Council of National Reunification and Reconciliation was formed. The CNRR formalized the government in exile, declaring itself as the true and legitimate Xiomeran government.