Red City on the Ocean

The year is 1483 AD, ten years before Christopher Columbus's famous voyage to America. In Aztlan, the Aztecs have suffered significant changes in their social and religious climates. Under the weyitlatoani Moctezuma, Aztecs ceased sacrificing those that share their faith and began a renewed focus on education, prosperity, and the discovery and conquering of new lands. With this new focus came new ventures, and a floating city was built to sail across the seas in search of adventure and led by divine guidance. Eventually, this floating city would reach the shores of Portugal.

The Portuguese were wrought with their own struggles at this time. The land was flooded with refugees who had fled the Reconquista and more who fled the looming Inquisition in the neighboring kingdom of Castile. The newly crowned Portuguese king, Joao II, was obsessed with the sea and the discoveries waiting across unknown waters. He dreamt of building Portugal into a new maritime superpower, but the kingdom's coffers were dry, and to rebuild the treasury, he turned to the wealthy landowners, forcefully ridding them of their property to support the building of new ships and funding voyages.

At the time of our tale, Joao II has decided to strike against the wealthiest and most influential dynasty in Portugal, the House of Braganza. Duke Ferdinand II de Braganza was an influential advocate of new liberal ideals growing in Portugal and dreamt of building a new parliamentary democracy based on the Portuguese Cortes. When Joao II makes his move, de Braganza has no choice but to organize a rebellion and strike back.

In this alternative historical fiction, the worlds of medieval Europe and Aztec civilization meet and clash, illuminating many questions for all ages.