1585 Itzatlán raids

1585 Itzatlán raids
An artist depiction of a Xalieca warrior fighting one of the sen-ōkami
Date 1585 Location Itzatlán, New Canteria (modern-day Anáhuac) Result Xaliecan victory
Belligerents
Ahuitzotl II's Xaliecan remnant	Hōrō-zō
Commanders and leaders
Ahuitzotl II Commander Juan de Dios Tízoc	Fuwa Kazuemon Masatane
Strength
Around 1,600-2,000 warriors 210 Cuāuhmeh 120 Ocēlōmeh	2 junks 150 tops Hōrō-zō
Casualties and losses
450-550 casualties Unknown number of native allies killed or injured.	Around 70-85 casualties

Beach of the ruins of Itzatlán.

The 1585 Itzatlán raids were a series of clashes between a Xalieca remnant led by the self-proclaimed tlatoani of the Xalieca Empire, Ahuitzotl II, and masterless Hōrō-zō headed by Fuwa Kazuemon Masatane. These raids, which took place in the vicinity of the ruins of Itzatlán, finally resulted in a Xaliecan victory.

This event is a recorded battle between the recently-conquered but traditionalist Xaliecan warriors against heavily experienced Hoterallian Sen-ōkami. The raids are still considered one of the strangest events in Anterian history due to how surreal it was.

Background

In 1521, the Canterian conquest of the Xaliecan Empire concluded with the majority of the Xaliecan Empire and its capital, Jaltenco being destroyed and Anáhuac officially became the Vicerroyalty of New Canteria. By the 1570s, remnants of the Xalieca remained as unorganized but very lethal groups to the Canterians. One of these was led by Ahuitzotl II, one of the many self-proclaimed tlatoani of the Xalieca Empire. Ahuitzotl II was inherited with Xaliecan knowledge by his grandfather, José Miguel Maxixcatl and was already in a truce with the Tarascan Confederacy during the Canterian conquest of Tectetán, supporting the natives periodically.

Father and son hōrō-zō of the group, Horibe Yahei and Horibe Yasubei

In 1582, Ahuitzotl's remnant came across the ruins of the Didxažon capital of Itzatlán, where the first Canterians arrived in 1519 and established the now abandoned colony of Santiago de Pascua. Knowing the potential of the ruins and their hisotry, decided to establish the new capital of his remnant nearby the former ruins, creating the small settlement known as Mitla (Xalieca: Place of the dead) in the former place of the Canterian fort. In the following years, the Xalieca remnant was armed with a combination of arquebuses, traditional macuahuitls, and atlatls to defend themselves from any possible Canterian raids.

In 1583, Fuwa Kazuemon Masatane and his group of sen-ōkami lost their master, Kuwabatake Sanjuro of the Sanjuro Domain, resulting in the group becoming hōrō-zō, masterless sen-ōkami. The group was banished from their former master's domain, wandering the country before obtaining two junks and leaving the country. The group turned into petty thieves and muggers, ransacking small port cities before being lost at sea.

Prelude

According to records kept by the group, they were lost for over five months. Lacking morale and malnourished, the group's junks ran aground a beach in early January 1585. The Xaliecan calendar and the Figueroa Codex records the arrival of "people similar to those from the Mictlán" around the "8-Malinalli of the 1-Tecpatl" (6 January 1585).

Described in the book of Fray Bartólome de Cortés, Historia verdadera de las tierras de Anáhuac (Common: The true history of the lands of Anáhuac), Ahuitzotl was initially hospitable to the sen-okami, even offering help to repair their junks. However, at some point, Ahuitzotl II soon began pleading for their aid in the Xaliecas eventual reconquest of the capital of Jaltenco as supposed proof of his loyalty, which Masatane probably denied. Soon, the sen-okami began to show their true nature, something that Ahuitzotl took personally when he learned that some of them forced themselves on indigenous women as a way of relieving their frustration.

Likely acting out of fear, Ahuitzotl expelled the sen-okami with the assistance of Juan de Dios Tízoc, a christianized Xalieca who had recently joined Ahuitzotl's remnant on the "4-Cipactli of the 1-Tecpatl" (January 15, 1585). The sen-okami soon established their settlement while others repaired the two junks they had landed on. Ahuitzotl II soon began further arming Mitla in preparation for possible assaults. Lacking food, shelter and likely stranded for several weeks, the group resorted to raids on the seashores of Iztatlán, facing Ahuitzotl II several times on almost a daily basis.

Events

Ahuitzotl II as depicted in the Polácica Codex

Both the Figueroa Codex and Bartólome de Cortés's book detail that the raids by the sen-okami were almost daily. Diaries of Masatane also details that the encounters of the Xalieca were 'surprisingly difficult'. Raids for food, drinking water, and sometimes valuable loots were also taken. The sen-okami's previous time of being thieves and raiders helped in many successful looting. However, the Xaliecas soon began taking the upper hand in their sixth raid to Itzatlán. Many sen-okami were captured by Xaliecan warriors, only to be sacrificed to Omiteotl to assist their war effort. Initially unfamiliar with the fighting style of the sen-okami, Ahuitzotl's troops soon began to cut their losses by the time the castaways had finished their first junk, thanks to ancient knowledge of the former flowery wars against the Tlanextilians. The new strategy included the now-usuable arquebuses as long-range cover, with armored traditional infantry charges as their front.

The raids by the sen-okami were described as 'ruthless, savage and unforgiving', killing several Xalieca civilians and burning their houses, resulting in casualties of many of the Anahuacan natives. In return, the Xaliecas became revengeful against captured sen-okamis for their ruthlessness against civilians. Accounts of Conquistador Miguel Castillo de Ruz details an ocassion in which Xalieca warriors ambushed a small group of sen-okamis, and afer sacrifing them, they impaled their heads as a warning sign against Masatane.

The sen-okami and the Xaliecans faced themselves a final time on the "9-Quiahuitl of the 1-Tecpatl" (February 1, 1585), in a offensive planned by Juan de Dios Tízoc. Heavily outnumebered but with their junks already finished, Masatane and his men escaped the area in a rush. Accounts of the survivors indicate that when they began their escape, 'the water was scarlet and the wrath of a many dragged us back to them'. Ahuitzotl forces returned home when the sen-okami junks were considerably away from the coastline, ending the brief conflicts.

Aftermath

The Xalieca remnant of Ahuitzotl II, facing heavy casualties but "having pleasuring the might of Omiteotl", remained in control of Itzatlán until 1587. Ahuitzotl himself soon went to Tectetán to aid Tarascan allies. He presumably however, was killed in action and his body was never recovered. Mictla was eventually discovered by Canterian frailes led by Castillo de Ruz. By 1600, the Xalieca population peacefully converted into Catholicism.

Stories of the Xaliecan defense of the "demons of the Mictlán" were rescued by the Fiugeroa Codex, engravings in the ruins of Mitla, the diaries of Miguel Castillo Ruz and a brief mention on the book of Historia verdadera de las tierras de Anáhuac. The strangeness of the event and overall the entiretly of it, has prompted both Anáhuac and Hoterallia to search their past for any other "supposed" contacts between natives of both countries.

In popular culture

• The 1585 raids serves as the prologue for the Axsoft game Apocalypto: Miquiztli, where the player controls an Xalieca ocelot warrior during a brief battle sequence.