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This article describe the Kayamucan World during the 14th century both on civilizational and Geostrategical standpoints.
The Kayamuca Sea was so named after the Kayamuca Empire, which controlled all of its islands and shorelines. The sea link three continents together: Norumbia, Oxidentale, and since the arrival of Latins during the 11th century: Belisaria.
In 1163, the revolt of the Iroquoian speaking Atiwandaronk on the northern edge of the Kayamuca Empire triggered a series of event that led to the fracturing, weakning, and ultimately downfall of the Empire, although a rump state would survive in Ayeli and Tikal, continuing to claim the imperial title. But the event that really marked the change of times was the Belfrasian Crusade from 1256 to 1261, where the Latin Empire led by the Ostian dynasty and the Ilok'tab Dynasty opposed one another for the control of Norumbia. The resulting treaty that divided the remnants of the Kayamuca Empire between the two powers served as the basis on which the 14th century Kayamucan World would be built on.
Western Latin World
Between the 11th and 15th centuries, Latium was divided between two competing crowns, the Claudii dynasty of Adrianople and the Ostian dynasty in Ascanium. However, by the 12th century, the Ostians had become the dominant of the two crowns, leading to their slow reconquest of the Latium. This included the consolidation of their markets into more attractive hubs than those of their rivals, and the reinforcement of their fleet, allowed the Ostian Emperors to start more advantageous, expensive, and lucrative enterprises. These included wars against the Holy Audonian Empire, or their patronage of the mercantile expeditions crossing the Salacian Ocean to trade with the remnants states of the Kayamuca Empire in Norumbia. But under the rule of Empress Theodora I, the Ostian dynasty took it a step further and managed to establish colonies and vassals in Norumbia in the aftermath of the Belfrasian Crusade. This victory boosted their prestige and, after a period of difficulty due to the expenses of the Crusade, allowed the Latins the control over most of the goods transiting in the Northern Salacian Ocean, adding massively to their wealth.
Expansion of the Latin Empire
But at the start of the 14th century, the Ostians had only implemented themselves seriously in Norumbia a mere 40 years ago. The Caesar had direct representative in the major trade hubs and some other portuary cities. These included the cities of Beikena where the Crusaders had first landed in 1256, or the newly established colony of Thessalona. These urban settlements, with their communities of traders and sailors dependent on commerce with Belisaria, had already been under the influence of missionaries since the 11th century, and had in their majority converted to their new hegemon' religion after the Crusades.
During and after the Crusade, the Latins had confiscated the lands that had belonged to the warlords, tribes, or cities that had opposed them, as well as all of the old Kayamuca Empire "imperial lands" that hadn't been appropriated by other warring factions. These lands were redistributed among the natives allies of the Latins as rewards, but also granted to veterans and officers, re-creating the Feudal system the Caesars of Ascanium oversaw back in their homeland. There was also the hope that, through the duties and obligations owed to their Caesars, these new landowners would help pay off the debts incurred by the Empire in the previous decades.
Allied and Federated kingdoms
Beyond their coastal bastions and portuary powerbases, the effective authority of the Latins quickly diminished. Instead, the Empire relied on foederati, Client Kings who had been granted recognition of their previous titles as well as well as new lands from the Confiscations performed by the Crusaders in exchange for their conversion to Fabrianism and signature of a military alliance with the Latins.
These new allies proved a vital and necessary intermediary between the Natives and the Belisarians colonists. After the Crusade, foederati would represent the majority of troops the Empire could muster on the other side of the Salacian Ocean, colonists and settlers being too few to be solely relied upon despite harsher conscription laws for these populations, and the estimated cost of another Crusade remaining too high for it to be viable less than 50 years after the previous grand expedition.
Marriages between newly titled-crusaders and these kings also reinforced their ties with the Latins. The Ostians also implemented a "naturalization-program" for these loyal natives, offering the enviable status of citizen, either as a reward for military and political service or in exchange of a high fee. Because of its distance from Latium proper, citizenship-grants in Norumbia were dependent on the will of the Imperial representatives in Norumbia, and many of them used these grants to build up their network of clients. By the end of the century, these two pillars of the Latin rule in Norumbia had played their role and the division of the landowning aristocracy between "Settlers" and "Client Kings" had mostly disappeared, replaced instead by a multi-faceted but united oligarchy birthed from their union. Many of the most influential families in modern Belfras and Mocapaha can trace their roots back to this metis upper-class of the late 14th and 15th centuries.
Mutulese Market Network
After the Belfrasian Crusade and the final destruction of the Kayamuca Empire, the Mutul led by the Ilok'tab Dynasty became an important player in the Kayamuca Sea, in a constant rivalry with the Latin Empire.
The Crusade represent a real turning point for the Ilok'tab imperium. Despite their official propaganda presenting the Belfrasian campaign as a resounding success, establishing new allies and vassal states in Norumbia, the reality is that it failed its primary goal which was to drive the Latins out from Norumbia. What followed was a difficult period for the K'iche Dynasty : the Tecuman Plague, Eastern Campaigns, and Xuman Crusade were all events that tested the Mutul system and forced it to re-adapt itself to the new circumstances.
The Reformation process really peaked under Ka K'uk'umam, known as Tecuman II "the Wise" in Latin chronicles of the era. The symbols of this changing society was the move of the capital from K'umakah to K'alak Muul in 1318, crystalizing the changing goals of the Divine Throne now concerned mostly by the Kayamuca Sea and no longer constrained to the hinterlands of the Mutul, and the publication of the Bitzk'uh in 1326.
Ka K'uk'umam was a patron of scholars and savants. At his new court, he maintained a number of theologians from across the Mutul and organized literary jousts and religious debates. Among his protegees were a small groups of Fabrians monks who were among the first to produce Mutli-latin dictionaries and chronicles about court life in the Mutul. It's probably inspired by the structure of the Bible, and fearing a lack of religious unity would make the Mutul an easy prey for Sarpetic missionaries as it did in Norumbia, that K'uk'umam demanded that every temple across the Divine Kingdom send to K'alak Muul copies of every book and codices in their possession as well as at least one representative so that an Orthodoxy could be established. It's during this vast religious campaign that Uh Chichij was able to make the demonstration of his new printing method to the royal court. This new press would be used by K'uk'uman to distribute across the Divine Kingdom the newly compiled Bitzk'uh.