Unchosen Champion

The Yucatan settlement was massive. Coop knew it would be, but he was still caught by surprise at the sheer scale demonstrated by the Cult of Chakyum. The settlement leaderboards had given its large population away, yet he hadn’t really appreciated how it had been bolstered by virtue of its location. The only settlement in Central America had drawn a significant number of people, and they had clearly been pulled into the Cult during the process.

In comparison, the number of survivors who had opted to take their chances in the wild, like the profession masters of Corozal and the hidden warriors of the Crossroads, was extremely small. The pressures of the assimilation outside of settlement territory were such that even if the original numbers had been split fairly between those who stayed in the Yucatan settlement and those who didn’t, the number that survived would be wildly different. But even before that, the population splits were uneven. It didn’t take much insight into the assimilation to understand that civilization shards were safe harbors and there would be safety in numbers.

When he joined Juliana in escorting her portion of the Jaguar Sun, they had accumulated approximately 100,000 volunteers between Corozal and the start of their march. In the days that they circled the settlement, they had anticipated growing their numbers until it could actually rival the Cult.

At the time, Coop believed them. However, it quickly became apparent that their aspirations wouldn’t be anywhere close to being met. They were already rushed, forcing their campaign to move at a much faster pace than the first time around. Instead of sweeping through the jungles for nearly two months, they only gave themselves two weeks, and that was before considering how much the dynamic of the Yucatan had changed as time went on.

Juliana was stressed by the lack of Priests. The number of strongholds for them to conquer and free groups that would bolster their numbers was too low for her liking, but Coop was impressed by the quantity that managed to join them regardless. All sorts of people connected with the militia, moving through the jungle to catch up from elsewhere or revealing themselves from where they had been hidden to avoid the Cult. It seemed like every time he returned from a patrol, another large influx of hardened warriors had joined the uprising. He would have guessed the Jaguar Sun multiplied their numbers by four times over the course of their procession. It was an unbelievable feat, in Coop’s mind, and he was encouraged by their support. It was certainly the largest army he had ever seen. Before he gazed upon the first gathering of the Cult of Chakrum, he had started to believe the Jaguar Sun had grown into an unstoppable force.

Prior to the assimilation, there had been roughly two hundred million people in all of Central America. After Coop upgraded Ghost Reef, he and Jones had briefly estimated how many humans were left. If even their pessimistic estimates were vaguely correct, there would be approximately twenty million remaining in the entire region. A sizable portion of the survivors had joined Chakyum, and they had gathered together in his name within the Yucatan settlement.

The Envoy and the High Priests had tried to explain to Coop that those who accepted Chakyum would be saved, but in the back of his mind, Coop had always suspected that they were simple sacrifices left in the dust to fuel the Cult’s rise. However, judging by the Cult’s numbers, his prediction wasn’t exactly accurate. There were other mechanisms at play.

He wasn’t completely ready to admit that they were wrong about sacrifices, at least about those who became residents of the Yucatan settlement. It wasn’t like sheep were immediately led to slaughter. They were fattened up first. But, when he finally laid eyes on the settlement, it was truly enormous. Chakyum’s flock was a significant force.

Coop understood there had been huge gatherings throughout history, but he had never witnessed anything quite so extreme as the collection of people occupying the settlement. In the pre-mana past, large gatherings had come in many forms: religious processions, funerals for prominent people, national celebrations, and holy pilgrimages. To see a gathering so large in person had him doubting many of his assumptions, but most of all, in the chances of the Jaguar Sun. The first gathering of Chakyum could rival some of the biggest groupings of people ever.

Coop had taken to the air, scouting ahead the way the Cloud Dancer would have. Mobility skills remained a rarity, in his experience, with those he had witnessed being one of two flavors. They were either capable of rapid short distance movements, like those demonstrated by the High Priestess, Ak-Hau, where she swapped with her water orbs, or heavily dependent on Agility, like the High Priest, Kul-Hau, the Voice of Kukulkan’s simple speed. If anything, Coop’s mistjumps were merely short distance movements, but they were enhanced by his stacked Strength which completely broke the scaling and allowed the ability to be useful for both short and long distances.

The Yucatan settlement was centered around a surprisingly symmetrical, circular lake in what had once been a protected jungle. The settlement’s territory expanded well beyond borders, starting a mere 10 miles inside of Guatemala and spreading far into Mexico to the northeast, the edges of Belize, Honduras, El Salvador to the west, and out into the Pacific Ocean to the south. If he carved out a generous territory to represent the entire Yucatan, the settlement would be right on the interior corner as his made up sections extended into the interior of Central America.

Vast swathes of forest had been cleared out in the settlement proper, leaving scattered trees in between partially completed stone temple-like structures abutting wide footpaths. The jungle canopy was replaced with mostly flat land, criss-crossed by roads that were layered with woven material. The trails formed the arterial corridors of an enormous primitive city.