Azcan Pirates of the Sea of Dread
by Marc SaindonAfter WOTI, the Children of the Tiger (which should be the Jaguar, with Tiger-Stripes just renamed Obsidian Claws or something not tiger-like), seize different shipwrecks from Ierendi, Minrothad and Sind Reavers.
"The First Punic War between Rome and Carthage began in 264 BC with the Romans landing on Sicily.[4] The Romans had the stronger army, while Carthage had overwhelming maritime superiority.[5] By 260 BC the war had reached a stalemate, as the Carthaginians focused on defending their well-fortified Sicilian towns and cities; these were mostly on the coast and so could be supplied and reinforced without the Romans being able to use their superior army to interdict.[6][7] The focus of the war shifted to the sea, where the Romans had little experience; on the few occasions they had previously felt the need for a naval presence they had usually relied on small squadrons provided by their Latin or Greek allies. Warships of the time were specialised vessels known as galleys and which relied on oars for maneuverability.[5][8][9] The Romans set out to construct a war fleet and used a shipwrecked Carthaginian quinquereme as a blueprint for their own.[10] As novice shipwrights, the Romans built copies that were heavier than the Carthaginian vessels, and so slower and less maneuverable"
Ships of ancient Rome
Like the Romans of History, they are not a seafaring people, although the sages find a way to retro-engineering some of the designs, and begin to build their own fleet.
For what purpose?
A blockade of Athenos?
Raiding Ierendi and the Five Shires for captives?
Establish trade with Sind (mostly Jaibul)?
Or maybe make use of the typo "Children of the Viper" in Gaz14's map, and invent an ongoing civil war between the Serpent-Coatl faction (misrepresented as a viper by foreigners) and the Jaguar-Balam faction (misrepresented as a tiger by foreigners). Building that fleet might be part of some new plan, either for Coatl partisans to engage in some Mayflower escape plan somewhere on the (appropriately named) Serpent Peninsula, or that Jaguar loyalists are desperate for more sacrifices to win the civil war, and so turn to raiding neighboring lands.
image from:
https://loreart.com/p/ZKOcruW4ZHxu3IVGSta9/alternate-history-aztec-empire-s-first
