Cayetano de Talavera.
Founder of Altos Aires.
Born in Estalia.
Bloodied in Lustria.
Killed in the East.
Buried nowhere.
“We are estalians. We have nothing to lose except our lives.”
- Cairn of Talavera. Altos Aires. Culchan plains. Lustria –
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Among the lustrian colonies founded by oldworlders consumed with gold fever, Santa Magritta on Colombo’s Island has long been the estalian doorstep into the green hell. Estalians are quick to boast of the colony’s wealth and success, even though it is actually a precarious, benighted place, dependent on shipments of food and arms from Magritta to survive, and periodically ravaged by fevers and pirates. The governor is for all practical purpose a tyrant ruling peons from his hacienda. He forbids colonists from leaving the island, as he needs every hand available to defend the colony, and he claims the right to organize every expedition into the continent along with a substantial share of all plunders. Many estalians flee misery at home only to find drudgery in Santa Magritta, without any hope of leaving or taking their destiny into their own hands.
This might help understand why Cayetano Díaz de Talavera entered history through mutiny.
Amongst the crowd of pirates, sailors, soldiers and all around cutthroats plaguing the lustrian coast, Cayetano Díaz had a few small but decisive qualities. He was a veteran tercio soldier, he could read and write, and he had no intention of exchanging a landowning master in Estalia for another one across the ocean. And above all, he had allies: country fellows, all from his town of Talavera, who for years survived all that Lustria can throw at a man. Their brotherhood had only strengthened, along with their desperate desire for another fate.
After years of dutiful, frustrating service, hoarding information from passing fleets and crumbling maps, he gathered his people, traced a line in the sand with his sword and made them a simple offer:
“Make me captain, and I will take you away from the beaten paths, away from disease, and away from the governor. Cross the line and come find with me the gold and glory a man can wrest from the world with the tip of his blade. Or stay and serve magrittan scum like we did at home. Make the choice, men of Talavera! We are estalians! We have everything to win and nothing to lose except our lives!”
Weeks later, four overcrowded ships escaped port on a moonless night. The talaverans and a few trusted allies took only what they deemed indispensable, their wives and sons not always being on the list. Cayetano took his charts, his brother Remigio and his goddess, the statue of Myrmidia Invicta they had carried all the way from their hometown.
They sailed south, always south, away from known waters, following Lustria’s coast, looking for proof Cayetano’s maps were truthful.
Until one day, they found it.