Creating an Aztec setting for Dungeons and Dragons

Where are the Aztec fantasy adventures? Aztec history itself is hugely misunderstood and misrepresented, when it is. But where are the books, movies, and games where we can explore and adventure in the fantastic past of Mesoamerica’s history going back thousands of years? 
Common Dungeons and Dragons trivia is that the game was a spinoff of the medieval fantasy roleplaying game Chainmail. As much as gamers wanted to play in a historical simulation of knights and castles, Gary Gygax predicted (incredibly well) that people wanted to play in the FANTASY version of medieval Europe, which was the only place where you could find wizards casting spells at dragons. 

Has there been anything like that for Dungeons and Dragons? Unfortunately, the answer is “yes, sort of,” and it's called Maztica. Among the many forays into exploring new regions in the Forgotten Realms, such as the notorious Pan-Asian Kara-Tur setting, there was also the supplemental setting called Maztica published in 1991. The setting was very much a product of its time, built off of a foundation of American grade-school knowledge of Mesoamerican culture. There were conquistadors and explorers, because how else could it exist other than a conquest or tourist destination of Westerners? There was also “pluma” magic which was different from normal Faerun magic, making it all the more “exotic.”

I don’t think there’s much point in bashing Maztica: it was what it was, and it’s incredibly unlikely that Wizards of the Coast will ever bring it back again (which is probably for the best). But where do we go if we want to have fantastic adventures in this beautiful world of culture and myth? A world that isn’t merely grim history, that has the same romance and spirit of adventure that Europe has had for years and years?

This is the drive behind Ollitla: Land of Flowers and Thorns. A setting inspired by Aztec culture and mythology free from the tethers of history and the grasp of colonization. While settings like Maztica can be given the benefit of the doubt as well-meaning, there is still the issue of its colonial essence. Ollitla is a land unto itself, with or without visitors from distant continents. Ollitla is a land free from the impending shadow of Cortez and the inevitable conquest and downfall. However, as the title states, it is a land of both flowers and thorns: a world of beauty and wonder, but also of danger and threats.

If you ask who Ollitla is for, the answer is “everyone who enjoys TTRPGs,” but the answer is more complicated than that. It is indeed for everyone, whether you are of Mexican descent or otherwise, but you will get different things out of the setting depending on where you are coming from.

For those of indigenous Mexican heritage, this is the mythical setting of our ancestors, one we should take pride in and think of with delight for the potential for fun and adventure. Despite what many media depictions would have us think, our culture and history is not something to be ashamed of. It was not perfect by any means, but neither was any place, like medieval Europe for example.

If you do not have any cultural connection to Mexico or its rich history, you are all the more welcome to play in Ollitla too. After all, if people of backgrounds are welcome to roleplay as knights in Dragonlance or Greyhawk, then so is everyone welcome to create a hero to adventure in Ollitla.

As for the world of Ollitla, more will be revealed in time, but you should know the meaning of the name at last. The subtitle of “flowers and thorns” was already explained, but the name itself “Ollitla,” while derived from the Nahua language, is not the name of any nation or people that existed in Mesoamerica. Ollitla, put simply, means “land in motion,” as Ollitla is a world that is not dead or fossilized, but one that is alive and moving as long as our imaginations persist.