Illex Paraguariensis, Ceres' Sacred Herb (Alternative History Series)

The begining of this supposed reality must be traced few centuries "before common era" (BCE), right at the time when the Jewish, or Hebrew peoples, were still polytheists. The big change for our "plot" is the uchronic fact that the jewish NEVER became monotheists, but remained monolastric. The other drastic concept that must be kept in mind to follow this alternative history is that in this reality Jesus Christ was NEVER born. With this two things in mind, we can continue.

The polytheist Spain, a land of a million deities, had finally gotten rid of the barbaric moors, but part of their culture and gods remained among the common folks, although this, Mars, ancestor of all Romans, was seen as the forefather of the Spanish nation, Spanish people calling themselves as "Romans" to denote that they weren't Moors anymore. 

When the Spanish arrived to the Americas, they came with their Gods and Goddesses, they thought the continent was a new Earth. In fact, when Christopher Columbus first set a foot on what's now Watling Island, he yelled: "We might had crossed Caronte's Lake!", as in the medieval period, the entrance to the underworld was believed to be a ginormous lake, and not a river anymore, that's probably due to  Germanic influences. 

Because the men thought they were literally on hell, they armed themselves to get ready to fight Februus' minions. So, upon seeing the native Guanahanies, many rushed into battle positions. Columbus, noticing how things could quickly escalate into conflict, did as much as possible to calm the men. Famously, one of the things he did was to approach the natives, who were completely bewildered, and passed them his hand. The natives were probablly felt dodgy regarding the Spaniards, but brave enough, a young boy reached his hand and touch Columbus' fingers. After seeing this, the men settled their fears, because Columbus wasn't dead after touching these individuals, so they must be humans, or at least, not entities of the Underworld. It was yet greatly believed that they weren't anymore in the Midlands, so the island was called "Isla de Éstige" (Styx's island), after the Goddess who personfies the entrance to Hell.

In the early XVI century, Spaniards found the mouth of a huge river, and due to some effects caused by the sun and the mixing sweet and salt water of the estuary, the river seemed to have a gray colour, almost silver-ish, and so they named the estuary "silver Tiber". In the shore of the silver Tiber, Pedro de Mendoza founded a fortress-like settlement and called it "Tiberia de España" (Spain's Tiberia). 

The Tree and the Spear

I was surrounded by seven children, together with them we were in a round around a dead guava tree Stuck on the tree there was a strange object, and after looking more closely at it, I noticed that it was a spear deeply embeded into the wood, with its shaft snapped. The spearhead was rusty and very damaged, which it indicated that had been there since long ago.

After studying for a while the spear as well as the tree, the kids started to sing with one voice: "Wuotan's spear has fallen, Wuotan's spear has fallen". It took me some time to remember who or what Wuotan was, it's the name for the germanic sky god, also known as Odin in Scandinavia. The kids looked cheerful and happy, but I was confused.

 I looked away from the children and noticed there was a team of oxen and an old looking plow, next to that, a large field well worked and some sprouts here and there. In the dream, I was sometimes one of the kids in the ring, and some others I was driving the plow and pricking the oxen to make them pull it. Whenever I would be in front of the oxen, as I pass with the plow blood would ooze and a mephitis would emanae from the opened earth.

Right before I woke up, I saw the chidrlen following an old man dressed up like a late 18 century soldier, black jacket, white trousers and bicorn hat. The kids would shout "wait, wait, Murmurlius!". Murmulius is the name of the Old Mars, he symbolises the passing of a cycle, the end of winter and the born of the "New Mars". I was approached by the Marmulius, and he told me: "I'll get this fixed".