A few months before Tremontaine was a real thing that had writers and characters and a plot, it was some nebulous notion that Ellen put to me over her kitchen table one afternoon while I was visiting. We were devouring the end-bits of some kind of very good goat cheese and I think I was waiting for the water to boil for the tea (Ellen and I have similar appetites for tea). She was talking about the Swordspoint universe and how things there are recognizably related to a vaguely Renaissance to 18th century western European world, but have very particular differences. One of which was, much as we both loved tea, it was unknown to the denizens of her unnamed city. There, the rich all gossiped over pots of chocolate.“But Ellen,” I said, “chocolate isn’t from Europe. It’s from Mexico.” (Actually, now researchers think that the cacao plant originated in south america, where it was cultivated for the fruit, not the seeds. But it was certainly in Mexico that they developed the technique of turning cacao seeds into the delicious beverage we know as chocolate.)And Ellen told me, “Oh I know that, but there’s no reason it couldn’t be imported.“And I said, unthinking of the consequences of such speculation, “You know, if you end up doing this prequel thing, you should totally have some characters of color be the ones who import chocolate from their land to The Land. Political intrigue, a different perspective on the Landers and their curious customs, plus, amazing pre-hispanic Mexican food!”And Ellen said, over a fresh pot of tea, “You know, that’s not a bad idea, Alaya.“Well, months later, when this idle dream had become real enough to fly me from Mexico City to New York for the big writer’s retreat, my interest in the delicacies of Mexican cooking before the conquest had not abated. And so of course, when we realized that the big set piece for the second episode was going to be an opulent banquet that the Balams put on for the Local merchants and other Kinwiinik in the city, I knew that I had to write it. Thankfully no one else was brave enough to get in my way! We definitely had some polite skirmishes over rights to some episodes in the season, but one of the reasons we gelled so well as a writing team, I think, is because each one of us had at least one ideal episode, and the rest of us were all just excited to see what they would do of it. I was meant to write episode 2, and I had so much fun immersing myself in the world of the banquet that it was hard to leave.Lucky for me, I’ve been celebrating Día de los Muertos here in Mexico City, which means that the tamales and the atole abound in the streets, along with marigolds and catrinas. Luckily, during the celebrations I’ve been able to score myself some foamy chocolate atole and ant egg tamales, breathe in the wafting copal from the offerings to the dead, and imagine for a moment that I’m hanging out with Kaab over in the world of Tremontaine.
