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Start with an eagle warrior instead of scout cavalry unit.In time, the rain forest would reclaim the empire that had grown up within its midst. It did not end in some sudden cataclysm as is sometimes suggested, but rather, as a result of a weakened central authority and an apathetic populace. The empire reached the peak of its power in the tenth century, but from this point on, until the coming of the Spaniards, Mayan culture slowly declined. It would be left up to later Mayan warlords to perfect this new "blood" warfare, sanctifying their victories with human sacrifice. Not until the fourth century AD, when Great Jaguar Paw defeated a neighboring kingdom, did the idea of killing one's enemies, like the hunting of wild game, revolutionize Mayan warfare. At first, Mayan warfare consisted of ritualized combat, where the taking of captives, not the taking of lives, was the highest expression of martial prowess. Individual kingdoms within the Mayan empire might rise and fall, but collectively, the Mayans prospered, their temples reaching up to the heavens from under a sea of green. Built on the foundations of the first great society to inhabit this region, the Olmecs, the Mayans quickly adopted social institutions that organized their world along the lines of classical Greek city-states.
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As early as the second century BCE, a recognizable Mayan culture was flourishing in the Yucatán rain forest.