Boy did I ever use the word conquer (or some derivative) a lot in that update. :) By the end I was trying to come up with an alternative because in my head as I read it back it was beginning to sound like "conquer conquer conquer, conquered, conquer, conquering, conquer conquer".
I hate it when that happens. (Although your paragraph didn't make me cringe when I read it, so no worries. In fact, I didn't even notice,so had to go back and reread.) I think you could say you consciously decided that the repetition of the word was an artistic choice. And it worked.
But you made me curious, so looked in the thesaurus. Although it listed quite a few, only three would have been adequate choices, I think: subjugate, subdue and vanquish
And none of them occurred to me while I was writing, probably because they were conquistadors and so that immediately brings the word conquer to mind and then it sticks there blocking me from using anything else.
But you made me curious, so looked in the thesaurus. Although it listed quite a few, only three would have been adequate choices, I think: subjugate, subdue and vanquish