Hunahpu & Xbalanque (Civ6)/Civilopedia

Many indigenous American mythologies have a story of a magical pair of twins. In the K’iche’ Mayan Popol Vuh, these "Hero Twins" were Hunahpú and his brother Xbalanqué. Their story is a story about how the horrific gods of the underworld Xibalba lost their power. It begins with another set of brothers: the father and uncle of the Twins, who were betrayed by the gods of the underworld. They were invited to play the Mesoamerican ballgame in Xibalba, but the game was rigged and the losers were sacrificed.
Years later, Hunahpú and Xbalanqué found their father’s old ballgame equipment, figured out the story, and began to practice for their own match. Seeing this, the dark lords invited the twins to play a match. The Hero Twins knew it was a trap, but they went anyway. The games were nightmarish – a ball with hidden blades, athlete housing filled with flying razors, and, finally, a night in the lair of Camazotz, the monstrous bat god, which cost Hunahpú his head (temporarily).
Though the Twins won each game, at the moment of victory, they appeared to fall victim to one last trap, walking into an oven that incinerated them both. Little did the lords of Xibalba know that the Hero Twins had mastered the art of resurrection. Despite being burnt into ash, they were reborn in Xibalba, and lived amongst the dwellers there, hidden in plain sight. They pretended to be magicians who could bring back the dead and offered to show their trick to the dark lords by killing them, then bringing them back. But this was another trick – when the Hero Twins killed the highest gods of the underworld they revealed their identities and gleefully declined to resurrect the murderers of their father.
Like the ballgame, the Hero Twin stories traveled far. They can be found in mythologies ranging from Maya to Navajo, Mississippian to the Ho-Chunk.