Huitzilopochtli

HUITZILOPOCHTLI

God of War and the Sun, Hummingbird of the South, Patron of Tenochtitlán

## Biography

Scholars and philosophers from Sigil - the city at the center of the multiverse - agree on the theory that the strongest power in existence is belief. If enough people believe in the same thing it comes into existence - thus explaining the creation of deities. The only god that predates humanity by far is the omnipotent creator known by many names - Deus, Azatoth, Allah, Gitche Manitou, Om, Gan, Tengri, and many others. When this God created humanity he made it His chosen species by giving it the power to use faith to draw energy from Keter, "the Source" created by Him in order to manifest his will. Thus, when humanity spread all over the world, its faith led to the emergence of hundreds of different deities. Perhaps the oldest of these were the Japanese spirits, the Celestial Bureaucracy in China, the Four Heavenly Kings of India, the deities of ancient Hyboria - Crom, Derketo, Father Set and others - and, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, the deities of the Aztecs.

The Aztecs knew the Source as Teotl and God as Tonacatecuhtli ("lord of our sustenance"). As the first Mesoamerican tribes began to believe in these supernatural forces, Tonacatecuhtli created Ometeotl, the god of duality - light and darkness, fire and water, judgment and forgiveness, men and women. Being both male and female, Ometeotl was able to sire children all by himself - the four Tezcatlipocas, who each presided over one of the four cardinal directions: over the East presided Quetzalcoatl, the god of light, mercy and wind; over the West presided Xipe Totec, the god of gold, farming and Spring time; over the North presided the Black Tezcatlipoca, the god of judgment, night, deceit, sorcery and the Earth; and over the South presided Huitzilopochtli, the god of war and the sun.

At that point in Mesoamerican history - at around 10,000 BC - began the Age of the Five Suns (called Paleo-Indian period by modern day scientists). The four Tezcatlipocas were eager to create a civilization worth of their divine power. After their first creations were all devoured by the giant crocodile Cipactli, the deities created the first other gods as well as a species of giants, and as the valleys of modern-day Mexico were rather dark at that time, the Black Tezcatlipoca burned himself in order to turn into a second sun. The world continued on in this way for some time, but a sibling rivalry grew between Quetzalcoatl and his brother the mighty sun, who Quetzalcoatl knocked from the sky with a stone club. In his anger, Tezcatlipoca commanded his jaguars to eat all the giants. Thus the people of the First Sun (or First Age) went extinct.

Another attempt of creation was made by Quetzalcoatl who turned himself into another sun. This time the followers of the Tezcatlipoca were normal sized humans, but after a while the humans grew less and less civilized and stopped showing proper honor to the gods. As a result, the Black Tezcatlipoca demonstrated his power and authority as god of sorcery and judgment by turning the animalistic people into monkeys. Enraged by the transformation of his favorite people, Quetzalcoatl stepped down as the sun, ending the Second Age.

The next sun became Tlaloc, a god of rain and fertility. But Huitzilopochtli seduced Tlaloc's wife, the goddess Xochiquetzal and the grieving Tlaloc refused to move over the sky, so a great drought swept Mesoamerica turning large parts of it into desert. As the peoples' prayers for rain annoyed the stubborn Tlaloc, he answered them with a great downpour of fire, ending the Third Age.

Eventually the benevolent goddess Chalchiuhtlicue turned into another sun as she couldn't watch the humans suffer. But the Black Tezcatlipoca - still enraged by Quetzalcoatl hitting from the sky - made the goddess cry and for the next fifty-two years a horrible flood drowned the land of the Aztec ancestors. Probably this was the same Great Flood that ravaged Eurasia.

After the Great Flood, Huitzilopochtli turned into a sun to dry the land, while his brother Quetzalcoatl resurrected the Mesoamerican humans using blood magic, cursing them to repay the debt of blood in the generations to come. But Ometeotl youngest children, the star gods called Tzitzimitl, were jealous of their brighter, more important brother Huitzilopochtli. Their leader, Coyolxauhqui, goddess of the moon, lead them in an assault on Huitzilopochtli. To withstand their savage attack Huitzilopochtli sacrificed himself by throwing himself in the real, great sun. From that day onwards, the star gods attack the sun every night and it is said that only the nourishment of human sacrifice helps the sun to survive this continuing war. However, this might just be propaganda spread by modern-day blood mages to justify their dreadful rituals.

But even though he sacrificed his life, Huitzilopochtli had the power of reincarnation. Thus he was reborn as the son of Coatlicue and the god Mixcoatl, who disguised himself as a ball of feathers. However, after Huitzilopochtli was conceived his sister Coyolxauhqui tried to kill their mother because she became pregnant in such a shameful way. Using his link to the sun Huitzilopochtli learned of this plan while still in the womb, and before it was put into action, sprang from his mother's womb fully grown and fully armed. He then killed his sister and many of his 400 brothers. He then tossed his sister's head into the sky where it allegedly landed on the moon. After his re-birth Huitzilopochtli adapted a human form with a distinctively black obsidian skin and a crown decorated with the green feathers of the hummingbird - his fathers disguise when he slept with Coatlicue. In this new form he traveled all over Mesoamerica gathering many tribes to form a new people, the Mexico - better known as the Aztecs.

Ruled directly by Huitzilopochtli, the Aztecs settled down in a secluded valley called Aztlan near an Atlantean trading post. Even in his human form, the deity continued his struggle against the star gods and he required human sacrifice - founding the Aztec sacrificial cult and the tradition of blood magic. The Aztec culture flourished until the Aztlan valley beginning to suffer from overpopulation. Thus, at some point during the 13th century Huitzilopochtli led the Aztecs southwards to Lake Texcoco. There he appeared to his chosen people in the guise of an eagle perched on a cactus - an image which would later decorate the Mexican national flag. At that location the Aztecs settled down to found their new capital city - Tenochtitlán. Furthermore, Huitzilopochtli decided that the Aztecs were now strong enough to rule themselves, leaving the throne in the hands of the first human rulers. Under their rule the Aztec Empire would quickly grew in strength and in science, expanding over large parts of Mesoamerica.

However, it is uncertain what happened with Huitzilopochtli. After the foundation of Tenochtitlán he disappeared and he would not return during his people's time of greatest need - when the Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés slaughtered the Aztec people and destroyed their empire in 1521. Some say Huitzilopochtli did not aid his people as he was busy protecting the sun against the assault of the star gods. Others theorize that he and the other gods returned to Aztlan together with their favorite priests, kings and warriors. Or perhaps the deity died after the slaughter of his worshipers as their were less and less followers of the Aztec cult. Eventually the Awakening of Magic in 2011, which is traditionally known as the arrival of the Sixth Sun or the start of the Sixth Age - led to the resurgence of old Aztec traditions - human sacrifice, blood magic and the worship of the long lost Aztec gods. However, Huitzilopochtli himself did not reappear to the public - and perhaps he never will.