Mictlan

**Mictlan** is a major location in volume three of the *Divine Comedy*.

It is the underworld of Aztec mythology that is ruled over by Mictlantecuhtli and his wife Mictecacihuatl. It becomes a major setting in volume three when Vaggie was claimed by the Aztec god after being rid of Heaven's influence in the aftermath of the battle with Metatron. This prompted Charlie and the others to take her back.

## Description

Mictlan is said to be comprised of nine levels. The journey from the first level to the ninth is difficult and takes four years, but the dead are aided by the psychopomp, Xolotl.

Mictlan is a realm with complex dimensions occupying deep space. In its heart is a large city full of bright lights and colors, while bridges covered with marigold petals branch from the city for the dead to venture across. The structures in the city are actually buildings upon buildings of previous homes, as the world is constantly expanding to accommodate the new souls that enter. The only beings that inhabit this world are human and animal spirits of the deceased (who have the appearance of "living" sugar skeletons) and the animal-like alebrije. The alebrije not only coexist with the humans of the afterlife, but also act as a guide for the ones who need them.

In death, the spirit will appear as the age when they died. They also retain the status they had in life, thus there are spirits that are considered celebrities, while other spirits continue their former occupation. The spirit will reunite with their loved ones in the afterlife, but only on Día de Los Muertos, those souls can cross over the bridges and return to the human world to see their living relatives once again. As long as these souls have a picture of who they were in life on their family's ofrenda (altar), they can cross the bridge successfully. In order to get back into Mictlan however, spirits must present ethereal copies of the offerings from their family's ofrenda.

### Laws

If a human enters Mictlan by disturbing or stealing something belonging to a deceased person during Día de Los Muertos, they gradually turn into a spirit and remain trapped in the realm if they can't leave by sunrise. They will need the spirit of a family member (or at least, a spirit the person thinks of as family) to bless a marigold petal to return them to the living world. However, the spirit can add any conditions they desire to the blessing; if the human breaks them after accepting the blessing, they instantly return to Mictlan.

Souls that were meant for Mictlan cannot be taken by another who operates in the service their respective afterlife; this applies to all underworlds. Vaggie was originally intended to go to Mictlan but Metatron placed an unauthorized brand over her soul thus breaching the terms and conditions of the Chthonic Declaration. This resulted in a legal battle between Heaven and Mictlan which would then be transferred over to Hell when Vaggie renounced her service to Heaven as an Exterminator but still had Heaven's influence in her.

It is possible to reclaim a soul from Mictlan but very rarely has this ever happened much less succeed. The only way Mictlantecuhtli would allow a foreigner to reclaim a soul that was originally intended to be in his realm is through a wager. This is seen when Charlie makes a wager to the Aztec god of the underworld where he would present forth several challenges for her and her friends to overcome in order to prove their worth and take Vaggie back. The challenges themselves are many, such as crossing a mountain range where the mountains crash into each other, a field with wind that blows flesh-scraping knives, and a river of blood with fearsome jaguars. Xolotl claims that it was Mictlantecuhtli's idea to place these challenges after watching a Japanese game show with his wife and Izanami.