Gods of Axetloc

## "The Four Gods" of the Axetlocan Empire

Axetlocans are known to worship four different deities that are said to wander around the jungles of Azonia, but have been known to visit other parts of the world as well. This religion was born in the Great City of Excatapan of the Axetlocan Empire, after the first settlers began to build temples and venerate their new Gods that they had discovered.

### Origin Legend

The four Gods were discovered by the founders of Excatapan, the first Axetlocan city. Amixtli, the strongest among a group of settlers who were traveling to find good land, led his people towards the top of a small rocky mountain. His men followed him anxiously until he stopped and stood at the highest point of the mountain. There, it is said that Amixtli jumped off into the cliff, and the people were stunned. However, shortly after, Amixtli was brought back up by a giant feathered snake who soared quickly and flew through the skies, being mounted by Amixtli. The hero tightly grasped onto the giant snake's back feathers as it moved through the air so fast, that he was about to fall more than one time.

After a series of swings, turns and aggressive nosedives into the water below the cliff, Amixtli was still hanging on to the snake. The snake floated and let Amixtli go back to his people. The snake roared his name: **"Oxelotl, God of Wind and Thunder"**, then rised high and disappeared into the jungle trees.

From that moment on, Amixtli was titled Seer by his people, which earned him the right to communicate with all the other Gods of the jungle. The people established a new settlement on that same location, and it grew to what today is known as The Great City of Mocachtli.

### Axetlocan Gods

* **Oxelotl, God of Wind and Thunder:** A huge feathered snake that is able to control weather and summon lightning strikes at will. The beast is unkillable and feared and respected by all Axetlocans. Temples are constructed in his honor, in order to keep lightning storms at bay and ask for rain. It is believed that when Oxelotl gets mad, a thunder storm is summoned by him and the people must suffer his punishment. Seers often claim that these actions from behalf of the God are caused by the people through bad behaviors or evil thoughts, and so, Oxelotl is also recognized as the *God of justice*. Oxelotl is believed to be extremely intelligent and knowing, and the light for most Axetlocans.
* **Amoxtli, Goddess of Harvest and Fertility:** This deity's name is based on the *Original Seer*'s name, Amixtli. However, in the Axetlocan language, Amoxtli is the female name for Amixtli, and this means she's a Goddess. Amoxtli takes care of crops and listens to prayers directed to her for farms to grow healthy and be fruitful. She is the Goddess of Harvest and Fertility. Likewise, temples are made in her honor to favor the crops' growth. She usually takes the form of a young woman with hair that reaches her ankles.
* **Xuxuma, God of War:** Xuxuma is known to be the most aggressive and wild God of them all. Contrary to Oxelotl, Xuxuma believes in principles of brutality, instead of reason. Thought to be Oxelotl's rebellious brother, Xuxuma is the biggest God in size, being claimed to be "as tall as three jungle trees on top of each other, and as wide as four mountains combined". Seers who claim that they have seen the horrifyingly massive God often come back to their villages scared out of their souls. Xuxuma is an enormous bull like creature holding a humongous obsidian spear in his right hand, and most his skin is burnt by his brother, Mecanite, the God of the Nether. Xuxuma is a warrior and will accompany all Axetlocan warriors out of pure love for blood. Axetlocans fear him, but most Axetlocan warriors fight for him and often cry out the phrase "Blood to Xuxuma" in order to have their God's appreciation, seeing every war sacrifice as an offering to him.
* **Mecanite, God of Death and the Nether:** The brother of Oxelotl and Xuxuma. Mecanite is the reaper of Axetlocan souls. Represented as a long skeletal black-stained snake with a human skull at the front, the Death God takes all wandering souls to the deepest roots of earth; the fiery nether. Mecanite is known to be a cold god, and does not talk or interact, rarely being seen by Seers as he surrounds lost dead souls and brings them down through the ground. When quietness, calm and loneliness surrounds an Axetlocan, it is believed that Mecanite sits watching him from afar. Temples are dedicated to him in order to keep taking care of the lost souls in death by war, birth giving, crime, and illness.