Beginnings of a Master Villain: Itzpapalotl, Aztec Goddess of Stars (and Who All Those Sacrifices Were Meant To Keep Far Away)

[Leliel]

Anyway, hello there! Newbie who can't work the character sheet reporting, hence why I'm asking for advice.

 

I'm a bit of an Aztec Mythology Nerd, and I must say, I...really don't mind Black Tezcatlipoca being a master villain. However, having just him as the main evil force from Mexica mythology is really selling them short, because Aztec gods are actually really creative.

 

So, the idea is that some wannabe hero with more power than patience for actual research decides he's tired of Tetz menacing the world, and thinking that the Aztecs saw things in terms of good vs. evil, summons a fertility and guardian goddess cited as the nemesis of Tezcatlipoca and ancestor of all modern humanity. As evinced by the fact I am trying to write her as a villain, the Obsidian Butterfly is, shall we say, a bit more ambiguous than that. In fact, she's a bloodthirsty berserker who hates everyone except midwives, pregnant women, and children-and the reason she's an enemy of the other Teotl is that she wants to destroy the sun and replace it with one of her own design (those stars that you can see during an eclipse? Those were taken to be Itzpapalotl's sisters and minions, the tzitzimimeh, launching a massive offensive against the daystar, with human sacrifice being a pick-me-up to the gods to fight them off).

 

I'm trying to think of a build that represents her as both a goddess of death and a goddess of fertility. I'm thinking she's not a subtle schemer by any sense of the term, but she's not stupid, and she knows ignorant mortals see "mother goddess" and think "good guy" (particularly given how her sacred animal is the ferocious deer), a confusion she plans to take advantage of. She uses a lot more mythical beasts and less humans than Tezcatlipoca does (both because she cares more about human cultists than he does and that she revels in chaos and destruction), in particular the chiuateteo (ghosts of women who died in childbirth, taken to be her guests in the starry heaven of Tamoachan-vengeful ones agree with her that the world needs to be remade in the image of humanity's ancestor, savage and pure).

[Badger]

Well, Aztec myth is pretty good for villainy.  (or it might be hard for me to see the Aztecs as good guys with all that human sacrificing)

[death tribble]

There was an old module called To Serve and Protect where a hero team found a woman who was treated as a goddess by the Mesoamericans. That is worth a look. She is on the cover menacing police officers. Worth your while to look at.

[Lord Liaden]

Goddess of death plus goddess of fertility? I would suggest including a Summon representing her giving "birth" to all manner of destructive monsters, rather like Gaea in Greek mythology. I'm also thinking about Entangle and Telekinesis based on growing and animating plants. Maybe a NND AoE attack defined as causing all vegetation in an area to exude contact poison.

[TheQuestionMan]

Aztec Mythology - Wikipedia   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_mythology

 

Aztec Gods - Comic Vine  

http://comicvine.gamespot.com/aztec-gods/4060-56911/  

 

Aztec Deity Physiology - Superpowers Wiki  

http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Aztec_Deity_Physiology  

[Badger]

Aztec Deity Physiology - Superpowers Wiki  

http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Aztec_Deity_Physiology

 

This wiki is going to keep me occupied for awhile.

[Christopher]

I'm a bit of an Aztec Mythology Nerd, and I must say, I...really don't mind Black Tezcatlipoca being a master villain. However, having just him as the main evil force from Mexica mythology is really selling them short, because Aztec gods are actually really creative.

Totoalyl go nuts. Using your personal experience as part of story and character design is a time honored tradition. The Author of Bleach was a bit of a Archtecture nerd. So half his characters are named after architects.

 

 

I'm trying to think of a build that represents her as both a goddess of death and a goddess of fertility. I'm thinking she's not a subtle schemer by any sense of the term, but she's not stupid, and she knows ignorant mortals see "mother goddess" and think "good guy" (particularly given how her sacred animal is the ferocious deer), a confusion she plans to take advantage of. She uses a lot more mythical beasts and less humans than Tezcatlipoca does (both because she cares more about human cultists than he does and that she revels in chaos and destruction), in particular the chiuateteo (ghosts of women who died in childbirth, taken to be her guests in the starry heaven of Tamoachan-vengeful ones agree with her that the world needs to be remade in the image of humanity's ancestor, savage and pure).

A similarily "split" god was Sobek. "Sobek was also associated with pharaonic power, fertility, and military prowess, but served additionally as a protective deity with apotropaic qualities, invoked particularly for protection against the dangers presented by the Nile river."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobek

 

Used him in a short description once:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/90931-supers-image-game/page-7?do=findComment&comment=2471819

 

Actually with those old gods, it might depend who becomes the avatar. The old Gargyoles Cartoon had two very different interpreations of the same god (Seth) based on who became the avatar at the moment. One was a raving monster, that used his powers to drain live. The other a wise man, wich used it to restore what the previous one had taken (and finally found personal peace).

[Hadmar von Wieser]

The main problem with gods is that us modern people lost contact with nature and so somehow can not understand ambivalence.
Just look at "mother nature":
She gives us everything we need to eat, encourages us to breed, wants us to multiply and strive. So she obviously is a goddess of good.
But she also gives us the wolves, the cholera bacterium, and the maggots eating our dead. So she obviously is a goddess of evil.

The reason is: She loves the wolves as much as us. She wants the cholera bacterium to multiply, too. And she is as happy seeing the maggots breeding - even if we are still alive while they do it inside us.

Our ancestors understood this because they had to live with it. Storm is good if he brings the rain your crops desperately need. Storm is evil if you wanted to reach that harbour and now get blown away. So Zeus is good and evil. Fire is nice if the night is cold and the wolves are circling out there. Fire is horror if it takes your house in midwinter. So a fire god is good and evil.

Itzpapalotl could be a total terror while still talking like a mother.
Killing a few hundred peons in the fields because she wants to make more humans. New ones.
Seducing a male hero as a beautiful woman and transforming into a skeleton witch the moment she receives his "life".
Killing a woman because she is not strong enough to give birth to a big and strong child (Caesarean section is cheating). But then making that woman's spirit her favorite servant sent out to kill more people.
She could start killing gynaecologists and surgeons.
She could burn down villages because she wants to breed more butterflies, moths, and bats to carry her influence into the world.

And of course if you piss her off she uses SUMMON: beautiful iron butterflies with claws. To cut you to pieces. For the maggots. Because you look more beautiful as a patch of bloody earth where something new will grow.
 

[Badger]

The main problem with gods is that us modern people lost contact with nature and so somehow can not understand ambivalence.

Just look at "mother nature":

She gives us everything we need to eat, encourages us to breed, wants us to multiply and strive. So she obviously is a goddess of good.

But she also gives us the wolves, the cholera bacterium, and the maggots eating our dead. So she obviously is a goddess of evil.

The reason is: She loves the wolves as much as us. She wants the cholera bacterium to multiply, too. And she is as happy seeing the maggots breeding - even if we are still alive while they do it inside us.

 

Our ancestors understood this because they had to live with it. Storm is good if he brings the rain your crops desperately need. Storm is evil if you wanted to reach that harbour and now get blown away. So Zeus is good and evil. Fire is nice if the night is cold and the wolves are circling out there. Fire is horror if it takes your house in midwinter. So a fire god is good and evil.

 

Itzpapalotl could be a total terror while still talking like a mother.

Killing a few hundred peons in the fields because she wants to make more humans. New ones.

Seducing a male hero as a beautiful woman and transforming into a skeleton witch the moment she receives his "life".

Killing a woman because she is not strong enough to give birth to a big and strong child (Caesarean section is cheating). But then making that woman's spirit her favorite servant sent out to kill more people.

She could start killing gynaecologists and surgeons.

She could burn down villages because she wants to breed more butterflies, moths, and bats to carry her influence into the world.

 

And of course if you piss her off she uses SUMMON: beautiful iron butterflies with claws. To cut you to pieces. For the maggots. Because you look more beautiful as a patch of bloody earth where something new will grow.

 

 

Well, lots of "mother nature's" actions that are "evil" often serve some good purpose.  Maggots being a good example (gets rid of lot of "nasty" stuff we don't want lying around). 

 

And, Death avoids overpopulation, which could potentially cause widespread starvation.

 

 

Edit: And I never really saw wolves as evil, myself.  (though, they could be to the shepherd, for example).  And I never really liked the carnivores=evil that Disney has a tendency in their movies.  At least after 7 or 8, I tended to think "But, if he doesn't catch the star of the movies' mother, he'll likely starve".  I didn't want the wolf to starve to death.

 

Note:  And badgers?  We're evil, but we don't give a &&&&.

[Lord Liaden]

Modern urban society has insulated the majority of us from the reality of death, which our ancestors encountered every day. Most of us who eat meat never get within sight of the living animals we consume. The terminally sick are sent away to facilities where they're cared for by a small cadre of professionals. Violence by criminals is statistically rare (despite how the media plays up the aftermath). For much of the world war is something that happens "over there." In such an environment it's understandable to personify forces of death and destruction as being "evil," rather than the impersonal and necessary part of existence that they are.

 

Nonetheless it still sucks when they land on you or people you care about. At such times it is hard to feel philosophical about the situation.

[Matt the Bruins]

Well, gods of death or decay are traditionally the enemy figures of a lot of mythologies that predate corner grocery stores and high tech city living, so the associations aren't purely a modern invention. Hel, Erlik Khan, and Izanami-no-Mikoto were all envisioned by cultures that had a rather closer relationship with death than we do today.

[Cassandra]

Maybe a simpler Villain name would do.  Aztec Queen for example.

[Leliel]

Well, actually...yeah, I could do with a simpler name. It's just that, well, old Tetz has his name.

 

Also, Hadmar: Excellent points, all. Didn't think of it that way, but that's a very distinct style to her and her powers. Probably make it a lot less disgusting (more to emphasize duality than any squeamishness, actually), but it makes her different from Tezcatlipoca. Also ties in with my idea of the climatic scheme, where she attempts to summon her son into his own avatar (her son being Mixcoatl, god of hunters-he being around wouldn't be Game Over, but he'd help with making her impossible to remove from the world. Worse, I'm taking something from Scion 1E and making it so that he's followed around by Xolotl, the god of lightning, fire and guardian of the dead-aka Hope You Don't Need Electricity To Fight Zombies).

[DShomshak]

I'll note that when I wrote up Tezcatlipoca for Arcane Adversaries, I deliberately chose an extremely hostile interpretation to make him a fairly straightforward supervillain. If I had him to do over again -- after writing and playing a lot of Scion -- I might take a more nuanced approach. None of the Aztec gods are exactly sweetness and light, but the dualism in Aztec mythology suggests they saw him as a necessary figure. The Enemy of Both Sides is also He By Whom We Live; sometimes destroyer, sometimes creator. The common thread in his portfolios of influence -- sorcery, war, kingship, etc. -- seems to be that they are great and terrible things beyond ordinary control. Thus, he could be interpreted as a god of disruptive Energy, in eternal rivalry to the ordering and stabilizing influence of Quetzalcoatl.

 

In this version of Tez, he'd function ambiguously in a super-world: usually seen as villainous because he's always attacking social stability; but he might say he's opposed to stagnation. He'd be as great a threat to other villains as to the heroes (at least to Rule The World, My Will Supreme Forever master villains). No, he isn't making the world a better place -- a meaningless concept for him -- but he's making it more dynamic and intense.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Lord Liaden]

OTOH your Arcane Adversaries Tezcatlipoca is understandably a lot more P.O.ed over having had his worship practically exterminated after the Spanish conquest. His hatred and desire for vengeance is directed toward non-Native Americans, particularly European-descended; and other religions, especially Christianity. It's unfortunate for North America that those two categories define the great majority of people on the continent.

[phoenix240]

To look at it from a different angle, While I can completely understand simplifying ancient gods when using them as NPCs in a Champions game, most games will be in a comic book world and in such worlds morality is often simplified even binary in true Four Color variants. It is a game of recreated comic book adventure not a mythology class, after all. I'm not saying making these beings more complicated or accurate is off limits just that's not required to have a good time with them. Most of players will be coming at this from a modern likely 1st world view point after all and might feel they're being lectured on how "Everything they know/believe is wrong". if things are taken too far. 

[Christopher]

The main problem with gods is that us modern people lost contact with nature and so somehow can not understand ambivalence.

Just look at "mother nature":

She gives us everything we need to eat, encourages us to breed, wants us to multiply and strive. So she obviously is a goddess of good.

But she also gives us the wolves, the cholera bacterium, and the maggots eating our dead. So she obviously is a goddess of evil.

The reason is: She loves the wolves as much as us. She wants the cholera bacterium to multiply, too. And she is as happy seeing the maggots breeding - even if we are still alive while they do it inside us.

I like this one short description of the Interactions between Modern Humans and Mother Nature:

To be fair however, Mother Nature is still a force of life by definition. So while she might be rooting for the Bacterium and Wolfes as well as us, at least we have a chance to exist in her book.

 

Note that maggots explicity eat only dead flesh. Actually using maggots as part of medical therapy has been gaining traction because of this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggot_therapy

Of course Myiasis is a different mater altogether.