Oh, man, you've cut me to the heart, questioner. We desperately wanted to add Xochipilli as a playable god, simply because he's pretty much one of the most awesome of Aztec deities and his story possibilities are endless. He's an older Toltec god, imported into the Aztec pantheon but probably viewed almost derisively in some senses, in charge of not only fun stuff like flowers and art and dancing but also really fun stuff like psychedelic mushrooms and prostitution, not to mention being the only Aztec god to be cool with homosexuality (at least, one must assume he's cool with it, as he's the patron of homosexual men). Compared to the rest of the pantheon, he's an awesome breath of fresh air and wild rules-breaker. He and Tlazolteotl probably hate each other.
Doesn't this look like someone you want to invite to your wild parties?
But, sadly, we couldn't come up with enough associated stats to really justify him as Legend 12. He has no existing stories or myths that we know of; we know generally what he was about because of hymns to him as well as statues and paintings, but there's no record of any mythic exploits he was involved in nor any stories of his life or relationships with others in the pantheon. We tried for a bit to see if we could just assign him associateds based on his clear attributes in the hymns and art based on him, and came up with Appearance, Charisma and Fertility... and then realized that he was going to be exactly the same as Xochiquetzal, and that we were reaching in our desire to include him. So he did not end up making it onto the roster, much to our secret sorrow.
But that doesn't mean you have to lose out on all his coolness! I imagine he's probably Legend 10 or 11, whichever works better for a game, and all his crazy associations and weird status as an outsider in the pantheon can be used in stories however you like even if he isn't on the official roster (I could also see a Scion of Xochipilli taking the hit in associated powers for the coolness factor, or, perhaps even better, a son or daughter of Xochipilli being adopted by his sister Xochiquetzal to give them a full spread of XP savings while still allowing him to be involved in the Scion's life as much as you wanted him to be).
One of our PCs is actually currently trying to help Xochipilli overturn the Aztec ban on homosexuality and convince the culture to accept homosexuals instead of murdering them. We're not sure if he's going to succeed, but it's certainly an awesome plot!
If you really wanted to use both of them, you might be able to play up Xochipilli's connections to drugs and their ritual use, as well as his connection to the Aztec Ball Game. He could end up with Mystery and Dexterity from that.
ReplyDeleteHis sister, meanwhile, could well have Animal (Butterfly). Both of them could easily have Emotion (Lust) or even (Love). I use them as Legend 11 figures, meaning they only have 4 Associated Powers each. Appearance, Fertility and Health for both, but I gave Xochipilli Mystery and Xochiquetzal (Animal Butterfly). They have a whole lot of Emotion, but not the Avatar Expressions.
Well, we don't use Emotion, so that's out for us. We did consider both Mystery for Xochipilli and Butterfly for Xochiquetzal, but ended up feeling like we were reaching too hard - it wasn't really necessary to have them both, so we stopped trying. I don't know that I'd go with Dexterity - he may be patron of the ballgame, but there's nothing out there that suggests he's particularly good at playing it himself (and even if there were, I'd be inclined to give him Athletics for that, not a whole attribute).
DeleteI'm actually surprised at myself for forgetting to mention Mystery - it's an easy one, considering the obvious connotations of hallucinations/religious trances connected to the mushroom.
DeleteHe may not fit the bill for the Aztec pantheon, but he's a shoe-in as an Avatar of Hundun. Just sayin'.
ReplyDelete(Actually, Maya would work too - psychedelic mushroom hallucinations = illusion, yeah?)
Or even Comprenion, as a keeper of mystical knowledge that sometimes hurts people who try to get at it. :)
DeleteHeh, he does look particularly Titan-y in that picture above.