Question: So, other than the fact that the God writeup makes us Mesoamerican focused people froth in rage, what to do about Huehueteotl-Xiuhtecuhtli? He seems cthonic and distant enough to count as a Titan, but too benevolent for the role as far as his worship is concerned. Not to mention he's an important figure in their religion, ala Xipe Totec. How do we deal with him?
Hisssss, God writeup. It burns us.
In the first round, I'd probably un-concatenate the two figures; while they definitely have links and there is legit scholarship about them, Scion's probably better served if Huehueteotl and Xiuhtecuhtli are different people (though you could always write a cool plot involving his occasional transformation back and forth, the better to keep the world in order). They probably were originally two anyway and became conflated later, much like other odd pairings in the pantheon (Tezcatlipoca and Mixcoatl, for example, or Itzpapalotl and Cihuacoatl). If I'm going to consider Xochiquetzal and Xochipilli separate people - and I want to, because they're way more fun that way - then I'm probably going to keep the god of benevolent age and the god of fire as different dudes, too.
Actually, I have been on an off-again on-again campaign to get Xiuhtecuhtli onto the playable roster for the Aztlanti for ages. John keeps shooting me down, mostly with reasonable reminders like "he has no associateds other than Fire" and "there are no stories about him" and "none of our players have ever heard of him", but he's such a big deal that I'm still trying to figure out if he could possibly be a legitimate figure for divine parentage. I think I've got him on the ropes after the recent new finds under Mexico City included bazillions of little Xiuhtecuhtli statues - look! He's an important dude! Seriously!
But while Xiuhtecuhtli has some fun festivals and appears to have had a pretty close relationship with his people, Huehueteotl is a lot more of a distantly cosmic figure, you're right. If you aren't combining him with Xiuhtecuhtli, he doesn't really have much going on by himself other than being old and sort of grandfatherly, so he's not doing very much. I agree with you that he probably needs to be a Titan - but I'm not too worried about his benevolent aspects, since he doesn't have to be evil, just inhuman (that's a fun distinction!). I'd probably select him as a good candidate for a Titan of Death if you have one - he'd represent old age and death of natural causes, rather than the more violent and scary Avatars the place probably has.
He could also just be an old, crochety god who doesn't do anything but sit around in Acopa all day letting the young bucks take charge of things. He'd actually probably be a pretty hilarious NPC; I envision him totally taking advantage of the fact that the Aztec prohibition on alcohol doesn't apply to geriatrics, and possibly haranguing the other gods as they go about their business.
He/Both of him are a fun figure. I want to do more with him/them in Scion.
"None of our players have ever heard of him" is often a circular argument in Scion, for these odd pantheons outside of the cultural awareness. Your players are a cut above most, so perhaps they are an exception, but I think that most of the time, Scion players know about the Aztec gods that are featured heavily in Scion (so it gets circular if the gods we feature heavily are the gods the players know).
ReplyDeleteAnyway, he's got the best nagual of any Aztec figure I have ever heard of, by far. (Eat your yollotl out, Tepeyollotl!)
His nahualli is so awesome other gods need to borrow it.
DeleteOh yeah, Xiuhtecuhtli is that lovely blend of "Really important, whole bunch of duties, massive cult, goddamnit, no stories or cool powers".
ReplyDeleteI mean, his major function beyond keeping fire going was maintaining the calendar and chilling in the center of the Earth (though the last one is more the conflation with Huehueteotl). He's a patron of young warriors, but that's not enough to justify giving him War (If so, you'd have to give it to Tezcatlipoca too...). He's occasionally seen in mortuary bundles, but that doesn't qualify him for Death. He's a patron of kings and nobility, but, like the calendar bit, what the hell could THAT translate to? In addition to his xiuhcoatl nagual, he's sometimes associated with the cotinga bird, but not nearly to the extent that, say Quetzalcoatl is with his bird totem.
... You know, mentioning Cihuacoatl, SHE really needs to be a playable goddess. Bunch of associateds (Animal (Snake), Health, Death, Epic Appearance, Epic Stamina...) and widespread folk worship. I mean, the majority of clay figurines in Aztec contexts depict her. Unless you make her an alias of Coatlicue...
I actually more often see Cihuacoatl as a form of Itzpapalotl than Coatlicue (which I think is a pretty interesting combination of ideas). Either way, though, I think she's probably more of a Titan figure, particularly with the tragic nastiness of the cihuateteo attendant. She's another unsung favorite of the pantheon, though.
DeleteMore Fire Gods! More Fire Gods!
ReplyDelete