Question: How do you handle the non-blood sacrifices (precious stones, flowers, etc.) made by the various Mesoamerican civilizations in regards to Itztli?
Though the blood sacrifice is what everyone always remembers, there were various non-human sacrifices throughout ancient Mesoamerica as well, from foodstuffs to flowers to precious metals and stones to artwork. Like the cults of gods in other parts of the world, the worshipers of the Aztec gods knew various little gifts that their deities appreciated, and they were offered up regularly to the gods who were most identified with them. Sometimes this involved burning them; sometimes it just involved donating them to the temple. Echoes of these practices live on even in the modern-day, where distinctly Mesoamerican-flavored Catholic shrines may see many, many offerings of small trinkets or flowers at the feet of various saints and martyrs over the course of a year.
But, aside from the obviously more spectacular nature of blood sacrifice, there's a second reason that the non-human sacrifices are usually less important, and that's the existence of something called chalchiuatl. Loosely translated as "precious water", chalchiuatl is the substance that animates life and it flows through each person's veins; it is literally the power of life, and in the Aztec religion it was believed to only exist in blood (which they understood to be the substance that directly kept living things alive). When the ancient Aztecs engaged in blood sacrifice, they did so in order to offer up the chalchiuatl of that person's blood to the gods, literally giving them some (or all) of that person's power to use for their eternal duties as the sustainers of the universe. Essentially, it's not the act of making any old sacrifice that's most important to the Aztecs, though the concept of sacrifice is certainly deeply ingrained in the culture; it's the act of sacrificing to the gods to give them the power to support their people and the universe, and that power comes only from sacrifices of blood.
So, while there are certainly non-blood sacrifices to the Aztec gods happening, they serve a different purpose from the blood offerings. Like the sacrifices made by many other ancient cultures, non-blood sacrifices are given to gods to please them; they're offered up as a request for blessings, as a way of giving thanks for blessings already granted, or just as a nice measure to tell a god or goddess that they're awesome. Flowers might be offered to Xochiquetzal simply because she likes flowers and the gesture would be appreciated; jade might be given to Tlaloc because he's a rain-god and jade, being strongly associated with rain and water, is sort of "his" anyway. But blood sacrifice is all serious business. It's the sacrifice that powers the world; it's the thing that feeds the gods their power.
So, to answer your question: we don't. Non-blood sacrifices cannot be used with Itztli, because the purview is specifically about drawing on the inherent power of blood sacrifice. It is literally converting chalchiuatl to Legend for Aztlanti gods and Scions, and since non-blood sacrifices have none of that divine energy in them, they can't be used with it. Other sacrifices can still be made by Scions who want to impress their parents or make friends with their pantheon, however, and might be a good opportunity for stunting and fun Mesoamerican flavor.
This is probably going to sound like a stupid question, but can Aztec Scions sacrifice animals instead of people? For that matter, did the ancient Mesoamericans practice animal sacrifice? I know the book says that Quetzalcoatl was only sacrificed animals (and a single drop a year at that) but the book has been less than trustworthy as far as the Aztlanti are concerned.
ReplyDeleteThe book's gilding the lily somewhat, but it's not being untruthful about Quetzalcoatl - he made a rather grand, sweeping statement at one point that he didn't like sacrificing people and was therefore going to sacrifice only bird and butterflies. This was shortly before his kingdom got blown the heck up, so it might be a little bit a cautionary tale, but he is famous for being the only guy who wasn't entirely on board with human sacrifice.
DeleteAztecs did commonly sacrifice animals as well as people, especially animals that were sacred to the god in question; it wasn't as "useful" as human sacrifice, though, which was the more powerful act, so animal sacrifice should probably also be out of bounds for purposes of Itztli (though we have been known to allow those Scions who develop nahuallis to use Itztli on their totem animal as if it were human). That's less a matter of blood and more a matter of the potency of the sacrifice; sacrificing an animal isn't nearly as difficult or meaningful as sacrificing a human or giving of your own blood.
Contrastingly, the Maya were much more heavy on animal sacrifice and light on human sacrifice than the Aztecs, who skewed in the other direction. There are a lot of variations on the theme between the different Mesoamerican cultures, and it's all a bit muddy thanks to the tendency of invading Spaniards to blow numbers out of proportion to illustrate how bloodthirsty the people they were conquering clearly were.
so in your game do you have to have your victim tied to an alter and go through the ritual? Because especially in your game where your characters are required to pick up dots in epic strength I can see how easy it would be at higher levels to just pin your victims down with one hand and wield the knife with the other, or just use your bare hand.
ReplyDeleteYou don't need an altar, but you do need to perform the sacrifice in a ritualized manner and specifically dedicate it to a deity (or yourself); you can just hold a victim down if you're strong enough, but it still takes a while to do the thing properly. It's not something you can generally do in fewer than five minutes, and definitely not something you can do as part of combat; just stabbing someone doesn't count as a sacrifice unless you're specifically performing a sacrificial ritual at the same time.
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