Question: Whatever happened to giving Quetzalcoatl Prophecy? You mentioned it back in April 2012 when the Aztlanti were not overhauled yet.
It's true, we totally did mention that we were considering giving Quetzalcoatl Prophecy and that we thought it was a good possibility back before we finished overhauling the Aztec gods. After we finished the process, however, we ended up deciding it wasn't strong enough to be one of his associations.
There are really only two myths, interrelated, that link Quetzalcoatl to prophecy: the myth of the fall of Tollan, and the myth of the prophesied return of Quetzalcoatl. In the story of Tollan's fall, Tezcatlipoca appears to Quetzalcoatl, at this time the ruler of Tollan, and prophesies that the city will fall before the invading Mexica and never be restored to its former glory. Quetzalcoatl, stricken by grief, bugs out and abandons the city so that he is not there for its destruction, and depending on the version either dies in disgraced loneliness or goes off to found a new kingdom far away.
The second myth is what gives rise to the other attachment of prophecy to Quetzalcoatl's name, which is the prophecy that he will eventually return and recreate Tollan. This prophecy gets a lot more press than it probably deserves; it was likely invented by his priests, who wanted to declare that his cult was going to return to supreme power over the others at some point, and it's really only remembered because it gets caught up in the weird mix of fact-and-fiction lore surrounding the Spanish conquest. Most of us have heard the story that the Aztecs believed that Cortes was the return of Quetzalcoatl and that's why they were so easily conquered by the obviously superior white man; modern historians have since come to the conclusion that that's ridiculous poppycock, but if there are only a couple of things your average Scion player knows about Quetzalcoatl before game starts, that's probably one of them. We need more Mesoamerican legitness in our schools, for real. Aztec awareness, y'all.
But anyway, those are seriously the only incidents that could possibly be parlayed into considering Prophecy for Quetzalcoatl, and I'm sure most of you can tell by now that neither's close enough to meet our standards. The first myth, though occasionally attributed to Quetzalcoatl, is most often a very clear example of Tezcatlipoca demonstrating prophetic powers and not the other way around (incidentally, ol' Tezcat did not end up with Prophecy associated either, as this is the only time he really does it and he might just be being a big bag of dicks as he often tends to do), and standing next to a guy with Prophecy is not exactly grounds for having it yourself. The second myth could be considered one that came from Quetzalcoatl himself - after all, his priests swore he claimed he was coming back, so that's a prophecy you could say came from the Feathered Serpent's mouth - but it's a single isolated incident, and even that's a leap of logic. We never actually get any story in which he vows to return or passes that info on to his people; we don't have any real reason to believe he's all forecasting this and doomsaying that, and having a prophecy about you is also not going to win you any points toward getting the purview associated.
So we gave both due consideration, but even together they couldn't convince us that the purview deserved to make the cut. It's very, very thin and sketchy reasoning to give a god even a little Prophecy, much less The Wyrd, and it was probably based more on specious historical claims than any actual Aztec beliefs.
So what happened was that prophecy wasn't... well, happening. So it didn't.
So what details are there, if any, about his return? I'm not entirely sure what or where he is supposed to be returning from?
ReplyDeleteIs it when he burnt himself alive?
I wanted to do a bit of a fusion of the prophecy of his return and the prophesied return of King Arthur.
I'm discovering there are a lot of figures sitting in caves, under mountains etc waiting for the time when they are needed most.
It's not Quetzalcoatl as a god here that the prophecy is referring to but rather Quetzalcoatl as the ruler of Tollan and the Toltecs. When the Toltecs fell/were conquered by the invading Mexica, the theory is that since Quetzalcoatl was said in legend to be their ruler and patron, and after the shift in power he was no longer the top dog, his priesthood claimed he would return at some point and restore Tollan to power. It is actually pretty similar to the myth of Arthur's return, except probably more politically motivated.
DeleteHowever, no copy of this prophecy was ever written down or preserved that we know of; in fact, it's hard to tell if it even counts as a prophecy proper or was just something that big Q's priests liked to say was going to happen because they were supporting him. There's nothing like the Ragnarok prophecies that you can go read, and no specific details that aren't heavily dispute - just a general idea of "Some day Quetzalcoatl will come back", with a heavy subtext of "And reassert his power/political importance".
As for what he's doing, that's equally unaddressed thanks to the lack of info on the supposed prophecy. Depending on the story of his departure in the first place, in half of them he just kills himself or allows himself to die in remorse for his kingdom's fall, and the myth stops there. In others, he went away to found some other kingdom, so one presumes they mean he'll come back from there, but that's all we got.
Basically, if you want to use it, it's a choose your own adventure prophecy. It doesn't have much in the way of details or mythology surrounding it.