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Tal'ich is one of the most complex purviews we've ever written; that doesn't necessarily mean that the K'uh are a more complex pantheon than all the others or anything, just that their relationship with themselves and their universe required more fiddly detail to illustrate than some others. The basic concept beneath it is that the Maya gods consistently appear as dual or quadruple aspects of themselves, which handle different duties and carry different symbolic attributes to illustrate this. The K'uh are individuals, but they are also dual and quadruple creatures, many in one at the same time.
Maya myth is a little bit scarce thanks to The Great Spanish Exploding, but we do still have some great examples of this motif being repeated throughout Maya stories and deity personalities. Pauahtun (also called Bacab) often appears in Maya myth as a single figure, especially in his role as the codical God N; however, in the creation myth of the Chilam Balam, there are four Bacabs, which collectively act as earth deities who support the sky and allow it to be thrown into chaos and destroyed when they abandon their post to go gallivanting around the world. Similarly, Chaac appears as a single deity in myths where he brings storms with his lightning axe or fights other gods, but also as four Chaacs in the myth where they collectively break open a mountain to release the maize or the image of the group of them striking the earth with lightning bolts simultaneously as part of a giant lightning storm.
Duality, of role and personality, is yet more common; pairs of gods who are opposing aspects of one another are a common phenomenon among the K'uh, often as married pairs or twins, usually displaying largely similar qualities with a few important difficulties. The Hero Twins are a classic example of this, with the majority of their attributes (cleverness, magic, ball-playing, fertility powers) in common, but one key area in which they're different, in their case that one is the sun deity and the other the moon. Itzamna and Ix Chel are both ancient, primordial creator gods with major control over the natural world, differing mostly in the fact that one is male and the other female; and another step down, Ix Chel and Awilix are related but opposing aspects of the same figure as well, with both representing themes of femininity and power but one old while the other is young. Scholars of Maya mythology have been fascinated by the alternate-aspect theme in its deities for a long time, and debates rage over whether various sets of gods are separate because they grew from a single original source, or actually really a single god that simply manifests in two different ways, or something that encompasses all possibilities, similar to the Christian theory of the Holy Trinity being three distinct entities that are really just aspects of one God.
So Tal'ich is attempting to illustrate this idea of the Maya gods as being many in one. The directional boons (Likin, Xaman, Chikin and Nohol, along with their auxiliary boon Chun) tie into the tendency of some of the K'uh to act in fourfold forms. The dual boons (Uinic Chupla, Utzil Keban, Caan Cab and Sucun Palil) likewise illustrate a K'uh Scion's ability to switch between opposing aspects. And Pakte, the ultimate boon, both allows them to take on these differing aspects all at once (as gods occasionally do in Maya mythology) and provides for the possibility for their aspects to split off and become new deities themselves, thus explaining the existence of some pairs that seem to have become established separate from one another.
A little while ago, while talking about this phenomenon, I made a little (very little, very rough) possible family tree for the K'uh showing where some of the splits might have taken place:
This is just one possible setup, though - scholars are endlessly trying to figure out which figures might be the same as which others, not to mention the thorny thicket of the differences between Yucatec, Lacandon, Tzotzil, K'iche and other branches of Maya mythology that sometimes slightly change the lines of descent. Any of the sets of twins might be considered aspects that split off from one another (the Hero Twins, their father and his twin, their brothers the Howler Monkeys), and there are also theories that Itzamna and K'inich Ahau might be apsects of the same original deity, Sucucyum and Yum Cimil might be split aspects related to death, and Tepeu might be an alternate aspect of Huracan that split off at some point as well.
Basically, Maya gods and their different aspects are complete and utter craziness, and Tal'ich is there to try to help their Scions get in on that madness as much as they want to.
Seeing this family tree reminds me that I often have to check my trash and spam folders to see that messages with attachments aren't immediately filtered out by my mail client.
ReplyDeleteAhahaha, that was like a month and a half ago, too. Sorry!
DeleteIt's okay. I assumed that with finals and holidays and suchnot, maybe it got shuffled off to the side. No biggie
DeleteFor the others observing, let it be known that Tal'ich came because otherwise, EVERY member of the K'uh would have Psychopomp, Appearance, or both, simply because of their shifting natures and tendency to be in multiple places at once. And something so widespread in the religion should be reflected in the PSP.
dont apologize to him! He lost it!
DeleteThank you for this. I have been absolutely fascinated by Tal'ich since the K'uh came out. It really is the most interesting PSP you guys have written, for me at least, both on and off site. I hope some day I get to see what it'll look like when it's rebalanced for the on-site Pantheons.
ReplyDeleteI also wonder if the Inuit PSP will be able to unseat it from its position. But I guess I'll find out pretty soon, given the state of the progress bar.