Daddy Dearest

Question: What is Quetzalcoatl's relationship with his father like?

Complicated and uncomfortable, like many of the familial relationships of the Aztlanti. You'd think a people with so much Loyalty would like each other more - or maybe the fact that they're stuck being loyal to one another no matter what shenanigans they pull is what makes them so frequently cranky with each other.

Mixcoatl and Quetzalcoatl are odd men out among the Mexica-dominated Aztlanti, since both are the major patron gods of the preceding Toltecs, retained in the new pantheon but no longer its most powerful members. They're also rather closely linked in function and associations; both are gods of the stars, a dicey proposition among the Aztecs, both are strongly connected to the sky and the cloud serpent imagery that goes with it, and both fill the role of culture hero and teacher for their respective eras. Other than Mixcoatl's unfortunate tendency toward mass murder, they have a lot in common and probably don't have too many conceptual problems with one another.

The best story moment to illustrate the relationship between the two of them comes from the Codex Chimalpopoca. When Quetzalcoatl is born, he immediately joins Mixcoatl's army, but soon thereafter Mixcoatl is murdered by his remaining siblings (why is not addressed, so you're free to decide that they were either afraid he would take them out like the rest of the four hundred and struck pre-emptively, or that they were just ambitious and out to seize his power for themselves). Quetzalcoatl immediately goes batshit and starts a war with his uncles, which ends in him killing them all and sacrificing their bodies on a temple that he builds in his father's honor. He also goes out and makes a point of finding Mixcoatl's bones, which his brothers had hidden from everyone, and bringing them home.

Obviously, this is not a son who is in violent hate with his father. But Mixcoatl is also a Titan, and a major impediment to Huitzilopochtli as the de facto king of the Aztlanti, so Quetzalcoatl is put in an awkward position. Most likely, he is loyal to his father despite not approving of what he's up to, and has to play a dangerous game between trying to keep Mixcoatl from doing anything bad (which he may or may not be any good at), trying to keep his pantheon from getting on Mixcoatl's case, and deciding which Virtues to roll if open hostilities break out and he has to take sides. It's not a comfortable place to be, but that's what happens when you have strong ties to both Loyalty and Duty and your family is not getting along; in fact, it's probably the same problem that Huitzilopochtli has in dealing with his mother Coatlicue, who is a dangerous person to have around but whom he also can't stand anyone trying to hurt.

From Mixcoatl's end, things are probably less complicated. While Quetzalcoatl is likely to be one of the only (or maybe the only) Aztec gods who can approach him on semi-friendly terms instead of getting shot in the face, he's likely to view Quetzalcoatl as subordinate to him and a useful tool for influencing things in the pantheon back home. He'd probably be open to occasionally helping him out, but it's likely that he'd have no qualms about doing very nasty things to his son if he thought he was betraying him to the other gods or taking their side against him.

Alas, almost all pantheons have some poor god who's stuck saying, "But that's my mom/dad!" when everyone else is going after a Titan. Some just have to suck it up and deal with putting their fractious parent down, while others - particularly those with Loyalty - may find themselves going a little crazy if anyone dares lay a hand on the Titan that gave them life.