The beginning
As you read my story you will notice two different font types. One is regular and tells the story of the Aztec gods. It is the actual mythology of the Aztecs. The other font is bold and tells the story that I created. The stories are told side by side. Hope you enjoy - J.J.M.
Ometeotl
In the beginning, there was one god, Ometeotl. They were the god of duality and thus were both male and female, light and dark, good and evil. Ometeotl gave birth to four gods; each represents one of the cardinal directions. Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent god of light, mercy, and wind, presides over the west. Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, presides over the south. Xipe Totec, the god of gold, farming, and springtime, presides over the east. Tezcatlipoca, the god of judgment, night, deceit, sorcery, and Earth, presides over the north. These four Cardinal Gods created the rest of the Aztec gods.
They had arrived at the sacred battle site of the "Flowery Wars." Their final test had come. In front of them stood the army of their neighbors, the Tlaxcala. Huitzilli and his peers knew there was no room for mistakes. If captured, they will be sacrificed to the gods.
The "Flowery Wars" were a contract signed between the Aztec empire and its neighbors the Tlaxcala, Cholula, and Huejotzingo as a way for them to capture prisoners of war for their human sacrifices. The rules of the flowery wars were simple: equal-sized armies of both civilizations would meet at a predetermined time and place, no long-range weapons were allowed, and the prisoners would be sacrificed to the gods. The flowery wars were a quick way to earn prestige within the Aztec empire. Death in the flowery wars was seen as a noble and beautiful death.
On the chief's command, the bloodthirsty young men set off. The Aztec ran at full speed towards the Tlaxcala. Huitzilli trailed behind the front line. The two armies met, and immediately the Aztecs' training began to pay off. The Tlaxcala, incredibly outmatched, turned to retreat north to their city. The Aztec chased after them and beat them relentlessly with their stone clubs. Less than half of the Tlaxcalan army made it back; the rest were taken to the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, where they would wait to be sacrificed to Huitzilopochtli.
Tezcatlipoca, God of the North
The four gods ruled over a vast sea. In it lived Cipactli , a primeval sea monster. Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca transformed into enormous snakes and together defeated Cipactli, cutting her in half. The bottom half of the sea monster became the sky, and the top half became the Earth. From her hair and skin came the trees and plants, her nose and eyes became the lakes and ponds, and her mouth became the mountains and valleys. This became the first world, known by the Aztec as the first Sun. The gods created the first people and chose Tezcatlipoca, the god of the north, as the first Sun.
It was only when the Aztec returned to Tenochtitlan that they noticed that Huitzilli had gone missing. They searched for him but to no avail. They assumed that he was captured and taken prisoner by the Tlaxcala. His parents wept at the news of their son's fate.
In a swamp south of Tenochtitlan, Huitzilli wept too. During the battle, he managed to escape unnoticed and ran in the opposite direction of the fleeing Tlaxcalans. He cried as he remembered the scenes of the battle: the blood, the violence, the lifeless bodies beaten to a pulp. He cried because he knew he could never return home. Fleeing from the battle was a high crime for the Aztec, and the punishment was worse than death. He got up, wiped away his tears, and began to walk towards the east.
Quetzalcoatl became envious of Tezcatlipoca, and using a stone club knocked him out from the sky. The world turned black, and in his anger, Tezcatlipoca set the jaguars to kill all of the people that inhabited the Earth. With that, the first Sun came to an end.
The gods created other people, and Quetzalcoatl became the new Sun. Over time, the new people grew less and less civilized and stopped showing proper respect to the gods. Infuriated by this, Tezcatlipoca demonstrated his powers as the god of sorcery and judgment by turning the people into monkeys. Quetzalcoatl, who had loved the flawed people, was angered by this. He blew all the monkeys away from the face of the Earth with a mighty hurricane. So ended the second Sun.
Quetzalcoatl, God of the West
Huitzilli walked for several days until he reached the east coast. There he discovered a small hut, and in it an older man. The older man was utterly alone. Huitzilli hadn't eaten more than a few pieces of fruit in days. His stomach aching from starvation, he begged the man for some food. The older man graciously gave him a bowl of maize, beans, and squash, which he thoroughly enjoyed. After he finished his meal, he asked the old man his name so that he might properly thank him. To which the stranger replied, "Quetzalcoatl."
Huitzilopochtli, God of the South
Quetzalcoatl stepped down from being the Sun to create the third people. Tlaloc, the god of rain, created by the four cardinal gods, became the new Sun. Tezcatlipoca seduced Tlaloc's wife, which put Tlaloc in a great depression. He wallowed in his grief, and a massive drought swept the Earth. The people repeatedly prayed to Tlaloc for rain, which annoyed the grieving god. They continued to pray, and in a burst of rage, Tlaloc bombarded the Earth with a torrent of fire. The entire Earth burned away, and so ended the third Sun.
Xipe Totec, God of the East
Huitzilli, stunned by the response, became fearful of the older man. For if he was indeed the god of wisdom, then he must know his cowardly act on the battlefield. He quickly thanked the man for providing him with such a filling meal and turned to run away. Quetzalcoatl sensed his fear and told the young man that there was nothing that he should be fearful of. Not wanting to disrespect the god, Huitzilli confessed to him of his cowardly deeds and told Quetzalcoatl that he was not worthy of his Aztec heritage. Humored by this, Quetzalcoatl reassured the young man that he had nothing to be ashamed about. His actions were braver than that of any Aztec man that came before him.
Author's Notes:
Maize is a word from the language of the Arawak people meaning corn.
I wanted to my stories to be educational. I attempted to include the Aztec creation story and kind of tell it side by side with the story I am writing. Unfortunately I reached my word limit before I could finish the first story. I'm not telling the creation story just to tell it though. It has a purpose in my story line and I suppose it'll have to wait until the next story to continue telling it. Like I mentioned earlier I'm telling two stories side by side. I was afraid this could easily get confusing so I separated the paragraphs and made the ones based off true Aztec legends in regular font while my made up one is in bold font. I also included a paragraph describing what the Aztec flowery wars because I felt it was important context to understand the situation Huitzilli is in.
As far as the Aztec legends go, there are so many variations of them. I read several of the variations on a lot of different websites. Each website had its pros and cons. Some had specific parts of stories and others had a more general stories. I was having a hard time finding a single source that contained enough information with enough detail to fully understand everything. In the end I chose the stories on Wikipedia because they seemed to be the most detailed ones I could find. Plus, you can also read the other variations of the same stories on that same page which you couldn't do on the other websites I found.
Link to creation story: here
Banner Image By Emmanuel Valtierra: here
Image Links: Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca, Huitzilopochtli, Xipe Totec, Ometeotl