Griff's Aztec Alley: Tezcatlipoca

Ah, Tezcatlipoca.  The god we love to hate.  Or hate to love.  Tezcatlipoca, in the raw, is kind of a mess of associated powers, possessing Epic Appearance, Epic Charisma, Epic Dexterity, Epic Manipulation, Epic Wits, Animal (Jaguar), Darkness, Itztli, Magic, Moon, Mystery, Prophecy, Sun, War, and Kitchen Sink.  

While ridiculous, the vast amount of powers granted to Tezcatlipoca is not entirely inaccurate.  More so than any other Aztec deity, Tezcatlipoca was seen as omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.  He was considered one of the Four Tezcatlipocas, the black one in particular, associated with the northern cardinal direction, alongside Quetzalcoatl (the White Tezcatlipoca, associated with the east), Xipe Totec (the Red Tezcatlipoca, associated with the west), and Huitzilopochtli (the Blue Tezcatlipoca, associated with the south).  

In Scion terms, the best explanation for this is that “Tezcatlipoca” is just a title and the Black Tezcatlipoca’s real name is a secret.  However, in historical terms, this was probably the Nahua way of saying that all those other awesome gods are also Tezcatlipoca, that’s how awesome he is.  

So, rather than try and pare down the powers from what we have given, I’m going to look at Tezcatlipoca from the myths associated with him and work from there...

Tezcatlipoca means Smoking Mirror, or literally Reflecting Smoke.  His exact lineage is somewhat questionable.  Some say that he and the other Tezcatlipocas were born from Ometeotl, the distant male-female creator deity, and that he, the Black Tezcatlipoca, was the oldest.  Other sources say that he was born from Mixcoatl, the Cloud Serpent god of the Milky Way, and Coatlicue, the Serpent-Skirted earth goddess.  In this account, he is the twin brother of Quetzalcoatl, and the younger of the two (evidenced by their names, Quetzalcoatl is sometimes called Ce Acatl, or One Reed, the daysign of his birth, whereas Tezcatlipoca is Ome Acatl, or Two Reed).

Tezcatlipoca has a number of alternate names to express who he is.  In the Florentine Codex, Sahagun recorded over 360 such monikers.  These epithets include...

• Titlacauhuan (He Whose Slaves We Are, sometimes translated as He Who Is Closest to the Shoulder),
• Necoc Yaotl (Enemy of Both Sides),
• Ipalnemohuani (He By Whom We Live),
• Ilhuicahua Tlaticpaque (Possessor of the Earth and Sky),
• Yohualli Ehecatl (Night Wind),
• Tloque Nahuaque (Lord of the Near and Nigh),
• Moyocoyani (Creator of Himself),
• and Telpochtli (The Youth)

Tezcatlipoca was the patron deity of rulers, sorcerers, and warriors.  Rituals involving rulership invoked his name frequently.  The Aztec Jaguar Warriors were an entire class of soldier dedicated to him.  

Tezcatlipoca’s most frequent feature is his titular smoking mirror, a mirror of polished obsidian worn both as his right foot (though occasionally the foot is a snake or a deer’s hoof) and either on his chest or the back of his headdress.  Mirrors in Mesoamerican lore are used in magic rituals, usually as a source of divination.  Tezcatlipoca’s mirror was called Itlachiayaque, “The Place From Which He Watches”.  This mirror was a gateway between the earth, sky, and underworld, and allowed him to see all and know all.

Tezcatlipoca is a master of shapeshifting, and appears in many forms both human and animal in order to accomplish his tasks.  He is the patron of the Aztec shapeshifting magicians that are known as nahualli, which treats the animal form, or nagual, as a component of the magician’s soul given life (sometimes as a separate creature controlled by the nahualli).  His favorite animal form was the jaguar, and in his jaguar guise he was known as Tepeyollotl, the Heart of the Mountain, a god of caves whose roar caused earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.  Another form he enjoyed to take was Chalchiuhtotolin, the Jeweled Fowl.  This divine bird resembled a turkey (And partially a vulture), and in this form, Tezcatlipoca spread contagion and plague, and served as a bad omen.  Occasionally, he appeared as other animals, coyotes, skunks, and opossums, but those were sporadic cases.  

One particularly strange apparition of his was the Night Axe, a form used to test a person’s courage.  He would appear as a grotesque headless corpse with a vertical wound in his torso.  The wound would open and close at regular intervals, and it sounded like an axe splitting wood.  Those who ran from the frightening vision would be killed, but someone who had the courage and skill to confront the being could reach into the wound and retrieve its heart.  If so, Tezcatlipoca would appear in his true form and grant the brave person a wish.   

Tezcatlipoca has a number of myths, such as spreading the divine gift of music as a monkey with a mirror on its back, or of giving mankind fire by teaching them to use the fire-drill.  However, two mythic cycles stand out: The cycle of the Five Suns, and the conflict between Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl in Tula, the city of the Toltecs.  Both establish Tezcatlipoca in contrast to his brother, Quetzalcoatl.

Tezcatlipoca was the first of the Five Suns, known as the Jaguar Sun.  However, being a god of darkness, the sunlight of this age was only half as strong.  The people in this age were a race of giants, incredibly stupid creatures that subsisted on acorns.  Quetzalcoatl felt that this world’s inferiority was a result of his brother selfishly hoarding the light of the sun, so he took his cudgel and smacked Tezcatlipoca out of the sky.  He landed in the ocean, and rose up as an enormous jaguar.  He summoned a bunch of other jaguars and ate the world and everything in it.  

The Second Sun, the Wind Sun, was Quetzalcoatl.  This was a golden age of humanity, but it too had to end, as Tezcatlipoca knocked Quetzalcoatl out of the sky with his massive jaguar paw as revenge.  This resulted in a massive hurricane that destroyed everything, with the survivors being turned into monkeys.  

The Third Sun, the Rain Sun was ruled by Tlaloc, but, unfortunately, he had a smoking hot wife, Xochiquetzal, the goddess of beauty and erotic love (essentially the Aztec version of Aphrodite).  Tezcatlipoca stole her, and raped her (in some stories, making her one of his own wives, bringing his total to 4).  Tlaloc was enraged, and while he continued his duties as the Sun, he refused to let the rain fall.  As people died and pleaded to the gods for help, Quetzalcoatl intervened, throwing Tlaloc out of the sky, and forcing him to make it rain.  Out of spite, he made it rain fire.  The world was destroyed once more, and the surviving people were turned into birds.

The Fourth Sun, the Water Sun, was ruled by the goddess Chalchiuhtlicue, the goddess of fresh water and Tlaloc’s second wife.  She ruled with compassion and was beloved by the people.  This lasted until Tezcatlipoca chose once more to ruin things, telling Chalchiuhtlicue that her compassion was false, that she only pretended to care about her people to gain their adulation, and that her followers believed this and thus only worshipped her to curry her favor.  She was so distraught over this accusation that she cried tears of blood that drowned the world.  

Once the world was flooded, the two bickering brothers put aside their differences to make the world habitable once more.  The only thing that could serve as the Earth was the Titan Tlatecuhtli, also known as Cipactli, a colossal hybrid of caiman, fish, and toad that had mouths on every joint and an insatiable appetite.  To lure her near the surface, Tezcatlipoca stuck his right foot into the water.  Upon seeing the divine flesh dangled in front of her, Tlatecuhtli swam to the surface and bit the foot clean off.  As she ate, Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl transformed into snakes and coiled around Tlatecuhtli, ripping her in two.  One half became the foundation of the World, the other became the heavens where the gods lived.  Tezcatlipoca replaced his missing foot with an obsidian mirror as a prosthetic (some artwork depicts him with a snake or a deer’s hoof, but the mirror is the most common image).

The other big myth cycle that Tezcatlipoca takes part in is the fall of Tula.  Quetzalcoatl’s most famous stint on Earth was ruling the Toltec civilization.  This was a golden age of mankind, the city of Tula was a paradise and the Toltecs were the most powerful civilization in Mexico.  However, the people began to grow proud and lazy, taking their good fortune for granted, and Quetzalcoatl began to monopolize Toltec’s worship.  Due to Quetzalcoatl’s preference for self-sacrifice and the releasing of birds and butterflies, the flow of blood to the gods became a slow trickle.  This sloth prompted Tezcatlipoca to upset the stagnating empire.  

Tezcatlipoca disguised himself as a wild man, and came to the city of Tula selling chili peppers.  When a young noblewoman, the daughter of Quetzalcoatl’s military leader Huemac, came to the market, he surreptitiously showed her his genetalia, and she became so overcome by desire that Huemac was forced to offer her to Tezcatlipoca in marriage.  

Once ensconced in Toltec society, Tezcatlipoca did his best to make things terrible for everyone.  He played a magic drum that caused the people to dance so wildly that they threw themselves off of cliffs.  When Huemac noticed this, he sent his son-in-law into battle with nothing but a contingent of dwarves and hunchbacks at his command.  Tezcatlipoca came back to Tula victorious, sinking Huemac into despair, and Tezcatlipoca replaced him as the king’s advisor.  He continued to enchant the people of the city by putting on a puppet show, using his magic to make the puppet dance.  When some of Quetzalcoatl’s followers caught wind to the magic being used, they rushed the stage and killed him.  Tezcatlipoca chose to laugh it off and come back in a new body, and used his old, dead body to frighten the populace and torment them with its awful, decaying smell.  No matter how many times the Toltecs got rid of it, it would always reappear.

As these events plagued the Toltecs, Quetzalcoatl sunk into despair.  Nothing he attempted was helping the populace, and he became sick with grief.  Upon news that Quetzalcoatl was sick, Tezcatlipoca came to his bedside, being one of the few people the king was willing to see.  Using the distorted visions of his obsidian mirror, Tezcatlipoca made him think that he was very old and frail.  Tezcatlipoca gave him what he said was a magic potion, but was actually insanely strong alcohol.  Quetzalcoatl became rip-roaring drunk and proceeded to make a complete ass of himself.  The Aztecs measured drunkenness in terms of “rabbits,” an animal they associated with partying.  One rabbit was a slight buzz.  Two rabbits was feeling pleasantly drunk.  Quetzalcoatl got “four-hundred rabbits” drunk.  He woke up the next morning, not only having an enormous hangover and his reputation ruined, but was revealed to have broken his vow of chastity by sleeping with his sister, Quetzalpetlatl.  Ashamed, Quetzalcoatl left the city in search of his penance.  The golden age of the Toltecs was over, and while their royal lineage was used to establish rulership in Central Mexico, by the time the Spaniards arrived, the Toltec civilization had vanished into legend.  

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So, storytime’s over.  Now for business.

Now, I would say that the maximum amount of powers a God can have in Scion is either 10 or 12.  I would say that Tezcatlipoca’s minimum Purviews are the following....

Epic Manipulation, Epic Wits, Animal (Jaguar), Darkness, Itztli, Magic.

Tezcatlipoca’s bread and butter is tricking people into doing what he wants, lying to people as easily as breathing, and snatching victory out of the jaws of defeat.  He is unflappable, and there is no situation where he isn’t able to redirect things to his favor.  He is a masterful manipulator of Fate, as well as it’s final arbiter, and every description of him describes him as a master sorcerer.  He is associated with the darkness of the night sky, alongside the symbolic darkness in the hearts of men.   He is a masterful shapeshifter, and associated with numerous animal forms, most commonly, though, with the jaguar, that serves as his definitive totem.  Thus, those six powers are his.  No matter what else you want to add, those are your starting prerequisites.

Now, let’s look at the Epic Attributes...

Right away, I can say that Tezcatlipoca doesn’t have any of the Epic Physical Attributes associated.  His power is never described in physical ways.  He isn’t supernaturally strong or quick or sturdy.  The last, especially, what with losing his foot and getting clubbed out of the sky by his twin (who, himself, is not a very strong god).  His own divine prowess is firmly in the Social and Mental arenas.  

Charisma is, I think, a no brainer here.  There’s almost no other explanation for how someone can get away with the shit Tezcatlipoca does on a regular basis without the kind of charm that Ultimate Charisma grants.  It’s how the Aztecs themselves viewed him as a culture.  The Smoking Mirror may be a bastard, but damnit, he’s our bastard!  This trait gets a big fat YES.

Appearance is tricky.  Tezcatlipoca is depicted as very attractive by default, as well as able to take the appearance of anyone, and anyTHING, as the Night Axe clearly illustrates.  His sacrificial doubles were always selected by the priests to be physically flawless, and his major method for gaining power while in disguise in Tula is to show his naked body to a nobleman’s daughter, so that she would be so overcome with lust that she would be forced to marry him.  A lot of these aspects, particularly the shapeshifting, lend itself to Illusion.  I’m uncertain, so I’m going to say to give him either APPEARANCE OR ILLUSION, NOT BOTH.

Perception and Intelligence are two other Epic Attributes I’m on the fence about.   Tezcatlipoca is all-seeing and all-knowing.  Doesn’t that preclude having Ultimate Perception and Intelligence?  The answer, however, comes to me when we realize that Tezcatlipoca never seems to come about these  powers as a function of himself.  He relies upon his mirror to see everywhere and gather information.  This suggests that these powers are Purview driven rather than an Epic Attribute.  NO to both.

The following Purviews are among the possibilities to give to Tezcatlipoca...

Chaos - Tezcatlipoca’s M.O. is to tear shit up and build something new.  He’s a sower of discord, and never is satisfied with the status quo.  He’s the primary force for change in the pantheon, making sure that things are never stagnant.  The only downside is his patronage of rulers, which seems counterintuitive to the forces of instability.  However, this is a minimal thing, and the fact is that Tezcatlipoca brings Chaos wherever he goes.  Chaos isn’t just thumbing your nose at authority.  My answer is YES.

Death - Death is the first of a number of Purviews that have a tenuous connection to Tezcatlipoca, but not nearly enough to be truly associated with him.  Tezcatlipoca is supposed to exist everywhere, and that includes the underworld, and as the decider of fate he chose when a person died.  The northern cardinal direction in Aztec lore, associated with Tezcatlipoca, was also associated with death and the underworld.  Tepeyollotl as well, was seen as being a tenuous underworld deity, with his Maya equivalent protecting the sun during its nightly journey underground.  This really doesn’t have much to do with ghosts or the care of the dead as dictated in Scion, however, so the answer here is NO.

Earth - The more I reread about Tezcatlipoca for this post, the more shocked I am that this was never included in his original writeup.  First of all, Tezcatlipoca is associated with a single type of stone, obsidian.  Second, the surface of the earth was often referred to in Aztec chants as a “smoking mirror”.  Third, the conflict between Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca is often seen as a conflict between earth and sky, material and supernal.  Fourth, Tezcatlipoca sacrifices his foot to an Earth Titan to create the World following the collapse of the Fourth Sun.  Fifth, Tepeyollotl, seen as an extension of Tezcatlipoca himself, is explicitly an Earth god.  Jaguars in general were seen as kings of the earth, and so was Tezcatlipoca by extension.  The evidence piles up, and the verdict is YES.

Fire - In many Mesoamerican cultures, mirrors are associated with fire, and Tezcatlipoca is credited for giving humanity the fire drill, and thus the creative spark that allows for civilization.  However, once he gave that knowledge, he stopped actually doing anything with Fire.  NO.

Health - The connection between the Smoking Mirror and the purview of Health is present, but weak.  In the form of Chalchiuhtotolin, Tezcatlipoca is a bringer of plague, to be sure.  Also, Tezcatlipoca provides men with good and ill fortune as he so chooses, and both fitness and disease are part and parcel.  However, the connection is too tenuous to say that he is a God that embodies it.  I say NO.

Illusion - As I discussed under Appearance, I think Tezcatlipoca gets APPEARANCE OR ILLUSION, NOT BOTH.

Justice - Yet another Purview that has a connection to the god, if slight.  As an aspect of Tezcatlipoca’s omnipotence, he serves as a source of divine punishment for the wicked as the arbiter of Fate.  However, this is perhaps the flimsiest connection of all.  Tezcatlipoca spends too much of his time messing around with the status quo to be too concerned with maintaining order.  Furthermore, he shows no interest in actively pursuing criminals and punishing them, it’s just a part of his whole master-of-Fate shtick.  He is able to avoid actual punishment for any misdeeds on account of being one of the main powers in the pantheon, but he is not the one to go for when you need Justice to be done.  NO.

Moon - Aside from the connection to the night sky in general, the only thing that connects Tezcatlipoca to the moon is the pan-Latin American association of jaguars with the moon (Present in Inca and Amazonian myths as well as Mesoamerica) and the fact that the deification of the moon, Metztli, is considered part of an archaeological “Tezcatlipoca complex” that includes Tepeyollotl and Chalchiuhtotolin.  These justifications are flimsy, and no myth actually ties Tezcatlipoca to the moon.  NO.

Mystery - Tezcatlipoca is a god ALL about divination.  I would say that, since his omniscience is all about looking through his mirror, through the haze to determine truth, that Mystery is one of his Purviews.  Between his all-knowing nature and the mystique surrounding him, something I would equate to Greco-Roman mystery cults, I’m giving this one a YES.

Prophecy - Similar to Mystery, Tezcatlipoca is one of the few Aztec gods with a particular focus on the future, particularly divination of such.  His mirror had the power to see men’s fates.  However, unlike the Mystery Purview, Tezcatlipoca is never directly shown predicting the future.  I’m still going to say YES to him possessing this Purview, but if he ends up with too many, this may end up not being the case.

Psychopomp - Psychopomp and Scion is kind of weird, if you ask me.  I like the purview, and it fills a necessary mythic role, but most of the Boons are less in regards to the actual ferrying of souls and more to do with travel, direction, and the ability to be anywhere one wants to be (Also a very important concept in myth).  Mirrors in Mesoamerican sorcery are not merely means of seeing other worlds but of transporting oneself there.  Tezcatlipoca can be anywhere, can be EVERYwhere.  His powers in this regard are definitely in the realm of Co-Location and may even describe The Way.  I’m giving this Purview a tentative YES, but if the number of Purviews exceeds my given maximum, this is the first to be cut.    

Sky - Two of Tezcatlipoca’s epithets are the Night Wind and Possessor of the Earth and Sky.  The first refers more to his affinity for Darkness, and the latter refers to his power and omnipresence.  He’s associated with the night sky, but his connection to the Sky as defined by Scion is minimal.  NO.

Stars - A handful of sources say that Tezcatlipoca is associated with Polaris, the North Star, which makes sense given that he’s associated with the northern cardinal direction, and that he makes his home in the Ursa Minor constellation, which the Aztecs envisioned as a jaguar rather than a bear.  His night sky connotations and his general antagonism may make this Purview fit him, as the Aztecs saw the stars as the source of divine conflict.  However, the stars are not a big part of his mythic presence nor does he do much with them in his stories.  NO.

Sun - A number of mythology books state outright that Tezcatlipoca is a sun god.  This is unsubstantiated in any way in his actual stories.  Tezcatlipoca was indeed a sun god in the myth of the Five Suns, but as that myth clearly states, he isn’t one anymore.  Not to mention that his association with darkness meant that even when he was a sun god, he wasn’t a very good one.  This trait gets a big fat NO.

War - When I first undertook this post, I was firmly in the camp that said that Tezcatlipoca isn’t a war god.  The problem is, War is a big, big part of Tezcatlipoca’s shtick.  He’s a patron of young warriors, and had an entire standing army under his command.  He constantly sets warriors against each other, hence the “enemy of both sides” moniker, and he feeds of the chaos of the battlefield.  He’s dressed in warrior’s regalia, carrying a shield, arrows, and a sling (itself a common motif with Aztec deities, but it is something to be considered).  And to top it off, one of his coolest exploits in Tula was being sent into battle by competing noblemen with nothing but dwarves and hunchbacks under his command... and succeeding!  So, contrary to my original opinions, I have to say that, YES, Tezcatlipoca has War.  It’s among those powers that can more readily be culled, however.

So, the powers I have listed are, in order of how strong I think the connection is, are:

Charisma, Chaos, Earth, Mystery, Appearance/Illusion, Prophecy, War, Psychopomp

So, with the six prior powers, the total comes to 14.  Which is... the exact same number of powers he had going in.  Huh.

I personally think evidence is stronger for Tezcatlipoca’s transformation power being Appearance rather than Illusion, though I can see arguments for both.  So, I’ll be using that.  So, my two sets of Tezcatlipoca are...

(10) - Epic Charisma, Epic Manipulation, Epic Wits, Animal (Jaguar), Chaos, Darkness, Earth, Itztli, Magic, Mystery
or
(12) - Epic Appearance, Epic Charisma, Epic Manipulation, Epic Wits, Animal (Jaguar), Chaos, Darkness, Earth, Itztli, Magic, Mystery, Prophecy

Depending on which you think an appropriate maximum number of Purviews would be.