Just like his brother, Quetzalcoatl is given a metric assload of associated powers. In the original book, he's given Epic Charisma, Epic Intelligence, Animal (Resplendent Quetzal), Fertility, Guardian, Earth, Health, Itztli, Justice, Psychopomp, Sky, and Water. 12 powers. A number of which feel entirely random.
Much like Tezcatlipoca, though, I can understand why White Wolf went overboard. Quetzalcoatl is an important deity, and one that has intrigued Western civilization upon discovering the Aztecs. Furthermore, he is an old deity, with ties to the Olmec "mother" civilization of Mesoamerica and who seemingly has a hand in every culture in that region. Feathered serpent motifs are present in most cultures' religious iconography. Only Tlaloc is more ubiquitous.
Quetzalcoatl is also the only god who completely, unequivocally is also a Mayan deity as well as an Aztec deity. While Tlaloc, Chac, and Cocijo make sense as one god for the purposes of Scion, if you were to tell most Mesoamerican scholars they were all the same god, they would smack you with the flat of a maquahuitl. However, most agree that the Quetzalcoatl is Kukulcan is Gukumatz.
Quetzalcoatl also happens to be the only god current Western culture seems to even remember about Aztec mythology, and most of them are lucky if they get the "feathered snake wind god" aspect down. In particular, there's a recurring myth that the Spanish were believed by the Aztecs to be gods, and that Cortez himself was Quetzalcoatl. Part of the reason for this is that Moctezuma was an ineffectual ruler and very superstitious (he was trained to be a priest before inheriting the throne, rather than a military or political career) and believed in omens and consulted numerous soothsayers. A number of those coincidentally happened just before Cortez landed and contributed heavily to Moctezuma's hesitation to act decisively. Once Cortez's allies among the Nahua caught wind that some soothsayers believed this had to do with Quetzalcoatl returning, the Spaniards decided to milk it. It didn't last for very long once they were in Tenochtitlan and the reverence was cut short very quickly.
After the conquest, there was a big push to demonize most of the Aztec gods, but Quetzalcoatl was more often than not conflated with Jesus Christ, what with the whole wisdom and no-human-sacrifice thing. The Indians pandered to these ideas by claiming big Q was pale skinned and bearded. This was never a part of any of Quetzalcoatl's depictions, as he was always seen with green and black painted skin. I could maybe see the beard if you misinterpreted his iconic duck-billed Ehecatl mask. Mostly though, this was Spanish revisionism that the natives confirmed given that they were very quick to put dissenters to the sword.
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Now for myths...
We discussed a number of pertinent myths about Quetzalcoatl in Tezcatlpoca's entry, since their myths are very often intertwined. I'm not going to repeat them. Most of those boil down to Quetzalcoatl making shit and Tezcatlipoca breaking shit.
Quetzalcoatl has a number of epithets... not nearly as much as Tezzy's, but it bears some consideration...
- Ehecatl (Wind)
- Topiltzin ("Our Beloved Prince")
- Ce Acatl ("One Reed", from the daysign of his birth)
- Tlahuizcapantecuhtli ("Lord of the House of Dawn")
- Nacxitl ("Traveller")
Quetzalcoatl is a creator god in all of his incarnations (save the modern Lacandon Maya, which sees him as a colossal monster ready to destroy the world... but that's a very, very odd version). In the Popol Vuh, he's referred to as Tepeu Gukumatz, which means Sovreign Plumed Serpent (though some translations make Tepeu a separate god, a possibility since the gods in the Popol Vuh are typically paired up) and helped create the world, the animals, humanity, and everything else alongside Hurakan, Itzamna, and Ix Chel (the latter two called Xpiyacoc and Xmucane, meaning Grandfather and Grandmother), and possibly Chac, the Thunderbolts may or may not be aliases of him. It gets confusing. It's why Mayanists tend to drink a lot.
In the Aztec Sun cycle, after recreating the world for the fifth and final time (with the aid of his brother), Quetzalcoatl has to go about the task of repeopling the planet. How this got accomplished in Suns 1-4 isn't explained, and it's easy to extrapolate that he was just able to recreate them on his own. If you want a story hook, say that the fact that he needed outside help to recreate the world is that for some reason his creation mojo has lessened with each new remaking of the world. This explains why the Aztecs are so gung-ho about making sure THIS sun stays in the sky. If shit gets wrecked this time around, Quetzalcoatl just cannot recreate the world on a whim as he did previously. It's possible he'd be unable to recreate it at all...
But I digress. In any case, the Aztec imagery of death was that it was the key to rebirth. Human bones were representative of seed corn, returned to the earth to create new life. So, the next step, obviously, was to go down to the Underworld where Mictlantecuhtli was keeping the bones from humanity's last incarnations.
In this adventure, Quetzalcoatl is accompanied by Xolotl, his little brother. Sometimes, Xolotl is his twin (fitting since Q is the Morning Star incarnation of the Planet Venus while X is the Evening Star). Sometimes, Xolotl is his nagual, or spirit double. The last one has the benefit of the idea that the nagual was a shadowed reflection of a person, with the pious and moral Quetzalcoatl being accompanied by a diseased, deformed, unlucky dog (an animal seen by the Aztecs as immoral). Point is, Xolotl's big Q's tagalong who helps him along the way.
So, Quetzalcoatl, in a fashion reminiscent of other Underworld tales, foils the various challenges on the way to the Lord of the Dead, and finds that getting out (particularly with his intended parcel) is that much difficult. Mictlantecuhtli says he'll let him out if he performs a series of impossible tasks. One in particular is to blow a tune on a conch trumpet... and he gives him a conch shell with no mouthpiece drilled in it and no tools. And, in typical trickster fashion, Quetzalcoatl accomplishes them all... such as calling worms to eat through the shell to fashion it into a workable conch trumpet. So, in the end, Mictlantecuhtli allows them to leave, but he doesn't let them take the bones. It's part of the whole deal, nothing of Mictlantecuhtli's leaves Mictlan. Quetzalcoatl agrees to this.
Then he has Xolotl go make a distraction so he can steal the bones anyway.
They're halfway retreating through the underworld before Mictlantecuhtli gets wise to this and goes after them with all his fearful prowess. Quetzalcoatl escapes. Xolotl doesn't. So, Xolotl gets stuck aiding dead souls on their journey across Mictlan. Which sucks, but Xolotl is the Aztec pantheon's flypaper for shitty luck. Once Quetzalcoatl hightails it outta there, he heads to Tamoanchan and grinds the bones into a cornmeal-like substance and mixes in his own blood, then forms the bonemeal mix into humans.
After the whole Tula debacle we discussed way back in the Tezcatlipoca entry, Quetzalcoatl was eventually driven from the Toltec city in shame after getting epically drunk and unwittingly committing incest. At first, Quetzalcoatl merely sat on a rock outside the city and watched its eventual destruction. He sat on the rock for such a long time that it left an impression of his buttocks on the rock itself. He was taunted by Tezcatlipoca until he got tired of it and left, journeying across Mexico to the east (performing good deeds along the way in some tellings) until he reached the Gulf Coast.
Then, two possible things happened. Either he burned himself on a funeral pyre and was reborn in the sky as the Morning Star, or he left on a raft of snakes to the legendary Tlillan-Tlapallan (The Place of Black and Red), a mystical place in the east from whence the sun rose each morning. Some of the instances of the latter seem to promise that he will return in the year One Reed, and a certain date was given then. It happened to be really close to the year that Cortez landed. One of the soothsayers Moctezuma consulted mentioned this, which certainly didn't help him with making the cornucopia of terrible decisions Moctezuma made during the conquest.
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So, we come to the powers that we know for sure Quetzalcoatl posesses. While I'll still probably end up giving him close to the maximum, the starting powers are much more minimal than those of his brother...
Epic Wits, Animal (Quetzal, Snake), Itztli, Sky
Quetzalcoatl, like his brother, is a trickster, relying on his wits to get him out of sticky situations that he invariably finds himself in. He is a god of the wind in all his incarnations, making Sky a no-brainer. And, as his name suggests, he is always associated with both the quetzal and the snake (particularly the rattlesnake), and is often seen as an amalgamation of the two.
Let's start with Epic Attributes...
Quetzalcoatl has his moments of strength and speed, but neither are what he's renowned for. The only two feats of Strength he really has are bludgeoning Tezcatlipoca out of the sky to stop him from being the sun and ripping Tlatecuhtli apart. The second one is even more dubious since he had help in the form of Tezcatlipoca and he had to be a snake at the time. As for Dexterity, the only possible option, getting out of Mictlan, is attributed more to having a quick mind than fleet feet. NO to these two.
Stamina, however, is definitely Quetzalcoatl's thing. In one account of his leaving Tula, he burns himself to death on a funeral pyre, only to rise up into the sky as the Morning Star (aka the planet Venus). Even without that one amazing act, his time as Topiltzin goes into great detail about his ascetic lifestyle, to the point where he sits on a rock watching his city for so long that when he finally gets up he leaves the impression of his ass cheeks in the solid stone. Not to mention, he's the god most directly associated with autosacrifice. He bleeds himself more than his compatriots do, so that has to count for something. Evidence piles up, and this is a YES
Epic Charisma... *sigh*, I think this is going to be the trait that'll be a sticking point for most deities. On one hand, most gods are well liked. I mean, duh, they were worshipped. And those who aren't necessarily liked are respected at the very least. Quetzalcoatl is a popular god in Mesoamerica, obviously. However, he clearly isn't packing Ultimate Charisma. He can't convince Mictlantecuhtli to spare some bones and has to steal them. His popularity in Tula isn't enough to prevent him from being usurped and driven across the sea. He's certainly packing some godly Charisma, maybe even 10 dots worth... but if you ask me if it's associated with him, I say the answer is NO.
As for the other Epic Socials... well, the quickest answer is NO. The Feathered Serpent clearly has little to no Manipulation, as the escapades in Tula demonstrate, and the only thing that might connect him to Appearance is that he's associated with the quetzal bird, whose feathers are seen as the ultimate beauty and the most precious thing in Mesoamerican culture. Not enough to justify it, IMHO.
Similarly, Perception quite simply isn't ever associated with him in any myths. Saying NO to that is a no-brainer.
Intelligence is a power I entered this project waffling on and after scouring books of his myths, I am certain that this is one of his powers. Wisdom is one of the major qualities used to describe Quetzalcoatl. He is a teaching deity, one who inspires and guides humanity, giving them civilization and teaching them the arts and sciences. He is constantly described as a sagely priest; it's one of the most consistent parts of his mythic identity. So, YES, Quetzalcoatl has Epic Intelligence associated.
Now for Purviews
Earth - Seriously, what the chuffing hell? There is absolutely NO part of either Aztec or Maya mythology that implies that big Q is an earth god. If anything, he's opposed to the concept of earth as a spiritual counterpoint to Tezcatlipoca. The most we get is wrenching the earth from the water in both the Popol Vuh and the Aztec cycle of the Five Suns, and both of those are cooperative events. NO.
Fertility - Much llike Epic Intelligence, when I came into this, I was waffling about whether or not to give Quetzalcoatl Fertility. Now that I've done some research, I can safely and definitively say that this is one of Quetzalcoatl's things. Part and parcel with the gift of civilization was the gift of agriculture. When he stole Mayahuel from the tzitzimimeh, he disguised both her and himself as branches of a tree, then when that trick failed, he buried her pieces and revived them as the maguey plant. In the Popol Vuh, he explicitly creates humans, once out of wood (this didn't work as he intended) and once out of cornmeal (this did). When he creates humans in Aztec myth, he grinds the bones of past humans like cornmeal. His worship involves corn in many ways (par for the course in Mesoamerica). It's enough that I can safely say YES.
Forge - Forge (or Industry or whatever you call it) might be on the list for some. Big Q is a creator god, and he's credited with building civilization to its apex, giving the gift of craftsmanship and science to the people of Tula. However, he's less associated with the aspects of a Forge god. His creations tend to be natural, either of landscape or of people and animals. He doesn't make objects that resonate in myth, and he's not even associated with crafters much (Xipe Totec tends to get that). NO.
Guardian - This Purview really doesn't have a leg to stand on here. He isn't particularly a god of safeguarding, and he clearly isn't willing or able to protect his people when Tezcatlipoca turned Tula into a chaotic clusterfuck. Really, I'm not sure why he even had this Purview at all, to be honest. NO.
Health - I think that Health should be connected to Quetzalcoatl, but he's not strictly a disease/medicine god. He is sometimes conflated with Patecatl, the Aztec god who's outright the god of healing, but the connection there is weak. Quetzalcoatl's health associations are mostly derived from his role in the creation of humans and his own fecund nature. In all mythologies he is explicitly the god that makes the human race, by mixing either cornmeal or the bones of previous humans (which were ground like cornmeal) with his own blood. An interesting thing scholars have noted is that unlike a number of other gods, Quetzalcoatl is most often depicted with a loincloth that has a rounded end, rather than the flat rectangular end most common in most Aztec gods. The implication here is that it's intended to be a phallic symbol. It's enough that I'm willing to say YES, but this is low on the totem pole as far as powers are concerned. This is most likely to get cut should things get excessive.
Justice - Okay, White Wolf, I have to ask, what was your deal when writing the Aztec gods? Because giving Quetzalcoatl Justice has so little basis in myth I might not have even mentioned it if you hadn't put it in the first edition's official writeup. On the one hand, I can somewhat see you possibly giving this to him because of the fact that Quetzalcoatl tends to favor stability while Tezcatlipoca tends towards catastrophe, but quite honestly, I'm not able to give them enough credit for that. I really think they gave big Q Justice simply because he tends to shun human sacrifice. To which I reply: No. A god does not have Justice associated simply because they don't participate in a behavior that Western culture finds unseemly. Quetzalcoatl tends to be more orderly than a number of the Aztec gods, but does not involve himself with upholding order or punishing criminals. NO.
Magic/Mystery/Prophecy - While the depiction of the Wyrd may make it seem as though big Q has one of the three Fate Purviews, Prophecy in particular, I'm saying NO. Prophecy is the only one of the three that the Feathered Serpent might even possibly have, and that's only because he gave a return date for his trip to the east (which coincided with the year that Cortez landed). If Q had the ability to see the future, though, his romps with Tezcatlipoca would be VERY different.
Psychopomp - At first, I was pretty sure that Q shouldn't have this in his bag of tricks for a simple reason: Quetzalcoatl is not the go-to guy for bringing the dead to the Underworld. That's Xolotl's job. Sure, Xolotl may or may not be an aspect of Quetzalcoatl himself, but that's a tenuous connection. However, there are a few things that make me reconsider this stance. The first being the myth of Quetzalcoatl heading into the Underworld and getting back out again. This is a feat that Xolotl, the actual psychopomp, was basically unable to do, and he's now stuck there. Next, one of his titles is "Nacxitl", which means "traveler". Given Scion-Psychopomp's focus on travel, that's an in there. Heck, one aspect of Quetzalcoatl's duties as Ehecatl is to blow the sun across the sky, which also fits in with Psychopomp. I'm saying YES.
Stars - You know, once upon a time, I wouldn't have given this to Q... probably because I was looking at the purview list top-down and didn't want to add yet another Purview to the list. Also, I was likely thinking of the original "Stars = time" ridiculousness. With the benefit of hindsight, though, I can safely say that the fact that Quetzalcoatl is the Morning Star (aka Venus) is enough to give him Stars. YES.
Sun - In addition to being a former sun, Quetzalcoatl has a bit of light under his belt. As Lord of the House of Dawn, he's associated with the east and the rising sun. However, it's not enough to justify it. NO.
War - There are a handful of references of Quetzalcoatl, under the title of Ce Acatl, going to do some war against the Four Hundred Northerners and kicking their asses... but this is insanely out of character for him. The descriptions here all refer more to Mixcoatl than Quetzalcoatl, and were possibly attributed to big Q to make him seem more badass to the cities that accepted him as a patron, such as Tula. NO.
Water - Just about as ridiculous as Earth, but slightly more forgivable. Slightly. See, Big Q is sometimes associated with rain, what with being a sky god, and he clearly wrenched the earth from the sea in Aztec and Maya creation myths. It's unbelieveably tenuous though, and thus I feel no shame in giving this one a big fat NO.
Which means that, using Telgar's 9 associated powers (8 + PSP), and my 10/12 options, Quetzalcoatl has either...
9 - Animal (Quetzal, Snake), Epic Intelligence, Epic Stamina, Epic Wits, Fertility, Itztli, Psychopomp, Sky, Stars
or
10 - Animal (Quetzal, Snake), Epic Intelligence, Epic Stamina, Epic Wits, Fertility, Health, Itztli, Psychopomp, Sky, Stars
With only Health being cut under current houserules.
Next time? Probably Huitzilopochtli
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