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I am so proud to present this piece, which is the result of many months of work and research.
This piece is dedicated with great respect and admiration to my nahuatl teacher tlatoanitsin. Without his suggestion to do art of the Aztec gods I would never have made this. Half of all print sale profits go to him to support his work in preserving the nahuatl language and fighting for the wellbeing of indigenous communities of Mexico.
This piece depicts a scene from Aztec creation mythology. Under the cut you can find a writeup of the story, in three languages: english, spanish, and nahuatl (huasteca potosina variant), many thanks to my teacher for providing the translation.
This piece is mixed media, roughly 2000 layers of sketching, photobashing, and overpainting.
English
Quetzalcoatl and Xolotl in Mictlan
The fourth world was drowned in a fifty-two year flood of blood, tears of the goddess Chalchiuhtlicue. The cycle will continue, and now begins the time of the fifth world. It must have people to populate it, and those people must be made from the bones of the people of the previous world. Those bones are in Mictlan, land of the dead where the sky is always dark, where the bitter ceaseless wind is like obsidian knives, and where all that grows is tough and dry.
Quetzalcoatl, lord of the wind, of the arts and of learning, is tasked with retrieving those bones. He is accompanied by his twin brother Xolotl, lord of monsters, deformity, and death. Xolotl takes the form of a sickly and pitiable skeletal dog; the kind of creature that stands on the doorway of death with a foot in each world. Xolotl knows Mictlan well, in this guise he guides the sun through the underworld each night just as he guides souls from the world of the living onwards.
Mictlantecuhtli, lord of the dead and ruler of Mictlan, tells Quetzalcoatl he can take the bones and leave unhindered, but only if Quetzalcoatl can complete an impossible task: play a conch flute that has no holes. But Quetzalcoatl is lord of the wind and if he wills the air to move through a flute then it shall sing. He plays music with the shell, and Mictlantecuhtli is forced to concede and allow Quetzalcoatl to retrieve the bones of the people of the fourth world.
The lord of the dead does not take kindly to being bested by one of the four Creator Brother gods, the Tezcatlipocas. Lower in the hierarchy though he is, this place is his domain, and he will not allow his kingdom to be plundered easily.
He tells his minions to dig a great pit to trap Quetzalcoat. Quetzalcoatl falls, breaking the bones, and his own body. He dies in the pit in the land of the dead, but gods do not stay dead. The death of gods is only part of an endless cycle of change and renewal. He resurrects, and brings the broken bones with him to the fifth world. He mixes them with maize (a symbol of rebirth from death) and with his own holy blood, offered from his earlobes, calves, tongue, and penis. As each bone was broken in the fall into a different size piece, so the new people of the fifth world became different heights.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Español
Quetzalcóatl y Xolotl en Mictlán
El cuarto mundo se ahogó en una inundación de sangre que duró cincuenta y dos años, las lágrimas de la diosa Chalchiuhtlicue. El ciclo continuará, y ahora comienza la era del quinto mundo. Debe haber personas que lo pueblen, y esas personas deben estar hechas de los huesos de las personas del mundo anterior. Esos huesos se encuentran en Mictlán, la tierra de los muertos, donde el cielo siempre está oscuro, donde el viento amargo e incesante es como cuchillos de obsidiana y donde todo lo que crece es duro y seco.
Quetzalcóatl, señor del viento, de las artes y del aprendizaje, tiene la tarea de recuperar esos huesos. Le acompaña su hermano gemelo Xolotl, señor de los monstruos, la deformidad y la muerte. Xolotl toma la forma de un perro esquelético, enfermizo y lamentable; el tipo de criatura que se queda en la puerta de la muerte con un pie en cada mundo. Xolotl conoce bien Mictlán, bajo esta identidad guía al sol a través del inframundo cada noche, al igual que guía a las almas del mundo de los vivos.
Mictlantecuhtli, señor de los muertos y gobernante de Mictlán, le dice a Quetzalcóatl que puede llevarse los huesos y marcharse sin obstáculos, pero solo si Quetzalcóatl puede completar una tarea imposible: tocar una flauta de caracol que no tiene agujeros. Pero Quetzalcóatl es el señor del viento y, si desea que el aire se mueva a través de una flauta, esta cantará. Toca música con la caracola y Mictlantecuhtli se ve obligado a ceder y permitir que Quetzalcóatl recupere los huesos de la gente del cuarto mundo.
Al señor de los muertos no le gusta que le supere uno de los cuatro dioses hermanos creadores, los Tezcatlipocas. Aunque es inferior en la jerarquía, este lugar es su dominio y no permitirá que su reino sea saqueado fácilmente.
Ordena a sus secuaces que caven un gran hoyo para atrapar a Quetzalcóatl. Quetzalcóatl cae, rompiéndose los huesos y su propio cuerpo. Muere en el hoyo de la tierra de los muertos, pero los dioses no permanecen muertos. La muerte de los dioses es solo parte de un ciclo interminable de cambio y renovación. Él resucita y lleva consigo los huesos rotos al quinto mundo. Los mezcla con maíz (símbolo del renacimiento tras la muerte) y con su propia sangre sagrada, ofrecida de sus lóbulos de las orejas, pantorrillas, lengua y pene. Como cada hueso se rompió en la caída en pedazos de diferentes tamaños, así el nuevo pueblo del quinto mundo tuvo diferentes estaturas.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Náhuatl
Ketsalkoatl uan Xolotl pan Miktlan
Nauipan tlaltipak misaui pan se esotlaueixtli tlen uejkajki makuilpoalli uan ome xiutl, iixayotl tlen siuateotl Chalchiutlikue. Tonallis panotias, uan aman peua makuilpan tlaltipak. Ma onkaskiya maseualmej tlen mamochantikaj, uan inon maseualmej ma mochijtokaj tlen omiyo maseualli tlen achtouika tlaltepaktli. Inon omimej mopantiaj pan Miktlan, tlalli tlen mijkatsitsin, kampa illuikatl nochipa tsintlayouatok, kampa ajakatl chichik uan moollinia ken istlitlatentli, uan kampa nochi moskaltia tetik uan uaktok.
Ketsalkoatl, ajakatlakatl, toltekayotlakatl uan tlamichtitlakatl, kipia pan imako tlakuepas inon omimej. Kitlauika iiknin kuate Xolotl, tlakatemajmatijketl, tsikuiltik uan mijketl. Xolotl moixchiua tlen se chichi kejkelechtik, mokokoyaj uan mochojchokillia; tlen ken se tlapialli tlen mokaua pan kuatsajketl mijkayotl ka sejsen iikxi pan tlaltipak. Xolotl kiixomati kualli Miktlan, tlen ken ka ni iaxka kiojtlallia tonati pan chiknauimiktlan sejsen youalli, noijki kinojtlallia elluayotl tlen tlaltepaktli kampa maseualmej yoltokej.
Miktlantekujtli, miktlantlakatl uan tlanauatijketl tlen Miktlan, kiillia Ketsalkoatl uelli kinuikas omimej uan moojuitlallis, sanijki Ketsalkoatl uellis kichiuas se tekitl tlen oui: kipitsas se atekokolli tlen amo koyoxtik. Yesej Ketsalkoatl ajakatlakatl uan, tlan kineki ma ajakatl ma moollini pan se akatlapitsalli, ni kuikas. Kuikachiua ka atekokolli uan Miktlantekutli motemaka uan kikaua Ketsalkoatl ma kikuepa omiyo tlen maseualmej tlen nauikpan tlaltipak.
Miktlantlakatl amo kipaktia ma kitlanikaj se tlen nauipan teomej iknimej tlaelliyanij, Teskatlipokamej. Maske iststok tlatsintla tekiuayotl, ni kakiuilli ya tlanauatia uan amo kikauas pan itlanauatillis ma kiichtekikaj nimanok.
Kinnauatia innintekiua ma kichiuakaj se ueyi ostotl uan ma kitskikaj Ketsalkoatl. Ketsalkoatl uetsi, moomiyoposteki uan nojkia itlakayo. Miki pan ostotl tlen Miktlampa, yesej teomej amo mokauaj miktokej. Miktli tlen teomej sanijki se tonalli tlen amo kipia itlamika tlen mopajpatla uan moyankuillia. Ya moyoleua uan kiuika omiyo postektokej kampa makuilpan tlaltipak. Kinmaneloa ika sintli (kistosneki tlen yoleua keman se miki) uan ka ieso teoyalli, temaka tlen inakayotl nakastli, kotstli, nejnepilli uan tepolli. Ken san sejsen omiyo postejki keman uetski motlatlapatski, ijkinon yankuik altepetl tlen makuilpan tlaltipak kipixki miak tlamantli tlen ijuejuexka.
going to give some extra info about the myth being depicted, details of the piece, and common questions i have gotten, like:
who are these guys? what is that thing? what's with the dog? how was this made?
this is probably going to get very, very long, so if you'd like to know more about this aztec creation story, this art piece, and the process of making it, info under the cut!
the setting
this piece depicts mictlan, the aztec world of the dead, ruled by mictlantecuhtli. i scoured ancient sources for physical descriptions to make this piece appropriately accurate, and though physical descriptions of the place are relatively few, i did learn these qualities were generally consistant or often repeated:
-the sky in mictlan is always dark
-there are perilous mountains, which crash together violently
-the wind in mictlan constantly blows and is like "obsidian knives"
-surprisingly, mictlan itself is not barren and dead. it is said to have plants (though all that grows there is tough and dry, including hardy plants like cactuses) and animals (often fierce and dangerous animals which act as hazards or guardians, like jaguars, snakes, and owls, but small animals like quails are also said to live there! in one version of the story i included with this post it is the quails fault that quetzalcoatl trips and breaks the bones.)
what are the layers?
our current world is said to be the fifth world. each of the previous four worlds, resided over by a different god, ended in a different cataclysm caused by the quarreling of the gods. each world was populated by a different kind of people, and when their worlds ended they were sometimes transformed: the fourth world ended in a flood and the people became fish, and the second world's people became monkeys.
to represent this aspect of the mythos, i made the underground of mictlan out of layered ruins, and each layer's ruins were carefully chosen to be progressively older. the second world, which belonged to quetzalcoatl, is made from parts of a temple to quetzalcoatl! on this layer among the skeleton denizens of mictlan you may spot several skeletal monkeys, and on the top layer if you are eagle eyed you may spot the remains of fish.
how was this made?
the base layer was a sketch. it was actually originally one i drew a long time go of a dragon in a well, which i never completed but liked the composition. i changed it into quetzalcoatl, and then spent around 100 hours carefully assembling photo textures, arranging and shaping them in literally thousands of tiny pieces, and then drawing again over the top to unify the light and shadow and add detail. here are some in-progress shots:
here i was showing my friend who posed for the arms how i used his photos; he had seen the end result and thought it was a drawing that just referenced the photos he kindly provided, and i wanted to show him no, that's your actual arms! the whole thing with brokemon was great practice for this piece, a fantastic crash course in assembling hand poses out of a single finger. note that the hands have six fingers (as do the hand shaped frills around the corner of the mouth), i use this as a visual signifier of holiness in a creature.
here is an early iteration of the head. the face was the first part of the image that i did. i ended up scrapping and redoing the feathers almost entirely for something with a more intentional arrangement, as well as scrapping the axolotl-inspired frills, which i thought would be cool but i felt cluttered everything too much and drew attention away from features which were drawn from original depictions of quetzalcoatl. surrounding it you can see some of the component pieces used for the face: a thin strip of red/yellow lip from a crested caracara eagle was shaped into the majority of the face, the teeth and gums were built from one baboon tooth, the hand parts of the frill were contructed from a piece of turkey neck, etc. sometimes merging lots of pieces (like the top of the snout, which was made from jaguar nose, baboon gum, caracara lip, and turkey neck) ended up making something which felt like a nice building block, so i would then use that combined piece in other areas, like to make the tongue. i started with many potential source photos but ultimately using a limited palette of pieces made the final textures have a more cohesive and organic feel.
the final piece was around 2000 layers of photobashing, drawing, and shading, almost half of them being in quetzalcoatl and most of those in the head alone.
what's that light?
this piece depicts life returning to the dead immortal god, and i decided to represent this visually by having him reaching for this light. the symbol is based on a stary eye, something used in aztec art to represent, shockingly, both stars and eyes, and often in association with gods of death. i tried to make it look like both an iris and a star system. quetzalcoatl has taken many forms across aztec mythology, and one of those is the morning star, so i thought a sybolic rising star would be an apt visual representation of resurrection.
below you can see this symbol on the gods xōchipilli and xolotl.
and here you can see this symbol as both eyes and stars in one image, with a god of death.
who's the dog?
this is xolotl, twin brother of quetzalcoatl, in the form of a starving dog. i wanted to give the impression of something that is not a literal dog, but a god taking a vaguely doglike shape, so the closer you look the stranger the anatomy becomes, particularly with the details of the face. xolotl is eyeless because in another myth all the gods are sacrificing themselves in order to make the fifth sun move across the sky, but xolotl backs out and runs away, hiding in the form of an axolotl, then a two headed stalk of maize, then an agave plant with two stems. he is eventually caught, and cries his eyes out for his cowardice, and is often depicted with empty or bloodied eye sockets.
conch shells?
see that white spiralled object around the neck of xolotl in the codice art above? that is an ehecailacacozcatl, a "spirally-voluted wind jewel". here is a photo of a real one!
it is a cut section of a conch shell, and is an object with associations with the wind, with the shape being considered reminscent of a hurricane, and conches themselves being used as instruments. this object is associated with quetzalcoatl, and is worn by him in his human form, as well as by related gods like xolotl above. here you can see it worn by quetzalcoatl and ehecatl. these depictions, with their red beak masks, are why i gave the feathered serpent form a bare red face!
if you are eagle eyed you may spot that quetzalcoatl wears one, tied to his horn, and the conch shell from the story can be found at the bottom of the pit among the bones.
the arms?
any excuse to draw an arms guy :D
in my research for this story i also looked into the feathered serpent god equivalents of quetzalcoatl from other cultures, such as the mayan kukulkan (which also means feathered serpent), or the vision serpent.
these versions of the feathered serpent were often depicted with an emerging face or figure, the mouth of the snake being like a doorway through which spirits or ancestors can interact wiht the world. i wanted to draw quetzalcoatl in the form of the feathered serpent, but also wanted to have him manually interacting with the scene (carrying bones, reaching for the light), so integrating these features from other variants of quetzalcoatl seemed a good way to do that.
bonus info part 2, covering the skeletons and whatever other little details i can think of before hitting send.
skeletons? mummies?
the mummies at the top left are the servants of mictlantecutli, who dug the pit which trapped quetzalcoatl! my partner posed for them, and the mummies were the last thing that i added, so there was, briefly, a version of this image where instead of mummies it was my partner 4x in his underwear.
the skeletons are the denizens of mictlan, people of the doomed previous iterations of the world. if i counted right you may spot a total of 13 complete skeletons, plus three monkey skeletons. the people of the first world were giants, so the skeletons on the bottom layer are noticeably bigger!
the maize field? blood?
maize was considered a symbol of rebirth in aztec tradition, the return of bounty and life after periods of barrenness and hunger. xipe totec, "our lord the flayed one", a god of agriculture, warfare, and seasons, flayed himself in one story to give humanity food. this was representative of how how maize must remove its outer layer before eating/germination, and the appearance of fat under flayed skin was compared to peeled maize.
with this piece i wanted to get across the later part of the story where quetzalcoatl mixes his blood with maize seeds and the bones to create the new generation of people, so i imagined that where he fell, in the time where he was dead a maize field might spring up.
additionaly, where his blood directly touches the ground agave/maguey plants have sprung up, a plant esteemed for how it could be used for fibre, water, needles, syrup, and many other things. a story told about how quetzalcoatl tried to smuggle a lover, mayahuel, from the heavens down to the human world. together they hid as pklants, but her grandmother noticed her absence and sent other gods to retrieve her. they killed and devoured her, leaving quetzalcoatl behind with only scraps of her bones. he buried those bones, which grew into maguey plants, which bring humans so many good things, as quetzalcoatl had loved us and mayahuel.
ok, that's everything i can think of, i think i've covered all the details and interesting mythological aspects, if anyone has any questions about things i didn't do yet i will answer them but if not, thanks for reading this impromptu essay
Spiderwoman, after d'Ora, 12 x 16 inches
Part of 'Return to Beauty' Outre Gallery with @beautifulbizarremagazine
Melbourne Australia
Reception: 17 April, 5 - 8pm
Exhibition dates - April 17th - May 10th
Outré Gallery: 319 Smith St, Fitzroy VIC 3065
Collector’s preview: DM Outre Gallery
the migrating nautiluses heralded the end of summer; they always stayed three warm days ahead of the first autumn winds. this year, there were only 8 left.
I am so proud to present this piece, which is the result of many months of work and research.
This piece is dedicated with great respect and admiration to my nahuatl teacher tlatoanitsin. Without his suggestion to do art of the Aztec gods I would never have made this. Half of all print sale profits go to him to support his work in preserving the nahuatl language and fighting for the wellbeing of indigenous communities of Mexico.
This piece depicts a scene from Aztec creation mythology. Under the cut you can find a writeup of the story, in three languages: english, spanish, and nahuatl (huasteca potosina variant), many thanks to my teacher for providing the translation.
This piece is mixed media, roughly 2000 layers of sketching, photobashing, and overpainting.
English
Quetzalcoatl and Xolotl in Mictlan
The fourth world was drowned in a fifty-two year flood of blood, tears of the goddess Chalchiuhtlicue. The cycle will continue, and now begins the time of the fifth world. It must have people to populate it, and those people must be made from the bones of the people of the previous world. Those bones are in Mictlan, land of the dead where the sky is always dark, where the bitter ceaseless wind is like obsidian knives, and where all that grows is tough and dry.
Quetzalcoatl, lord of the wind, of the arts and of learning, is tasked with retrieving those bones. He is accompanied by his twin brother Xolotl, lord of monsters, deformity, and death. Xolotl takes the form of a sickly and pitiable skeletal dog; the kind of creature that stands on the doorway of death with a foot in each world. Xolotl knows Mictlan well, in this guise he guides the sun through the underworld each night just as he guides souls from the world of the living onwards.
Mictlantecuhtli, lord of the dead and ruler of Mictlan, tells Quetzalcoatl he can take the bones and leave unhindered, but only if Quetzalcoatl can complete an impossible task: play a conch flute that has no holes. But Quetzalcoatl is lord of the wind and if he wills the air to move through a flute then it shall sing. He plays music with the shell, and Mictlantecuhtli is forced to concede and allow Quetzalcoatl to retrieve the bones of the people of the fourth world.
The lord of the dead does not take kindly to being bested by one of the four Creator Brother gods, the Tezcatlipocas. Lower in the hierarchy though he is, this place is his domain, and he will not allow his kingdom to be plundered easily.
He tells his minions to dig a great pit to trap Quetzalcoat. Quetzalcoatl falls, breaking the bones, and his own body. He dies in the pit in the land of the dead, but gods do not stay dead. The death of gods is only part of an endless cycle of change and renewal. He resurrects, and brings the broken bones with him to the fifth world. He mixes them with maize (a symbol of rebirth from death) and with his own holy blood, offered from his earlobes, calves, tongue, and penis. As each bone was broken in the fall into a different size piece, so the new people of the fifth world became different heights.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Español
Quetzalcóatl y Xolotl en Mictlán
El cuarto mundo se ahogó en una inundación de sangre que duró cincuenta y dos años, las lágrimas de la diosa Chalchiuhtlicue. El ciclo continuará, y ahora comienza la era del quinto mundo. Debe haber personas que lo pueblen, y esas personas deben estar hechas de los huesos de las personas del mundo anterior. Esos huesos se encuentran en Mictlán, la tierra de los muertos, donde el cielo siempre está oscuro, donde el viento amargo e incesante es como cuchillos de obsidiana y donde todo lo que crece es duro y seco.
Quetzalcóatl, señor del viento, de las artes y del aprendizaje, tiene la tarea de recuperar esos huesos. Le acompaña su hermano gemelo Xolotl, señor de los monstruos, la deformidad y la muerte. Xolotl toma la forma de un perro esquelético, enfermizo y lamentable; el tipo de criatura que se queda en la puerta de la muerte con un pie en cada mundo. Xolotl conoce bien Mictlán, bajo esta identidad guía al sol a través del inframundo cada noche, al igual que guía a las almas del mundo de los vivos.
Mictlantecuhtli, señor de los muertos y gobernante de Mictlán, le dice a Quetzalcóatl que puede llevarse los huesos y marcharse sin obstáculos, pero solo si Quetzalcóatl puede completar una tarea imposible: tocar una flauta de caracol que no tiene agujeros. Pero Quetzalcóatl es el señor del viento y, si desea que el aire se mueva a través de una flauta, esta cantará. Toca música con la caracola y Mictlantecuhtli se ve obligado a ceder y permitir que Quetzalcóatl recupere los huesos de la gente del cuarto mundo.
Al señor de los muertos no le gusta que le supere uno de los cuatro dioses hermanos creadores, los Tezcatlipocas. Aunque es inferior en la jerarquía, este lugar es su dominio y no permitirá que su reino sea saqueado fácilmente.
Ordena a sus secuaces que caven un gran hoyo para atrapar a Quetzalcóatl. Quetzalcóatl cae, rompiéndose los huesos y su propio cuerpo. Muere en el hoyo de la tierra de los muertos, pero los dioses no permanecen muertos. La muerte de los dioses es solo parte de un ciclo interminable de cambio y renovación. Él resucita y lleva consigo los huesos rotos al quinto mundo. Los mezcla con maíz (símbolo del renacimiento tras la muerte) y con su propia sangre sagrada, ofrecida de sus lóbulos de las orejas, pantorrillas, lengua y pene. Como cada hueso se rompió en la caída en pedazos de diferentes tamaños, así el nuevo pueblo del quinto mundo tuvo diferentes estaturas.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Náhuatl
Ketsalkoatl uan Xolotl pan Miktlan
Nauipan tlaltipak misaui pan se esotlaueixtli tlen uejkajki makuilpoalli uan ome xiutl, iixayotl tlen siuateotl Chalchiutlikue. Tonallis panotias, uan aman peua makuilpan tlaltipak. Ma onkaskiya maseualmej tlen mamochantikaj, uan inon maseualmej ma mochijtokaj tlen omiyo maseualli tlen achtouika tlaltepaktli. Inon omimej mopantiaj pan Miktlan, tlalli tlen mijkatsitsin, kampa illuikatl nochipa tsintlayouatok, kampa ajakatl chichik uan moollinia ken istlitlatentli, uan kampa nochi moskaltia tetik uan uaktok.
Ketsalkoatl, ajakatlakatl, toltekayotlakatl uan tlamichtitlakatl, kipia pan imako tlakuepas inon omimej. Kitlauika iiknin kuate Xolotl, tlakatemajmatijketl, tsikuiltik uan mijketl. Xolotl moixchiua tlen se chichi kejkelechtik, mokokoyaj uan mochojchokillia; tlen ken se tlapialli tlen mokaua pan kuatsajketl mijkayotl ka sejsen iikxi pan tlaltipak. Xolotl kiixomati kualli Miktlan, tlen ken ka ni iaxka kiojtlallia tonati pan chiknauimiktlan sejsen youalli, noijki kinojtlallia elluayotl tlen tlaltepaktli kampa maseualmej yoltokej.
Miktlantekujtli, miktlantlakatl uan tlanauatijketl tlen Miktlan, kiillia Ketsalkoatl uelli kinuikas omimej uan moojuitlallis, sanijki Ketsalkoatl uellis kichiuas se tekitl tlen oui: kipitsas se atekokolli tlen amo koyoxtik. Yesej Ketsalkoatl ajakatlakatl uan, tlan kineki ma ajakatl ma moollini pan se akatlapitsalli, ni kuikas. Kuikachiua ka atekokolli uan Miktlantekutli motemaka uan kikaua Ketsalkoatl ma kikuepa omiyo tlen maseualmej tlen nauikpan tlaltipak.
Miktlantlakatl amo kipaktia ma kitlanikaj se tlen nauipan teomej iknimej tlaelliyanij, Teskatlipokamej. Maske iststok tlatsintla tekiuayotl, ni kakiuilli ya tlanauatia uan amo kikauas pan itlanauatillis ma kiichtekikaj nimanok.
Kinnauatia innintekiua ma kichiuakaj se ueyi ostotl uan ma kitskikaj Ketsalkoatl. Ketsalkoatl uetsi, moomiyoposteki uan nojkia itlakayo. Miki pan ostotl tlen Miktlampa, yesej teomej amo mokauaj miktokej. Miktli tlen teomej sanijki se tonalli tlen amo kipia itlamika tlen mopajpatla uan moyankuillia. Ya moyoleua uan kiuika omiyo postektokej kampa makuilpan tlaltipak. Kinmaneloa ika sintli (kistosneki tlen yoleua keman se miki) uan ka ieso teoyalli, temaka tlen inakayotl nakastli, kotstli, nejnepilli uan tepolli. Ken san sejsen omiyo postejki keman uetski motlatlapatski, ijkinon yankuik altepetl tlen makuilpan tlaltipak kipixki miak tlamantli tlen ijuejuexka.
going to give some extra info about the myth being depicted, details of the piece, and common questions i have gotten, like:
who are these guys? what is that thing? what's with the dog? how was this made?
this is probably going to get very, very long, so if you'd like to know more about this aztec creation story, this art piece, and the process of making it, info under the cut!
the setting
this piece depicts mictlan, the aztec world of the dead, ruled by mictlantecuhtli. i scoured ancient sources for physical descriptions to make this piece appropriately accurate, and though physical descriptions of the place are relatively few, i did learn these qualities were generally consistant or often repeated:
-the sky in mictlan is always dark
-there are perilous mountains, which crash together violently
-the wind in mictlan constantly blows and is like "obsidian knives"
-surprisingly, mictlan itself is not barren and dead. it is said to have plants (though all that grows there is tough and dry, including hardy plants like cactuses) and animals (often fierce and dangerous animals which act as hazards or guardians, like jaguars, snakes, and owls, but small animals like quails are also said to live there! in one version of the story i included with this post it is the quails fault that quetzalcoatl trips and breaks the bones.)
what are the layers?
our current world is said to be the fifth world. each of the previous four worlds, resided over by a different god, ended in a different cataclysm caused by the quarreling of the gods. each world was populated by a different kind of people, and when their worlds ended they were sometimes transformed: the fourth world ended in a flood and the people became fish, and the second world's people became monkeys.
to represent this aspect of the mythos, i made the underground of mictlan out of layered ruins, and each layer's ruins were carefully chosen to be progressively older. the second world, which belonged to quetzalcoatl, is made from parts of a temple to quetzalcoatl! on this layer among the skeleton denizens of mictlan you may spot several skeletal monkeys, and on the top layer if you are eagle eyed you may spot the remains of fish.
how was this made?
the base layer was a sketch. it was actually originally one i drew a long time go of a dragon in a well, which i never completed but liked the composition. i changed it into quetzalcoatl, and then spent around 100 hours carefully assembling photo textures, arranging and shaping them in literally thousands of tiny pieces, and then drawing again over the top to unify the light and shadow and add detail. here are some in-progress shots:
here i was showing my friend who posed for the arms how i used his photos; he had seen the end result and thought it was a drawing that just referenced the photos he kindly provided, and i wanted to show him no, that's your actual arms! the whole thing with brokemon was great practice for this piece, a fantastic crash course in assembling hand poses out of a single finger. note that the hands have six fingers (as do the hand shaped frills around the corner of the mouth), i use this as a visual signifier of holiness in a creature.
here is an early iteration of the head. the face was the first part of the image that i did. i ended up scrapping and redoing the feathers almost entirely for something with a more intentional arrangement, as well as scrapping the axolotl-inspired frills, which i thought would be cool but i felt cluttered everything too much and drew attention away from features which were drawn from original depictions of quetzalcoatl. surrounding it you can see some of the component pieces used for the face: a thin strip of red/yellow lip from a crested caracara eagle was shaped into the majority of the face, the teeth and gums were built from one baboon tooth, the hand parts of the frill were contructed from a piece of turkey neck, etc. sometimes merging lots of pieces (like the top of the snout, which was made from jaguar nose, baboon gum, caracara lip, and turkey neck) ended up making something which felt like a nice building block, so i would then use that combined piece in other areas, like to make the tongue. i started with many potential source photos but ultimately using a limited palette of pieces made the final textures have a more cohesive and organic feel.
the final piece was around 2000 layers of photobashing, drawing, and shading, almost half of them being in quetzalcoatl and most of those in the head alone.
what's that light?
this piece depicts life returning to the dead immortal god, and i decided to represent this visually by having him reaching for this light. the symbol is based on a stary eye, something used in aztec art to represent, shockingly, both stars and eyes, and often in association with gods of death. i tried to make it look like both an iris and a star system. quetzalcoatl has taken many forms across aztec mythology, and one of those is the morning star, so i thought a sybolic rising star would be an apt visual representation of resurrection.
below you can see this symbol on the gods xōchipilli and xolotl.
and here you can see this symbol as both eyes and stars in one image, with a god of death.
who's the dog?
this is xolotl, twin brother of quetzalcoatl, in the form of a starving dog. i wanted to give the impression of something that is not a literal dog, but a god taking a vaguely doglike shape, so the closer you look the stranger the anatomy becomes, particularly with the details of the face. xolotl is eyeless because in another myth all the gods are sacrificing themselves in order to make the fifth sun move across the sky, but xolotl backs out and runs away, hiding in the form of an axolotl, then a two headed stalk of maize, then an agave plant with two stems. he is eventually caught, and cries his eyes out for his cowardice, and is often depicted with empty or bloodied eye sockets.
conch shells?
see that white spiralled object around the neck of xolotl in the codice art above? that is an ehecailacacozcatl, a "spirally-voluted wind jewel". here is a photo of a real one!
it is a cut section of a conch shell, and is an object with associations with the wind, with the shape being considered reminscent of a hurricane, and conches themselves being used as instruments. this object is associated with quetzalcoatl, and is worn by him in his human form, as well as by related gods like xolotl above. here you can see it worn by quetzalcoatl and ehecatl. these depictions, with their red beak masks, are why i gave the feathered serpent form a bare red face!
if you are eagle eyed you may spot that quetzalcoatl wears one, tied to his horn, and the conch shell from the story can be found at the bottom of the pit among the bones.
the arms?
any excuse to draw an arms guy :D
in my research for this story i also looked into the feathered serpent god equivalents of quetzalcoatl from other cultures, such as the mayan kukulkan (which also means feathered serpent), or the vision serpent.
these versions of the feathered serpent were often depicted with an emerging face or figure, the mouth of the snake being like a doorway through which spirits or ancestors can interact wiht the world. i wanted to draw quetzalcoatl in the form of the feathered serpent, but also wanted to have him manually interacting with the scene (carrying bones, reaching for the light), so integrating these features from other variants of quetzalcoatl seemed a good way to do that.
bonus info part 2, covering the skeletons and whatever other little details i can think of before hitting send.
skeletons? mummies?
the mummies at the top left are the servants of mictlantecutli, who dug the pit which trapped quetzalcoatl! my partner posed for them, and the mummies were the last thing that i added, so there was, briefly, a version of this image where instead of mummies it was my partner 4x in his underwear.
the skeletons are the denizens of mictlan, people of the doomed previous iterations of the world. if i counted right you may spot a total of 13 complete skeletons, plus three monkey skeletons. the people of the first world were giants, so the skeletons on the bottom layer are noticeably bigger!
the maize field? blood?
maize was considered a symbol of rebirth in aztec tradition, the return of bounty and life after periods of barrenness and hunger. xipe totec, "our lord the flayed one", a god of agriculture, warfare, and seasons, flayed himself in one story to give humanity food. this was representative of how how maize must remove its outer layer before eating/germination, and the appearance of fat under flayed skin was compared to peeled maize.
with this piece i wanted to get across the later part of the story where quetzalcoatl mixes his blood with maize seeds and the bones to create the new generation of people, so i imagined that where he fell, in the time where he was dead a maize field might spring up.
additionaly, where his blood directly touches the ground agave/maguey plants have sprung up, a plant esteemed for how it could be used for fibre, water, needles, syrup, and many other things. a story told about how quetzalcoatl tried to smuggle a lover, mayahuel, from the heavens down to the human world. together they hid as pklants, but her grandmother noticed her absence and sent other gods to retrieve her. they killed and devoured her, leaving quetzalcoatl behind with only scraps of her bones. he buried those bones, which grew into maguey plants, which bring humans so many good things, as quetzalcoatl had loved us and mayahuel.
ok, that's everything i can think of, i think i've covered all the details and interesting mythological aspects, if anyone has any questions about things i didn't do yet i will answer them but if not, thanks for reading this impromptu essay
i'm going to be getting a trial run of 10 prints of this to test different print services. if you were to get a poster of this, what size would you want?
I am so proud to present this piece, which is the result of many months of work and research.
This piece is dedicated with great respect and admiration to my nahuatl teacher tlatoanitsin. Without his suggestion to do art of the Aztec gods I would never have made this. Half of all print sale profits go to him to support his work in preserving the nahuatl language and fighting for the wellbeing of indigenous communities of Mexico.
This piece depicts a scene from Aztec creation mythology. Under the cut you can find a writeup of the story, in three languages: english, spanish, and nahuatl (huasteca potosina variant), many thanks to my teacher for providing the translation.
This piece is mixed media, roughly 2000 layers of sketching, photobashing, and overpainting.
English
Quetzalcoatl and Xolotl in Mictlan
The fourth world was drowned in a fifty-two year flood of blood, tears of the goddess Chalchiuhtlicue. The cycle will continue, and now begins the time of the fifth world. It must have people to populate it, and those people must be made from the bones of the people of the previous world. Those bones are in Mictlan, land of the dead where the sky is always dark, where the bitter ceaseless wind is like obsidian knives, and where all that grows is tough and dry.
Quetzalcoatl, lord of the wind, of the arts and of learning, is tasked with retrieving those bones. He is accompanied by his twin brother Xolotl, lord of monsters, deformity, and death. Xolotl takes the form of a sickly and pitiable skeletal dog; the kind of creature that stands on the doorway of death with a foot in each world. Xolotl knows Mictlan well, in this guise he guides the sun through the underworld each night just as he guides souls from the world of the living onwards.
Mictlantecuhtli, lord of the dead and ruler of Mictlan, tells Quetzalcoatl he can take the bones and leave unhindered, but only if Quetzalcoatl can complete an impossible task: play a conch flute that has no holes. But Quetzalcoatl is lord of the wind and if he wills the air to move through a flute then it shall sing. He plays music with the shell, and Mictlantecuhtli is forced to concede and allow Quetzalcoatl to retrieve the bones of the people of the fourth world.
The lord of the dead does not take kindly to being bested by one of the four Creator Brother gods, the Tezcatlipocas. Lower in the hierarchy though he is, this place is his domain, and he will not allow his kingdom to be plundered easily.
He tells his minions to dig a great pit to trap Quetzalcoat. Quetzalcoatl falls, breaking the bones, and his own body. He dies in the pit in the land of the dead, but gods do not stay dead. The death of gods is only part of an endless cycle of change and renewal. He resurrects, and brings the broken bones with him to the fifth world. He mixes them with maize (a symbol of rebirth from death) and with his own holy blood, offered from his earlobes, calves, tongue, and penis. As each bone was broken in the fall into a different size piece, so the new people of the fifth world became different heights.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Español
Quetzalcóatl y Xolotl en Mictlán
El cuarto mundo se ahogó en una inundación de sangre que duró cincuenta y dos años, las lágrimas de la diosa Chalchiuhtlicue. El ciclo continuará, y ahora comienza la era del quinto mundo. Debe haber personas que lo pueblen, y esas personas deben estar hechas de los huesos de las personas del mundo anterior. Esos huesos se encuentran en Mictlán, la tierra de los muertos, donde el cielo siempre está oscuro, donde el viento amargo e incesante es como cuchillos de obsidiana y donde todo lo que crece es duro y seco.
Quetzalcóatl, señor del viento, de las artes y del aprendizaje, tiene la tarea de recuperar esos huesos. Le acompaña su hermano gemelo Xolotl, señor de los monstruos, la deformidad y la muerte. Xolotl toma la forma de un perro esquelético, enfermizo y lamentable; el tipo de criatura que se queda en la puerta de la muerte con un pie en cada mundo. Xolotl conoce bien Mictlán, bajo esta identidad guía al sol a través del inframundo cada noche, al igual que guía a las almas del mundo de los vivos.
Mictlantecuhtli, señor de los muertos y gobernante de Mictlán, le dice a Quetzalcóatl que puede llevarse los huesos y marcharse sin obstáculos, pero solo si Quetzalcóatl puede completar una tarea imposible: tocar una flauta de caracol que no tiene agujeros. Pero Quetzalcóatl es el señor del viento y, si desea que el aire se mueva a través de una flauta, esta cantará. Toca música con la caracola y Mictlantecuhtli se ve obligado a ceder y permitir que Quetzalcóatl recupere los huesos de la gente del cuarto mundo.
Al señor de los muertos no le gusta que le supere uno de los cuatro dioses hermanos creadores, los Tezcatlipocas. Aunque es inferior en la jerarquía, este lugar es su dominio y no permitirá que su reino sea saqueado fácilmente.
Ordena a sus secuaces que caven un gran hoyo para atrapar a Quetzalcóatl. Quetzalcóatl cae, rompiéndose los huesos y su propio cuerpo. Muere en el hoyo de la tierra de los muertos, pero los dioses no permanecen muertos. La muerte de los dioses es solo parte de un ciclo interminable de cambio y renovación. Él resucita y lleva consigo los huesos rotos al quinto mundo. Los mezcla con maíz (símbolo del renacimiento tras la muerte) y con su propia sangre sagrada, ofrecida de sus lóbulos de las orejas, pantorrillas, lengua y pene. Como cada hueso se rompió en la caída en pedazos de diferentes tamaños, así el nuevo pueblo del quinto mundo tuvo diferentes estaturas.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Náhuatl
Ketsalkoatl uan Xolotl pan Miktlan
Nauipan tlaltipak misaui pan se esotlaueixtli tlen uejkajki makuilpoalli uan ome xiutl, iixayotl tlen siuateotl Chalchiutlikue. Tonallis panotias, uan aman peua makuilpan tlaltipak. Ma onkaskiya maseualmej tlen mamochantikaj, uan inon maseualmej ma mochijtokaj tlen omiyo maseualli tlen achtouika tlaltepaktli. Inon omimej mopantiaj pan Miktlan, tlalli tlen mijkatsitsin, kampa illuikatl nochipa tsintlayouatok, kampa ajakatl chichik uan moollinia ken istlitlatentli, uan kampa nochi moskaltia tetik uan uaktok.
Ketsalkoatl, ajakatlakatl, toltekayotlakatl uan tlamichtitlakatl, kipia pan imako tlakuepas inon omimej. Kitlauika iiknin kuate Xolotl, tlakatemajmatijketl, tsikuiltik uan mijketl. Xolotl moixchiua tlen se chichi kejkelechtik, mokokoyaj uan mochojchokillia; tlen ken se tlapialli tlen mokaua pan kuatsajketl mijkayotl ka sejsen iikxi pan tlaltipak. Xolotl kiixomati kualli Miktlan, tlen ken ka ni iaxka kiojtlallia tonati pan chiknauimiktlan sejsen youalli, noijki kinojtlallia elluayotl tlen tlaltepaktli kampa maseualmej yoltokej.
Miktlantekujtli, miktlantlakatl uan tlanauatijketl tlen Miktlan, kiillia Ketsalkoatl uelli kinuikas omimej uan moojuitlallis, sanijki Ketsalkoatl uellis kichiuas se tekitl tlen oui: kipitsas se atekokolli tlen amo koyoxtik. Yesej Ketsalkoatl ajakatlakatl uan, tlan kineki ma ajakatl ma moollini pan se akatlapitsalli, ni kuikas. Kuikachiua ka atekokolli uan Miktlantekutli motemaka uan kikaua Ketsalkoatl ma kikuepa omiyo tlen maseualmej tlen nauikpan tlaltipak.
Miktlantlakatl amo kipaktia ma kitlanikaj se tlen nauipan teomej iknimej tlaelliyanij, Teskatlipokamej. Maske iststok tlatsintla tekiuayotl, ni kakiuilli ya tlanauatia uan amo kikauas pan itlanauatillis ma kiichtekikaj nimanok.
Kinnauatia innintekiua ma kichiuakaj se ueyi ostotl uan ma kitskikaj Ketsalkoatl. Ketsalkoatl uetsi, moomiyoposteki uan nojkia itlakayo. Miki pan ostotl tlen Miktlampa, yesej teomej amo mokauaj miktokej. Miktli tlen teomej sanijki se tonalli tlen amo kipia itlamika tlen mopajpatla uan moyankuillia. Ya moyoleua uan kiuika omiyo postektokej kampa makuilpan tlaltipak. Kinmaneloa ika sintli (kistosneki tlen yoleua keman se miki) uan ka ieso teoyalli, temaka tlen inakayotl nakastli, kotstli, nejnepilli uan tepolli. Ken san sejsen omiyo postejki keman uetski motlatlapatski, ijkinon yankuik altepetl tlen makuilpan tlaltipak kipixki miak tlamantli tlen ijuejuexka.
going to give some extra info about the myth being depicted, details of the piece, and common questions i have gotten, like:
who are these guys? what is that thing? what's with the dog? how was this made?
this is probably going to get very, very long, so if you'd like to know more about this aztec creation story, this art piece, and the process of making it, info under the cut!
the setting
this piece depicts mictlan, the aztec world of the dead, ruled by mictlantecuhtli. i scoured ancient sources for physical descriptions to make this piece appropriately accurate, and though physical descriptions of the place are relatively few, i did learn these qualities were generally consistant or often repeated:
-the sky in mictlan is always dark
-there are perilous mountains, which crash together violently
-the wind in mictlan constantly blows and is like "obsidian knives"
-surprisingly, mictlan itself is not barren and dead. it is said to have plants (though all that grows there is tough and dry, including hardy plants like cactuses) and animals (often fierce and dangerous animals which act as hazards or guardians, like jaguars, snakes, and owls, but small animals like quails are also said to live there! in one version of the story i included with this post it is the quails fault that quetzalcoatl trips and breaks the bones.)
what are the layers?
our current world is said to be the fifth world. each of the previous four worlds, resided over by a different god, ended in a different cataclysm caused by the quarreling of the gods. each world was populated by a different kind of people, and when their worlds ended they were sometimes transformed: the fourth world ended in a flood and the people became fish, and the second world's people became monkeys.
to represent this aspect of the mythos, i made the underground of mictlan out of layered ruins, and each layer's ruins were carefully chosen to be progressively older. the second world, which belonged to quetzalcoatl, is made from parts of a temple to quetzalcoatl! on this layer among the skeleton denizens of mictlan you may spot several skeletal monkeys, and on the top layer if you are eagle eyed you may spot the remains of fish.
how was this made?
the base layer was a sketch. it was actually originally one i drew a long time go of a dragon in a well, which i never completed but liked the composition. i changed it into quetzalcoatl, and then spent around 100 hours carefully assembling photo textures, arranging and shaping them in literally thousands of tiny pieces, and then drawing again over the top to unify the light and shadow and add detail. here are some in-progress shots:
here i was showing my friend who posed for the arms how i used his photos; he had seen the end result and thought it was a drawing that just referenced the photos he kindly provided, and i wanted to show him no, that's your actual arms! the whole thing with brokemon was great practice for this piece, a fantastic crash course in assembling hand poses out of a single finger. note that the hands have six fingers (as do the hand shaped frills around the corner of the mouth), i use this as a visual signifier of holiness in a creature.
here is an early iteration of the head. the face was the first part of the image that i did. i ended up scrapping and redoing the feathers almost entirely for something with a more intentional arrangement, as well as scrapping the axolotl-inspired frills, which i thought would be cool but i felt cluttered everything too much and drew attention away from features which were drawn from original depictions of quetzalcoatl. surrounding it you can see some of the component pieces used for the face: a thin strip of red/yellow lip from a crested caracara eagle was shaped into the majority of the face, the teeth and gums were built from one baboon tooth, the hand parts of the frill were contructed from a piece of turkey neck, etc. sometimes merging lots of pieces (like the top of the snout, which was made from jaguar nose, baboon gum, caracara lip, and turkey neck) ended up making something which felt like a nice building block, so i would then use that combined piece in other areas, like to make the tongue. i started with many potential source photos but ultimately using a limited palette of pieces made the final textures have a more cohesive and organic feel.
the final piece was around 2000 layers of photobashing, drawing, and shading, almost half of them being in quetzalcoatl and most of those in the head alone.
what's that light?
this piece depicts life returning to the dead immortal god, and i decided to represent this visually by having him reaching for this light. the symbol is based on a stary eye, something used in aztec art to represent, shockingly, both stars and eyes, and often in association with gods of death. i tried to make it look like both an iris and a star system. quetzalcoatl has taken many forms across aztec mythology, and one of those is the morning star, so i thought a sybolic rising star would be an apt visual representation of resurrection.
below you can see this symbol on the gods xōchipilli and xolotl.
and here you can see this symbol as both eyes and stars in one image, with a god of death.
who's the dog?
this is xolotl, twin brother of quetzalcoatl, in the form of a starving dog. i wanted to give the impression of something that is not a literal dog, but a god taking a vaguely doglike shape, so the closer you look the stranger the anatomy becomes, particularly with the details of the face. xolotl is eyeless because in another myth all the gods are sacrificing themselves in order to make the fifth sun move across the sky, but xolotl backs out and runs away, hiding in the form of an axolotl, then a two headed stalk of maize, then an agave plant with two stems. he is eventually caught, and cries his eyes out for his cowardice, and is often depicted with empty or bloodied eye sockets.
conch shells?
see that white spiralled object around the neck of xolotl in the codice art above? that is an ehecailacacozcatl, a "spirally-voluted wind jewel". here is a photo of a real one!
it is a cut section of a conch shell, and is an object with associations with the wind, with the shape being considered reminscent of a hurricane, and conches themselves being used as instruments. this object is associated with quetzalcoatl, and is worn by him in his human form, as well as by related gods like xolotl above. here you can see it worn by quetzalcoatl and ehecatl. these depictions, with their red beak masks, are why i gave the feathered serpent form a bare red face!
if you are eagle eyed you may spot that quetzalcoatl wears one, tied to his horn, and the conch shell from the story can be found at the bottom of the pit among the bones.
the arms?
any excuse to draw an arms guy :D
in my research for this story i also looked into the feathered serpent god equivalents of quetzalcoatl from other cultures, such as the mayan kukulkan (which also means feathered serpent), or the vision serpent.
these versions of the feathered serpent were often depicted with an emerging face or figure, the mouth of the snake being like a doorway through which spirits or ancestors can interact wiht the world. i wanted to draw quetzalcoatl in the form of the feathered serpent, but also wanted to have him manually interacting with the scene (carrying bones, reaching for the light), so integrating these features from other variants of quetzalcoatl seemed a good way to do that.
special thanks
Zac for Guiro toad line idea suggestion and sprite help in it final form
Venacava for Anomalocaris line fossil idea suggestion
Tlefonman eye change suggestion in the Deep sea clamps
Hornests for shading help in Sea slug
Everyone which suggested names for the creatures
Latenightagain for creating Quarantine Crystal and inspire me
C3ll for being my gf <3
and everyone which gave feedback, follow the project since the start or/and just enjoys it really ^^
what a treasure it has been to watch you fill out this dex!
growing up in the early days of the the internet, when pokemon factory will filled with entries like playground rumours and completed dexes were few and far between and even fewer of any quality, how lucky i feel lately seeing so many phenomenal spriters emerging and creating top tier monster rosters in the retro style. and yours in particular, so full of absolutely charming and adorable first stages:
which so deftly capture the coveted "both cute and cool" with designs that are fun, pretty, well textured and detailed, cute without being saccharine, crisp and tidy designs without being forgettable, really such a strong selection.
and equally generous is the assortment of final stages:
sleek, pretty, cool, strange, scary, funny, clever, an impressive display of creativity and versatility. don't think i have not noticed too how much you have improved with your posing and detailing since the start, every mon making better use of the space with more and more dynamic poses and angles and textures.
my team, which was difficult to narrow down from my top 16:
specific shoutouts for how well those teeth/eyes in the slime guy are sprited, the gorgeous eerie birch, how extremely appealing the wizard fungus line is the whole way through, and the mandatory hands mon
thank you for sharing this with me along the way and i look forward to seeing what you do next!
I am so proud to present this piece, which is the result of many months of work and research.
This piece is dedicated with great respect and admiration to my nahuatl teacher tlatoanitsin. Without his suggestion to do art of the Aztec gods I would never have made this. Half of all print sale profits go to him to support his work in preserving the nahuatl language and fighting for the wellbeing of indigenous communities of Mexico.
This piece depicts a scene from Aztec creation mythology. Under the cut you can find a writeup of the story, in three languages: english, spanish, and nahuatl (huasteca potosina variant), many thanks to my teacher for providing the translation.
This piece is mixed media, roughly 2000 layers of sketching, photobashing, and overpainting.
English
Quetzalcoatl and Xolotl in Mictlan
The fourth world was drowned in a fifty-two year flood of blood, tears of the goddess Chalchiuhtlicue. The cycle will continue, and now begins the time of the fifth world. It must have people to populate it, and those people must be made from the bones of the people of the previous world. Those bones are in Mictlan, land of the dead where the sky is always dark, where the bitter ceaseless wind is like obsidian knives, and where all that grows is tough and dry.
Quetzalcoatl, lord of the wind, of the arts and of learning, is tasked with retrieving those bones. He is accompanied by his twin brother Xolotl, lord of monsters, deformity, and death. Xolotl takes the form of a sickly and pitiable skeletal dog; the kind of creature that stands on the doorway of death with a foot in each world. Xolotl knows Mictlan well, in this guise he guides the sun through the underworld each night just as he guides souls from the world of the living onwards.
Mictlantecuhtli, lord of the dead and ruler of Mictlan, tells Quetzalcoatl he can take the bones and leave unhindered, but only if Quetzalcoatl can complete an impossible task: play a conch flute that has no holes. But Quetzalcoatl is lord of the wind and if he wills the air to move through a flute then it shall sing. He plays music with the shell, and Mictlantecuhtli is forced to concede and allow Quetzalcoatl to retrieve the bones of the people of the fourth world.
The lord of the dead does not take kindly to being bested by one of the four Creator Brother gods, the Tezcatlipocas. Lower in the hierarchy though he is, this place is his domain, and he will not allow his kingdom to be plundered easily.
He tells his minions to dig a great pit to trap Quetzalcoat. Quetzalcoatl falls, breaking the bones, and his own body. He dies in the pit in the land of the dead, but gods do not stay dead. The death of gods is only part of an endless cycle of change and renewal. He resurrects, and brings the broken bones with him to the fifth world. He mixes them with maize (a symbol of rebirth from death) and with his own holy blood, offered from his earlobes, calves, tongue, and penis. As each bone was broken in the fall into a different size piece, so the new people of the fifth world became different heights.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Español
Quetzalcóatl y Xolotl en Mictlán
El cuarto mundo se ahogó en una inundación de sangre que duró cincuenta y dos años, las lágrimas de la diosa Chalchiuhtlicue. El ciclo continuará, y ahora comienza la era del quinto mundo. Debe haber personas que lo pueblen, y esas personas deben estar hechas de los huesos de las personas del mundo anterior. Esos huesos se encuentran en Mictlán, la tierra de los muertos, donde el cielo siempre está oscuro, donde el viento amargo e incesante es como cuchillos de obsidiana y donde todo lo que crece es duro y seco.
Quetzalcóatl, señor del viento, de las artes y del aprendizaje, tiene la tarea de recuperar esos huesos. Le acompaña su hermano gemelo Xolotl, señor de los monstruos, la deformidad y la muerte. Xolotl toma la forma de un perro esquelético, enfermizo y lamentable; el tipo de criatura que se queda en la puerta de la muerte con un pie en cada mundo. Xolotl conoce bien Mictlán, bajo esta identidad guía al sol a través del inframundo cada noche, al igual que guía a las almas del mundo de los vivos.
Mictlantecuhtli, señor de los muertos y gobernante de Mictlán, le dice a Quetzalcóatl que puede llevarse los huesos y marcharse sin obstáculos, pero solo si Quetzalcóatl puede completar una tarea imposible: tocar una flauta de caracol que no tiene agujeros. Pero Quetzalcóatl es el señor del viento y, si desea que el aire se mueva a través de una flauta, esta cantará. Toca música con la caracola y Mictlantecuhtli se ve obligado a ceder y permitir que Quetzalcóatl recupere los huesos de la gente del cuarto mundo.
Al señor de los muertos no le gusta que le supere uno de los cuatro dioses hermanos creadores, los Tezcatlipocas. Aunque es inferior en la jerarquía, este lugar es su dominio y no permitirá que su reino sea saqueado fácilmente.
Ordena a sus secuaces que caven un gran hoyo para atrapar a Quetzalcóatl. Quetzalcóatl cae, rompiéndose los huesos y su propio cuerpo. Muere en el hoyo de la tierra de los muertos, pero los dioses no permanecen muertos. La muerte de los dioses es solo parte de un ciclo interminable de cambio y renovación. Él resucita y lleva consigo los huesos rotos al quinto mundo. Los mezcla con maíz (símbolo del renacimiento tras la muerte) y con su propia sangre sagrada, ofrecida de sus lóbulos de las orejas, pantorrillas, lengua y pene. Como cada hueso se rompió en la caída en pedazos de diferentes tamaños, así el nuevo pueblo del quinto mundo tuvo diferentes estaturas.
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Náhuatl
Ketsalkoatl uan Xolotl pan Miktlan
Nauipan tlaltipak misaui pan se esotlaueixtli tlen uejkajki makuilpoalli uan ome xiutl, iixayotl tlen siuateotl Chalchiutlikue. Tonallis panotias, uan aman peua makuilpan tlaltipak. Ma onkaskiya maseualmej tlen mamochantikaj, uan inon maseualmej ma mochijtokaj tlen omiyo maseualli tlen achtouika tlaltepaktli. Inon omimej mopantiaj pan Miktlan, tlalli tlen mijkatsitsin, kampa illuikatl nochipa tsintlayouatok, kampa ajakatl chichik uan moollinia ken istlitlatentli, uan kampa nochi moskaltia tetik uan uaktok.
Ketsalkoatl, ajakatlakatl, toltekayotlakatl uan tlamichtitlakatl, kipia pan imako tlakuepas inon omimej. Kitlauika iiknin kuate Xolotl, tlakatemajmatijketl, tsikuiltik uan mijketl. Xolotl moixchiua tlen se chichi kejkelechtik, mokokoyaj uan mochojchokillia; tlen ken se tlapialli tlen mokaua pan kuatsajketl mijkayotl ka sejsen iikxi pan tlaltipak. Xolotl kiixomati kualli Miktlan, tlen ken ka ni iaxka kiojtlallia tonati pan chiknauimiktlan sejsen youalli, noijki kinojtlallia elluayotl tlen tlaltepaktli kampa maseualmej yoltokej.
Miktlantekujtli, miktlantlakatl uan tlanauatijketl tlen Miktlan, kiillia Ketsalkoatl uelli kinuikas omimej uan moojuitlallis, sanijki Ketsalkoatl uellis kichiuas se tekitl tlen oui: kipitsas se atekokolli tlen amo koyoxtik. Yesej Ketsalkoatl ajakatlakatl uan, tlan kineki ma ajakatl ma moollini pan se akatlapitsalli, ni kuikas. Kuikachiua ka atekokolli uan Miktlantekutli motemaka uan kikaua Ketsalkoatl ma kikuepa omiyo tlen maseualmej tlen nauikpan tlaltipak.
Miktlantlakatl amo kipaktia ma kitlanikaj se tlen nauipan teomej iknimej tlaelliyanij, Teskatlipokamej. Maske iststok tlatsintla tekiuayotl, ni kakiuilli ya tlanauatia uan amo kikauas pan itlanauatillis ma kiichtekikaj nimanok.
Kinnauatia innintekiua ma kichiuakaj se ueyi ostotl uan ma kitskikaj Ketsalkoatl. Ketsalkoatl uetsi, moomiyoposteki uan nojkia itlakayo. Miki pan ostotl tlen Miktlampa, yesej teomej amo mokauaj miktokej. Miktli tlen teomej sanijki se tonalli tlen amo kipia itlamika tlen mopajpatla uan moyankuillia. Ya moyoleua uan kiuika omiyo postektokej kampa makuilpan tlaltipak. Kinmaneloa ika sintli (kistosneki tlen yoleua keman se miki) uan ka ieso teoyalli, temaka tlen inakayotl nakastli, kotstli, nejnepilli uan tepolli. Ken san sejsen omiyo postejki keman uetski motlatlapatski, ijkinon yankuik altepetl tlen makuilpan tlaltipak kipixki miak tlamantli tlen ijuejuexka.
i can actually post my art thing today.
but also, out of curiosity, how would you all like to see the staff make changes to the site?
i just sent them a long list of suggestions for things i think would increase community engagement, encourage comments, and make them money (along with reiterating that we like the current notes system, and all the ways the change and their handling of it was a disaster, and that no one wants to get any credit from sharing posts especially if that means taking it from op)
i would love to hear what suggestions you guys have for ways to improve the site, encourage good engagement and discovery, make them money without pissing everyone off, etc
i'll put my suggestions in the comments here for yall to rate and hate
so i can't post my huge magnum opus art piece that i've worked on for a month today because i won't see any of the notes engagement that isn't on the original post? did i get that right? i have to either sit on it until they revert it or accept that i will only be able to see a fraction of the engagement?
