#reference: headcanon

[kukulkahn]

source

Tenoch, Mabel, and Alex confirm that the Talokanil salute was created because Talokan needed their own version of “Wakanda Forever”. 

 The chosen hand sign in question is connected to the sun, but also a symbol of the ‘opening of something’. It is also believed to be based on images from MesoAmerican codices: 

[kukulkahn]

Languages, Childhood, & Surface Recon

I have so many questions

Based on inferences made by the conversations we witness, pretty much the entire population of Talokan speaks an iteration of màaya t’àan, requiring Shuri’s universal translator to be understood by non-Talokanil.

But Namor.... He speaks English as well. Fairly fluently. Where did he learn? Who taught him? Has he spent 400+ years making secretive trips to the surface in order to understand multiple languages? 

Because if he’s traveling to the nearest shoreline -- we assume somewhere in Mesoamerica -- English is not going to be the primary language he would have the greatest opportunity to pick up, especially not several hundred years ago. 

I think it may be fair to assume he speaks Spanish as well, whether as a tool to retaliate against Spaniard colonizers, or out of sheer practicality if he is indeed making trips to the surface. 

All this to say -- I feel somewhat confident in my brainrot that K’uk’ulkan has actually spent more time secretively investigating the surface world than originally suggested. Yes, his home and people are removed from global society, both out of necessity and by choice. But Namor is the one member of the Talokanil that can potentially pass as human (with enough clothing covering certain defining features... think Spock wearing a beanie). As their leader/god, he would be remiss in his duty if he didn’t venture out and assess the threats posed by the surface world, and that would mean he would need to understand their language, the socio-political climate, what weapons of war looked like in an ever-changing landscape of technology. 

... And now I’m imagining a young K’uk’ulkan in high-top combat boots and an oversized beanie, dodging his way through the crowded streets of Mexico City. Sitting in darkened corners of bars near the embassy offices and watching global news reports, head cocked to overhear loose-lipped politicians. Learning new tech, new forms of communication, new styles of warfare -- all the keep tabs on the colonizer threat.

... Standing in museums and staring at the artefacts of his People, of his mother’s people, and silent simmering in rage as every audio-guide speaks of them in the past tense.

[kukulkahn]

Musings on Talokan & the Evolution of Mayan Religion

What must the first peoples of Talokan have thought and felt about the changes in their physiology and what it meant for their religious practice?

The necessity of living at depth in the ocean must have, at first, felt a bit like living in Xibalba. Cold, dark, alien in so many ways to their lives before that moment. Perhaps they even felt they were working their way through Xibalba's nine realms to find a more divine paradise that ensured their survival?

All of the gods of land that they previously worshipped, whether to reflect nature/seasons/elements or for animals/plants solely existing in the surface world (especially the god of maize, god of the sun) would have suddenly become inaccessible to them, no longer as integral to their survival as they once were. The ceremony once used to show respect and gratitude could not be performed at depth, or perhaps even in water. How to respond to this change? Did they give up those rituals and ceremonies? Did they evolve them into a familiar-yet-foreign version? 

Did Namor grow up learning about these ceremonies as something lost, even as he participated in new ceremonies tailored for the gods of water and tides and fish migration?

Each person's wayob (their personal guide) would have been impacted, as many would have taken form as land-dwelling creatures or elements - would they still dream of them as they had??

We know that the deity K’uk’ulkan plays a strong role both within Talokanil society and as a part of Namor’s personal character journey. 

I am reminded that there are both ancient and modern interpretations of the Plumed Serpent Diety: 

He has been a War Serpent, a Vision Serpent, the God of a cult that facilitated peaceful trade and intertribal communication across indigenous communities. 

But he has also been just a boy who was born a snake, who was loved by his sister, and who -- when he grew too large -- flew into the sea, the cause of underwater earthquakes.

And then there is the story of K’uk’ulkan the winged serpent that flew to the sun and tried to speak to it. But the sun, in its pride, burnt his tongue.                      .... Sound familiar?

[kukulkahn]

HEADCANON FRAGMENTS :: Revolution

          Namor has always kept abreast of any civil unrest taking place on the surface in Mesoamerica (particularly in the Yucatán Peninsula) and how it most impacts Indigenous Communities of any relation to his own Peoples. So it stands to reason he was well aware of a young Emiliano Zapata and the work of his Liberation Army of the South. Namor would not have participated in the Mexican Revolution (not his Peoples’ problem), but he would have regularly ventured surface-side to do recon on the Maderista rebellion and the civil war that followed. Zapata would have appealed to the Talokanil leader because of his belief that peasants and laborers (largely of Indigenous communities) deserved the right to live and work their own land (and the water flowing through it!) without being preyed upon by those in power. 

         Fast Forward to the 90s, Namor would have kept eyes on the Chiapas conflict and the Zapatista uprising as well. Once again Indigenous subsistence farmers were being exploited and mistreated, suffering under colonization that restricted their access to basic necessities. This war also did not impact the Talokanil or their anonymity, but for once K’uk’ulkan could not help but get involved. He provided unseen assistance to the Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Tojolab’al, and Ch’ol Maya Peoples that participated in the capturing of towns across southern Mexico, and secretly aided their survival when they were forced to hide in the Lacandon Jungle. But that was as far as he was willing to risk exposure, and so returned to Talokan while the San Andrés Accords were negotiated. The ongoing retaliation efforts from the Mexican government, both to forcibly displace Indigenous Peoples and to dissolve the EZLN, has only made Namor more frustrated with the colonization of the surface world, and distrustful of anyone who claims to seek ‘peace’ or ‘justice.’