#despite the massive subject (apocalypse) and scope

[frankensteincest]

did my dissertation presentation/defence and the responses were ‘you’ve done Too Much’ and ‘it coheres’ so I stay winning ✌🏻

[dailydemonspotlight]

Tezcatlipoca - Day 128

Race: Vile Arcana: Tower Alignment: Dark-Law October 16th, 2024

Aztec mythology is one of the most infamously complicated webs of stories in history, tying together several different gods and stories into this massive, hard-to-parse mural that has been completely destroyed by several very conquest-heavy Spaniards and hastily rebuilt through codices and retellings. However, what we do know is an incredibly interesting tale of gods, rebirth, sacrifice, and a major focus on keeping an impending apocalypse at bay. Among the most famous figures in this tapestry, though, is today's Demon of the Day, and one who earns his vile race with good reason: Smoking Mirror Tezcatlipoca, the Aztec Lord of the Night. oh my god its majimaaaa

As one of the four major deities, the sons of Ometeotl, he stands among his compatriots in the forms of the patron god Huitzilopochtli, the funny snake Quetzalcoatl, and the flayed one Xipe Totec, and due to this, Tezcatlipoca has a lot more information regarding him than some other gods in the Aztec pantheon. However, important to note before we truly get into this is that Aztec civilization and its values were far different from not just modern day but also many other civilizations at the time; due to their beliefs and their area on the map leading to a great amount of importance being placed on sacrifice and human life, a lot of the things that Aztec mythology speaks about can be seen as downright grotesque today, such as the aforementioned flayed one, whose title wasn't just a title- it was a descriptor.

This leads into Tezcatlipoca, a god notable for being especially mean in modern day contexts: as the god of war and the night, Tezcatlipoca represented everything that the Aztecs wanted to avoid but still revered. Despite representing conflict as a whole, he was also a god who gave the Aztecs life and safety, and was overall an incredibly important figure in spite of his temperament- but how bad was that temper? In order to see that, we should look at, what else, but the five suns story, where Tezcatlipoca ruins everything time and time again. Throughout the course of the story, which I won't recant here due to covering it already in my Quetzalcoatl analysis, Tezcatlipoca serves as the first sun, called the '4 tiger.' Under him as the sun, the world lasted for 676 years, and in his world every human was a giant who only ate acorns, before it eventually ended with a rain of jaguars started by him.

When Quetzalcoatl became the second sun, however, Tezcatlipoca became jealous, likely wanting to have his turn in the sunlight again, and attacked the feathered serpent to get his throne back. This led to a spat that eventually ended the second sun's reign, and he continues to stew conflict throughout the rest of the tale as well, causing problems like the war god he is. However, in spite of this, he was still revered... out of fear. His alternate name, Titlacauan, literally translates to 'we are his slaves,' and if that doesn't show you why people worshipped him then the fact that his temper would lead to massive disasters if not worshipped will. As his month of worship was in modern day May, he wasn't worshipped all the time, but it was needed to worship him or else one would incur his wrath onto their whole society. Trust me, a jaguar rain is not fun or pretty. He was also worshipped, however, due to love for him- he was still an important god, one who sacrificed himself to be the first sun, and one who helped defeat the primordial monster deep below the world in the Aztec lore.

Interestingly, the Tezcatlipoca I'm talking about here is only one of four, each representing different aspects of Tezcatlipoca overall. However, as I went over in the Morrigan analysis, composite deities are a very complex subject that are a bit beyond the scope of this analysis, so... well, do your own research. Tezcatlipoca as a composite deity may actually be all of the four sons of Ometeotl, but... to be honest, I don't really know? Honestly, the whole 'four Tezcatlipocas' thing confuses me, as do many other composite deities. Still, overall, this temperamental and wrathful god was still an incredibly important deity in the Aztec pantheon... so how about in SMT, and why am I covering him during the spooky month?

His design in SMT is very interesting, at least in terms of his Strange Journey redesign- the bleeding heart he holds onto is a reference to the sacrifices he's associated with, and the scaly skin and frankly menacing stare he has point to associations with snakes, for whatever reason. I do really like the way his body fades into wisps, playing off of his nature and name meaning Smoking Mirror. However, why I'm covering him during the Halloween marathon may be a bit confusing to those who're unfamiliar with his other design, which I honestly prefer. Introducing, his design in SMT II:

A SKELETON! YEAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Granted, neither design is too accurate to the original art of Tezcatlipoca, nor many modern depictions, but I still do like both of them. They're really well done in both appearances, and I flip between the two in terms of preference. Overall, a good and incredibly intriguing design for an incredibly intriguing figure.