Background Information for IEID
Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 7:51 am
The sun did not rise when morning should have come. It has been a considerable amount of time, and the morning bells have sounded twice with no sun in sight... people are beginning to panic. Here's what it means to some of you:
Chuihutlei:
Arcana 25: The sun is absent from the sky, but the stars still move in their sacred paths. The new world thus has come. There are several possibilities for how the sun could go down without coming up again (and still have the next world come at all):
[*] It is possible that a fundamental imbalance has caused the world to end before it is time. This can be discounted, because it actually is time for such a thing.
[*] New worlds are strange things. One of the previous ones had no land in it! So it's entirely possible that the sun isn't supposed to exist in this world. If so, the proper task would be to find a new source of warmth and food. The maize does not grow on rain alone.
[*] With a new world, it is possible that new rituals are required to get the sun up. The old songs and sacrifices would then be entirely useless. If so, a new song needs to be found to sing the sun up.
[*] During the change of world, there is a period of a whole sacred week when the gods themselves are... open to negotiation. It is at one of these times that The Smoking Mirror was transformed into a Jaguar and the great Feathered Serpent became a greater god. It is possible that someone is funneling the power of the sun into themselves or has killed the sun. The gods are vulnerable right now.
In any case, it seems obvious to you that the rituals and sacrifices going on on top of the Temple of the Sun are a waste of time.
The world you see about you is but one layer, and like an onion that layer can be peeled back to reveal new layers again and again. The land of the dead has eight layers which normally require 4 years to cross (and crossing it is not fun, from what the dead you've talked to have told you). At the end is Mictlan proper, the ninth level of the underworld. It is guarded by a huge Jaguar that will attempt to eat your heart. It can be bought off with jade (if you've got it), and if you reach the land of the dead with your heart properly ceremonially removed it can go ahead and eat your heart without disrupting your soul. Mictlan is a huge cave where Mictecacihuatl keeps a record of everyone who has ever died and the skeletons of those yet unborn are made from stones, and the skeletons of the dead are reclaimed by their owner (everyone's skeletons are essentially "borrowed" from here in a complex deal cut by The Feathered Serpent).
There are also thirteen heavens, and a proper death in battle or childbirth can get you sent to one of them directly. Also, a proper sacrifice can send someone directly to one of these heavens. The highest of them is Omeyocan, where dwells the Divine Duality, the God of Near and Close.
Engineering 5: Those temples are made of rock from a long way off. Yessirree. The stalls in the marketplace are woven. From things.
Geography 14: To the East is where small people come from. Things become less civilized if you go South and East from Teotihuacan, but they become way more uncivilized if you go in any other direction. Major cities include Dani Biaa (modern day Oaxaca), Tikal, Chichén Itzá, and Copán. Much closer to home is the subject city of Cacaxtla, which has of late been ignoring some imperial edicts. The rodes to these places are well patrolled, and fortress cities like Xochicalco are along the route to protect the trade routes. To the north, it's mostly just El Tajín, which is a sports powerhouse.
History 11: The world ends and begins at a very regular clip, and now it has clearly ended. The land belonged to the Olmecs in the distant past, and they built giant heads. But they are gone now, and noone knows where they went. Teotihuacan was chosen by Quetzlcoatl to lead the world, and he blessed or mated with the kings or something and that's where the priest kings come from. Teotihuacan became the trading giant that it is today because it won a bunch of wars. Once a year, one of the war priests comes out and recites them all, and when that happens some women dance.
-more later-
-Username17
Chuihutlei:
Arcana 25: The sun is absent from the sky, but the stars still move in their sacred paths. The new world thus has come. There are several possibilities for how the sun could go down without coming up again (and still have the next world come at all):
[*] It is possible that a fundamental imbalance has caused the world to end before it is time. This can be discounted, because it actually is time for such a thing.
[*] New worlds are strange things. One of the previous ones had no land in it! So it's entirely possible that the sun isn't supposed to exist in this world. If so, the proper task would be to find a new source of warmth and food. The maize does not grow on rain alone.
[*] With a new world, it is possible that new rituals are required to get the sun up. The old songs and sacrifices would then be entirely useless. If so, a new song needs to be found to sing the sun up.
[*] During the change of world, there is a period of a whole sacred week when the gods themselves are... open to negotiation. It is at one of these times that The Smoking Mirror was transformed into a Jaguar and the great Feathered Serpent became a greater god. It is possible that someone is funneling the power of the sun into themselves or has killed the sun. The gods are vulnerable right now.
In any case, it seems obvious to you that the rituals and sacrifices going on on top of the Temple of the Sun are a waste of time.
The world you see about you is but one layer, and like an onion that layer can be peeled back to reveal new layers again and again. The land of the dead has eight layers which normally require 4 years to cross (and crossing it is not fun, from what the dead you've talked to have told you). At the end is Mictlan proper, the ninth level of the underworld. It is guarded by a huge Jaguar that will attempt to eat your heart. It can be bought off with jade (if you've got it), and if you reach the land of the dead with your heart properly ceremonially removed it can go ahead and eat your heart without disrupting your soul. Mictlan is a huge cave where Mictecacihuatl keeps a record of everyone who has ever died and the skeletons of those yet unborn are made from stones, and the skeletons of the dead are reclaimed by their owner (everyone's skeletons are essentially "borrowed" from here in a complex deal cut by The Feathered Serpent).
There are also thirteen heavens, and a proper death in battle or childbirth can get you sent to one of them directly. Also, a proper sacrifice can send someone directly to one of these heavens. The highest of them is Omeyocan, where dwells the Divine Duality, the God of Near and Close.
Engineering 5: Those temples are made of rock from a long way off. Yessirree. The stalls in the marketplace are woven. From things.
Geography 14: To the East is where small people come from. Things become less civilized if you go South and East from Teotihuacan, but they become way more uncivilized if you go in any other direction. Major cities include Dani Biaa (modern day Oaxaca), Tikal, Chichén Itzá, and Copán. Much closer to home is the subject city of Cacaxtla, which has of late been ignoring some imperial edicts. The rodes to these places are well patrolled, and fortress cities like Xochicalco are along the route to protect the trade routes. To the north, it's mostly just El Tajín, which is a sports powerhouse.
History 11: The world ends and begins at a very regular clip, and now it has clearly ended. The land belonged to the Olmecs in the distant past, and they built giant heads. But they are gone now, and noone knows where they went. Teotihuacan was chosen by Quetzlcoatl to lead the world, and he blessed or mated with the kings or something and that's where the priest kings come from. Teotihuacan became the trading giant that it is today because it won a bunch of wars. Once a year, one of the war priests comes out and recites them all, and when that happens some women dance.
-more later-
-Username17