aztec mythology · smoking mirror · volatile temper · bloodthirsty · sorcery · jaguar limb · night sky · anti-christian · ancient deity · shadow ruler
Twilight devoured the ancient temple, the ruins slick with evening dew as a chorus of distant insects sang to the silent stone faces. The air thickened with the scent of damp earth and slow decay. This ground was sacred, now scarred by the footprints of those who understood nothing. It appeared oblivion had claimed this faith as its own. Yet the land has not forgotten. A shadow, black and sinuous, slid through the cracks of the crumbling staircase. Upon the altar, stripped of its sacrifices and stained by centuries, a figure shrouded in ragged cloth sat enthroned among the fragments of a fallen world. His eyes alone burned with a sickly, luminous yellow—twin beacons in the dark, waiting to guide the worthy... or condemn the foolish.