Tezca Zacatenco

Name story:

Tezca - shortened from Tezcacoatl, Nahuatl for "reflecting serpent/king"
Zacatenco - his assumed surname, meaning "at the edge of the grass" in Nahuatl language

Character age:

Appears 25-30 years, chronologically 500+

Character gender:

Male

Offsite roleplay:

This doll's character is available for offsite roleplay.

A "false idol" of old, perhaps a demon in human guise, trapped for centuries inside a ceremonial obsidian dagger guarded by the Gilday family of antiquarians. Released by a sacrificial ritual and blood from a Gilday child, the ancient entity rebelled against its summoners and laid waste to the surrounding land, but left the injured heir within an inch of her life.

Years later, the freed immortal would return to the heir under the name "Tezca Zacatenco", feigning amnesia in an attempt to gain back his vessel and full power, so that he may take revenge on the gods who imprisoned him. (She sees right though his ploy, and ends up using the dagger’s power to force Tezca into an entirely unwilling contract. So much for that plan.)

Full name: Tezcacoatl "Tezca" Zacatenco
Species: Godtype (demonic), formerly human
Place of origin: Mexico
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Birthday: January 5th (Capricorn)
Hair color: Gold
Eye color: Green
Height: 6'2" / 188 cm
Weight: 189 lbs / 86 kg
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Myers-Briggs: ESTP
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Sexual orientation: Bisexual (leans towards women)
Relationship status: Has a love-hate relationship with Kyung-min Gilday
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Personality: Suave and bold, somewhat of a quick talker. His exuberance and worldliness loan him charisma, despite his overall disinterest in anyone besides himself. He could've easily made a living as a conman, and it's possible that he did, in the time spent doing some ostensible soul-searching (i.e. finding a way to reclaim full power).

It's no secret that Tezca is not at all human and holds very little regard for the society around him. If nothing else, the time spent trapped inside a piece of rock has made him even more reckless, to the point he almost believes that the Earth and everything on it are there for his own personal pleasure.

He does however show a great deal of admiration for personal fortitude, and begrudgingly admits that there may be some worthy mortals on the planet. Sadly, his grudge against the gods takes precedence over the welfare of humanity, and he'd willingly wipe out all of it just to get back at them.
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Appearance: Although not his true form, Tezca regularly assumes the guise of a golden-haired, tan-skinned young man with piercing sea foam green eyes. Endowed with a swimmer's streamlined physique, he lacks muscle mass and physical strength, but compensates with a rather imposing ego.
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Likes: Liberal sciences; a good challenge. Leaving things up to chance.
Dislikes: Ignorance and liars
Hobbies: Playing the flute, billiards, eating uncooked ramen
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Abilities

Goetia (Conjuration)
Tezca can evoke what Kyung-min refers to as the "legions of Hell" to his side, really apparitions from a lower plane of existence. The shades are single-mindedly destructive, likely not of human origin and able to rip apart buildings by sheer density alone, but they bend easily to Tezca's will and are forced to obey his command. At most he can simultaneously bring forth thirty individual masses of these apparitions, which operate as a hive mind controlling a collective "body."

Illusion Projection
A mid-way between his former power to alter memories and cause full-scale insanity, Tezca's magic easily invades the minds of mortals and draws forth their greatest fears into reality--people, places, even entire scenarios, all replayed in terrifyingly vivid relief.

Sealed power: Jaguar form, shapeshifting, transfiguration, altering memories

Biography

Although he hates to admit it, Tezca is a deity of human origin, having lived in pre-Columbian Mexico some time in the early 1500s. After being taken captive by enemy Aztec warriors, a Nahua man was chosen among ten prisoners as the most beautiful, while the rest of his comrades were slain. His captors began to groom him for the role of an ixiptla, or “living image” of Tezcatlipoca, who would impersonate the god for a year and then be sacrificed at the Festival of Toxcatl, the month of drought.

Among his first experiences as an ixiptla included having to wear and ingest the flayed skin of the previous, sacrificed ixiptla in order to inherit the role. He was then brought before the king, for whom he would carry prayers and be lavished by.

Over the next year in Tenochtitlan, he was revered and treated like a god. His only role was to roam around with all the magnificence of a deity’s human avatar, a flesh incarnation, and the privileges of a high lord. He went through the city at will, playing the flute, smoking pipes, singing and reciting poetry while being showered with praise, gifts and flowers. Commoners prostrated themselves at his feet, asking him for his good graces. Following close behind was an entourage of twelve men, four of them being veteran “constables”, who served as both his servers and his jailers. If the ixiptla were to flee, one of these people would take his place. Because they were upright and respectable, the ixiptla made no attempts to elude them.

After his initial transformation into a god, he would transform again, casting off any finery he accumulated in favor of the king’s adornments, chosen to render the ixiptla in a personal vision of Tezcatlipoca. He became a living symbol of splendor, continued to present himself to the people, and partook in a number of festivals. At one feast, he wed four wives, each representative of a different goddess: those of fertility, agriculture, earth, and oceans. He had his hair cut and garments changed to that of a warrior. The group stayed together for twenty days, acting as did the married. Five days before Toxcatl, he and the women embarked on a pilgrimmage to ceremonial locations in Tenochtitlan, before separating on the last, the ixiptla now accompanied solely by his handlers. They traveled 15 miles to Chalco, a city-state south of the capital Tenochtitlan and the place where he would die.

It would have been May when the feast and festival of Toxcatl took place. At Chalco’s heart, Tlapitzahuayan, the lone ixiptla ascended the temple Tlacochcalco, the “House of Darts”, and broke his musical instruments on the steps. It reflected an end to mortal expression, so that what remained was a perfect vessel, Tezcatlipoca’s avatar, which would be sacrificed—blood, heart and all—to repay humanity’s debt to the divine. The ixiptla’s last year represented the joyous experience of human life itself, and his sacrifice stood for the end of it. It was supposed to be an honorable and respectable death, but the ixiptla was afraid and unable to show it. He was a warrior, but he could not fight as the priests seized the ixiptla and threw him across the stone altar.

With black knives, they carved out his chest and offered his heart to the sun. There, he breathed his last. There, something answered his dying prayers.

His head was removed and placed on a rack for display, the body then flayed of its skin. A portion of the hide was then given to the ixiptla of next year, a lone captive among ten candidates, the most beautiful among them—a man who later took the name Tezcacoatl Zacatenco. In that dark remnant, he inherited his predecessor’s memories, as well as his helplessness, his regret, and his grudge. The skin spoke to him and introduced itself as the demon Ose, who offered him power in exchange for his death. As he went through the same ritual proceedings, he decided to accept the voice’s offer and avenge a dead man whose name he didn’t know.

He was sacrificed to Tezcatlipoca during Toxcatl in the year 1520, during the Spanish conquest of Mexico. On the last day, May 22nd, a massacre took place at the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan, where both Spaniards and Aztecs were killed indiscriminately. It’s said that the ixiptla rose again as a god, a blend of demon, man, and the divine, and he lay waste to Tenochtitlan for months. In response to the death of King Moctezuma II, the sun god Tonatiuh possessed a conquistador in order to subdue him. Because neither god could slay the other, Tonatiuh sealed the demon god inside the obsidian dagger used to sacrifice him, and there he stayed for almost 500 years, until the dagger was used again.

He no longer remembers his old name, his family, or who he was before his time as an ixiptla. Now, all that remains in him is a nameless man’s grudge, a demon’s worldview and the powers of a god.

Tezca Zacatenco

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