1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.

AoS Realm of Death- Xibalba and the Hero Twins

Discussion in 'Fluff and Stories' started by Warden, Aug 7, 2019.

  1. Warden
    Slann

    Warden Tenth Spawning

    Messages:
    6,463
    Likes Received:
    18,253
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Next bit of lore/fluff putting together for another AOS realm, this one a bit differently than before.

    29fb530fd915cee9175fe37d1b78e5ac.jpg

    Legend of the Hero Twins

    This is the story of how the Hero Twins, the demigods named Xbalanke the Saurus (“Jaguar-Deer”) and Hunah-Pu the Skink (“One Blowgunner”) travelled to Shyish, the Realm of Death, and forever freed the ethereal souls of the Lizardmen from the grasp of the Undying King Nagash and his evil minions.

    - The Twins descended through the nine levels of the Xibalba, the "Place of Fear", where they came across the minions of the Lord of Death. There they were trapped, and were forced to endure many challenges and ordeals in an effort to thwart their mission.

    - The Nine Lords of Death sent them to the Dark House, where the Twins were given a torch and two burning cigars within a room full of blackness. They were told by the Lords they must return both the torch and cigars exactly as they had received them, or else they would be killed the following morning. Many victims in the past had smoked the cigars and used the Torch to keep the dark terrors at bay, but the Twins knew better. They swapped a macaw’s brilliant scarlet tail feathers for the torch’s flames, and stuck fireflies at the ends of the cigars to fooled the inhabitants of the House.

    - Next they were sent to the Razor House, where many sharp, flying blades were supposed to cut them to pieces. But their armor and scales were strong, and the blades became frustrated. The Twins then spoke to them, and convinced the blades it was their job to cut up animals, not the Hero Twins. And they left the house unscathed.

    - In the Cold House, the Twins were subject to the bitter frost of Winter and the terrors of an undead Ogor. But the Twins were not affected by the cold, locking it out from their scaly skin and defeating the giant skeletal construct.

    - In the Fire House, the Twins were subject to an intense heat, as hot as the Realm of Aqshy. But the Twins were again not affected, defeating the magmarite monsters sent against them, and only having their reptilian hides scalded a deep brown.

    - And in the Jaguar House, the Twins were hunted by a great Beast of colossal proportions, grown in the wilds of Ghur to be the ultimate predator. The Twins instead distracted the Beast by feeding it the bones of their defeated foes, and again escaped unscathed.

    - It was only in the Bat House where the twins made their first mistake, in accordance with their destiny foretold in Great Plan on the golden plaques. They hid from Camazotz, the Great Bat and lord of the house, who hunted the Twins but could not find them. This was until Hunah-Pu stuck his head out of his hiding place. When he did so, the Bat swooped down and decapitated him, his head rolling across the floor of the House and coming to rest at Xbalanke’s clawed feet.

    - The Lords of Death gloated at Xbalanke over his brother’s death upon completing the ordeal of the Houses, and challenged him to the Great Game within the depths of the Underworld Ballcourt. To further humiliate him, they used Hunah-Pu’s head as the ball during the game. But Xbalanke had trained with his lost twin in the Celestial Ballcourt high above Azyr, and easily defeated the Nine Lords at their own game.

    - Then the Lords became enraged, and threatened to sacrifice Xbalanke on the spot. But Xbalanke was prepared. He placed the dead Hunah-Pu’s head back on his lifeless body, and spoke the Words of Death to resurrect his twin.

    - The Lords were so impressed with this feat of magic that they asked Xbalanke and the newly-resurrected Hunah-Pu to perform their magic once again. So the Twins sacrificed a dog, then brought it back to life. And when this was done, the Lords asked it to be repeated again with a living denizen of the realm, one of their human slaves. So the Twins did so. When the Lords still asked for more, Xbalanke dismembered his Twin again, this time cutting out his heart and bringing him back to life.

    - This whipped the Lords up into such a frenzy of delight, crying “Now do us next!” And so the Twins sacrificed One Death and Seven Death, the two chiefs of the Nine Lords. Only then the Twins did not bring the deceased Lords back to life. The remaining Lords then realized they had been truly defeated, and released the control of the Lizardmen souls unto them, which they carried up from the Nine Levels of Death back to the Realm of the Heavens. The many souls they rescued became the multitude of stars. And Xbalanke and Hunah-Pu, their heroic quest complete, ascended into the sky and became the sun and the moon.


    From the hieroglyphic texts of the Books of Chilan Balan, translated from the original High Saurian.
     
  2. Warden
    Slann

    Warden Tenth Spawning

    Messages:
    6,463
    Likes Received:
    18,253
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Obviously this bit of fluff is super-heavily-inspired by Mayan mythology, specifically the legendary exploits of the Hero Twins.

    genesisGamingHeroTwins422.jpg

    A set of heroic twins often shows up in the mythology of the New World. They have lots of exploits, including the list of houses/challenges that they face. I really like this story, and it was easy to transfer to fit the WH/AOS lore. It reminds me of the "legendary" exploits often sprinkled within the fluff, like the epic tale of Giles le Breton at the start of the old Bretonnian lore book, or the mythical tales of Sigmar when he was just a conan rip-off slaying hordes of orcs armed with only a donkey's jawbone (before he got his hammer, and waaaay before he was the stormy lord of all stormy storms).

    hero twins.jpg

    Some more names/places:



    List of Characters:

    The Hero Twins-

    X’balanke- “Jaguar-Deer,” reimagined as a saurus warrior and ballcourt player

    Hunah-Pu- “One Blowgunner,” reimagined as a skink chief and ballcourt player


    Places: (with glyphs!)

    0 xibalba.png

    Xibalba- “Place of Fear,” Lizardmen name for the Realm of Death

    1 xibalba.png

    Xilalba’Be- “Road of Death”- the hidden route to the Realm of Death


    6 Houses of Xibalba-

    7 bat house.png

    Sotz’na- “Bat House”

    3 razor house.png

    Ch’am’na (also Ch’ayim’na)- “Razor House”

    2 dark house.png

    Ak’ab’na- “Dark House”

    6 jaguar house.png

    Balam’na- “Jaguar House”

    5 fire house.png

    K’ak’na- “Fire House

    4 cold house.png

    Sis’na- “Cold House”
     
  3. Warden
    Slann

    Warden Tenth Spawning

    Messages:
    6,463
    Likes Received:
    18,253
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Few more characters:

    Nine Lords of Death- and some sidekicks
    • Ch’amya Jolom- “Skull Scepter”
    • Ch’amya B’aq- “Bone Scepter”
    • Xik’- “Wing”
    • Kik’re’- “Bloody Teeth,” the Daemon of Woe
    • Patan- “Packstrap,” the Spiked Walker
    • Kik’ Rixk’aq- “Bloody Claws,” the Daemon of Filth
    • Ajal Paj- Lord of Pus
    • Xik’Ik’pat- “Scab Stripper”
    • Jun Kame- “One Death”
    • Wuqub’ Kame- “Seven Death”
    • Kuchuma Kik’- “Blood Gatherer”
    • Agal Q’ana- “Jaundice Daemon”

    Overall some creepy dudes.

    IMG_5313.JPG
    7f0e31c356412054ce8345668fc50b4d.jpg

    7646f95e561b6282da539dcee14cb4b2.jpg

    Also this guy, Yum Kimil, apparently he is some kind of overlord of the Mayan underworld. Maybe a Nagash stand-in.

    yum kimil, lord of the mayan underworld.jpg

    Statue carving of him:

    yum kimil.jpg

    Edit: weird, for some reason this last spoiler split itself into two separate ones... and it won't let me fix it or delete the second spoiler code? Odd error.
     
    Paradoxical Pacifism and Aginor like this.
  4. thedarkfourth
    Kroxigor

    thedarkfourth Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    258
    Likes Received:
    872
    Trophy Points:
    93
    I'm a big fan of the popul vuh, so I'm psyched for this, moar please!
     
    Paradoxical Pacifism and Warden like this.
  5. Scalenex
    Slann

    Scalenex Keeper of the Indexes Staff Member

    Messages:
    10,293
    Likes Received:
    18,313
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Awesome story. It's a good thing the lords of Death are so gullable.
     
    Paradoxical Pacifism and Warden like this.
  6. Aginor
    Slann

    Aginor Fifth Spawning Staff Member

    Messages:
    12,249
    Likes Received:
    20,130
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Cool story, Bro! :)
     
    Paradoxical Pacifism and Warden like this.
  7. Warden
    Slann

    Warden Tenth Spawning

    Messages:
    6,463
    Likes Received:
    18,253
    Trophy Points:
    113

    ...And the Hero Twins set off to defeat the Lords of Xibalba, whose malign influence was corrupting the other realms. By besting the Lords at the sacred ball game, they hoped to restore the souls of there departed spawn-kin.


    - Lines from the Books of Chilan Bilan


    Some more descriptions of Xibalba:

    The underworld of Xibalba is a large, underground temple city, built in the reverse direction of most Lizardmen temples. Each of the nine descending levels holds another one of the Nine Levels of the underworld, and each is home to its fair share of challenges and traps, to include the River of Blood and a River of Scorpions. Each of the many Lords and sub-lords of Xibalba personify and are responsible for some kind of suffering: pain, sickness, fear, starvation, and ultimately death.

    The main gate into this part of the realm is the Chapat Gate, known as the “Jaws of the Centipede.” Centipedes are revered in this realm, and often are used as the symbol of the realm (along with vision serpents and skulls). In many of the other Mortal Realms it is known for buried Lizardmen who are later exhumed to have their bodies completely covered by monstrous jungle centipedes, who feed upon the decaying flesh and scale, and are therefore considered to be literal passages to the Underworld.

    Many fantastical and deadly beasts exist within Xibalba aside from the aforementioned giant bone-centipedes. Predatory jaguars stalk in the darker regions, while all manner of vicious pirhannas or man-eating sharks prowl the bone-filled rivers. Many demonic and skeletal sprites scamper about the stone corridors of the realm, backstabbing and pestering the souls of the departed. The Camazotz himself is a truly dangerous and mysterious beast, the ruler of the Bat House, and is known to decapitate any trespassers into his domain.

    Within this underworld lie the tombs and tributes of many of the greatest warriors of Lizard-kind, from the stone stela recording the deeds of the Oldbloods, to the mausoleums of the departed Slann decked out in all their refinement. Before the rescue of the souls by the Hero Twins, many of the mummified corpses of the Slann pulsed with imprisoned power, trapped within their crypts and unable to escape.
     
    Evtrax and Aginor like this.
  8. Warden
    Slann

    Warden Tenth Spawning

    Messages:
    6,463
    Likes Received:
    18,253
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Never have I seen such bleak landscapes, such forlorn vistas. It is a grim place for grim folk, and for the dead, for everywhere there can be found spirits.

    - Anaximander, cartographer of Azyrheim commenting on his travels to the Realm of Shyish



    Some fluff musing:

    According to the Lexi, the Realm of Shyish was “once” the resting place for all departed souls of the Mortal Realms; when a mortal dies their soul floats over to the realm and comes to rest. It is often imagined as a gigantic collection of underworlds (myriad of underworlds), one for each specific race, civilization, and culture. “The realm was a place of paradises and hells.”

    It stands to reason that the Lizardmen had their own version of an afterlife/underworld, hence the existence of a Place of Fear, the Xibalba of the ancient Lizardmen mythology, manifest within the dark planes of Shyish. Specifically I wanted to work out why the Lizardmen might have overcome the power of Nagash, and not had their souls surrendered to him when they also depart in warfare. Now granted, this is basically hand-waved in the lore because most of the seraphon are actually memories, but I like this idea better. Considering how powerful the Slann are, as a group I assume they could have figured out a way to trick Nagash out of the prize of the lizard-souls.

    This would also open up some interesting story opportunities, specifically that Nagash would be nursing a huge grudge against the Slann for stealing some of his most powerful prizes: can you imagine how happy he would be to get some Slann mummies on his side?

    Also according to the Lexi, at some point during the Wars of Death/Wars of the Underworlds, Nagash and his minions went and conquered nearly all of the Realm of Death, defeated and ate whole pantheons of the other gods of Death. It could be guessed that the realm of Xibalba maybe doesn’t even exist anymore, but was a ruin by the time Nagash got there thanks to the efforts of the Hero Twins of freeing the souls of the dead long before he was able to steal them in the first place. This could also have enraged Nagash, who being pretty smart could have translated the remaining hieroglyphs left behind in the forgotten stone temples, and realized that he was robbed of a very ancient and very powerful source of souls.
     
    Evtrax and Aginor like this.

Share This Page