This episode of extra mythology depicts acts of intense cartoon violence, viewer discretion is advised
Myths are not stories that are untrue,
Rather they are tales that don't fit neatly into the historical record
Which serve as a foundation to a culture
A procession leads a woman up the steps of a great pyramid
This woman is to be the queen of the Mexica, a new tribe of migrants that have come from a faraway place
However,
no wedding will occur for the Mexica's patron God, Huitzilopochtli has other intentions
The people of Mexica had come from a far away place in the north,
their God Huitzilopochtli was a God of War
But through all their travels and struggles
They had not yet found a home
But Huitzilopochtli, god of bloody victory, promised them a city
in a booming voice spoke from heaven
He said I will lead you! When you come to a place I deem fit
I will alight as a white eagle! This place you will settle and build a great city to honor me!
Then you will become conquerors, and wander no longer!
So the Mexica traveled with Malinalxochitl, Huitzilopochtli's sister who led them in person
She was a sorcerer, vicious and cruel
At night she would steal men away and place them in front of poisonous spiders and used
scorpions and insects to inflict all manner of torments on the Mexica people
Finally, they had had enough and prayed to Huitzilopochtli
Who proclaimed, my people ought to rule with weapons. Not witchcraft!
And he instructed them to abandon her in the night. When she awoke all alone,
She was furious the people would abandon her!
Her, sister of Huitzilopochtli
Her!
Sorceress supreme!
This would not stand!
But she was patient and her vengeance was long
She settled in a nearby village and gave birth to a son
who she taught magic and told him of his uncle's betrayal
He swore revenge and tracked the Mexica down to their camp on a hill called Chapultepec near the great lake of Texcoco
and he visited all the nearby nations and rallied them to his cause
His armies in place
They advanced on the Mexica, while he climbed a nearby hill to survey the field
but Huitzilopochtli knew all, and he sent some of his priests to covertly climb the hill for an ambush
As the sorcerer looked down on his forces closing in on the outnumbered
Mexica, the priests crept up behind and seized him he fought with spells and a warrior strength
But they were too many
He was laid low and one priest cut open his chest, cried out his heart and presented it to Huitzilopochtli
Who ordered them to throw it as far as possible into the lake
So the priest wound up, and with all the strength he could muster
flung it towards the far body of water and watched it fall in the midst of a marshy Island
still the Mexica people were overwhelmed and fled
and eventually
they reached a city south of the lake called Colhuacan and after some time they were settling and
intermarrying with the people there
Huitzilopochtli, however, was not pleased with this friendship.. Because after all,
He, was a God of war
Not of amicable relations
So he said to his priests
You must leave this place and show the world your bows and arrows, your swords and shields!
Ask the King for his daughter's hand in marriage
She will become the woman of discord and cause for war
The priests did so, and the king was delighted for his princess to become a queen
But that night Huitzilopochtli spoke to his priests again saying,
I demand you sacrifice her in my honor
Flay her and dress a boy in her skin wearing her clothes
And so the wedding procession traveled up the steps of a pyramid but before reaching the summit
the priests led the princess away to a Sacrificial slab
and there the priest cut open her chest and removed her still beating heart holding it up for Huitzilopochtli to see
They then flayed her skin and chose a boy to wear it just as their God had commanded
When the King arrived they took him into a darkened room where he prepared to make offerings of flowers and quail
There the boy danced, and the King thought it was his daughter
But when he lit some incense the flames shot upward and in the light he saw what had been done
He fled the room shouting the Mexica have murdered my daughter and flayed her skin!
Take up arms and kill them!
Erase their names!
The Mexica gathered their warriors and drew their weapons
But the army of Colhuacan fell upon them, and they shattered before the tide
The Mexica fled to the shores of Lake Texcoco
and the warriors threw their shields into the lake, to use as rafts
Men, women and children
climbed aboard and the people rode out to the swampy islands in the midst of the lake
And there hidden among the reeds
They huddled in silence, until the danger had passed
As the Mexica had crept through the marshes,
they encountered a spot of dazzling whiteness
The cypress trees, reeves, rushes and even the frogs and snakes, were a brilliant white
As they looked around in awe at such beauty
they came across an opal cactus which had grown at the spot where the Sorcerer's heart had landed long ago
and upon it was Huitzilopochtli
in the form of a white eagle eating a snake when the Mexicans approached, he bowed and said
My children, this is the place. This is Tenochtitlan!
They had found their home
The people wept with joy and prostrating themselves on the ground blessed to find their homeland at last
thanking their patron
God Huitzilopochtli who had shown them the way
And from here, they would rebuild and emerge not as a wandering tribe
but as a conquering Empire
Wow! That story went from Slayer levels of bloodshed, all the way to Dream Theater esque serenity
I think our mythological metal journey just went full circle
Legendary thanks to patron Kyle Murgatroyd
Subtitles by Dylan Miller