Chitza-Atlan
Chitza-Atlan is the demigod who guards the gates of the underworld in Olman myth. His symbol is a mummified centaur.
Chitza-Atlan himself has not been described, although his "sacred offspring," which is encountered in The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, is a mummified centaur.
Nothing official has been said of Chitza-Atlan's relationships with other deities. As the guardian of the underworld, presumedly he has some kind of arrangement with Mictlantecuhtli.
According to Legends & Lore (1990), the Aztecs, whose gods are often also Olman gods, believe in a "world above" and a "world below." The world below is the home of the dead.
Deities & Demigods (1980) says that all of the Central American gods dwell on a parallel Prime Material Plane. The Scarlet Brotherhood (1999) says that the Olman gods were originally worshipped on a parallel plane, while the errata for that book (originally available on the TSR website) said that they still dwell there.
Chitza-Atlan, a god of Olman origins, is worshipped by both Olman humans and by centaurs.
Olman priests, if they are like the Central American priests described in Deities & Demigods (1980), are the elite of their people, and even the lowliest priest has absolute authority over any peasants. must choose a direction to pray to at the beginning of their careers. Clerics of the east wear red, clerics of the south wear yellow, clerics of the west wear black, and clerics of the north wear white.
Olman temples are usually step pyramids with entrances at the bottom corresponding to the four points of a compass. In The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, the chamber dedicated to Chitza-Atlan is filled with treasures and guarded by a mummified centaur tasked both to prevent any but the dead from entering the other chambers of the temple and to prevent any of the creatures from within the temple from getting out.
Rituals to the Olman deities are typically performed every 20 days, corresponding to the various "signs" of the divinatory calendar. Each sign was ruled by a different deity. Sacrifices may take many forms, depending on the god. The public is required to attend every ritual, held at the temple of the appropriate god.
Chitza-Atlan was originally mentioned in The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, although he wasn't explicitly referred to as a deity there. He next appeared in the Living Greyhawk Official Listing of Deities for Use in the Campaign. Unlike the rest of the gods in the Olman pantheon, Chitza-Atlan doesn't seem to be based on a historical Central American deity.
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Understanding
A relationship of some kind with Chitza-Atlan, guardian of the gates of the underworld, might be assumed.
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