Centehua and the Stone Okkaves
I have, in another place, described the story of the Jaguar Woman in more grounded terms, but I felt it was a shame to leave out a more theatrical retelling, giving Centehua's general state of being for the last several centuries.
To that end, here is the version of Centehua that I was first made aware of:
Deep in the jungles of the Southern Continent, there are temples to gods, if you wish to call Empyreans that, who are... hungry. They were once fed constantly by the peoples of the Southern Continent, but now they can go quite a long time before seeing parishioners. A fact that they are not happy to consider.
The sacrifices that these Emypreans demanded shaped many of the societies of the Southern Continent, and it was only through great sacrifice and carefully made allies that this particular ring was removed through death or imprisonment. The latter of those two options still plague them, however. Those that refuse death or circumvent it tend to remain....active, despite their sealing.
On occasion, someone seeks out the ancient tombs of Empyreans, hoping to get some sort of knowledge or boon. A foolish hope, really. While some Empyreans seem to have a kind streak, giving aid was asked or at least trading something for it, the Sun-Feathered are not a ring with a reputation for that.
Centehua, however, thought the risk was worth it. Who can blame her, given the situation that she faced?
She was a young woman of the Coacauhtli, a people of the Southern Continent who are now one of the most populous of the region, though when Centehua they were a freshly scattered people after many wars against them. It is during one of these wars that her story begins.
After her village on the edge of the Deep Jungle was attacked by outside invaders, she was left with little choice but to flee into its depths. The legend says that she ran for days without stopping, pursued the whole way. Her feet, unshod as they were, started to bleed, giving her pursuer's hounds a scent to follow, but she had no time to stop nor bandages to stem the flow of blood.
Through happenstance or providence, she found an ancient temple being consumed by the jungle itself. Sinking down into the silt and mud, covered in vines. She had heard of places like these in the stories her mother would tell her as a child to scare her into behaving by invoking the names of Empyreans soaked in blood. Maybe they could help her? Even if whatever being might be at the center of the temple killed her for even asking, was it all that different from where she was now?
She descended into the temple without a second thought.
Its stone lapped up her bloody footprints as she passed. The barking of hounds made her not care.
At the center of the temple, deep beneath the earth, she found what her mother had described. An Empyrean sealed away in an age long past. The body seemed made of pure sunlight, pierced through in a dozen placed with barbed spears made from a metal she couldn't identify, and shackled by chains of stone. She shouted at the figure, which simply stared at the ground as she entered into the chamber. The Empyrean Mixatli; Stone Tooth and Eater of Hearts.
"What do you require from Mixatli?" The figure asked the floor.
"The power to avenge my people!" Centehua responded, collapsing in front of the imprisoned Empyrean. "They have been slaughtered, and still the monsters chased me here!"
This interest of Mixatli seemed roused by this, and finally, his head rose to look at here. The crown of carved obsidian on his head seemed to absorb the light of his body, if only subtly.
For a moment, Centehua thought he was simply going to wait and watch her pursuers kill her but finally the immortal relented. He shifted within his ancient bindings and held forth his hand and from the tip of one finger, an Okkaves sprouted and grew until it became perfectly ripe. He implored she eat the fruit, and she did so without hesitation or question.
As she bit down, Mixatli's smile grew wider, and she found the the fruit still held a pit within it. A pit she bit upon, cracking and shattering her teeth. She recoiled in pain and fell to the floor, clutching at her bleeding mouth.
Mixatli laughed.
"Go, cub." He said, pointing down the passage through which Centehua had entered. "Show me what you can do with fangs, and I'll consider granting greater gifts."
The sound of hounds and shouts had grown louder now. They'd be in the chamber, soon enough.
{To be Continued, I have to move on for now}
Date of First Recording
First official recording from the imperial temple at Acalan is dated
Date of Setting
Sometime during the 3rd or 4th wheel.
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