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The Devil Inside Plot
by Ashlocke (woneal@INFOAVE.NET)
What follows is a pet conspiracy theory involving the Horror Yrsthegrathe, the Aztecs, the Mayans, Cortez, and the Jesuits. It’s my own theory submitted for your enjoyment. Feel free to copy, borrow or steal ideas.
As the Scourge of the 4th age drew to a close, a few horrors chose to remain here rather than return to their home plane. What follows is an account of the activities of one such Horror, Yrsthgrathe. Yrsthgrathe new that the 6th age would come, and he chose to prepare. Fleeing far from Barsaive, the Therans, and the elves he crossed an ocean and found a people he could manipulate, a people that would later become the Aztecs.
Appearing to them as a god he was worshipped. He blessed them giving them luck in battle, good harvests and knowledge to gain their loyalty. He became their sun god Quetzacoatl. Worshipped as a god of all that was good how could they doubt him when he told them he needed blood to survive, blood in exchange for life. Under this guise he began teaching them the blood rituals that sustained his magic through the down cycle, as well as laying the foundations for what would come in the 6th age. Thus the Aztecs willingly performed the rituals, even gave themselves willingly, to sustain their god.
But there were the Mayans. The Mayans knew much of magic and they too understood the cycles. They had prepared a special calendar to predict the cycles and other major events. They had stored all their magical knowledge away for the next age, carving into the walls of their cities and monuments so that their history, the history of the Scourge, their magic would not be forgotten. Yrsthgrathe saw this and knew he could not allow it. If the world were to remember the past, it would threaten his plans, threaten the next Scourge. He commanded the Aztecs to slaughter the Mayans and destroy their cities… and they obeyed him. For they loved their sun god and nothing he asked of them could be wrong.
The time came for Yrsthgrathe to sleep the long sleep until he could awakend in the 6th World. He sealed himself into his great temple in Tenochitlan in a great ritual. As the Aztecs slew thousands, spilling their blood over the temple, Yrsthgrathe gathered the power that would sustain him until the next age.
But all would not go as Yrsthgrathe had planned. In Barsaive the Light Bearers remembered and they wrote down what they new… and these writings were preserved and recopied as the years passed. In them were instructions to find the Evil Ones, the Enemy and destroy them. The years became centuries and the centuries millenia. The order of the Light Bearers was changed by time, the memories of mortal men fallible, the copying not always exact… and some texts simply lost. But some kernel of knowledge survived and continued, and this nearly destroyed Yrsthgrathe. Afterall… a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
After the New World had been discovered word spread. As kings scrambled in greed, events and fate conspired. As Cortez and his men discovered and plundered the wealth of the Aztecs, a Jesuit priest with them recognized something else. This priest and his order, the decendants of the Light Bearers, recognized the blood rituals of the Aztecs. He knew they must be destroyed, their temples and city razed. And so Cortez and his men, with the aid of other natives, lay waste to the Aztec Empire and razed the great city of Tenochitlan to the ground, destroying their temples… and nearly destroying Yrsthgrathe with them. Had they only known his crypt lay a mere 10’s of feet deeper.
When Yrsthgrathe awoke, he found his empire gone, the people he had prepared to serve him in the 6th Age were no more. Much had changed. Still, he chose to continue with his plans. Manipulating certain individuals through favors he brought about an “Aztec Renaisannce”. It was not long before the old rituals were being taught again. People were as easily led as ever, willing to do anything for hope… anything for their beloved Sun God.
Comments
The above theory is my own creation loosely based on various events in Shadowrun, my limited knowledge of Earth Dawn, and some real world history. I did use quite a bit of creative license however. The following comments are intended to clarify some points of the theory.
Horrors Remaining after the 4th Age — We know that Horrors need a certain mana level to cross over, but there’s no indication they need that mana level to survive. Comments to this effect are made in the Aztlan source book. It’s entirely possible that Horrors could have remained behind to prepare for the next Scourge. Being magical beings they likely would have gone dormant at some point, but until then they could have remained active. We know that blood magic releases a lot of mana energy, it could perhaps have sustained Horrors and kept them active long after the 4th Age had ended… how long is anybodies guess.
The Aztecs — I took a bit of creative license here. I started with the following facts. The Aztec’s believed their gods come from another world. The Aztec’s considered blood sacrifice a holy act, a good thing. The had many rituals involving blood sacrifice intended to “sustain the gods”. They did in fact believe that one day certain beings would come and devour the world. From there I had some fun. I created a version of the Aztecs that were a little more immoral and twisted than they actually were. The Aztecs I envision had a sort of “reverse morality” where good is bad, and bad is good.
The Aztec Sun God — Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec Sun God is described as having the torso of a man, the lower body of a snake and a snake like head. After looking at a picture of Yrsthgrathe, the ideas sort of came on their own, as this is also a description of that Horror.
The Light Bearers / New Jesuits — Pure creative license on my part. We know the New Jesuits of Shadowrun are up to something and that they seem to have a serious hate of Aztlan. Not much else is known. In Earth Dawn the Light Bearers fought the Horrors when they could and were a quasi-religious sect. I decided to connect them, making the New Jesuits the decendants of the Light Bearers. No immortal anythings here either. Just mere mortals with a less than complete history of things. Still, ya gotta give them credit for trying. They know about Horrors, even if they view them as “Demons” and they know enough to destroy them when they can find them. They’re also fanatics and they just might get a tad confused about some things.
Yrsthgrathe — In the novel Worlds Without End he dies… in a particularly spectacular fashion (evil thought, he created a Horror Heart and is out creating manaspikes :). However, that doesn’t mean he was the only Horror in Aztlan. The Aztecs had an entire pantheon of gods and all of them could have been Horrors or Horror constructs. Yrsthgrathe was simply the ring leader. His death may have won a battle, but the war is far from over. Yrsthgrathe also reawakened many ideas, such as blood magic. He was likely behind the Blood Mage Gestalt, and the Warrior Orders. These ideas will survive him on their own. It’s very hard to kill an idea.
The Mayans — Okay I took a lot of creative license here. There is no widely accept explanation for what destroyed the Mayan culture. However, the theory that the Aztecs wiped them out has been batted around (and dismissed IIRC). We do know that the Mayans had a complex culture, were great mathematicians, and were perhaps the greates architects for their time. I chose to make the Mayans a magically advanced people with full knowledge of the cycles and what was happening. Such a people, had they survived, would be today more than ready to meet the Scourge head on. No Horror could allow this, and so in my theory, the Aztecs destroyed the Mayans for that very reason. Still, one wonders what power sites might have survived, as well as perhaps hidden caches of artifacts and knowledge. Anyone up for a little archaeological expedition?
The Mayan Calendar — This calendar is impressive… really. I did a bit of research on it. It’s extraordinarily precise. Not only did it predict various ages of the world, it also predicted seasonal changes, solar and lunar eclipses, etc. It’s predictions of solar eclipses are so precise that even today they are accurate to within 40 seconds. I have a DOS program I found some years ago that calculates the calendar. If I remember, I’ll pass it to Adam or Paolo and see if they’ll put it on the Shadowrun Archive. It’s really quite amazing.
Mr Darke — This guy figure prominently in this theory. He was most likely an archaeologist who accidentally found Yrsthgrathe’s crypt and released him. Yrsthgrathe needing a pawn, took the opportunity. Still presenting himself as the Aztec Sun god he began teaching Darke magic, giving Darke power beyond his wildest dreams, and promising Darke a new Aztec empire. In this theory Darke is an Aztec patriot, who wants to see his people’s lost culture recovered and the Aztec Empire restored from Spanish oppression (Mexico). Thus Darke is never aware of Yrsthgrathe’s true nature. As he works to build the Bridge, he is told that it will bring even more Aztec gods who will reward the faithful and raise up a new Aztec Empire to rule the world. What a shock the truth is.
Well… there you have it. I could write a dozen or so adventures out of that little theory. Hope some evil GMs have some fun with it (like Tinner needs any more ideas from me, forgive me Bull ;).