Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, the primordial dual couple, generated the four Tezcatlipocas — Xipe Totec, Tezcatlipoca, Huitzilopochtli, and Quetzalcoatl — along with Xolotl, as the foundational forces of creation.
⚠ Huitzilopochtli's origin is dual-layered: the Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas places him among the four sons of Ometeotl, while the Florentine Codex narrates his miraculous birth from Coatlicue at Coatepec.
Mixcoatl shot an arrow at Chimalman, and from that piercing she conceived Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl — the priest-king destined to rule Tula — though Chimalman died bringing the Feathered Serpent into the world.
⚠ The Anales de Cuauhtitlan and Leyenda de los Soles present this as the parentage of Ce Acatl Topiltzin, the legendary priest-king identified with the deity Quetzalcoatl. The cosmic deity's origin from the Ometeotl pair is a separate tradition.
Quetzalcoatl takes the form of Ehecatl when he moves as wind — duck-billed mask cutting the air, sweeping the roads of the sky clean so Tlaloc's rains may fall.
Quetzalcoatl burned himself on the eastern shore after his exile from Tula, and his heart rose from the pyre as Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, the morning star — brilliant and wrathful, hurling darts of light at the newly risen sun.
Xolotl accompanied Quetzalcoatl on the descent to Mictlan to retrieve the bones of previous humanity, serving as his guide and protector through the underworld.
Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca are locked in cosmic rivalry — each toppled the other's Sun in the cycle of ages, and Tezcatlipoca engineered Quetzalcoatl's downfall and exile from Tollan through trickery and sorcery.
Tezcatlipoca dangled his foot into the primordial waters as bait, and when Cipactli bit it off, Quetzalcoatl seized the thrashing monster so the two gods could tear her apart and fashion the world from her body.
⚠ Some sources identify the slain earth monster as Tlaltecuhtli rather than Cipactli; the two may represent the same cosmogonic event with different traditional names for the victim.
Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl seized Tlaltecuhtli, the monstrous earth deity thrashing in the primordial waters, and tore her in two — one half became the sky, the other the earth, her body still crying out for blood in the darkness.
⚠ The Histoyre du Mechique names the creature Tlaltecuhtli; the Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas calls her Cipactli. Both describe the same cosmogonic tearing.
Quetzalcoatl ruled Tollan as Ce Acatl Topiltzin, the priest-king who banned human sacrifice and presided over a golden age where cotton grew in colors and cacao trees bore fruit without tending, until Tezcatlipoca's sorcery drove him into exile.
Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli, and Xipe Totec created Tlaloc and Chalchiuhtlicue to preside over water and rain, appointing them lords of the waters as part of the gods' ordering of the newly made world.
Quetzalcoatl descended to Mictlan and outwitted Mictlantecuhtli to steal the bones of the dead from prior ages. Cihuacoatl, in her guise as Quilaztli, ground the bones in her jade bowl, and Quetzalcoatl bled over them — from that mixture of divine blood and ancestral remains the Macehualtin, the people of the Fifth Sun, took form.
The Four Tezcatlipocas — Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli, and Xipe Totec — are the primordial sons of Ometeotl who took turns presiding over the successive Suns, each age ending in catastrophe when one brother overthrew another.
⚠ The Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas names this specific grouping. Other traditions substitute Tlaloc for Huitzilopochtli or vary the identifications of the four brothers.
Quetzalcoatl and Kukulkan are the Feathered Serpent who created the world and brought civilization to humanity, worshipped from the Aztec highlands to the Maya lowlands with shared temples, iconography, and cosmogonic narratives spanning a millennium of Mesoamerican religious tradition.
At Teotihuacan, the proud Tecciztecatl in jade and feathers flinched four times before the sacred bonfire, but the pox-covered Nanahuatzin leapt without hesitation and became the sun. Shamed, Tecciztecatl followed and rose as a second sun, until Quetzalcoatl hurled a rabbit at his face to dim him into the moon.
Tezcatlipoca disguised himself and tricked Quetzalcoatl into drinking pulque at Tollan, causing his disgrace. Shamed, Quetzalcoatl departed Tollan and journeyed east to the coast.
Quetzalcoatl descended to Mictlan and stole the Bones of the Ancestors, but quail sent by Mictlantecuhtli startled him and he fell, shattering them across the underworld floor — he gathered the broken fragments and carried them to Tamoanchan, where he bled upon the ground bone to kindle the fifth race of humanity.
Quetzalcoatl descended to Mictlan to retrieve the bones of the previous humanity, overcoming traps set by Mictlantecuhtli.
Mictlantecuhtli tried to prevent Quetzalcoatl from retrieving the bones of previous humanity, setting traps and sending quail to attack him as he fled Mictlan.
Nanahuatzin's self-sacrifice at Teotihuacan created the Fifth Sun, but it hung motionless until Quetzalcoatl as Ehecatl blew the winds that set it on its course across the sky.
Quetzalcoatl created the fifth humanity at Tamoanchan by sprinkling his blood over the ground bones retrieved from Mictlan.
Quetzalcoatl presided over the divine assembly at Teotihuacan where Nanahuatzin's sacrifice created the Fifth Sun, and then sacrificed the gods to set it in motion.
Tlaloc presided over the Third Sun, Nahui Quiahuitl, until Quetzalcoatl brought it to ruin by raining fire from the sky, burning the world and transforming its people into turkeys and butterflies.
Quetzalcoatl transformed into a black ant and entered Tonacatepetl to retrieve maize and other foods hidden inside, bringing sustenance to the newly created humanity.
Quetzalcoatl organized the divine assembly at Teotihuacan where Nanahuatzin sacrificed himself in the fire to become Tonatiuh, the Fifth Sun. Quetzalcoatl then sacrificed the other gods to set the new sun in motion.
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