Tlaloc
Azul; Xoxouhqui the Green-Blue; Tlamacazqui the Giver; He Who Makes Things Grow, He Who Streams with Water. CG/LE intermediate power of rain, moisture, earthly abundance, thunder, and death [He/Him]
Pantheons: Aztec, Maztica (as Azul), Olman, Toltec
Symbols: Raindrop; blue cenote; ear of maize; thunderbolt
Realms: Arcadia / Abellio / Tlālōcān; Arborea / Ossa / Tlālōcān; Nether / The Land of Eternal Rain
Known Proxies: The Tlālōques (water spirits); Cuotl
Tlālōc [tla-LOCK] is a complex and ancient power for sure. Like many of the elder powers, he has evolved over his long lifetime, featuring in many formative myths, and picking up many aspects to his portfolio. What makes Tlaloc such a fascinating case study for this greybeard is how a single power manages to manifest in at least four different pantheons, each time taking on enough distinct aspects to make your brain-box spin. The dark of it is that Tlaloc’s been around since the dawn of civilization, and every culture that’s encountered him has put their own spin on the old rainmaker. How one being can also be three, and for them each to be so different in morality and outlook, well that’s a question that keeps Guvners awake at night. I’m just here to report the facts, berk.
In his most ancient aspect, Tlālōc is a weather power with control over rainstorms and lightning. The lands his worshippers come from depend on getting the right sort of rain, at the right time, so their crops would flourish and they would eat well. The right sort of rain, you ask? Apparently when the Prime was young, there were five types of rain, and only one of them was beneficial for growing things. Water rain, burnished with jade crystals, that was the kind of rain everybody wanted. The rains of flames, wind storms, rain of sharp flint blades, and especially the rain of rot—any of those would spell doom for a civilisation. So the Primes would beseech Tlālōc to send them the wet kind of rain. But you know how powers are, their attention spans can be limited. After all, they have a whole multiverse to be looking after, and all. So the Primes would compete to send more and more elaborate prayers, and more and more extravagant gifts, in order to attract the favour of their weather god.
This continuous demand for escalation of sacrifices was what eventually led to the ultimate of sacrifices—the lives of mortal worshippers. Although it was touted as a great honour to be sacrificed to Tlālōc to ensure the rains would come, you have to wonder why it was never the noble families who offered up their young to the bloodthirsty priests. Over time, this practise began to turn Tlālōc from a benevolent power to a darker being altogether. And that is where we are today, with Tlālōc manifesting in three distinct aspects: benevolent provider, tempestuous father, and bloodthirsty brute.
Azul the Benevolent Provider
Arcadia / Abellio: The aspect of Tlālōc who is most benevolent is called Azul, and is primarily worshipped by cutters from the Maztican civilisation of Toril. He sends the gentle rain to nourish the soils, and has established a realm in Arcadia’s paradise layer Abellio. It’s called Tlālōcan, and is a garden of neverending springtime, green plants, friendly animals and bountiful food. The realm is a forest that grows on the slopes of a symmetrical mountain, which rises from the centre of a shallow lake filled with chinampa. It’s located a few days away from Pleuvia, the citadel of the Rain King, with whom Azul maintains an excellent relationship.
Any of Tlālōc’s faithful who died from hunger or diseases get to live out their afterlives in this heaven of bounteous plenty. Azul is meticulously clean, as are his clerics, whose skin is often covered with abrasions from the rough pumice soap they use. While undoubtedly painful, these are considered badges of honour by the priests. Azul appears as a plump, smiling cherub in a soft cotton gown. The Athar reckon that this is a deliciously dark reminder to his followers of the sacrifice his other aspects prefer. It’s likely that other powers of Arcadia take a dim view of this whole situation.
Chant goes that Azul created Tlālōcan as a gift for his first wife Xochiquetzal [shoki-QWET-zul], who is known as Quetzal Flower. She is the Aztec power of fertility and youth, and her beauty is legendary. Unfortunately, this attracted the dangerous attention of Tezcatlipoca [tezz-CAT-lee-poker], a troublemaking power known as the Smoking Mirror. He kidnapped Xochiquetzal, and unfortunately for all involved, since he is the mightiest of the Aztec pantheon, there was little any of the other powers could do about it. Azul was so stricken with sadness that he prevented the sun from rising, and his rains from falling. The mortals complained, and would not give him peace to grieve her loss, so he made the sun rain fire and killed them all. This ushered in a new era of angry Tlālōc, and also gave him a new portfolio as a power of death.
Xoxouhqui the Tempestuous Father
Arborea / Ossa: After losing his wife, his second aspect Xoxouhqui [sho-SHOKI], found a new wife. Chalchiuhtlicue [chal-choo-CLIK-way] is an Aztec power of rivers and the sea, so as you can imagine, they have a lot in common. This is a more passionate, boisterous aspect of Tlālōc—the one that sends storms of wind, fire and flint when mortals get on his bad side. The power couple established a new realm—also confusingly called Tlālōcan—on the side of volcanic Mount Ossa in Arborea’s aquatic second layer Ossa. This realm is where worshippers who died from phenomena associated with storms, lightning, drowning, or water-borne diseases end up as petitioners.
Xoxouhqui represents the tempestuous side of weather—the kind of storms that can either water your crops or level your city, depending on his mood. His picturesque realm overlooks the endless, beautiful sea, though being situated on the side of an active volcano probably adds a certain element of excitement to the afterlife experience. At least Xoxouhqui makes sure the volcano only erupts when he means it to, which is more consideration than you get from most powers.
Tlaloc the Bloodthirsty
Nether / Land of Eternal Rain: The third and most problematic aspect of Tlālōc rules the underworld realm called the Land of Eternal Rain, located in the planelette of Nether. This is the version of the power that receives the souls of the poor sods who were sacrificed to guarantee benevolent rains, and let me tell you, Tlālōc’s idea of hospitality is a bit… intense.
The Land of Eternal Rain is exactly what it sounds like—a realm where it never stops raining. Ever. The sacrificed petitioners get to dwell close to Tlālōc in his palace on Mount Tlālōcatepetl [tla-low-CATTY-petal], where their prayers for precipitation are answered in the most literal way possible. Whether the petitioners actually appreciate this constant downpour is unclear, but that’s powers for you—they don’t always think these things through from a mortal perspective.
Tlaloc in Other Pantheons
Here’s where things get even more complicated, berk. Tlālōc doesn’t just belong to one family of powers—he’s managed to worm his way into at least four major pantheons, each time adapting his personality and portfolio to fit local needs and beliefs. It’s as if the blood wears different masks for different occasions, except each mask comes with its own complete personality and set of divine responsibilities.
In the Aztec pantheon, Tlālōc’s one of the major players. The Aztecs worship him as both provider and destroyer, that classic “giver of life” who can just as easily turn nasty and send floods, droughts, or hail to remind those mortals who’s really in charge. His worship involved some pretty awful rituals, including the sacrifice of children whose tears are thought to encourage rain. Now that’s certainly not the sort of thing you’d want to explain to the Harmonium. But believe it or not, the Azul aspect of Tlālōc shares the plane of Arcadia with the Hardheads. Talk about implausible deniability.
Now, the Maya have a power who sure sounds similar to old Tlālōc. They call him Chahk—and he’s a rain god with four distinct aspects corresponding to the cardinal directions. Each Chahk has his own colour (red, white, black, and yellow) and his own personality quirks. Chahk has a realm in Ysgard, prefers dwelling in caves and cenotes to mountaintops, and he carries a lightning axe instead of a staff. Interestingly, Chahk is at once both masculine and feminine, creating that divine duality that makes the powers so… well, powerful. The jury’s out on whether Chahk is another aspect of Tlālōc—or the other way around—or whether they just happen to have a lot in common.
Tlālōc is the power of rain and moisture and a major player in the Olman pantheon of Oerth, and he’s especially popular with the yuan-ti. In this aspect, he appears as a huge humanoid reptile dressed in black, with bulging eyes and tusks, and a forked tongue. This aspect is married to his sister Chalchiuhtlicue, and their children, water spirits called Tlālōques, act as their proxies and control the weather day-to-day.
Then there’s Cuotl the Herald (lizardfolk druid proxy of Tlālōc [he/him] / LE), Tlālōc’s most unusual proxy. He’s a wide-eyes lizardfolk with tusks. Like his power, the cutter’s got something of a split personality—when he’s not on divine business, Cuotl tends to act completely barmy, hanging from ceilings by his lizard tail and gnawing on whatever he can reach (usually his own tail). But the moment Tlālōc gives him orders, Cuotl transforms into a polite, well-mannered cutter who treats everyone as equals. His explanation for this behavioral flip-flopping is that weather patterns are predictable, but people aren’t—so he chooses to act predictably when representing his boss. Cuotl is occasionally sent to a Prime world where Tlālōc has a following, there he’ll share the dark of history, agriculture, and religion, and to prove the Provider’s mercy Cuotl will summon a rain storm that can fertilise any ground it touches.
Tlālōc’s one of those powers who proves that divinity isn’t a simple, one-size-fits-all proposition, and is far more complex than the average mortal can comprehend. Tlālōc is ancient, he’s adaptable, and he’s managed to maintain relevance across multiple pantheons by embodying exactly what each culture needed him to be. Whether you encounter him as the gentle Azul in his Arcadian paradise, the passionate Xoxouhqui on his volcanic mountain, or the dark Tlālōc in his eternally rain-soaked realm of Nether, you’re dealing with a power who’s been playing the long game since before most pantheons even existed.
Canonical Sources: Dragon Magazine #354 p90-91; #356 p91; Dungeon Magazine #144 p30,56
Sources: Combining material from Alex Roberts, Skypti, SGreen, Joshua Jarvis, Jon Winter-Holt