Thursday, June 10, 2021

How they compare: Tezcatlipoca (Aztec Mythology)

Before spacetime, after it, above it and below it was the Teotl, the all encompassing one Ometeotl encompassing all dualities. The male and female aspects of Ometeotl had 4 children; strongest of them was Tezcatlipoca. These beings of pure Teotl, the great energy permeating and making up the cosmos sought to make a world to rule over, however when the world was formed they bickered and squabbled who should rule over this world, their conflicts bringing about the destruction of four worlds before their current.

Of these the two who were in conflict most intensely were Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca. These two have struggled and come into conflict since time began. While Quetzalcoatl is arguably the nicer of the two to humanity, neither is truly good nor evil, as they two form a neccesary balance for the cosmos. Tezcatlipoca possesses himself many admirable qualities; such as being the punisher of any who would mistreat their slaves.



Tezcatlipoca is one of the Teotl, comprised of sacred energy existing before space and time, with any physical body he inhabits being merely a temporary form he has taken. The ways of the Teotl may seem strange to humanity as they are not in the strictest sence "distinct" from each other but are instead aspects of each other such that Quetzalcoatl is referred to as the White Tezcatlipoca and Tezcatlipoca is the Black Quetzalcoatl. Likewise to destroy a being of Teotl conventionally is impossible just as it is impossible to destory energy; one will instead simply shift their form from one to another. When Teotl were burned in flames, they simply became new Teotl.

In terms of power Tezcatlipoca should easily scale to star level. Even the very humble Teotl Nanahuatzin was able to become the new Sun when he threw himself into the flames. Tezcatlipoca may be even stronger as he is indentified as the Jaguar constellation comprised of 14 stars and is stronger then his brother Huitzilapochtli, identified as the weakest of the four children of Ometeotl killed 400 lesser Teotl turning them into 400 stars. There's also an argument that Tezcatlipoca is actually universal as he and all Teotl are at one with Ometeotl who is the all encompassing teotl of all existence, encompassing all dualities and the cosmos itself transcending spacetime, but this seems to me be moreso a case of Tezcatlipoca simply being an aspect of a greater entity in the same way that for instance every Darkseid Emanation is technically Darkseid, but one doesn't scale from the latter to the former.

In terms of speed, Tezcatlipoca should pretty easily scale to at least FTL as at the end of one of the worlds controlled by Quetzalcoatl it is said he turned into a giant jaguar and quickly ate almost every person, the few not consumed becoming monkeys. To quickly travel around the world eating most of the human populace is needless to state, quite FTL. It is also known that the Teotl can quickly travel the path created for them by Omeotl's male and female aspects, the milky way. To travel across the Milky Way in less then an hour would require a speed billions of times the speed of light. Regardless speed may not be very important to the Teotl, or at the very least the 4 Gods; Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilapochtli, Tlaloc, and Tezcatlipoca as they existed before spacetime.


Tezcatlipoca like all the Teotl shifted forms easily, most often taking the form of a large Jaguar. He was also viewed as lord of jaguars and could command them. Even in physical form however Teotl seem resistant to harm with the Teotl not being much weakened from having their hearts removed and Tezcatlipoca seemingly unbothered by using his leg as bait for the primordial sea monster Cipactli or bothered after when she ate it. He was viewed as lord of all things ethereal; the wind, the mist, the smoke, the night. He could become the night itself, and make wind (even hurricanes); mist or smoke come before him. In his form of the night he seems to have become a spiritual entitiy, identified as the spirit of the night, the lord of things which are nigh and is identified as he who changes things through conflict suggesting some level of control of battle.

Tezcatlipoca was considered a lord of fortune seeming to demonstrate some level of fate manipulation for he was the one who could grant one fortune and rulerships. For this he is known as Tlalticpaque, possessor of the sky and earth. He was able to stir forth both conflict and magic and so is the granter of sorcery and triumph in battle. 

Tezcatlipoca also wields an obsidian weapon and a smoking mirror, for which is most known. This mirror gives him knowledge of the future, of distant events, and of what lies in the minds of others. This is how he grants prophecy to his followers.

Tezcatlipoca's final weapon is his mind however. Tezcatlipoca is a trickster god known for being very cunning and manipulative. He eventually even defeated his rival Quetzalcoatl, if temporarily, via cunning. Tezcatlipoca inebriated Quetzalcoatl and manipulated him into incest with his sister, the chaste priestess Quetzalpetlatl. For this shame Quetzalcoatl left to the east for his quest of penance, and when he returns the two shall conflict again. This is likely even more impressive then it seems as Quetzalcoatl is the Teotl of knowledge and learning so to decieve him is likely a very good intelligence feat. 

In terms of weaknesses, Tezcatlipoca is never noted as having any particular weaknesses within the mythology, however there is a sort of natural consequence that being made of energy means hypothetically energy manipulation should allow one direct manipulation of his being. 


Name: Tezcatlipoca, many epithets
Origin: Aztec Mythology
Powers and Abilities: Made of holy energy, Shapeshifting (Can turn into a humanoid, a large jaguar, the night, and the spirit of darkness), superhuman endurance, exists outside spacetime, manipulation of wind, darkness, smoke, and mist. Can induce conflict and chaos. Can give visions of the future. Precognition, Clairvoyance, and Mind-Reading (with Mirror), possible fate manipulation, Creation and possibly Reality-Warping (aided in creating the world)
Weakness: Hypothetically energy manipulation
Destructive Capacity: At least star level, likely large stellar, possibly universal
Range: At least planet, likely inter-stellar
Speed: Likely MFTL (billions of times the speed of light)
Durability: At least star level, likely large stellar, possibly universal
Stamina: Infinite (outside of time)
Standard Equipment: Obsidian Weapon, Mirror
Intelligence: Genius manipulator (was able to decieve and manipulation Quetzalcoatl, the Teotl of learning and knowledge)

So how well would he do in other verses?


In DC, Tezcatlipoca would....basically fit right in as the Emanation of the Tezcatlipoca of the Sphere of the Gods, either in the Post-Crisis or New 52 period. While slower, particular for the former, it doesn't really matter due to him existing outside spacetime. Tezcatlipoca would do pretty well but not much greater then one would suspect, being about as strong as a Wonder Woman or Shazam villain. I know this because Wonder Woman literally fought Tezcatlipoca and stat and power wise it was basically identical to mythology Tezcatlipoca. 


In Marvel Comics, Tezcatlipoca would fit pretty well in on the lower herald range given even beginning Heralds can easily travel galactic distances and can reignite stars. While he would be around that level physically, a Herald is a really bad matchup for Tezcatlipoca as they have really good feats of energy manipulation and sensing, and he can't even use his mind-reading on them as their minds become part of the Power Cosmic.

If he was on Earth, he would do a lot better even against characters that hypothetically would be able to beat him. Tezcatlipoca's greatest ability is his ability to stir up strife and chaos, both literally with powers and via manipulation and deception and in any universe that isn't super idealistic, he would be a much larger stealth threat. It would be perfectly possible if he was in Marvel to be revealed as the one granting Ulysses his visions causing Civil War II.


In Saint Seiya Tezcatlipoca would be stronger then people first awakening the Seventh Sense who can destroy stars and low tier seventh sense users like the witch Hecate who traveled at millions of times c, though this is a hard limit for him as the Gold Saints and similar tier entities would absolutely destroy. 

He would actually have a fairly interesting fight with most SS characters first awakening seventh sense, as they have the power of miracles which can probably kill him but he's likely too durable for it to easily work and he's more versatile then them. It's also very likely he could take a manipulator role and give visions or induce chaos to try and create a chaos like the Sanctuary Arc.


In the Disney Hercules-verse Tezcatlipoca would be an immediate top tier. He has power similar or superior to Zeus himself who could rearrange many stars in the night sky and his speed is even superior as their speed was "only" millions c while Tezcatlipoca's is likely billions. It's also notable that the verse is full of characters that are seeming more easy to manipulate and don't have nearly as advanced hax. However if he tried to solo the verse directly Hercules and Zeus might be able to stop him as Hercules by end of movie is a "true hero" and would likely prove hard to manipulate as Quetzalcoatl was. Tezcatlipoca could probably do it, but it would take time. 

Meanwhile Zeus probably has the ability to seal him away as he did the titans. As Zeus used energy sealing it's likely this sealing would work like physical sealing to Tezcatlipoca, and given Zeus used it on numerous entities as strong as him it would likely work. Gods in the Hercules-verse are also resistance to fate manipulation as the Fates couldn't cut Hercules' thread after he attained godhood meaning Tezcatlipoca couldn't win with fate manipulation. Tezcalipoca would likely be a good fight for the verse.


In Greek Mythology Tezcatlipoca would have a very interesting place. He's stronger then most of the lesser Theoi who even though they can turn humans to stars are not as strong as turning 400 people into stars. That said he's massively weaker then most Olympians whose fights can distort boundless infinite sized primordial entities. He's also massively faster then anyone in the verse as most of Greek Myth lacks speed feats beyond massively hypersonic to relativistic making him a speedster for the top tiers. This gives him actually a very good analogy; he would have the same stats as Hermes.

Hermes is much stronger then lesser Theoi but weaker then the other Olympians but is a speedster that can give everyone in the world dreams and carry their souls down to the Underworld similar to Tezcatlipoca's feat of eating people across the world. In fact the more one thinks about it; Hermes vs Tezcatlipoca is honestly a really hype match.

Tezcatlipoca is not abstract like Hermes but he does have fate manipulation, one of the most broken powers in Greek Myth. Hermes was able to outwit the god Apollo, God of prophecy and learning similar to Tezcatlipoca's feat of outwitting Quetzalcoatl. The two fast trickster gods, lords of the wind, lord of jaguars vs lord of snakes (Hermes, was a god of snakes like....Quetzalcoatl coincedentially), this is a battle that would actually be really hype. 

2 comments:

  1. I always wanted to learn more about Aztec Mythology like this, I think it is just as interesting as the more big name mythologies, but has is significantly more obscure due largely to their being no modern day equivalents to their empire like Modern Egypt is to Ancient Egypt etc. This was Really cool to see, my impression was that they were more monstrous beings but it was kinda an exotic mix of out their ideas of Egypt, Grounding of Norse and relationships of Greek, which is fun to think about as they did NOT have any contact with those civilizations to have gotten inspirations. One thing i like is just how BADASS this guy looks, like a super intelligent warrior jaguar man shrouded in the night, and he has Quite a lot of dangerous abilities from Immunity to physical damage and acasuality, to manipulating fate itself! Its really interesting seeing how he matched up with various characters from DC, Marvel, Saint Seyia and even Disney :P. But man you really sold me on a fight between him and the Mythological Hermes, that seems Dead even and Themeatic as all hell, maybe a miniprediction one day

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  2. This was super interesting Imp. Aztec mythology isn’t something I’ve ever heard much about, but it was a treat to learn more about. Like the idea that there were 4 other worlds before the current one because the gods fought over who should rule the world . I also find it interesting that the gods are energy based beings that are aspects of one another. I am continually surprised by some of the more “abstract” abilities like chaos inducement and fate manipulation that these various mythologies have (which maybe I really shouldn’t be surprised :P).

    The verses you compared them to were also a fun read. I of course like seeing possible scenarios like Tezcatlipoca causing a Civil War 2 in Marvel Comics. It’s cool to see how even though he would formidable in Disney’s Hercules, the verse would still have the means of stopping him. Tezcatlipoca vs Hermes sounds like an amazing matchup; I mean seriously the way you described makes it seem really cool and the fact that Hermes is also considered a lord of snakes like Quetzalcoatl is just the cherry on top. I’m happy you took my request; it didn’t disappoint :).

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