Xipe Totec, or the Flayed one, was the god of the seasons, renewal, and growing things. He was also the patron of gold workers. However, his rituals were still quite bloody. He flayed himself to give humanity food, and was shown as wearing a flayed human skin. Sculptures of this god may have been dressed in the skins of sacrificial victims.
His festival was celebrated on the spring equinox, and required the flaying of victims to produce a skin. The priests would wear these skins for twenty days after the sacrifice, and they were thought to have magical and curative properties.
Xipe Totec was one of the Aztec gods of the four directions - he was west.
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In Aztec mythology, Xipe Totec ("our lord the flayed one") was a life-death-rebirth deity, god of agriculture, the west, disease, spring, goldsmiths and the seasons. He flayed himself to give food to humanity, symbolic of the maize seed losing the outer layer of the seed before germination. Without his skin, he was depicted as a golden god.
Annually, slaves were selected as sacrifices to Xipe Totec. These slaves were carefully flayed to produce a nearly whole skin which was then worn by the priests during the fertility rituals that followed the sacrifice. Some accounts indicate that a thigh bone from the sacrifice was defleshed and used by the priest to touch spectators in a fertility blessing. Paintings and several clay figures have been found which illustrate the flaying method and the appearance of priests wearing flayed skins.
The Character of Xipe Totec
Common Name: Xipe
Appearance: primary color: Gold. Wears a cape of flayed skin and has a large golden nosering.
Personality snippet: very 'woe is me'
Transformation: no transformation.
Power: projectile attack: corn. (also, scary as all hell). has a penetrating glare that holds people in their place.
Weapon: whip (for flaying) and thigh bone (scepter/club)
Other: to be filled in by the adopter
His festival was celebrated on the spring equinox, and required the flaying of victims to produce a skin. The priests would wear these skins for twenty days after the sacrifice, and they were thought to have magical and curative properties.
Xipe Totec was one of the Aztec gods of the four directions - he was west.
more...
In Aztec mythology, Xipe Totec ("our lord the flayed one") was a life-death-rebirth deity, god of agriculture, the west, disease, spring, goldsmiths and the seasons. He flayed himself to give food to humanity, symbolic of the maize seed losing the outer layer of the seed before germination. Without his skin, he was depicted as a golden god.
Annually, slaves were selected as sacrifices to Xipe Totec. These slaves were carefully flayed to produce a nearly whole skin which was then worn by the priests during the fertility rituals that followed the sacrifice. Some accounts indicate that a thigh bone from the sacrifice was defleshed and used by the priest to touch spectators in a fertility blessing. Paintings and several clay figures have been found which illustrate the flaying method and the appearance of priests wearing flayed skins.
The Character of Xipe Totec
Common Name: Xipe
Appearance: primary color: Gold. Wears a cape of flayed skin and has a large golden nosering.
Personality snippet: very 'woe is me'
Transformation: no transformation.
Power: projectile attack: corn. (also, scary as all hell). has a penetrating glare that holds people in their place.
Weapon: whip (for flaying) and thigh bone (scepter/club)
Other: to be filled in by the adopter
