Xolotl was a monstrous and deformed Aztec deity associated with sickness, misfortune, lightning, and dogs (which were useful but taboo animals to the Aztecs). He was the twin of the glorious feathered serpent, Quetzalcoatl, one of the most important and revered of Aztec deities. Unfortunately twins were also taboo to Mesoamericans and Xolotl’s place in the pantheon in no way matches his brother’s. Filthy and skeletal, with backwards feet, floppy ears, and a cowering, cringing demeanor, Xolotl was constantly getting into trouble. Scarred by his own lightning, beset by his own sicknesses, his task was to help drag the sun through the underworld at night.
In one critical story, Xolotl traveled to the depths of Mictlan, the Aztec underworld, to unearth the horrible rotting bones of an extinct race of beings. He tricked Mictlantecuhtli, goddess of Mictlan, into allowing him to drag a filthy carcass up to the world of light where his brother and the radiant gods of heaven sprinkled it with their blood. Thus was humankind born–from the blood of the sky gods and the bones of the dead.
What happened to luckless Xolotl? One legend tells that he suffered setbacks in the tempestuous political affairs of the gods (recall, he was the deity of misfortune). Fearing that he was about to be banished or killed, he transformed himself into an axolotl, the indigenous salamander of the Mexican basin. The axolotl lacks the ability to transform into a land animal which other salamanders have. Almost all of the population is perennibranchiate, trapped with gills and fins forever in the polluted shrinking waterways around Mexico city.
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May 28, 2010 at 2:09 PM
ms.yin
He’s pretty cute in his current form.
April 25, 2016 at 9:47 AM
Karkat “Smol Crab” Vantas
Yep!
May 16, 2016 at 2:57 PM
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October 6, 2016 at 11:35 PM
trey
well written and entertaining, except the axolotl is only a water creature in its larval stage, they can lose their gills and become land dwelling, its kind of a 50/50 chance, some stay in their larval stage their whole life. ive had 3 and only 1 of them went through the change. its sad when they do change since it lowers their lifespan considerably.
October 8, 2016 at 3:10 PM
Wayne
Middle School sort of felt like that…
February 22, 2017 at 3:25 AM
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[…] that Xolotl was fearful of being killed and transformed into an axolotl to hide. The salamander is trapped in the water of Xochimilco, unable to transform and walk on […]
September 2, 2017 at 11:33 PM
christian allen
xolotl my time has come to burn i call upon the ancient power that i may return-bill cipher
September 2, 2017 at 11:35 PM
christian allen
xolotl my time has come to burn i call upon the ancient power that i may return