Teotl

The Teotl  are a set of ancient, powerful beings that the Aztecs worshiped as gods.

==Description ==

The Teotl naturally appear as tall humanoids, perceptibly powerful. They can also transform into beams of light, which is how they typically travel long distances. As deific beings, they have control over aspects of nature and life, such as rivers, weather, warfare and childbirth. Before exposure to the Morphing Grid, they require blood for sustenance.

==History ==

It is unknown when the Teotl first came into power, but they are likely native to Earth. They ruled over the Aztec civilization, borderline evil and dangerously bloodthirsty. When the Spanish conquistadors arrived, overthrowing the Aztecs, one particular Teotl named Itzpapalotl went mad with bloodlust and began killing at random. The other Teotl captured and imprisoned her after a long, arduous battle. Weary, they returned to their temples and slept, slipping right out of their reality.

Over time, the links tying them to Earth were broken as their temples collapsed or were destroyed. A few still remained, preserved as historical artifacts. Then the Z-Wave came. Its transforming energy burst through the temples and roused six of the sleeping Teotl, reforming them as it did. Stricken with remorse, they returned to Earth and began searching for a way to pay for their reign of terror.

That chance came when Itzpapalotl escaped her prison and began attacking Earth again. Each Teotl chose a human to wield their powers and fight her, to prevent the kind of massive collateral damage a direct battle might inflict, creating the Aztec Storm Power Rangers. Their presence touched the still-sleeping Teotl, rousing them one by one. The Rangers figured out a way to reform them as well, and began converting each as they arrived.

When the war was finally ended, and Itzpapalotl herself transformed, the Teotl left Earth and headed to Rashon, to try and build their own civilization and get their still-existing bloodlust fully under control. One, Mictlantecutli, remained to guide any other Teotl towards the planet as they woke.

==Significant Individuals ==

===Tezcatlipoca - The Smoking Mirror ===

Tezcatlipoca was one of the four greatest Aztec gods, lord of night, obsidian, jaguars, storms and other whirling things, and magic. He was often the rival of Quetzalcoatl, though once the two joined forces to defeat the Earth Monster Cipactli (Tezcatlipoca losing his right foot after using it to lure the monster in). He took Xochiquetzal from Tlaloc and made her his wife. He also had the most famous ixiptla, or human representative, usually a captive warrior. He was treated like a king for one year, with eight attendants and four wives, and then sacrificed at the end of the year and replaced with a new ixiptla.

In his post-Z-Wave form, Tezcatlipoca appeared as a tall, majestic man in an old-fashioned British military uniform. He maintained self-control generally, though arguments with Tlaloc made him lose his temper a few times.

Tlaloc - He Who Makes Things Sprout

Tlaloc was the god of rain, fertility and water, associated with caves and mountains. He ruled over the fourth layer of heaven, Tlalocan, the afterlife of those who drowned, were struck by lightning or died of water-borne disease. Originally, he was married to Xochiquetzal, but after Tezcatlipoca took her, he remarried Chalchiuhtlicue. The Aztecs sacrificed children to him, a fact that nearly drove him to kill himself out of guilt after the Z-Wave converted him.

Tlaloc after the Z-Wave was very like his old self, dressing in traditional Aztec garb. He, Tezcatlipoca and Xochiquetzal quarreled frequently as they were forced to spend time together, but the timely arrival of Chalchiuhtlicue helped smooth the situation over.

Xochiquetzal - Flower Feather

Xochiquetzal was the goddess of fertility, beauty, childbirth and flowers. Originally married to Tlaloc, she ended up with Tezcatlipoca, though whether by her seduction or his kidnapping, neither of them has been willing to say, and ancient accounts differ.

<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">In both old and new forms, Xochiquetzal was beautiful to a frightening degree, though she was less generally seductive after conversion.

Mictlantecutli - Lord of Mictlan

Mictlantecutli was the god of death, king of the lowest and northernmost part of the underworld, Mictlan. He was one of the few deities to rule over all three kinds of souls; those who died heroic deaths, normal deaths, or non-heroic.

===<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Mictlantecutli appeared to the Aztec Storm Rangers as a black-clad ninja, and only rarely. His and Mitch's doings were often secret.

Temazcalteci - Lady of the Mis t===

<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Temazcalteci was a relatively obscure goddess of steam baths and medicine, venerated by doctors.

<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">To the Rangers, she took the form of a white-clad woman, and interacted with members of the team besides Tammy more frequently than any other Teotl.

Quetzalcoatl - Feathered Snake

<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Quetzalcoatl was a folk hero and trickster god of intelligence and wind, one of a few who never received human sacrifices. Thanks to him, humans were created with bones stolen from Mictlan combined with his blood, and he also gave them maize to feed themselves. He had a long-lasting rivalry with Tezcatlipoca.

<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Quetzalcoatl, upon his awakening, began exploring the world. Finding his own ixiptla, he returned to help the others in their battle. He changed his appearance to suit himself.

Huitzilopochtli - Left-Handed Hummingbird*

<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Huitzilopochtli was the god of the sun and war, the chief of the Aztec gods, associated with hummingbirds and butterflies as well as warriors. He was in a constant struggle with the darkness, needing frequent sacrifices to keep the sun in the sky each day, so human sacrifices were frequent and many.

<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">He was the first of the old gods to be restored after the Z-Wave's passage, and still needed blood for survival. He appeared in traditional form, and was nearly destroyed before his transformation through T Lock's link to the Morphing Grid. Departing Earth, he found Rashon and later led the rest of the Teotl there.

Mixcoatl - Cloud Serpent

<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Mixcoatl was the god of the hunt, associated with the Milky Way. Aztec mythology is often contradictory, but he may have been the father of Huitzilopochtli and even Quetzalcoatl. A man and a woman were hunted and killed as sacrifices to him.

<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">When he fell out of the sky near San Orlando, Itzpapalotl put him under her spell and sent him to attack the city. He did, only to be defeated by a new Megazord combination and transformed, following Huitzilopochtli into space and returning to destroy the last of the Tzitzimime.

Xipe Totec - Our Lord the Flayed One

<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Xipe Totec was a death-rebirth agricultural deity, unpleasantly associated with flayed skins (including those of victims sacrificed to him). He probably had the widest variety of sacrifices; arrows, slit throats, hearts cut out, burning...

<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">One other method, "gladiator sacrifice," was the method Itzpapalotl elected to use to restore him to full strength when he returned to Earth. She captured Tez and Lightspeed Red Ranger Carter and attempted to have a few monsters kill them, but the pair fought them off long enough for Tammy to transform Xipe Totec. He later departed Earth, returning with Huitzilopoctli and Mixcoatl to finish off the Tzitzimime.

===<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Chalchiuhtlicue - She of the Jade Skirt ===

<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Chalchiuhtlicue was the patron goddess of horizontal water, storms and childbirth. She oversaw the Nahuatl equivalent of christenings, and generally controlled her sometimes violent husband, Tlaloc.

<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Thanks to her gentle nature, Chalchiuhtlicue's re-entrance into the world was relatively nonviolent, and she christened Itzpapalotl's adopted son, Izel, upon her request before reuniting with her husband.

Itzpapalotl
Main Article: Itzpapalotl

''<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">*There is some dull scholarly controversy over the literal translation of Huitzilopochtli's name. ''