2d4chan - User contributions [en]

LARP

2023-06-03T03:02:30Z

2605:BA00:6208:2AB4:2D28:84CE:7857:1D7A: /* Examples of good LARPs */

[[Image:Larp.jpg|thumb]]A '''live action role-playing game''' ('''LARP''') is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically act out their characters' actions. The first LARPs were run in the late 1970s, inspired by role-playing games and genre fiction. The activity gained international popularity during the 1980s. LARP groups have highly varied approaches to rules, costume, degree of physical acting out, participation, focus of character activity, and genre. LARPs range in size from small private events lasting a few hours to huge public events with thousands of players lasting for several days.

Despite the widespread popularity of such events, the [[neckbeard]] community at large typically regards LARPing as the least cool of all RPG-related pastimes, reasoning that although they might spend large amounts of their time shouting excitedly about dice rolls in a dark basement, at least they're not running around in a forest in their underpants. LARPers are frequent targets of [[fa/tg/uy]]s' scorn, despite the evident superiority brought on by wearing real chain mail and hitting people with weapons that actually do hurt.

That said, the LARP and RPG communities aren't entirely separate. At its core, many LARPs are basically what you get when an amateur theater group decides to act out their game of [[Dungeons & Dragons]] instead of picturing it all in their head. [[White Wolf]] and its [[World of Darkness]] games are particularly strongly associated with LARPing, to the point they literally named their system "Storyteller" because they argued that the games worked best with some level of LARPing instead of relying purely on theater of the mind.

==LARP rules==
Some LARP rules simply dictate two things: How many times you can hit before you're dead and what you can or cannot do (use weapons, spells, write/read) - leaving everything else up to chance, the whims of the GMs (if there are any) and the player.

Other go at it using more complex systems with game rules that determine how characters can affect each other and the setting. These rules may define characters' capabilities, how those capabilities can change over time, what can be done with various items in the setting, and what characters can do during the downtime between LARP events.

It is always important to remember that because referees or GMs are often not available to mediate all character actions, players are relied upon to be honest in their application of the rules. There are also LARPs that do without rules, instead relying on players to use their common sense or feel for dramatic appropriateness to cooperatively decide what the outcome of their actions will be. This can often be tricky to do with LARPs that have children playing along.

'''Common Basic Rules'''

Just as there are numerous different pen & paper rule sets, then the systems and rules that can be applied in LARPs are near infinite. Also depending on the kind of theme for the LARP and the age group of the players, then some things may or may not be such a good idea...

LARPs with physical combat rules, for when using foam/latex weapons, airsoft guns, laser tag guns and similar, to represent weapons, and are often known as boffer or live combat LARPs. Sometimes relatively harmless versions of real weapons such as blunt metal swords or firearms loaded with blanks or modified fireworks are used as representations. In LARPs with physical combat the physical skills of the player play an important aspect, since if you cant figure out how to hit the other guy with your padded stick, then you're fucked no matter how awesome your character is.

On the other hand, symbolic rules involve momentarily pausing role-play in order to determine the outcome of an action, for example by rolling dice, playing rock-paper-scissors or comparing character attributes. In symbolic combat systems weapons may be represented by cards or physical replicas. Sometimes realistic weapon props and physical contact between players are not allowed. It should be noted that this kind of combat is very handy if playing out in public, where non-players might mistake vampire-LARPers or similar players for something slightly more illegal. In short: it doesn't matter how realistic your plastic toy gun looks, or that fake blood - if the lady across the street thinks you just killed a man then you still have to explain it when the cops arrive.

It should also be noted that - like many pen & paper RP rule systems - LARP rules often don't set up rules for actual roleplaying, but more for combat and other more "vital" aspects of the game, letting players play along whichever way they want. This can be a dual-edged sword as any D&D player will know that a single player can easily ruin everything for everyone else - and this also applies to LARPs. (the same also applies GMs)

==With the official description bullshit out of the way...==
The general opinion that fa/tg/uys have on LARP is negative, to say the least (In the US. In Europe people usually don't hate it actively and there are countries where it's an accepted hobby). There have been a few cases where a normal discussion on LARP has been made, and a couple of people even admit to partake in the activities themselves.

The hatred of LARP mostly comes from fa/tg/uys that only wish to move away from a table to grab something to eat or drink, or to take a piss (the latter is optional and can be replaced by urinating in someone else's drink while they're not looking). Other annoyances are:
*Costuming. Most LARP costumes are deemed "laughably bad" by fa/tg/uys, and the act of dressing up in a fantasy costume to play out a fictional setting is considered ridiculous.
*Fake weaponry. Having a secret crush on /k/ommando's, many fa/tg/uys are ashamed of a roleplaying activity involving weapons made out of foam or latex.
*Vampire/Werewolf roleplays. There is nothing worse than having leftovers from the Gothic community pretending they're fashionable and creepily sexual undead or furries.

Some LARPers and cosplayers share a fervent hatred for each other, mainly because of the shared costuming habits combined with the differences each hobby has. Some LARPer's do not wishe to see a Naruto or Sephiroth at their event (this stems from the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' trauma's involving badly made "original characters" which ruined many a game), and cosplayers do not see the use in using all that time in energy for a costume that will be ruined. Also LARPers tend to consider some cosplay "armor" (usually made out of cardboard or just cloth) to be painfully wrong compared to their fuckton heavy chainmails and metal plate armors. There is a growing overlap in the two communities however. If you go to a larp, the people who look the best will more than likely be cosplayers while those who wear only what is necessary and look rather drab are probably only 'stick jocks' (people who go to LARP's only to hit each other with swords often to an excess and care little for stories or their characters).

'''Pro's and Cons of LARPing'''

Pro's:
*Fuck yeah, I look fancy/awesome/HAWT! Of course I'm not going to wear this in public, but in this forest it's a-okay. (I'm too sexy for my tunic, too sexy for my tunic, so sexy it HURTS.)
*OH MY GOD. OH. MY. GOD. PEOPLE. And not just my friends, of whom I suspect the short one might be gay for me. And they're all HERE! They don't just have to leave in the middle of a game or never arrive thus ruining the evening! And there's WOMEN. OH WOW.
*No fighting required. You can (sometimes) fuck over people by being able to write and read.
*Food! And it's actually consumable! I want a chubby 30+ year old woman cooking for me every day!
*Look at me, I'm having fun in the weekend while being outside. Crazy, huh?
*Two words: RAIDING PARTY!

Cons:
*FUCKDAMN IT'S COLD/WARM. THE SHOWER IS FUCKING COLD, I HOPE NO ONE PISSED IN IT. I HAVE TO WAIT HALF AN HOUR IN THE COLD.
*Ugh, I need a better inflatable mattress. And a new sleeping bag. And a tent, the fat guy snores.
*FUCK OFF I'M TRYING TO SLEEP. GO ANNOY EACH OTHER SOMEWHERE ELSE. FUCK, WHERE'S MY SWORD, I WANT TO SMACK YOU IN THE FACES. CUNTS.
*Instead of three-four other people trying to kill you, now you have around 60+ people trying the same! BEWARE THE BRIGHT-COLORED CLOTHING, THOSE ARE THE WORST BASTARDS.
*People might hit you with padded sticks...(if in a Scandinavian LARP, same thing, just with little or no padding, if you are in Russia it could be a metal stick)
*Walking everywhere - it is the scourge of fa/tg/uys
*Two words: Shield walls. (Because if you're charging a shield wall, you're fucked.)

'''The Unofficial List of Required Items When LARPing'''
*A decent costume. Not too bright, not too dark. Armor tends to help.
*If wishing to fight, a proper weapon. Daggers are too short, staves are too long. One-handed weapons longer than 60cm/2 ft. are often the best.
*For everything non-fighting, accessories. Advice is to take a non-fighting activity that doesn't require carrying a whole box. Unless you like boxes.
*Leather pouches. Make sure these are big enough to actually contain items.
*A small leather moneybag, hidden in a place where thieves can't reach without you getting the chance to (literally) rape them. A special selfmade pocket in the middle of your crotch area is perfect, although disturbing for the rest - which make for funny conversations. Keep numerous additional small caches hidden other areas, just in case.
**Unless of course the person looting you has workarounds written into the goddamn rules (god ''damn'' it Darkon!). Usually this manifests in the form of them saying something like "I am X. Do you have anything hidden in your Y?", and if you lie about it, you're going to be looked at like a complete tool.
*If the event includes dinner, be sure to get a decent set of in-game looking cutlery and crockery with a tankard or similar. Also, bring a washcloth and a dish towel in case you have to do your own dishes.
*If playing something other than a human, the right schmink/elven ears/dwarf beard. In case of skinny fa/tg/uys trying to be a dwarf, padding bound across the stomach will serve as a cushion when you have to lay on the ground and can be added to your pillow at night for more comfort.
*A bag of toiletries (hygiene products). You won't do anyone a favor by smelling like a dead hobo, and in LARPs, smelly people often die first. At minimum, try to bring a bag with: some deodorant, toothpaste, a toothbrush, a towel [or two, maybe more!], shampoo, soap, a washcloth. Make sure to bring an extra plastic bag to carry wet cloth[es] in.
*If the event lacks a main building to sleep and eat in, bring a comfortable tent. A comfortable sleeping bag and mattress [or bedroll] is a must if you don't want to end up sleep-deprived.
*An in-game approved compass might be useful for those with a horrible sense of direction. Spending hours lost in a forest is not a good way to go. Shouting is also a good way to find your way back, if the opposite party reacts.
*A small amount of REAL money. Ordering a pizza a LARP is common in many places, since not all LARPs feed their players. Alternatively, bring something that you can eat 'cold'. Even if it tastes better after being roasted over an open fire, it helps to make sure that the food was precooked, just in case.

==External Links==
*[http://darkonthemovie.com/ Darkon] - A documentary-movie about LARPers

==Examples of good LARPs==
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_European_martial_arts| HEMA]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7L9fq8H1P8 Mythodea]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhGqkusnOW4 Drachenfest]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQpHms3A6k4 Krigshjärta]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jImAOdzgYHo Kriegslive]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmaUu2M34tA Grandeur Nature]
*[http://www.darkon.org Darkon (link to the actual LARP group)]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1PGMoK_aU8 Trailer from the Talsker Wölfe group]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej0mJyjbMfw a LARP ad]
*[http://www.obscuruscrusade.com/forum/ The Obscurus Crusade - A WH40K LARP]
===Examples of hilarious LARPs===
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_ekugPKqFw Lightning Bolt!]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVeNw-96vFA A scary monster.]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQukoByxKEg LARP compilation (video is now private)]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:Larpers1.jpg
Image:Larpers2.jpg
Image:Larpers3.jpg
Image:Larpers4.jpg
Image:Larpers5.JPG
</gallery>

[[Category:Roleplaying]]

LARP

2023-06-03T03:02:07Z

2605:BA00:6208:2AB4:2D28:84CE:7857:1D7A: MMA with weapons aka the LARP of athletes.

[[Image:Larp.jpg|thumb]]A '''live action role-playing game''' ('''LARP''') is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically act out their characters' actions. The first LARPs were run in the late 1970s, inspired by role-playing games and genre fiction. The activity gained international popularity during the 1980s. LARP groups have highly varied approaches to rules, costume, degree of physical acting out, participation, focus of character activity, and genre. LARPs range in size from small private events lasting a few hours to huge public events with thousands of players lasting for several days.

Despite the widespread popularity of such events, the [[neckbeard]] community at large typically regards LARPing as the least cool of all RPG-related pastimes, reasoning that although they might spend large amounts of their time shouting excitedly about dice rolls in a dark basement, at least they're not running around in a forest in their underpants. LARPers are frequent targets of [[fa/tg/uy]]s' scorn, despite the evident superiority brought on by wearing real chain mail and hitting people with weapons that actually do hurt.

That said, the LARP and RPG communities aren't entirely separate. At its core, many LARPs are basically what you get when an amateur theater group decides to act out their game of [[Dungeons & Dragons]] instead of picturing it all in their head. [[White Wolf]] and its [[World of Darkness]] games are particularly strongly associated with LARPing, to the point they literally named their system "Storyteller" because they argued that the games worked best with some level of LARPing instead of relying purely on theater of the mind.

==LARP rules==
Some LARP rules simply dictate two things: How many times you can hit before you're dead and what you can or cannot do (use weapons, spells, write/read) - leaving everything else up to chance, the whims of the GMs (if there are any) and the player.

Other go at it using more complex systems with game rules that determine how characters can affect each other and the setting. These rules may define characters' capabilities, how those capabilities can change over time, what can be done with various items in the setting, and what characters can do during the downtime between LARP events.

It is always important to remember that because referees or GMs are often not available to mediate all character actions, players are relied upon to be honest in their application of the rules. There are also LARPs that do without rules, instead relying on players to use their common sense or feel for dramatic appropriateness to cooperatively decide what the outcome of their actions will be. This can often be tricky to do with LARPs that have children playing along.

'''Common Basic Rules'''

Just as there are numerous different pen & paper rule sets, then the systems and rules that can be applied in LARPs are near infinite. Also depending on the kind of theme for the LARP and the age group of the players, then some things may or may not be such a good idea...

LARPs with physical combat rules, for when using foam/latex weapons, airsoft guns, laser tag guns and similar, to represent weapons, and are often known as boffer or live combat LARPs. Sometimes relatively harmless versions of real weapons such as blunt metal swords or firearms loaded with blanks or modified fireworks are used as representations. In LARPs with physical combat the physical skills of the player play an important aspect, since if you cant figure out how to hit the other guy with your padded stick, then you're fucked no matter how awesome your character is.

On the other hand, symbolic rules involve momentarily pausing role-play in order to determine the outcome of an action, for example by rolling dice, playing rock-paper-scissors or comparing character attributes. In symbolic combat systems weapons may be represented by cards or physical replicas. Sometimes realistic weapon props and physical contact between players are not allowed. It should be noted that this kind of combat is very handy if playing out in public, where non-players might mistake vampire-LARPers or similar players for something slightly more illegal. In short: it doesn't matter how realistic your plastic toy gun looks, or that fake blood - if the lady across the street thinks you just killed a man then you still have to explain it when the cops arrive.

It should also be noted that - like many pen & paper RP rule systems - LARP rules often don't set up rules for actual roleplaying, but more for combat and other more "vital" aspects of the game, letting players play along whichever way they want. This can be a dual-edged sword as any D&D player will know that a single player can easily ruin everything for everyone else - and this also applies to LARPs. (the same also applies GMs)

==With the official description bullshit out of the way...==
The general opinion that fa/tg/uys have on LARP is negative, to say the least (In the US. In Europe people usually don't hate it actively and there are countries where it's an accepted hobby). There have been a few cases where a normal discussion on LARP has been made, and a couple of people even admit to partake in the activities themselves.

The hatred of LARP mostly comes from fa/tg/uys that only wish to move away from a table to grab something to eat or drink, or to take a piss (the latter is optional and can be replaced by urinating in someone else's drink while they're not looking). Other annoyances are:
*Costuming. Most LARP costumes are deemed "laughably bad" by fa/tg/uys, and the act of dressing up in a fantasy costume to play out a fictional setting is considered ridiculous.
*Fake weaponry. Having a secret crush on /k/ommando's, many fa/tg/uys are ashamed of a roleplaying activity involving weapons made out of foam or latex.
*Vampire/Werewolf roleplays. There is nothing worse than having leftovers from the Gothic community pretending they're fashionable and creepily sexual undead or furries.

Some LARPers and cosplayers share a fervent hatred for each other, mainly because of the shared costuming habits combined with the differences each hobby has. Some LARPer's do not wishe to see a Naruto or Sephiroth at their event (this stems from the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' trauma's involving badly made "original characters" which ruined many a game), and cosplayers do not see the use in using all that time in energy for a costume that will be ruined. Also LARPers tend to consider some cosplay "armor" (usually made out of cardboard or just cloth) to be painfully wrong compared to their fuckton heavy chainmails and metal plate armors. There is a growing overlap in the two communities however. If you go to a larp, the people who look the best will more than likely be cosplayers while those who wear only what is necessary and look rather drab are probably only 'stick jocks' (people who go to LARP's only to hit each other with swords often to an excess and care little for stories or their characters).

'''Pro's and Cons of LARPing'''

Pro's:
*Fuck yeah, I look fancy/awesome/HAWT! Of course I'm not going to wear this in public, but in this forest it's a-okay. (I'm too sexy for my tunic, too sexy for my tunic, so sexy it HURTS.)
*OH MY GOD. OH. MY. GOD. PEOPLE. And not just my friends, of whom I suspect the short one might be gay for me. And they're all HERE! They don't just have to leave in the middle of a game or never arrive thus ruining the evening! And there's WOMEN. OH WOW.
*No fighting required. You can (sometimes) fuck over people by being able to write and read.
*Food! And it's actually consumable! I want a chubby 30+ year old woman cooking for me every day!
*Look at me, I'm having fun in the weekend while being outside. Crazy, huh?
*Two words: RAIDING PARTY!

Cons:
*FUCKDAMN IT'S COLD/WARM. THE SHOWER IS FUCKING COLD, I HOPE NO ONE PISSED IN IT. I HAVE TO WAIT HALF AN HOUR IN THE COLD.
*Ugh, I need a better inflatable mattress. And a new sleeping bag. And a tent, the fat guy snores.
*FUCK OFF I'M TRYING TO SLEEP. GO ANNOY EACH OTHER SOMEWHERE ELSE. FUCK, WHERE'S MY SWORD, I WANT TO SMACK YOU IN THE FACES. CUNTS.
*Instead of three-four other people trying to kill you, now you have around 60+ people trying the same! BEWARE THE BRIGHT-COLORED CLOTHING, THOSE ARE THE WORST BASTARDS.
*People might hit you with padded sticks...(if in a Scandinavian LARP, same thing, just with little or no padding, if you are in Russia it could be a metal stick)
*Walking everywhere - it is the scourge of fa/tg/uys
*Two words: Shield walls. (Because if you're charging a shield wall, you're fucked.)

'''The Unofficial List of Required Items When LARPing'''
*A decent costume. Not too bright, not too dark. Armor tends to help.
*If wishing to fight, a proper weapon. Daggers are too short, staves are too long. One-handed weapons longer than 60cm/2 ft. are often the best.
*For everything non-fighting, accessories. Advice is to take a non-fighting activity that doesn't require carrying a whole box. Unless you like boxes.
*Leather pouches. Make sure these are big enough to actually contain items.
*A small leather moneybag, hidden in a place where thieves can't reach without you getting the chance to (literally) rape them. A special selfmade pocket in the middle of your crotch area is perfect, although disturbing for the rest - which make for funny conversations. Keep numerous additional small caches hidden other areas, just in case.
**Unless of course the person looting you has workarounds written into the goddamn rules (god ''damn'' it Darkon!). Usually this manifests in the form of them saying something like "I am X. Do you have anything hidden in your Y?", and if you lie about it, you're going to be looked at like a complete tool.
*If the event includes dinner, be sure to get a decent set of in-game looking cutlery and crockery with a tankard or similar. Also, bring a washcloth and a dish towel in case you have to do your own dishes.
*If playing something other than a human, the right schmink/elven ears/dwarf beard. In case of skinny fa/tg/uys trying to be a dwarf, padding bound across the stomach will serve as a cushion when you have to lay on the ground and can be added to your pillow at night for more comfort.
*A bag of toiletries (hygiene products). You won't do anyone a favor by smelling like a dead hobo, and in LARPs, smelly people often die first. At minimum, try to bring a bag with: some deodorant, toothpaste, a toothbrush, a towel [or two, maybe more!], shampoo, soap, a washcloth. Make sure to bring an extra plastic bag to carry wet cloth[es] in.
*If the event lacks a main building to sleep and eat in, bring a comfortable tent. A comfortable sleeping bag and mattress [or bedroll] is a must if you don't want to end up sleep-deprived.
*An in-game approved compass might be useful for those with a horrible sense of direction. Spending hours lost in a forest is not a good way to go. Shouting is also a good way to find your way back, if the opposite party reacts.
*A small amount of REAL money. Ordering a pizza a LARP is common in many places, since not all LARPs feed their players. Alternatively, bring something that you can eat 'cold'. Even if it tastes better after being roasted over an open fire, it helps to make sure that the food was precooked, just in case.

==External Links==
*[http://darkonthemovie.com/ Darkon] - A documentary-movie about LARPers

==Examples of good LARPs==
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_European_martial_arts|HEMA]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7L9fq8H1P8 Mythodea]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhGqkusnOW4 Drachenfest]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQpHms3A6k4 Krigshjärta]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jImAOdzgYHo Kriegslive]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmaUu2M34tA Grandeur Nature]
*[http://www.darkon.org Darkon (link to the actual LARP group)]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1PGMoK_aU8 Trailer from the Talsker Wölfe group]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej0mJyjbMfw a LARP ad]
*[http://www.obscuruscrusade.com/forum/ The Obscurus Crusade - A WH40K LARP]
===Examples of hilarious LARPs===
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_ekugPKqFw Lightning Bolt!]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVeNw-96vFA A scary monster.]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQukoByxKEg LARP compilation (video is now private)]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:Larpers1.jpg
Image:Larpers2.jpg
Image:Larpers3.jpg
Image:Larpers4.jpg
Image:Larpers5.JPG
</gallery>

[[Category:Roleplaying]]

Aztec

2023-06-02T09:51:48Z

2605:BA00:6208:2AB4:2D28:84CE:7857:1D7A: Forgot to mention that Andropinis gives Tectuktitlay the nickname Tec since he's a senile old man and thinks his name is hard to pronounce. But that's not relevant to the aztecs just a bit of funny garbage.

The '''Aztecs''' were one of the three great empires that ruled over the lands now called Central and South America prior to the arrival of Europeans, alongside the [[Mayan]]s and the [[Inca]]s. The best-known of the three (until Eric Thompson bit it and the scholarly world finally accepted the Proskouriakoff - Coe Maya decipherment), the Aztecs were the overpower of modern-day Mexico. They arose from humble beginnings as a single Nahua tribe called the Mexica, who came down south to modern-day Mexico from an unknown area to the north called Atzlan. They formed an alliance with Texcoco and Tlacopan (now "Tacuba") to rule a vast empire of subordinate vassal-states; through their diplomatic, trade, and ultimately martial skills. The Mexica and Texcoco sidelined Tlacopan fairly early on; at the end, Moteczoma II subjugated Texcoco under a puppet ruler and was in the process of absorbing it all when the Spaniards came knocking.

The Triple Alliance oversaw a highly advanced and cultured people, if you grade on a Chalcolithic curve. The Mexica / Aztec side had elaborate skills in architecture, sculpture, ornamental metalwork, and warfare; as well as skilled in trade - the ''pochteca'' system. Texcoco maintained the lore of Central Mesoamerica and composed much poetry of its own, most of which survives to this day, having impressed even the Catholics. All Mesoamericans were highly spiritual, whose culture was largely shaped by their religious devotion, although as the Mexica in particular interpreted that - well, read on.

The Mexica religion has gone down as perhaps the single bloodiest faith in human history. Blood sacrifice, up to and including that of humans, has been practiced by religions around the world pretty much as long as the concept of religion has been a thing, but the Aztec pantheon was uniquely bloodthirsty, starting with the central precept that human blood was of vital spiritual importance as the fuel that kept the universe working. Even basic offerings to the gods most frequently took the form of the Aztecs drilling into their arms, thighs, ears, lips, tongues and dicks with thorns and offering the bloody thorns. A traditional fertility rite to increase the productivity of a field was to tie a captive warrior between two trees and then riddle him full of arrows - the objective explicitly being to kill him as slowly as possible to ensure more of the blood went into the field. Tlaloc the Rain God was propitiated by ceremonially torturing and then drowning children. To evoke the favor of Xipe Totec, the Harvest God, priests would flay sacrificed virgins alive and wear the skins as ceremonial raiments to perform dances in. And, of course, Huitzilopochtli, patron god of the Aztecs, was offered hearts cut from the chests of living victims. Though it should be noted while some of this is certainly true most accounts were from the Spanish, as Cortez and the Conquistadors wished to emphasize the legitimacy of their claim. How much hyperbole were in these claims and how much is true is often a source of [[skub|intense historical debate.]] Regardless, how many scarifices the Aztecs did is much debated given. Most Nahua and Nahuatl speaking people either died or were assimilated into Spanish culture, not many of their codices survived, and so what remains is largely going to be the works of people who lived under the Spanish or the Spanish themselves, who were less than sympathetic to preserving the culture of what they saw as a heathen society-let alone leaving enough evidence for future generations to find to verify their claims. Such claims that historians have seemingly disproven include the claim by Cortez that Templo Mayor with its four sacrificial altars were able to sacrifice 80,400 people, or roughly 14 people per minute and 3.5 people per alter a minute over the 96 hours continuously. Pair this with evidence suggesting Cortez's reports were altered by royal committee and we have a case of a seriously unreliable narrator-though the real number is likely between 4,000-20,000 by modern archaeological evidence, which is still horrifyingly high, but much more feasible.

This fueled the warlike nature of the Aztecs, and was responsible for their uniquely styled empire - the Aztecs "proper", the Mexica people, inhabited a single city-state that was supported by two sub-ordinate city-states, and ruled over a vast quilt of conquered tribes and city-states. To get the sacrifices they needed, the Aztecs would fight ceremonial "Flower Wars" against vassal states and real wars against peoples on their borders. Which of course meant people didn't like them much. Seriously, the Aztecs ''inherited'' most of their gods from their neighbors (barring Huitzilopochtli, who was uniquely theirs), complete with the traditions of human sacrifice, and their neighbors still thought they were a bunch of blood-soaked fanatics. So, when a tiny Spanish Conquistador exploration fleet showed up, they succeeded in "conquering" the Empire in large part because the vast majority of the Empire and its surrounding neighbors threw their lot in behind the Spanish to get rid of the Aztecs.

==Fantasy Aztecs==
The Aztecs and their unique combination of military imperialism, being a [[theocracy]] devoted to malevolent-seeming gods, and religion based on [[Blood Magic]], have been something of an inspiration for fantasy games for a fair amount of time.

In [[Mystara]], the Tiger Clan of the Atruaghin is a relatively "benign" depiction of the Mexica; they've dropped the human sacrifice thing, but are still a bunch of brutal war-loving racial supremacists who serve as the Evil Faction to the Mesoamerican-based Atruaghin Clans. The [[Hollow World]] has the Azcans, who are the even-more-evil counterpart to the Tiger Clan and who ''do'' practice human sacrifice, as well as having more of the Aztec visuals. The Schattenalfen are an evil [[Shadow Elf]] offshoot who've picked up some Aztec traits, namely the human sacrifice thing. All three groups worship the same malevolent [[Mystaran Immortal]]; [[Atzanteotl]].

In [[Dark_Sun|Dark Sun]] The Mighty and Omnipotent Tectuktitlay, Wemmic Annihilator, Father of Life and Master of the Two Moons is the Sorcerer-King of the Aztec inspired city of Draj. As you might guess he thinks he's a living god however unlike other sorcerer kings who don't even believe in divinity and will openly brag about the life leeching nature of their magics [[lolwut|this guy actually believes his own myth]] he thinks he is the son of the moons Ral and Guthay a god trapped in mortal flesh. That he with a word repaired the lands turning sand to soil and bringing forth lush growth & that the city he lives in was made with just a wave of his hand. Moon priests are fanatical believers in this cult while citizens who doubt this story [[derp|since they live in a barren desert]] never voice their opinion openly and go through the motions of worshiping Tectuktitlay as the anger of Tectuktitlay can only be quenched through sacrifice by ripping the hearts out of dissenters.

In the [[Forgotten Realms]], the sub-setting [[Maztica]] is basically Aztec Mexico with a dash of magic added to the top of it. It even emulates the whole "most of the Aztec empire didn't actually want to ''be'' Aztecs" thing; the truly devout worshippers of the bloodthirsty [[Zaltec]] are restricted to the peoples of one city-state, Nexal, who suffered for it when their god actually came to the [[Material Plane]] and his presence transformed them into [[orc]]s and [[ogre]]s, resulting in the toppling of their empire and the resurgence of the long-buried [[Qotal]] faith.

In [[Shadowrun]], the Megacorp Aztlan is based on the idea that a bunch of Southern Mesoamerican peoples got together and became a Megacorp deliberately styling itself after a mixture of Aztec, Mayan and Incan influences. Their unique gimmick is their heavy usage of [[Blood Magic]].

In [[Deadlands]] Classic, there's a hidden kingdom of Aztecs who survived the Conquistadors in the deep jungles of South America and they've been plotting revenge ever since, which they hope to achieve with [[Blood Magic]] and an army of [[zombie]]s. Naturally, the Reckoners love them.

In [[Magic: The Gathering]], the civilizations of Naya, the Red/Green/White Shard of [[Alara]], have a certain level of Aztec motif. Meanwhile, the Sun Empire of [[Ixalan]] combines elements of Aztec and Inca.

In [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]], the [[Lizardmen]] represents the native South American natives who also lives on a continent similar shaped to South America called Lustria. Although the Lizardmen represents neither Maya nor Aztec, they have a named character called [[Tehenhauin]], a red crested skink who is obsessed with sacrifice his most hated enemy invaders: The Skaven, by opening up their stomach and spill out their innards in the name of his snake god Sotek. The closest thing the Lizardmen could get to be an Aztec.

==A Word of Caution==
Let's get something straight here: the Mesoamerican people suffered a lot of terrible shit at the hands of European settlers. There's no arguing with that. But that doesn't mean they couldn't also be dicks in their own right. And the fact that the Aztecs' own "empire" revolted to overthrow them '''by siding with the newly arrived Spanish Conquistadors''' to do this is damning evidence that they were a bunch of dangerous fanatics even by the standards of their own people. But since [[SJW]]s became a thing, it's become a risky gambit to ever have Mesoamerican-inspired characters or cultures in an antagonistic role, and the Aztecs are no exemption. Basically it's best to follow the "Don't Beat Downwards" rule. If you team comes across a powerful or long lived Aztec empire go nuts. If your party are heroic white people from overseas fighting savages who throw rocks as they storm the palace with guns...Might want to step back a bit.

===External links Links===
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or6W4sXpl3c|A A Youtube documentary about the culture of human scarifice within Aztec and Mesoamerican society]
[[Category: History]]

Omnissiah

2023-06-02T09:18:19Z

2605:BA00:6208:2AB4:2D28:84CE:7857:1D7A: Omnissiah preserve me I'm having an existential crisis.

{{topquote|Science and technology revolutionize our lives, but memory, tradition and myth frame our response.|Arthur M. Schlesinger}}

In [[Warhammer 40,000]], things are so [[grimdark]] that people have forgotten all of the science that was once known; the only remaining knowledge is encoded in religious ceremonies followed by the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]]. The deity central to mechanicus dogma is '''the Machine God''', who is also known as the '''Omnissiah'''. In practice though, the Omnissiah is more like Machine Jesus to the Machine God, and most believe the Omnissiah is in fact the [[Emperor]]. Others believe, and there is a fair case to be made, that the Omnissiah is the [[Void Dragon|Void Drag-]]{{BLAM}}

==Attributes==
The machine god is a god of logic, and reason; and any form of chaos and disorder is abhorrent to him (although the Dark Mechanicum that still believe in him would argue otherwise). He works through and manifests in machines, which are seen by his worshipers as the ultimate expression of his order. His sacred language is binary, which pretty much every single fucking [[techpriest]] is fluent in (and which the Inquisition has spent thousands of years trying to crack but hasn't even come close yet; you'd think they'd just ask a Techmarine for a proverbial Rosetta Stone, but that's 40K for you).

==Worship of the machine==
To venerate the machine god is to worship your coffee grinder, your showers, your collection of electronic dildos, your own computer you use to access this website, etc. It all involves long, complicated, and frankly needless praying and rituals to activate anything. Even turning on a light, you have to make a prayer first, probably do something with sanctified oil, speak a prayer of thanks that the electricity decided to satisfy your request, and thank the Omnissiah for bringing it all together.

Science is now an arcane art which is treated with danger and care. Literally, technosorcery. A techpriest really is a priest, learning more about hymns than how to properly weld something together. Essentially, this is one of the most blatant cases of literal irony. Because of that and the desire to dunk every piece of technology in oil, the sacred knowledge they guard so jealously has, over time, degraded along with their skills and ability to comprehend common sense.

Speaking of hoarding secrets, they have a habit of keeping information for the sake of it and not sharing unless forced to. It is because they believe the Omnissiah only wishes his chosen to know his knowledge. [[Pretend|It is generosity like this that will save the human race from all the terrors that assault it.]]

The Adeptus Mechanicus has sixteen universal laws of the machine god, divided into eight mysteries and eight warnings as given below with helpful observations.

The Mysteries of the Cult Mechanicus:
* Life is directed motion.
* The spirit is the spark of life. (Ah, very ''Transformers'' there.)
* Sentience is the ability to learn the value of knowledge. (Pity they don't take this lesson to heart...)
* Intellect is the understanding of knowledge.
* Sentience is the basest form of Intellect. (Does that apply to Orks too?)
* Understanding is the True Path to Comprehension.
* Comprehension is the key to all things.
* The Omnissiah knows all, comprehends all. (Unlike his servants.)

The Warnings of the Cult Mechanicus
* The alien mechanism is a perversion of the True Path (<s>Which doesn't stop them when they want a look at all those Tau and Necron goodies.</s> the "how" of those technologies is heretical, the science behind them is holy.)
* The soul is the conscience of sentience.
* A soul can be bestowed only by the Omnissiah.
* The Soulless sentience (i.e. AIs) is the enemy of all (But since machine-spirits and servitors are derived from a mixture of organic and technological components, they're given a pass.)
* The knowledge of the ancients stands beyond question. (This is true. Pity that knowledge is in the hands of idiots)
* The Machine Spirit guards the knowledge of the Ancients.
* Flesh is fallible, but ritual honors the Machine Spirit
* To break with ritual is to break with faith. (Which doesn't stop them doing so when they are being shot at by chaos freaks)

==History of the Machine==
The rise of the machine cult is all but lost to history, although it is known that when the Emperor of Mankind began his [[Great Crusade]], Mars was the first stop, and by then they had all been gay for the Omnissiah for so long that only a few of them got a hard on from seeing the emprah. And only then, because they believed he was the Omnissiah. Mars was a great power, with unrivaled technology and secrets, and the Emperor knew that if he was going to launch his Great Crusade, he would need Mars's support. However, this put him in a bind (because of his Imperial Truth, which said [[Cake|no gods or spirits or anything supernatural truly existed]]). This of course ruled out the Omnissiah as well, but the Emperor, like any good politician, decided to quietly brush it under the carpet and declared the techpriests were a one-off exception, since the alternative was having a potentially hostile force with a lot of valuable tech right on Terra's doorstep. Likewise, to humor their population, the techpriests for the most part declared the Emperor was an aspect of their God, which you can imagine he didn't like very much but was like "eh, fuck em" and let them get on with it.

==Current times==
Today the cult of the Omnissiah is one of the state religions of the Imperium, no matter how much the Ecclesiarchy fumes about it. The techpriests get the Ecclesiarchy to buzz off by saying that the Emperor and the Machine God are the same deity, so two religions, one faith, or something. But when it comes to blows (as it has on a few occasions) the ecclesiarchs have cathedrals while the AdMech have [[Titan_(Warhammer_40,000)|cathedral sized killbots]], so generally the Ecclesiarchy has to get over it.

The forge worlds are the centres of worship for the Machine God, although each regular Imperial citizen at least knows a little about him and at least generally respects him for the secrets of technology he has bestowed upon mankind.

==Theories of true identity==
While this may seem straight forward, the actual identity of Omnissiah has become the greatest game of 'Guess Who?' in 40k, as several theories of his true form have now come forward, which are covered below.

===Theory One: God-Emperor of Mankind===
The majority of tech-priests and other Adeptus Mechanicus personnel within all echelons and stratas of rank believe that the [[God-Emperor of Mankind]] is the Omnissiah, or at least a form of him. While there are always outliers and different schools of thought, especially in such a populous faction as the AdMec, it's worth remembering that the belief in Big-E as Omnissiah is by far in a way the predominant consensus of the organization as a whole; as in, probably north of 90% hold this view. These include the tech-priests who remained loyal to the [[Imperium of Man]] during the [[Horus Heresy]], as well as their modern day contemporaries, all the way up to [[Belisarius Cawl]] himself. The Adeptus Mechanicus officially holds this view, and it is used to pacify the more zealous members of the [[Ecclesiarchy]] and [[Inquisition]] who doubt the Mechanicus' loyalty, though there are individuals [[Heresy|who believe they are separate.]] This logically leads to conflict between the two bodies and it is something that will never truly be satisfied by either side. The novel ''Titanicus'' described documents from the Heresy era that purported to prove that the Emps and the Omnissiah are not the same. However, these documents were tampered with to an unknown degree by Tolemy, master of the archives, to facilitate his bid for power. It is unknown how much of the documents were factual. The novel ''Titandeath'' may provide some support for this theory as well; the short version is that near the end of the novel, with the death of the protagonist, her soul is passing on into the warp, only to be beset by its hostile denizens who begin to circle her. Right before the predators can strike her though, they are dispatched by a blinding golden presence bearing the emblem of the Machine God, which dispels the darkness and destroys those that reside within it, and because she had remained loyal even unto death, the protagonist's soul is welcomed into its domain (and by extension, it's protection). Draw your own conclusions. It is obviously not definitive proof in and of itself, but it does at the very least provide some interesting food for thought. But to be fair, let's be honest: it's usually a safe bet that, for all intents and purposes, gold + warp = Big-E. The blinding aura, protection of loyal humans, and anti-warpfuckery just kinda adds further credence to the theory.

For those wondering, this theory was NOT pulled out of someone's ass to shut the Inquisition up (even though it obviously does smooth things over on that front). For one thing, there is a common school of thought in the Mechanicus that organics are technically machines (human brains are used in place of computers, after all), just really inefficient ones. There are many "cyborgs" in the Mechanicus that don't have a scrap of metal in their bodies, just transplanted organs. The Emperor, being the perfect human, is the logical conclusion of this claptrap. It helps that the Mechanicus does indeed view humans as superior to all other life and divine every bit as much as the Ecclesiarchy. So, a human who is not a cyborg but is still a perfect machine would be, to them, the greatest epitome of man and machine as concepts coming together as one.

Furthermore, as mentioned above, the likes of [[Belisarius Cawl]] himself are among the most adamant of true believers in the Emperor as the Omnissiah. Though one's mileage [[skub|may vary on the opinion]] of the man himself, especially amongst those of us here on [[/tg/]], you can't really make the claim in good faith that Cawl's assessment on this matter doesn't carry a lot of weight. Arkhan Land and Zagreus Kane are two other easy examples to make of venerable individuals at the highest levels of authority within the AdMec who wholeheartedly consider Big-E to be the Omnissiah.

===Theory Two: Void Dragon===
Other tech-priests equate the Omnissiah with the [[Void Dragon]], one of the [[C'tan|Star Gods]] of the [[Necrons]]. These tech-priests also tend to venerate the Necrons as the Omnissiah's angels. They then tend to do stupid things like poking around in Necron tombs, trying to probe them for secrets as part of their "Quest For Knowledge." They tend not to live very long, as Necrons don't care what any life-forms think of them; they are equal-opportunity destroyers.
In the recent Horus Heresy fluff, it was shown the Emperor sealed a silver dragon under Mars in the distant past so humanity could have control over machines (wut? (The void dragon controls machines. So sealing him means we can use machines without fearing some eldritch skynet taking control of the toasters and microwaves and using them to control us or murder us in our sleep.)). Somehow he was able to make it so humans could take some of the dragon's power then for their own although in hindsight putting a super powerful creature in the same solar system as the capital of the Imperium might come back to bite them in the ass...

Hey, wait a minute. The C'tan are vulnerable to the Warp, right? The Mechanicus worships the Machine God, right? So, if the Mechanicus became aware of the Void Dragon and believed it to be the Machine God, would the effect in the Warp from that belief kill the Void Dragon via Warp? Or even subvert it into becoming basically enslaved to humanity due to the Machine Cult's belief that the Machine God is very much on humanity's side. Perhaps this is why the Emperor is implied to have created the Machine Cult. Sealing the Void Dragon on Mars may have been just the first step in a long road.

===Theory three: Both theories one and two===
Some versions of the myth tend to separate them in two, with the Void Dragon being the Machine God, and the Emperor being the Omnissiah who "tamed" him. It's unclear, really. Some people believe the emperor copied his memories into the void dragon therefore making a digital copy of himself or at least adding a portion of his memories to the completely inhuman ideas of the dragon enough to be able to speak with it and "tame" it. A surviving [[Men_of_Iron#The_Present|Man of Iron]] also posited that they are two related beings but the Emperor is not the Omnissiah.

===Theory four: Chaos Undivided===
The [[Dark Mechanicus]], those tech-priests who sided with the [[Chaos Space Marines]] during the Horus Heresy or turned later, believe that the Omnissiah is a combined aspect of [[Chaos Undivided]], worshiping Chaos as a form of progress and knowledge. Said tech-priests tend to take the mechanical augmentations a ''little'' further than one would like in a tech-priest. They also use bio-mechanics, which is ''very'' explicitly forbidden.

===Theory five: Individual warp entity===
It could be over time that like any other strong collective desire and belief the tech-priests have created their own God in the warp, which would be a Machine God of logic, machines and arcane processes. While he may have started off as one of the other theories, such belief just doesn't do anything and proof of previous miracles caused by strong belief in the god and his servants the machine spirits have been seen.

===Theory six: Other===
Presumably, any sufficiently-advanced machine will be taken for the Machine God by at least some tech-priests, like a functional Man of Iron, or other Dark Age technology. They could for example worship a rediscovered ipod as a significant avatar of his machineness.

In fact, the trilogy of ''Priests of Mars'' hints that there may be a kind of entity which goes far beyond the material and warp realm, with the most advanced pieces of technology created by mankind such as the Ark Mechanicus (yes, like that one that one-shot an Eldar capital ship) being sort of avatars of this transcendental being. The fact this entity was neither Chaos nor C'tan aligned and yet could interfere both with the Warp and the Star Gods' powers in their own respective fields. Furthermore, it confirms the existence of the below-mentioned Akashic Records, and points out indirectly how Horus was allowed to access knowledge which should not have been available even for a Primarch (something which happened in the Vengeful Spirit novel). Interestingly, this entity, or entities, seems to be actively hindering the destruction of the physical universe and the complete disruption of the Immaterium, and it is pointed out that it was already old at the time mankind started inventing the basics of mechanics (the lever, for instance). McNeill never clarifies the ultimate nature of this being, yet for all intents and purposes, and given the amount of shenanigans used by the Mechanicus in the novel, it may be the Machine God. It's worth noting that what we call ''Deus Mechanicus'' is what limited human capabilities can grasp of an eternally self-evolving singularity.

Given it's power, the fact the Machine Cult is pretty much techno-pseudo-Christianity, it could be that A) The Machine Cult is actually the primary sect of a future Christianity (based on the idea that God used science to create all things and therefore science is holy and knowledge is sacred or even divine, which is actually real life Christian belief and the Church has a scientific branch for exactly that reason) and B) that the Machine God is literally God and that the Mechanicus might eventually be able to access God's power or at least turn that power to humanity's advantage. Also, the Machine God seems to be on humanity's side or at the very least sympathetic to humanity's plight.

===Theory seven: Akashic records ===
The novel ''Mechanicum'' presents the view that the Omnissiah may be the sum of all knowledge in the universe. Koriel Zeth, the tech-priest that was researching the Akashic records, did not actually take this view and thought that the Omnissiah just did not exist. Koriel Zeth sought to regain the level of technology that humanity had at its height, and though dangerously close to understanding the concept of science as we know it, that would be too sane for the Mechanicum and she decided not to rebuild that knowledge from redoing all that scientific research, but by [[What|connecting to the Akashic records in the Warp]] (the way, in her mind, that ancient humanity must have learned things). To Zeth, Dalia Cythera, a naturally innovative girl (read: a technopathic psyker) could do what she did not because of skill and heretical research (that she did do), but because she was connected to these records. Though being Warhammer 40K, Zeth was probably correct. Then this theory blurs all of the other theories together. Using the Astronomican and the Emperor's power, Zeth infuses a psyker with all the knowledge in the Warp. This psyker, now dying and omniscient, thought that the most important thing he could say with his new-found knowledge was to direct Dalia to re-imprison the Void Dragon, who she was destined to watch over and had a connection to. So, where does all knowledge come from? The Dark Mechanicus interrupted things, so the issue is never clarified. Worst of all, this being 40K, Zeth might have been right about how humanity developed its technology after all and no one realized it until she puzzled things out. After all, most truly useful and great inventions are created either by geniuses or by people who just had a one-off burst of brilliance. It is kind of...suspicious. This would also mean that killing weak psykers might actually be helping to prevent humanity from recovering its technological power, as many of them might be connected to the Akashic Records and so no more geniuses and spontaneous moments of techno-brilliance will be forthcoming among anyone of any reasonable level of authority in the Imperium as anyone with more than zip connection to the Warp (other than the human norm) but not strong enough to bother collecting on the Black Ships is [[Grimdark|killed]].

===Theory Eight: No God but the Emperor===
Unlike the rest of the deities, the Machine God has no particular representation in the form of miracles or divine figures, and doesn't appear to be any entity within the Warp. On the one hand, this would imply that tying their theology to the Emperor fulfills the need for a machine god, or that the Mechanicus are hilariously inept theologians. On the other hand, the metaphysics of 40k almost demand that there should be a Machine God for all of Z eir faith, but, as the Warp feeds on emotions rather than prayers, the AdMech's disdain for frivolous aspects like "sentiments" and "humanity" make them just about unable to make a god for themselves. First of all, the Warp ''definitely'' feeds on prayers, probably more so than emotions. For evidence, prayers to the Emperor weaken the Chaos Gods, because the Emperor has a Warp signature that is "anathema" to that of the Chaos Gods. So yes, the AdMech should definitely have manifested some kind of Warp entity for the Machine God. The lore has made it perfectly clear that worship has no effect on the Dark Gods, only emotion and various aspects of reality empowers them. People worship them because people always worship any existence perceived as above themselves. That in no way indicates that Chaos gives a damn about their worship. The argument otherwise also completely ignores the nature of the Warp and the effect faith has on it. There is no evidence that worship matters to Chaos, other than some old lore suggesting they gain sentience from it which cannot be true since they gained sentience before anyone even knew they existed, and overwhelming proof that faith affects the Warp. Perhaps by imposing order on it in the form of what is believed.

Though the emotions thing does bring up a strange debate. Magos who've had their brains sufficiently computerized are said to devote small numbers of cycles to emotion equations and engines whenever they see fit to feel an emotion. Jury's still out on whether this kind of emotion is represented in the Warp or not, because if it ''doesn't'' then it MIGHT explain why the Machine God is taking so long to form. Or maybe it is already formed, or nascent, for the same reason the Sisters of Battles can use Acts of Faith, the Canticles of the Omnissiah may just as well be "miracles" from the Warp.

Or simply believing something strongly enough in a clap your hands if you believe universe is enough to have an effect on the materium. Like Ork WAAAGH!!! but less intense due to a lack of innate psychic ability, but a noticeable force due to sheer amount of believers in the same doctrine in a far more stable way than Orks. Especially given humans have a very close spiritual connection to the Warp.

(bruh, the machine god has done "miracles" in books before)(prayer is an expression of belief fucking neckbeards, technically "prayer" just means asking and isn't restricted to religion, but in this case yes)

===Theory Nine: Taking Things at Face Value===
The Omnissiah is a combination of the two words Omni and Messiah. Literally the All Messiah. Humanity, realizing how utterly screwed they are (like having the Void Dragon on Mars, yikes) in the greater scheme of things (at least for those that have 1/10th of a clue, so basically not too many, everyone else is basically brain washed into following the plot through the Imperial Creed) has clandestinely (through the Emprah's machinations, the Ecclesiarchy, the Adeptus Mechanicus, the High Lords of Terra, basically) set about the task of attempting to create their own Warp God (or I guess another, if you consider the Emperor to be a Warp God in his own right). It is meant to be the All Savior of Man Kind, thus the Omni Messiah, which has some pretty grim portents for everyone else in the galaxy considering how Xenophobic the Imperium is. Not that any players care since nearly all of the other species very much deserve to be wiped out. Besides, the Imperium has carefully cultivated a hatred of xenos with specific vile traits (like treachery and bloodlust). So, any Omnissiah god thing would likely pass over peaceful species due to not fitting what the Imperium views xenos as being. The Eldar, being aware of this fact and masters of just pooting out any old god they like (within reason) are aware of humanity's efforts and using the powers of the Farseers to meddle in Human affairs (ie. just destroying entire Imperial Worlds for apparently zero reasons given) to affect a favorable outcome of the possible eventual Awakening of the Omnissiah or perhaps prevent it all together (though likely the former due to Eldrad's prophecy regarding Humanity and Eldar sharing fates and possibly to use the mega nuke to fuck over Slaanesh as a side effect, plus the Eldar are quite willing to die out to get revenge on Slaanesh given their beliefs of how they will end, so they'd probably be fine with getting killed by a human Warp god if the thing will also destroy Chaos, that and they're unable to kill enough humans to matter anyway especially without making themselves easy prey to everything else). Where other races line up in their awareness of just what the Imperium is up to is unknown, but one could surmise Chaos also has a clue since their gods would be aware, and then likely also the Orks assuming Gork and Mork are real and Orks really do understand ALL technology.

This doesn't sound so crazy when you remember the prophecy that eventually the Machine Cult and Imperial Cult would join and become one and the same. If true, their gradual merging could be the final stage of the plan by uniting humanity's perception of the Emperor and the Omnissiah into one being. It already is for the Mechanicus (unless you want to be ripped part for heresy), but the extreme majority of humans don't even particularly think of the Omnissiah in the first place. So, getting them to conflate Emperor with Omnissiah would be critical to guide the psychic energy of their faith.

Long story short, the entire thing with the Emperor taking the guise of the Omnissiah and after his death being worshiped as a God, as well as the Mechanum's worship of the Machine God, is all just a plot to bring some sort of Apocalyptic Warp Deity about that somehow saves all of mankind from well, everything, while possibly wiping out THE ENTIRE REST OF THE GALAXY that isn't a faithful servant of the Imperium, like Slaanesh-ing everyone else and walking away scot-free. Essentially they're attempting to cook up a giant Warp Nuke that all at once BTFOs everything that isn't them (and possibly minor pacifist Xenos and the Eldar who would certainly be aware of such a major psychic plot and appropriately be able to latch on to their benefit) while simultaneously saving them from the utter technological stalemate they've developed that's leading to Humanity's slow decline via complete lack of innovation with one giant {{Blam}}. However, the fact they're attempting to bring about a God that achieves so much means that it could take a very long time, and the Powers that be in the Imperium may have no idea how close or far away they are.

Furthermore, it may be working, although ever so slowly, as the Warp has started to essentially resonate back on their myriad prayers. In fact the Omnissiah may already exist in some form, it just happens to be in it's infancy, much like the notion Slaanesh is still but just a child that may not have even fully awakened yet.

It may be possible not even most members of the Mechanicum are aware of the exact implications of this, as they worship the Emperor as the Omnissiah and he basically saved them from nothing, as far as technology is concerned, as well as the fact they were worshiping the Omnissiah before the Emperor ever appeared to them. If the truth of the reality ever came to light it likely means the Tech-Priests of the galaxy would undergo a MASSIVE schism, so large it could likely tear the Imperium apart in a way not seen since the Horus Heresy. On the other hand, the Horus Heresy novels included an implication that the Emperor had purposely engineered the creation of both the Mechanicum and the Machine Cult more than ten thousand years before the Great Crusade, even before the Iron Rebellion (Iron War, which also sounds way more awesome and...''metal'') and the Age of Strife... [[Just as Planned]].

==Trivia==
* The Omnissiah's favourite colour is red. Hence all techpriests on Mars wear red robes. It's a rule.
**Some forgeworlds, however, have white or black as a dominant colors of their robes, though red strips are there too.
**<span style='color:green;font-size:115%'>DATZ WOY ITZ FASTAH!!! {{BLAM}} {{BLAM}} {{BLAM}} {{BLAM|No Orks allowed.}}
* The Omnissiah's holy waffle iron makes the best waffles. It is the holy bread of his church.
* Don't let Tzeentch mess with his computer again; he hates that.
* The Omnissiah is the God of Wikis and their contributors, for their ordering, editing and adding to knowledge pleases him.
* The first avatar of the Omnissiah was an ancient Terran known to the Techpriests as Bill of the Gates, named they believe for opening the gates of knowledge. {{BLAM}} {{BLAM|HERESY! While one of the avatars of the Omnissiah, Bill of the Gates was certainly not the first.}} We all know that the true avatar was Linus of the Torvalds.
** The REAL first avatar of the Omnissiah was known by the denomer of Charles Babbage, theories abound as to why he was called that.
*** False. Babbage was the last of the prophets, who brought forth the physical form of the mind in the machine, the original host in gleaming brass. The first avatar is she Ada, who netted in the spirit of the machine in a lace of love. For is not the gathering and interpretation of information in indexed form and inorferly means and ways, "programming"?
* The first [[Heretek]] was a man named Richard Matthew Stallman, who glorified heretical research ("hacking"), which is one of the basic activities of the [[Dark Mechanicus]].
* The oldest tech relic on Mars, hidden deep inside the catacombs of Olympus Mons, is a strange disc titled 'Friends season three, disc two, episodes six to ten'. Obviously this precious creation is a gift of divine importance, and is thus guarded fiercely by a crack legion of Skitarii, with only the Fabricator-General of Mars allowed regular access!
* It is believed the first sect of the Mechanicus was known as DARPA, to them the Machine God gave the inspiration to build INTERNET, the first material reflect of the Akashic Records and basis to all databanks to come, hence ensuring mankind will never lose the Gift of Wisdom (which it then did).
* Little known fact, but the Omnissiah in ancient Humanity's past once held sway over much of Slaanesh's domains. In those olden days, the Omnissiah was used as a shepherd for various debaucherous materials, his dataslates and cogitators of those early eras were used by young humans from across Terra to masturbate to cartoon women procreating with tentacled chaos spawASAHKAGHDKAGHAKOHFUCKITHURTSAAAAAAAAAAAHHGHDEAK! {{BLAM}} {{BLAM|NO CYKA ALLOWED.}}

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category:Imperial]]
[[Category:Adeptus Mechanicus]]
[[Category:Dark Mechanicus]]
[[Category:40k and Fantasy Gods]]

Aztec

2023-06-02T08:51:55Z

2605:BA00:6208:2AB4:2D28:84CE:7857:1D7A: In Mexico. Náhuatl speakers make up 22.89% of all indigenous speakers and are common in eastern states like Puebla. In comparison with Canada and the USA the colonial project of Mexico was one of assimilation not total extermination.

The '''Aztecs''' were one of the three great empires that ruled over the lands now called Central and South America prior to the arrival of Europeans, alongside the [[Mayan]]s and the [[Inca]]s. The best-known of the three (until Eric Thompson bit it and the scholarly world finally accepted the Proskouriakoff - Coe Maya decipherment), the Aztecs were the overpower of modern-day Mexico. They arose from humble beginnings as a single Nahua tribe called the Mexica, who came down south to modern-day Mexico from an unknown area to the north called Atzlan. They formed an alliance with Texcoco and Tlacopan (now "Tacuba") to rule a vast empire of subordinate vassal-states; through their diplomatic, trade, and ultimately martial skills. The Mexica and Texcoco sidelined Tlacopan fairly early on; at the end, Moteczoma II subjugated Texcoco under a puppet ruler and was in the process of absorbing it all when the Spaniards came knocking.

The Triple Alliance oversaw a highly advanced and cultured people, if you grade on a Chalcolithic curve. The Mexica / Aztec side had elaborate skills in architecture, sculpture, ornamental metalwork, and warfare; as well as skilled in trade - the ''pochteca'' system. Texcoco maintained the lore of Central Mesoamerica and composed much poetry of its own, most of which survives to this day, having impressed even the Catholics. All Mesoamericans were highly spiritual, whose culture was largely shaped by their religious devotion, although as the Mexica in particular interpreted that - well, read on.

The Mexica religion has gone down as perhaps the single bloodiest faith in human history. Blood sacrifice, up to and including that of humans, has been practiced by religions around the world pretty much as long as the concept of religion has been a thing, but the Aztec pantheon was uniquely bloodthirsty, starting with the central precept that human blood was of vital spiritual importance as the fuel that kept the universe working. Even basic offerings to the gods most frequently took the form of the Aztecs drilling into their arms, thighs, ears, lips, tongues and dicks with thorns and offering the bloody thorns. A traditional fertility rite to increase the productivity of a field was to tie a captive warrior between two trees and then riddle him full of arrows - the objective explicitly being to kill him as slowly as possible to ensure more of the blood went into the field. Tlaloc the Rain God was propitiated by ceremonially torturing and then drowning children. To evoke the favor of Xipe Totec, the Harvest God, priests would flay sacrificed virgins alive and wear the skins as ceremonial raiments to perform dances in. And, of course, Huitzilopochtli, patron god of the Aztecs, was offered hearts cut from the chests of living victims. Though it should be noted while some of this is certainly true most accounts were from the Spanish, as Cortez and the Conquistadors wished to emphasize the legitimacy of their claim. How much hyperbole were in these claims and how much is true is often a source of [[skub|intense historical debate.]] Regardless, how many scarifices the Aztecs did is much debated given. Most Nahua and Nahuatl speaking people either died or were assimilated into Spanish culture, not many of their codices survived, and so what remains is largely going to be the works of people who lived under the Spanish or the Spanish themselves, who were less than sympathetic to preserving the culture of what they saw as a heathen society-let alone leaving enough evidence for future generations to find to verify their claims. Such claims that historians have seemingly disproven include the claim by Cortez that Templo Mayor with its four sacrificial altars were able to sacrifice 80,400 people, or roughly 14 people per minute and 3.5 people per alter a minute over the 96 hours continuously. Pair this with evidence suggesting Cortez's reports were altered by royal committee and we have a case of a seriously unreliable narrator-though the real number is likely between 4,000-20,000 by modern archaeological evidence, which is still horrifyingly high, but much more feasible.

This fueled the warlike nature of the Aztecs, and was responsible for their uniquely styled empire - the Aztecs "proper", the Mexica people, inhabited a single city-state that was supported by two sub-ordinate city-states, and ruled over a vast quilt of conquered tribes and city-states. To get the sacrifices they needed, the Aztecs would fight ceremonial "Flower Wars" against vassal states and real wars against peoples on their borders. Which of course meant people didn't like them much. Seriously, the Aztecs ''inherited'' most of their gods from their neighbors (barring Huitzilopochtli, who was uniquely theirs), complete with the traditions of human sacrifice, and their neighbors still thought they were a bunch of blood-soaked fanatics. So, when a tiny Spanish Conquistador exploration fleet showed up, they succeeded in "conquering" the Empire in large part because the vast majority of the Empire and its surrounding neighbors threw their lot in behind the Spanish to get rid of the Aztecs.

==Fantasy Aztecs==
The Aztecs and their unique combination of military imperialism, being a [[theocracy]] devoted to malevolent-seeming gods, and religion based on [[Blood Magic]], have been something of an inspiration for fantasy games for a fair amount of time.

In [[Mystara]], the Tiger Clan of the Atruaghin is a relatively "benign" depiction of the Mexica; they've dropped the human sacrifice thing, but are still a bunch of brutal war-loving racial supremacists who serve as the Evil Faction to the Mesoamerican-based Atruaghin Clans. The [[Hollow World]] has the Azcans, who are the even-more-evil counterpart to the Tiger Clan and who ''do'' practice human sacrifice, as well as having more of the Aztec visuals. The Schattenalfen are an evil [[Shadow Elf]] offshoot who've picked up some Aztec traits, namely the human sacrifice thing. All three groups worship the same malevolent [[Mystaran Immortal]]; [[Atzanteotl]].

In the [[Forgotten Realms]], the sub-setting [[Maztica]] is basically Aztec Mexico with a dash of magic added to the top of it. It even emulates the whole "most of the Aztec empire didn't actually want to ''be'' Aztecs" thing; the truly devout worshippers of the bloodthirsty [[Zaltec]] are restricted to the peoples of one city-state, Nexal, who suffered for it when their god actually came to the [[Material Plane]] and his presence transformed them into [[orc]]s and [[ogre]]s, resulting in the toppling of their empire and the resurgence of the long-buried [[Qotal]] faith.

In [[Shadowrun]], the Megacorp Aztlan is based on the idea that a bunch of Southern Mesoamerican peoples got together and became a Megacorp deliberately styling itself after a mixture of Aztec, Mayan and Incan influences. Their unique gimmick is their heavy usage of [[Blood Magic]].

In [[Deadlands]] Classic, there's a hidden kingdom of Aztecs who survived the Conquistadors in the deep jungles of South America and they've been plotting revenge ever since, which they hope to achieve with [[Blood Magic]] and an army of [[zombie]]s. Naturally, the Reckoners love them.

In [[Magic: The Gathering]], the civilizations of Naya, the Red/Green/White Shard of [[Alara]], have a certain level of Aztec motif. Meanwhile, the Sun Empire of [[Ixalan]] combines elements of Aztec and Inca.

In [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]], the [[Lizardmen]] represents the native South American natives who also lives on a continent similar shaped to South America called Lustria. Although the Lizardmen represents neither Maya nor Aztec, they have a named character called [[Tehenhauin]], a red crested skink who is obsessed with sacrifice his most hated enemy invaders: The Skaven, by opening up their stomach and spill out their innards in the name of his snake god Sotek. The closest thing the Lizardmen could get to be an Aztec.

==A Word of Caution==
Let's get something straight here: the Mesoamerican people suffered a lot of terrible shit at the hands of European settlers. There's no arguing with that. But that doesn't mean they couldn't also be dicks in their own right. And the fact that the Aztecs' own "empire" revolted to overthrow them '''by siding with the newly arrived Spanish Conquistadors''' to do this is damning evidence that they were a bunch of dangerous fanatics even by the standards of their own people. But since [[SJW]]s became a thing, it's become a risky gambit to ever have Mesoamerican-inspired characters or cultures in an antagonistic role, and the Aztecs are no exemption. Basically it's best to follow the "Don't Beat Downwards" rule. If you team comes across a powerful or long lived Aztec empire go nuts. If your party are heroic white people from overseas fighting savages who throw rocks as they storm the palace with guns...Might want to step back a bit.

===External links Links===
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or6W4sXpl3c|A A Youtube documentary about the culture of human scarifice within Aztec and Mesoamerican society]
[[Category: History]]