Quetzalcoatl
| Religion in NetHack |
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In NetHack, Quetzalcoatl is the lawful god of the Archeologist pantheon.
Origin
Quetzalcoatl (Nahuatl, "Feathered Serpent") is a deity in Aztec culture and literature that acts as the patron god of the Aztec priesthood and is one of several important gods in the Aztec pantheon, along with the gods Tlaloc, Tezcatlipoca and Huitzilopochtli. Quetzalcoatl is associated with wind, Venus, the Sun, merchants, arts, crafts, knowledge, and learning. Animals thought to represent Quetzalcoatl include rattlesnakes and birds such as resplendent quetzals, crows and macaws; as the wind god Ehecatl, he is represented by spider monkeys, ducks, and the wind itself, while as the morning star Venus, he is also depicted as a harpy eagle. The earliest known documentation of Quetzalcoatl's worship occurs in Teotihuacan in the either first century BC or first century AD.
The couatl is an original creation of Dungeons & Dragons whose appearance is inspired by Quetzalcoatl's "feathered serpent" avatar: it is a feathered serpent-like being with a pair of rainbow-colored wings that is powerful and intelligent, but rarely seen.
Variants
dNetHack
In dNetHack and notdNetHack, Quetzalcoatl is a holy lawful god, and his minions consist entirely of couatl. His crowning gift is Ehecailacocozcatl, a lawful Archeologist-favoring amulet of magical breathing that grants reflection and energy regeneration while worn, and can be invoked to summon one of the following tame high-level monsters:
- fog cloud
- dust vortex
- ice paraelemental
- ice vortex
- energy vortex
- air elemental
- lightning paraelemental
- couatl
Encyclopedia entry
One of the principal Aztec-Toltec gods was the great and wise
Quetzalcoatl, who was called Kukumatz in Guatemala, and
Kukulcan in Yucatan. His image, the plumed serpent, is found
on both the oldest and the most recent Indian edifices. ...
The legend tells how the Indian deity Quetzalcoatl came from
the "Land of the Rising Sun". He wore a long white robe and
had a beard; he taught the people crafts and customs and laid
down wise laws. He created an empire in which the ears of
corn were as long as men are tall, and caused bolls of colored
cotton to grow on cotton plants. But for some reason or other
he had to leave his empire. ... But all the legends of
Quetzalcoatl unanimously agree that he promised to come again.
