Ketzelkan

Ketzelkan was the Winged Serpent and the God-King of Mictlan, ruling from a great temple over a vast and prosperous city whose people never knew hunger. He was one of the Divine Children who carried the Blood of the Sun in their veins, with most of his siblings having perished long ago. Born as a Divine Child, he ascended the Sky Bridge as a teenage boy and passed the trial of the White Abyss by spending a month in motionless meditation while the world burned around him. As a young man, he led hunters into the Jungle to hunt monsters of Corruption, later abandoning the persona of a Divine Child to take on the mantle of King. His mighty asuras guarded the Heart Bone of the Sun Killer as the forces of Doom encroached upon its corpse, during a time before Inti, his brother, had created the asuras, before Shatana the Traitor cast the veil upon the White Abyss, before the Ash had grown deep, and before Doom and the Nightmare Spell had discovered the Sun Realm.^[1]

As God-King, Ketzelkan possessed overwhelming Will that could not be resisted, enabling him to dominate and sacrifice Great Beasts upon the altar of his temple using a bone knife he had once used to ascend the Sky Bridge. He slew a Great Beast, Fallen Wanderer of the Sky, absorbing its blood, soul, shadow, and even its gargantuan corpse into himself, making it a part of his being. He stood before vast crowds and Transcendent priests, performing rituals marked by painting a red line on his face and delivering omens drawn from his visions. These visions showed light shining upon Mictlan, the Heart Bone shattered by a tower made of white stone, snow falling upon the Jungle and disappearing in a hell of white flame, a shadow rising from the surface of the bone, and an angel descending from the White Abyss, as well as the seed of Mictlan's destruction blooming in black water.^[1]

Ketzelkan publicly interpreted these omens as a promise of good fortune, claiming that the Sun Killer would never overcome the White Abyss, while privately knowing this to be a lie. He remembered the fall of the Ash Nomads, the burning of the cities of the Pillar Bones, the growth of the vermin of the Jungle, and the blooming of Nightmares that brought untold horrors from beyond the boundary of the Sun Realm. Aware that Mictlan was doomed unless he and others like him cast away their false titles and became true gods, he commanded the Children of the Sun to send news to other kings and gather at Heart Lake when the rain came, declaring that Ketzelkan was calling them to thwart the Doom, once and for all.^[1]

He the most ferocious ruler of Mictlan, whose call drew the other rulers from all Domains of the Sun Realm to Heart Lake. He arrived at the head of a great army of asuras, the Jungle quaking beneath their steps as Corrupted monsters were slaughtered beneath the scarlet canopy. He ruled the largest Domain of Mictlan and was regarded as the most terrifying among the kings, remaining undaunted even when facing the combined tyrannical Will of the other rulers. Ketzelkan was old enough to remember the world before the Nightmare Spell, and he had been raised in the Temple of the Sun as one of the Divine Children, inheritors of the Sun Realm.^[2]

Ketzelkan shared a long history with the Fallen One, who had tended him and his siblings in the Sun Temple as a servant, raising them before the collapse of the old world. Standing before the rulers of Mictlan, Ketzelkan spoke openly of the death of the gods, the fall of the mortal realms to Corruption, and the encroaching Doom threatening the Divine Realms, declaring that the Sun Realm was merely the first to bloom with the Seeds of Nightmare. He emphasized Mictlan's ancient role as a realm perpetually at war with Corruption, charged with preventing the rebirth of the Sun Killer, and described its legacy of heroes, the proliferation of Awakened after the Nightmare Spell, and the sorcery of creating asuras that allowed its people to fight far stronger foes.^[2]

Despite acknowledging Mictlan's strength, its asura armies, fortresses, and sorceries, Ketzelkan warned that none of these would withstand the Doom. He foretold the failure of the asuras, the fall of the fortresses, the shattering of thrones, and the burial of temples beneath the rot of the Jungle. Concluding his address, Ketzelkan asserted that survival was possible only if new gods were born, presenting this as the sole path to defying the encroaching Doom.^[2]

In the Sun Temple, Ketzelkan rejected the Eagle's proposal to seek aid from other Divine Realms and instead revealed that a unique Nightmare Gate and the Seed of a Fifth Trial had appeared in Mictlan, declaring his intent to challenge the Fifth Trial of the Nightmare Spell and ascend to divinity. Despite the Fallen One's grave warning that the Trial would unmake them and turn their own powers against them, Ketzelkan remained confident and proclaimed that he would become a new god to save Mictlan.^[3]

• Ketzelkan was a Supreme who had inherited the lineage of the Sun God and possessed the Fire, and who was most likely the Cursed Tyrant, Condemnation, later slain by the King of Swords during the war.^[4]
• He was the heir of Sun God and the strongest Supreme among the rulers of the Sun Realm.^[1][2][5]

• Tamar's Cohort Second Nightmare