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[[File:Signo_Ollin.svg|200px|thumb|right|The Nenonotzaliztli symbol denotes those who uphold the covenant with Lord Fire. In the modern day it is used to represent Tlecoyanism and its adherents.]]
[[File:Movement_Codex_Borgia.svg|200px|thumb|right|The Nenonotzalitlacoani symbol of the pact breaker is used to denote sinners as well as heathens. In modern Tlecoyanism it symbolizes the [[Sarpetic religions]] such as [[Aletheic Church|Nazarism]] and {{wp|Catholic church|Fabrianism}}.]]
'''Tlecoyanism''', also known as the '''Sacred Covenant''' ({{wp|Nahuatl}}: ''Teotlacemitoliztli''), is a {{wp|Henotheism|henotheistic}} religion based on the teachings of the {{wp|nahuatl|nahuatl-speaking}} prophet [[Tletlacatli]] who lived in ancient [[Zacapican]]. The faith emerged along with its founding prophet in the second millennium BCE some time after the settlement the of the migratory {{wp|Nahua people}} on the [[Zacapican#Geography|Zacaco plain]], making it one of the oldest surviving religions in the world. It served as the state religion for the ancient and medieval [[Zacapican#Old_Empire|Zacapitec empires]] and was spread across southern [[Ajax#Oxidentale|Oxidentale]] by Nahua armies and colonists as they expanded from their homeland in the Zacaco. Through the long history of the region, conversion to Tlecoyanism has often gone hand in hand with the process of assimilation to Nahua culture undertaken by many native peoples of southern Oxidentale over the thousands of years of Nahua rule there. Tlecoyanist ideas were also spread along maritime trade routes to [[Ajax#Malaio|Malaio]] and the Ozeros countries beginning in the 15th century. In modern-day Zacapican, the state is {{wp|Secular state|secular}} and divorced from the Tlecoyanist clergy and its religious affairs. However, Tlecoyanism remains by far the most widespread religion in southern Oxidentale and is deeply engrained within Zacapitec culture and one of the world's major international faiths.
 
In Tlecoyanist mythology, a benevolent {{wp|Fire worship|fire god}} known as the Flame (''Cuezatzin'') or more commonly as Lord Fire (''Xiuhtotecuiyo''), a god who belongs to a broader pantheon of primordial gods and mythical figures which Tlecoyanists recognize but do not worship, is believed to have secretly gifted blessed fire ('' Tlateochihualtletl'') to a race of animalistic proto-humans who lived in caves and had white pupils and rough scaly skin. This imbued them with fiery souls and caused their skin to become soft and their eyes to darken which allowed them to leave the caves in which they lived. However, the other primordial gods discovered Lord Fire's violation of the natural order and attempted to destroy him and return humanity to its soulless, animalistic form. A dying Lord Fire spoke to wanderer named Tletlacatli, who became his messenger to the humans who had begun to build the first civilization amidst the wild lands. Tletlacatli told the humans that Lord Fire could no longer sustain the fire within their souls which kept them from death or devolution, and taught them to command fire of their own to sustain themselves and save the first civilization. In carrying the word of Lord Fire and saving the tribes of man Tletlacatli became the first Fire-Bringer (''Tlecoyani''), a {{wp|Messianism|messianic figure}} serving as prophet of fire and savior of humanity. Out of gratitude for Lord Fire, the tribes of man struck an eternal pact with Lord Fire to keep the god alive through sacrifice and ritual in exchange for his continued protection and patronage of mankind. The Tlecoyanist scriptures and sacred codices (''Teoamoxtli'') are taken as the word of the Tlecoyani relaying knowledge of the divine, detailing the creation of the universe, the pantheon of gods and sprits including Lord Fire and his enemies, as well as the requests and wishes of Lord Fire for humanity which serve as the outline for Tlecoyanist practice and belief.
 
==History==
 
==Beliefs==
The cosmology and belief system of Tlecoyanism establishes a fundamentally unjust {{wp|Dualism in cosmology|dualistic world}} in which positive constructive forces (''Yecyotl'') are perpetually undermined and worn down by destructive forces of decay or evil (''Poyotl''). It is believed that the creation of the universe broke the neutral balance of the un-existing void and so brought both yecyotl and poyotl into being with yecyotl being initially ascendant. Tlecoyanist {{wp|eschatology}} therefore predicts that the universe will end with poyotl eventually reducing yecyotl back down to nothing, destroying everything that exists and in so doing also eliminating the destructive forces themselves in a return to the neutral void. The deities, demigods and spirits of the diverse Tlecoyanist pantheon are in general neither purely positive nor entirely negative and act according to both yecyotl and poyotl at different times. This is illustrated by the dual supreme being of the pantheon, Lord Sun (''Tonatiuhtecuhtli'') the ruler of the day and Lady Moon (''Metztlicihuatl'') the ruler of the night who represent the force of yecyotl and poyotl respectively and who were once part of a neutral whole called Teotlachihualli, which is translated as "original creation" or "the first child". The splitting of Teotlachihualli into Tonatiuhtecuhtli and Metztlicihuatl is the event which created the universe, which some modern Tlecoyanists associate with the scientific theory of the {{wp|big bang}}.
 
As positive and negative energies proliferated in the new universe after its creation, the primordial world took shape and with it the first generation of deities took shape. These were for the most part cruel and unforgiving deities representing uncontrolled forces of nature which often clashed against one another. The course of this primeval turmoil is what determined the formation of wild animals and plants and the innate essence of the untamed natural world. A race of proto-humans (''Inayatlacatli'') emerged as part of this world, and were not created by any particular deity but were instead shaped by the competing natural forces of the primordial gods and were no different than any wild animal. The Inayatlacatli are said to have had blackened skin covered in scales and rough patches, protruding snouts, long tails and eyes with white pupils which could not bear to look at the daytime sky. They lived inside caves and ventured out at night to forage, moving mostly on all fours. The Inayatlacatli were just as intelligent as later humans, and could use implements and devise tricks but were possessed of such savagery that they could think only of survival and did not produce art or try to improve their tools or transform their surroundings as humans do. Despite this, they were the most clever of the savage creatures on the surface of the world which caused Lord Fire, the most creative of the primordial gods, to take an interest in them and later develop an affinity for the Inayatlacatli. This caused the primordial fire god to become saddened by the daily suffering of the proto-humans within the savagery of the beastly world.
 
In his grief, the Lord Fire gave the Inayatlacatli a portion of his immortal essence which is referred to as the Tlateochihualtletl or blessed flame which came to reside within the hearts of the Inayatlacatli as a form of {{wp|soul}} which none of the other animals of the wild world possessed.  Lord Fire's gift transformed the Inayatlacatli into ''Tlacatl'', humans, as the fire within them burned away their scales and the hair of their bodies leaving a smooth skin behind, reducing their tails and snouts to nothing and causing their all-white eyes to turn dark at the center which finally allowed them to leave the caves during the day as they could now withstand the light of the sun. The elevated souls of these first humans would rejoin with the greater essence of Lord Fire upon death, thus allowing the humans to enter the divine realm rather than remaining within the mundane. When Lord Fire's deeds were discovered by the other gods, they were furious. Divinity among the beasts, the violation of the natural order and most of all the entry of the first human souls to the divine realm were deep insults in their view. As a result, the gods of the primordial world attempted to destroy what humanity had become only for Lord Fire to intervene and protect the humans from harm. Instead, the other deities attacked Lord Fire from all sides, tearing off parts of his being and scattering them across the world forming terrible wildfires, and throwing his blood across the sky to form the stars and the {{wp|Milky Way|Milky Way galaxy}}. Most terrible of all, the other deities were able to reduce Lord Fire's immortality and the fire-god began to perish.
 
It was in this moment that Lord Fire's voice reached a human of the tribes of man named Tletlacatli, and told him about creation, the other gods and what had happened to him, in an attempt to prepare the humans to survive the onslaught of the natural gods. Lord Fire also gave to Tletlacatli his final gift to humans. As the deity was dying, he could no longer sustain the Tlateochihualtletl within humans and if these went out, the humans would revert to their beastly form. Therefore Lord Fire gave to the humans him ultimate power, mastery over fire, by teaching Tletlacatli to make fire himself and bid him to teach the other humans as well. This would allow the humans to warm and enkindle their own souls without the strength of Lord Fire. The tribes of humanity, stricken with grief and a deep gratitude for what the god had done, were compelled by Tletlacatli's words to devote themselves to saving Lord Fire from death by presenting sacrifices of their own. Animal and human sacrifice, as well as other forms of ritual sacrifice, within braziers (''Apantlecaxitl'') containing the wild natural fire which was part of the scattered body of Lord Fire. These sacrifices nurtured the god turned mortal, filling him with the borrowed vitality offered by his human worshippers. It was so that the Sacred Covenant was struck, as the humans vowed to repay the gift of soul and Lord Fire's sacrifice for the humans through sacrifice of their own to sustain the god, providing Lord Fire a form of immortality to replace that which was destroyed by the anger of the other gods. For his deeds, Tletlacatli was named ''Tlecoyani'', Fire-Bringer, a messenger of the fire god and a prophet of the faith of humans. Tlecoyanists believe all humans entered into this pact with Lord Fire, and that many tribes quickly grew complacent with their duties to keep the god alive and save themselves from annihilation and barbarism inflicted by the other gods. The role of the Tlecoyanis, Tletlacatli and his successors through the ages, has therefore been to remind humans of their covenant. Tletlacatli, who modern academics believe to be a mostly mythical figure, is credited as the founder of the Tlecoyanist temple and faith and the first head of this temple. The next Tlecoyani would not come for many centuries afterward, as Lord Fire only musters the strength to speak to a chosen human when his faithful need correcting in their ways, and so most heads of the temple were not Tlecoyani but merely devout and non-prophetic humans charged by their predecessors and by Lord Fire to uphold the human covenant with the fire god. These heads of the temple are called ''Tlatocateopixqui'', and are the paramount leaders of the Tlecoyanist faith.
==Practices==
 
==Denominations==
 
[[Category:Zacapican]]
[[Category:Ajax]]

Latest revision as of 18:07, 25 March 2023

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