Mayan Vampires?

[trilobite]

I am starting a Skull and Bones game in the near future and one of the main bad guys is a Mayan Vampire. Did the Mayan's even have a creature that was equivalent to a vampire? If so what where there powers? Weaknesses? etc....

thanks

 

[Claude Raines]

The only thing I know about is the Mayan god of the underworld known as Camazotz or simply Zotz. You can get almost no information from these two websites:

http://www.jwaller.co.uk/batgroup/mythology.asp

http://web.raex.com/~obsidian/Mayapan.html

The Popol Vuh probably has the account of this god.

 

[MerakSpielman]

I don't remember any specific Mayan vampires, but I do remember that vamps (or once-living creatures that drink blood to sustain themselves) are almost ubiquitious... you can find references to similar creatures in almost every culture. You can probably steal any of the more unusual vampire stories from Asia or the Americas and it will work just fine.

 

[trilobite]

I don't remember any specific Mayan vampires, but I do remember that vamps (or once-living creatures that drink blood to sustain themselves) are almost ubiquitious... you can find references to similar creatures in almost every culture. You can probably steal any of the more unusual vampire stories from Asia or the Americas and it will work just fine.

Your right. I can come up with what "I" feel that a Mayan vampire would be like and my players wouldn't have any idea if it was authientic or not. It's not like they are experts in mesoamerican mythology or anything.

 

[Savage Wombat]

Don't know about Mayans, but the Aztec goddess Itzpapalotl - aka. Obsidian Butterfly - sounds a lot like a vampire to me. I think there's even a novel exploring the theme.

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

Once again, not Mayan, but the closest ones I can immediately think of are the sukuyan, from Trinidad IIRC, and the Aztec civateteo. Though they're more witches, I believe.

Wait...on second thought, I recall reading a book called The Black Man of Zinacantan (sp.), which was all about Camazotz actually. The creature of the title is the h'ikal, and is from, IIRC, the state of Chiapas in Mexico (which is predominantly of Mayan descent). Can't recall any specific powers, but at least ya know what to look for. As an aside, the Zotzil, the main tribe in Chiapas, are also called the "people of the bat".

Strictly prehistorical, there was a larger species of vampire bat native to the region (and not today's false vampire bat, this was another, Desmodus draculae). Only marginally larger, but still.

EDIT: Itzpapalotl was the ruler of the netherworld known as Tomoanchan (Tamoachan, as in the Hidden Shrine Of?). She seems rather like Camazotz (and may be, as legends of the bat-god survived through to the Aztecs). And the Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan mentions Camazotz. Hmm.

 

[ichabod]

It's been awhile since I studied Mayan mythology, but I seem to remember a legend about some being (or maybe it was the mayans themselves) who survived before the sun was put into the sky by sucking blood from someone's armpits. That always really creeped me out, and might be a good twist for Mayan vampires.

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

The Popol Vuh probably has the account of this god.

Right. Camazotz was one of the four demonic rulers of Xibalba, and it was said that two creator demigods (Hunahpu and someone else) had to play ball with the demons. At one point, Camazotz flew down and with his "nose like a flint knife" decapitated Hunahpu. I seem to recall that the demons kept playing ball with his head. There's also another point where it mentions Camazotz, but I forget in what context. It's been a while since I checked those parts out, so my memory's a bit fuzzy.

I think this was all at the creation of the world, so Ichabod's monster may have been Camazotz.

 

[woodelf]

I don't remember any specific Mayan vampires, but I do remember that vamps (or once-living creatures that drink blood to sustain themselves) are almost ubiquitious... you can find references to similar creatures in almost every culture.

Except sub-Saharan Africa. If you define vampire as "former human who now must drink blood" (whether as their entire diet, or in addition to regular food, and however they got from human status to vampire status), then i haven't found the trope in any African culture whose mythology/folklore i've studied, nor have i found references to vamps in any compilation books done by people with a more in-depth knowledeg of African folklore. The blooddrinkers in African folklore are never former-humans--they're either other beings, or still-human--and the undead aren't blooddrinkers.

Anyway, to answer the question:
i don't know anything about Mayan vampire stories, but the Aztecs certainly talked about them. They're linked with the "decapitator god", whose name i forget. Be forewarned: the following is filtered through an RPG, since i don't have any primary sources on this particular bit and my memory is way too fuzzy. So i have no idea how authentic this is. Should be good enough for your game, however.

Among the Aztecs, they were called the cihuateteo - creatures of chalk white flesh with a craving for blood. According to Aztec legend, the first of these creatures were women who died during childbirth. They were considered both sorceresses and warriors. They were said to be demonic in nature and that they drank theblood of those unfortunate enough to happen upon them. They were said to be organized even then and that they held counsel with one another at certain crossroads. Animals were tied down at these crossroads as sacrifices so that humans would be left alone by the Cihuateteo. Legend even described the deaths of these vampires when they tarried too long and were hit by the rays of teh sun at dawn.
...
Cihuateteo may be warded away by mirrors that have been blessed,...The fresh blood of a virgin child blessed by any religious leader of honest faith causes them insidious debilitating wounds. Religious symbols and other items associated with vampiric vulnerability or warding vampires away do not work on them...