Since the Time Before, humanity has sought answers about the mysteries of life on Earth in the stars, and the stars have whispered their secrets back. Those stars taught the people how to navigate treacherous seas and twisting mountains. The stars imparted their wisdom of the seasons, and showed the people when to sow and when to reap. In thanks, the people named the stars, and called them guides and gods. Stars, in those days, were revered, and their aid made life possible. But when the sun sank into shadow, the secret stars that were obscured by its light shone forth to sing their own spells to humanity. However, these hidden stars knew nothing of the secrets of life, and spoke only death. Without the goodness of the sun to protect them, those stars — the Tzitzimimeh — descended to the Earth and snapped up mortal men in their skeletal jaws, devouring them and sending them off to Mictlan, the kingdom of death, to serve the King and Queen of the dead.

The hunger of the Tzitzimimeh for the living, however, is directed only at men. They will not harm children, and actively protect women. Pregnant women, or women with children, receive the most attentive care and fiercest defense of all. Sometimes, according to ancient tales, when women need their help, the Tzitzimimeh will tear the sun from the sky so that they can descend to earth like falling stars and protect their charges.

The stars above instruct and teach… and in this way, they also act as guides. The Tzitzimimeh guide the lost and forlorn dead to their final resting places. Most of those dead souls — like the souls gobbled up by the Tzitzimimeh themselves — are collected and brought safely to Mictlan, so that nothing truly horrific can get to them. Many creatures of the Underworldwill feed upon or enslave a lonesome dead soul, and so the Tzitzimimeh intervene, offering protection to those who might elsewise be consumed.

The nature of a Tzitzimitl can be, for mortal men, a puzzle. For while she protects women and encourages the birth of new life, acting as a defender of the living, she also descends upon Earth to deal out cruel death and agony, and then guides the souls of the departed to a world of unending loss and ruin. But for those who understand these star goddesses (and yes, they are astral deities), the dual nature of a Tzitzimitl fits perfectly into the nature of life and death. After all, there are times when the stars in heaven are ordered and bright, with light that imparts wisdom and order unto the world. But then there are times when the stars wink out and the sun is dragged down from the sky. There are nights when the moon drips with blood, and the anger of the stars booms across the world. Chaos and instability are as natural as death, and are just as rightly feared.

Large or small, horribly desiccated or uncannily compelling, Tzitzimimeh personify the awful beauty of a star. Being ageless, they can appear as any age they desire to be, changing through the span of human years in the blink of an eye. Most often, though, these entities appear as titanic corpses

whose garb suggests (but is not limited to) the classical dress of Mesoamerican women. Always, these entities are female. Men, to them, are lesser beings, unworthy of the glory of a star.

Willpower 9, Rage 8, Gnosis 7, Essence 70

Charms: Armor, Blast, Break Reality, Call for Aid, Cleanse the Blight, Death Fertility, Ease Pain, Healing, Iron Will, Materialize, Open Moon Bridge, Re-form, Soul Reading, Spirit Away, Umbral Storm

Materialized Attributes: Strength 7, Dexterity 6, Stamina 7; use Gnosis for Social and Mental Traits

Abilities: Alertness 3, Athletics 4, Awareness 5, Brawl 5, Cosmology 8, Empathy 4, Etiquette 4, Expression 3, Intimidation 5, Leadership 3, Medicine 4, Melee 4, Occult 5, Stealth 3

Equivalent Arete: 6

Equivalent Spheres: Correspondence 5, Entropy 4, Forces 5, Life 5, Matter 4, Mind 5, Prime 4, Spirit 4, Time 3

Materialized Health Levels: 20

Image: Appearing as corpse-like giantesses cloaked in beautiful regalia of colorfully dyed fabrics and feathers, a Tzitzimitl might manifest as a recently deceased woman, discolored and bloated, or she might carry only shreds of rotting flesh on her bones. Most often, she’ll be entirely skeletal, stripped clean and bleached of any and all signs of having once have lived.

Roleplaying Notes: Once revered, now forgotten, the Tzitzimimeh have little use for people of the modern world except when such people might lead humanity back to the respectful state the people once knew. Many Tzitzimimeh have individual names of their own, and some bless certain individuals with their protection for life; others name a target who has transgressed against women and children for consumption, and they hunt him across the earth until he is found and eaten. The stars provide, and the stars destroy.

Praise the stars. And likewise, fear them.