Sacrifices and gods
As mentioned previously, part of the appeal of this world is the ubiquity of the sacred and the presence of the gods everywhere.
Something I feel is inherent for all gods and religion is the necessity of a sacrifice. The sacrifice doesn't have be a dead animal for the gods, mind. This could be a donation, a sculpture, a candle. I think this lends an edge of authentic spirituality to fictional religions. Otherwise they generally (in my experience reading published adventures) seem less like real religions and more like a caricature of an american preacher, or sort of like a Marvel's Avenger's fan club for high fantasy settings.
Of course, to bring up sacrifice in the context of pre-colonial mesoamerica calls to mind all the human sacrifices. Colonial sources suggest huge numbers of victims - and while the details of these accounts are disputed, archaeology does prove that ritual human sacrifice was widely practiced.
This is a bit of an issue for me designing this setting. I can see players being very uncomfortable with the idea of capturing people with the purpose of ritual murder being a normal expectation, not just for sickos who want to play evil PCs.
I'll read some other mesoamerican TTRPGs and see how they handle it. If anyone has any recommendations, I'd be happy to hear them. I will be starting with Koko Tona by Chupalabra and Macuahuitl by The Basic Expert.
With that in mind, here are some gods that may be found in my setting, and some details about them. This is not even close to a full list, and these descriptions are not finished at all.
Eventually they will all have sacrifices required to consort with them, but I will save that for another day.
The Seven Servants of Death
One Death, Two Death, etc.
They wander the lands from dusk until dawn, looking for corpses until their service is over.
Boon: The servant will bless an obsidian blade with death power. Obsidian blades of death can permanently kill a spirit, including gods. Blades blessed by the servants can paralyze, and deal extra damage according to the strength of the death’s servant’s blessing, and permanently drain the health of the wielder equally.
If this drains the health to 0, the wielder attains immortality, and replaces the servant of death that initially blessed him. The original servant of death is then sent to glorious rest in the highest underworld.
The seven servants are not equal in power. One Death is the weakest, and Seven Death is the Strongest. Their blessings of blades are stronger and weaker accordingly.
Grandfather Fog
Grandfather Fog lives on the 3 highest peaks of the setting. He exists in all 3 places at once. He is forgetful, cheerful, and can't take anything seriously at all.
Making the right sacrifice to him on one of the mountains can instantly transport you to one of the other mountains.
Making a special sacrifice, the details of which are mostly forgotten, will grant you the power to cause short term amnesia in others.
The Five Corn Gods
White Corn, Yellow Corn, Red Corn, Black Corn, and Blue Corn are fierce warrior kings and brothers to each other. They sit on thrones in separate cities. Their relationships with each other and other gods are dynamic.
Offering: A Pozole stew. White and yellow prefer green salsa. Red and Black prefer red salsa. White and Red prefer it mild. Yellow and black prefer it spicy. Blue likes it with hallucinogen mushrooms.
Boon: An individual may ask for a bean. Eating this bean causes bean shoots to sprout from dirt within sight to grapple a target, form a bridge or ladder, or restrain a group of people. If the Pozole is cooked just right (according to the corn god’s preference) he may give you two beans.
The Four Storms
The four storm goddesses blow in the four cardinal directions: North Storm, South Storm, East Storm, West Storm
Make the right offering, and pledge your service to a storm goddess and you will be blessed with the ability to blow strong winds or call on lightning, and change the weather.
The Flower-horned king
The flower-horned king is the most important god to the barbarians that inhabit the desert outlands. His domain is the flower realm. It can be accessed by eating the flower of the grandmother cactus at sunrise, by submerging in the biannual flooding of the arroyos, or at the invitation of his horned emissaries.
Pledging to his service enhances your luck in hunting, or allows you to curse others with bad luck in hunting.
Moon
The Moon Goddess keeps watch every night from the sky, except for once a month where she is absent from the night sky. On that night, she emerges from the well in the moon courtyard in the capital city of the serpent empire. From there she is free to roam where she will until daybreak, when her blood must be spilled on the moon pyramid to be restored to the night sky.
Boon: Her gaze sees through all deceptions. Her servants can see through magical disguises and see the true spiritual form of a being, including if it has any divine obligations, debts, or magical items.
Killing a hare draws her ire - they are the only animals on the moon that keep her company