The Beginning of The End

Ten years before the Spaniards even set foot on Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs witnessed eight bad omens that were thought to have symbolized incoming calamity. Disturbed by these omens, they began sacrificing at a much higher rate to circumvent disaster.

Montezuma requested the magicians of outlying villages be brought to Tenochtitlan to interpret the omens and bring him comfort. Unfortunately for Montezuma, they had nothing to foretell. Even more unfortunate for the magicians, they were locked in prison and made to rot until Montezuma could get information. After a visit to the prison by his steward, Montezuma would only become more distraught as the seers informed him that he was to "suffer a great mystery." He never got the chance to question them on the meaning of this riddle, for when his steward returned, the magicians had mysteriously escaped without any of the guards noticing. As a result, Montezuma had their wives and children slaughtered, and there villages torn down.

Montezuma wouldn't have very long to ponder this great mystery he was to suffer, as it wasn't many days later when a common man strangely approached the palace telling of mountains floating on the waves of the sea. In disbelief, Montezuma sent the man to prison with orders to ensure his captive didn't escape while he conducted an investigation. He sent his grand emissary along with his ambassador to Cuetlaxtlan to ordere the official in charge to conduct an investigation on these mountains in the waves. A short while later, they returned that the information was in fact true. They also noted that the mountains contained strange people with very light skin, long beards, and short hair. Montezuma, disturbed before, was slowly becoming mortified, as there was only one explanation that could tie the omens and the strangeness of recent events together: Quetzalcoatl had returned to Mexico as prophesied. He immediately demanded the messenger be brought from the prison back to his presence, however news was received that the man was not found in his cell.

With a pretty misguided understanding, Montezuma immediately set out to make preparations to meet their returning deity. He ordered craftsman to create a chains of gold with medallions filled with emeralds between the links, as well as gold bracelets with chains of gold hanging from them for both the wrists and ankles. He then ordered them to create two large fans with a large half-moon of gold on the center of one side, and a sun on the other alongside pairs of gold armlets with feathers.

He had scouts set up along the coastlines of Nahuatl, Tuztlan, and Mictlancuauhtla with instructions to inform him once Quetzalcoatl had been spotted again.

In reality, Montezuma mistook the arrival of the Spanish for their long awaited deity, which would play as one of the biggest factors in his death.