Mythology & Religion Power Ranking TOP100
I wrote a book ranking the most powerful gods, monsters, and heroes from world mythologies, religions, and legends in order of strength! Of course, the rankings reflect a fair amount of my personal opinion, but the reasoning behind each placement is grounded in the actual lore and episodes from each mythology, so I think it makes for a fairly convincing read.
In this series, I’d like to introduce some of the characters featured in the book’s ranking. There are plenty of other characters beyond the ones covered here, so I think anyone interested in mythology, religion, or legends will find it an enjoyable read!
Rank 16: Quetzalcoatl (Aztec Mythology)
Overview
Quetzalcoatl is one of the supreme deities in Aztec mythology, governing diverse domains including wind, knowledge, creation, and agriculture. His name means “Feathered Serpent” in ancient Nahuatl, and he is depicted as a great winged serpent.
In mythology, he is one of the first four gods born from the primordial deity Ometecuhtli (or Tonacatecuhtli), and he shares a rival relationship with Tezcatlipoca — another of the four.
In Aztec mythology, the sun’s world has gone through five eras up to the present day. In the First Sun era, Quetzalcoatl and the other three primordial gods created the world using the body of the monster Cipactli.
During the First Sun era, Tezcatlipoca was the ruling deity of the world, but Quetzalcoatl knocked Tezcatlipoca from the sky in an attempt to supplant him.
In the Second Sun era, Quetzalcoatl ruled as the chief deity over the world, but after Tezcatlipoca transformed all humans into monkeys, Quetzalcoatl unleashed a furious storm and destroyed the world.
There is also the episode in which Tezcatlipoca tricked Quetzalcoatl into drinking alcohol and becoming intoxicated. Ashamed of his behavior, Quetzalcoatl set himself on fire and became the Morning Star — in other words, he died.
However, it is also said that he will one day return, which is why Quetzalcoatl is considered a representative deity of Aztec mythology’s cycle of creation and destruction.
Ranking Reason
Quetzalcoatl is one of the most powerful gods in Aztec mythology — a tradition already known for its grand cosmic scale.
He defeated the enormous monster Cipactli — a beast of world-creating proportions — and possesses the power to casually destroy worlds he no longer finds satisfactory. This places him in a completely different league from ordinary destroyer deities.
Furthermore, as suggested by the episode of his death and return, “death in any meaningful true sense” almost certainly does not apply to him.
Considering both his raw power and his fundamentally transcendent divine nature — in which the concept of death itself essentially does not exist — I judged this ranking position to be appropriate.
