Mictlantecuhtli

A skeleton splattered with blood, he presides over a windowless kingdom where the only sound is the rattling of his own dry bones. Why do we travel for four years through nine levels of hell just to present a gift to a king who has no use for it? He is the Lord of Mictlan, the one who waits at the end of the long, arduous journey of the soul to offer a final, eternal rest in the dust. He is the patron of the night and the north, the deity who proves that even the greatest warriors and kings end up as a meal for the earth. His wife, Mictecacihuatl, watches with him as the "flesh-less" souls arrive, reminding them that their names have already been forgotten by the living. He is the silence that follows the scream.