Storybook Plan

If you've read my other brainstorming posts, you know that I've already done a lot of thinking about this project. As of now, here is a tentative outline of my Storybook:

1. Introduction - I'm going to take the end of the Shadow of the Tomb Raider game that I mentioned in my last post and kind of take some artistic license to connect the two stories. Let's say that in trying to save the world from apocalypse and messing with Mayan artifacts, Lara angered Quetzalcoatl. As the god of wind and air, he is creating devastating storms across the nation that are affecting people through the destruction they cause. The Intro then is Lara deciding she needs to go to Mexico.
2. Xolotl - Lara is in Cancun (just because of geographical positioning for the rest of the story, I couldn't find a geographic location where Xolotl is tied to like with Ixchel and Quetzalcoatl), and is told to talk to a man mysteriously known as "The Joker" (I'm still deciding on which translation of that I'll use in Spanish, pending my boyfriend responding to my WhatsApp messages), who will turn out to be the trickster Xolotl, wearing the form of a man (he's a shapeshifter remember?). There will be some trickery and riddles involved, because it's Xolotl, and Lara will find out at the end that she needs Ixchel's blessing (I'm going to take artistic license here and say that she needs Ixchel's blessing to be able to commune with a god without dying, since Ixchel is known as the protector of young women) before heading to Chichen Itza for the artifact that she needs to summon Quetzalcoatl.
3. Ixchel - Lara goes to Cozumel to find Ixchel and again must listen to her story before accepting her blessing. 
4. Cave of the Jaguar God - Lara travels to Chichen Itza, where, to quote my last brainstorming post, she "must swim through the cenotes under the city (cenotes being underwater caves) and tunnels to get to the Cave of the Jaguar God, where she recovers the artifact she needs." The literature on the jaguar gods of the Mayan culture are a little eclectic, just because there are various jaguar gods associated with the culture, but I could bring some of those stories into my project through either murals on the walls of the cave or other artifacts that teach Lara a little about them. This section I think will be a little shorter than the others, because it isn't centered around an actual deity or specific myth.
5. Quetzalcoatl - Lara goes to the Temple of Kukulkan and summons Quetzalcoatl, who again wants Lara to listen to his story. Seems like in my universe the gods just want someone to listen to them. Whatever Lara has to do to make the storms stop, I don't know exactly yet, but I could leave an open-ended conclusion that could give me space to write another story someday (i.e. she has to recover some new artifact for the god, etc.).

Theme: What is the theme in this entire story? Maybe it is compassion, though I don't know if the gods need much of that. But that could be the theme, too, that we assume important, mythical figures don't need compassion or understanding, but all these gods need is for someone to listen. The theme is also potentially the importance of remembering these ancient traditions and stories in the modern day. The number of people who speak Maya on the Yucatan Peninsula numbers between 700,000 and 1,200,000, and most of those people speak Spanish as a second language. There are more Maya speakers in other parts of Central America. Clearly this is an identity that still exists in many ways. As such, it is important to remember these traditions, because so many people today are still connected to them in one way or another, and like I've said in an earlier post, most of the Western world focuses on different regions when it comes to mythology (i.e. Greek, Nordic, etc.). Those are two main themes that I think run through this whole saga.

Style: I think I will write this story in first person POV because typically these myths focus on a third-person perspective of the Gods, and it seems impersonal. I'll have to take some liberties, because in most of the games and movies of the Tomb Raider franchise we don't get a super deep look at Lara's psyche, but I would like to focus on the human experience of these gods and their stories. It'll be a general narrative kind of style, like what we would read in a novel.

Ixchel in her human form (Source: Charlotte Henley Babb)

Bibliography:

• Wikipedia, and the sources linked to the articles, will obviously be important sources
• Legendary Ladies, Ann Chen, 2018.
• Maya Civilization: A Captivating Guide to Maya History and Maya Mythology (Mayan Civilization, Aztecs and Incas Book 1), Captivating History, Kindle Version, 2017. 
• Maya Mythology: Captivating Maya Myths of Gods, Goddesses and Legendary Creatures, Matt Clayton, Kindle Version, 2018.
• Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs, Camilla Townsend, Kindle Version, 2019.