Outline of the Plot.

Seven Macaw ("Vucub-Caquix" in the Mayan tongue) was born at the beginning of the Third Age. He belonged to a lost race of beings called the Wooden People, who inhabited the Earth before modern humans. He was one of the first shamans of that age, and he gained the ability to shapeshift into a bird and perform other feats of magic. Using these arts, he created magical ornaments that he wore on his face, which gave him godlike power, the light of the Sun and Moon, and immortality. He used his powers to aid his people, and became a benefactor to all the world.

The Wooden People began to think for themselves, and they departed from the ways of the old gods. And the gods grew angry, for they wanted praise, obedience and sacrifice.  So the storm-god Hurucan, Heart-of-Sky, the great Creator and Destroyer of All, decided to slay them all in a great flood. But he could not do so while Seven Macaw protected the world. So Hurucan sent the Hero Twins -- two great hunters and wily tricksters -- to destroy Seven Macaw. Through his fatal flaw of pride, Seven Macaw was defeated.  Stripped of his power and immortality, Seven was sent down the dark road to the Underworld, Xibalba.

And so Hurucan's genocide succeeded. The Wooden People were brutally slaughtered and wiped out in the flood, their souls cursed to remain forever in Xibalba. In the Popol Vuh, the few who managed to remain on Earth were turned into howler monkeys. In my version of the story, they've been turned into inanimate objects like store mannequins and crash test dummies, reduced to total nonentiity.

Seven Macaw himself has spent the last 5,125 years in Xibalba, gradually rising through the levels and regaining his transcendence. Finally, he was able to oust Vucub Came, the second-ranking Lord of Xibalba and take his place (probably at the same time that someone on Earth mixed up the names "Vucub Came" and "Vucub Caquix", and the name got changed in the manuscripts.)

But as this Long Count comes to an end, Seven Macaw has an even more ambitious plan.

At the December Solstice of 2012, as the Earth aligns with the galactic core and the road to Xibalba opens in the sky, Seven intends to bring the souls of his people back to the world of the living -- to resurrect the People of Wood.