Aztec tradition holds that the world has already been created and destroyed four times before the present age. The First Sun, Nahui-Ocelotl (Four Jaguar), was ruled by the smoking-mirror god Tezcatlipoca; it ended when jaguars descended and devoured the giants who were its people. The Second Sun, Nahui-Ehecatl (Four Wind), belonged to Quetzalcoatl and ended in hurricanes that swept humanity away, its survivors transformed into monkeys. The Third Sun, Nahui-Quiahuitl (Four Rain), was ruled by the rain god Tlaloc and ended in a rain of fire, its people becoming turkeys and other birds. The Fourth Sun, Nahui-Atl (Four Water), belonged to the water goddess Chalchiuhtlicue and ended in a great flood that turned its people into fish.
The present, Fifth Sun, Nahui-Ollin (Four Movement), began when the gods gathered in darkness at Teotihuacan to choose who would sacrifice themselves in a great fire to become the new sun. The wealthy, proud god Tecuciztecatl volunteered but hesitated at the fire's edge four times; the poor, disease-scarred god Nanahuatzin leapt in without pause and rose as the sun. Ashamed, Tecuciztecatl leapt after him and became the moon, dimmed when the other gods threw a rabbit at his face for his hesitation. Neither sun nor moon would move until the assembled gods sacrificed themselves too, giving their own blood to set the sun in motion, a debt the Mexica held fell to human beings to keep repaying.