☉ Xibalba • Mayan Underworld Map

Descent into Xibalba

Play as Hunahpu and Xbalanque as they descend into "Xibalba", a reimagined set of trials based on the legend of the Hero Twins. (As interpreted from Popol Vuh.) Each Trial mimics one of the tricks or games used against the Hero Twins as they try to reach the Lords of Death, whom challenged them to a ballgame. Each Trial must be succeeded in order to proceed, therefore you must survive every stage in order to reach the end.

Trials of the Descent
Begin at the crossroads above, then follow the glowing path deeper into the Houses of Xibalba. Once it is unlocked, click a trial to reveal its story and proceed on your journey.
Legend: This is an interpretive game, inspired by the Popol Vuh.
Choose a trial on the left

Xibalba Awaits

Select a trial to reveal either the Twins' demise or how they learned to outwit death itself.

Mythic Description

Xibalba (“Place of Fright”) is ruled by One Death and Seven Death, along with ten other lords who preside over sickness, fear, and bodily decay. In the Popol Vuh, both the father and uncles of the Hero Twins and the Twins themselves are summoned here to face a series of deceptive tests.

Lords Present
Interpretive Lens: This visualization treats Xibalba as a psychological landscape as much as an afterlife. Each “house” dramatizes a different kind of fear — darkness, cold, predatory animals, the sharpness of blades — that must be confronted and re-framed before the Twins can be reborn.
Built as a creative project on Mayan mythology. Mythic content is adapted from the K’iche’ Maya Popol Vuh and modern scholarly summaries; the layout and emphasis are interpretive rather than canonical.
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Sound of Xibalba
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