The Legend of Yaotl

The Legend of Yaotl is a children's book written by Stephen Murphy, illustrated by Patrick Spaziante, and published by Simon & Schuster. The book is loosely based on Yaotl's backstory from the movie TMNT.

The story starts with a gynoid known as Observer Levael-3.14, who resides on Earth's Moon and indicates that she was assigned to watch Earth 8,316 years ago. She serves as the narrator, as she tells the story of the warmongering Yaotl nearly 3,000 years prior to present day.

Levael says that long before the Mayans, Aztecs, and Olmecs were prominent throughout Central America, the area was known as the nation of Paxmec. One day, four South American generals tore through Paxmec, forcefully taking the magics of the peoples and destroying their land. They were under orders from a powerful tyrant named Yaotl.

Eventually, Yaotl and his generals came across the most technologically advanced state of Paxmec, Xalica. Yaotl was aware that a portal would open in Xalica once the Stars of Kikin aligned, and thus, built a Shadow Gate to harness the power. Doing so unleashed thirteen otherworldy creatures which began to attack not only the Xalicans, but Yaotl and his army as well.

Siba-Noor, the most powerful shaman in Xalica's history, returned to her homeland and cursed Yaotl and his generals out of anger. Siba-Noor forced the generals to become living stone, unable to move or die, and cursed Yaotl with a never-ending life of pain.

Levael moves on to present day, indicating that a man named Maximilian Winters has used the Shadow Gate to bring the monsters and generals back into one place. Levael seems certain that four Turtle-like creatures are the ones who will defeat Yaotl.

Notes and Trivia

 * Observer Levael-3.14 and Siba-Noor are exclusive characters to this book, not having been mentioned in the film or any other TMNT works.
 * Other than the cover and advertisements, the Turtles only appear on the final page.
 * The book lists a set of monsters that is almost completely different than what shows up in the movie. Levael gives the list as Bigfoot, Yeti, Lupa, Lethargo, Jersey Devil, Succubor, Spitex, Cixx, Azooli, Pict, Arkadin, Weeb, and Cretaco.