quetzalcaotl was one of their deities, but to them they weren't aliens, so i'd say this game goes closer to "chariots of the gods" in that they are aliens
chariots of the gods' basic idea is that aliens come to earth, their spaceship with its thrusters/whatever made it seem like a chariot of fire to them, chariot since it was something they rode in, and fire since the thrusters made it seem as though it was pushed by fire
if you look back at ancient religons like greek/egyptian then you may find that they seem to be possible if an alien race (or several) actually did come to earth, ancient stories such as the tower of Babel, people built it high to challange the deity and the deity spread them across the globe, mixed up their language etc. the greek one who rode his chariot to bring up the sun even, it's all possible and the culture shock would have done wonders for people's minds back then
anyways i think in Aio, the case is more of the cuotl ship crashing on earth, therefore leaving them stranded rather than coming and going as they pleased
one thing that i've learnt so far in playing RoL is that for each race, once they've found some footing, BHGames has gotten their ideas from lots of sources rather than just one, but there's usually a main theme going on. so in the case of the cuotl, i'd say chariots of the gods sums up more or less what they are about
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