[5] Born on the Mixtec Calendar date from which he got his name, Eight Deer was the son of the high priest of Tilantongo Lord Five Alligator Sun Rain.

Two of his brothers, Twelve Earthquake Bloody Jaguar and Nine Flower Copal Ball with Arrow, were his faithful war companions.

[6] The codices also tell of his several marriages which seem to have been part of a political strategy to achieve dominance by marrying into different Mixtec royal lineages.

His reputation as a great ruler has given him a legendary status among the Mixtecs; some aspects of his life story as told in the pictographic codices seem to merge with myth.

The narrative, as it is currently understood, is a tragic story of a man who achieves greatness but falls victim to his own hunger for power.