Who Were the Aztecs?

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I just read "The Aztecs: Lost Civilizations" by Frances Berdan, and because I'm functionally incapable of absorbing new history without thinking about its implications for TTRPGs, I'm going to tell you all about it!

For those who want a little more depth without going too deeply into academia scholarship-level works, I found Berdan's work to be an accessible overview of pre-Columbian Aztec civilization. I definitely recommend it if you want more depth than this blog post, but less depth than a deep dive on JSTOR. It's a really good starting point.

The book covers a lot: social, political, cultural, impacts of colonialism, and modern-day descendants of the Aztecs. But I'm going to focus on just a few of these elements that I think feel most relevant to people seeking non-Western inspirations for a fantasy setting, in keeping with the blog's themes.

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Heads up: this is going to be a shorter blog post than average. As I mentioned on my Twitter and Mastodon accounts, I've been traveling for the past several weeks, so I'm trying to catch up on the blog and also finish off the Guide to Goblins writing... so I've got a lot of writing plates spinning.

Political

The political system of the Aztecs is a sort of confederated city-state system, which is easily adaptable to a fantasy setting. Three of these city-states ruled supreme over the rest of their empire, with one (Tenochtitlan, modern Mexico City) ruling even above the other two members of the Triple Alliance. Vassal city-states paid tribute in goods to the imperial center but were mostly allowed to retain their own rulers after being conquered. The territory was not wholly contiguous--there were isolated city-states that did not have land that was connected to Tenochtitlan.

The political class was a hereditary nobility--a lot like a European feudal aristocracy--but with one important distinction: legitimacy came from a connection to the bloodlines of the previously dominant empire in the region. Even the Aztecs, before they had founded their regional empire, solidified their claim to being a legitimate dynasty for their city-state by marrying into the dynasty of the Toltecs.

We often use Western feudalism as our primary source for high fantasy. Yet this model of governance is a rich alternative backing. You get all the same political intrigue--if not more--that you can get from an Anglo-French feudal structure. Nobles of one city-state still have an independent power base, like in feudalism, and maybe even with more autonomy given that they are more tributaries than direct vassals. The shared sense of dynastic legitimacy provides an excuse for the whole "fallen empire" or "points of light" campaign setting tropes that were baked into the setting of D&D 4e and are still fairly relevant to the wandering monsters style of play common to a lot of traditional RPGs (like D&D or Pathfinder).

Markets

Berdan dedicates a chapter to the market economy of the Aztecs, and it would fit pretty easily into the "head into town and go shopping" routine of a lot of TTRPG parties. Markets varied in frequency depending on how populous the city-state was. Tenochtitlan would have a daily market, while less major cities might be weekly or monthly.

The market was highly organized, almost like a modern supermarket, with different categories of merchandise available in different sections of the market. There would be a textile section and a food section, for example. Guards would patrol to prevent theft, haggling was common, and prices would often reduce over the course of the day (particularly for produce) as sellers would have to carry anything that they did not sell away before nightfall. It is easy to imagine a "magic item" section in a high-magic D&D setting without breaking immersion.

Barter was the most common mode of exchange, but if one party had nothing that the other wanted, there were two alternative currencies. Large, intricately woven blankets were for major transactions, while cacao beans (chocolate) were used for smaller ones. Cacao did not grow near Tenochtitlan, making it something that needed to be imported, giving it its value, and which would not last forever (avoiding inflation); while the blankets required time and skill to create. Cacao particularly would fluctuate in value seasonally, with it having less purchasing power during harvest months.

This could be a natural way to resolve the problem of dragon hoards breaking local economies by flooding a market with gold. A cacao horde would have simply rotted away--though this does mean a new reason for fighting dragons would need to be invented.

Religion and Human Sacrifice

This is the trickiest one, at least for D&D. Despite most polytheistic religions--like what is standard in D&D--being very transactional, D&D does not really model this well. I talked about some of the implications of this when I talked about "evil gods" and heresy a few months ago. Aztec religion had many gods, and sacrifice was just one element to have the gods help you. Most sacrifices were not of humans: it was animal sacrifices or burning food. Giving the gods something would result in them giving you something: rain, good fortune, safety, or success in warfare.

But D&D doesn't model transactional religion very well. Not even warlocks, who are themed around transactional magic, actually need to do transactions, which completely robs sacrifice of its motivation. A system that wants to more honestly depict an Aztec-inspired culture needs to have a transactional system of magic. Destroy a valuable, get a spell slot. Kill a sacrifice, get something more powerful.

Maztica

Let's look at these three elements in relation to the Forgotten Realms (D&D 5e's standard setting), which has an Aztec-themed supplement back from D&D 2e that people have adapted for 5e called Maztica. We'll see how it stacks up. I'm mostly using the Forgotten Realms fan wiki for this.

Political

Maztica, the region, has a major empire called Nexal, which is definitely the stand-in for the Aztec Empire. "The city-state of Nexal was a grand city located on an island in the center of the lakes in the Valley of Nexal," which is a clear parallel to Tenochtitlan. There's even a Triple Alliance of city-states helming the empire.

But the Nexal Empire seems mostly one of domination, not tributary status. There's less mention of local city-state autonomy, or of local nobles being left in place to rule after conquest. You lose a lot of the complexity and possibility for political intrigue.

Markets

According to the Forgotten Realms wiki, "Nexalan merchants were known to travel... far... to trade. They placed more emphasis on aesthetics than substance in art, with things tending to be gaudy and ostentatious." While the Aztecs were known for impressive, distant trade routes, the idea that they were focused on aesthetics over function is a colossal misrepresentation.

The Aztecs were not a wasteful people. Berdan spends a lot of effort talking about this. Their art is flashy, yes, with bird feathers featured prominently. But the things most prized in Aztec art also were practical: adorned-yet-functional shields and weapons, decorative calendar stones that were also essential elements of religion and time-keeping, and colorful textiles that were high-quality and practical clothing.

The dismissal of these trades as gaudy and ostentatious in Maztica's representation is bad and something I hope that future authors will correct. Aztec art is an important part of what we have preserved, and something that modern Mexica (Aztec) people still practice in traditional forms. To write those off is a pretty egregious misrepresentation.

Religion

"The Nexalans regularly practiced human sacrifice, holding Feathered Wars when captives were scarce. They sacrificed the most to Zaltec," but also respected other gods.

Yeah, this sounds fairly accurate. But it's also the part of Aztec culture that is most commonly depicted in media about the Aztecs. Human sacrifice, wars to take captives for sacrifice, and polytheism are the flashy parts of Aztec society that everyone knows.

Conclusion

Aztec society offers the opportunity for distinctly non-European influences in our TTRPGs, without losing out on concepts like "nobility" for political intrigue or wide markets with organized shops. We too often make caricatures of Aztec society when we do see them adapted, boiling a complex society down just to human sacrifice. If you're interested in learning more about Aztecs beyond that caricature, I definitely recommend you pick up Berdan's book.