What Is Aztlan?

When most Americans and Europeans use the word "Aztec" they are referring to the predominant group of indigenous people that occupied central Mexico in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. Well it turns out this is actually an unusual misnomer. The group commonly referred to as the Aztecs was actually comprised of three different tribes: the Mexica (who occupied Tenochtitlan), the Acolhuas (who occupied Texcoco) and the Tepanecs (who occupied Tlacopan). Often times this is referred to as the "Triple Alliance". The main unifying factor between all of the ethnic groups of the time and area, both inside and outside of the Triple Alliance, were that they all spoke the Nahuatl language.

Nahuatl legends say that 7 tribes (Mexica, Xochimilca, Tlahuica, Acolhua, Tlaxcalan, Tepaneca, and Chalca) all originated in a location far to the north of the Mexican plateau in which the bulk of Aztec civilization existed on. This was Aztlan. Some describe it as a paradise, and others as a series of eternally dark caves. But the point of the story is that those 7 groups all ended up in central Mexico after emmigrating from Aztlan. The problem is that modern historians don't really know for sure what it was like, or where it was, or if it was even a real place or not. There simply aren't enough surviving/consistent records from that period in time to corroborate the legends of Aztlan. What we do know for sure is that the word "Aztec" is actually a Nahuatl word for "People from Aztlan". So it's not entirely incorrect to refer to members of those 7 groups as Aztecs, but it all fairness it is not what they called themselves.

It would be fun to incorporate Aztlan into the game in some form because of its legendary and ambiguous nature. From a creative standpoint, it's an opportunity to mix the Aztec aesthetic into something completely different, since know one knows WHERE this place was. It could be against an ocean, in the desert, on top of mountains, deep under ground, in the frozen norths, etc. It really could be anything.