Introducing: The Priest
The Aztec Priests had a special place in Aztec society as the individuals who interfaced directly with the gods through the act of sacrifice. Men became priests after demonstrating great piety in addition to their combat prowess. The raddest part of the Aztec priests were that they continued to do battle and accompanied the warriors in ritual combat.
We will be using priests as our opportunity to experiment with fun magical effects. The idea here is that they have special powers granted to them by the gods. The appearance of a priest means it's time to get tricky as you'll no longer be dealing with simple weapon attacks.
Introducing: The Eagle Warrior
The other legendary warrior society one could enter upon successfully taking 4 captives was based on the mystical and divine eagle. The eagle had a very important place in Aztec society as both a majestic flying creature and as a herald of a new age; the ancient Mexica were told by their patron deities to build Tenochtitlan where they saw an eagle devouring a serpent atop a cactus. Truthfully, we do not know how the Eagle warriors differed functionally from the Jaguar warriors, but we know they were equally prestigious and most likely represented a tactical identity. The Eagle warrior was as glorified as the Jaguars and were just as frightening to behold to the common warrior.
The Eagle warriors will fulfill the same need as the Jaguar warriors do in terms of distinction, but will be slightly different threats. The carry different weapons and will fight a little differently from each other, but they will present a similar challenge and both will be far more rewarding to destroy then common and noble warriors.
Introducing: The Jaguar Warrior
When an Aztec noble warrior stepped his game up and took 4 captives, he was then inducted into one of two very special warrior societies. One of these two societies was based on the fierce and powerful jaguar, a highly revered and respected beast (I'll tell you about the other society real soon). Jaguar warriors were some of the most famous warriors in all of Aztec culture; they are celebrated countless times in art and in story and they maintained an inspiring position on and off the battlefield.
When these guys appear things will start to get serious. We will be using these decorated warriors to indicate stiffer competition, which is a classic trick typically done with palette swaps. The idea here is to be able to look at an enemy (in spite of the aesthetic similarity they all bear) and know what you're up against, which is essentially what the Aztecs did with their warriors as a way to trumpet the caliber of their military might.
Introducing: The Noble
Once a young combatant has taken his first captive and proven himself worthy of the warrior life path, he is inducted into the ranks of the noble class. He now has access to higher education, specialized war training, and will have front line position in the ritualized warfare the Aztecs practiced amongst themselves. It is at this point in the life of a budding career warrior that he will begin to form a battle identity and as his exploits increase, so will his formal decoration.
If this guy looks familiar it's because you've seen him in the concept art and in the technical demos. That's right; this is what you'll look like as you start out in the world of Aztez. Just like the noble warrior creates an identity for himself as he continues to fight, so shall you...I'll tell you how later. 
Introducing: The Common Warrior
After demonstrating his resolve on the battlefield by serving as a porter, the young man was given a weapon and a shield and charged with one singular task; taking an enemy captive. At this point he has had a good amount of formal training and fully understands the importance of his role as a warrior, as is now intensely focused on bringing in that first captive and becoming a man. This is where it all began for the career warrior; if he proved himself here he would formally advance into a life of nobility.
Let's be perfectly honest here; this is about as green as it gets for a man who was allowed to carry a weapon. These were young men with something to prove and this was their undoing as often as it was their success. In the context of the game, they're the perfect meat to grind; unremarkable, plentiful, and vivacious. There is some value in playing with your food and I intend to make that point with these characters. 
Introducing: The Porter
When a young man makes his decision to pursue the path of the warrior, he must first prove that he can keep his wits about him in an actual battle by serving as a porter. The porter was responsible for carrying weapons of war around to wherever they were needed and making sure that the warrior ranks stayed supplied. Mobility was his weapon and the importance of his position was undeniable.
It's hard to say at this point how often you'll see this character during gameplay, but know this; his appearance will mean great things for those swift and brutal enough to get to him before he fulfills his responsibilities and disappears...
Introducing: The Commoner
The common man of Tenochtitlan, while most likely born into the lower class, would still learn to farm, be trained in the ways of good citizenship, and be introduced to warfare at a school built specifically for the lower classes. Around the age of 15, he could either continue his education and learn to be an administrator, civic worker, or even a priest (if they were pious enough), or they could attend military school and begin their life as a warrior.
Most of the time you see this character in the game he will be in the background, making the environments feel alive with their animated presence. But what about the rest of the time? Well sometimes these guys stumble onto a battlefield, and the fact of that matter is that they have as much blood to offer as anyone else...
The Bridge To Tenochtitlan
I am absolutely delighted to share with you a new environment I have created in which to spill copious amounts of blood within. This is a (liberal) recreation of one of Tenochtitlan's many bridges. It was created using a small handful of the structural building blocks I created for the Marketplace, but with mostly brand new assets. I thought it would be really awesome to stage a battle on one of these thin bridges where you get to see the agricultural happenings of the locals as well as an outside view of the city walls. I want to use this environment to create the breathtaking sensation of what it must have been like to approach the legendary city. Use the left and right arrow keys to run and press the up button to jump.
As with the Marketplace, this environment is still very much a work in progress but the basic idea is definitely in place. That's not to say it didn't get some lovin'! Something I put some serious TLC into is the floating gardens, or "chinampas", in the background water. Because of the heavily aquatic nature of Tenochtitlan, floating gardens like this were integral to Aztec farming. I wanted to make sure these crucial objects were represented so I actually went and modeled some of the vegetables you would have seen in a place like this.
We've got pinto bean stalks on the left, corn in the middle, and amaranth on the right. Obviously there were many more things grown by the Aztecs than that, but these three staples provide good variety to the scene since you don't see them up close anyway. And since I'm showing you these and you can clearly see that there isn't actually any detail on a lot of these simpler objects, I'm gonna show you how I get them textured quickly and easily. I'm employing the exact same methodology I showed you in the Conservative Texture Usage post, except I'm using a startlingly simple texture.
The texture file you see in this image is an exact representation of the actual texture being used on these game objects; one half is solid white and one half is solid black. On the simple objects that don't need any textural detail, I just slap this guy on 'em and he pretty much takes care of everything for me. It's great because when I'm modeling I spend NO time meticulously arranging UV's, I just cram the UV's from the main body of the object into the upper half of the UV space and the outter ink object into the lower half. And since they're all using this material in the scene, I can take advantage of Unitys mesh combine functionality and turn a whole array of simple vegetables into one object. It's beautiful and fast and satisfying.
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.
Why All The Sacrifice?
A fundamental belief in Aztec culture was that the sun moved through the sky on a divine engine powered by blood. Many of the gods in their mythos fought and killed each other to keep the sun moving and the Aztec people felt the need to contribute to this by following suit and providing their own blood. This is why human sacrifice was so incredibly important to them; spilling massive amounts of blood on a regular basis was their way of maintaining the benefits derived from the sun. This core belief affected many facets of Aztec life:
- To make a sacrifice was an honor. This is why priests held positions of such power. As the ones doing the sacrificing, they were interfacing directly with the sun.
- To provide a captive that could be sacrificed was an honor. This is why Aztec warfare was so ritualized and important and it's also why warriors held positions of such power. They were providing a significant amount of warm bodies.
- To BE sacrificed was an honor. It's as simple as that. If you cared about yourself, your family, your agricultural society, and the world, you were proud to give your blood to the sun.
This will play out in Aztez with specific mechanics that are in place simply so the player can perform a dynamic sacrifice in the middle of combat. Because of the critical importance of blood in sheer amount, it's not only going to be the currency of the game (money), but a representation of your own vitality (health), and the measurement of success on a per fight basis (score). As you saw in the weapon effects demo, there will be no shortage of blood in the game! The fun and the challenge will be in managing it.
Aztez is being made by Ben Ruiz and Matthew Wegner. Unsurprisingly, they are both incredibly violent.
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