Alliance

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Alliance (联盟)
Alias(es)	Mexica Alliance; Great City-State Alliance; Mexica Triple Alliance
Affiliation	Mexica royal house, High Priest Council, Alliance city-states
Status	Active
Core / Capital	Lake Texcoco and the Lake Capital; the sacred three cities are Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan 5
Ruler	Divine King Avet 1584
First Appearance	Chapter 5: Empire

Background / History

The Alliance began as a union centered on the three sacred cities around Lake Texcoco. Under its original arrangement, the rulers of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan jointly held sovereignty, though actual standing depended on each city-state's military strength. Tenochtitlan increasingly became the political center, with its throne ultimately standing alone in the royal palace. 5 118

Before its major reforms, the Alliance functioned as a loose confederation of autonomous city-states and noble fiefs. Its royal house led the state, but local great nobles retained troops, taxation rights, judicial influence, and extensive control over their own territories. 105 118

Its only described crushing defeat came in the war against Tarasco, where at least three legions were routed and casualties reached the tens of thousands. The ensuing peace remained stable for a time, while the Alliance continued to project enough potential military strength to deter its neighbors. 5

The Alliance later absorbed or bound neighboring powers through warfare, tribute, enfeoffment, and oaths. The Otomi entered an unequal brotherhood alliance under Mexica leadership, while the Huastec served as tributary dependents. 5 173 193

Under Avet, the Alliance shifted from a city-state confederation toward a centralized divine kingdom. Its campaigns destroyed the Tlaxcalan and Mixtec alliances, and Avet planned to complete the unification of the Zapotec lands before replacing the remaining enfeoffment order with commanderies and counties. 791 1613 1665

Political Structure

Royal Authority

Institution / Group	Role
Divine King	Supreme ruler and head of the political core; Avet personally directs wars, enfeoffments, and centralizing reforms. 118 1584
Five-person council	The king, the “Female Serpent” commander-in-chief, and four council ministers decide important military and political affairs. 118
Alliance council	A wider body of nobles with military and administrative authority, organized by rank, region, and personal connections. 118
High Priest Council	The senior priestly body. Its High Priest holds two lots and each of three Deputy High Priests holds one; three favorable lots are required for major decisions. 554
Alliance Secret Guard	Royal internal intelligence network that monitors great nobles and operates through agents publicly attached to local states. 456

Social Balance

The Alliance’s ruling order rested on the royal house, great nobles, priests, lesser nobles, and warriors. Commoners supplied tribute, labor, goods, and wartime militia but possessed no political voice. 104

Group	Estimated influence within the Alliance
Great nobles	40%
Priests	22%
Royal house and government	18%
Minor nobles	10%
Princes	5%
Commoners	5%

Approximate distribution calculated for an Alliance population of three million. 105

Centralization

Avet weakened the great nobles by demanding City-State Warriors, levying tribute from fiefs, interfering in succession, reducing and transferring fiefs, and separating local power bases. 710 791

Military enfeoffment became a major instrument of reform. Newly promoted glorious nobles could receive fiefs whose administration remained in the hands of the Alliance center, establishing a precedent for central control over noble territories. 1584

Military

Forces

The Alliance’s strength rests on a warrior culture that prizes military merit, divine war, and personal valor. Commoner warriors can rise into the nobility through achievement, while ineffective lesser nobles may lose status and land. 20 104 162

Force	Documented strength / composition
Direct royal warriors	More than 50,000 warriors in total 988
Standing Warrior Legions	Six legions of 8,000; includes a Bronze Armor Battle Group and a Longbow Battle Group 988
Noble Battle Group	More than 2,000 Jaguar and Eagle Warriors from glorious families 988
Shorn Guard	4,000 elite warriors drawn from city-states and surrendered soldiers 988
Temple Legion	4,000 elite Elder Guards and Temple Guards, with God of War Priests participating in command 988
Great nobles’ City-State Warriors	About 50,000 at maximum if the nobles could unite fully 791

For the campaign against Tlaxcala, the Alliance planned to mobilize 100,000 warriors, supported by at least an equal number of militia for logistics and rear-area duties. 440

Military Merit and Enfeoffment

• Warrior advancement — Seasoned commoner warriors can become Level 1 Military Merit Nobles and gain land, though advancement requires combat ability, luck, and background. 20
• Titles for service — Military merit can bring land, hereditary rank, and elevation into the ruling class. 108 1612
• Glorious nobles — The highest tier of the Alliance’s noble pyramid; glorious nobles may participate in the Alliance Political Council. 1584
• Reward policy — Avet rewards loyal officers and first attackers with promotions and fiefs to bind the army to the royal center. 1584 1665

Armaments

• Bronze heavy armor and bronze great axes are controlled military materials, produced in the capital’s Artisan Camp and Copper City’s Military Industry Department. 579
• The Alliance strictly regulates grain, cloth, military supplies, and the export of war-readiness materials. 424 741
• Its bronze armor, axes, bows, and crossbows are renowned among neighboring peoples and can be exchanged abroad for strategic resources. 1143
• The Alliance develops new weapons and production methods, including longbows, gunpowder weapons, and organized armor manufacture. 129 151 1341

Priesthood and State Religion

The priesthood is both a religious institution and a core mechanism of administration. Priests manage calendars and astronomy, perform rituals, promote confession, enforce religious law, administer communities, and accompany armies as military clergy. 277

Priestly influence reaches villages, warriors, and nobles across the Alliance. Ascetic priests can move freely between communities, cultivate contacts in every social stratum, and serve as a crucial intelligence and control network for the Great Temple. 91

The Alliance’s official religion gradually moved from a pluralistic tradition toward worship of the sole supreme Main God, Huitzilopochtli. State rituals, revised myths, printed texts, and the Alliance’s developing doctrine all support a shared political and religious identity. 446 447 1616

Writing and Doctrine

• The Alliance developed a writing system combining “Divine Revelation” Chinese characters with phonetic Mexica Kana. 446
• The High Priest Council preserves secret books, population registers, tribute data, farmland figures, and military information. 446 448 449
• Its official mythic epic traces a shared lineage from the Rubber People through Olmec, Teotihuacan, Toltec, and Tepanec civilizations to the Alliance. 446
• Written law, unified writing, standardized weights and measures, and the spread of priestly knowledge are central to its reform program. 94 118

Economy and Administration

The Alliance is founded on farming and war. It maintains strict control over strategic materials and depends on grain, cloth, tribute, labor, craftsmen, militia, and military production to sustain continual campaigns. 424 118

The Alliance’s documented population reaches roughly four million people, providing a deep reserve of manpower and resources for its military system. 449

Administrative level	Responsibilities
Central officials	Taxation, construction, reclamation, mining, salt production, training, equipment, patrols, diplomacy, intimidation, campaigns, and logistics. 118
Local officials	Administration of regional affairs, especially beyond the Lake Texcoco core where local autonomy remains strong. 118
Clan officials	Grassroots management of villages and settlements alongside priests and warriors. 118
Priests	Community management, religious law, calendars, rites, moral authority, and military spiritual support. 277

The royal government’s reforms include commercial law, price controls, regulation of strategic materials and luxury goods, heavy taxes, restrictions on Divine Smoke, and the standardization of weights and measures. 118

External Relations

• Otomi Alliance — Entered a three-level oath covering the two alliances, Otopan and the Holy City, and Xolotl and Giova personally. The Otomi became the junior partner and supplied troops in return for aid and grain. 173
• Huastec tribes — Long-standing tributary dependents who provide grain, leather, and feathers; their Maya origin and distinct faith leave them poorly accepted among the Alliance’s upper ranks. 5 449
• Tarasco Kingdom — A major western rival that inflicted the Alliance’s only crushing defeat before later being overcome in the Western Expedition. 5 212 281
• Tlaxcalan Four-State Alliance — A long-standing eastern enemy targeted by a massive Alliance mobilization and later subjected to conquest. 440 559
• Lake Kingdom — A closely tied western fief ruled by Xolotl. The Alliance supplied it with continuing material and political support, while also seeking its cannon-casting and shipbuilding expertise. 424 463
• Mixtec and Zapotec peoples — The Alliance destroyed the Mixtec Alliance through a three-year southern campaign and prepared further conquest and reorganization of Zapotec lands. 1613 1665

Notable Policies

• Military merit over birth — Outstanding warriors, merchants, and craftsmen may receive land or titles for valuable service. 108 264 1608
• Priestly oversight — Arbitration Priests can mediate noble disputes and intervene even in the family affairs of great nobles. 710
• Noble relocation — Great and lesser nobles are transferred to newly conquered territories to break local power blocs and facilitate assimilation. 791 1612
• State-managed fiefs — The royal center may manage the fiefs of newly promoted nobles while preserving a share of their income. 1584
• Unified identity — Shared doctrine, writing, ritual, and Main God worship are used to integrate conquered peoples into the Alliance’s political order. 446 1613

Relationships

• Avet — Divine King and principal architect of the Alliance’s centralization, military expansion, and noble reforms. 791 1584
• Xolotl — Royal prince, priestly leader, and commander whose Lake Kingdom serves as a powerful western partner of the Alliance. 463 791
• Gilim — Cihuacoatl, Chief Minister, royal adviser, and joint overseer of the Alliance Pochteca and Secret Guard. 463 456
• High Priest Council — Senior religious authority that shares control over major Alliance decisions and religious law. 554 949
• Great nobles — Traditional local power holders whose military, fiscal, judicial, and hereditary privileges are progressively curtailed by Avet’s reforms. 791 1584
• Otomi People — Junior allies and military partners bound through blood oaths and a formal brotherhood pact. 172 173