Tlacaelel

The Eagle Vizier

Tlacaelel was the great statesman and high priest behind the rise of the Aztec Empire, chief adviser to a succession of Mexica rulers. Though he declined the throne himself, he reshaped the state, elevating Huitzilopochtli, reforming the laws, and famously ordering the burning of the old painted histories to rewrite the Mexica past. His doctrines of sacred war and sacrifice defined the empire's destiny.