Nahualtin

The nahualtin, or jaguar priests were skinchangers who had been a significant part of the Aztec empire since the time of the Triple Alliance's inception.

Overview

Initially formed after Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina sacked a great temple to Huitzilopochtli, these rare ascetic shapechangers are both feared in the empire for their ability to ferret out secrets and revered for their role in bringing lifegiving rains.

The life of a jaguar priest was a harrowing one, leaving a nahualli gaunt and scarred from fasting and self-mutilation. Even their schooling was brutal, with punishment more frequently taking the form of summary execution, rather than pain. In sharp contrast with the Aztec fixation on a high standard of cleanliness, jaguar priests' long hair remained unwashed of the blood that came to mat it from their many bloodlettings.

Relation With the Supernatural

Due to their association with bloodletting and sacrifice, Kindred unsurprisingly swarmed to their ranks. The jaguar priests were largely content to ignore the matter, despite the implicit disrespect of sacrifices being used for a non-religious purpose, up until the nahualtin at large became aware that nearly the entirety of the priesthood of Xocotitlan had become blood-bound.

Fall

When Cortés and his conquistadores arrived, neighboring rulers warned Motecuhzoma II of ill tidings; when the nahualtin failed to corroborate the omens, the furious emperor instituted a purge, sending the survivors into hiding. There, they would remain until their last-ditch effort at eliminating the Spaniards during the Night of Sorrows, during which they drove off the invaders, only to fall to the newly-formed Spanish-Tlaxcalan alliance, who laid siege to the capital. Scattered and broken, the nahualtin, like the rest of Aztec society, crumbled. Natives became mere labor on enormous Spanish estates.