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Tezozomoc Yacateteltetl (also Tezozomoctli, Tezozomoctzin), was a Tepanecatecuhtli ("Lord of the Tepaneca", one of the Nahua groups that settled in central Mexico around the 13th-14th centuries CE after a migration from the north) reputedly born in 1320, and who ruled the altepetl (city-state) of Azcapotzalco from the year 1353 until his death in a year Mahtlactli-Omome Tochtli (Twelve Rabbit, 1426).

Tezozomoc became known as a military and political genius who oversaw an expansion of Tepanec influence, bringing about Azcapotzalco's dominance in the Valley of Mexico and beyond during his lifetime, marking a new era in the post-classic period of Mesoamerica. Tezozomoc was a son of Acolnahuacatzin and Cuetlaxochitzin. The Mexica from Tenochtitlán (a group of Nahua peoples who, years later, would ally with the Tepaneca from Tlacopan and the Acolhua / Culhua from Texcoco forming the In Excan Tlahtoloyan, what we call today the "Aztec Empire") who have settled in the central valley of Mexico years after the Tepaneca from Azcapotzalco, have started to pay tributes to them under Tezozomoc's rule, and the rulers of the Mexica Tenochca sought an alliance with him to guarantee their place in the power which Tezozomoc exercised for decades. From this alliance, the Mexica lend their best warriors to fight for the interests of the Tepanecatecuhtli. Huitzilihuitl, who started to rule as second Tlatoani ("he who speaks", ruler of an altepetl) of Tenochtitlán after Acamapichtli, some time between 1390 - 1403, married Ayauhcihuatl, a daughter of Tezozomoc, what earned the Tenochca Mexica a symbolic reduction in tribute payments.

Tezozomoc reputedly ruled for long years and fathered at least eleven children. Later, early colonial era reports from Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxochitl (a descendant of Ixtlilxochitl, a ruler from Texcoco, tributary to the Tepaneca who rebelled against Tezozomoc and was killed by him) depict him as a tyrant and "the most cruel man who ever lived, proud, warlike and domineering. And he was so old, according to what appears in the histories, and to what elderly princes told me, they carried him about like a child swathed in feathers and soft skins; they always took him out into the sun to warm him up, and at night he slept between two great braziers, and he never withdrew from their glow because he lacked natural heat. He was very temperate in his eating and drinking and for this reason he lived so long".

Tezozomoc had an enmity with Techotlalatzin, the first known Acolhua ruler of Texcoco to adopt Nahua customs and language, and, after the latter's death, he made war against his successor, Ixtlilxochitl, who rebelled against his rule, and, in vain, sought an alliance with Huitzilihuitl of Tenochtitlán, who refused to help him since he was married to a daughter of Tezozomoc. Ixtlilxochitl was defeated by a contingent made of Tepaneca and Mexica warriors, and was assassinated by orders of an elderly Tezozomoc in 1419, usurping the crown of Texcoco and keeping it as a tributary of Tenochtitlán instead of an independent state. Ixtlilxochitl was killed in front of his 15 years old son Acolmiztli, who went into exile, first in Huexotzinco and later in Tenochtitlán, helped by his Mexica aunts, and would change his name to Nezahualcoyotl ("Coyote who fasts").

Tezozomoc reputedly died of old age, and his sons ruled over different towns all across the valley of Mexico. Upon his death in a year 12 Rabbit (1426), his son Tayatzin became ruler, supported by the Mexica, but his half-brother Maxtla, who was set to rule the smaller town of Coyoacán, seized power at Azcapotzalco, leaving the rulership of Coyoacán to his own son Tecollotzin, and starting a war in which Tayatzin and Chimalpopoca, Huitzilihuitl's son and successor, would be killed by Maxtla's forces, prompting the Mexica, then ruled by Itzcoatl, Chimalpopoca's uncle, to side with Texcoco (under Nezahualcoyotl, restored to his throne) and take on Azcapotzalco, killing Maxtla and leaving the city, once the greatest in the valley, mostly destroyed and forced to pay tribute to their new lords. Nezahualcoyotl and Itzcoatl were also joined by Totoquihuaztli, Tepaneca ruler of a smaller altepetl, Tlacopan, who also rebelled against Azcapotzalco.

Tezozomoc left a divisive legacy which by one side paved the way for the lordship which the Mexica would take hold of to become the greatest political power in the region and beyond, in the 15th century, and, by another, a cruel, demanding ruler who enjoyed and exercised so much influence that would drive his own family to fight for his position, dooming the whole social fabric his subjects fought for decades to keep growing. As Nezahualcoyotl, the son of his enemy, who would later become a renowned poet, would say and sing in his youth:

    Filled are the bowels of the earth

    with pestilential dust once flesh and bone,

    once animate bodies of man who sat upon thrones,

    decided cases, presided in council, commanded armies,

    conquered provinces, possessed treasure, destroyed temples,

    exulted in their pride, majesty, fortune, praise and power.

    Vanished are these glories, just as the fearful smoke vanishes

    that belches forth from the infernal fires of Popocatepetl.

    Nothing recalls them but the painted page.

    Do we really live on earth?

    We are not on earth forever,

    we are only here for a little while

    Even if life were jade, it would fall apart,

    Even if life were gold it would wear away,

    Even if life were made of Quetzal feathers,

    It would be torn apart.

    We are not on Earth forever,

    we are only here for a little while

    We are mortal,

    Our mortality defines us.

    We all have to die,

    We all have to go away,

    four by four, all of us.

    Like a painting,

    we gradually fade.

    Like a flower,

    We gradually dry up

    here on earth.

    Like the plumage of the zacuán bird,

    or that of the precious rubber-neck bird,

    we are consumed bit by bit.

    Think on this, oh Lords,

    we all must disappear,

    not a single one of us will remain.

    What shall we sing, my friends?

    In what shall we rejoice?

    There alone our song lives,

    where our ancestors were born.

    On earth, where they lived

    I suffer here on Earth

    Tonacatecuhtli conceals

    Men in a casket and in an ark

    But shall I see them? Shall my eyes see

    The faces of my father and my mother?

    Can they offer me their song,

    their words, which I search for?

    Here is no one,

    they have left us as orphans, here on Earth.

    Oh Tonacatecuhtli, you create

    all those who live on earth out of flowers,

    color them with song,

    you shade them with song.

    Then you destroy the eagle and jaguar warriors.

    We only exist in your picture book

    here on Earth.

    You blot out what is left of the brotherhood,

    the community, the nobility,

    with black ink.

    You shade all who live on earth.

For a black and white sketch of the Cuetzpalin ("lizard" in Nahuatl - in my original story, IXIPTLA, a race of lizardfolks) version of Tezozomoc check this

This artwork has been minted in the Tezos Blockchain

Description
Tezozomoc Yacateteltetl (also Tezozomoctli, Tezozomoctzin), was a Tepanecatecuhtli ("Lord of the Tepaneca", one of the Nahua groups that settled in central Mexico around the 13th-14th centuries CE after a migration from the north) reputedly born in 1320, and who ruled the altepetl (city-state) of Azcapotzalco from the year 1353 until his death in a year Mahtlactli-Omome Tochtli (Twelve Rabbit, 1426).

Tezozomoc became known as a military and political genius who oversaw an expansion of Tepanec influence, bringing about Azcapotzalco's dominance in the Valley of Mexico and beyond during his lifetime, marking a new era in the post-classic period of Mesoamerica. Tezozomoc was a son of Acolnahuacatzin and Cuetlaxochitzin. The Mexica from Tenochtitlán (a group of Nahua peoples who, years later, would ally with the Tepaneca from Tlacopan and the Acolhua / Culhua from Texcoco forming the In Excan Tlahtoloyan, what we call today the "Aztec Empire") who have settled in the central valley of Mexico years after the Tepaneca from Azcapotzalco, have started to pay tributes to them under Tezozomoc's rule, and the rulers of the Mexica Tenochca sought an alliance with him to guarantee their place in the power which Tezozomoc exercised for decades. From this alliance, the Mexica lend their best warriors to fight for the interests of the Tepanecatecuhtli. Huitzilihuitl, who started to rule as second Tlatoani ("he who speaks", ruler of an altepetl) of Tenochtitlán after Acamapichtli, some time between 1390 - 1403, married Ayauhcihuatl, a daughter of Tezozomoc, what earned the Tenochca Mexica a symbolic reduction in tribute payments.

Tezozomoc reputedly ruled for long years and fathered at least eleven children. Later, early colonial era reports from Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxochitl (a descendant of Ixtlilxochitl, a ruler from Texcoco, tributary to the Tepaneca who rebelled against Tezozomoc and was killed by him) depict him as a tyrant and "the most cruel man who ever lived, proud, warlike and domineering. And he was so old, according to what appears in the histories, and to what elderly princes told me, they carried him about like a child swathed in feathers and soft skins; they always took him out into the sun to warm him up, and at night he slept between two great braziers, and he never withdrew from their glow because he lacked natural heat. He was very temperate in his eating and drinking and for this reason he lived so long".

Tezozomoc had an enmity with Techotlalatzin, the first known Acolhua ruler of Texcoco to adopt Nahua customs and language, and, after the latter's death, he made war against his successor, Ixtlilxochitl, who rebelled against his rule, and, in vain, sought an alliance with Huitzilihuitl of Tenochtitlán, who refused to help him since he was married to a daughter of Tezozomoc. Ixtlilxochitl was defeated by a contingent made of Tepaneca and Mexica warriors, and was assassinated by orders of an elderly Tezozomoc in 1419, usurping the crown of Texcoco and keeping it as a tributary of Tenochtitlán instead of an independent state. Ixtlilxochitl was killed in front of his 15 years old son Acolmiztli, who went into exile, first in Huexotzinco and later in Tenochtitlán, helped by his Mexica aunts, and would change his name to Nezahualcoyotl ("Coyote who fasts").

Tezozomoc reputedly died of old age, and his sons ruled over different towns all across the valley of Mexico. Upon his death in a year 12 Rabbit (1426), his son Tayatzin became ruler, supported by the Mexica, but his half-brother Maxtla, who was set to rule the smaller town of Coyoacán, seized power at Azcapotzalco, leaving the rulership of Coyoacán to his own son Tecollotzin, and starting a war in which Tayatzin and Chimalpopoca, Huitzilihuitl's son and successor, would be killed by Maxtla's forces, prompting the Mexica, then ruled by Itzcoatl, Chimalpopoca's uncle, to side with Texcoco (under Nezahualcoyotl, restored to his throne) and take on Azcapotzalco, killing Maxtla and leaving the city, once the greatest in the valley, mostly destroyed and forced to pay tribute to their new lords. Nezahualcoyotl and Itzcoatl were also joined by Totoquihuaztli, Tepaneca ruler of a smaller altepetl, Tlacopan, who also rebelled against Azcapotzalco.

Tezozomoc left a divisive legacy which by one side paved the way for the lordship which the Mexica would take hold of to become the greatest political power in the region and beyond, in the 15th century, and, by another, a cruel, demanding ruler who enjoyed and exercised so much influence that would drive his own family to fight for his position, dooming the whole social fabric his subjects fought for decades to keep growing. As Nezahualcoyotl, the son of his enemy, who would later become a renowned poet, would say and sing in his youth:

    Filled are the bowels of the earth

    with pestilential dust once flesh and bone,

    once animate bodies of man who sat upon thrones,

    decided cases, presided in council, commanded armies,

    conquered provinces, possessed treasure, destroyed temples,

    exulted in their pride, majesty, fortune, praise and power.

    Vanished are these glories, just as the fearful smoke vanishes

    that belches forth from the infernal fires of Popocatepetl.

    Nothing recalls them but the painted page.

    Do we really live on earth?

    We are not on earth forever,

    we are only here for a little while

    Even if life were jade, it would fall apart,

    Even if life were gold it would wear away,

    Even if life were made of Quetzal feathers,

    It would be torn apart.

    We are not on Earth forever,

    we are only here for a little while

    We are mortal,

    Our mortality defines us.

    We all have to die,

    We all have to go away,

    four by four, all of us.

    Like a painting,

    we gradually fade.

    Like a flower,

    We gradually dry up

    here on earth.

    Like the plumage of the zacuán bird,

    or that of the precious rubber-neck bird,

    we are consumed bit by bit.

    Think on this, oh Lords,

    we all must disappear,

    not a single one of us will remain.

    What shall we sing, my friends?

    In what shall we rejoice?

    There alone our song lives,

    where our ancestors were born.

    On earth, where they lived

    I suffer here on Earth

    Tonacatecuhtli conceals

    Men in a casket and in an ark

    But shall I see them? Shall my eyes see

    The faces of my father and my mother?

    Can they offer me their song,

    their words, which I search for?

    Here is no one,

    they have left us as orphans, here on Earth.

    Oh Tonacatecuhtli, you create

    all those who live on earth out of flowers,

    color them with song,

    you shade them with song.

    Then you destroy the eagle and jaguar warriors.

    We only exist in your picture book

    here on Earth.

    You blot out what is left of the brotherhood,

    the community, the nobility,

    with black ink.

    You shade all who live on earth.

For a black and white sketch of the Cuetzpalin ("lizard" in Nahuatl - in my original story, IXIPTLA, a race of lizardfolks) version of Tezozomoc check this

This artwork has been minted in the Tezos Blockchain