What was the most insane civilization in history? Was it the Aztecs?

The Aztecs were pretty insane.

>When the Aztecs felt their bloodthirsty Killer Goddess needed victims, they said they “longed for death” and sacrificed themselves by becoming warriors and fighting anyone, even at times dividing themselves into two groups to kill each other or even simply committing suicide, in order to “renew” their Killer Mother Goddess and “rebirth” their society.[25] The ritual repeated the horrible traumas they had endured as children, since Aztec children were routinely cut, bled, burned, battered and tortured for their Killer Goddess and told they would soon die, like the children they watched actually sacrificed and eaten by their parents.[26] The innocence of their war victims was essential, since as children they were in fact innocent, even as their mothers regularly pierced their genitals and faces in order to “cleanse the world.” All enemies are chosen because they are innocent and helpless, like children, which is why most people who are killed in wars are civilians."

Aztecfag here. Whats the passage from?

>they said they “longed for death” and sacrificed themselves by becoming warriors and fighting anyone, even at times dividing themselves into two groups to kill each other or even simply committing suicide, in order to “renew” their Killer Mother Goddess and “rebirth” their society.

Never heard this before. Suicide is rarely mentioned in the historical chronicles of the aztec world, and this kind of infighting isn't described anywhere else.

>All enemies are chosen because they are innocent and helpless, like children, which is why most people who are killed in wars are civilians.

I'm almost positive that this isnt true. Extended sieges were relatively uncommon in the aztec world, so battles were either fought on the field where civilians arent present or in a city itself where the civilians would probably evacuate. Sacking cities also wasnt as common as you might think, and they were also almost never razed, although there are a few examples. Conquered areas became tributaries, so maintaining the status quo of those regions was vital (i.e. not murdering or sacrificing huge numbers of civilians).

Every single time large scale sacrificial events are mentioned, the victims are always overwhelmingly enemy prisoners of war captured in flower wars or more commonly in actual battle.

This passage is really odd. Not sure where the author is coming from, or why they're trying to suggest that brutality and religious fundementalism were the primary themes of the Aztec world when things were far more complicated than that.

>Aztecfag here. Whats the passage from?

Burr Cartwright Brundage, The Fifth Sun: Aztec Gods, Aztec World. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979

I'm an Azteceaboo but yes, Nahua religion is pretty fucking batshit, there's no denying that

>Creator goddess having a severed neck with two snakes made of out blood spurting out instead of a head, necklace made of human hearts and hands, and clawed hands and feet
>skeleton war goddess with butterfly wings made of of obisdian knives and claws
>Xipe Totec's flayed one shit and his ceremoney where war prisoners were forced to battle against fully armed soliders when they were given toys, and then their skins were given to people to wear like halloween costumes as they went around the city asking for gifts of food and offerings
>Having a fetish goddess that was represented doing scat stuff
>Cosmic skeleton star rattle snake dicked futa demonesses that would end reality if the gods didn't have sacrifices to energize themselves to fend them off

Aztec religion was some shit

Is A War Of Witches: A Journey Into The Underworld Of The Contemporary Aztec good?

American.

America is a schizophrenic psychopath, no one comes close to America.

Never heard of it so I can't say.

It is by Thimothy Knab. My father bought it but won't let me read it because I was young back then. I guess I'll give it a try.

It's a fictional novel.

Friendly reminder: Aztecs did not simply believe man was at the top of the food chain. They were one of the few cultures who pondered about the beigns that everyday have to give their lives so other can live. They considered that every living being, whether plant or vegetal, could feel and had the same right to live. Hence the would treat other men, and themselves, in the same way they treated other living beings.

I lift my voice in wailing, I am afflicted, as I remember that we must leave the beautiful flowers,
the noble songs; let us enjoy ourselves for a while, let us sing, for we must depart forever,
we are to be destroyed in our dwelling place.

Is it indeed known to our friends how it pains and angers me that never again can they be born,
never again be young on this earth?

Yet a little while with them here, then nevermore shall I be with them, nevermore enjoy them,
nevermore know them.

Where shall my soul dwell? Where is my home?
Where shall be my house? I am miserable on earth.

We take, we unwind the jewels, the blue flowers are woven over the yellow ones,
that we may give them to the children.

Let my soul be draped in various flowers; let it be intoxicated by them,
for soon must I weeping go before the face of our mother.

This only do I ask : — Thou Giver of Life, be not angry, be not severe on earth,
let us live with thee on earth, take us to the Heavens.

But what can I speak truly here of the Giver of Life ? We only dream, we are plunged in sleep;
I speak here on earth; but never can we speak in worthy terms here.

Although it may be jewels and precious ointments (of speech), yet of the Giver of Life,
one can never here speak in worthy terms.

What was it that your mind perhaps was finding?
Where was your heart?
That is why you give your heart to every thing;
without direction you take it; you go about destroying your heart.
On the earth, can you go in search of something? Can it be lived on the Earth?
Not for always on earth: just a little here.
Even though it be jade it breaks,
even though it be gold it breaks,
even though it be quetzal feathering it rips,
not for always on earth: just a little here. Do we speak something truthful here, Giver of life?
We only dream, we only get up from the dream.
It is only like a dream...
Nobody speaks the truth here... Are the men truth?
For so our chant is not truth anymore.
What is by luck standing?
What is to come out well? Do we really speak here, Giver of life...?
Even if emeralds, if fine ointments,
we give to the Giver of Life,
if with collars you are invoked, with the strength of the eagle,
of the tiger,
it could be that nobody says the truth on the earth. Ayocuan and Cuetzpal speak like this,
that truly know the Giver of Life...
I hear his word there, certainly his,
the rattle bird answers to the Giver of Life.
Go chanting, offer flowers, offer flowers.
Like emeralds and quetzal feathers, are his words raining.
Over there maybe the Giver of Life satisfies himself?
Is this the only truthful thing on the earth? We only come to sleep,
we only come to dream,
every each spring of the grass, that is how our making is,
it is not true, it is not true that we came to live on the earth,
it comes and sprouts, it comes and our heart opens corollas,
our body gives out some flowers, it wilts!

>Cosmic skeleton star rattle snake dicked futa demonesses that would end reality if the gods didn't have sacrifices to energize themselves to fend them off

This shit sounds so cool.

>Cosmic skeleton star rattle snake dicked futa demonesses that would end reality if the gods didn't have sacrifices to energize themselves to fend them off

Doujin name?

I've always considered the Mongols pretty insane, a strange mix of utter barbarism and depravity combined with a style of thinking and ethics very advanced for their time.

The Mongols...
>Were brutal nomads that spent their entire lives on the back of a horse
>Sacked entire sities that refused to surrender to them
>Burned Baghdad to the ground, including the largest library on the world at the time
>Littered the entire road from China to Mongolia with heads on spikes
>Raped so many women during their campaigns, genetic studies show 1% of the ENTIRE POPULATION OF EURASIA descends from Genghis Khan himself
>Estimates of the deaths caused by Genghis Khan range from 20 to 46 million. At the highest estimate, Genghis Khan would be the most murderous ruler EVER in history

Yet, at the same time the Mongols...
>Created the largest contiguous Empire in history, with the longest road network
>Promoted a strict meritocracy among their ranks
>Had complete freedom of religion
>Had total disregard for titles of nobility from the Khan below
>The Mongol trade routes were considered so safe, it was said an elderly woman could carry a bag of gold from one point to the other and nothing would happen to her
>Had strict tax breaks for teachers
>Genghis Khan was an accomplished poet

They were a unique mix of barbarism and progress which I find fascinating. The true Alpha Male civilization.

fucking commie

>ctrl+f
>no Hittites

The Assyrians

>vegetal
*animal

Wasn't Saladin based in Egypt?

Assyrians are way up there, and a lot of pre-Incan Andean civilizations were pretty freaky too. I remember reading that one of the kingdoms down there would rip the jaw off of their sacrifices, so that their screams wouldn't stop and could be heard by the gods. Assyrians skinned whole towns alive just to assert authority, and were known for their executions that deliberately drew out their victims' suffering. It doesn't sound so bad until you discover that about a quarter of their surviving documents are just super detailed descriptions of that, it's like they loved doing it.

And he was Kurdish iirc

Yes, and in civ 6 his captial is Cairo as a result.

Republican Rome, by all accounts, should have been destroyed with the shit it dealt with.

They were legitimate madmen, I love the astonishment the ancient authors provide us when the hellenistic kingdoms couldn't figure out why Rome was so chock-full of soldiers, the brutality of the legionaries on the macedonian troops causing a panic, and the frustration of Hannibal barca after killing over 100,000 roman troops.

Yet despite all this, they made the greatest empire in history.

These romans are crazy