>>149565348
>But they also created the Flower Wars, in which their religion and human sacrifices became a system to keep control over their neighboring tribes.
I'm under the impression that everybody involved in those shared a culture of human sacrifices, so participating in Flower Wars meant that they could make the captives necessary for their own city-state's rites too. Becoming a captive and a slave might be dishonourable, but being captured and sacrifice still counted as being elevated. Everybody understood the necessity of it and most of them would've cut or pierced themselves to make offerings of their own blood since their childhood.