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The Maya believed that their gods were appeased by the spilling of human blood, so numerous rituals were developed that ranged from bloodletting by individuals to human sacrifice conducted on an industrial scale. Central to the Maya blood rituals was the warrior class, who were largely responsible for procuring victims to be sacrificed high on pyramid-temples across the Maya lands. The Maya warriors were extremely effective in their tasks because they were driven by a strong set of religious beliefs, followed a strict code, and were extremely fit due to their training and diet.

[[File: Distribution-myn.png|300px|thumbnail|left|Map Showing the Distribution of Maya Culture in Green]]

The people who spoke variations of the Maya language and were therefore considered to be part of the Maya culture, inhabited what are now the modern nation-states of southern Mexico, Guatamala, Honduras, and Belieze from about 1500 BC until AD 1600 with the highpoint being from about AD 250 until 925. <ref> Coe, Michael D. <i>The Maya.</i> 7th ed. (London: Thames and Hudson, 2005), p. 10</ref> Although the Maya were the most sophisticated culture in their particular geographic region, they were just one of many advanced cultures in the region of Central America – referred to by scholars as “Mesoamerica” – before the arrival of Europeans in the sixteenth century. Before the Maya were dominant in Mesoamerica, the Olmecs developed a complex society and after the Maya influence waned, the Aztecs became the most powerful group in the region. Contemporary with the Maya was the Toltec culture, which was clustered around cities in what would today be central Mexico.

Unlike the later Aztecs, the Maya were never able to unify their entire culture under one government. Maya culture was essentially a collection of city-states – Tikal, Chichen Itza, and Bonampak were three of the most prominent Maya cities – that waged war on each other incessantly for the acquisition of resources. Among the most prized of all resources were human captives, who were used in elaborate human sacrifice rituals meant to appease the many Maya deities. No individual was safe from being a human sacrifice victim either, as demonstrated by the King of Copán, who was captured by a rival king and sacrificed in AD 738. <ref> Webster, p. 90</ref> It was the religious beliefs that led to the institutionalization of human sacrifice in Maya society and also provided the core value system for the Maya warriors.

The Maya religion was very similar to many pre-modern cultures’ spiritual systems in that it was polytheistic and ritually based. The Maya pantheon had up to 166 deities with a few of the most important being the following: Itzamnaaj, the creator and god of writing and science; Kukulkan, who was the god of the nobles; and Hun Ixim, the maize/corn god. <ref> Coe, p. 214-17</ref> One of the most common attributes among the Maya deities was a desire for human blood. Maya blood rituals took many forms – from the blood-letting that the nobles performed on themselves to the more well-known act of human sacrifice. Since the act of human sacrifice played such an important role in Maya society, those who captured the victims were given special status.

One of the Maya warriors’ primary functions was to capture sacrifice victims for their particular city-state. Raids were conducted on opposing city-states and when a successful war-band returned to their city with captives, they were showered with praise and material goods by the nobles. During large religious festivals, where mass human sacrifice was a public spectacle, the warrior elite would lead their captive to the priests to be ritually killed. <ref> Coe, p. 222</ref> The nature of Maya religion clearly gave the warriors incentive to perform because the better one did, the more esteemed he was in the eyes of the nobility. Closely tied to Maya religion was the warrior code, which further propelled the Maya warriors.

[[File: Reliefs_in_Chichén_Itzá.jpg|300px|thumbnail|left|Relief from Chichen Itza Featuring a Skull]]

In order to understand the Maya warrior code, it is helpful to first understand that their military was actually much more complex than most people may realize. Each city-state had its own army, but the structure and hierarchy in each city was fairly similar. At the head of each war band was a chief, known as a <i>nacom</i>, who was elected to a three year term by the other warriors. Most of the warriors were <i>holcans</i>, who were full-time, professionals. <ref> Webster, p. 79</ref> Besides the actual system, and more important than it, were the actual values and beliefs that the average Maya warrior followed.