From what I have gathered. Ocelot and jaguar are different types of cat species. The latter being much bigger, more powerful, and famous.
However, in the official Aztec Nahuatl language, ōcēlōtl actually means jaguar warrior.
The English naming system kind of messed it up a bit. Not sure if I want to nitpick here or not, but I think the unit should have been called Ocelotl where you just an extra “l” at the end.
Adding a “warrior” tag to it just seems redundant. It makes the unit more authentic, exotic, and Nahuatl’d. Or if they want to stick with the English naming system then just call them “Jaguar Warrior” to be accurate.
Ocelotl means jaguar, not jaguar warrior. Warrior is “cuāuhtli”.
Jaguar warrior in Nahuatl would be written using Latin letters like this: “ocēlōtl cuāuhtli”
Regarding the correct name: Those who conquered the Aztecs, the Spanish, described these warriors as “Guerreros Jaguar” and that’s the Nahuatl translation for this order of warriors. The English translation of this name, was “Jaguar warrior”, so not ocelot warrior as you says.
TRUE
It has to be “Ocelotl” with a L at the end…
Unless they are deliberately referring to the “ocelot” to show that this is an “earlier and inferior” version of the jaguar warriors of the future… since we are supposedly in the past, even before the founding of Tenochtitlan and the jaguar order itself, since the campaign will take place right after the destruction of the mythical city of Aztlan (mythological period).
But if not, well… It has to be “Ocelotl” with a L at the end…
Regarding that, it’s important to understand that for the Nahuatl people, the jaguar and the ocelot were “THE SAME SPECIES”, so they used the same terminology for both. That is, in fact, the reason why one of the variations of Tezcatlipoca, “Tezcatlipoca-Tepeyollotl,” has more of an ocelot-like appearance than a jaguar’s; and yet, the jaguar warriors’ costumes were designed more to represent jaguars. For them, some were smaller jaguars and others, larger jaguars.
The same is true of the armadillo: The Aztecs believed it was a subspecies of rabbit, one with armor. At that time, genetics was unknown, and many zoological perspectives differed from those of today.
Europe was no better: In the middle ages, there was a theory that brant geese (a bird) born from barnacle geese (a mollusk) trees. It was only a few hundred years ago that it was discovered that birds migrated near the North Pole to lay their eggs, but before that, it was believed that barnacle trees existed.
+1 on adding the L to the end, but I think they just didn’t want 2 units with ‘Jaguar’ in the name.
This way, Ocelotl refers to these guys and Jaguar refers to the riders.
It’s a problem they made for themselves, of course, but I like the opportunity to use more of the nahuatl language. Especially given that in AoE 2 and 3 the Aztecs, infamously, don’t speak it.
If I understood this correctly, jaguar warriors and ocelot warrors are two different units in this game.
IDK how much sense that makes, but regardless, that’s what I understood.
