Religion is an everyday, integral part of each Azteca's life.  Their acceptance of gods as a reality is so ingrained that every household, no matter how poor, has some sort of shrine in it and most families will spend more on decorating that shrine than they will on food or enhancing their living conditions.

In fact, there is not separation of church and state in Azteca society.  The normal civil leaders of the city-states commonly double as temple priests and regularly take place in the grand ceremonies and sacrifices for the gods.

The Azteca offer human blood to the gods because nothing else is so precious.  The warriors, nobles, commoners, and even slaves that give their lives on the altar often do so voluntarily because they know their sacrifice is going to bring a greater good to the community they leave behind.

In fact, death by sacrifice is the second-best death an Aztec can hope for (the first is death in battle).  Those dying in this way are assured of one of the upper levels in the multi-tiered layers of the Azteca afterlife.

Understanding this mindset is difficult for those raised in the Western world.  It seems alien to us and wrong in every way.  However, it should be remembered that Azteca culture on earth had no ties to ours.  It was completely alien.  But it worked.

In the Spirit Warrior Empire, sacrifice holds the same significance that it did on earth.  However, the presence of the gods is now even more real than before.  The gods make regular demands on their chosen people and send them out to make war upon their enemies.  Sacrifice, therefor, has become even more important than before.

The Huitznahua realized quickly that eliminating the sacrifices from religious proceedings would lessen their hold on the primitives.  So, even though it whittled away at the manpower they prized so highly, they allowed the sacrifices to continue.  However, they have tried to steer the Azteca into more constructive paths.  They announced that the sacrifice of any member of the spacefaring enemy empires would "please the gods" more highly than the sacrifice of one of their own warriors.

They also instituted the convention of the "slave" mech.  A captured warrior of human stock may be made into a slave class mech rather than merely sacrificed on the altar.  To do so, the victim is taken to a vat of holy liquids given to the priests by the gods, immersed completely, and made to breathe the liquids.  The victim does not die.  Priests then dismember the victim, leaving only their trunk and head.  Needless to say, this is an intensely painful process for the victim, but his screams are muffled by the liquids (this is said to be very pleasurable to the god Tlaloc).  Once the dismemberment is complete, the skull and back are split open and the brain and spine removed.  The priests then remove the bodily remains of the victim, but leave the brain and spine floating free in the tank.  The brain and spine are still alive at this time!  The priests then take the tank to the slave-class mech and hook it up to various instruments within.  When the priests have completed this task, they activate the sealing mechanism in the door and it welds into place forever.  The slave is then able to communicate via "long voice" to whoever commands its actions, but its personality and desires are easily overriden by any mech with a command circuit (including all others besides slaves).  The slave cannot move until commanded by another.

It should be noted that the Chichimeca have a very different view of human sacrifice - they don't do it.  This does not mean that they treat their prisoners well, however - rather it means that in general they simply do not take prisoners at all unless they have some need of them, and generally tend to get rid of any that they do encounter in as an expedient a manner as possible once their usefulness is finished.  This "no prisoners" approach has done much to enhance their fearsome reputation among the Azteca.

For those wanting more information about human sacrifice, see the following weblinks

MEXICA SACRIFICE - In Their Own Words
AZTEC SACRIFICE - The Children of Templo Mayor
Sacrifice - Anatomic Reference Information

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