These people were members of the hereditary nobility and occupied positions in the government as ambassadors and ministers, the army and the priesthood.
"[2] As the Aztecs began settling what would later become their homelands, an elite emerged (the Pipiltin) that claimed descent from the Toltecs, the former empire of Central Mexico.
The new hereditary elite unified the clans that had been the center of Aztec life and paved the way for a conquest empire.
Some sources describe the Pipiltin as the offspring of tlahtohqueh and teteuctin, which were different social classes within the ruling nobility.
The authority and prestige of the Pipiltin were based on the belief that they descended from the original migrant founders of the Aztecs and came from a mythical place.