The first several centuries of the common era in the Andes was a time of developing hierarchies and greatly escalating political competition in Andean complex societies. Over the Early Intermediate Period (EIP, ca. AD 1/100 to 600) and into the early Middle Horizon (AD 600 to 1000), social power became increasingly institutionalized. Violence was central to this process. Both successful wars and war-related performances were key fields for the display and negotiation of leadership (Lau 2004, 2013). Both can be understood through the lens of a competitive politics of attraction and cooption: gaining followers, more tightly binding followers to a leader, achieving factional supremacy among rival elites and elite groups, and developing elite reputation and social worth. These early Andean complex societies were worlds of “wealth-in-people”: fundamentally, people and their labor were the most valuable ingredients to success, and their lack placed the most significant constraints on expansionist projects and ambitions.