NationStates Jolt Archive

Tahuantinsuyu- The Incan Empire

SOCIETY (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10003449&postcount=2)

DEFENCE (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10006158&postcount=3)

CHARACTERS (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10014352&postcount=4)

STRUCTURAL SUMMARY (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10047582&postcount=5)

GEOGRAPHY (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10094079&postcount=6)

CURRENT EVENTS (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10110905&postcount=7)

HISTORY

In the early C16th, after the death of the strong ruler Huayna Capac and his designated heir, the Empire suffered terrible civil war as the former Inka's sons -half brothers Atahualpa and Huáscar- fought for control. It is maintained by the modern Empire that Huayna Capac intended Huáscar to be Inka and Atahualpa governor of Quito, but the father died early, one of the first victims of smallpox in the region, leaving the issue unclear.

Atahualpa appeared on the verge of victory in a war of succession that claimed perhaps so many as one hundred thousand lives and hung with the stench of barbaric atrocity committed by both factions, *but he too fell to the pox and his support base became fractured, leading to a victory for Inti Cusi Huallpa Huáscar (Son of Joy).

In 1532, a victorious Huáscar marched towards Cusco with the intention of consolidating his position as Inka, but this was concurrent with the arrival of Pizarro and the Conquistadors. At Cajamarca, Huáscar and his army of between forty and eighty thousand warriors met with the Friar Vicente de Valverde, who attempted without success to convert the Inka to the Christian faith.

For this defiance, Pizarro attacked the plaza at Cajamarca and the Inka was captured, which can be considered thanks to betrayed trust and surprising force of firearms. Afraid of attack by his recently victorious generals, the Spaniards held Huáscar hostage in the city. The native ruler offered to fill three rooms with gold and silver in hope of buying-off the greedy invaders and sending them back to their prince.

An ordinary Emperor might have put his faith in this strategy. But Huáscar was -according to legend- an ugly, cruel, half-mad individual, worse than his defeated bloodthirsty brother who himself took pleasure in impailing those he'd managed to defeat early in the civil war, and dropping rocks on others to break their backs. Huáscar came close to murdering his mother and sister in the past: he certainly had no trouble betraying the Spaniards after they had broken his own good faith!

Since the provision of all the riches promised by the Inka would have taken months, Huáscar could reasonably expect to have been murdered by his captors in the interim, and so the first offerings he ordered brought up with great haste. The Conquistadors were dazzled by the many chests of gold brought to them -not yet knowing that the natives were sufficiently skilled metallurgists to have made an alloy of only 50% gold appear pure- and Huáscar offered several of his guards their own weight in gold -their armour included- and safe passage out of the empire if they hid him in the initial stages of a massive assault conducted by his generals. As these Spaniards were mercenaries by nature, and since Huáscar's army outnumbered all the Spanish in the empire by three-hundred to one, the offer of salvation and wealth was accepted, and Huáscar survived the battle.

All of the Spaniards were killed, some in battle by spears, maces, knives, and slings, others -including those bribed to help Huáscar- immediately afterwards, with their own weapons. The Friar who attempted to convert Huáscar had his eyes gouged out so that he could not read his bible, and was locked away with only that book for company until, neglected, he died- it is not known whether the cause was sickness or starvation. Pizarro's hands and feet were cut off and he was carried mockingly on a litter, used normally for the Inka, and then cast from a clifftop.

The Spanish threat was gone for a long time, though it would return many times in the future. But the Tahuantinsuyu Empire was weakened by a bloody civil war and by the smallpox that eventually killed more than half of its population, as well as by the rule of an extreme and cruel Emperor as Huáscar turned out to be. Still, this is only considered a dark period by one who does not appreciate just how close the Inka came to total defeat...

In the generations to follow, a weakened Tahuantinsuyu survived largely by extreme cruelty following Huáscar's example and by something of a myth of strength resulting from Pizarro's defeat: the Spanish and other Europeans allowed themselves to build up a superstitious fear of the golden men of the mountains, and it was many years before they dared to test the empire's strength again. By this time the people had begun to develop some immunity to European diseases and to recover their population, the empire had become more stable with a strong royal line, and future Sapa Inkas knew not to trust treaties and alliances with the Europeans. Their armies had begun to deploy horses brought by the Spanish, and learned not to place undue fear in gunpowder.

Still, the weight of military technology and mass immigration remained against Tahuantinsuyu, and by the time of industrial revolution in the outside world, the for corners of the empire were neighboured by numerous powerful states, such as Brazil and Argentina. The empire broke down as native sovereignty was trampled under jackboots and machinegun fire, and people began to speak of nations called Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, and others.

Quechua people remained a majority after so long in resistance to the outside, and their language and parts of their religion and culture survived, but they were forced from government, divided by national borders, and largely hidden from sight in the mountains and jungles of what once was their empire.

(*This is the point at which RP history begins to differ from reality, for Atahualpa was in truth the victor. He was then captured and killed, after having ordered Huáscar's murder, and so -rebellions not withstanding- the Inca were broken, having no strong successor remaining. Atahualpa offered the ransom, but was killed. The change is in having his supposedly mad brother take more extreme and bloody action, thus delaying and limiting Spanish influence so that a much more cohesive Incan population survives today.)

(All right, that's what we are! The Inca Empire, as you probably know it, only... not as you know it! There's more history to fill in, of course, but I'm not sure how history after the failed conquest attempt will fit in with other nations here, so I don't see the point of adding more just yet. Hello, this is the aboriginal Andean Empire that never quite died!)

SOCIETY

http://www.nationstates.net/images/flags/uploads/tahuantinsuyu_empire.jpg

The Empire is structured quite carefully. Familes clan together to live and work in Ayllus, which may take the form of remote villages or larger towns. All ordinary citizens have membership in an Ayllu (men wear their hair in distinctive fashion to identify from which Ayllu they hail). A Curaca supervises each Ayllu on behalf of the Emperor, and its land is divided into plots large enough for each family to farm. There are different ranks of Curaca, responsible to one another and to provincial governors in a long and complicated bureaucracy, each with set numbers of officials responsible to him, and each one of a set number of officials responsible to another.

All in the Empire is owned by the state save houses and movable household goods and some private estates in the Inka and Curaca classes.

For the masses, twenty percent of every unremarkable year is given-over to individuals in provision for their own families. It is judged that only sixty-five days are needed for this task to be satisfactorily met each year, and so there is already basic leeway in the order of a full week. The remainder of each year sees citizens bound-over to work for the state. This is accomplished through public works such as the building of bridges and roads, of terraces for farming, of temples; or as the mining of silver and gold, and of more practical ores; or, importantly, as the farming of state-owned land in the Ayllus.

The Ayllu allotments are first the small plots sufficient to support the family to which they are given, and as such it is the duty of each Curaca and his Ayllu to assess the situation every season and to adjust allotments according to the size of families. Second, while each family may spend the mentioned twenty percent of its time tending these allotments, the Empire directs them to spend the remaining eighty percent tending state-owned lands that support the Emperor and his family -the Inka class- and the Ayllu captains -the Curaca class- and the army, calling this service the Mita.

Children work by helping in the home, running errands, and scaring animals away from crops.

Around two thirds of goods produced on the Empire's farms are distributed through the community by the Ayllu, ceremonially sacrificed, or put into government storehouses for use by the army, the nobility, and for international trade. The goods distributed to citizens other than those who actually produced them -food, clothes, and tools- are considered payment from the government to the people for work in their Mita obligations, which themselves are essentially taxes.

The Empire has no prisons, and crime is almost unknown since everyone is provided for, and their is no currency, so theft is as such virtually nil. However, for murder or directing insults against the Sapa Inka or the gods one may be sentenced to death and cast off a cliff, while for sexual crimes such as sleeping with one of the Inka's wives or with a Sun Virgin one may be tied up by his hands and feet -sometimes naked- and left to starve. Other, rare crimes such as civil disobedience or non-lethal violence may be punished by the cutting off of hands or feet or by the gouging of eyes, though these have become less popular, since they are judged to make little economic sense.

With populations and provincial borders moved about to suit the running of an empire, and the adoption of a new language and mythology based on parts taken from conquered peoples, these defeated communities have long since lost cohesion and identity to the imperial whole, and the chances of revolt are reduced.

ARMY

The army is greatly important. It typicaly enroles some 0.65% of the Empire's population. At this size it is a volunteer force in the main, supported with minimal conscription as required. The uniform of the soldier class is a tunic with a black and white chequered pattern topped with a red triangle. Hairstyles, headgear, and plumes of feathers are worn in styles specific to origin and type of units, and soldiers wear medallions of various metals to indicate rank. Soldiers are armed with a range of spears, clubs and bludgeons, knives, and deadly slings. Drums, flutes, whistles, trumpets, and the shouts of warriors accompany the army into battle with a sound said to drop little birds from the trees in terror.

All Quechuan males under-go military training, giving the army a pool from which to fill its ranks in a crisis.

A thread dedicated to the army of Tahuantinsuyu (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=459150) may be found at that under-lined link.

INDIVIDUALS

Guacamaya Inka Tupac, late ruler, the Parrot-Emperor, eccentric
Pachacutec Inka , son of Guacamaya Inka Tupac by a secondary Coya
Mama Tupac Ocllo, daughter of Guacamaya Inka Tupac and his sister, half-sister and hesitant Chief Coya to Pachacutec Inka, as a, 'more pure' descendant of the Inka line she once made a claim to the throne but was rebuffed by patriarchal forces

General Ozcollo, general appointed by Guacamaya Inka Tupac and now loyal to Pachacutec, Army Commander In Chief

Rumiñavi, Apu of Chinchaysuyu
Chalcuchima, Apu of Antisuyu and veteran of the war against the Pact of Iron
Sinchi Yupanqui, Apu of Qontisuyu
Guaritito, Apu of Qollasuyu

Quisquis Sinchi, an old man from Atisuyu who once served in the court of Guacamaya Inka Tupac and now is a respected Curaca

A summary of Tahuantinsuyu's structure taken from another thread (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=457219)

Little new information here, but I wished to save it as a slightly easier reference.

Seats of high power:

-Sapa Inka
-The Coyas (the Sapa Inka's wives, most significantly the first wife, theoretically and usually his sister, to whom is born the next Inka)
-Willaq Uma (the High Priest)
-The Army Commander

Ministers: (and to whom they are subordinate)

There are no ministers, strictly speaking, but the hierarchy carries the bureaucracy through several layers beyond those mentioned seats of high power.

The Empire is split broadly into four quarters, and in each of these sits a governor, quite likely to serve for life once appointed by the Sapa Inka sitting at the time a vacancy appeared. These governors are called the Four Apus, and they answer to the Sapa Inka.

T'oqrikoq are a ninety strong class of city leaders who each govern a town and its hinterland. They are answerable to the Apus.

Next are several thousands of administrators in different tiers of a class called Curaca. These are in effect the lower nobility who organise day to day life in an individual community such as in a village or a city department called an Ayllu. They answer to the city leaders.

Temple Priests, Architects, and Army Generals are considered of roughly equal status to the majority of the Curacas, and are likely to have unofficial sway within a community. The Curaca may unofficially employ the help of such people in his administration of the Ayllu for which he is responsible.

Artisans, Musicians, Army Officers, and the Quipucamayoc (accountants) also rank above the ordinary masses, and the Quipucamayoc especially are likely to help in running a given Ayllu.

Economy:

All in the Empire is owned by the state save houses and movable household goods, and some private estates in the Inka and Curaca classes.

All ordinary citizens are members of an Ayllu, and as such are supervised by a Curaca. This minor noble and his Quipucamayoc or other helpers from the community divide the Ayllu's land into allotments given to the households that constitute said Ayllu, and adjust the size of these allotments each season depending on the needs of the families working them.

Twenty percent of the workers' time in a given year is considered legally sufficient in provision for the needs of the families themselves in subsistence farming on the Ayllu allotments. In truth this usually represents several days more than is absolutely required.

The remaining 80% of a person's time is given-over in working for the state, which is accomplished through public works in infrastructure-building; the erection of temples; the mining of silver, gold, and more practical ores; the construction of terraces and irrigation systems for farming; and, importantly, to farming the remainder of an Ayllu's land that was not distributed in the allotments.

This extra farming product, which amounts to around two thirds of national output, goes to storehouses that support the nobility, priesthood, and the army; it also provides goods for sacrifice, and creates a potential for international trade should the Empire ever forge foreign ties. Essential products are distributed through the Ayllu by its Curaca so that maize farmers get potatoes and potato farmers get guineapig meat and so forth.

Since there is no currency in the Empire, the work given to the state is called the Mita obligation, and in essence it represents the taxes paid by the people. The distribution of land and product by the Curacas represents the public services that result from this payment.

Law

The Empire has no prisons, and yet crime is low. Since everyone is provided for by the state and there is no currency, theft is virtually nil.

Serious crimes such as murder or the direction of insults or other disrespect towards the Sapa Inka and his extended family, the Inka class, or to the gods, may result in punishment handed out by the Curacas and the Ayllu community, or by Generals and higher nobility. These dire crimes are typically punished by death, which is accomplished quite simply by throwing the guilty party over a cliff.

Other crimes are generally of a sexual nature, and may include having sex with one of the Coyas, the Sapa Inka's wives, or with a Sun Virgin, who are girls carefully selected from the nation's feminine education institutions to serve a ceremonial purpose. These too are punishable by death, this time the offender being stripped naked and strung up to a wall where he shall be left to starve.

With little need and severe penalty, it is not hard to see why the Empire is relatively crime free.

Racial population

The Empire and its people are commonly referred to as Inca, or Inka. This does not really reflect the composition of the Empire, in truth. The Inka are actually a minority who now sit as more a class than a tribe as they were before the Empire's glorious construction. There are many peoples united in the Empire, but all are aboriginal Americans.

Owing to this great diversity, the Empire's nine hundred thousand square kilometre reach consumed a great many different languages. In an attempt to integrate populations, foster community, and ease internal relations, the Empire constructed for itself a language, now known as Quechua, which is spoken now throughout the vast domain.

Such steps as this are common, as they also serve to erode old identities as city states, tribes, and rival empires, and reduce the chance of rebellion.

GEOGRAPHY

Location and Area Tahuantinsuyu covers territory known externally as Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, northwestern Argentina, and southwestern Colombia. It is approaching five million square kilometres of mountain, desert, and jungle.

Natural Resources include gold, silver, copper, tin, iron ore, zinc, tungsten, lead, molybdenum, nitrates, phosphate, potash, coal, oil, natural gas, hydropower potential, timber, fish, and, of course various camelids and the rocks that comprise the terrain of so much imperial territory.

Climate varies with altitude from frigid to temperate, and contains tropical areas on parts of the coast and leading into the Amazon jungle. There are desert areas especially in the south.

Natural hazards come in the form of earthquakes against which many buildings are remarkably survivable, volcanic activity that is fairly mild over all, tsunamis, flooding, landslides, and periodic droughts in parts of the empire though these are fairly well provisioned against.

CURRENT EVENTS

Quiet days in the empire...

Wow, nice work!!! ;)

*Many thanks!*

*Time for the year's first bump, here!*

*Bump! It has been a while, but maybe the empire is not yet dead*

*Some changes to the organisation of the thread, but nothing much going on in the empire today*

A little light relief...

You know you're a citizen of Tahuantinsuyu when...

...it's guineapig-on-bread for lunch, and a treat at that!

...your first memory is of potato-based spirits and maize-based alcoholic broth for breakfast with the family (and you don't remember your first memory).

...kids are for keeping the llamas away from the crops... and the jaguars away from the llamas.

...like all of your male friends, you've experienced compulsory military training, and, man, can you hit stuff with a stick, now!

...no? Well, you can certainly take it out with a rock from twenty paces, right? Yeah, you're one of us.

...it seems odd that these new foreign guests are wearing five layers of clothing and breathing with difficulty through a mask: we're at fifteen thousand feet, and it's only snowing a little bit, this is sandals and poncho weather, isn't it?

...congratulations! Your ten year old daughter has been judged perfect, and selected to become a god! We will now get her drunk and bury her alive! Hurrah!

...you may be of the only race on earth still afraid of Spain.

...foreigners keep calling you Inca, and don't want to hear your corrections.

...you get sixty-five days each year in which to provide for your own survival and that of your family, after that you're working for the state. Isn't it nice of the Sapa Inca to give you so much free time?

...you know that you'll never learn to read: all those ropes and knots, it looks so complicated!

...greeting a perfect stranger by telling them not to lie, steal, or be lazy is the polite thing to do, and won't upset them.

...because you take pride in your imperial flag, everyone else in the world thinks that you're making a bold statement about your homosexuality. This can be frustrating when you're trying to awe their society into terrified submission.

*The Empire Returns!*

OOC:

Nicely done, and quite original. From the thread about this nation's army, it looks like you're playing a primitive nation in a modern world. If that is the case, would you care to establish diplomatic contact?

If I'm mistaken, then let's just forget I asked.

~ Romandeos.

*Certainly. Tahuantinsuyu Empire is based upon modified world history. During the Conquistadores' invasion there was a civil war coming to its conclusion in the Empire. In reality one brother won, in my history that brother fell to smallpox brought by the Europeans and the other was victorious. He was reputed to be a madman -that could just be because the victor writes the history, but I have taken it literally- and was able to double-cross the Spanish and drive them out. So the Inca civilisation lasted a lot longer in my history than in reality. Eventually it was over-run, but because it lasted longer the cultural identity remained stronger, and Peru, Bolivia, Chile et cetera became even more segregated than in reality- the natives were kept out of the cities, living in the mountains and jungles et cetera.

Recently they rose up en masse and surprised the European-dominated governments and expelled or massacred the Hispanic populations. Because they were so isolated and oppressed none of the natives had good jobs or training, and the defeated governments blew-up or evacuated most of their high-technology. So we are in the modern world, but our population is massively under-educated in modern sciences (they still have their traditional skills) and our armies have almost no modern equipment. That is what we are trying to rectify right now!

Unfortunately most of the world has reason to hate us. We've killed and expelled millions of Peruvians, Chileans, yada yada, and we're neither capitalist nor communist but an absolutist theistic dictatorship with a labour-taxation economy.

Yay!*

OOC:

Hmmm. Yeah, that whole bit about the killing millions does get most folks mad.

However, Romandeos is desperate to find pals before a massive conflict, and it is likely we can ignore what you have done and such. We need allies! Even poncho-clad primitives are acceptable!

I'd help you build a modern military force...for a price.

I'd let people from TE be sent to be educated in Romandeosian schools...for a price.

Etc...

~ Romandeos.

*We have a diplomacy thread, here (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=486989) if you're interested!*

*For views!*

*Up we go!*

*Up because of renewed activity/interest*