Thank you all for your replies.
Yes, the chankas are well known because of they were the rivals of the incas. I also wanted to design a concept for them. But they don’t have much interaction with other cultures besides the incas, the spanish and the huancavelicans. Actually, the chankas launched a systematic genocide against the huancavelicans and attempted to erase them from history, going as far as demolishing their buildings and temples --places that were considered sacred in the andean world. Most cultures never dared to desecrate temples even when they followed a different religion. It was because of this brutal war that the chankas were known as “the vampires of the andes” and their reputation caused other kingdoms to refuse to help the incas when the chankas challenged them. Only helping when the incas were winning the battle in yawar pampa.
I thought it was interesting because it breaks the fantasy that all native american cultures were peaceful and respectful of nature and religions. Rose-tinted glasses history.
Brutal and bloodthirsty chankas’d make cool campaigns and civ concepts. However, I encountered some problems the more I read about them. First, it was the size of their territory: Chankas were separated as three groups: the urin or hurin chankas, the hanan chankas and the vilcas chankas. Sometimes, they joined together to form a confederation, while sometimes separated and ruled their land independently. Think of it as a federal political rule. The max size of their territory was only between 100,000 and 120,000 km2. That’s too small for AoE2 standards. The smallest civilization currently in-game is the aztecs with a max size of 200,000 km2. So I thought that new civs should have at least that much land under their centralized control. Second, their influence is small: The chankas are a special case between andean cultures because, unlike most of them, they knew they were the descendants of a fallen powerful empire. In their mythology, in the past, there existed a powerful empire of red-skinned giants who waged war everyday and drank blood like booze. These giants were immortals called Huari gods. They went to war against Wiracocha and Pachacamac, and were defeated and turned into stones and mountains. Their blood formed pools and lakes, from that blood the chanka people were born. As traditional and oral accounts state, the motivation behind their expansionism and constant wars was their conviction to reclaim the land they honestly believed was theirs. From their perspective, rising kingdoms like the incas and the chincha were outsiders stealing their lands; while the chankas were only trying to revive the old empire they came from as if it was a golden age of yore. In other words, they were driven by the influence of the old Wari empire, stuck in the past, and not trying to grow their chanka identity.
On the other hand, the chankas were a very unique group in terms of ethnicity, culture, religion and language. If chankas were to be chosen as a new civ, that’d be excluding other well known civs like the huancas, the ######### the ichma, the recuay, etc who had a different ethnicities, cultures, religions. These kingdoms could be candidates for new civs to complete the region, but unfortunately never be added in a DLC.
However, it happens that the Wari empire conquered these kingdoms and also are the ancestors of the chankas. Therefore, the Waris can be an umbrella for all the quechua and aymara kingdoms that were part of their empire at some point. A wider and more historically accurate umbrella for all central andean civs than just having incas. This convinced me that the Wari empire was a better option than the chankas.
To mirror this same logic, the Tiwanaku empire could be an umbrella for all the puquina and aymara kingdoms that used to be part of it, or are their direct descendants who later became different cultures, in the southern andean region such as the Charcas, the Caras-Caras, the Chuis, the Lupakas, the Diaguitas, the Calchaquies, the Kollas, and the Quilme (part of the calchaqui group but with a different culture).
Thank you for your ideas.
I wrote a Tiwanaku concept some months ago, but put it on hold for the time being because I was writing something for AoM. Its historical background is incomplete, however I might post the concept today later and post the history section some other day.
