Nazca

Nazca ranks among the most famous and powerful realms of Tamoanchan, and it may be the oddest in the Central District. It is bordered by the Elysium Sea on the west, Ecua on the north, Quechua on the east, and Ulloa and Paragua on the south. Like Ulloa, most of the country is barren mountain; the fertile ground is concentrated in five low-lying central river valleys. Only their rivers flow all year, while the others flood each spring and are dry by the end of summer.

Beyond the valleys, life in this largely desert land depends on the lomas, fog oases lying near the coast between 600 and 2,000 feet up, where winter sea fogs bring rain and refill underground pools, supporting abundant plants and animals. Because hunting cannot be relied on, herds of llamas, alpacas and vicunas provide most of the food, though the chief source of protein is the sea: coastal subject peoples work the shallows with tridents and nets from awkward balsa barges, and dried fish is carried far inland. Other subjects grow corn, manioc, peanuts, sweet potatoes and cactus fruit.

Thanks to the Five Valleys, Nazca is one of the wealthiest countries on the continent, with plentiful iron as well as copper, zinc, silver, gold, platinum, reasonably common tin and a small amount of quicksilver in the Valley of the Falcon. Most metal is gathered as nuggets and worked by hammering, although smelting is employed for large undertakings.

The realm takes its name from the Nazca tribe of the Five Valleys, called the Falcon People, who are true humans and once revered the falcon as their totem. Stylized falcons are tattooed on their faces, they wear capes of falcon feathers, they fly falcons in hunting and war, they ornament everything with the bird, and they pattern their lives on its flight, attacking in swift hit-and-run raids.

Atlantis conquered them in the First Age and they retained many Atlantean ideas. From the Amazons of Hesperia, who pulled out because of civil war before the region was wholly absorbed, they learned how a small, militaristic people can govern bigger, disorganized ones. After foreign rule ended the other tribes slipped back into old ways, but the Nazca held on to their cities. Pressed by the shortage of farmland, their disciplined warriors subdued the valley tribes, each of which is now kept in line by a small Nazca garrison on the Hesperian model and supplies labor, troops, metal and food.

Cahuachi, the capital, lies in the Valley of the Falcon in the rich fork where the Ica and Nazca rivers meet, with Ica, Caango, Kotozh, Pachacamac, Tambo and Teote close by. This near-paradise is protected from Quechua by mountains and by narrow passes that are easy to defend, and from far-off Ecua by a long, empty coastline. Nazca's rule reaches south as far as Ulloa and Paragua. It has never considered colonizing Ulloa, and superstition has nothing to do with it: the falcon simply does not live there.

The realm is ruled by five warrior chieftains, picked by a council made up of the ten highest-ranking warriors. The chieftains cast five, four, three, two and one votes respectively, and any measure requires a majority; in an emergency the council may grant the senior chieftain absolute authority, normally for a year.

Social rank belongs only to those who are Nazca by birth or marriage. Every one of them is given the falcon tattoo and must catch a wild falcon and add its feathers to a cloak their family makes, or else be cast out. All Nazca spend at least one year in the army, after which military rank determines both social standing and each person's portion of the wealth; they may sign on again for one-year terms or follow whatever career they like. Subject peoples are equal to one another and beneath the Nazca. They live plainly and may not build stone huts, own more than they need or move a village without leave, though frequent intermarriage lifts many of them into the tribe. Men dominate society, but women are masters of many crafts, above all weaving and remarkably beautiful sculpted pottery.

Every branch of learning and magic is put to military use. Warriors undergo harsh training in woodlore, tracking, stealthy combat and the handling of war-falcons. Scouts patrol the frontiers, spies work in foreign lands, bands of witch hunters are used solely against Quechua's zealots, and the biggest army is stationed at Cahuachi.

The Nazcan arsenal includes throwing maces of stone, polished stone axes, iron falcon talons inlaid with gold and worn over the fist, slings, spears of magical chanta wood with iron or obsidian heads, short swords of iron, bronze or obsidian, long daggers of bronze or bone, spear-throwers, short bows, and staves and clubs edged with obsidian. They disdain armor and go into battle in hooded capes of falcon feathers with their tattoos on show, and the fearsome sight of their assembled ranks makes up for their lack of protection.

These days the falcon is merely an emblem of the nation, and Nazca has no state religion. Subjects are free to worship as they please, chiefly Hawwa and Eloah, whose sun and moon signs are seen everywhere, at times combined with the falcon, but no gathering for worship may extend beyond the immediate family. Shamans and druids who are raised into the tribe must renounce their beliefs in public and swear loyalty to the state. Necromancy is banned and profoundly dreaded. The dead are laid to rest beside one another on family ground together with their favorite belongings, babies buried beneath piles of toys and jewelry, and the graves are watched closely to prevent robbery.

Atlantean pyramids, now restored, are used for rallies, ceremonies, markets and performances at festivals. The most extraordinary works are the enormous line runes drawn across the Nazca Plain and the mountain slopes, immense trials of rune magic. Among them are the Tree of Life rune, meant to bring fertility, which looks out over the Bay of Paracas, and the Falcon rune that upholds the realm, though no one is sure how much power they really have.

Nazca trades little, mainly with the Tritons of Elysium and the nomads of the Elysium Sea, yet its gold and silver 'falcon' coins are valued in distant lands for their purity and fine workmanship, and even its enemies take them at face value. Its drive to expand and its loathing of necromancy make it the bitterest enemy of Quechua, whose theocracy it scorns and battles both openly and in secret, whereas its wars with Ecua come and go. Its need for more farmland has also bred plans to conquer Paragua, held back so far by Quechua's designs on the same land and by the perils of Paragua itself. Visitors from abroad must follow Nazca's religious laws and may not show their faith in front of citizens, and the penalties for breaking the law are severe and cruelly imaginative.