Levistus's_Leviathan
5e Freelancer
I've been reading about the Inca and other pre-Columbian Andean cultures recently. They were pretty cool and I think underused in pop culture. The Inca created the largest empire in Native American history, spanning most of the Andes mountain range, all the way from what is now Argentina to Ecuador. They did this all without the wheel (which isn't that useful in the mountains), a traditional writing system, money, markets, draft animals (their only pack animal was the small, stubborn llama), or iron/steel-working.
Note: for sake of convenience, I will be using "Inca" to refer to the empire and its inhabitants. I am aware that they called their empire Tawantinsuyu and "Inka" was their title for their emperor.
First, the Inca army heated up rocks in campfires until they were red-hot, wrapped the rocks in cotton and pitch, and threw the rocks at enemy armies using llama-hair slings. The rocks caught fire mid-air and were thrown fast enough they could kill a horse or break a sword. During a siege the conquistadors had to remain inside for weeks, because the Inca wouldn't stop flinging flaming rocks at them.
In D&D terms, maybe the flaming rocks deal an extra 1d4 fire damage on a hit, as well as igniting flammable materials. Maybe your Inca-equivalent have magical slings that automatically ignite the rocks, instead of relying on campfires. Or they use other magical slings, like the two-birds sling from Theros or the Book of Many Things' sling of giant felling. Maybe mountainous giants (hill or stone) use slings to throw boulders faster, further, and more accurately. Or imagine sling-wielding, llama-riding halfling warriors that defend their people from invaders and monsters.
Second, the Inca mummified their emperors, who they thought lived on as god-kings after death. The heir of an emperor was not allowed to inherit the palace, tribute, and other possessions of their predecessor, because they were considered to still be alive. The mummified emperors' panaka (household) were in charge of preserving the emperor, and interpreting/administering his will. The majority of wealth in the Inca Empire when the Spanish arrived was owned by about a dozen undead emperors. The mummy's household kept him politically and socially active, taking them to visit other emperors, paraded them around during festivals, and using them to influence politics. On one occasion the emperor had his father's mummy marry his still-living mother, as they weren't properly married in life and he wanted to avoid being seen as a bastard and therefore illegitimate ruler.
In D&D there are undead mummies that could function as living god-kings. Now, maybe you have complete necrocracies in your setting where powerful Mummy Lords, liches, and other sentient, spellcasting undead rule (like Thay from the Forgotten Realms or Aerenal from Eberron). However, I do think it would be interesting to take a bit more inspiration from the Inca and have a country where only the living are allowed to rule but their rulers are transformed into undead and maintain some amount of power and influence in death. If they're sentient, maybe they're advisors, regional governors, regents, or worshipped as idols. But it could be interesting for there to be a society that transforms its rulers into non-intelligent undead, like simple zombies or simple mummies that are used as a tool by the elites to gain power, like the Inca's panaka system.
Third, the Inca "eradicated hunger." Through a variety of farming techniques (terrace farms, for example) and advanced food preservation systems, the Inca were able produce and store food (such as freeze-dried potatoes called chuño) that were kept in storehouses (qolcas), each about about a day's travel from one another. Travelers, conscripted laborers, locals, and traveling armies always knew where to find food. Additionally, since the Inca's farms were so efficient, farmers only had to work ~65 days a year to produce enough food, so the rest of the year was used on state-mandated construction projects, like building roads, bridges, buildings, terraces, and more. The Incan economy didn't need money. Labor was their currency.
There are ways to produce huge amounts of food in D&D. This depends on the specific types of magic that are regularly available in your game, but there are several options and they could all have interesting effects on the societies of your setting. For example, maybe a country in your setting has a state-sponsored group of druids or clerics spread throughout the land whose sole job is to cast goodberry or create food and water over and over, every day until everyone in the community has eaten. Or maybe traveling druids bless the soil once a year with plant growth, so there are half as many farmers in the country than there are in those without this program. What might happen to the country if, suddenly, these spellcasters that the state has become so reliant on for food production begin to disappear, either being assassinated by a rival nation or eaten by mage-eating monsters.
If there's a country where everyone eats goodberries or some other magically-generated food (like troll or hydra meat), maybe only the upper classes of society eat real, delicious food. Or it's reserved for special festivals. Or if high-level magic is accessible in the setting, a monarch could hire a mage to cast heroes' feast every day, just to distinguish them from the common folk. What foods are viewed as higher or lower class in a society without hunger?
In medieval Europe 60-90% of the population were farmers, as farming was much less efficient and reliable than it is today, so medieval society couldn't support a large population of nobles or specialized workers. In a setting where fewer people need to farm or farmers need to work less each year a larger percent of the population might become tradesmen, skilled workers, or even trained mages. This could allow for a medieval or renaissance-type setting to begin transitioning into something more like Eberron.
Fourth, legend says that when Pachacuti defended the city of Qosqo from the invading Chanka, the stones of the mountain rose up to defend the city. While this is probably just a mythologized earthquake and/or landslide, it makes for a pretty cool moment in D&D. Maybe the mountain-dwelling Goliaths or Dwarves of your setting have on occasion been able to summon earth elementals to defend against invading threats. Maybe there's a specific ritual that has to be done to summon the earth elementals. If the ritual has been lost through the ages, maybe the party is sent to an old ruin to retrieve the ritual in a time of great need.
Fifth, there are three Inca deities I find uniquely interesting:
What role do llamas play in your setting? This is probably the first time anyone has asked this question, but answering it could be fun. If halflings ride llamas, how do they feel about the llama god? Maybe they're also a god of travel or war? They could depict their war god as riding a llama. Or they could look like a weird llama-equivalent of a centaur.
I have never seen a D&D setting with a potato goddess in it. Now I want to play a Cleric that worships the Mother of Potatoes. She'd probably be a minor agricultural deity, but if a culture in your setting primarily feeds themselves off of potatoes, some people would probably feel very strong affection towards her. Maybe she could look something like a potatofied version of Argus from Greek Mythology, due to the "eyes" connection. Or these Moche potato figures. Depending on how potatoes are used in the setting she could have a different portfolio. For example, if potatoes are often used to make alcohol she could also be considered the god of madness, like Dionysus. Or she could be a goddess of immortality if freeze-dried potatoes are one of the main sources of food for a culture.
tl;dr - The Inca were cool and your D&D setting should have a potato goddess.
Note: for sake of convenience, I will be using "Inca" to refer to the empire and its inhabitants. I am aware that they called their empire Tawantinsuyu and "Inka" was their title for their emperor.
First, the Inca army heated up rocks in campfires until they were red-hot, wrapped the rocks in cotton and pitch, and threw the rocks at enemy armies using llama-hair slings. The rocks caught fire mid-air and were thrown fast enough they could kill a horse or break a sword. During a siege the conquistadors had to remain inside for weeks, because the Inca wouldn't stop flinging flaming rocks at them.
In D&D terms, maybe the flaming rocks deal an extra 1d4 fire damage on a hit, as well as igniting flammable materials. Maybe your Inca-equivalent have magical slings that automatically ignite the rocks, instead of relying on campfires. Or they use other magical slings, like the two-birds sling from Theros or the Book of Many Things' sling of giant felling. Maybe mountainous giants (hill or stone) use slings to throw boulders faster, further, and more accurately. Or imagine sling-wielding, llama-riding halfling warriors that defend their people from invaders and monsters.
Second, the Inca mummified their emperors, who they thought lived on as god-kings after death. The heir of an emperor was not allowed to inherit the palace, tribute, and other possessions of their predecessor, because they were considered to still be alive. The mummified emperors' panaka (household) were in charge of preserving the emperor, and interpreting/administering his will. The majority of wealth in the Inca Empire when the Spanish arrived was owned by about a dozen undead emperors. The mummy's household kept him politically and socially active, taking them to visit other emperors, paraded them around during festivals, and using them to influence politics. On one occasion the emperor had his father's mummy marry his still-living mother, as they weren't properly married in life and he wanted to avoid being seen as a bastard and therefore illegitimate ruler.
In D&D there are undead mummies that could function as living god-kings. Now, maybe you have complete necrocracies in your setting where powerful Mummy Lords, liches, and other sentient, spellcasting undead rule (like Thay from the Forgotten Realms or Aerenal from Eberron). However, I do think it would be interesting to take a bit more inspiration from the Inca and have a country where only the living are allowed to rule but their rulers are transformed into undead and maintain some amount of power and influence in death. If they're sentient, maybe they're advisors, regional governors, regents, or worshipped as idols. But it could be interesting for there to be a society that transforms its rulers into non-intelligent undead, like simple zombies or simple mummies that are used as a tool by the elites to gain power, like the Inca's panaka system.
Third, the Inca "eradicated hunger." Through a variety of farming techniques (terrace farms, for example) and advanced food preservation systems, the Inca were able produce and store food (such as freeze-dried potatoes called chuño) that were kept in storehouses (qolcas), each about about a day's travel from one another. Travelers, conscripted laborers, locals, and traveling armies always knew where to find food. Additionally, since the Inca's farms were so efficient, farmers only had to work ~65 days a year to produce enough food, so the rest of the year was used on state-mandated construction projects, like building roads, bridges, buildings, terraces, and more. The Incan economy didn't need money. Labor was their currency.
There are ways to produce huge amounts of food in D&D. This depends on the specific types of magic that are regularly available in your game, but there are several options and they could all have interesting effects on the societies of your setting. For example, maybe a country in your setting has a state-sponsored group of druids or clerics spread throughout the land whose sole job is to cast goodberry or create food and water over and over, every day until everyone in the community has eaten. Or maybe traveling druids bless the soil once a year with plant growth, so there are half as many farmers in the country than there are in those without this program. What might happen to the country if, suddenly, these spellcasters that the state has become so reliant on for food production begin to disappear, either being assassinated by a rival nation or eaten by mage-eating monsters.
If there's a country where everyone eats goodberries or some other magically-generated food (like troll or hydra meat), maybe only the upper classes of society eat real, delicious food. Or it's reserved for special festivals. Or if high-level magic is accessible in the setting, a monarch could hire a mage to cast heroes' feast every day, just to distinguish them from the common folk. What foods are viewed as higher or lower class in a society without hunger?
In medieval Europe 60-90% of the population were farmers, as farming was much less efficient and reliable than it is today, so medieval society couldn't support a large population of nobles or specialized workers. In a setting where fewer people need to farm or farmers need to work less each year a larger percent of the population might become tradesmen, skilled workers, or even trained mages. This could allow for a medieval or renaissance-type setting to begin transitioning into something more like Eberron.
Fourth, legend says that when Pachacuti defended the city of Qosqo from the invading Chanka, the stones of the mountain rose up to defend the city. While this is probably just a mythologized earthquake and/or landslide, it makes for a pretty cool moment in D&D. Maybe the mountain-dwelling Goliaths or Dwarves of your setting have on occasion been able to summon earth elementals to defend against invading threats. Maybe there's a specific ritual that has to be done to summon the earth elementals. If the ritual has been lost through the ages, maybe the party is sent to an old ruin to retrieve the ritual in a time of great need.
Fifth, there are three Inca deities I find uniquely interesting:
- Huamancantac - God of guano (used for fertilizer)
- Urcuchillay - The rainbow-colored god of llamas, also believed to be the constellation lyra. According to legend, Urcuchillay drank water from the celestial river (the Milky Way galaxy) and urinated it onto Earth as rain.
- Axomamma - Potato goddess
What role do llamas play in your setting? This is probably the first time anyone has asked this question, but answering it could be fun. If halflings ride llamas, how do they feel about the llama god? Maybe they're also a god of travel or war? They could depict their war god as riding a llama. Or they could look like a weird llama-equivalent of a centaur.
I have never seen a D&D setting with a potato goddess in it. Now I want to play a Cleric that worships the Mother of Potatoes. She'd probably be a minor agricultural deity, but if a culture in your setting primarily feeds themselves off of potatoes, some people would probably feel very strong affection towards her. Maybe she could look something like a potatofied version of Argus from Greek Mythology, due to the "eyes" connection. Or these Moche potato figures. Depending on how potatoes are used in the setting she could have a different portfolio. For example, if potatoes are often used to make alcohol she could also be considered the god of madness, like Dionysus. Or she could be a goddess of immortality if freeze-dried potatoes are one of the main sources of food for a culture.
tl;dr - The Inca were cool and your D&D setting should have a potato goddess.
