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The Inca civilization flourished in ancient Peru between c. 1400 and 1533 CE. The Inca Empire eventually extended across western South America from Quito in the north to Santiago in the south. It was the largest empire ever seen in the Americas and the largest in the world at that time.

Undaunted by the often harsh Andean environment, the Incas conquered people and exploited landscapes in such diverse settings as plains, mountains, deserts, and tropical jungle. Famed for their unique art and architecture, they constructed finely-built and imposing buildings wherever they conquered, and their spectacular adaptation of natural landscapes with terracing, highways, and mountaintop settlements continues to impress modern visitors at such world-famous sites as Machu Picchu.

History

As with other ancient Americas cultures, the historical origins of the Incas are difficult to disentangle from the founding myths they themselves created. According to legend, in the beginning, the creator god Viracocha came out of the Pacific Ocean, and when he arrived at Lake Titicaca, he created the sun and all ethnic groups. These first people were buried by the god and only later did they emerge from springs and rocks (sacred pacarinas) back into the world. The Incas, specifically, were brought into existence at Tiwanaku (Tiahuanaco) from the sun god Inti; hence, they regarded themselves as the chosen few, the 'Children of the Sun', and the Inca ruler was Inti's representative and embodiment on earth. In another version of the creation myth, the first Incas came from a sacred cave known as Tampu T'oqo or 'The House of Windows', which was located at Pacariqtambo, the 'Inn of Dawn', south of Cuzco. The first pair of humans were Manco Capac (or Manqo Qhapaq) and his sister (also his wife) Mama Oqllu (or Ocllo). Three more brother-sister siblings were born, and the group set off together to found their civilization. Defeating the Chanca people with the help of stone warriors (pururaucas), the first Incas finally settled in the Valley of Cuzco and Manco Capac, throwing a golden rod into the ground, established what would become the Inca capital, Cuzco.

The rise of the Inca Empire was spectacularly quick. First, all speakers of the Inca language Quechua (or Runasimi) were given privileged status, and this noble class then dominated all the important roles within the empire. Thupa Inca Yupanqui (also known as Topa Inca Yupanqui), Pachacuti's successor from 1471 CE, is credited with having expanded the empire by a massive 4,000 km (2,500 miles). The Incas themselves called their empire Tawantinsuyo (or Tahuantinsuyu) meaning 'Land of the Four Quarters' or 'The Four Parts Together'. Cuzco was considered the navel of the world, and radiating out were highways and sacred sighting lines (ceques) to each quarter: Chinchaysuyu (north), Antisuyu (east), Collasuyu (south), and removedisuyu (west). Spreading across ancient Ecuador, Peru, northern Chile, Bolivia, upland Argentina, and southern Colombia and stretching 5,500 km (3,400 miles) north to south, 40,000 Incas governed a huge territory with some 10 million subjects speaking over 30 different languages.

The Inca Empire was founded on, and maintained by, force, and the ruling Incas were very often unpopular with their subjects (especially in the northern territories), a situation that the Spanish conquerors (conquistadores), led by Francisco Pizarro, would take full advantage of in the middle decades of the 16th century CE. The Inca Empire, in fact, had still not reached a stage of consolidated maturity when it faced its greatest challenge. Rebellions were rife, and the Incas were engaged in a war in Ecuador where a second Inca capital had been established at Quito. Even more serious, the Incas were hit by an epidemic of European diseases, such as smallpox, which had spread from central America even faster than the European invaders themselves, and the wave killed a staggering 65-90% of the population. Such a disease killed Wayna Qhapaq in 1528 CE, and two of his sons, Waskar and Atahualpa, battled in a damaging civil war for control of the empire just when the European treasure-hunters arrived. It was this combination of factors - a perfect storm of rebellion, disease, and invasion - which brought the downfall of the mighty Inca Empire, the largest and richest ever seen in the Americas.

The Inca language Quechua lives on today and is still spoken by some eight million people. There are also a good number of buildings, artefacts, and written accounts which have survived the ravages of conquerors, looters, and time. These remains are proportionally few to the vast riches which have been lost, but they remain indisputable witnesses to the wealth, ingenuity, and high cultural achievements of this great but short-lived civilization.

https://www.worldhistory.org/Inca_Civilization/

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[-] thelastaxolotl@hexbear.net 6 points 5 days ago

Link to the 🐼 Hexbear Matrix Chat https://matrix.to/#/#Hexbear:matrix.org wiphala

[-] Wmill@hexbear.net 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Ok so what if all the kiwami games were just a simulation within the yakuza verse in the Inner Fighter 7 Revolution system or the IF7-R that one machine were you get to relive past fights pepe-silvia kiwami 3 diverges too much in the ending to line up with any of the other games that follow after. If they leaned into this more and just make a xenoverse style game were you can make an OC and have them fight alongside all the other games then that might be a better direction for them to go in the future

[-] Carl@hexbear.net 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

cw animal on animal violenceMy husky just woke me up at 5:00 in the morning catching a mouse, poor thing never said a chance. and of course right after she killed it she jumped into the bed and cuddled up to me - she's a remorseless killer.

[-] KuroXppi@hexbear.net 2 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Tree? I am no tree

Call me Tree(beard)

Ent does a little trolling

[-] lelkins@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 hour ago

i almost read this like a haiku cuz i thought that was the bit here

"tree, i am no tree"

"call me tree, beard in brackets"

"ent does a lit- wait this isn't a fucking haiku"

[-] KuroXppi@hexbear.net 2 points 1 hour ago

It could be a haiku

Or it isnt. Or im just

bad at counting

[-] lelkins@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 59 minutes ago

close enough

[-] lelkins@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

i drew john orange from my morrowind playthrough. just wanted to draw something new. planning on making the silly moments i can think of based on my playstyle as a sorta comic

if anyone has any suggestions on how to actually draw animal good, please tell me. i am really bad at drawing animals

he'd hit that skoom if one can be found

i found out that my signature sometimes doesn't load in any new comment i make here. wait for a bit


[-] LanyrdSkynrd@hexbear.net 3 points 6 hours ago

Anyone have tips for teaching someone to ride a bike?

My partner hasn't really ever learned to ride(they think maybe they rode a tiny kids bike like 30 years ago). I'm super proud of them for trying this late in life, they want to be able to ride an e bike to work.

I'm probably not the best person to teach this because I haven't ridden in ages. I did ride a bit yesterday and was able to do it still, even if I wasn't super smooth. I watched that video of Tom Scott learning to ride and a few tutorials. Seemed helpful.

We already have an ebike for them from a family member who used it twice and then stored it. It's an aventon level 2 and I had it checked out by a bike shop. I'm not sure if they should try learning on that right off the bat, or if it makes more sense to buy a cheap or used regular bike to learn on.

I really want this to go well. My partner never learned to drive because they have epilepsy, so being able to do their own transportation is a huge step for them. They're just getting out of a long period of depression and it makes me happy to see them excited about something again.

[-] tombruzzo@hexbear.net 2 points 5 hours ago

The way they teach kids now is with balance bikes. Essentially pedalless bikes you kick along with your feet.

The idea being it's more important to develop that sense of balance than pedalling. Kids used to get bikes with training wheels and could get around but never learned how to stay up.

Make sure your partner can put their feet flat on the flground from a seated position on the bike, and get them to kick along and get used to coasting, knowing they can brake or put their feet down whenever they feel like they need to.

Once they're confident in that you can put the seat up and focus on the pedalling. Getting the sense of balance first makes it easier because they will already know how to stay up.

[-] KuroXppi@hexbear.net 2 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

If you live close to the ocean, ride on the hard sand near the waterline. If you fall it's the best surface to stack on and when you pick up speed it is solid. Learning to ride on grass has the issue of being uneven, learning on concrete can be a massive hurdle.

Having someone just to hold the bike and hold them while walking forwards while they practice balancing is the first part.

Start learning by trying to just sit and balance by shifting weight, not by turning the handlebars (e.g. their instinct when they're falling left may be to turn their handlebars to the right).

Idk this is how I would teach not sure how I'd get to teaching pedalling and braking just yet.

[-] HarryLime@hexbear.net 5 points 7 hours ago
[-] ClathrateG@hexbear.net 5 points 7 hours ago
[-] KuroXppi@hexbear.net 2 points 5 hours ago

From boba liberal, to champagne socialist, to baijiu communist

[-] Goblinmancer@hexbear.net 6 points 8 hours ago

4x games are actually about the importance of sharing imperial profits.

[-] lelkins@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 8 hours ago

that moment when you keep forgetting stuff you had in your head for a few minutes so when you go to do it you just magically forget it. i am really forgetful and i hate that


[-] lelkins@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 7 hours ago

i also enjoy morrowind, the soundtrack too. soothes me a ton for whatever reason. i am getting TOO into this and i fear for my health

i fucking made up stupid lore for my stupid khajiit guy, his birthname is jo'uoren since his family thought he'd be wise and graceful as a scholar but the moons thought of a sick joke instead. he calls himself john orange in the hopes of getting people to like him. personality wise he's like bulk bogan from joel vargskelethor's shitpost mythos

i have a few graphical bugs that i cannot fix and i need to check it out when i have time


[-] HarryLime@hexbear.net 4 points 8 hours ago

Yoda: "MWAHAAAAAAAAA The Frenchshhh champagne...renowned all over the world for its excellence it is! A California champagne there is, inspired by that same French excellence it is."

[-] GalaxyBrain@hexbear.net 3 points 8 hours ago

Remember how Mgs ground zeroes had a downloadable app for iPad and smartphones that made it work as your idroid? That shit rocked, it was basically what the wiiu did but without the wiiu. Other games shoulda done that, especially games that you cant pause, having your map and a few menu bits on your lap was cool

[-] GalaxyBrain@hexbear.net 7 points 11 hours ago

Got a couple of av to patch cord and vice versa cables. I can now record from my amps directly into a vhs tape, or output anything from my tv through pedals to an amp. Im excited to try recording some stuff to vhs and then doing making a 3rd Gen dub onto a tape that ive had sitting around for a bit that I think was just sitting on a magnet for 15 years before I got it. Analogue shit is so fun to play with. My mic picking this stuff up live from the floor is still digital and the end product pretty much has to become that to be online but i'm trying to cut as much digital out as I can, i'm using a midi keyboard and a USB synth so there's gonna be some, but those signals sre being converted to analogue before hitting the amp. Everyone who does music should try their hand at noise/ambient/industrial/experimental etc. Doing stuff like this hits way different than like...learning instruments or practicing or jamming or having anyone else involved. You get to be a weird little mad scientist.

Ironically this has already led to more opportunities than any band or project ive put effort into. I literally called the project im doing Hobby cause it was just something I was doing at home and sending tracks to friends or putting up here. Now ive played my first show, have 2 more booked and a small tour planned for November with people willing to fly my friend and I out. I've got releases in the works with DIY labels in Mexico, England and Japan, I live super far from these places. The noise people are cool and fun as far as ive seen, reminds me of the diy punk scene 20 or so years ago. Everyone is aware that they are doing weirdo outsider shit which shouldnt appeal to anyone and are also really enthusiastic about getting other people's weird outsider shit thst shouldnt appeal to anyone out there. I got sick of the punk scene a while back, crust has become a festival scene where the cool kids book each other's bands and fly in a couple big ones and everyone else has to travel to the 4 cities these things happen in. I'm fed up with Disclose worship, Kawakami died 20 years ago. I can spot the pre-made crust pants ordered from Japan from a mile away. The noise scene really remonds me of how it used to be, cause it isnt cool and there isnt a way to dress that will look cool in pictures you share online.

[-] edge@hexbear.net 7 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

I'm actually going to be fired from my job because I refuse to use ShitGPT to write code. I've literally been put on probation for not using it agony

[-] FumpyAer@hexbear.net 1 points 1 hour ago

That little about code quality, why should you?

[-] NephewAlphaBravo@hexbear.net 1 points 4 hours ago

we need a fash-bash emoji but it's smashing a server rack

[-] edge@hexbear.net 3 points 11 hours ago

I gonna try to keep the nice ergonomic mouse and keyboard I had them buy me. I already take them home every day anyway. They aren't even registered in any way, they were new in box and basically off the shelf.

[-] GalaxyBrain@hexbear.net 4 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Gunpla: Qubeley progress!

First time painting an inner frame. Its coming along great.

[-] HarryLime@hexbear.net 4 points 10 hours ago

I'm gonna need other people to pitch in with gay art for the gay month

[-] HarryLime@hexbear.net 3 points 10 hours ago

The Empire Strikes Back 2: The Empire Is Struck Again

[-] Keld@hexbear.net 12 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

Acetylaldehyde is the main culprit of damage from alcohol consumption, your body metabolises alcohol into acetylaldehyde and then from there to acetate, both of these steps are done in the liver (Because you don't want roaming acetylaldehyde) but it can only do so at a certain speed. Which means the more alcohol you consume the more acetylaldehyde is built up. Acetylaldehyde binds to a lot of stuff covalently causing your cells to take damage and in the final result fall apart and die, hence the liver damage. It also results in other bonds that themselves result in the release of free radicals which themselves bind to various bits of hydrogen that was otherwise occupied in what we call oxidative stress. (Edit: It feels unnecessary to add, but in case you're wondering oxidative stress is generally bad for whatever process experiences it)

Acetylaldehyde conversion to acetate cannot be meaningfully modified by anything but the presence of NAD+ (A coenzyme for this any many other reaction) in your liver, which you as a person cannot meaningfully do anything about. Any product that claims to change this is a scam, and if you are selling such a product you are a snake oil salesman.
Cody Johnston of some more news. Someone should fucking sue you.

[-] Keld@hexbear.net 8 points 13 hours ago

This stuff genuinely makes me mad. This isn't the first time they've shilled scam medicines either. Yes Cody and Cody defenders it's a scam medicine even if you call it a fucking supplement, you Alex Jones wannabe.

This one is especially egregious because not only do they misinform their audience about this stuff, not only are they clearly underinformed (The liver is not the fucking gut), they start off by dismissing stuff that would actually help people.
God I hate this.

[-] TerminalEncounter@hexbear.net 4 points 13 hours ago

The zbiotics guys started advertising on Cody's news showdy?

[-] Keld@hexbear.net 4 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

Yep.

Edit: But what gets me here is that they've invented entirely new claims that the zbiotic people don't even make to put in their ad. Like they clearly wanted to put their own twist on the ad copy so they just made some stuff up, and it's wrong and it's lying to people about their health, and I don't like it.

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[-] WhyEssEff@hexbear.net 12 points 15 hours ago
[-] Keld@hexbear.net 5 points 14 hours ago

Welcome to the proletariat. congratulations

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[-] GalaxyBrain@hexbear.net 5 points 12 hours ago

I wanna find a really tiny baseball hate with Compton written on it and tiny sunglasses so I can turn my EZ-8 Gundam into an EZ-E Gundam

[-] HarryLime@hexbear.net 5 points 13 hours ago
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[-] wombat@hexbear.net 5 points 13 hours ago

it is may 29 and stalin saved the world from fascism

[-] tombruzzo@hexbear.net 5 points 13 hours ago

Doom Eternal on nightmare has been alright so far but the Gladiator fight fucking sucked. The spiderbrain fight at the end of the first game was underwhelming too. I swear white people can't make a good boss fight in a game

[-] Carl@hexbear.net 4 points 13 hours ago

Made big progress on my Galaga implementation today!

You can see in the clip I've made a couple of visual aids in the Godot editor for plotting the swooping paths and the formation holding, they came out really nice. Like with my other games this is completely scriptless - the "swoop director" grabs spawning entities and moves them through the initial attack, and then when they reach the end of the path they broadcast a signal which tells the "formation director" to take over and assign them a formation slot and tell them where to move. All of the other state machine logic will go like this - the enemies will decide on their own when to dive bomb the player, the capture ship will stop and fire the tractor beam on its own, I've got a cool plan for how I'm going to turn the player into a power up that they can pick up themselves on their next life to get the double ship going, this is gonna be so sick.

Although i think I'm gonna flip it vertical. Everything just feels wrong on a horizontal play field.

[-] CrispyFern@hexbear.net 5 points 13 hours ago

The power of water is its ability to take any shape

[-] WokePalpatine@hexbear.net 3 points 12 hours ago

What are the odds this is yet another race-pretender black metal project. There was Seed Of Iblis who pretended to be an anti-muslim Iraqi woman and then Ghost Bath was pretending to be Chinese for some reason.

https://kuryongdprk.bandcamp.com/album/--4

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this post was submitted on 24 May 2026
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