THE CHACHAPOYA WERE AN unusual tribe of original inhabitants living in the mountains of the South Continent during the time of the ancient Empire.
Many of the original inhabitants of the South Continent high mountain areas have brown skin and are of short stature. It has been postulated that the brown skin is due to exposure to the sun at high altitudes, where many of the burning rays haven't been filtered out by the atmosphere. The short stature has been attributed to the poor diet of people who often struggle for existence at altitudes of five thousand meters and even higher.
As stated, the Chachapoya were different from the usual original inhabitants of the high mountains. Their original home in the mountains was at some three thousand meters elevation. They lived in what's described as a cloud forest. The area where the Chachapoya lived is an area covered almost constantly by fog. The fog prevents the people from getting a lot of sun and, as a result, the Chachapoya people have very fair skins and often blond or red hair. The fog that shields the Chachapoya from the sun condenses on tree leaves and even on stones. The area where the Chachapoya lived is always damp, not so much due to rain, although there's a lot of rain, as due to the ever present fog.
Apparently, the Chachapoyas were taller and perhaps stronger than the other original inhabitants of the high mountains. They successfully fought off the warriors of the ancient Empire until just before the arrival of the Zorranian conquerors.
At some point in time, a large number of the Chachapoya people just disappeared and no one knew where they had gone.
I had to fight a Chachapoya warrior, who had been recruited by the Sky Path people, in order to prove that I was the King of The Sky, the legendary warrior who can defeat any man in hand-to-hand combat.
The Chachapoya warrior had been put into hysterical strength by some sort of jungle witch doctor just before we fought and he was very difficult for me to defeat.
After I defeated and killed the Chachapoya warrior, I sorted through some images that I had obtained from his mind during the fight. The man had come from an isolated plateau in the jungle area to the East of the main South Continent mountain chain. Apparently, centuries ago, the Chachapoya tribe had hiked from the high mountains, through the jungle and found the high, isolated plateau. The men of the tribe had to fight several tribes of jungle dwellers during the long journey, but they were taller and stronger warriors and they had better archery skills. This last was strange, since the high mountain tribes don't generally do archery.
Once the tribe arrived at the isolated plateau, they found a climate similar to the one back home. They were then able to again plant the special quinoa that only the Chachapoya raised and several other things. Farming and some hunting and trapping of birds and animals provided the transplanted Chachapoya with the food that they needed to survive. However, it seems that, after centuries in their jungle plateau world, the Chachapoya are now beginning to run out of resources to support their growing population. Thus, some warriors have been dispatched to try to find other areas for the Chachapoya to live. The warrior I fought was one who had been captured by one of the jungle tribes and then sold to the Sky Path people.
I can see several items that lead me to a few conclusions. The special quinoa, that only the Chachapoya raised isn't a native crop of the cloud forest. Quinoa thrives in dry, sandy soil, not the damp soil of the Chachapoya homeland. However, the special quinoa could have been raised in the dry lands to the West of the Chachapoya homeland. It might have been chance that produced the special quinoa, or perhaps the design of a man or men. The Chachapoya, after their defeat by the ancient Empire, then hiked through the steaming jungle until they reached a place very like the one that they left. The finding of the similar land might have been chance, or the design of a man or men. It's not at all likely that men with families would march a very long distance, not knowing where they might end up. It's not even possible that their wives would have let them make such a march. Thus, the Chachapoya had to know that there was a place, much like their former high mountain home, at the end of their journey. If the name Lord Vorell occurs to you as a possible source of relocation information for the Chachapoya, then you think as I do.
I think back over the conditions toward the end of the ancient Empire. The leaders of the ancient Empire had begun to quarrel. The situation could have been predicted, in advance, by such as Lord Vorell. Then why would Lord Vorell not import/create a special quinoa that would grow large, strong warriors to provide a balance to the Empire that might begin to fragment? When things then did break down, Lord Vorell might well have been able to find the high, isolated plateau that would serve as a refuge for the Chachapoya tribe that he had more or less created.
(I have now created a scenario where Lord Vorell imported/created a better quinoa, to produce a tribe of tall, strong warriors. Lord Vorell would have done this to possibly use the tall, strong warriors to provide a balance to the Empire that was created to protect him, but was now facing internal revolt. Is it not possible that Lord Vorell also imported/created other food crop(s), just in case? If Lord Vorell did create such food crops, he would have realistically had to create them for the jungle to the East of the high mountains, since the ancient Empire controlled pretty much everything to the West. Thus, a mog might do himself a lot of good, if he flew a grav sled down the path that the escaping Lord Vorell would have taken to escape from the Zorranian conquerors. The mog might well find a tribe(s) of people doing very well indeed, because of a food crop(s) left them by Lord Vorell. However, our clever, grav sled flying mog would need to refuel his grav sled, as he traced the possible journey of Lord Vorell. If our clever, grav sled flying mog is really clever, he might get the new Empire, one or more universities and/or the Association of Nations to set up and staff a sequence of food and fuel stations to support the return march of the Chachapoya tribe. Then the mog could, 'check on the return of the Chachapoya,' while also scouting the jungle for signs of the bounty of Lord Vorell.
One of the reasons that I'm a King, is because I can see a great deal more in situations than most people.)
While I wait for the return of the Chachapoya, I still have to solve the problems of my other Kingdoms.
One of the best ways to solve the problems of a country is trade. If you export items that are good and cheap in your country to places where the same things are not so good and also expensive, then you can use the money gained from your exports to import things that are good and cheap in other places into your country, where the same things are not so good and more expensive. Your people make good money due to the export trade and obtain good quality things that they need, more cheaply than they could grow or make the items.
Thus, I scout the South Continent for things that are good and cheap here and that can be profitably exported to my other Kingdoms. I see to it that the money obtained from the exports is spent on things that are good and cheap in my other Kingdoms and not so good or so cheap here. (It's what they call a win/win situation.)
The South Continent is the newest of my Kingdoms. It's also in the worst financial shape of any of my Kingdoms and needs the most cash inflow.
Due to my asteroid mining operation, the South Continent has a large quantity of top grade nickel-iron to sell to the manufacturing operations of the entire word of Corin. The sales of nickel-iron not only bring in money, the sales also bring a steady stream of ships from the rest of the world of Corin. The ships arrive with goods that the South Continent needs and the goods pay for the nickel-iron.
I collect a tiny, tiny percentage of all of the trade. The total amount of trade is so huge that I'm building a commercial empire while Tapu is rebuilding the ancient political Empire.
I'm the King of The Sky and a demi-god to the poor, uneducated original inhabitants. Thus, I don't have to worry about Tapu and the people of Glyon edging me out of the governing of the new Empire.
However, my building of a commercial empire will ensure that not only do the original inhabitants consider me as a demi-god, but they and the other citizens of the Empire also will depend upon me for some of the jobs that they need to survive.
My South Continent subjects will now trade with my other Kingdoms and I'm building a financially integrated Empire that will span the entire New World, not just the South Continent. In addition, my financial empire is also beginning to trade at least nickel-iron on a large commercial scale with some of the Old World countries. Thus, there will be fewer people on Corin, trying to kill me, since I'm becoming too important to the economic life of the entire planet.
Things are going well for me, both economically and politically. However, I still need to obtain more of the scrolls that describe the workings of the universe. The technology that I can build with the information from the scrolls is a necessary next step in the development of my Kingdoms.
