Hawkaypata (Haw-kay-pata)

Defences

Perimeter Enclosure

A raised containment wall whose outline matches a gibbous moon. It is meant to keep sand of the Roca Courtyard from slipping over the immediate avenue and tracking through the rest of the city. Steps climb up to several small temples resting atop the wall in various, unequal intervals and from where steps climb down to the sand.

Infrastructure

Multi-Level Plaza

A number of floors or levels constructed from carved limestone and wooden planks and connected by interior and exterior ramps on sloped land.

Sand Roof

Also called the Roca Courtyard, the roof is a virtual sand pit piled over the cave ceiling with imported sand to filter rain water.

Marketplace

A long, raised terrace elevated above the natural cave floor and where permanent, semi-permanent and temporary stalls are carved or erected for use by the odd trader to peddle their goods.

Rain Cellar

The basement area underneath the entirety of the marketplace that collects the filtered rain water within the interior of the cave.

Assets

Guilds and Factions

Priesthood

The cult of the Sun conducts its rituals, sacrifices, predictions and inductions of new priests on the Roca Courtyard. A few stout temples decorated with gold, silver and precious stones are also run by the Sun Priests and Virgins who oversee daily religious rituals, weddings and funerals.

Merchants

A limited number of traders are tolerated for their intelligence value across the land. If a good is discovered to have been sourced from some commoner group or other unauthorized group; the trader and the group involved would all be killed.
Bartering, or getting permission to barter, from nobles is very tricky, as they believe all surplus goods are theirs anyway; in the form of gifts. Only traders who are absolutely brilliant at negotiations for a license, can be granted such permission, though not on any large scale.

History

Millennium of Mud

This was a period of corner wide squalor with little to no recorded knowledge.

The first human to enter the enormous cave descended into its winding passages thousands of years ago. Eventually, the mud men tailored the damp cave environment as a place on Cusp to grow their food. Today, the cave is a massive marketplace with hundreds of thousands of visitors passing through its limestone halls every year.

Architecture

Cave Columns

Naturally occurring stalagnates offer the primary means of supporting the sand roof above and the market section's raised platform. When it rains, condensate and water trickling from the sand roof travel down their surfaces to collect in the water cellars at their base.

Pillow-Faced Architecture

An innovation in construction where three-dimensional chunks of stone interconnect in unique configurations from loose bags of sand and gravel of varied sizes. These bags are made to conform to the uneven cave walls and are then plastered over and painted to beautify the market stalls.

Geography

Open Cave System

An expansive chamber beneath Ca-Chisneu accessible to a wide low positioned step cliff. It is a twisting labyrinth of limestone caves measuring 7000 thatkiys deep and 25 ricras high. Most of the cave has been explored to date, but no one knows how far the cave system actually extends, as new caverns and recesses are continuously being discovered within the Cusp.

Alternative Name(s)

• Hawkaypata Square
• Leisure Terrace
• The Belly

Type

District

Population

1000

Related Ethnicities

• Innoit

Inhabitant Demonym

Innoit

Location under

Ca-Chisneu

Ruling/Owning Rank

Sapa

Owning Organization

Tawantinsuyu

Related Traditions

• Huarachicoy
• Simsiker

Related Professions

• Ranqhaq

Related Materials

• Silver Silk