Prologue: DiPacha Lore - Before
As they had for millennia the people of the sixteen DiPacha Realms passed through the Punku pathways that connected the Realms. Moving between worlds as we would travel from town to town. None thought twice about travelling between one realm and another via the Punku pathways. The paths had always been there connecting DiPacha Realms. The concept of planets and space was unknown to these people. Stars were just lights in the night sky.
Each DiPacha Realm was unique, but all were harsh places save one, the Garden Realm of WaytaPata, the fabled home of humanity. A wondrous realm. A realm of abundant resources and beauty.
Around each of the Punku settlements had grown. Hubs of humanity acting as trading posts and links between each Pacha Realm, with each realm developing distinct cultures and histories. But with one overriding philosophy that had been passed down from the first settlers, Share to benefit. Fifteen of the DiPacha realms held fast to this philosophy. Helping friends and neighbours, sharing the resources of the realms.
One realm did not, the central realm of HuñuyPacha, which was the only Pacha Realm connected to all other realms. HuñuyPacha slowly developed into the central realm of DiPacha. A realm where all others met, shared and exchanged for mutual benefit. The central realm of HuñuyPacha harboured a dark ambition. An ambition to become powerful, not just the central trading post and meeting place. The leaders of HuñuyPacha knew that to control DiPacha they must control WaytaPata and the Punku to WaytaPata. Their greed lead to the loss of all Punku to WaytaPata. All paths to and from the Garden Realm gone. The beauty and abundant resources vanished. The legend of Chinkay WaytaPata, the Lost Garden, was born.
Many generations later the neural-net was discovered and the history of the fifteen remaining DiPacha Realms has been recorded ever since.
After many more generations the stories of WaytaPata are now all legend and song. Told only to inspire and nourish the people of DiPacha on cold dark nights. Legends that the Listener race shares from generation to generation, a race who are supposed to be descended from WaytaPata and who had been the guardians of the legendary Garden Realm. Legends such as the Puma Punku which tells of a majestic beast striding through the Punku from WaytaPata to DiPacha. It is said that many of the Punku on WaytaPata had temples built around them. Structures with carvings of a four legged animal emerging through the Punku with other animals and plants surrounding it or following on behind. Life being carried and shared through the pathways between the realms.
No one in DiPacha knows for sure if WaytaPata had ever really existed anymore – everyone on Earth has forgotten completely.
DiPacha: The Punku Pathways
