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Tinto Flavour #32 - 18th of July 2025 - Inca

Hello, and welcome one more Friday to Tinto Flavour, the happy days in which we take a look at the flavour content of Europa Universalis V!

Today, we will take a look at the flavour content for the Inca! Let’s start without further ado:

The high volcanoes and fast rivers of the Andes Mountains hide and nourish the Sacred Valley of the Incas, where we, the sons of the Sun, dwell in the magnificent city of Qusqu as we prepare for the glorious future that awaits us.

After years of consolidation and politics, the time has come for our people to expand their influence outside our great valley, to defeat our enemies and to follow the paths of the mountains to each of the corners of this world. Are we ready to take on this destiny? Or will those who oppose us beat us before reaching our prime?

Country Selection.png

As usual, please consider all UI, 2D and 3D Art as WIP.

Qusqu.png

Qusqu2.png

Qusqu has a quite unique start, in the middle of the Andes.

Let’s start by taking a look at the Estates panel, as usual. The countries of the region, including Qusqu, start with a unique government reform:
Reform Andean Monarchy.png

As you see, it unlocks a bunch of mechanics. The first is the Panaqas:
Panaqa1.png

Panaqa2.png

Numbers are subject to balance and change, as usual.

They are instantly built at the death of the ruler, by this event:
Panaqa3.png

As you see, Panaqas are a double-edged sword: they increase the Levy Size, but their cost is removing the Crown Power from the location they’re built in. Therefore, they might potentially be very good buildings for locations distant from the capital, where you have low control, while being very negative for those locations close to your capital. They can be removed, though, by paying a cost of 10 Legitimacy.

The other two Actions unlocked by the Andean Monarchy reform are connected:
Ñusta Marriage1.png

Ñusta Marriage2.png


Aclla Marriage.png

Aclla Marriage2.png

There’s a Cabinet Action that can be used to recruit Acllas, the characters you may marry through the former actions:
Aclla Recruitment.png

By the way, we already reworked the marriage unlocked by the Inti religion that we presented on Wednesday, and it is a new Marriage Policy, ‘Polygyny’:
Policy Polygyny.png

This policy is set to fit and work along with the Ñusta Marriage and Aclla Recruitment, so Andean countries can set strong diplomatic bonds among them, if they wish.

Andean countries also have a unique privilege available at start, the Mit’a System:
Privilege Mit'a.png

Andean countries also have several unique buildings that are unlocked by some advances available in the Age of Traditions:
Building Incamisana.png

Building Pukara.png

Building Terraces.png

Let’s now take a look at some of the unique advances available for Qusqu:
Advance Mitma Obligations.png

Advance Military Mita.png

Advance Tambo.png

Building Tambo.png

Advance Quipu.png

Advance Drafted Hatun Runas.png

Advance Adapted Incan Army.png

But wait, so far, we’ve talked about Qusqu, but not about Inca, which was the supposed topic of the Tinto Flavour. That is because it is another piece of content for today, the formable Inca Empire:
Inca.png

Qusqu starts with 2 locations, and may have to grow up to 62 to be able to form the Inca Empire… So, yeah, a challenging ‘rags to riches’ campaign.

As you see, if you form it, you’ll get a new government reform that will replace the Andean Monarchy, which is the Tawantinsuyu Monarchy:
Reform Tawantinsuyu Monarchy.png

So, as you can see, much of the content available for Qusqu is based on mechanics. However, it still has some events to play with:
Event Aqha.png

Event Aqha2.png

Event Aqha3.png

Privilege Hurin Qusqu.png

… And much more, but that’s all for today! Next week we’ll have a Tinto Maps Feedback on Monday, a Tinto Talks on Wednesday, and Tinto Flavour on Friday; @Roger Corominas will host all of them, as I’ll be off the entire week:
  • Monday -> Tinto Maps Feedback for China
  • Wednesday -> Tinto Talks about the mechanics for the Middle Kingdom, the Chinese Empire IO!
  • Friday -> Tinto Flavour about China
See you in a couple of weeks! And also remember, you can wishlist Europa Universalis V now! Cheers!
 

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Serious question: a lot of the Andes is made up of uncolonized locations, will Andean nations get something to colonize those areas somewhat with ease?

Meme question: is Kuzcotopia an available building?
 
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Why would you use Twantinsuyu as a title name? It's the native name of the Inca Empire, roughly translated to "Realm of four parts" which is based on their administrative system, why would any other Quechua country use it? So far every tier 4 country has used the word Empire in their title regardless of their religion or culture(Mali, Khmer, Byzanthium...) beside a few exeption mostly due to IOs(Great Yuan and Ashikaga Shigunate), I don't see why it should be any different for any quechua country.

The rest is good though!
Two primary reasons:
  • The devs seem to be trying to use indigenous names for tags in the Americas (Qusqu instead of Cusco, for example)
  • It gives a nice sense of continuity - I think - to ascend the ranks of Suyu -> Hatun Suyu -> Q(h)apaq Suyu -> Tawantinsuyu
 
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Regarding this last point (noted the rest of the feedback, thanks), a mix of military conquest and settlement expansion. We're currently thinking of adding some more settled tags on the region, though, so the gameplay is more centered around warfare, compared to peaceful expansion.
Please add more historical settled tags! Would make the region a lot more fun.
 
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1) Shouldn't Panaqas give -1000% Crown Power? Otherwise any positive modifier will grant you some small amount of power in the location.
2) Is there *any* way to stop the Panaqa mechanic? 10 Legitimacy for each location is prohibitive, surely some emperor would try to kill this system? (this is exactly what I'd expect to be the target of a Religious Reform...)
3) Is the Inca formable Qusqu-only, or is it available to any other Andeans?
I think a late Age of Reformation or maybe even Age of Absolutism era reform where you can get a massive decrease to the legitimacy cost of dismantling a location's Panaqa could fit(like -50% or even -90%, so it's 5 or 1 legitimacy instead of 10 being lost).
 
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Some potential Inca (Quechua*) names for country/leader tiers - Quechua seems to have genderless nouns so most of these could be used for female rulers?
  • County: Suyu "Region/Country", led by a Kuraka "ayllu leader/mayor/chief" (or a Sinchi while at war?)
    • could maybe use Ayllu instead of Suyu if tribal/chiefdom
    • Female ruler/consort could use Wayru ("wife of a kuraka or any other authority; madam, lady")
  • Duchy: (Hatun "great") Suyu "Region/Country", led by a Hatun Kuraka "great lord" (or a Hatun Sinchi while at war?) [nota bene: the Wiki page for the Kingdom of Cusco mentions Hatun Kuraka - Hatun Suyu and Hatun Sinchi are not attested there, but included for flavor/parallelism)
    • could maybe use Hatun Ayllu instead of Hatun Suyu if tribal/chiefdom
    • Female ruler/consort could use (Hatun) Wayru
  • Kingdom: Qapaq Suyu "Mighty/Noble Region/Country" (the Quechua Wiki page for the Inca Empire refers to the Kingdom of Cuzco as "Qusqu qhapaq[sic] suyu"), led by a Qapaq "Lord/King/Administator"
    • Female ruler/consort could use one of: Qapaq(?), Wayru, or maybe even Qapaq Wayru (unattested, but in the sense of "Mighty/Noble Lady")
  • Empire: Tawantinsuyu "4 Regions/Countries/Nations", led by a (Sapa "only") Inka "Emperor" (Main [female] consort was titled Quya)
    • Female consort would use Quya "queen; wife of a Sapa Inka"; female ruler maybe the same? or Sapa Quya? (unsure how gendered "Inka" is)
The Inca don't seem to be dependent on vassals in the same way as the Aztecs were, but if you wanted some flavorful vassal names you could use the following (taken from here):
  • County: Wamani were divided into Saya, but perhaps Ayllu (what saya were in turn divided into) is preferable, led by a Kuraka
  • Duchy: Wamani "province", led by a Tuqrikuq - possibly the same as a Tukuy Riku?
  • Kingdom: Suyu, led by an Apu "lord"
If there's somehow an Inca theocracy - the leader could be titled Willaq Umu ("chief priest; anointed one; speaker")

Some other potentially useful terms:
  • ñust'a "Princess"
  • awki "crown prince/heir (lit. prince, chief, old man)"

*Technically, Cusco/Inca should speak Aymara/Puquina before the reign of Huayna Capac (1493-1527) but it's hard to find Aymara word sources
Rather than using it a title Ayllu(or whatever their plural is) could be used as the name of the tribe estate for Quechua speaking countries, the same goes for Inka with the nobility
 
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IMG_4002.jpeg

Just a minor gripe. Something that always irks me ever since I learned it in college is when “In order” is used. It’s used twice. You can take out the phrase and it would still make sense not changing anything and keep it concise.
 
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The UI has had massive improvements! Keep up the good work!!

Country Selection (1).png


Country Selection.png


Playing Cuzco in EU4 was one of my favorite playthroughs, and forming Inca after a few attempts felt like a nice achievement, even if things didn't go so well after Spain and Portugal finally arrived...

It is insane to see how much more detail there is in EU5 compared to before. Hoping that it will be just as fun!

Finally, after all these years, we have Terrace representation!
 
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Temporary bug, introduced by a programmer yesterday, fixed by that programmer today - RIP (the bug, not the programmer).

To be honest I'd like to see a TT devoted to the funniest bugs your team encountered during EUV production. Something for a day when the release is close and you have no specific topic to talk about anymore.
 
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Some potential Inca (Quechua*) names for country/leader tiers - Quechua seems to have genderless nouns so most of these could be used for female rulers?
  • County: Suyu "Region/Country", led by a Kuraka "ayllu leader/mayor/chief" (or a Sinchi while at war?)
    • could maybe use Ayllu instead of Suyu if tribal/chiefdom
    • Female ruler/consort could use Wayru ("wife of a kuraka or any other authority; madam, lady")
  • Duchy: (Hatun "great") Suyu "Region/Country", led by a Hatun Kuraka "great lord" (or a Hatun Sinchi while at war?) [nota bene: the Wiki page for the Kingdom of Cusco mentions Hatun Kuraka - Hatun Suyu and Hatun Sinchi are not attested there, but included for flavor/parallelism)
    • could maybe use Hatun Ayllu instead of Hatun Suyu if tribal/chiefdom
    • Female ruler/consort could use (Hatun) Wayru
  • Kingdom: Qapaq Suyu "Mighty/Noble Region/Country" (the Quechua Wiki page for the Inca Empire refers to the Kingdom of Cuzco as "Qusqu qhapaq[sic] suyu"), led by a Qapaq "Lord/King/Administator"
    • Female ruler/consort could use one of: Qapaq(?), Wayru, or maybe even Qapaq Wayru (unattested, but in the sense of "Mighty/Noble Lady")
  • Empire: Tawantinsuyu "4 Regions/Countries/Nations", led by a (Sapa "only") Inka "Emperor" (Main [female] consort was titled Quya)
    • Female consort would use Quya "queen; wife of a Sapa Inka"; female ruler maybe the same? or Sapa Quya? (unsure how gendered "Inka" is)
The Inca don't seem to be dependent on vassals in the same way as the Aztecs were, but if you wanted some flavorful vassal names you could use the following (taken from here):
  • County: Wamani were divided into Saya, but perhaps Ayllu (what saya were in turn divided into) is preferable, led by a Kuraka
  • Duchy: Wamani "province", led by a Tuqrikuq - possibly the same as a Tukuy Riku?
  • Kingdom: Suyu, led by an Apu "lord"
If there's somehow an Inca theocracy - the leader could be titled Willaq Umu ("chief priest; anointed one; speaker")

Some other potentially useful terms:
  • ñust'a "Princess"
  • awki "crown prince/heir (lit. prince, chief, old man)"

*Technically, Cusco/Inca should speak Aymara/Puquina before the reign of Huayna Capac (1493-1527) but it's hard to find Aymara word sources
1000002260.png

Ayllu is too small to use because it's just one or maybe two villages. But Llaqta and Suyu have potential.

If you look at a map of wamani you will notice that they mostly correspond to individual locations. They were quite small and there were very many of them. So I guess if they are used, they would fit better as the lowest rank.
 
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Rather than using it a title Ayllu(or whatever their plural is) could be used as the name of the tribe estate for Quechua speaking countries, the same goes for Inka with the nobility
I have to disagree here. Ayllu do not fit as tribes, they are more like peasants headed by a noble. They were highly controlled and loyal, and were the basic social building block of Inca society, usually corresponding more or less to a village. The tribe estate should be reserved for the more unintegrated peoples like the Amazonians.
 
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Super cool! Some things that stuck out to me:
  • Is the "Has Panaqas Yes" modifier meant to be red? I suppose it does have a downside, but it's not entirely negative, is it? Especially considering when you "upgrade" to the Inca Empire you don't lose this mechanic like you typically would when "reforming".
  • The description for the Andean Monarchy reform should probably say "woven" instead of "weaved". It's not strictly incorrect currently, but to me "woven" is much more idiomatic. Ditto for the Tawatinsuyu Monarchy reform.
  • The Mit'a System privilege should say "ability to provide" instead of "possibility to provide"
  • The Quipu advance description starts with "Is a ..." which doesn't really match how all the other Advance descriptions are written
  • Do you always die if you drink the aqha in the event "The Best aqha in the Andes"?
  • You can mechanically build the road system, and then there's this unique advance that gives some bonuses:

    View attachment 1335644
    @Pavía Regarding this, do you think renaming the advance to Qhapaq Nan or Incan Royal Road (or something along those lines) would be appropriate as a way to increase the flavour of the advance?

Thanks for taking the time look at all our feedback :)
 
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Three (series of) questions/suggestions:

1. Is there a way to reform away from the Panaqas system, or otherwise mitigate it? There was no mention of this in the TT as far as I could see. For example, an Inca Empire that survives until Absolutism would probably care mroe about crown power than levies. That's alt history content so maybe less relevant, but a simple idea for an advance for an Inca Empire that survives would be bonus that mitigates the effect (for example by having a "reformed panaqa" building with half the benefit/penalty). Another idea would be to have the effect interact with societal values, if at all possible - a very centralised empire might see less panaqas spawn.

Alternatively, if their other mechanics, such as the Nusta/Aclla marriages, provided sources of Legitimacy, that would be interesting as it creates a soft interaction between their mechanics where you are incentivised to engage with them beyond just the upfront bonuses (and such marriages would likely be considered legitimising). Some sort of similar soft interaction with the religious mechanics could also be interesting (and if one considers the closeness of religion and state in the Inca Empire, religious actions that enhance the ruler's legitimacy would be a natural thing to consider). It would also encourage some decentralised gameplay by keeping subjects/tributaries/etc. around for marriages, which should be somewhat accurate for early Cusco, as overt conquest was less of a focus.

2. Considering the mit'a system, beyond allowing peasants to migrate, do we get any tools to, uh, "encourage" the peasants to migrate? Specifically in context of the related mitma system of resettling conquered peoples for the purposes of assimilation. The Inca state was rather actively resettling people so it would be interesting for the player to have some sort of additional agency to reflect this. I don't recall if there is a general feature available for this, so maybe we are already covered.

3. Any bonuses for building roads in mountains? The road system was an important backbone of the Inca Empire, and with 200% build time in mountains / 50% in plateau it might feel very painful to expand like that. Here the mit'a could perhaps come in with a bonus to mitigate some of the penalty of road building time in mountains/plateaus. Though it is already quite a powerful modifier so...

4. Will Cusco (and the altiplano generally) be unreachable by armies in winter? In the South America Tinto Maps this region appears to be entirely surrounded my mountains. Here I think a Qhapaq Nan special road building (or the Tambo) could allow for (at least friendly) armies to pass in winter. Or maybe these locations won't have winter/only mild winter?
 
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How will markets work for the Incans? After all, they did not really have any markets or money at all. I understand that ducats doesn't necessarily equal money in the context of the game, so I'm not saying money should be disabled for the Incans o_O. However, is there any plan for a unique interaction between the Incans and trade/markets to account for their status as a planned economy where internal markets did not exist?
 
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Super cool! Some things that stuck out to me:
  • Is the "Has Panaqas Yes" modifier meant to be red? I suppose it does have a downside, but it's not entirely negative, is it? Especially considering when you "upgrade" to the Inca Empire you don't lose this mechanic like you typically would when "reforming".
Panaqas are a problem: whenever the ruler dies, all your owned locations get a building that gives it -100% crown power, and to remove one of it you have to spend 10 legitimacy. It also gives +33% levy, but that is completely overshadowed by the no crown power thing. Besides, upgrading to Inca ≠ reforming.
 
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Great work, love to see expanded content for the Andean region!

Nitpicking on orthography, where a few Spanish spellings are mixed in the content shown:
- Aclla → Aklla
- Auqui → Awki
- Incamisana → Inkamisana
- Tambo → Tampu
- Quipu → Khipu
- Cusi Chimbo Ayamarca → Kusi Chimpu Ayamarka
- Acamama → Aqhamama
- Inka Roq'a → Inka Ruq'a

And if trying to be consistent with Quechua orthography that makes a distinction between t, t', and th, as in "mit'a":
- Ñusta to Ñust'a
For what it's worth, the three-way stop distinction only exists in the Cusco dialect of the Incas and the Bolivian ones which don't exist yet in 1337. It was likely an Aymara pronunciation loaned into Quechua. No other Quechua dialects have the ejective consonants and I'm not sure about the aspirated ones either.

Anyways great job, love to see consistent naming.
 
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