Waka

A Cuauhtli (eagle, in nahuatl) warrior stands alone, overshadowed by a colossal, living Ziggurat-like Wak'a.

Animated illustration created over a sketch which I produced in 2016, inspired by drawings, stories and characters I created during my childhood, and in turn, inspired by the pyramidal adobe structures built by the ancient Moche / Mochica people, from the northern coast of nowadays Peru. Some of the murals from those pyramids are replicated here.

A Wak'a, or Huaca, is a Kichwa / Quechua (people which traditional language is known as Runa Simi) concept that refers to sacred or ominous places, whether lakes, rivers, mountains, caves, but also structures built by humans, including those pyramidal edifices built by the Moche / Mochica people, some left abandoned centuries before the rise and expansion of the Tawantinsuyu, the Inca State, that in the 15th century fought the Chimú, the descendants of the Mochica.

Illustration and animation by Zamahel https://linktr.ee/zamahel https://twitter.com/itzamahel https://instagram.com/itzamahel