#staff god

[rosetta222]

Doodle compilation July-August 2025

[nogetron]

The First Staff God, ancestor to the Andes.

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Nothing about this god has survived, not its character, myths, nor surrounding pantheon. This god is only known through a single representation on a shattered gourd.

This god originates from the Caral Supe civilization, also called Norte Chico. Caral Supe was the oldest civilization in America, forming around 3500 BC. Caral Supe chronologically existed alongside Sumer and ancient Egypt. The civilization would slowly dissolve around 1800 BC, believed to be caused by the dispersion of its people to more fertile land leading to more powerful societies eclipsing Caral Supe.

The actual contents and precise history of the civilization is largely unknown. They were able to build massive structures such as cities and pyramids. Despite this technological and laborious achievement, the Caral Supe people seemingly hadn’t discovered ceramics yet, this has resulted in almost a complete absence of art in archaeological sites, as their art was likely made with and on decomposable materials. The only known evidence of traditional carved and painted art from Caral Supe is the aforementioned staff god portrait.

Surprisingly however, Caral Supe apparently had a writing system. Quipu or items that resemble Quipu have been found in Caral Supe sites. Quipu was a record keeping system found throughout the Andean cultures, akin to proto-writing, some have even suggested that it could’ve also been used to record language like a true writing system. Quipu were cord like objects made from wool and hair from llamas, Alpacas, Vicuña and Guanaco. Various cords were attached to one long cord. Numerous knots were tied along the individual cords. The color of the cords, the number of knots, and even the space between them, all ascertained certain recorded data.

The discovery of Caral Supe was not without controversy. The Caral Supe civilization was discovered by Ruth Shady, a native Peruvian. Allegedly, the couple Jonathan Haas and Winifred Creamer approached Ruth Shady offering to co-author her paper, believing that since they were from the United States, their co-authoring would bring it to a wider audience and hopefully more funding. Ruth Shady would accept and write her 2001 paper with the couple as co-authors. Later however, the two would take credit for the discovery of Caral Supe, only mentioning Ruth Shady in footnotes. An angered Ruth Shady accused the two of plagiarism, believing that since the two were American the two could sway the media more affectively than she could in Peru. Despite her arguments, the couple was controversially acquitted of their alleged plagiarism. The two have continued to take credit for the discovery of Caral Super in further articles despite the academic backlash they’ve received.

While its character and surrounding mythology has been lost, the few traits of them that’ve survived possibly pointing to them being the bedrock of the entirety of Andean mythology. Much like the later staff gods the figure holds onto two staffs, even their general pose mirrors the ones given to these staff gods. The figure also seems to be wearing some sort of headress, and while headdresses were common in Andean imagery, they were especially important and prolific for the staff gods. Most intriguingly, the figure seems to possess feline traits, such as fangs and cat ears along with large eyes, these felid features are also a hallmark of staff gods. The presence of such qualities, both culturally and mythologically, point to Caral Supe being the foundation of the greater Andean cultures, with their staff god serving as the origin of their later descendant staff gods, such as the Inca Viracocha, Illapa, the Nazca and Paracas Kon, the Aymara Thunupa, the Moche Ai Apaec, the Ichma Pachacamac (mainly due to his conflation with Viracocha), and the Chavín staff god among many others.

It’s possible that the first staff god’s descendants still hold onto lost traits that the staff god once had, and by examining them you could make a crude framework for the deity. Like the other staff gods, the staff god of Caral Supe was likely the chief deity of their culture, in addition to most likely being the creator god as well. The staff god could’ve been associated with the sky, sun and moon, along with storms and the sea, but the presence of these vary among their descendants so it’s not a certainty the original staff god was associated with them too.

Due to how little we know about Caral Supe, not much can be gathered directly so please remember that much of this is speculation and theory

[rosetta222]

Art Fight

An art gifting game

[rosetta222]

2025 Year in Review

So this has been a REALLY busy year near the end, but somehow I've found time to draw- 90% of them are just Rosario Ferro (OC)

Resolution: Actually complete stuff sitting in my files and try getting into animation again!

[rosetta222]

[nogetron]

Forgot to post Kon’s digital design on here, sorry!

[nogetron]

I’ve been meaning to redesign Viracocha for so long, and it’s finally here!

Check out his original profile HERE!

[nogetron]

Viracocha, the Incan lord of creation. Before time there was only darkness. Within this darkness lay a watery chaos, lake Titicaca. This chaos stirred and out emerged the first of all things, Viracocha. With his wife Mama Qucha, Viracocha spawned the sun god Inti and the moon goddess Mama Quilla, from his hand spilled the stars of the night sky. Viracocha made the earth itself, creating the valleys, mountains and seas by which life called home. Viracocha manifested time, ordering Inti and Mama Quills to move across the sky.

Viracocha gathered the stones strewn across his lands, and as they rested in his hands he blew on them, instilling within them life. These stones became giants who raged against the earth and held no intelligence of their own. Disappointed, Viracocha sent a flood and wiped away the giants. Viracocha tried once again, this time he used smaller stones, bringning about the human race.

Viracocha now satisfied with his creation, left the mortal world, leaving it in the care of humanity and the gods. Despite his departure, Viracocha regularly visited the earth in the form of a beggar, teaching the masses about the world they inhabited. Viracocha embodied the wind and storms and was heavily associated with the sea, possibly in relation to the pre creation chaos but it could also be the result of his wife Mama Qucha, who embodied the sea and the life within it. Viracocha was revered by his worshippers as the animate force of the universe, the substance by which all was created.

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Viracocha was the highest and most worshipped god among the Incas. The worship of Viracocha didn’t originate within the Incas however, as he does predate the Incan civilization themselves, likely originating from their predecessors. However it was among the Inca’s where Viracocha grew to his pinnacle of popularity, he was the center point of Incan worship, with the sun god Inti, an incredibly popular god in his own right, was only second to Viracocha.

As the Incan civilization grew they absorbed neighboring peoples like the Nazca, Ichma, and Aymara along with many others, their gods were both inducted into the Inca pantheon as well as conflated with viracocha himself. The Nazca’s Kon in particular became close with the worship of Viracocha. Originally both Kon and Pachacamac were introduced into the pantheon as sons of the sun god Inti, both of them keeping their attributes as creator gods they held in their native lands. However Viracocha’s worshippers began to associate Kon more and more closely with Viracocha, ultimately treating Kon as a manifestation of Viracocha, Cuniraya Huiracocha. Cuniraya embodied Viracocha’s aspect as a trickster god, with his form as a beggar being used to irritate the gods. With Viracocha’s popularity came a multitude of names and titles, such as Pachayachicachan “teacher of the earth”, and T'iqsi Wiraqocha. One of Viracocha’s epithets, Kontiki, is the result of further conflation between Viracocha and Kon. Both Thunupa and Pachacamac, the chief gods of the Aymara and Ichma respectively, were both similarly conflated with Viracocha. While not to the same degree as Kon, the two were still absorbed into Viracocha by the Inca, with their native myths being given to Viracocha and vise versa.

It’s believed that the Polynesian and Andean peoples came into contact with one another. Evidence such as the planting of sweet potatoes in Polynesia, a crop native to South America, and South American genetics in some Polynesian peoples proves this hypothesis. The presence of the word “Tiki” in some of Viracocha’s names lead some to believe that Viracocha and Kon had absorbed the Polynesian Tiki, however this is likely a coincidence as the Andean Tiki likely comes from a mutation of the aforementioned word T'iqsi.

According to the records of the Spanish colonists, they alleged that Viracocha among many other gods were believed by the Incans to be white or Caucasian with beards. A similar claim was made by the Spanish colonists who colonized mesoamerica with Quetzalcoatl. Not a single piece of evidence exists to support the idea that the Incans believed this, in actuality it was an attempt made by the Spanish to aggrandize and appropriate themselves in Incan customs to further push colonization.

Among the Spanish’s records of Incan mythology, they claim that Viracocha walked on water, that he traveled the earth and taught humanity, and that he would reappear during times of need. These have intrigued scholars with its mirroring of many of the traits shared by Jesus, it’s unclear if it comes from an attempt to convert the Incas or if it’s an actual belief the Incas had. However in conjunction with the Spanish’s attempt in changing Viracocha’s race it is more likely that it came from an attempt to Christianize the Incans. Despite this there are some parallels within both Incan and South American mythology, as South American gods like Kon were depicted departing the earth from the sea, it’s known that Incas did believe that Viracocha traveled the earth in human form as a trickster which could be equated with teaching humanity.

The development of Viracocha likely branched off from a common ‘staff god’ ancestor, with fellow branches being Kon, Pachacamac, the Lanzon deity of the Chavin, the Moche Ai Apaec and the Aymara Thunupa. This common ancestor was most likely the staff god found in Caral Supe.

OLD DESIGN, Check out Viracocha’s new design HERE