Amenthes

Nurtured by the river Isis they mastered farming and irrigation, and upon its banks they built the first great cities and massive temples and pyramids to celebrate their victories over their enemies and the accomplishments of their ancestors.

Having mastered the means of fostering life, the Amentheans turned their gaze upon the secrets of sorcery and the underworld- the world of death. Over time they learned dark arts of necromancy; honoring the greatest of their fallen warriors with an eternal unlife as 'The Honored Dead', and raising the bodies of loyal slaves as tireless workers known as 'The Toiling Dead'.

For the masters, the priests and mighty Asar (Amenthean for 'King') was reserved the greatest honor of all - an endless undeath as lichs (GFG01001, pg 292), serving for all time as mentors and objects of worship for future generations of the living.

For centuries Amenthes would brook no rival. When eventually a rival emerged, in the form of the neighboring kingdom of Sahaaba, they took comfort in the fact that they remained unconquered.

This all changed when the ancient kingdom was finally conquered by the machinations of the Sakan adventurer Pitol the Rescuer and his band. With typical flexibility, however, the kingdom accepted the new Asar and over time the rulers of the Pitolean Dynasty became indistinguishable from the rulers that came before them, apart from a dangerous wit and deadly playful demeanor that they shared with their great ancestor.

The rise of the Sullustrian Empire did not leave ancient Amenthes untouched, and Neaisis VII Ptol (pictured) used her ample charms to seduce Sullustrian politician and general Milius the Conqueror to overthrow her brother, Ptol IX and become Queen of Amenthes. Her ambition knew no limits, and upon the death of Milius she plotted to make her son through Milius (known as Milesion) both Asar of Amanthes and King of Sallust.

Defeated in battle by Milius' heir Erimus Magnus, she committed suicide by the traditional method of an asps bite. Her son in turn was struck down by the Sullustrian Legions, and his body was interred in the same tomb as his fallen mother and the many servants and soldiers that joined her in death. In absolute secrecy both were imbued with unlife in the ancient rituals of the most honored dead, ensuring their eternal unrest.

Many centuries have passed since this time. But although the Amenthean Queen was entombed, she does not slumber; although devoid of life her lusts persist. Now the lich known as The Asp Queen now rules the Kingdom of Amenthes from her forbidden crypt, seeking to claim what she sees as the rightful place of her son as Emperor of Sallustria and for herself as Queen of all of the world!

------------------------

Amanthes is a vast desert broken up by fertile pockets of life where the river Isis spreads her bounty. Ancient cities can be found along this great river, each older, stranger and more decadent than the last.

Life is a thing to be lived and nature a thing to be shunned in these lands; as is evidenced by the shaved and perfumed bodies of the greater and lesser nobility, reveling in the pleasures of the flesh and the drinking of nefertum, the narcotic Amentean lotus wine. Within the confines of a typical Amentean city can be found many merchants selling spices, wines, and other delicacies. Shrines and temples abound, espousing the names of gods and powers forgotten and oft reviled elsewhere. A traveler should beware of cutpurses -which are everywhere, and often in league with the merchants, harlots, tax-collectors and even the priesthood of a given city.

Beyond the relative safety of the cities the vast desert beckons- full of ancient ruins and temples filled with hungry scarabs and the remains of the dead; and the not quite dead. Here may be found wandering nomadic Saurians- remnants of a great and lost civilization - and the fearsome myrmidion, ant-like folk who live is vast catacombs beneath the ever-shifting sands.

It bears noting that the horror and dread that the undead might inspire in other lands in largely absent here. The lifeless armies that make up the Asp Queens legions are known as the 'Honored Dead', soldiers who fight on beyond the veil of death. The mummified workers who build endless and imposing monuments are known as the 'Toiling Dead', and they too are begrudgingly admired for their dedication as their desiccated bodies work beyond the strength that life had granted them.

Life is, after all, for the living. And death, in the final analysis is the final and unending fate of all living things. And in Amenthes while the living live, the dead rule. And so it shall be until the river finally dries up and leaves only the shifting sands and the memory of their glories behind.