Chapter Seven: Nubia

The name of Nubia belongs to that part of the Nile Valley where the floodplain is narrow and discontinuous, and where the river's six cataracts can be found. In the days of ancient Egypt, Nubia was occupied by the legendary Empire of Kush, which met its end in the fourth century. When Christian missionaries first entered Nubia in the sixth century, they found three kingdoms flourishing in the ruins of Kush: Nobatia, Makuria, and Alodia. These three nations persist to this day.

The region is called the bled es-Sudan, Land of the Blacks, by the Arabs. Geographically, it is divided into Lower Nubia, covering the first two cataracts, and Upper Nubia south of that. Lower Nubia is characterized mostly by desert; there is an almost total absence of rainfall and, apart from a narrow strip alongside the river, it is an extremely hostile environment. Agriculture is possible only through extensive irrigation using mule-driven waterwheels. In contrast, Upper Nubia has significant seasonal rainfall and extensive vegetation. Where a river meets the Nile, the area within the confluence is usually highly productive, and population clusters in these 'islands'. The rich agricultural land of Upper Nubia is buffered from the desert by savannah. In the far south, Upper Nubia blends into the Ethiopian Highlands.

History

The upper reaches of the Nile River have been occupied since the time of ancient Egypt, although little is known of this time. There were a series of kingdoms, one centered around Ballana (near Pakhoras) and another further upriver at Kerma. These smaller kingdoms were conquered and absorbed into a single state under one emperor, under the name of Kush.

The Empire of Kush

Roman Egypt's southern neighbor, the Empire of Kush was ruled by monarchs called qores, the descendants of a line of Nubian pharaohs of Egypt long after their reign ended in Egypt itself. The Kushite people were descended from Cush son of Ham son of Noah, and Kush gained its independence from Egypt a thousand years before the birth of Christ. The capital of the Kushite Empire was originally Napata, close to the fourth cataract, but Emperor Aspelta moved his palace to Meroë in 591 BC, partly to escape from the controlling influence of the priesthood. The priests were the arbiters of ma'at, a concept of righteousness and order. Ma'at determined the laws of the empire, and through ma'at they elected the king and made him a god. Yet, if the priests decided that the emperor had defied ma'at, they could issue an order that he commit suicide. Such was their power — at least through most of the empire's existence — that the emperor would obey.

Despite the move to Meroë, most emperors were still little more than puppets of the priests, who still had custody of the generations of deceased royalty, interred at the necropoli near their stronghold at Napata. Around 300 BC the Emperor Arqamani finally broke free from theocratic dominance and had all the Napatan priests slaughtered. The capital of the empire was formally moved to Meroë, and a new royal cemetery was built to house the royal dead, free from priestly control. Henceforth the emperors ruled in fact, not just in name, but, without a royal priesthood, were no longer accorded the divine status of their forebears.

The Collapse of Kush

Weakened by war with Roman Egypt and Axum, and wracked by internal rebellion, Kush eventually faded into obscurity. The Roman Emperor Diocletian employed a desert people called the Nobatae to defend the southern frontier of his empire against the Blemmyae of the Red Sea hills in 297. The Nobatae settled in the lush riverine valleys of the Nile and established petty kingdoms that treated with Rome.

There was a brief renaissance of Kush in the fifth century when Blemmyae tribesmen captured Meroë and attempted to revive the empire, but this was crushed by the Kingdom of Axum from the south and by the Nobatae in the north. The Nobatae extracted a succession of oaths of submission from the defeated Blemmyae. Eventually, three kingdoms emerged along the Nile: Nobatia in Lower Nubia; and Makuria and Alodia in Upper Nubia. Upper Nubia was conquered by Axum (see Chapter 8: Ethiopia) in the early sixth century, and was its vassal state for nearly a century.

The Conversion of Nubia

In 540, two missions were sent from Constantinople to bring the word of Christ to Nubia: one representing the orthodox or Melkite party under the patronage of Emperor Justinian, the other sent by the Empress Theodora and representing the Monophysite theology, despite it being declared heretical by the Council of Chalcedon some hundred years earlier. Theodora was able to have the Melkites delayed in Egypt, and Julian, the leader of the Monophysite mission, spent two years in Nubia and achieved some success. His successor was Longinus, who did not manage to return until 567, by which time the Kingdom of Makuria had been converted to orthodoxy. Longinus spent six years in Nobatia, then, following an exile to Arabia due to politics within the Coptic church, he returned to Nobatia in 580 and resolved to bring the Word of Christ to Alodia as well. He was unable to travel directly there from Nobatia due to the hostility of Makuria toward Longinus "the heresiarch." Instead, he struck out through the eastern desert into the land of the Blemmyae, and after many adventures made it to Alodia where he was met by the king himself. The conversion of Alodia was a total success.

Following their conquest of Egypt, the Umayyads twice tried to annex the Kingdom of Makuria, in 642 and 652. The result of these resounding defeats of the invaders was the negotiation of the Baqt (see insert). This treaty permitted all the Nubian kingdoms to flourish without fear of invasion or forced conversion to Islam, and provided five centuries of accord.

Following the Arab conquest of Egypt, the formerly dominant Melkite Church was considered a puppet of the outgoing Byzantine regime, and the Monophysite Coptic Church was favored by Egypt's new rulers. As a consequence there were no Melkite bishops appointed for Makuria for over a hundred years, a misfortune of which the Monophysite clergy took advantage under King Merkurios of Makuria, who adopted Monophysitism for his kingdom. Merkurios was also responsible for building the mighty city of Dongola that became Makuria's capital, and some called him the "New Constantine." During his reign, Nobatia was suspected of allying with the Muslims of Egypt in order to gain dominance over its Makurian rivals, and Merkurios invaded Nobatia and subjugated the kingdom, a situation that remains unto this day.

Especially profitable relations existed during the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt (969 – 1171), which relied heavily on the Nubians for economic and military support. Part of this success derived from the discovery of gold in the Red Sea hills, which led to a flourishing of Nubian culture in all three kingdoms, and the establishment of ports to trade the new-found wealth across the sea.

Salah ed-Din

Upon the downfall of the Fatimids in 1171, the new Ayyubid ruler Salah ed-Din immediately sent his brother Shams ed-Dawla Turan Shah to invade Nubia, to cut off any reprisals in support of Fatimid allies. Nobatia in particular suffered massive destruction, and the city of Premnis was occupied for several years. It is reported that an Ayyubid emissary visited Makuria to see if it was worth conquering, but he reported that the land was too poor, and the Ayyubids withdrew from Nubia and have not returned. This emissary was clearly lying, for Makuria was then and still is at the zenith of its prosperity, nevertheless, his word was considered good, and the Arabs soon retreated north.

Peaceful relations and trade were restored with Egypt but trust has been lost. The Baqt is defaulted in more years than it is paid, and demands for arrears for the missed years go unheeded. Meanwhile, the Nobatian populace is being relocated from rural communities into defensible walled towns, particularly on islands in the Nile.

A new threat to the Nubian kingdoms is the arrival in the area of Bedouin nomads from both Egypt and Arabia. These tribes have been driven out by the Ayyubids, and have traveled south into Upper Nubia. Makuria and Alodia have both lost territory to the nomads, who have established independent warring principalities called meks to the east of the Nile. Nobatia has avoided such depredations thus far due to its desert climate, which makes it undesirable as grazing land.

Nubian Culture

Nubians are a black-skinned people, with wavy black hair; curly hair is considered to be a sign of slave-stock. They tend to be taller than the average European or Arab. Nubians wear light trousers and loose smock-like garments made of cotton; they often have clothes that are brightly dyed in contrasting colors in geometric shapes that are worn to church or on festival days. Important citizens wear a short tunic stiffened with reeds or ivory so that it flares out sharply at the waist; they may wear several layers of these garments, each of a different length and color. Men and women wear gold and copper jewelry: bangles on the wrist and ankle, and hoops around the neck. Strings of beads made from ostrich eggshell, glass, cowrie shells, and wood are common, as are finger rings carved from stone, sometimes with a decorated bezel. Parasols and walking sticks are common, the latter even among the young and hale. Hair is often arranged into elaborate coiffures in both sexes: plaited into rows of tresses or held into topknots by long-tined ivory combs.

Warriors and the Army

Nubia is famous for its archers; the Arabs know them as "pupil-smiters" and "archers of the eyes" because of their accuracy. Nubian warriors use not only the self bow (which is also used for hunting), but also a complex compound bow with a bone core. Nubians also use expensive iron arrowheads that can punch through thick armor. Melee weapons include spears (both short and long), and short swords. Nubian swords typically have just one sharpened edge. Shields and armor are made of thick oxhide molded and decorated into patterns of raised bosses and ribbed surfaces; most commonly a breastplate and leather skirt suffices, sometimes with vambraces and greaves. Cavalry is an important component of the army, mounted on either lightbodied horses or war camels.

The army is under the command of exarchs, each in control of either a division of the royal guard or a frontier garrison. As well as this permanent army, there is also a levy in times of war. Makuria also maintains a small navy on the Nile under the command of two nauarchs; the navy's prime purpose is water transport of troops and supplies, although they are trained in ship-to-ship combat.

Attitudes toward the Dead

Nubians are deeply superstitious about the dead. They attach no elaborate ceremonies to funerals, although by no means do they skimp on the formal burial according to Church doctrine. Covering the face of the dead with a mask or plate is important, to stop death from infecting those who see the corpse. It is unusual for the family or friends of the deceased to attend a funeral, leaving the process to a priest and hired pallbearers. Graves are marked purely to show their location, not to identify the occupant. Nubian houses have no windows from which a burial site can be seen, and graveyards do not have roads or paths near them. This reluctance to catch even a cursory glance of a place of interment extends to the numerous ancient monuments of Kush; those unfortunate enough to live close to a pyramid will not look directly at it if they can avoid doing so.

Alodians take this superstitious dread one stage further. They do not even speak of a deceased individual by name, and prefer not to even refer to their deeds. The kingdom has a mortuary society that deals with all aspects of death on the people's behalf, but this irrevocably renders them social pariahs.

Story Seed: Theft by the Dead

A group of robbers (probably of foreign origin) are exploiting the Nubian reluctance to acknowledge the dead by faking their own deaths and then masquerading as their own walking corpses to commit their crimes. No one will report that they were robbed, and no one follows them back to their graveyard haunt. Unfortunately, their activities have attracted the attention of faeries (or demons) who take on the mien of real corpses and copy their crimes. The characters get involved when they become a target of the faeries, and are robbed by someone they know to be dead.

The Baqt

The Baqt was originally negotiated in 652 by the Umayyad governor of Egypt and the king of Makuria after an unsuccessful Muslim invasion of Nubia. The name derives from the Greek pakton ("agreement"), and is a unique bilateral agreement that guaranteed the Nubian kingdoms freedom from further invasions or forced conversion to Islam. In the text of the Baqt, the Egyptians and Nubians promised not to make war on one another, and each guaranteed safe conduct of the other's citizens when traveling. The Nubians were to return any runaway slaves or Egyptian outlaws, and furnish an annual tribute of 365 slaves to the treasury, 40 slaves to the emir of Egypt, 20 slaves to the governor of Aswan, five slaves to the judge of Aswan, and one slave to each of the twelve guarantors of the Baqt. In return, the Egyptians undertook to provide wheat, barley, wine, and fancy cloth.
After its signing, the Egyptians made no attempts to invade Nubia for over 500 years, despite frequent lapses in the tribute of slaves. In 835, the tribute was overdue for fourteen years, and the caliph sent an urgent demand to King Zacharias of Makuria. Zacharias's son George traveled to Baghdad and managed to renegotiate the Baqt, making the quota of slaves payable every three years instead. The advent of Fatimid rule in Egypt once again brought a renewal of demands for arrears in the tribute; this time an Egyptian envoy traveled to Dongola for renegotiation, but once more the Baqt was renewed.
Copies of the Baqt can be found in every city of Nobatia and Makuria; the original 652 and 835 documents are both stored in Dongola Cathedral. Copies of the Baqt that have been signed under relevant authorization from the King of Makuria and the Fatimid governer contain a pawn of Rego vis. The two original documents are sources of Rego vis, but it is infused with the Divine. Furthermore, the vis is only produced in years in which the Egyptians do not attack and the Nubian tribute is not in arrears.

Names

Nubian names are generally simple, consisting of a given name and perhaps a patronymic (e.g. Abraam son of Kosma) or toponymic (e.g. Dawud of Dongola). Women tend to use a marital name (e.g. Eionngoka wife of Abraam).

Nubian Names (Male): Abraam, Adama, Anastasios, Athanasios, Chael, Dauti, Dawud, Douddil, Georgios, Iakobi, Iesou, Ioannes, Ioasse, Kosma, Mashshouda, Merkourios, Orinourla, Petros, Pisroel, Tapara, Tirsakouni

Nubian Names (Female): Anthelia, Anna, Eionngoka, Eirene, Ekkir, Genseoua, Iannia, Maria, Mariham, Mena, Petrosinta, Songoja, Sophora, Theodora

The multisyllabic names of the Kushitic people are rarely heard; most Nubians think they sound ridiculous. However, the higher classes of Meroë still occasionally employ these names, which can be found inscribed on various Kushitic monuments in the Meroitic script.

Meroitic Names (Male): Amanikhabale, Aspelta, Atakhebasken, Malewiebamani, Piye, Senkamanisken, Shabaka, Taharqa, Tanwetamai

Meroitic Names (Female): Amanitore, Aqaluqa, Gerarheni, Henuttakhebit, Kasaqa, Pebatjma, Qalhata, Shanakdakhete, Tabiry, Yuterow

Story Seed: Six Hundred and Eighty Nine

A crazed old man has been making clay amulets with the chi-pi-theta cryptogram for many years. He sells them to passers-by, and uses the money to buy used swords from soldiers. He has gathered over six hundred of these swords, each one attached to the outside wall of his house, which has become a local landmark. One day, the characters notice all the swords have gone. If they track down the old man, they will find him hiding swords all over the city, muttering in Aramaic. He thinks that once he has placed all 689 swords in precise locations, he will summon Michael, archangel of the sword, who will cast out all evil from the city. Will his summoning work? Will it actually summon an archangel? Will Michael abide by the same definition of evil as mankind? After all, Sodom and Gomorrah were the last cities he cleansed…

Religion

Nubia is overwhelmingly Christian; in fact it is illegal for a subject of either the Makurian or Alodian crown to convert to or profess any other faith.

Christianity

The original evangelism of Nubia was undertaken by rival missionaries; as a result, Nobatia and Alodia were principally Monophysite Christians and Makuria was mostly Melkite. As the power of the Byzantine Melkite Church declined in Egypt, the Monophysite Church became dominant in Nubia, and Makuria was converted.

The Nubian Church is integrated with the Monophysite Coptic Church under the Patriarch of Alexandria. All new bishops are appointed from Alexandria, and many are Egyptians. Unlike the rest of the Coptic Church the Nubian Church uses Greek rather than Coptic as its liturgical language.

Slavery in a Saga

Stories involving slaves can be difficult for a troupe, with modern-day attitudes clashing with medieval values. These same tensions are present in Nubia itself, which is a slave-taking nation but believes owning a slave to be abhorrent. Addressing the hypocrisy of the Nubian slave trade through slave, slave-owning, or slave-taking characters can be rewarding if addressed with due care to modern sensibilities.

A Slave Character and His Owner

Players may wish to take on the challenge of playing a slave. This usually means playing a Mythic Aithiops (see later). This is a viable option if the character's owner is another player character or the covenant as a whole: whereas being a slave is an atrocious existence where life and death is dependent on the whim of another, most slave characters owned by another player character have an atypical master who abjures the lash and most severe punitive measures for whatever reason, and cannot or will not sell the player character to another. The character instead may have a lax or permissive master who allows the character a greater freedom than a slave is normally permitted.
Reasons of this sort of relationship include:

The owner may have inherited the slave from a relative and cannot free him without causing insult;

The slave might be the latest in a long line of loyal house slaves;

The slave might have a vital skill that he uses on his master's behalf for more lenient treatment;

The slave may have sold himself into slavery (or been sold by his parents) in order to avert some terrible fate.

These characters should take the Favored Slave Flaw.

An Enslaved Character

Players wishing to run stories involving their character's status as a slave should design him or her with the Chattel Slave Flaw. As a Major Story Flaw, this is not suitable for grog characters; individuals with this Flaw take center stage in stories to do with the circumstances of their slavery, and that is not a role given to grogs.
Some examples of how being a slave could generate stories include:

You have escaped from your owner and are trying to avoid recapture, or find a way home;

Your family were captured at the same time and you are trying to find them;

Your master has died, and no one knows about it yet;

You are involved in criminal activities unbeknownst to your master;

Your master is a criminal and he forces you to assist him;

You are a favored slave who attracts the jealousy of your fellows;

Your master's enemies are trying to get at him through you.

A Free Aithiopian Character

Not all Mythic Aithiopians are slaves, but their appearance immediately sets them apart from the rest of the populace. Free Aithiopians should take either the Outsider or Outcast Social Status Flaw in any saga set outside of the Slavelands. Outcast is suitable for a character who has adopted local customs but is still clearly exotic; whereas Outsider is appropriate for characters who overtly keep to their traditional tribal ways - for example, a character newly arrived from further south. The physical appearance of an Aithiopian character automatically marks him as a slave in any Arab nation, especially Egypt, but without an accompanying Story Flaw this misunderstanding can usually be sorted out.
A free Aithiopian character may have a Story Flaw related to his presence in Nubia. Dependents or a True Love might have been sold into slavery and he is striving to retrieve them. A character with Close Family Ties could strive to keep his clan from the hands of slavers. The character may be a former slave, and now has his previous owner as an Enemy; or he may be conducting a Feud with the slaver who captured him in the first place.

A Slave Owner Character

Unlike European slave owners (such as in the Rhine Tribunal), in Egypt and Nubia it is not necessary for owners of slaves to have a Virtue to represent this; anyone may have a number of slaves suitable to their wealth and status. A Christian slave owner in a Christian kingdom has a Local Reputation at a score of 1, representing the social disapproval that this practice engenders.

A Slaver Character

Characters who are slavers should take the Merchant Social Status Virtue if they are mostly involved in the transport of slaves, or the Mercenary Captain Social Status Virtue if they are captors. Either type of character is likely to be Well-Traveled. Being a slaver lends itself to stories of exploration in an exotic and hostile land, although the ethical dimension of the slave trade should not be glossed over.

A Campaigner against Slavery

A character may be sufficiently opposed to the slave trade to attempt to stop it. Such a character is likely to have the Driven Personality Flaw if he is determined to follow this ambitious course, and appropriate social influence (perhaps through the Temporal Influence or Social Contacts Virtues) would prove very useful. The character could well have the Enemies Flaw to represent the activities of those who oppose him.
To be successful in abolishing slavery, the Baqt would have to be re-negotiated or abandoned altogether. This may be an achievable goal or a hopeless dream, depending on the demands of the saga. Petitioning the Nubian Church to speak out against slavery would be an excellent start in a campaign; and the quid pro quo demanded by the bishops could be the source of many stories.

New Flaws for Slaves

Note that these Flaws are different from those in Guardians of the Forests (page 102), reflecting a different cultural attitude toward slaves.

Favored Slave

Minor Social Status Flaw
You are a slave who has a privileged existence compared to most of your kind. As a possession of your master, you are beholden to his or her will completely, and are only likely to earn your freedom through some exceptional act of service, if ever. Disobedience, on the other hand, can earn you severe punishment. You have no belongings of consequence, except that which is given to you by your master. You probably will never need to worry about where your next meal is coming from, and will be housed in decent accommodation, although this in no way compensates for your status.

Chattel Slave

Major Story and Social Status Flaw
You are a slave, and as such have the effects of the Minor Social Status Flaw above; however, you have no special status among your caste and this will be the cause of stories. You should decide upon the source of your tension with your owner when you take this Flaw. Examples are given in a nearby insert. You must also explain how you are able to have regular contact with the other player characters. A likely explanation for this is that you are on loan from your master who is a friend of the other characters, but other explanations may result from the relationship between yourself and your master. Note that this Flaw is suitable for escaped slaves who are being actively pursued; those who have truly escaped their master's influence should be treated like free Aithiopians (and probably have the Outcast Flaw instead).

There are seven episcopal sees in the combined Kingdom of Makuria and Nobatia (at Kalabsha, Premnis, Pakhoras, Sai, Dongola, Shanqir, and Kallama), and another six in Alodia (at Soba, Meroë, Kabushia, Kawa, Sennar, Goz Regeb). The church hierarchy is complex, with many layers and titles including bishops (papas), great priests (sorto daoul), priests (sorto), archimandrites, archdeacons, epideacons, deacons, liturgists, and elders (gort). The basic rank is the priest or presbyteros, assigned to a single church. A typical Nubian church is a rectangular building with a flat roof supported by timbers; larger churches may be cruciform or bear one or more domes atop its roof.

Monasticism is a minor part of the Nubian Coptic Church. Most monasteries were founded and are currently populated by Egyptians. There are also unofficial monastic communities called lawra, which have no official recognition.

The archangel Michael is extremely popular throughout the Nubian Church, and figures prominently in invocations, inscriptions, and dedications. A cryptogram of the Greek letters chi-pi-theta is common, based on numerology: this cryptogram represents 689, the numerical equivalent of Michael's name in Greek.

Islam

Under the Baqt, freedom of Nubia from conversion to Islam was guaranteed. With the coming of the Ayyubids, the Baqt has less force, and the city of Pakhoras (see later) now has a mosque, principally for use by Egyptian traders. The Bedouin tribes who threaten the eastern borders, plus the settled Banu al-Kanz (see later) are Muslim; there is also an enclave of Arabs in the city of Soba. Should these populations continue to grow, Islam may become a real presence in Nubia.

Paganism

The ancient Kushitic religion still persists in isolated pockets of Nubia, although paganism is not tolerated by the Nubian Church. The Kushites believed that before creation, the world was covered in water. Then a mound of earth rose out of the water, on top of which Atum the first god was born. From this vantage point — Dju Wa'ab in Makuria (see later) — Atum created the world.

Atum is depicted as an old man, sometimes with a ram's head. The pantheon included many Egyptian gods, but also some uniquely Kushitic ones. Anhur and Menhit were deities of war that Egypt adopted from Kush. Anhur was depicted as a bearded man wearing a kilt and a headdress with four feathers; his weapon was the spear. He was patron of soldiers and the army, and mock battles were held in his honor. Menhit, whose name means 'she who massacres', rained fiery arrows on her enemies. She was depicted with the head of a lioness. Mandulis was the god of the sun, and wore an elaborate headdress of ram's horns, cobras, and plumes surmounted by sun discs. Sometimes he has the body of a hawk with a human head. Dedun was the god of incense, and by association, the god of prosperity and wealth. He was the guardian of the royal dead, and the especial patron of the Kushitic priesthood. Apedemak was perhaps the most important god as the patron of royalty, and of Meroë in particular. He was depicted as a man with four arms and three lion-heads, or occasionally with just a single leonine head, or as a lion killing serpents (an allegory for the triumph of Arqamani over the Napatan priesthood). As well as possessing the regality, strength, and courage of the lion, he also represented truth, light, and fertility. His wife was Amesemi, goddess of protection and the moon.

Economy and Trade

The Nubian kingdoms grow several crops of sorghum, millet, barley, and dates each year. In Nobatia, most suitable agricultural land is close to the river and requires heavy irrigation; further south, the river valley is more lush and water is less limited. Other crops include lentils, olives, sesame, vines, bananas, wheat, and cotton. As well as being made into a type of bread, sorghum is also used to make mizr, a beer that forms an important part of the diet; dates are also fermented to make an alcoholic drink, and vines yield grapes for wine. Nubians employ an oxen-driven water wheel to increase yield due to better irrigation. Sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs are all raised as livestock; of these, pigs provide the bulk of the meat.

Most of the population lives in houses made of sun-dried bricks. Important industries include pottery (particularly in Pakhoras) and weaving (particularly in Dongola). Smaller local industries include leatherworking, metalworking, and the production of palm fiber products such as baskets and mats. Gold is mined in the Red Sea Hills, and emeralds are found in the same location. Cotton provides fiber for textiles, wool comes mainly from camels and goats; both are dyed a wide range of colors — Nubians cultivate indigo and are capable of providing light-fast blues which are the envy of northern nations.

Exports from the Nubian Kingdoms include glass, ivory, ostrich feathers, cattle, emeralds, gold, and (most importantly) slaves. Imports from Egypt include wheat, linen, and wine. There is also trade with the Ethiopians to the south and east.

The Eparch of Nobatia

Also styled "The Lord of the Mountain," the eparch of Nobatia has supplanted its king. He is appointed directly by the King of Makuria and has judicial and financial control of the territory. He also can found churches and celebrate Mass. Each eparch is anointed the king of Dotawo, a vassal kingdom of Makuria centered at Ado; this appointment serves to support the eparch financially. A key role of the eparch is to conduct relations with Muslim Egypt, and goods destined for the king of Makuria are delivered into the hands of the eparch. The eparch is responsible for delivering the slave tribute of the Baqt to Egyptian authorities, or, as has been more common in recent years, making excuses for its failure to arrive.
The emblem of the eparch's office is a distinctive double-horned headdress worn at all formal occasions; his agents throughout the kingdom bear this symbol embossed on an iron badge.

Transport

The suitability of the Nile for transport of goods and people varies along its length. While downstream travel is always possible by boat, upstream movement is more limited. Boats under sail cannot travel upstream between Dongola to Abu Hamad, where the north-east course of the river is directly against the prevailing south-westerly wind. The cataracts are passable under sail only during high water. Owing to these problems, land transport by camel and donkey is an important alternative.

The Slave Trade

The principal export of all the Nubian kingdoms is slaves. The source of their slaves is a vast expanse of pasture land to the south and west of Alodia, where there are plenty of peaceful pastoralist societies with no central organization. This region is called the Slavelands by Nubians. The slavers trek many hundreds of miles to procure slaves and their cattle, and then transport them north to Egypt. Details of these populations can be found later in this chapter.

Some might find it unusual that the Christian kingdoms of Nubia promote the taking and trading of slaves, all the while abhorring the practice of keeping slaves themselves. Most of the bishops consider slavery to be unbecoming of Christians, but they do not exert their substantial political power to put an end to it. The reasons are many and varied, but the strongest argument is the Baqt. This treaty — unique among Christian relations with Islam — has protected Nubia from invasion and forced conversion, while the Christian kingdoms of North Africa, Sicily, and Iberia have succumbed. Since the invasion of 1172, this argument in favor of slavery has become weaker, but it is still the dominant one. However, this argument conveniently forgets that the Baqt quota constitutes only a third of the total number of slaves passing through Nubia each year; the rest have nothing to do with peace and everything to do with profit. Promoters of slavery are fond of highlighting the savagery of the captives: some, they say, are barely better than animals, lacking language or any sense of morals. A less racist but equally condescending argument is that slavery actually offers them a better life than living in constant fear for one's life from the wild beasts and cannibalistic humans that haunt the Slavelands.

The frequent defaulting on the Baqt by Makuria and Alodia is used to deflect arguments on the immorality of slavery. However, failure to pay the Baqt only rarely has anything to do with the conscience of the kings and their councilors. Most often it is down to the refusal of the governments to pay the exorbitant prices demanded by the slavers, and a lack of political will to attempt to regulate the trade. There are few opportunities to undercut the slavers, who have centuries of experience of the Slavelands, its perils and its geography. Occasionally it is a genuine dearth of slaves that leads to a default; famine and disease both haunt the Slavelands. More rarely, an entire expedition is lost, never to be seen again

Governmental support of the slave trade has little impact on the average Nubian. Owning slaves is legal but not acceptable in any of the Nubian kingdoms. The slavers are rarely even seen (with or without their commodity), since slaves are transported past all major cities on the Nile by using the Darb al-Arba'in, a road stretching from the Slavelands to the remote trading town of Uri, and on to the slave markets in Egypt. It is easy for the Nubians to pretend that the slave trade does not exist at all.

Nobatia

Nobatia formed as a splinter kingdom of Kush in the last days of the empire. It worshiped the Kushite gods, and followed Kushite customs. For the last four hundred years or so Nobatia has ceased to be an independent kingdom, and has instead been under the suzerainty of Makuria. A viceroy called the Eparch of Nobatia rules from Premnis in lieu of an independent ruler. Thus far, Nobatia has remained culturally distinct from its southerly neighbor, and has resisted all attempts to become a mere province of Makuria. Like ancient Kush, Nobatia practices state-mandated redistribution of wealth: all excess produce is collected by inspectors, and then given out to those who need it. Priority is given to those who have made contributions in former years. There is little poverty in Nobatia as a result.

Nobatia is a free trade zone, unlike Makuria. All cargo destined for further upriver must be delivered into the hands of Nobatian factors. Egyptian coinage is legal tender, and Egyptians can trade without restriction. Trade with Alodia cannot pass through Makuria, and so Nobatian towns are departure points for caravans crossing the desert destined for Alodia, bypassing Makuria altogether. This is a risky prospect given the dangers of the desert.

Nobatia extends from the first to the third cataract of the River Nile. It is mostly desert, with the Libyan Desert to the west of the river and the Nubian Desert to the east. The Nobatians do not stray far from the floodplain of the river, and have built all their settlements on its banks. Those on the eastern bank are more heavily fortified, to protect them from the occasional raids of the fierce Blemmyae tribes.

Since the recent threats from Ayyubid forces, and facing aggression from Bedouin nomads, the population of Nobatia has begun to concentrate in hilltop and island walled towns, rather than remain in the more scattered traditional settlements. Houses have been reinforced, and have internal stores for food and valuables.

Ado

Ado is a hilltop fortress which, along with Premnis and Pakhoras, is one of the three principal towns of Nobatia. Ado is the capital of the subkingdom of Dotawo, a province of Makuria within the subject nation of Nobatia, and the lordship of the eparch. Like Premnis, it suffered under the Abbasid invasion of Nubia in 1172; the Egyptians searched Ado (which they call Jabal 'Adda) for the Eparch of Nobatia, but failed to capture him.

Ado is home to the eparch's personal church; while not a cathedral church, this place of worship is an impressive work of architecture with a complex geometric mosaic floor.

The Banu al-Kanz

Under the Fatimids, this Arab tribe controlled the Aswan region, and one of their rulers was awarded the title of Kanz al-Dawlah ("treasure of the state") for his services to the caliph; this title subsequently became hereditary.

The Ayyubids that replaced the Fatimids drove out the Banu al-Kanz, and they retreated into the northern territories of Nobatia, where they have established a semi-independent Muslim principality within Nobatian territory.

Batn al-Hajar

Extending southwards from around the second cataract for eighty miles is the Batn al-Hajar, or "belly of stones." Named by Egyptian traders, the Nile flows through a barren, mountainous landscape. There is no floodplain at all; for much of its length the Nile flows between high cliffs and in some places the river may be no more than twenty paces wide. The river is constantly interrupted by numerous rapids, outcrops, and small islands, and cannot be navigated even at the peak of the Nile flood.

Some of the islands are big enough to house miniature forts, built recently by people fleeing encroachment of the Banu al-Kanz following their expulsion from Egypt. The islands are often built upwards into rocky towers so that the fortress can withstand the yearly floods. Apart from these fortress-dwellers, the Batn al-Hajar is virtually uninhabited, so hostile is this land and so poor in resources.

The Batn al-Hajar marks the division between Lower Nubia where foreigners are welcome, and Upper Nubia where foreign trade is forbidden. The fortress at Akasha has a garrison guarding Nobatia from the Banu al-Kanz.

Kalabsha

Kalabsha was the capital of the post-Kushitic Blemmyae state, and they raised a temple to Mandulis here which is mostly still standing. Kalabsha today forms the smallest of Nobatia's bishoprics.

Lost Temple of Ramses

For centuries there have been stories of twin temples carved out of a mountain somewhere upriver of Philae. Buried under millennia of dust and sand, their location is now unknown, but this does not stop treasure hunters from searching the sands of Lower Nubia for clues. It is said that Pharaoh Ramses built these temples in order to intimidate his southern neighbors, whom he claimed to have defeated at Kadesh. The Great Temple was dedicated to Amun, Ra, Ptah, and the deified pharaoh himself; the Small Temple to Hathor and Ramses' wife Nefertari.

Explorers have been unsuccessful in locating the lost temples because they reside within a Faerie regio with an aura of 5. The entrance to this regio can be divined from the behavior of a troop of baboons who are descended from animals kept at the temple. There are always twenty-two baboons in the troop, and at dawn they raise their arms and worship the rising sun. If a human replaces one of the baboons in this daily ritual, he witnesses the sun penetrating the sand and alighting upon the statues that guard the temple, and may approach.

The Sand of Pakhoras

Pakhoras is built on the Kom, a hill that forms the original island on the Nile. When the pre-Christian Nubians first settled here, they slew the giant who was the embodiment of the Kom and a powerful servant of the Red. Its bones were crushed and fed to livestock and its flesh shredded and fed to birds. These animals were then fed to dogs and lions, who in turn were killed and burned, and the ashes scattered into the wind. Some believe the sand that blows daily into Pakhoras to be the Kom, trying to reconstitute its disintegrated body. If this is the case, then it is gradually winning; more sand enters Pakhoras each day than can ever be removed, and some claim they have seen the sand piles ripple and move on their own, like muscles preparing to flex.

Menarti

Menarti is a small island at the foot of the second cataract; the name means "island of Mei," Mei being a name for Saint Michael who is patron, along with Saint Cosmas, of the small monastery on the island. Menarti is the limit of the upriver navigation from Egypt; south from here is the Batn al-Hajar (see earlier) which is impassable by boat.

Takoa

A small town on the southernmost tip of Menarti, Takoa is a customs post on the frontier between Lower and Upper Nubia. No foreign merchant is permitted to pass through Takoa; all cargoes must be surrendered to the officials at Takoa, from where they are delivered to the eparch.

Pakhoras

The name of this city is rendered as Bukharas in Arabic, and it is occasionally referred to as Faras. Pakhoras is still the religious and cultural center of Nobatia, even though the Makurian-appointed eparch now administers the kingdom from Premnis. The inhabitants of Pakhoras have a daily struggle against the tons of sand blown into the town. Pakhorans employ armies of 'sand-warriors' armed with buckets and spades, whose job is to remove the daily accumulation of sand from the important buildings such as the cathedral and the palace, as well as the properties of those who can afford to pay for the service. This sand is dumped on the west side of the city in such quantity that Pakhoras, once built on an island, now stands on a peninsula, since the channel to the mainland has silted up entirely. Even this is not enough, and every few decades the citizens of the city are forced to raise their thresholds to surmount the sand. Past generations have even raised their walls and replaced the roofs.

Most of the city was built during Kushite times, and is still intact and in remarkably good condition. Most notable are the city's enclosing wall and the royal palace. The wall surrounds the city on three sides, with the river providing poor defense on the east. It is ten paces high and three paces thick, and has just three gates. Like other buildings in Pakhoras, periodically the walls and gates are extended upwards due to the accumulation of sand. The palace of the former king now lies empty in the center of the city; it is richly decorated with statues of the lion-headed Kushite gods. As the highest point in the city, sand does not tend to accumulate here. There are two temples built in the days of Ancient Egypt; one is mostly ruins, and the other has been converted into a warehouse for trade goods. Pakhoras is famous for its pottery factories. Owned by the monastery within the town, it produces finely decorated vessels that are exported throughout Nubia and beyond.

Pakhoras has a large and imposing cathedral to house its bishop, and in the immediate vicinity has six other churches. It also boasts a large monastery on a hilltop just outside the city as well as a smaller monastery within the town. There is even a mosque, to service foreign traders, although the call to prayer is not permitted to be declaimed publicly on the order of the bishop. As well as numerous warehouses, the city has a large marketplace, which sells all manner of exotic goods from Alodia and beyond. Outside the southern gate is a vast tent city of drovers who care for the horses, donkeys, and camels of visitors. Here too can be found escorts and mercenaries from Atbara (see later) who can arrange passage across the river and south to Alodia without entering Makuria.

Serra

Facing Pakhoras on the opposite bank of the river, this old pharaonic fortress has been refortified, and is occupied by Pakhoras's military. There are plans for evacuation to Serra in the face of an invasion, and the fortress maintains plentiful stores of food and firewood.

Philae

Philae consists of a pair of islands in the first cataract of the Nile, also known as the Pearl of Egypt. The smaller island, Philae proper, was sacred to Egyptians and Nubians alike as a burial place of the god Osiris, and was dubbed "The Unapproachable" due to the social and religious ban on landing on the island except after completing the appropriate rituals. No birds fly over Philae, nor can fish be caught from its shores. The larger island is known as Senmut or Beghé, and bears monuments to the pharaohs and emperors who claimed Egypt.

In both the pharaonic period and the Graeco-Roman period, Philae received an abundance of buildings, to such an extent that most of the area of both islands bears a monument of one era or another. Most prominent are the temples to Isis, Amun-Osiris, Hathor, and Horus. The region around Philae was called the Dodekachoenus, and was considered the estate of Isis. Its revenue was used to support the priests of the Great Temple.

Philae was one of the original bishoprics of the Nubian Church, although the cathedra was later moved to Kalabsha. The land around Philae that once served the priests of the island is now occupied by the Banu al-Kanuz (see earlier), and the small populace — mostly inhabitants of the small monastery, both regular clergy and lay brothers — feel under siege from the Muslim nomads, although they have made no serious attempt on the well-fortified island as yet.

Tumulus Graves

Throughout Nobatia, on both sides of the Nile, are massive tumuli holding the bodies of kings and princes. Many of these man-made hills enclose palaces or compounds housing the dead royal, along with rich grave goods and the bodies of sacrificed animals, especially dogs. Most of these graves belong to pre-Christian kinglets, although the earliest Nobatian kings also chose to be buried in this manner despite their Christian faith, to maintain continuity with the past. Each intact tumulus (for some have been robbed) has a Magic aura of 1, and may contain a grave guardian such as a mummified dog.

Premnis

Premnis (Pedeme in Kushite times, Qasr Ibrim to the Arabs) is a fortified hilltop settlement that serves as the administrative center of Nobatia. It was originally the site of seven temples built by the Nubian pharaohs of Egypt, but the site was occupied by their Ptolemaic and Roman successors. The Ptolemies built a massive girdle wall about the town. It was not until the conversion of Nobatia to Christianity in the seventh century that Premnis became an important domestic rather than religious settlement. Its temples were converted into churches, and an impressive stone cathedral dedicated to Our Lady the Pure Virgin was built for its bishop.

Premnis suffered an invasion by Ayyubid forces in 1172, and the cathedral was damaged. Following their expulsion, Premnis's fortifications were restored and improved, and secular buildings were built among the religious ones. A large, two level piazza that had been built over the remains of one of the temples has now been occupied by irregularly-built stone housing to accommodate the growing population. The eparch of Nobatia moved his administration from Pakhoras to Premnis at the same time.

Premnis is built high above the floor of the Nile Valley. During the inundation it does not need to be abandoned like many sites in Lower Nubia, although it does become an island. Premnis is an administrative capital rather than a mercantile one; foreign merchants usually bypass Premnis in favor of better opportunities at Pakhoras.

Sai Island

The largest permanent island on the Nile, Sai is six miles long by three miles wide. A large, brick-walled fortress stands on the eastern shore of the island; this ancient structure dates back to pharaonic Egypt. Sai is the seat of one of Nubia's bishops, and a small town surrounds the cathedral.

A Fortified River

Since the middle of the 12th century the kings of Makuria and Alodia have been building a number of fortresses along the River Nile. There are currently over fifty of these, which stretch from Soba in the south to Kalabsha in the north. Nearly every isolated hill top with an independent water source now bears a fortress big enough to hold the local population, and contains deep crypt-like storage rooms stocked with grain and other food. These fortresses are a response to the increasing aggression of Nubia's Muslim neighbors to the north.
As a preparatory measure, the smaller fortresses are often manned by a minimal garrison, and lie mostly deserted. More than one has been covertly taken over by bandits; sometimes more sinister forces can be found in residence.

Story Seed: Freedom Fortress

The characters stop for succor at a fortress, but the small garrison are actually escaped slaves masquerading as soldiers. They are desperate to keep their secret, and if it becomes apparent that the characters are aware of their true nature, some of the slaves may wish to make sure the characters never leave. They are warned by another faction within the runaways who do not countenance their murder. This latter group might wish to escape with the characters, or else use them to gain control of the fortress. The characters could use the situation to gain useful allies.

Makuria

The Kingdom of Makuria is perhaps the most important of Nubia's kingdoms. It extends from the third to the fifth Nile cataract, and encompasses the heartland of lost Kush. Despite this, Makuria has not retained any Kushitic culture, unlike Nobatia to the north, but rather has a distinctive Greek nature. Makuria is a peaceful and prosperous realm with many towns and broad, fertile fields. Like Nobatia, the Makurians have begun to congregate in defensible towns with substantial stores of food, firewood, and water. This is partly due to the rapacious Bedouin tribes who have recently invaded the eastern desert.

Foreign trade is a royal monopoly administered through Nobatia, and as such, there is no money in circulation in Makuria. It is illegal for foreign traders to sell their wares in Makuria. They risk having all trade goods confiscated, even if they do not intend to sell here but are aiming further upriver.

The King of Makuria styles himself as megalobasilikos (Greek for 'great king') and his ministers and court share similar Byzantine titles. Each town within the territory of Makuria constitutes its own kingdom; in all thirteen vassal kings (called domestikoi; singular domestikos) pay tribute to the megalobasilikos. All these kings, including the great king, are priests as well as monarchs, and perform Mass for their entire kingdom. Should a king take a life, however, he is no longer able to celebrate the liturgy. The megalobasilikos has the power to reduce any of his subjects to the status of slave, regardless of whether the individual is guilty of a crime. Among the host of ministers, the king also takes counsel from the court of seven bishops. Makurian royalty follow matrilinear succession: male heirs of female relatives have precedence over those of royal males; so a king's sister's son is considered heir before the king's own son. Dynastic crisis is not uncommon when there is no clear heir.

Abu Hamad

Abu Hamad is a tent-city at the end of the mighty bend that encompasses much of Makuria. Its inhabitants are not Nubian, but Bedouin Arabs of the Ja'alin tribe who have arrived in Upper Nubia over the last fifty years from Arabia and Egypt. The population of this 'city' is constantly in flux; as one band of nomads pack up their tents and leave, another arrives. The tribesmen come here mostly to trade, but also to arrange marriages, hold festivals, and honor their dead. Arabic is the dominant language of the settlement.

Abu Hamad is the only Muslim settlement in Makuria, and is a thorn in the side of the Christian kingdom. The armies of the local domestikoi and those of the megalobasilikos have tried to dislodge Abu Hamad, but to no avail; the city just reforms from an influx of nomads. The last attempt was five years ago; all the tents were uprooted and burnt, and the population dispersed. That night, the megalobasilikos received a nocturnal visitor in his bedchamber, and since then has refused permission to any of his subordinates to repeat the attempt. There is clearly some sinister force at work at the nexus of Abu Hamad; Makurian spies have noticed that one set of tents at the heart of the camp are not affected by the usual ebb and flow of tents, but are a permanent fixture. They have never been able to penetrate this complex, and are ignorant of its inhabitants.

The Ja'alin

The Ja'alin are the tribe of Bedouins who occupy the region between Abu Hamad and Berber on both sides of the Nile. They have established a dozen or so tiny principalities called meks, each founded by one of the princes exiled with Hamad. Each principality now consists of around a hundred families of humans and twenty or so jinn. Each prince has an unGifted sahir of Hamad's line as a vizier, who also mediates between the jinn and the humans. The jinni are mostly allied to the Faerie Realm, and like their human neighbors are Muslim.

The Ja'alin are proud descendants of Abbas, the uncle of Mohammed and herald of Islam. Both men and women mark their faces with distinctive scars, taking a form similar to an 'H' or 'T' shape. They are herders of sheep and goats, and constantly on the move within their territory to find scant pasture among the arid land. They occasionally fight with one another for pasturage, but Abu Hamad is neutral territory, and disputes here are forbidden.

Atbara

A frontier town between the Kingdoms of Makuria and Alodia, Atbara has remained fiercely independent of both and has the commercial success to enforce this neutrality. It sits at the confluence of the Atbara and the Nile Rivers, and controls any river traffic headed for the fifth cataract. Atbara is the terminus of the route from Pakhoras that bypasses Makuria entirely to bring trade to Alodia. It is also the end of the only safe road to the port of Sawakin on the Red Sea.

The Atbarans have a secret deal with the Blemmyae: the savage tribesmen do not attack caravans led by Atbaran guides (who wear distinctive green turbans); in return the Blemmyae chieftains are informed of the route and the goods of the occasional rich caravan that, mysteriously, cannot be provided with an escort. Likewise, the Atbarans have allied with the Ja'alin at Abu Hamad to ensure that all trade caravans heading for their rivals do not make it to their destination.

Berber

Due to the uncertain allegiance of Atbara, Berber is considered the last Makurian town before the Kingdom of Alodia. It used to be the terminus of the Pakhoras trade route, but in recent times, caravans heading for Berber have been attacked by the Ja'alin, while those continuing to Atbara have remained untouched. As a result, Berber's fortunes have dwindled to almost nothing, and the population dwindled to match. Berber now has just one tenth of its former population. Many believe that the Atbarans pay the Ja'alin to keep Berber impoverished.

Story Seed: The Soul Exchange

Seeking a rare or expensive item, the characters travel to a fortress that has a reputation for being a center of trade, particularly for the black market. They find it to be a den of every vice imaginable. The inhabitants of the fortress are actually ghosts, trapped here by the demon that caused their deaths. Each is promised that if they can win a soul for Hell then they can go free; but in fact the demon simply consumes the ghost's essence and traps the spirit of his victim instead. The only way to truly free the ghosts is to slay the demon who haunts the caverns beneath the fort.

Kallama

A town has sprung up around Makuria's smallest cathedral at Kallama, its sole purpose to serve the needs of the bishop and the monastery attached to the bishopric.

Dju Wa'ab

Dju Wa'ab is a small flat-topped mountain dominating a bend in the Nile. To the Empire of Kush, Dju Wa'ab ("the pure mountain") was at the center of the world; the creator god stood on top to bring the universe into being. A colossal free-standing pinnacle on the south corner was perceived as a natural statue of a god. The region around Dju Wa'ab has numerous royal burial-sites: distinctive steep-sided pyramids of the Nubian pharaohs, Kushitic rock-cut tombs, and tumulus graves of the pre-Christian kings of Makuria.

The sheer cliffs of the mountain form a useful landmark for travelers; it is only a hundred paces high but rises out of an otherwise flat landscape. It signifies one of the few crossing points of the Nile, and opens trade between east and west. Egyptians call it Jebel Barkal. Dju Wa'ab, as an impressive natural feature, has a Magic aura of 3; the various burial sites might have a higher aura. In their heyday the temples of the pagan gods may have had a Faerie aura that exceeded the Magic aura of the mountain, but most have been abandoned by their worshipers and thus the faeries who lurked there.

The Dark Heart of Abu Hamad

The tents at the center of Abu Hamad are the opulent habitation of a powerful Gifted Bedouin sahir and prince of the Ja'alin named 'Izz el-Afram Hamad. This magician was forced out of his home by the Ayyubids, and he fled to the southern reaches of the Nubian Desert along with his Ja'alin subjects and a host of jinni. Hamad is now over eighty years old, and feeling his age despite successes in magically extending his life. His apprentices have brought him rumors of the Cult of Dedun, and he is keen to contact them in hopes of learning the trick of immortality. 'Izz el-Afram Hamad brooks no threats to his power, and is liable to attempt to eliminate other Gifted magicians who could threaten him; he won't even train any Gifted apprentices in fear of raising a rival (although he has several unGifted apprentices). He has a particularly powerful jinn as an ally cum servant, who chafes at its bonds but cannot escape from the sorcerer's power. It is rumored that he has eyes everywhere, and his agents are mostly Egyptians who have worked their way into administrative roles where they can report back useful information to their master.
'Izz el-Afram Hamad makes an ideal recurring villain for a saga. He is powerful enough (politically and magically) for him to be outside the reach of newly created characters but can still cause them substantial grief; as they increase in power so does he, and they will need powerful allies to deal with him. A sample progression of stories follows; such a story arc should be augmented with other clashes with the Ja'alin and other minions of the Master of Abu Hamad. It is up to the storyguide as to the nature of the pacts Hamad has made with the jinni, and the realm to which they belong.

Story Seed: The Magical Basket

A merchant friend of the characters is being ruined by a business rival, who seems to have an endless supply of the product in which they both trade. The rival has come into possession of a magical reed basket that creates the product in question, apparently permanently without the use of vis. When investigating the origin of the basket, the trail leads them to Abu Hamad. 'Izz el-Afram Hamad has engineered this situation so that he can meet and assess the characters, and determine whether they pose a threat to him. If they confront Hamad they will find him charming, inquisitive, and sinister in equal measure; he insists that they keep the basket in compensation for the trouble he has caused. The basket works through a bound jinn, who is transporting the goods from another place rather than creating them. The jinn has a power that makes the basket seem to be a standard enchantment to Hermetic Investigation, similar to a Shell of False Determination.

Story Seed: Attempted Regicide

As they have met Hamad and survived, the Great King of Makuria takes an interest in the characters - Hamad makes sure of this through his contacts. The characters are summoned to Dongola for an audience, and asked to bring along the magical basket. In Dongola, they run afoul of court politics, amply stirred by Hamad's agents. When they finally get into the king's presence, the secondary (and true) purpose of the basket becomes obvious, as a fearsome jinn emerges and attacks the king. Even if they are able to defeat it, the characters may be accused of endangering the Great King's life, and lose any status or favor they may have accrued.

Story Seed: The Demons of Sawakin

The characters learn that 'Izz el-Afram Hamad seeks to control the jinni of Sawakin (see later), creatures deemed too dangerous by Solomon himself. If successful, this could grant him immeasurable power, sufficient to smash any Aegis of the Hearth and bring defeat even to Hermetic magi. They must race to the Coral City and foil his plans in an almighty showdown of Hermetic versus Solomonic magic.

Napata

The capital of the Empire of Kush was originally at the foot of Dju Wa'ab, a city called Napata. Due to its religious significance, Napata was dominated by the Kushitic priesthood, and boasted over two dozen separate temples dedicated to both single gods and combinations with particular sacerdotal meanings. In centuries gone by, these temples would resonate with the scent of incense and the sound of chanting, feeding the faerie gods with vitality and supporting a Faerie aura. Now the temples lie empty and the priests are long dead, there is no aura to be found. However, the echoes of those gods still linger.

Kurru

Kurru, in the shadow of Dju Wa'ab, is the site of the first pyramids to hold the rulers of Kush, when Napata was still the capital of the empire. There are the remains of over fifty pyramids here, but less than half are still standing. The pyramids of five emperors still remain, along with those of fourteen queens, some of whom were renowned warriors. There is a Magic aura of 2 at Kurru, deriving from the use of this site for two centuries.

Story Seed: The Siege of Berber

The characters are hired to break the blockade of Berber; alternatively someone or something they need is trapped inside the town, and they take it upon themselves to reach get it out. Three meks of the Ja'alin are involved in the blockade (one per landward approach), each with two score warriors and a dozen jinni; if given notice, another three meks lie within one day's journey, and a further six within three days' travel. Upon reaching Berber, the characters are the first outsiders here in three years. The town has been transformed; the populace enslaved to Ja'alin overlords and set to work digging beneath the town. The characters must find out what they are looking for, and for whom - 'Izz el-Afram Hamad is the obvious mastermind behind this operation, but by no means the only possibility.

Nuri

The later of Napata's pyramid fields, the Nuri Necropolis is on the west bank of the Nile, opposite Napata. The tombs of 21 emperors can be found here, along with those of 52 kings' mothers, kings' wives, and princes. The pyramids are built on two plateaus. The largest and oldest pyramid belongs to Taharqa, who was both king of Kush and pharaoh of Egypt. Taharqa's pyramid stands over fifty paces high, and stands on the western plateau. Also on this plateau are the parallel lines of the pyramids of kings' wives, and the necropolis of the kings' mothers, or kentakes. The eastern plateau bears the pyramids of the other twenty emperors. Each of the emperors was interred in a huge sarcophagus weighing a dozen or more tons.

Nuri was in use for about five hundred years, before Arqamani moved the royal cemetery to Meroë, long enough for it to gain a Magic aura of 5.

Dongola

The capital city of the Kingdom of Makuria, Dongola is on the east bank of the Nile, on top of a bluff overlooking the river at the point where the Wadi Howar enters the Nile. It lies at the southern end of the productive Letti Basin, and within a day's journey in all directions from Dongola there are about thirty villages with beautiful buildings, churches and monasteries, many palm trees, vines, gardens, cultivated fields, and broad pastures. The city dominates any movement along the east bank of the river.

Dongola was originally defended by a high, insurmountable stone wall, but the city quickly grew beyond these limits, forming an extensive suburb to the north of the city. It is now ringed by seven walls, representing successive stages of population growth, and the impregnable stone wall is the innermost. It is estimated that over ten thousand people live in Dongola. The houses are large and often two stories high, and the streets are wide, a testament to the prosperity of the kingdom in general and the city in particular. There are many churches in Dongola, and a cathedral, known as the Church of the Granite Columns.

Dongola's royal palace is the only structure built of red brick, making it stand out from all other structures. It is several stories higher than any other building in the city, and bears several domes on top.

The Church Of The Granite Columns

Dongola's mighty cathedral is a square building containing sixteen columns of highly polished granite arranged in four rows. Aisles separate the rows of columns, and the central nave is wider than the aisles and crossed by a similarly wide narthex, giving a distinct cruciform plan to the inside of the cathedral. A mighty dome is supported by the columns, and there are colorful and vibrant frescoes of Biblical scenes painted by a true maestro that add to the sanctity of the building. There is a Dominion aura of 7 within the cathedral.

Dongola also boasts an impressive cruciform church called the Church of the Angels, famous for its multicolored stone pavement that ripples like the river when struck by the sun. It has a Dominion aura of 6.

Ancient Auras

In their glory days, the monuments of the ancients found throughout Egypt and Nubia will have had a Faerie aura associated with the worship of pagan gods. As the temples were abandoned, the glamour they were granted by their deities waned. However, centuries of use as cemeteries may have left behind a preternatural tether to the Magic Realm, which persisted once the Faerie aura had faded. These tethers have generated a Magic aura of 1 for every century that they saw continuous use; sites with impressive natural features may have even stronger auras, and sites whose monuments have substantially degraded may have weakened tethers. For more information, see Realms of Power: Magic, page 8–10.

Story Seeds for Dju Wa'ab

An ancient capital is a natural site for stories.

The Blind God's Eyes

For centuries treasure hunters have scoured Napata in vain for traces of the fabulous wealth of the Kushitic priesthoods. Legends have it that the missing statues of the gods show the way. Buried under the sand, the priests' last act was to wipe away the paint from the statues' eyes, reverting them from vessels of the gods back into mere carved stone. One of the statues was recently uncovered by the wind. The daughter of a traveling merchant who stopped here for water innocently colored in the eyes of the statue with kohl while she waited for her father. Unaware of anything untoward, they moved on. However, the faerie that once inhabited the statue has been drawn back in; and now it moves, slowly yet inexorably, toward its destination. It is just a shame that there is a town in the way.

The Hawk That Thought It Was A God

A desert hawk circles Dju Wa'ab, crying forlornly. Every day precisely at noon it lands on a temple roof. This is a faerie animal with the merest scrap of Faerie Might, but it remembers the days when it was an emissary of Mandulis, the Kushite sun god. When the characters happen to be close to the temple at midday, it briefly mistakes them for the priests of ancient times, and brings them the last message from Mandulis: "Where the Sun touches the Sea and the waves are stilled, there will you find Anhur's Spear." What can this prophecy mean?

Galu

A fortress from the time of the Napatan dominance of Kush, Galu now lies in ruins and is partly covered in sand. It stands overlooking the Wadi Howar, an important seasonal spring that once formed an important route to the west, but since it ran dry the former settlements have been abandoned and the region is now a desolate waste.

The failure of the Wadi Howar is a direct consequence of the establishment of Galu. The fortress was placed on the home of the spirit of the wadi after it was slain by Napatan priests; the priests hoped they could take up the reins of power over the flow of the wadi, but were unable to make this a lasting effect. The Wadi Howar dried up, and the fortress was left to guard a road to nowhere.

Story Seed: Thirty Centuries

A character is visited by the ghost of an ancient warrior wearing a black tabard. This visit might be a vision, an apparition to someone with Second Sight, or a vivid dream. He pleads for help; his unit is trapped, surrounded on all sides, and in sore need of reinforcements. He can lead the characters to Kerma, and on the night of a new moon the battle can be seen.
Kerma was wiped out by a terrible civil war, and the stones mark the graves of those falling in support of each side. Every new moon the ghosts of Kerma rise to fight again. If a black-liveried soldier is killed, then he joins the white side, and vice versa; and the color of the stones on his grave change gradually over the course of the year, resulting in dual-colored graves. Should one faction stand unopposed, then the army of ghosts will be united under a single commander and free to leave Kerma's environs.
It has been three millennia since Kerma stood, but its white faction now controls the majority of the graves, and it is gaining more and more converts every year. A temple priest of Dedun is responsible for the recent successes of the white faction, and one can only wonder what he plans to do with 25,000 ghostly warriors under his command.

Ghazali

This is one of the largest monasteries in all of Nubia. The structure consists of a large church dedicated to the Holy Trinity, surrounded by residential buildings and a commemorative complex. The whole monastery is enclosed in a high stone wall faced with bricks and whitewashed. The church also has a barrel-vaulted crypt where deceased monks are buried. The monastery has a hospice for the housing of visitors and a hospital for the care and comfort of the sick and dying.

Nubian Pyramids

Markedly different from Egyptian pyramids in form, Nubian pyramids have much steeper sides — seventy degrees compared to the more typical forty-five degrees in Egypt. This results in a much smaller base: a Nubian pyramid which is thirty paces high may be only twenty paces wide, compared to sixty paces wide for an Egyptian pyramid of equivalent height. Each pyramid has a pylon gate and temple at its base. The body was not placed within the pyramid itself, but rather ten or more paces beneath it; a steep set of stairs led down to the tomb. Before the tomb is an antechamber where offerings were left (the same as the serdab in Egyptian pyramids, see Chapter 4, The Structure of Tombs). Apart from these structural differences, the contents of Nubian tombs are similar to those of Egypt.

Kerma

Kerma was the capital of a kingdom dating back before the Empire of Kush. All that remains of Kerma are the ruins of the circular royal palace and two deffufa solid towers made of mud bricks standing thirty paces high. The remnants of a substantial city wall, over two miles long and protected by towers, encloses an area big enough to house 10,000 inhabitants.

Kerma's cemetery lies next to the remains of the city, over a mile long north to south and containing an estimated 25,000 graves. Most are low mounds covered with thousands of pebbles. Many of these graves consist of clusters of small mounds surrounding a central larger one. Some tumuli are covered in white pebbles, others in black pebbles, and a rare few in a mixture of both colors. The reason for this distinction is unknown. At the southern end of the cemetery are dozens of huge tumuli, the graves of the kings of ancient Kerma. Four of these tumuli are truly enormous, each having a diameter of over a hundred paces. A Magic aura of level 3 lingers around these four tumuli, but weakens to 2 over the rest of the royal cemetery and 1 over the rest of the graves.

Negila

Negila is a small oasis that is a welcome resting place for caravans traveling to and from Darfur. Negila is claimed by Makuria, although it stands on the border with the Alodian district of Bayuda (see later). For this reason, Negila is home to a Makurian military outpost, including a unit of Struthophagi mounted on ostriches. These swift-footed cavalry units are used as messengers and scouts.

Darfur

The region of Darfur is distant from the Nile valley and yet still firmly under Makurian domination. Occupied by a people called the Tajuwa, Darfur thrives on the proceeds of the slave trade.

Darfur buildings are made from a distinctive red-colored brick, and built as truncated cones rather than rectangular structures. They have flat tops made of mud brick. These buildings can be immense: fifty paces diameter at the base, narrowing to twenty-five paces at the summit, which can be six paces high. The Tajuwa live communally in these homes, several families sharing a single roof.

Uri

Uri is the royal palace of the chief of the Tajuwa, who owes vassalage to the Makurian throne. Uri is an important emporium of long-distance trade at the crossroads of the Darb al-Arba'in, the road for Arab slavers from Asyut in Egypt south into the Slavelands, and the Tarik al-Sudan, the savannah route across the Great Desert to the west (see Between Sand and Sea: Mythic Africa.)

'Ayn Farah

At 'Ayn Farah is a red-brick monastery and church staffed by Egyptian Copts. 'Ayn Farah was established for the conversion of the slaves; all slaves passing on the Darb al-Arba'in are technically offered baptism, although the slavers rarely pause here for the monks to preach. Rather, the monks have taken to standing on the walls of the monastery and yelling out their proselytizing message of Christ's salvation to the slaves as they trudge northwards. More often than not, the slaves cannot even understand the words of the monks; while they make every effort to learn the myriad languages of the Slavelands, their opportunities to practice those languages are limited.

Fasher

Fasher is the principal starting point for those making expeditions into the Slavelands. This oasis consists of few permanent buildings, but is instead a camp for slavers, caravan guards, camel and cattle drovers, and the like. There is a thriving rope-making industry here. Slaves captured further south are kept in pens, much like the livestock that is often captured with them.

Samna

A town built of the distinctive red bricks of the Tajuwa, Samna is the location of one of Makuria's only mosques, built to service the religious needs of the Arabic slave traders.

The Tajuwa of Darfur

The Tajuwa resemble the slave races that they capture, particularly their tight curly hair and scant beards, although they generally have the height of Nubians, suggesting an ancient distant blending of the races. Both men and women dress in anklelength smocks copied from the djellebah of their Arab trading contacts, often in striped linen. Those requiring less restrictive clothing wear loose trousers but go bare chested. Tajuwa warriors — mostly caravan guards — employ a variety of weapons and armor according to personal preference; swords are uncommon.
The Tajuwa are lax Christians at best; settlements in Darfur have churches staffed by Nubian priests, but they are virtually empty for most celebrations of the Eucharist. The Tajuwa have not sought other gods to replace the Christian one; they simply aren't particularly religious.

The Valley of Elephants

In the midst of a lush region of the Nile Valley is a series of marshes where elephants gather in large numbers. They come here for the abundant food, in particular a sweet rush of which they cannot get enough. The serpents that habitually prey on elephants are not found in this valley, although it would seem a natural place for them to hunt.

The herds of elephants despoil any attempts at agriculture here, and the human population has been forced out of this section of the valley, dwelling instead at the fringes of the marshes and raising what crops they can hide or protect from marauding elephants. They live in tents that can be quickly packed up and moved if their sentries spot elephants coming, since the massive animals are prone to trample any signs of human habitation.

Story Seed: Valley of Elephants

An Old Man of the Forest surprises the characters by suddenly appearing in front of them. This magical elephant considers himself the guardian of the Valley of Elephants, and he has become apprised of a plan that threatens the resources of his species. A local king plans to drain the marshes where the sweet rushes grow, making the land available for agriculture, and hopefully driving off the elephants. The Old Man of the Forest tells them that the sweet rush is hateful to the giant serpents of the surrounding gorges; if the king goes through with his plan, then humans and elephants alike will fall victim to the serpents' ravening hunger. The characters may have to negotiate with the king on behalf of the elephants, but he will be difficult to convince of the alleged threat. Is the Old Man of the Forest telling the truth? Can perhaps a compromise between elephants and humans be reached?

Alodia

Alodia is the most remote of the three Nubian kingdoms. It extends south from the fifth cataract to beyond the confluence of the Blue and White Nile Rivers. The capital of Alodia is Soba. The king of Alodia is a great king, like that of Makuria, who rules over several subkingdoms from his capital at Soba; in Alodia's case, these number nine: Atbai, Bayuda, Butana, Gezira, Kabushia, Kassala, Keraba, Meroë, and Soba.

As a nation, Alodia is considered more powerful than Makuria: it has greater wealth due to rich deposits of gold; the land is more fertile; the territory controlled is larger; and the army is more numerous and better armed.

The Dihi

The Dihi are the offspring of intermarriages between the Blemmyae and humans. They live in the northern portion of Atbai. A first generation Dihi appears similar to his human parent, although like a Blemmya his ears are located on his upper torso rather than his head. However, when the Dihi first experiences an extreme shock or excitement, his head falls clean off his shoulders. While bizarre, this does not harm the character, and he can reattach his head to his neck, assuming he survives the shocking encounter with both body parts intact (some lions in Atbai have learned to target Dihi by surprising them since the headless bodies make very easy prey). After the initial detachment, the character's head is prone to falling off during any strenuous activity or emotional turmoil.
If a Dihi has been careful and not had his head detach prior to having children, they do not inherit his condition; but an afflicted Dihi has similarly afflicted children. Most Dihi consider their condition to be a curse, but some have managed to find inventive ways in which to take advantage of it.
Dihi characters should take the Lesser Malediction Flaw to simulate the inconvenience of a detachable head, especially if one's enemy knows of the curse. Under situations of physical or emotional stress roll a stress die; if the result is 9 or more then her head detaches. Further, if the character ever botches a roll on a physical activity then her head also falls off and may roll away in addition to any other effects of the botch. The head is completely deaf, and the body is completely blind, but if the head can see her body the character can shout commands to attempt to reunite his disjunct body parts. It takes a round to reattach the head to the body. Dihi characters often also have the Magical Blood Virtue (Realms of Power: Magic, page 46) to balance their Lesser Malediction.

Atbai

The easternmost and most arid of Alodia's nine kingdoms, Atbai is also the poorest, having no mineral resources to trade. The Atbaik people are mostly pastoralists, although there are several fishing communities that make a living from the Red Sea.

The northern border of Atbai is contested with the Blemmyae; the king of Atbai has had to compromise with what territory he feels he can afford to defend, and has left the rest of the villages to the mercy of the Blemmyae.

Goz Regeb

Atbai's only town of substantial size, and the seat of a bishop. Goz Regeb's cathedral is decidedly modest by Alodian standards.

Taflin

A fertile area amidst the arid land of Atbai, Atbaik nomads bring their flocks to Taflin during the rainy season, and there is a month-long festival as stock is traded and marriages arranged. Ball games are discouraged, in deference to the Dihi (see insert).

Bayuda

Unlike the other subkingdoms of Alodia, the Bayuda is not centered around a single city, but instead consists of innumerable small villages scattered through the sandy desert and into the Gilif Hills. These "highlanders" are an unusual people: each village appears to have its own language, which is entirely unrelated to any of its neighbors or to Nubian. Any outsider attempting to learn the language of the highlanders discovers that they all speak the same language, but due to a magical curse, cannot understand another native Bayudan speaking this language. They have no trouble understanding a non-Bayudan speaking this language, regardless of from which village he learned it.

Gilif Hills

Consisting of deep ravines between jagged crags, the Gilif Hills are an unforgiving landscape that is reportedly the haunt of leopard spirits. It is true that the region is home to an uncommon number of leopards, and some of them may have supernatural powers. For the statistics of the Gilif leopards, use the statistics for the lion (The Book of Mundane Beasts), but reduce Size to +1; this also subtracts 2 from Strength and adds 1 to Quickness.

Butana

The kingdom of Butana lies in a privileged position, protected by Keraba to the north and Soba to the south. It is the main agricultural region of Alodia, well-watered by the tributaries of both the Nile and the Atbara rivers. The capital of Butana is Naqa. The Butanans have a reputation for hard work and are amply assisted by the alchemists of Soba, who rely on Naqan glass for many of their activities.

Naqa

Naqa is an ancient city of the same era as Meroë, and at the center of the Butana district. It sits on the Awateib, a seasonal river or wadi, at the point where many lesser wadis feed down from the Butana plateau; the Wadi Awateib flows west to the Nile, about thirty miles away. Naqa is an important trading city on the way to Ethiopia, and many of the slaves procured from the southern lands have Naqa as their first taste of civilization before being sent north, ultimately to Egypt.

Naqa is famous for its production of glass. Particularly clean and pure sand around the Wadi Awateib results in a clear glass with a slight green tinge, which is formed into ingots before being traded northwards. Naqan glassblowers have a well-deserved reputation.

Gezira

The most southerly of Alodia's nine kingdoms, Gezira lies between the White and the Blue Niles. Gezira is the least Nubian of the Alodian kingdoms, sharing blood with Ethiopians and Aithiopes. Gezira has a reputation for rebellion; they are the most recent kingdom to be added to Alodia, and do not have the wealth of the other nations. Many Gezirans see their vassalage to Alodia as a conquest rather than a mutually-beneficial agreement. The army of Alodia's great king has a substantial presence in Gezira in an attempt to keep the peace, but their presence may actually provoke more riots than are prevented.

Sennar

The capital of Gezira is home to a ruling dynasty who are descended from both Nubian and Megabaran stock (see Chapter 9: Mythic Aithiopians). Among the Gezirans, men and women have equal status, and the monarch of Gezira is as often a queen as it is a king. A quarter of Gezira's army consists of warrior women, who are quartered at Sennar.

Kabushia

Known as The Gates (that is, of Alodia), Kabushia is the northernmost of Alodia's subkingdoms, and one of the most heavily fortified. Responsible for guarding the kingdom from northern aggression, the city of Kabushia has a high proportion of warriors. Its outlying districts grow crops to supply the standing army, and there are whole villages of metalsmiths who turn bars of iron from Meroë into weapons.

Kabushia is no friend to Makuria. During the failed Umayyad invasion of Makuria in the seventh century, the king and his family were removed south for safety, but were taken into custody by the King of Kabushia, and ransomed back to his kingdom at an extortionate rate. The tiny subkingdom has never allowed its mighty neighbors to the north forget this shaming.

Kassala

Kassala is home to Alodia's Mortuary Society, although there are offices of the society in every city. No trade routes pass through or near Kassala; just one road crosses the plain to approach the city from the west.

Kassala's business is the dead. The city has more dead inhabitants than living ones, sitting as it does amidst a plethora of tombs, cemeteries, and monuments to the deceased. Some of these graves are ancient, but most are from the Christian Alodia rather than pagan Kush. They belong to kings, patriarchs, noblemen, merchants; anyone who was deemed worthy of being remembered, either through their money or their fame. Those who live in the city make their living through the dead. Other cities pay the Kassalans to dispose of the corpses that the Nubians find so distasteful. A host of morticians' porters gather up the bodies and take them to their masters, who prepare the bodies for interment. Hired pallbearers take the body to its grave, and Kassalan priests perform few ceremonies other than the burial rite. Other residents are associated with the funeral trade: making and weaving linen for shrouds, crafting death masks, preparation of incense, professional mourners, grave guardians, and so on. As there is an insignificant congregation of the faithful, there is no Dominion aura in Kassala; indeed, some areas have developed a weak Magic aura instead.

The mortician's work rarely involves embalming; most Alodian dead are wrapped in simple shrouds and given a clay or metal mask. The shrouds and bandages of the deceased are often inscribed with protective texts which have significance in folk magic as well as religion. For extra cost, the flesh can be removed from the bones before burial. This latter practice has several purposes; it is supposed to speed the soul's journey to redemption, ward against the formation of ghosts, and prevent sorcerers from exploiting the dead.

The Mortuary Society of Kassala

The Mortuary Society of Kassala is responsible for caring for the Alodian dead. Due to the taboos in Nubian (and especially Alodian) society (see earlier), members of the society are shunned by normal folk as unlucky, but also respected for their courage in performing an undesirable task. They are required by law to wear unpatterned smocks of white linen tied with a black sash so that they may be recognized; most also wear a black fez-like hat and carry a glass bell. All members carry a pouch filled with a special powder which can ward off the dead.

All Alodians are taxed in order to pay for the burial of the dead; this tax must be remitted in gold dust, and is mandatory. Most of this tax goes toward employing the Mortuary Society to carry out their business of preparing and interring the dead. Should a foreigner die within Alodia's bounds, their family or friends must pay to gain custody of the body; if they cannot or will not pay then the body is usually left for scavengers. The spirits of the unburied dead are more likely to return to haunt those who did not arrange for their burial.

The upper echelons of the Mortuary Society are aware of the Cult of Dedun; indeed, much of the society's activity is tailored specifically to limit the power of this cult. They provide church burials for all, and bury them in anonymous graves to prevent the identification of famous individuals. They guard the mausoleums against grave robbing, and even practice a form of magic that directly counters that of the cult's sorcerers (see insert).

Kushitic Preparation of the Dead

In the practice of the Empire of Kush, a body would be embalmed and then have a heavy coat of molten glass poured all over it. Once the glass had cooled, the body would be placed on a pillar so that the body of the dead man was visible through the glass for all to see. Through some magic, the body would not be burned or disfigured by the process. During the later empire, following the destruction of the priesthood of Dedun, the secret of protecting the corpse from damage was lost, and the body was first preserved inside a hollow statue made in the precise likeness of the deceased before being encased in glass. Kings and queens had their statues made in gold; princes and wealthy citizens used silver. Glass is so abundant that even the poor were preserved in this manner, inside an earthenware statue.

Keraba

Following the downfall of the Empire of Kush, the center of power — formerly at Meroë — moved gradually upstream. For a while, Keraba (ruled from el-Hobagi) was preeminent, before Soba became dominant in the sixth century and Keraba became a sub-kingdom in vassalage to Alodia. The kingdom is now ruled from Sufra.

El-Hobagi

The huge tumulus at el-Hobagi is one of the last burials of a pagan king in Alodia; once Soba became the dominant kingdom, they spread their own Christian faith to all vassals. The tumulus is surrounded by other high-status tombs, and accompanied by a temple to the ram-headed creator god Atum, which is in a remarkable state of repair given its age. The Faerie aura of 3 at the temple suggests that the building is still used for worship of the Kushitic gods, although no one has ever been witnessed entering the temple.

The tumulus has never been entered, despite rumors of the fabulous wealth in which the pagan kings of Kush were normally buried. If similar tumuli are anything to go by, the entrance to the artificial hill can be found at its summit, with a vertical shaft leading into the tomb below.

Meroë

The city of Medewi, which is now known by the Greek name of Meroë, was built by King Aspelta of Kush six hundred years before Christ, and was the site of his chief palace. After King Arqamani seized control of the Empire of Kush from the priesthood around 300 BC, he moved his capital from Napata to Meroë. At the height of its glory, Meroë ruled the entire Upper Nile, but following the downfall of Kush it has devolved into a city-state within the Nubian Kingdom of Alodia. The Island of Meroë is the name given to the vast triangle of land between the Nile and the Atbara Rivers ruled from the city.

Meroë has always been famous for its metalwork, first for iron, and then for gold. The outskirts of the city have almost an industrial appearance due to the bloomeries and blast furnaces involved in liberating pure metal from iron ore, and Meroitic iron and ironwork is valued far and wide for its quality.

The people of Meroë have a reputation for having a superior attitude born from their ancient heritage. The city is ruled by a king, or qore, and his mother, or kentake. Alodian rule has long rankled the royalty of Meroë, and they have been involved in several failed coups and civil actions against Soba. The royal family are widely believed to be pagan worshipers of Apedemak: they still use the lion as their royal symbol; sit on a lion throne; and keep lions as pets.

Kassalan Exorcists

A Kassalan exorcist is a specially trained individual who deals with the dead who have not accepted their final place. These characters have the Wise One Social Status Virtue and the Kassalan Exorcism and Second Sight Virtues. They are trained in Penetration, Magic Lore, and Organization Lore: Mortuary Society. Exorcists tend to concentrate on low level, high Penetration effects, and often work in concert to destroy powerful ghosts. A rare few possess the Corpse Magic Virtue, but use it exclusively to lay to rest the unquiet dead and to foil the schemes of necromancers. Others are Learned Magicians (Hedge Magic Revised Edition, Chapter 5) specializing in the Magicam Art.

New Virtue: Kassalan Exorcism

Minor, Supernatural
You are capable of performing minor exorcism spells through your knowledge of the rites of the Mortuary Society. You can cast spells in a very limited focus, namely wards against ghosts and the physical dead (using the Rego Corpus or Rego Mentem guidelines), and spells to strip Might from these same beings (using the Perdo Vim guidelines). You cannot create spells that affect other spirits or creatures who are not the walking dead, but your spells are equally effective against creatures from any Realm. Wards created with this Virtue need not be circular, but can instead block the threshold(s) of a room; this is still treated as a Duration: Ring, Target: Circle spell for level calculations.
To cast a spell you must expend a Fatigue level, whether the spell succeeds or fails. You must also spend at least 5 minutes preparing the spell, during which time you need unbroken concentration and expend one handful of Kassalan Dust. The spell is designed exactly like a Hermetic spell; if affecting a ghost you must be able to sense your target. Your Casting Total is equal to (Stamina + Organization Lore: Mortuary Society + Aura modifier + stress die) / 2. Penetration is calculated in the normal fashion: Casting Total – Spell Level + Penetration modifiers. Kassalan Exorcism is aligned to the Magic Realm.

Kassalan Dust

Made by the Mortuary Society of Kassala, this dust has powdered gold as its main component, with myrrh and other spices making up the rest. Twenty handfuls contain about a Mythic Pound's worth of gold dust. Kassalan Dust is necessary for Kassalan Exorcism, but grants no bonus. A handful also adds +3 to uses of the Corpse Magic Supernatural Ability to command a corpse to return to its grave or prevent it from being affected by Corpse Magic. Multiple handfuls provide no additional effect. Kassalan Dust has a Shape & Material bonus of +3 against the dead. The recipe is known to anyone with Organization Lore: Mortuary Society.

Begarawiyah

The royal necropolis just outside Meroë is the most extensive of Kush's three principal necropoli (the other two being Kurru and Nuri, see earlier). Begarawiyah is the haunt of Alodia's most powerful devotees of Dedun; as a result some of the pyramids are occupied, and may have a higher Magic aura than the surrounding necropolis, aligned to the dead.

The southern cemetery is the oldest of the three at Begarawiyah; it was contemporary with the necropolis of Nuri. Only four of the nine pyramids contain emperors of Kush; the remaining five are princes and queens. There are also 195 other tombs here. These contain non-royal occupants, and are not marked with pyramids. There is a Magic aura of 4 here, representing the preternatural tether of over four hundred years of royal burials.

The northern cemetery was used after Arqamani moved the capital of Kush to Meroë. His pyramid is here, along with those of 29 other kings and 27 kentakes, queens, and other royals. There are just three non-royal tombs here. The preternatural tether of six and a half centuries of royal burials has resulted in a Magic aura of 5.

There is also a western cemetery containing 113 tombs, none of which contain a royal occupant and thus lack pyramids. There is no Magic aura here due to the simpler construction and poorer preservation of these tombs.

Taqasi

The chief residence of the King of Meroë, Taqasi is a palatial building amidst luxurious grounds. It would be unwise to approach uninvited, since a pride of lions roams the carefully-manicured 'jungle'. Live prey is captured and released within the walls of the palace upon which the lions feed. The palace has about twenty rooms on two levels, arranged around a courtyard with a ramp leading up to a podium. Here, the king and kentake of Meroë receive visitors and watch the lions feed — and if the meeting has been unsatisfactory, both functions may be combined.

Artanyeszame

Artanyeszame is an ancient Undying One (see later) who has claimed a pyramid in Begarawiyah's southern necropolis as his home. He was born nearly two centuries ago, as a beggar named Georgiu in the town of Atbara. He was apprenticed to a learned magician, and learned of the Cult of Dedun from his master. The latter was killed by assassins sent by the Mortuary Society of Kassala, and Artanyeszame has harbored a hatred for them ever since. Using his master's resources he was able to amass magical power, and undergo the transformation into an Undying One.
Artanyeszame is powerful enough to exclude all other Undying Ones from the south cemetery, although there are two others dwelling in the northern necropolis and a third in the western cemetery. He is indifferent to those searching for the Initiation Script to become an Undying One, as long as they leave him alone. Anyone who persists in annoying him is steered toward a fake script he created a century ago: based on the real one, this inflicts the Ordeal but does not grant the Mystery.
The Undying One has had several lifetimes in which to amass power and further his schemes. He desires to uncover an intact copy of the Book of Thoth (see Chapter 5: Artefacts), believing — like countless before him — that he is powerful enough to read it without being consumed by it. Until he finds a copy, he is content to amass power and destroy those who might interfere with his schemes. He is content to allow lesser sorcerers to exist, but attempts to dominate or eliminate any powerful worker of magic. The characters could easily get caught in a feud between Artanyeszame and 'Izz el-Afram Hamad (see earlier). If they have had negative dealings with one of these sorcerers, they are courted by his rival; if they have allied with one, then they are targeted instead. Otherwise, the characters find their magical resources are stolen as the two sorcerers vie for the upper hand. This conflict is likely to end in a stalemate.
Artanyeszame might easily become the enemy of a group of characters, if they cross him or interfere with his plans. He could equally become the mentor of any group willing to assist him, although any alliance is likely to be temporary in nature. Compared to a Hermetic magus he is not a powerful sorcerer, but his magic is versatile, and he is cunning in its use. He also has the resources of his tomb to call upon, and the chapter of the Cult of Dedun of which he is the head. The power of this latter resource should not be underestimated; Artanyeszame has agents spread far and wide along the Nile, carefully chosen for their tasks based on their skills or contacts.

Story Seeds

The characters come into possession of a hand made of green stone. This is the missing part of the Djet in Cleopatra's Tomb, although they have no way of knowing this. Artanyeszame discovers that they have the hand (for example, through an agent who snoops through their belongings), and realizes that the Djet can tell him where to find the Book of Thoth. All he has to do is trick the characters into thinking they want to find Cleopatra's tomb.
A junior member of the Kassalan Mortuary Society asks the characters to help free the ghost of a Kushitic queen and lay her soul to rest. What he neglects to mention is that the ghost, Queen Weteriken (see later), is an ally and tutor of Artanyeszame, and resides within his pyramid. The society is hoping that the characters will weaken or destroy the Undying One on their behalf.

Artanyeszame, an Undying One

Magic Might: 25 (Corpus)
Season: Winter
Characteristics (prior to aging): Int +2, Per +1, Pre –1, Com +2, Str 0, Sta +1, Dex +1, Qik –1
Characteristics (current): Int +1, Per –1(1), Pre –2(1), Com +2, Str –3, Sta 0, Dex –2(1), Qik –3(2)
Size: 0
Decrepitude: 3 (2)
Confidence Score: 2 (5)
Virtues and Flaws: Learned Magician, Transformed Human**; Corpse Magic, Strong Verbal Charms, Unnatural Vitality**; Animal Ken, Harnessed Magic*, Dedun's Blessing**, Self-Confident; Charm Magician, Enemies (Mortuary Society of Kassala), Enfeebled**; Ambitious, No Chartae Making, Tainted with Evil, Vow**
\* Hermetic Virtue, lost when he lost The Gift.
\**Gained through Initiation
Magic Qualities and Inferiorities: Focus Power x2, Greater Powers x2; Corpus Resistance, Improved Abilities, Improved Might x9*, Improved Powers, Lesser Powers
\*gained through consuming vis (Realms of Power: Magic, page 52)
Personality Traits: Remorseless +3, Scheming +3, Obsessive +3, Amoral +2
Reputations: Ruthless 3 (Local)
Combat:
Scepter (Mace): Init –2, Attack +4, Defense 0, Damage +5
Soak: 0
Fatigue Levels: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: –1 (1–5), –3 (6–10), –5 (11–15), Incapacitated (16–20), Dead (21+)
Abilities: Animal Ken 3 (hyenas), Area Lore: Meroë 3 (pyramids), Area Lore: Nubia 3 (history), Artes Liberales 4 (astronomy), Corpse Magic 5 (interrogation), Concentration 4 (powers), Corpus Resistance 4 (resisting control), Dead Language: Meroitic 4 (royalty), Folk Ken 1 (magicians), Guile 2 (Nubians), Leadership 4 (bouda), Living Language: Romaic Greek 3 (Nubian), Living Language: Nubian 5 (Alwa), Magic Lore 4 (the dead), Medicine 2 (dry maladies), Organization Lore: Cult of Dedun 6 (Initiation), Penetration 4 (Salutem), Philosophiae 3 (natural philosophy), Profession: Scribe 2 (hieroglyphs), Single Weapon 2 (mace)
Arts: Tueor 4, Succuro 5, Vulnero 7; Fortunam 6, Magicam 8, Salutem 12
Powers:
Chariot of the Winds, 1 point, Init –2, Auram: Conjures a mighty wind which picks him up and carries him wherever he wishes to go at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour. Hovering is difficult, requiring Concentration rolls to remain aloft. Cr(Re)Au 30 (Base 5, +1 Touch, +1 Conc, +2 highly unnatural, +1 requisite) Greater Power (30 levels, –2 cost, +2 Init)
Lord of the Incorporeal, variable points, Init – (Might cost+1), Mentem: Artanyeszame can duplicate any non-Ritual spell of 50th level or less to do with ghosts, at a cost of 1 Might point per magnitude. Typical effects employed with this power are Whispers Through the Black Gate (3 points, ArM5 page 130), Vision of the Haunting Spirit (8 Might points, ArM5 page 150), Lay to Rest the Haunting Spirit (1–5 Might points, ArM5 page 150), and Coerce the Spirit of the Night (4 Might points, ArM5 page 152). He has also made more exotic use of this power, such as restoring memories to ghosts and endowing them with a temporary physical body. Focus Power x2 (Improved Powers to increase maximum level)
Restore the Faded Tapestry of Youth, 4 points, Init –6, Corpus. (see later)
The Dungeon Master, 1 point, Init –4, Imaginem (see later)
Equipment: Robes, scepter
Encumbrance: 1 (1)
Charms Known (casting totals include +9 bonus from the Unnatural Vitality Virtue):
Safeguard the Necromantic Spell (TuFo 15/+21): Eliminates two botch dice from any use of the Corpse Magic Ability. (Base 10, +1 Diam)
Gift of Atum (SuFo 25/+22): Grants the Tough Virtue to the target. (Base 10, +1 Touch, +2 Sun)
Gift of Anhur (SuFo 25/+22): Grants the Puissant Single Weapon Virtue to the target. (Base 10, +1 Touch, +2 Sun)
Gift of Menhit (SuFo 25/+22): Grants the Puissant Bows Virtue to the target. (Base 10, +1 Touch, +2 Sun)
Gift of Apedemak (SuFo 25/+22): Grants the Inspirational Virtue to the target. (Base 10, +1 Touch, +2 Sun)
Sweet Incense of Dedun (SuMa 5/+24): Reveals the presence of vis within Range. (Base 1, +2 Voice, +2 Sun)
Gift of Dedun (SuMa 20/+24): Grants the Second Sight Virtue to the caster, at an Ability score of 4. (Base 10, +2 Sun)
Sharpen the Magician's Knife (SuMa 15/+24): Grants a +3 to the caster's next use of the Vulnero Art. (Base 10, +1 Diam)
Strengthen the Magician's Shield (SuMa 15/+24): grants a +3 to the caster's next use of the Tueor Art. (Base 10, +1 Diam)
Fortify the Magician's Balm (SuMa 15/+24): Grants a +3 to the caster's next use of the Succuro Art. (Base 10, +1 Diam)
Charm of Alacritous Fortune Against Earth (TuMa 15/+23): This charm adds +8 to the caster's Defense Total against any magical earth- or stone-based attacks aimed at him. (Base 10, +1 Diam)
Charm of Magical Fortitude Against Fire (TuMa 13/+23): This charm adds +16 to the caster's Soak Total against magical fire. (Base 8, +1 Diam)
Sever the Binding Constraints (VuMa 20/+26): Hastens the expiry of any spell intended to restrain or hinder its target. If the total of (35+stress die) is at least double the level of the targeted spell, its Duration is reduced by one magnitude. Thus Duration: Sun becomes Duration: Diam, Duration: Diam becomes Duration: Mom, and so on. (Level 20, +1 Touch)
Charm of Protection Against the Fae (VuMa 20/+26): Creatures with a Faerie Might of 20 or less cannot affect the target of this spell, as long as the charm Penetrates. (Base effect)
Charm of Protection Against Spirits (VuMa 20/+26): Creatures with a Magic Might of 20 or less (not just spirits) cannot affect the target of this spell, as long as the charm Penetrates. (Base effect)
Ward the Sword's Edge (TuSa 16/+27): Grants the caster a +12 to Soak Totals against slashing melee weapons. (Base 6, +2 Sun)
Ward the Spear's Thrust (TuSa 20/+27): Prevents the caster from being harmed by piercing melee weapons. (Base 10, +2 Sun)
Ward the Club's Blow (TuSa 20/+27): Prevents the caster from being harmed by bludgeoning melee weapons. (Base 10, +2 Sun)

Artanyeszame, an Undying One (Cont'd)

Curse of the Ruptured Ears (VuSa 35/+30): Strikes an individual deaf with a stab of pain that incapacitates for a round. Heals as a Heavy Wound. (Base 20, +2 Voice, +1 pain)
Curse of the Milky Eyes (VuSa 30/+30): Inflicts blindness on the target. Heals as a Heavy Wound. (Base 20, +2 Voice)
Curse of the Dumb Beast (VuSa 25/+30): Destroys the victim's tongue, leaving him unable to speak. This heals as a Medium Wound. (Base 15, +2 Voice)
Vis: Artanyeszame controls vis sources that produce seven pawns a year; he typically has ten pawns of vis on him at any time. His corpse also contains 5 pawns of Vim vis in his withered heart.
Appearance: An ancient desiccated Nubian man, withered and bent. His left cheek lacks flesh, revealing the bones and teeth beneath. He wears the robes of an Egyptian priest, and an elaborate headdress of ostrich feathers. He carries a scepter which he wields as a club, if need be.
Artanyeszame casts his charms in the same way as Hermetic Formulaic spells (using a Casting Score of Communication + Technique + Form + aura bonuses), thanks to his Strong Verbal Charms Virtue. He has many hundreds of spells written into his formularies, which he may cast as Spontaneous spells, dividing (Casting Score + stress die) by 2. It takes him tens of minutes to find the right charm in the formulary. For more details on Learned Magicians and their magic, see Hedge Magic Revised Edition, Chapter Five.
When Artanyeszame became an Undying One, his court of the dead bought him a Magic Might of 16.

The Pyramid of Arrakkamani

Artanyeszame has claimed the pyramid of King Arrakkamani as his home. He keeps his court of the dead in a chamber within the pyramid; they are posed as if it were a royal court, paying obeisance to a central throne — which is where Artanyeszame himself sits when brooding upon various schemes. He has a court strength of 181 distributed between four dozen corpses, including Arrakkamani and his mother Weteriken.
Artanyeszame has befriended three bouda (hyena skinchangers, see Chapter 8: Ethiopia) who dwell in the antechamber of the tomb. These sisters, all of them witches, command a pack of a dozen magical hyenas who serve as the Undying One's covenfolk. Some have the Magic Sensitivity Virtue, and are able to locate Corpus vis residing in the long-buried dead of the necropolis. They are prone to bouts of madness.
Magic aura: 6 (aligned to the dead)
Boons: Aura x2 (Site, Minor), Seclusion (Site, Minor)
Hooks: Evil Custom (Site, Minor), Inhuman Covenfolk (Residents, Minor), Seed of Madness (Residents, Minor)
Resources: Curses (18 Build Points). Enchantments (52 Build Points). Library: Inscription on Petitioning the Dead (summa on Corpse Magic, Level 8, Quality 6), Initiation Script for Corpse Magic (Script Bonus +15) (45 Build Points). Specialists: Two altar priests (Magic Lore 5), four grave guardians (Single Weapon 4), ghost of Queen Weteriken, a powerful necromancer (Communication 1, Corpse Magic 10, Teaching 4), three bouda (Hex 5) (56 Build Points). Traps (55 Build Points). Vis Sources: 2 pawns of Vim per year (paint flecks from magical texts), 4 pawns of Corpus per year (bodies robbed by hyenas), 1 pawn of Ignem per year (glass exposed to dawn sun on rising of Sirius) (35 Build Points) 259 Build Points overall.
Curse:
Those that enter my tomb in their impurity shall have their flesh decay and their bones perish: This curse is written in Meroitic on the entrance to the tomb. This Greater Malediction inflicts the Enfeebled Major Flaw on anyone who succumbs. Artanyeszame's Magic Might makes him immune to the curse, and he has devised a rite of purification that protects his servants. (PeCo 45; Pen 0, 1/day; Base 30, +1 Touch, +2 Room; 18 Build Points)
Enchantments:
Shroud of Sands: A cloak made of disks of sandstone joined in rows by twine. The wearer can move up to ten thousand cubic paces of sand, enough to bury the pyramid hiding it from view, or to excavate the tunnel to the burial chamber beneath. The sand moves slowly, and can only be used offensively against immobile opponents. ReTe 25 (Base 1, +2 Voice, +1 Conc, +1 Part, +3 Size; +5 24 uses/day) (Ease Factor 11, 10 Build Points)
Glory of The Royal Lion: When light strikes this statue of Apedemak, it radiates an aura that can entrap one person who looks at its eyes. It continues to trap those looking directly at it, one per round, until its daily uses are spent. Entrapped individuals are held motionless in place, unmoving except to reorient themselves to face the statue. This effect even continues if they are removed from line of sight. Those caught will starve to death unless released by a secret command word uttered in Meroitic. ReCo 40 (Base 5, +1 Eye, +3 Moon, +1 can be released; +4 12/day, +6 Pen 12) (Ease Factor 14, 16 Build Points)
Sovereign Ward Against Wandering Shadows: No spirit with a Might of 25 or less can enter or leave the pyramid of Arrakkamani if this effect Penetrates its Magic Resistance. This effect has trapped Queen Weteriken, who claims to have enchanted it herself into its walls. Artanyeszame gained his Might score inside the pyramid, and is immune to its effects. ReMe 57 (Base effect (25), +0 Touch, +0 Sun, +3 Structure; +1 2/day, +3 environmental trigger, +13 Pen 26) (Ease Factor 24, 24 Build Points)
Traps:
The steps leading down to the burial chamber recede, creating a steep, smooth ramp. The 20 pace slide down to a hard surface results in +30 damage if the characters slide all the way to the bottom. A character might be able to grip onto the sides of the ramp and arrest the fall with a Strength + Athletics – Encumbrance roll (Ease Factor 9, 15 Build Points)
A false burial chamber filled with fake treasure; this is a good place for an ambush. A character might spot the falsehood of the treasure without entering the room with a Perception + Bargain roll. (Ease Factor 9, 6 Build Points)
A rain of poisoned darts fall from the ceiling. Each individual gets struck by 1 – 6 darts, each inflicting a Light Wound unless a Stamina roll against an Ease Factor of 6 is successful. (average of 3 Light Wounds, Ease Factor 6, 19 Build Points)
A massive stone slab falls from the ceiling, inflicts +15 damage, and traps individuals on the wrong side. A character might be able to dive out of the way with a Quickness + Athletics – Encumbrance roll (Ease Factor 12, 15 Build Points)

Soba

Soba, the capital city of the Kingdom of Alodia, is situated on the east bank of the Blue Nile a short distance upstream from its confluence with the White Nile. The urban complex covers a wide area on a gently undulating plain cut by many shallow watercourses. Occupation is mostly confined to the mounds that lie between these streams, and are surrounded by wide open areas. Most of these mounds are covered in gravel and occupied by large wooden houses, each covered in white clay that glitters in the sun due to the mica within it. Each house is surrounded by a lush garden. Some of the mounds are covered in red brick, and these bear churches, seventeen in all, each one decorated with gold leaf. The most prominent and luxurious of these is the Church of Manbali, which serves as Soba's cathedral. There is a Dominion aura of 3 in proximity to these churches, but because of the diffuse nature of the city there are many lacunae where the Dominion does not reach. Around the town and on the river banks are several monasteries, each one occupied by only a handful of monks. Soba is unique in being the only Alodian city with a mosque: it has a significant population of Muslims, both Egyptian and from the southern sultanates.

Soba is famous for its alchemists, renowned for the wonders they can achieve through their craft. The city is filled with examples of their efforts. Street corners bear poles that shed light at night that rival the moon in brightness. Its streets are uncommonly smooth and pleasant for wheeled vehicles; although some Soban vehicles may not touch the ground at all but hover just above it. Extensive use is made of the streams, occasionally canalized; barges of stone float miraculously on water bringing grain and timber into the city. There are fountains in which the water flows upwards against its natural tendencies, gardens of stone statues which are tethered to the ground to prevent them from floating away and bridges of transparent metal. The city even smells sweet due to the properties of the tiles used in its roofs.

The Alchemists of Soba

Soba is rampant in wonders, and most of these are a product of its alchemists. Most are employees of the Ministry of Works, which maintains and improves the city. These city alchemists wear distinctive red robes, and can often be seen in charge of a construction crew, or restoring the effects of the public amenities or artwork.

A player can have a Soban Alchemist as a companion character, taking the Alchemist of Soba Social Status Virtue. The Soban Alchemy Virtue permits them to perform the wonders for which their profession is famed. Soban Alchemy is expensive, and most alchemists operate under state patronage, although private patrons (via the Protection Virtue) and financially independent characters (the Wealthy Virtue) can avoid the obligations that the Ministry of Works demands. Much alchemical work is performed through the Philosophiae Ability; if you have Art & Academe, Soban Alchemists create a wide variety of alchemical reagents. They also require the Profession: Apothecary Ability to manage and run a well-stocked alchemist's laboratory. A city alchemist might have a Profession or Craft Ability related to the duties he commonly performs; independent alchemists often have artistic Profession or Craft Abilities instead. Alchemists relying on a patron or the city to fund their experiments are required to remain in the vicinity of Soba if they are to continue to receive the coin they need. Even a wealthy alchemist might have difficulty finding raw materials for his Sovereign Reagent away from Soba.

As well as public works, state alchemists teach their techniques to the next generation at the Ministry buildings. There are both summae and tractatus on Soban Alchemy written in Nubian Greek, and many of these are jealously guarded by the wealthy families who own them. A Gifted individual can possibly learn Soban Alchemy from such books (ArM5, page 166); an unGifted character must possess the Virtue or be Initiated in it by the Ministry of Works.

Soban Alchemy

Some Soban alchemists are able to turn the natural world on its head, making stone float, metal transparent, flames cold, and water flow uphill. These transformations are never permanent, and need to be renewed periodically if they are to persist. They are brought about through the Soban Alchemy Ability. Unlike alchemical reagents made with Philosophiae, Soban Alchemy is a supernatural science, and cannot be duplicated with Rego Craft magic. Alchemists tend to have their workshops in one of the lacunae in the city's Dominion, to avoid detrimental aura modifiers as much as possible.
It is believed by some that Soban Alchemy is the last remnants of the magic that constructed the monuments of Egypt and Kush in ancient times.

New Virtue: Soban Alchemy

Major, Supernatural
Taking this Virtue grants the Supernatural Ability of Soban Alchemy at a score of 1. Soban Alchemy is usually aligned to the Magic realm.

New Ability: Soban Alchemy

This Supernatural Ability allows the character to create a substance called Sovereign Reagent. Every Soban Alchemist with this power has a different recipe for his Sovereign Reagent, and it can take many forms — a powder, a waxy stone, an incense, a liquid, and so on. She can only use Sovereign Reagent she has made herself. Each dose of Sovereign Reagent costs the equivalent of a Mythic Pound of ingredients, or else a pawn of Muto vis. An alchemist can make a maximum number of doses in a season equal to twice his Profession: Apothecary Ability; during this season he can carry on his usual business but can only gain Exposure experience points in either Soban Alchemy, Philosophiae, or Profession: Apothecary. He may not be able to afford his maximum number of doses per season.
Sovereign Reagent alters one natural property of inanimate matter, while leaving its shape and composition unchanged. It can either grant an absent property to an object (making it glow, float, or become transparent) or remove a property that is present (taking away its color, sharpness, or smoothness). It cannot partially affect a property; for example, a hard object cannot be made harder, nor can any object be made lighter or heavier — but can be given the tendency to rise rather than fall, or sink rather than float. An object with its solidity removed keeps its shape, but other objects can be pushed through it easily. Only one property of the object can be affected at a time and it retains all the former qualities that are unaffected. Magical media cannot be affected at all, and this includes matter currently under the effect of Soban Alchemy. The Duration of the change is dependent on the character's Ability Score:

Soban Alchemy Duration

1 Minutes

3 Hours

5 Days

7 Weeks

9 Months

To use Soban Alchemy, one or more doses of Sovereign Reagent must be applied to the object to be affected. A single dose can affect one cubic foot of solid matter, one cubic pace of fluid matter, or ten cubic paces of ephemeral matter (such as fire or air). Multiple doses can be applied to affect more matter. After applying the reagent, generate a Casting Total from Intelligence + Soban Alchemy + Aura modifier + stress die against an Ease Factor determined by the type of change desired:

Ease Factor Property affected

9 redness/blueness/etc., saltiness/sweetness/etc., texture, symmetry.

12 pungency, fragrance/fetor, tendency to float/sink, sharpness, elasticity, flexibility, moistness/dampness.

15 transparency, cohesion/solidity, hardness, brittleness, heat/coldness, resonance (i.e. the noise it makes), silence.

18 tendency to rise/fall, luminosity

Roll a simple die to determine how many units of time (as determined by Ability score) that the effect will last; this result may be kept secret from the player if desired. Alternatively, to find out whether a long lasting transformation is still in effect, roll a simple die, and if the result is less than the number of units that have passed then the Duration has expired, otherwise it lasts for at least one more time unit.
Matter affected by Soban Alchemy becomes a magical medium for the Duration, and to affect those with Magic Resistance it must Penetrate. The Penetration Total is equal to Casting Total – Ease Factor + Penetration Bonus. Most Soban Alchemists do not learn the Penetration Ability since they consider their power to be a science, rather than magic. Substances affected by Soban Alchemy suffer warping at a rate of one Warping Point per year, and part of an alchemist's work is to replace badly affected components.
Specialties: a certain type of matter, a given property

New Virtue: Alchemist of Soba

Minor, Social Status
You are an alchemist trained in Soba. You may have Academic Abilities at character creation, and must have a Philosophiae of at least 3. Unless you take the Wealthy Virtue, you are employed by the Soban Ministry of Works (or a private patron if you take the Protection Virtue), and are obliged to spend at least two seasons per year laboring on the behalf of your employer. You receive only Exposure experience points for these seasons. If you have the Soban Alchemy Virtue, you cannot make Sovereign Reagent in seasons that you work for the ministry, but you can spend one of your 'free' seasons making Sovereign Reagent on the city's coin. You are typically required to use at least half of these doses discharging your duties.

The Blemmyae Tribes

The Blemmyae are a nomadic and warlike race of magic humans who occupy the Red Sea Hills and the Nubian Desert, as well as the Libyan Desert in the west. A Blemmya has no head or neck; his face is borne on the upper part of his torso. Libyan Blemmyae are merchants, who lead camel trains across the sands. Nubian Blemmyae are much more aggressive, and are rightly feared by travelers across the Nubian Desert.

Blemmyae herd camels for wool, leather, meat, and milk; they hunt gazelles and ostriches to supplement their diet. They also raid caravans traveling from Nobatia to Alodia and steal any luxuries they find; their reputation is such that they expect no resistance from Nubian merchants. As a consequence, most raided merchants escape with their lives, and often with any bulky goods that the Blemmyae are unwilling to steal. The Bedouins that have invaded from Egypt are treated more roughly; Blemmyae have no treaties with these people, and see them as interlopers. No mercy is shown to them. Some Blemmyae families mine gold and emeralds from the Wadi Allaqi in the north of their territory, and they control the flow of gold into Makuria and Egypt.

Blemmya Culture

The Blemmyae divide themselves into five tribes, named for the five Blemmyae cities that they used to inhabit: Phoinikon, Khiris, Taphis, Talmis, and Prima. All five tribes are ruled by a single king, who is sometimes resident in Sawakin, but more commonly is found living much like any other Blemmya among his family. The Blemmyae show great respect for their king, and tend to obey him, but his reign is not absolute; he depends upon the agreement of the five phylarchs, the chiefs of the separate tribes. The King of the Blemmyae chooses one of the phylarchs to be his heir upon taking the crown, but cannot choose the phylarch of his own tribe. Once made, this choice cannot be unmade — if the phylarch dies in the interim then the honor passes to the phylarch's closest male relative. Under the phylarchs are the hypotyranni, or sub-chiefs, each in charge of a band of fifty or so families of Blemmyae.

Blemmyae men outnumber the women ten to one; however, unlike the men, Blemmyae women do not naturally age, and contribute to multiple generations within their tribe. Bloodlines are carefully tracked to avoid a woman marrying her own descendants.

The Blemmyae have not been converted to Christianity or Islam despite attempts to do both, and instead they worship the stars and the Kushitic gods, particularly Mandulis the Sun God. They speak their own language, called Beja, which is a descendent of Meroitic.

Ababdah, a Blemmya

Magic Might: 5 (Corpus)
Season: Summer
Characteristics: Int 0, Per +1, Pre 0, Com –1, Str +5, Sta +2, Dex +2, Qik +1
Size: 0
Age: 30 (30)
Decrepitude: 0
Confidence Score: 1 (3)
Virtues and Flaws: Magic Human; Craftsman; Affinity with Profession: Miner, Long-Winded, Warrior; Essential Flaw, Generous, No Sense of Direction
Magic Qualities and Inferiorities: Improved Abilities x2, Lesser Powers, Minor Virtue (Great Strength) x2, Minor Virtue (Improved Characteristics) x2, Minor Virtue (Puissant Thrown Weapon), Minor Virtue (Tough), Personal Powers; Major Flaw (Age Quickly), Monstrous Appearance*; Minor Flaw (Hunchback), Minor Flaw (Poor Hearing)
\*free with Magic Human
Personality Traits: Charitable +3, Diligent +2, Brave +1, Excessively Generous (Communication)* –3
\*Essential Flaw
Combat:
Pick*: Init +2, Attack +11, Defense +7, Damage +13
Sling: Init –2, Attack +11, Defense +7, Damage +10
\* treated as mace
Soak: +6
Fatigue Levels: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: –1 (1–5), –3 (6–10), –5 (11–15), Incapacitated (16–20), Dead (21+)
Abilities: Animal Handling 3 (camels), Area Lore: Nobatia 1 (Pakhoras), Area Lore: Red Sea Hills 3 (ore-bearing areas), Bargain 4 (evaluating value), Folk Ken 1 (gold merchants), Leadership 2 (miners), Native Language: Beja 5 (Phoinikon), Living Language: Nubian 3 (Dongolawi), Organization Lore: Phoinikon Tribe 2 (gold merchants), Profession: Miner 6 (8) (gold), Ride 3 (camels), Single Weapon 5 (pick), Thrown Weapons 5+2 (sling)
Powers:
Ease the Labor of Ten Miners, 2 points, Init –2, Terram: Ababdah can weaken rock in an area ten paces by ten paces, and up to ten paces deep, making it easy to excavate. PeTe 15 (Base 2, +1 Touch, +1 affect stone, +3 size) Lesser Power (15 levels, –1 Might cost)
Gold-Miner's Keen Eye, 1 point, Init –1, Terram: Ababdah can see gold through up to three paces of intervening material. He can estimate purity and quantity of any gold present. InTe 20 (Base 2, +1 Conc, +4 Vision, +1 see through intervening material) Personal Power (20 levels, –1 Might cost)
Equipment: Miner's tools, partial leather armor
Encumbrance: 0 (Burden 0)
Vis: 1 pawn of Terram, in eyes
Appearance: A stocky Blemmya wearing leather armor on both forearms and upper arms and a skirt of leather strips. He carries a pick and leads a camel burdened with equipment.
Ababdah is a Blemmyae miner who has made his tribe rich through his discovery of seams of gold. He is often shadowed by one of his younger cousins, because his family are aware of his propensity to get turned around in the sand dunes and unable to find his way home. In human society, Ababdah would most likely have the Magical Covenfolk Social Status Virtue.

Blemmyae Characters

Blemmyae have faces on their chests, lacking heads and necks. The shoulders of Blemmyae are spaced wide apart, leaving their faces larger than those of a normal human. Their hearing is poor, since their ears are positioned beneath their arms. Blemmyae women do not have breasts and do not suckle their children, but give them goat or camel milk instead. Blemmyae have hairless bodies, and wear no clothes on the upper part of their body. Fortunately for them, their bodies are naturally resistant to damage. Blemmyae who wish to wear armor must devise some means to permit themselves to see; this normally requires them to wear rigid armor like boiled leather or plate-and-mail with eye holes or a visor. They cannot use large shields effectively. Blemmyae warriors tend to be mounted skirmishers armed with slings rather than front-line fighters.

Blemmyae are Magic Humans (Realms of Power: Magic, page 32) who have the following Inherited features:

Magic Qualities: Minor Virtue (Puissant Thrown Weapon), Minor Virtue (Tough)
Magic Inferiorities: Minor Flaw (Hunchback), Minor Flaw (Poor Hearing)

Male Blemmyae also have the Age Quickly Major Flaw as a Magic Inferiority, meaning that they have a lifespan typical of that of a human. Female Blemmyae do not share this Flaw. Blemmyae take a Social Status Virtue or Flaw appropriate to their role in their tribe, but should they join human society they should take one more appropriate to their magical nature.

Blemmyae Territory

Numerous treaties between the Blemmyan and Makurian kings have established the limits of Blemmyae territory, but these treaties last no longer than the lives of the signatories involved. Blemmyae regularly offer tribute to the Makurian and Alodian thrones, which are thinly veiled fines for past raiding or bribes for future raiding. Broadly speaking, the region between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea belongs to the Blemmyae tribes. The Pakhoras Road to Atbara describes their western border. The port of 'Aydhab is in territory claimed by the Blemmyae, but is in Egyptian hands.

Over the last half-century, the Blemmyae and Makurians have found a common enemy in the Ja'alin, who have stolen territory from both kingdoms.

Badi

Badi has been abandoned by honest merchants, and has become a fetid pit of lawlessness and debauchery. The only ships that regularly dock at Badi's extensive quays are pirate ships that prey on merchants navigating the Red Sea. It is said that anything can be sourced from Badi; for things that cannot be bought, unscrupulous men can be hired to procure it to order.

The Blemmyae of the Red Sea Hills keep overland travelers from Badi, for their own sakes. Likewise, the sea approach is difficult because few captains dare to ferry passengers here; standing orders from the Egyptian and Arabian authorities state that ships known to have docked at Badi forfeit the lives of their captain and crew, and any passengers are sold into slavery.

Story Seed: Grandmother Lion

The characters encounter an escaped Aithiops slave who has run away from Taqasi. Her command of Nubian is poor, but she is seeking someone to free her grandmother from the king's control. The slave begs the characters for help. The slave's 'grandmother' is a magical lion held at Taqasi; she is the lion-equivalent of a sorceress and has several powers including the ability to take human form. The king of Meroë discovered her secret, and holds her cub hostage to her good behavior. Not all the pet lions are friendly with the lioness, since she has The Gift and they distrust her because of it; some might betray her attempts to escape to the king. If they succeed in freeing her and her son, she might permit her cub to become a familiar or animal companion of one of the characters.

Sawakin

Known to Ptolemy as the Port of Good Hope (Limen Evangelis); the Blemmyae know better: both Sawakin and the Beja name of the port U Suk mean "prisons." When King Solomon had finished with his jinn servants, some of the most troublesome were banished here. As far as anyone knows, the jinn are still inmates of a magical jail of unknown location.

Sawakin occupies a circular island at the end of a long inlet. It is a fantastic town built entirely of coral. Many of its buildings are made from bands of white, pink, and red coral; and its famous lighthouse is so cunningly constructed of delicately shaded colors from white at the base to red at the summit that it is virtually invisible at dawn or dusk. Red coral has a powerful sympathy with controlling demons (as evidenced by its Shape and Material Bonus, ArM5, page 110), and this might provide clues to those seeking for the jinn prisons.

Sawakin has a long rivalry with the other ports of the Red Sea: 'Aydhab, Badi, and Qusayr. Currently, Sawakin's fortunes are on the rise at the expense of those of Badi, profiting from trade with Arabia, Persia, and distant Hind, as well as selling passage to Mecca for Muslims on the hajj. Coral is an occasional export from Sawakin, most of it of a variety called "snake's tongue" and taking the form of a forked twig of rough red stone.

The Prisons of the Jinn

There are 111 jinn buried beneath Sawakin in prisons of coral, all of them inimical to man. They vary in Might; most are petty annoyances that Solomon did not feel comfortable releasing back into the wild. There are a few that are truly terrifying, and one is rumored to be Ashmodai, Prince of Temptation and one of the ten most powerful demons save Satan himself (Realms of Power: the Infernal, page 27).

Story Seed: Black Coral

Whether or not Ashmodai is imprisoned under Sawakin is unknown, but what is certain is that there are any number of jinni who claim to be him. A recent earthquake opened a crack in the coral in the basement of a warehouse, and an Infernal jinn was able to communicate with a laborer sent to clear up the rubble. This menial is now the leader of a cult devoted to the worship of "Ashmodai."
A character who comes to Sawakin in search of coral — either for trade or for enchantment — might be sold stone corrupted by the diabolic cult. Rather than having an apotropaic effect on demons, the corrupted coral instead attracts the attention of evil spirits. The cult keeps track of those to whom it sells, seeking to recruit the demons attracted by their product — once the buyer is dead or corrupted, of course.

Dedun, Lord of Hosts

As Dedwen, the Egyptians adopted Dedun as the god of incense, but to the Kushitic priesthood he was much more than that. Dedun stood for the things that are gathered in this life in preparation for life in the next. So he was a god of prosperity, because like the Egyptians, the Kushites interred their dead with grave goods for use after death. He was also the god of fame and reputation, and the patron of priests who praised the dead and kept their memory alive, and his chief cult center was at Napata (see earlier). He was guardian of the dead, lord of the fields of prosperity, and as well as incense he was the god of salt, natron, naphtha, and other substances used for preservation.
The struggle between priests and kings is often symbolized by the uraeus (the symbol of Dedun, god of priests) fighting the lion (the symbol of Apedemak, god of royalty).

The Kushitic Dead

The priesthood of Kush contained Canaanite necromancers (Ancient Magic, Chapter Two), some of whom had arrived here with the Tribe of Dan, and others who had settled here after Saul's purge of the Israelite priesthood in Canaan. Characters pursuing this mystery seeking insight may receive clues leading to Kush. By taking possession of the royal dead, the Kushite priests were able to control their living relatives, through the threat of wracking their spirits after death.

Monsters in the Sea

The Red Sea is home to all manner of immense creatures and monsters. These occasionally chase shoals of fish up from the depths, and in their attempts to escape the fish beach themselves in large numbers or else leap clear out of the water into boats. The monsters come in a variety of shapes: colossal fish such as sea-eels, sharks, and whales; tremendous turtles; and frightening horrors such as massive sea-centipedes and worms.

The giant eels can be simulated by using the statistics for the elephant-eating serpents, but adding the Aquatic Quality and the Slippery Quality twice. They gain Swim 5, and can breathe water; if caught in a grapple they have a +9 to Defense Totals.

Scorpion Fish (Scorpaena)

Characteristics: Cun –2, Per –2, Pre –5, Com –6, Str +10, Sta +3, Dex +1, Qik 0
Size: +5
Confidence Score: 1 (3)
Virtues and Flaws: Improved Characteristics, Ferocity (in shallow water), Tough; Greedy
Mundane Qualities: Aggressive, Aquatic, Large Teeth, Pursuit Predator, Swallow Whole, Thick Scales, Tough Hide
Personality Traits: Hungry +6
Reputations: Killer 2 (Local)
Combat:
Bite: Init 0, Attack +11, Defense +7, Damage +13
Soak: +10
Fatigue Levels: OK, 0/0, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: –1 (1–10), –3 (11–20), –5 (21–30), Incapacitated (31–40), Dead (41+)
Abilities: Awareness 2 (prey), Brawl 5 (teeth), Hunt 4 (large fish), Survival 3 (Red Sea), Swim 5 (deep water)
New Qualities:
Swallow Whole: The scorpaena can swallow whole any creature of Size 0 or smaller. The creature can struggle to escape, but the confining nature of the gullet permits only Brawl attacks. It is impossible to breathe inside the fish, requiring deprivation rolls (ArM5, page 180) even if the victim escapes the grapple. Three rounds after being swallowed, the victim reaches the stomach. The powerful acids inflict +9 damage every round, complete immersion quadruples this to +36 (ArM5, page 181). A character may be able to brace himself and avoid complete immersion: make a Strength + Athletics roll each round: Ease Factor 6 results in only half immersion (triple damage), Ease Factor 9 results in immersion of a limb (double damage), and Ease Factor 12 means just a splash (normal damage). The fish cannot swallow a second creature until the previous one has reached the stomach.
Appearance: A hideous fish over six paces long with a toad-like mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth. Its body is red, and festooned with rough nodules and long spines.
Small specimens of the scorpion fish — two feet long or so — are occasionally caught in the nets of Red Sea fishermen, but these statistics are for a twenty foot long horror. This template can also be used for the giant sharks that live in the Red Sea; these should be given the Fast Swimmer Quality, giving them a +3 bonus to all rolls involving speed when swimming.

The Cult of Dedun

Kush may be long gone, but its legacy lives on within the Nubian Kingdoms. One such legacy is the Cult of Dedun, the god of priests and the guardian of the dead. Under the direction of this cult, the pyramids of Napata and Meroë were raised, the rocktombs built, and the fields of the dead tended. They were the virtual rulers of Kush; by controlling the dead they could control the living. Their power was eventually crushed when King Arqamani, with the assistance of the priests of Apedemak, attacked the sacerdotal stronghold at Napata, slew the priests, and took custody of the royal dead.

Few in Nubia today suspect that this cult could still exist, since the very concept of dealing with the dead is abhorrent. Nevertheless, they still lurk in graveyards and forgotten tombs, and other places of decay. The modern form of the cult is less orientated toward the preservation of the dead and more toward amassing power from controlling the dead. This reversal in emphasis is due to the subtle influence of the Red (see Chapter 1); whether its members realize it or not, the Cult of Dedun has become a corruptive force serving oblivion.

Structure of the Cult

The Cult of Dedun is a Mystery Cult. It is highly secretive in nature, and divided into informal districts who worship at a particular grave site under the leadership of a temple priest. The temple priests meet once every few years to discuss stratagem. While ostensibly a religion, most of the members beyond the rank of adherent see the cult as a route to magical power rather than a form of worship, and its Mysteries are aligned to the Magic realm rather than that of Faerie. This is not to say that there are no believers — indeed, some priests become fanatical in their devotion to Dedun — but they do not delude themselves as to the true nature of the cult: it is a way of achieving life eternal. In the past, immortality might have been offered posthumously by the cult through becoming an akh (see Chapter 4), but corruption by the Red has led to a cult that reveres bodily immortality through dominance of their decayed flesh.

The Initiation Process

Initiation is a means by which characters can acquire new Virtues through the completion of a task or series of tasks. The Initiation is guided by a Mystagogue, who, once the tasks have been completed, generates an Initiation Total equal to his Presence + Organization Lore + Script Bonus. If the Ease Factor is equaled or exceeded, then the Initiate gains the sought-after power. If the Mystagogue does not personally know the power then the Ease Factor is increased by 3 (if the power is a Minor Virtue) or 9 (if the power is a Major Virtue).
Characters with The Gift have a few advantages when seeking Initiation. Gifted characters can receive a bonus to initiation for previous Ordeals, meaning they can often avoid an Ordeal. UnGifted characters have to take an Ordeal Flaw every time they are Initiated into a new mystery. However, a different Initiation Script is needed to take advantage of this benefit, and not all cults have alternatives available. A final benefit, which does not need a separate script, is that only Gifted characters can Initiate others with a Mystery that they do not know themselves. This means that only Gifted characters can self-initiate into a Mystery.
The Initiation Scripts listed here are all designed for characters without The Gift, although Gifted characters can still use them. It is possible that the Cult of Dedun has different Initiation Scripts for Gifted characters to use, or else the character may discover them written in the ancient Meroitic language on long-forgotten monuments, or even invent her own. Rules for this, and more information on Initiation in general, can be found in The Mysteries Revised Edition or Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults. Details about unGifted Initiations are in Hedge Magic Revised Edition.

Adherent

Adherents are the typical members of the cult. They come from all walks of life, but seek the restoration of the temporal power of the Cult of Dedun. Some families have been loyal adherents for centuries, and bring trustworthy sons and daughters for Initiation when they come of age. Others are wooed by the promise of power by friends and colleagues who have achieved the rank of altar priest. Others still may come to the cult through their curiosity regarding the graves of ancient Kush, or research into the extension of life or necromancy. The only requirements of them are to attend ceremonies of worship to Dedun, which are held at night in the local temple, usually four times a year. Members of the same congregation usually show each other preferential treatment in their daily lives, relying on the cult's Prohibition (gained upon Initiation to the rank of adherent) to maintain secrecy. Occasionally, a temple priest may ask an adherent for assistance, which they freely give.

Initiation Script for the Rank of Adherent

Benefit: none
Ease Factor: 6
Script Bonus: n/a
Script Details: The Initiate is brought to the temple for the first time on a bier, dressed in a shroud and blindfolded by a death-mask cast from her own face. She bears some symbolic death wound on her body. In the silence of the temple, she is sprinkled with oil and fumigated with myrrh. The temple priest helps her into a sitting position, and asks her to swear a fearful vow, with all the spirits of the underworld as witnesses, to never reveal the existence of the cult to outsiders. This vow is enforced by the Prohibition Flaw. He then removes her death-mask, to witness the silent congregation, all wearing their own masks. Screaming like demons, they tear off her shroud and clothe her in new garments.
Violating the cult's Prohibition causes Dedun's Shadow to pass over the oathbreaker. This is resolved like an aging Crisis (ArM5, page 170). Even if the character survives she suffers an adverse consequence from the stroke; this usually manifests as a paralyzed limb (Lame), shaking hands (Palsied Hands), or blighted speech (Afflicted Tongue).

Altar Priest

The altar priests are the deputy members of the cult; they assist the Temple Priest in his sacred duties to Dedun, and are responsible for maintaining the temple and keeping discipline among the adherents. Should an adherent become a liability to the secrecy of the cult, it is the job of the altar priests to silence him permanently. Each temple may have one or more altar priests, but there are rarely more than four, except in particularly large congregations. Altar priests are expected to have an Organization Lore: Cult of Dedun of 1 or more, and a Meroitic of at least 3 to perform the rites to Dedun.

Only those with magical powers can benefit from the ranks above adherent. Having proved their loyalty to the cult, altar priests are released from their Prohibition, replacing it with a Vow; this allows them to recruit new adherents.

Initiation Script for the Rank of Altar Priest

Benefit: Dedun's Blessing. The character can align Magic auras toward the dead. The level of the aura is doubled when the activity matches the alignment; in this case, any spells or powers specifically affecting the dead, the Magic Resistance of any dead or undead supernatural creature, and so on. To align the aura the character must perform a ceremony to Dedun in the aura at least once a season for a year. The aura must be of the Magic realm, and cannot have a prior alignment. You may then make a roll of Intelligence + Magic Lore + stress die against an Ease Factor of (9+aura level). If the roll succeeds, then the aura is aligned. If the roll fails, you receive a cumulative bonus of +1 to the next roll, which can be attempted after another year of seasonal rites. If you botch, the character aligns the aura to an entirely different magical focus. Several individuals may cooperate to align the same aura; each roll is made separately, but any bonus for previous attempts is added together and applied to the rolls of all individuals taking part. The effects of Dedun's Blessing are permanent unless the level of the aura changes, in which case the alignment is lost. See Realms of Power: Magic page 15 for more details on aligned auras.
Ease Factor: 15 (Minor Virtue)
Script Bonus: +7
Script Details: The Initiate must spend a season in seclusion at the temple, learning Dedun's rites from his Mystagogue (+3); this counts as a season of Teaching in Organization Lore: Cult of Dedun, or Meroitic. He must procure rare and expensive incenses for the temple at his own expense (+1), and learn to prepare and apply them correctly. As part of the ceremony, the Initiate loses the Prohibition Flaw gained as an adherent, but swears a Vow (as per the Flaw) of secrecy instead (+3).

Temple Priest

There is only one temple priest per district. He is responsible for leading a congregation in the worship of Dedun, and usually has one or more altar priests to assist him. To be considered for this rank, a character must have an Organization Lore: Cult of Dedun of at least 3, and knowledge of Meroitic at 4 or more.

Upon Initiation to this rank, a temple priest must locate a tomb to become the focus of a new cult center, and obtain his own congregation of adherents; these may be inherited or stolen from his prior temple. Due to the Mystery acquired during Initiation to this rank, temple priests derive power from their own Decrepitude. They usually abandon their families and any pretense at a normal life, and take up residence in their temple, living in squalor and eating whatever they can scrounge from within the temple and its immediate vicinity. Some temple priests even feed on the bodies they steal for their court (see later); others rely on their altar priests to bring them sustenance. This retreat hastens the onset of aging (represented by a –3 Living Conditions modifier) and contributes to their burgeoning power. They believe that this punishment of the flesh leads to a greater purity of purpose in Dedun's service.

At this rank, the character begins to gather a "court" of interred bodies. Some temple priests keep their court at their temple, either on display to their congregation or hidden from view, while other priests prefer to secret their court away in a separate location. These bodies are usually of noteworthy people, famous (or infamous) in life. Each member of a priest's court must be prepared according to her own individual rite, established during her Initiation into this rank. Individual variations include how a body is prepared before burial (embalmed, mummified, stripped of flesh), how it is arrayed (dressed, wrapped in a shroud, posed in a particular position), and how it is interred (buried in the soil, encased in a sarcophagus, hung upon ropes, entombed in glass). All members of a court have the priest's name written in the Meroitic script somewhere with their body: some priests write it on a tablet and place it in the corpse's mouth; others etch it into the bones; and so on. This ritual preparation of the dead is sufficiently unique that the corpse becomes a permanent Arcane Connection to the priest, and the addition of the priest's name adds a sympathetic bonus to any who can read it.

The bodies that constitute a priest's court can have a number of different sources. They could be centuries old, liberated from their original graves and then reburied according to the priest's own rite. They could be fresh, stolen prior to their initial burial. It is not unknown for temple priests to stoop to murder to assure a quality corpse for their court. Bodies may even be stolen from other temple priests, although this is discouraged. Those corpses that have received a burial according to the rites of a Divine religion are avoided, since the burial service leaves them less suited.

A temple priest's court is rated according to its strength. This strength comes from the fame that each corpse had during his or her life; the more significant that they were, the higher the value to the priest. Each member of the court contributes the highest Reputation that it had in life to the total strength of the court, with a minimum of 1. A king has a Reputation of at least 7, more if he was particularly famous. A sub-king or major noble has a Reputation of 5 or more. If the body was interred in a Divine burial rite, reduce the effective Reputation by 3, with a minimum Reputation of 0; such bodies are therefore only added to a court if they had a Reputation of 4 or more. There is no limit to the size or strength of a court, save for the difficulty of obtaining high status corpses.

A temple priest receives no immediate benefit from her court's strength, apart from as a symbol of rank among her fellow priests. However, the court's strength is vital for obtaining and maintaining her power in the final Mystery of the cult.

Initiation Script for the Rank of Temple Priest

Benefit: Unnatural Vitality. A temple priest can draw magical power from her debilitation. She gains a bonus to all Casting Totals and Laboratory Totals equal to (3 x Decrepitude Score). In addition, if affected by a negative modifier to magical activities (from an aura, for example), you may reduce the penalty by up to (3 x Decrepitude), down to a minimum of zero penalty (this is in addition to the bonus to Totals mentioned earlier). Finally, she is less affected by the ravages of age: when her Decrepitude score exceeds 4 you do not need to make Crisis rolls for stressful activities, and she will not necessarily become bedridden and die of old age at a Decrepitude of 5. You receive a –3 bonus to your Crisis Total. Other consequences of Aging affect her normally.
Ease Factor: 21 (Major Virtue)
Script Bonus: +15
Script Details: The Initiate must quest to find the first corpse to form the center of her new court; this individual must have had a Reputation of 5 or more during his life, and cannot have previously been exhumed since the initial burial (+6). The Mystagogue prepares the Initiate's body according to the Initiate's own instructions — the rite she will henceforth use for her court. Variations are permitted if the rite would normally be lethal to a living being, such as encasing in molten glass, but maintaining the symbolism is important. She must endure five days and nights as a corpse, a harrowing Ordeal that grants the Enfeebled Flaw (+9).

The Undying Ones

The rank of Undying One can only be attempted once the character's Organization Lore: Cult of Dedun has reached a score of 5. Furthermore, the sum of the character's Warping Score and Decrepitude Score must equal or exceed 7. The details of this Initiation Script are available at just one known location, hidden among the writings on the monuments at Meroë, a site patrolled by the Kassalan Mortuary Society (see earlier) that opposes the Cult of Dedun. The Initiate must sneak or force her way into the tomb and translate the ancient writing to find the Initiation Script. There is no known copy; obtaining the Script is the first stage of self-Initiation.

Only Gifted characters can succeed in this Initiation, but this requirement is not generally known and unGifted postulants may still attempt it with no chance of success. Succeeding in the rite strips the character of both her humanity and her mortality, converting her into a Magic Human, but in the process destroys the Initiate's Gift.

Undying Ones are bound by the same rules as other Magic Characters (Realms of Power: Magic, Chapter 4). While not actually dead, an Undying One counts as a dead thing for the purposes of magic; for example, they receive a bonus equal to twice the aura level to their Magic Resistance if it has been aligned by an altar priest (see earlier); but are also vulnerable to Kassalan Exorcism (see earlier).

The character's corpse-court, so essential for the Initiation Script to become an Undying One, is also important for maintaining that state, since it can be used to stave off Acclimation. The court substitutes for a Magic aura of a level equal to one tenth (or fraction) of the total strength. A court of strength 62 can therefore substitute for a Level 7 aura, enough to allow an Undying One of Might 10 to only spend half her time dwelling among the bodies in order to avoid Acclimation. Note that no aura is actually generated by the court. Undying Ones usually continue to expand their court in order to maximize this benefit.

There are currently a dozen Undying Ones lairing along the Nile Valley.

Initiation Script for the Rank of Undying One

Benefit: Transformed Human. The character becomes a Magic Human, with a base Might of 0, aligned to the Corpus Form. You can raise this Might above the base using the total strength of the character's court, buying Might Score as if it were an Art. Therefore, a character with a court strength of 62 has a Might Score of 10. Once purchased, the character's Might score does not increase further even if the court strength subsequently increases. Like other Magic Humans she is now immune to Deprivation, Warping, and no longer ages, but she retains any effects of Warping and aging already accrued. The character loses her Warping Score, and retains her Decrepitude Score only for the effects of her Unnatural Vitality Mystery Virtue. She keeps all Virtues, Flaws, and Abilities she had in life. She acquires the Monstrous Appearance Magic Inferiority with no compensatory Qualities: she takes on a corpse-like appearance, either desiccated or rotting.
You have a number of points equal to her new Might score to spend on Magic Qualities and may take Magic Inferiorities to acquire more. You may take the Minor Virtue (Improved Characteristics) Magic Quality to buy back Characteristic points lost to aging, but this also reduces Decrepitude points by the same amount, and may reduce Decrepitude score.
Ease Factor: 21 (Major Virtue, –9 for previous Ordeal, +9 for self-initiation)
Script Bonus: +16
Script Details: The Initiation Script of Meroë requires that the character act as her own Mystagogue, and that she has undergone the previous initiation of temple priest and possesses the Ordeal Flaw of Enfeebled. The Script therefore only works for those who have The Gift. No variants are known that do not have these requirements. Finding the Script in the first place fulfills a minor quest (+1). The Initiation Script requires a year-long ritual, demanding that the character spends every waking hour chanting. Each organ and limb is blessed in turn: magically removed, cleansed, and replaced as part of the rite without harming the Initiate. Throughout this year, the character gains experience points for exposure only, and cannot miss a single day without having to start again (+4). This rite requires copious amounts of expensive incense (+1), and the burning of a pawn of vis every new moon (+1). As part of the cleansing process, the character suffers the Ordeal of losing The Gift (+9).

Losing The Gift

Undergoing this Initiation causes the character to lose her Gift. While this does not affect any magic that she already possesses, her ability to increase her magical power is curtailed. This has the following effects:

She no longer has Favored Abilities or Arts, and cannot learn new Supernatural Abilities (ArM5, page 166).

If her magical tradition uses spells or enchantments, she cannot invent new ones (including inventing under instruction from a Laboratory Text or tutor) unless she possesses the Supernatural Virtue for all Arts involved in the Lab Total.

She can no longer use Initiation Scripts which do not have an Ordeal, or which rely on previous Ordeals.

She loses all Hermetic Virtues and Flaws (these may only be possessed by Gifted characters).

She cannot use certain Abilities that require The Gift, such as Parma Magica.

Common Powers of the Undying Ones

Lord of the Swarm, 1 point, Init Qik – 1, Corpus: The Undying One can convert his body to a swarm of non-venomous vermin: scarab beetles, locusts, or similar. His consciousness resides in the swarm, not the individual, and he is unable to split the swarm. The swarm is treated as a single creature of Size +1. The swarm ignores defenders and can attack whomever it desires, although it is restricted to just one opponent per round at this Size. The swarm can crawl inside armor, and defenders do not benefit from its Protection. Swarms are hard to destroy: they have a natural immunity to regular weapons, and unless dealt a Fatal wound, a swarm can disengage and reform at full strength after a number of rounds equal to its largest Wound penalty. The character can end this effect whenever he desires. The natural weapons of an insect swarm have the following statistics: Init +4, Attack +2, Defense –6, Damage +1. MuCo(An) 30 (Base 10, +2 Sun, +2 complexity) Greater Power (30 levels, –2 Might cost, +2 Init)
Master of the Sandstorm, variable points, Init Qik – Might cost, Auram (mostly): The Undying One has control over the desert winds. He can scour his enemies with abrasive sandstorms (similar to Talons of the Winds), bowl over opponents (like Broom of the Winds), protect himself with obscuring dust devils (like Circling Winds of Protection), or shift large quantities of sand with the force of the wind (a Rego Terram effect with a cosmetic effect of the wind). He can create any applicable effect with a level less than or equal to either 25 or his Might Score, whichever is lower. The cost is 1 Might point per magnitude. He can buy the Improved Powers Magic Quality to increase the maximum level of effects produced. Focus Power
Restore the Faded Tapestry of Youth, 4 points, Init Qik – 5, Corpus: The Undying One temporarily sheds herself of all aging points and restores her body and appearance to that of the prime of her life. She can make one of her Characteristics one higher than she ever possessed as a human; this Characteristic can be different every time she uses this power. She need not concentrate on maintaining this power, but it fades after about an hour unless the Might cost is paid again. While under its effects the character must Penetrate to touch or attack things with Magic Resistance. A Ritual Power using the CrCo and CrMe guidelines is necessary to permanently restore Characteristics lost to aging. Cr(Mu) Co(Me) 45 (Base 30, +1 Conc, +2 requisites) Greater Power (45 levels, –1 Might cost)
The Dungeon Master, 1 point, Init Qik – 3, Imaginem: The Undying One can see and hear anything going on within a structure he is touching, typically the tomb he calls home. It may take a few moments for him to move through the building in his mind's eye to find where the action is. InIm 15 (Base 2, +1 Touch, +1 Conc, +3 Struct) Lesser Power (15 levels, –2 Might cost)

The Magic of the Dead

Dedun's priesthood does not teach magic to its cultists in any systematic manner; the cult is not a magical tradition in its own right. Nevertheless, the Mystery Cult offers ways in which a wizard can gather power from decay and death, and it attracts all manner of unsavory magical practitioners to its ranks. Temple priests who are also sorcerers may take apprentices from among their congregation, usually Initiating them to the rank of altar priest when their apprenticeship ends. Dedun's cult is a way to power, and it attracts sorcerers and wizards who already have an interest in necromancy and dark forces. These individuals are often Learned Magicians, but they may have instead or in addition any other magical powers, of which the most common are:

Corpse Magic (see later).
The Goetic Arts, particularly Summoning and Commanding (Realms of Power: the Infernal, Chapter 11). Some sorcerers practice a form of Summoning that can affect ghosts (and other spirits of the dead) as well as corporeal undead such as those animated by demons or formed from glamour. This version of the Summoning Art bears an Infernal taint, although it is (usually) aligned with the Magic realm.
Curse Magic, such as the Hex Supernatural Ability (Realms of Power: the Infernal, page 92), the Cursing Supernatural Ability (Hedge Magic Revised Edition, page 37), the Vulnero Art (Hedge Magic Revised Edition, page 84) or the Malediction Power (Realms of Power: the Infernal, page 109).

New Virtue: Corpse Magic

Major, Supernatural
This Virtue gives the character the Supernatural Ability of Corpse Magic, at a score of 1.

New Supernatural Ability: Corpse Magic

The character can use Corpse Magic to temporarily revive a corpse. The target of this Supernatural Ability cannot have received any burial rites from a Divinely-sanctioned religion, and the corpse must be relatively intact, having as a minimum a spine, a skull, and more than half of its long bones. There need not be any flesh remaining. It takes fifteen minutes to chant the spells sufficiently to awaken the dead.

Casting Total: Communication + Corpse Magic + Aura modifier + stress die

Commanding roll: Communication + Leadership + stress die; Leadership may be limited by Language Ability

Compare the result to the following Ease Factors to determine success:

Ease Factor	Outcome
9	Speak to the dead. The corpse is not compelled to answer truthfully or directly, although it may do so anyway.
12	Speak to the dead and compel it to speak truly. Protect a corpse from being affected by further Corpse Magic. Any attempt to do so has the Ease Factor increased by the Corpse Magic score of the character.
15	Animate a corpse. Orders are followed to the best of the corpse's abilities, but the character must remain in sight of the corpse else it will cease all movement until he returns Take control of an animated corpse. The Commanding roll must be greater than the original animator's (if any), else the corpse continues to follow its previous orders.
18	Animate a corpse and place it under the direct mental control of the character; if he can see the corpse he can issue it orders. He can leave the presence of the corpse and it will continue to obey its orders, but once they are complete it remains motionless until given another order by its creator.

The corpse animates and sits up, allowing the character to converse with it directly. A character who is particularly skilled can cause the corpse to rise out of the grave and walk abroad. The character asks questions or issues commands by making a Communication + Leadership roll; the corpse does nothing unless commanded to do so using a roll of this type. Single word commands have an Ease Factor of 6, simple questions or commands require a 9, and more complex instructions or questions need a 12 or more. The character must know the language that the corpse spoke in life to ask it questions or issue commands. If the character is not fluent in this language (that is, a score of 5 or higher), then the character's Leadership is limited by his Language Ability. Once the character has failed three commanding rolls, the corpse sinks back into its grave or ceases movement, and cannot be subject to Corpse Magic again until the moon has risen. All corpses are also laid to rest if their heads are removed from their body.

Walking corpses typically have a Magic Might of 9 (see Realms of Power: Magic, Chapter 6 for more details). The Penetration Total of the Corpse Magic must exceed this Might to cause it to leave its grave, otherwise it is confined to the earth.

Specialties: kings, soldiers, compelling truth, animating the dead.

Story Seeds: The Cult of Dedun

A cult of undying sorcerers is an excellent source of stories.

Theft of the Dead

A vis source of the characters is being raided by an adherent of the Cult of Dedun. He is clearly not taking it for himself, but due to his Prohibition he will not tell the characters for whom he is working or lead the characters to his temple if he suspects they are watching. Forcing him to do so triggers the Prohibition. This might be the characters' first introduction to the Cult of Dedun.

Help from the Black

Soon after clashing with the Cult of Dedun, the characters are approached by a potential ally. She has been fighting against the corruptive influence of the cult, and in secret is a knowing servant of the Black. She asks the characters for help freeing her friend who has been captured by an Undying One. Her friend is secretly an akh(see Chapter 4) who could be another important ally for the player characters against the cult.

If You Can't Beat Them, Join Them

The characters' ally joins the Cult of Dedun in secret. She deludes herself into thinking she is working to bring them down from within, but in truth she has been seduced by the promise of immortality. She guides the characters against her rivals within the cult, hoping that they will retrieve information on the whereabouts of the crucial Initiation Script for transformation into a Magic Human herself.

Based on the material for Ars Magica, ©1993-2024, licensed by Trident, Inc. d/b/a Atlas Games®, under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license 4.0 ("CC-BY-SA 4.0"). Ars Magica Open License Logo ©2024 Trident, Inc. The Ars Magica Open License Logo, Ars Magica, and Mythic Europe are trademarks of Trident, Inc., and are used with permission. Order of Hermes, Tremere, Doissetep, and Grimgroth are trademarks of Paradox Interactive AB and are used with permission.

Open License Markdown version by Tugdual & OriginalMadman, https://github.com/OriginalMadman/Ars-Magica-Open-License

v t e Open Ars Magica Content
Rulebooks	ArM5 Standard ArM5 Definitive
The Order	True Lineages Mystery Cults Societates Mysteries Covenants Magi of Hermes Legends of Hermes Hermetic Projects Apprentices Grogs Transforming Mythic Europe Through the Aegis
The Tribunals	Guardians of the Forests Lion & Lily Sundered Eagle Against the Dark Contested Isle Faith & Flame Finis Terrae Dragon & Bear (ArM4) Heirs to Merlin (ArM4) Sanctuary of Ice (ArM4) Blood & Sand (ArM4) Iberia (ArM3) Rome (ArM3) Lion of the North (ArM3)
The World	City & Guild Ancient Magic Art & Academe Hedge Magic Lords of Men Rival Magic Church Cradle & Crescent Mythic Locations Between Sand & Sea Lands of the Nile Ultima Thule (ArM4) Land of Fire & Ice (ArM4)
The Realms	Divine Infernal Magic Faerie
Scenarios	Fallen Fane LARP Calebais Tales of Mythic Europe Antagonists Tales of Power Hooks Thrice-Told Tales Dies Irae Black Monks of Glastonbury (excluding OGL material) Nigrasaxa 4ed Intro Mini-Saga Semita Errabunda Character Sheets
Conversion	Conversion Tracker Style Guide (talk) Artwork Open Ars Templates

See Also

Chapter Seven: Nubia

History

The Empire of Kush

The Collapse of Kush

The Conversion of Nubia

Salah ed-Din

Nubian Culture

Warriors and the Army

Attitudes toward the Dead

Story Seed: Theft by the Dead

The Baqt

Names

Story Seed: Six Hundred and Eighty Nine

Religion

Christianity

Slavery in a Saga

A Slave Character and His Owner

An Enslaved Character

A Free Aithiopian Character

A Slave Owner Character

A Slaver Character

A Campaigner against Slavery

New Flaws for Slaves

Favored Slave

Chattel Slave

Islam

Paganism

Economy and Trade

The Eparch of Nobatia

Transport

The Slave Trade

Nobatia

Ado

The Banu al-Kanz

Batn al-Hajar

Kalabsha

Lost Temple of Ramses

The Sand of Pakhoras

Menarti

Takoa

Pakhoras

Serra

Philae

Tumulus Graves

Premnis

Sai Island

A Fortified River

Story Seed: Freedom Fortress

Makuria

Abu Hamad

The Ja'alin

Atbara

Berber

Story Seed: The Soul Exchange

Kallama

Dju Wa'ab

The Dark Heart of Abu Hamad

Story Seed: The Magical Basket

Story Seed: Attempted Regicide

Story Seed: The Demons of Sawakin

Napata

Kurru

Story Seed: The Siege of Berber

Nuri

Dongola

The Church Of The Granite Columns

Ancient Auras

Story Seeds for Dju Wa'ab

The Blind God's Eyes

The Hawk That Thought It Was A God