Ideas for Yrth

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

I believe it says not all of them are from our Earth, to be precise. A lot of 100% Human people showed up with different memories of history, but it got lost in mass illiteracy and the scramble to survive, and today is of interest only to esoteric scholars. From this we could conjecture that it is possible, if not probable, that beings from more than one version of Loren'dil, Olokun, and Gabrook were transported as well.

Some groups could be fully human and mistaken for non-humans. Others could be like Star Trek Aliens and mistaken for humans. Picture a large group of primitive Betazoids, empathic and telepathic, they look more human than Elves, they might assume they're just from another part of the same world.

[Prince Charon]

Speaking of 'not from our Earth,' let's imagine a continent some ways south of Ytarria, with the northern part dominated by Bronze Age Egyptians - or at least, they were Bronze Age when they arrived; interaction with the Southern Elves could have changed that, but the culture would adapt more slowly (though adapt it would). I suggest that the first Pharaoh of this new land was a high-level mage (Magery 3 or 4), and so it is traditional that Pharaohs will be archmages. Priests would likewise be spellcasters, so it's a mageocracy posing as a theocracy.

[AlexanderHowl]

You could have it that Pharoahs literally receive magical powers from their position, with the Pharoahs receiving magical traits based on their personality and the population that they oversee. For example, they could receive points for magical abilities equal to the cube root of the population of their nation. In turn, the nobles and priests would receive a similar bonus equal to the number of people of their region or their temple, so the entire ruling class would benefit from having a large population.

In that case, an nation with a population of 8 million would grant its Pharoahs 200 CP worth of magical traits, though the exact nature of the traits would vary. For some Pharoahs, their 200 CP might manifest in Magery 10 (Day Aspected, -40%) [65] and 135 CP worth of spells. For other Pharoahs, it might manifest as physical magical abilities like DR, Flight, etc. For yet other Pharoahs, it might manifest as mental magical abilities, like Clairvoyance, Mind Control, etc.

[LoneWolf23k]

I like the Pharaonic Mageocracy/Theocracy concept. And you can even expand it with the use of Necromancy to reanimate the late Pharaohs as Mummy-Liches, to serve as a Council of Elders to provide advice to the current ruling Pharoah.

[AlexanderHowl]

That would be a perversion of the Ancient Egyptian religion, they were supposed to be reborn as gods, not reanimated as walking corpses, so that would indicate a quite evil civilization by anyone's standards. The idea of undead abominations controlling that governance of the living is a great premise for a horror setting, however, especially if it is a secret. The First Pharoah could be a lich that used Enslave to control every Pharoah after him, with them being compelled to become his lich servants for eternity when they reach the end of their living usefulness to him.

[LoneWolf23k]

Well, I was thinking more of a set-up like Eberron's Aereni Undying Councillors. Beings who act as guides and protectors. There's no alignment in GURPS, after all, so Undead aren't automatically Evil.

Maybe these Undead Pharaohs spend their time at rest in their sarcophagi, their souls exploring the spirit realms, but they arise to give the Living Pharaoh advice, or even in more dire situations, arise physically to help protect the Kingdom, as the powerful Mummified Sorcerer Lich-Kings they are.

And of course, you could have the odd Rogue Undead Pharaoh who does want to conquer the living...

[Rolando]

If they are Earth, parallel, history it would be way off to how Egyptians did their things.

On the other hand Christians do have catacombs full of bones and the death remains of saints in churches and those are supposed to help the faithful.

I can see undead advisors in christian believe more probable if the undead is a saint.

But the mummy trope is strong. Also warhammer fantasy undead pharaohs are a very known and popular image.

[ravenfish]

Given the timing of the Banestorms, any "Ancient Egyptian" culture will necessarily be based on later ages' interpretation of Pharonic Egypt rather than the real thing (in the same way that Megalos is made up of people roleplaying as ancient Romans rather than the genuine article), so they can be as divergent as one needs.

[dataweaver]

That, and the original suggestion was that these Egyptians might be from another Earth, rather than being from our own history. If so, they were plucked from a world that was in its Bronze Age and are, in fact, the genuine article.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by dataweaver

That, and the original suggestion was that these Egyptians might be from another Earth, rather than being from our own history. If so, they were plucked from a world that was in its Bronze Age and are, in fact, the genuine article.

That was my intention, yes.