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Although Egypt is accounted the control of much of the inner north of Africa including the desert highlands of Libya and Ethiopia, as well as the peninsula of the Sinai, it is mostly just a long thin strip hugging the banks of the River Nile. Its normally bountiful fields are fertilised anew each year by the Nile Inundation, so Egypt has long been the granary of the Mediterranean. Egypt is ancient, one of the so-called cradles of civilisation. Fully four thousand years of city-building looked down upon the army of Alexander in 332BC. He was only one of a long series of invaders in Egypt’s ancient decline, however. His Macedonian Greeks broke the Persian satrapy. After him came the Ptolemaic Greeks, then Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Seljuk Turks, Mamelukes, Ottoman Turks, the French, and finally the Ottomans once more. It’s not much of an exaggeration to assert that Egypt has been a vassal state for over two thousand years. This has changed in just the last few years. Foolhardy European archaeologists arriving in the wake of Napoleon and Nelson discovered in 1852 the lost city of Harmanuptra, and apparently woke up the ancient sorcerer Imhotep slumbering therein. Imhotep wasted no time turning the current Ottoman Pashah (formerly Khedive Ismail) into his puppet. Imhotep is a creature of an older world. Fifty years of moderate Ottoman advances and modernisation seem suddenly very precariously placed.
Under Imhotep’s control, the Khedive Ismail has repudiated his Pashah status within the Ottoman Empire, along with his religion and name. He is now Pharaoh, the incarnation of Ra-as-Horus, the soul of Egypt. Formerly Ismail was known as a moderate friendly to both France and Avalon, keen on bringing his backward nation up to date (as far as the Ottomans would allow). He freely allowed Egypt’s fine physicians and sorcerers to travel outside the Muslim world, to teach and learn. He signed an agreement with the French to construct a shipping canal through the Suez, linking the Mediterranean with the Arab Gulf and thence the Indian Ocean. Now, under the influence of Imhotep, Pharaoh seems intent on returning Egypt to its state in circa 2500BC. Egyptian nationals are no longer permitted to travel away from their home cities without approval from the State. Egyptian foreign policy has become an uncomfortable blend of aloof disdain for other, ‘lesser’ nations, and the need to keep Egypt involved in the world stage lest it be taken as a prize again. Analysts suggest that Egypt’s primary objective is preventing unity between the great powers, so they can not agree how to partition her. Technology is another painful issue for Egypt. Imhotep would like to have nothing to do with it but even he knows that the world has gone too far down this path for him to ignore it. top
Egypt is a monarchic theocractic magistocracy. Pharaoh is the incarnation of the god-hood. His pronouncements are law. Democracy does not exist, except in the hearts of the few European-educated Egyptians. Pharaoh’s wishes are enacted through a massive temple-bureaucracy controlled by Imhotep, his tjaty (vizier). The bureaucracy’s actions are coordinated through nine regions, or Nomes, each presided over by a non-priestly Nomarch appointed by Pharaoh (…normally a candidate recommended by Imhotep). The Nomarchies are by no means hereditary, but it is expected that candidates will come from the same families as their predecessors. In each locality, public works, justice and other state functions are controlled through the local temple, no matter what god it is primarily dedicated to. The State pays labourers during the non-agricultural part of the year to rebuild roads and canals, granaries and temples, so that Egypt’s infrastructure is the best it has been in 3 millennia. Although once very corrupt under the Pashah, the bureaucracy has recently been purged by Imhotep and has had little time since to succumb to corruption. It is thus relatively efficient and fair. The shocking fate at the hands of Imhotep of one early-adopter of corrupt practices has also tended to dampen normal human greed and selfishness among the priests. top
Imhotep would like there to be two parts to society: the priestly/sorcerous/bureaucratic few in control, and the masses being controlled. In the short time since his re-awakening Imhotep has wrought massive changes to Egypt’s social structure, with a frightening amount of success. There are still occasional riots, even some instigated by those dispossessed by the change of regime, but these are growing fewer as the bureaucracy weed out the trouble-makers. Leftover nobles from the Ottoman and Mameluke regimes have proved a tad obdurate. The luckiest of these have become Nomarchs. The unluckiest have been stripped of their titles and much of their wealth. Many others have fled Egypt, to form a nucleus of resistance to Egypt’s current regime from centres like Jerusalem, Paris and London. The fate of the nascent middle class and intelligentsia has been much the same: the flexible few have joined the priestly orders, many have been purged, and the rest have fled. This has blighted Egypt’s economy in a Nineteenth Century world, as it has lost most of its entrepreneurs. Quality of life has improved already for the general ruck of the working classes. The State provides far more for them than the Ottomans ever did, ensuring that every family has a clean home and access to clean water, employment and medical services. In each locality the temple-bureaucrats are personally responsible for the upholding of law and order and the smooth transition to the new society. This has in most cases worked well: Imhotep’s sorcerers are adept at weeding out those priests who can’t make this work. The Egyptian military is almost a society apart. Its personnel live apart from the masses in vast encampments out in the deserts, where their indoctrination can be pushed without fear of contamination. Its ranks include many former nobles, as well as many Bedouin. top
Egyptian law is fair. Its two significant features are a retreat from the Islamic Fiqh-ash-Shari`ah that had prevailed under the Ottomans, and a massive nationalisation of property. Prior to Imhotep’s re-awakening, Egyptian law was based on traditional Muslim values, but corrupted by the local Ottoman officials into a typical system for protecting privilege and oppressing all else. Imhotep has replaced Muslim law with a not-dissimilar system based on ma’at—rightness—that derives from his familiar religion. Ma'at represents truth, order, balance and justice in the universe. This concept allowed that everyone should be viewed as equals under the law. However, when a punishment needs to be carried out, often the entire family of the guilty suffers as well (soldiers’ entire platoons are punished, priests’ temples or orders are punished). Frequently in civil actions the complainant will not escape unscathed either, as disputes and crimes are increasingly being perceived by local priests as a matter of disharmony in relationships rather than an actions of an aggressor against a victim. Only Pharaoh can sentence a criminal to death. Punishments for crimes range from extra service to the community, through fines and floggings to various sorcerous interventions and internal exile to Egypt’s mines. Rather than reform the distribution of property in Egypt, Imhotep has reverted all land ownership to Pharaoh. Individuals now lease homes and land from the State on long terms—999 years is typical, paying a ‘rent-tax’ annually for the privilege. This is one of the major causes of the Egyptian noble diaspora. top
Imhotep has brought back from the grave the worship of the sun-god Ra and his incarnation in Pharaoh. Imhotep has also had some success with the Cult of Isis. Many localities have experienced the rebirth of their tutelary deities, such as Sobek, Neith, Seth, Hathor and Bast. Osiris is once more worshipped as the King of the Dead, with Anubis his psychopomp. The Eye of Horus is a new standard for the armed forces, although legions can also prefer Anubis, Neith, Sobek or Sekhmet. All Egyptians tithe to their local temple. This tribute, be it coin or goods, are used to support the bureaucracy and Pharaoh. Worship of other ‘foreign’ gods, such as Yahweh and Allah, is officially disparaged but not yet forbidden. However, all those who would serve the State must renounce all foreign gods. Muslim resistance to Imhotep is widespread but unfocused. Many villagers still follow their Imam’s call to prayer even as they send tribute to the local temple. By avoiding creating martyrs Imhotep is hoping to avoid a religious war like the one with that Moses chap. An exception to this is the Brotherhood of Islam, a radical anarchist sect based in Cairo. The Brotherhood has managed so far to evade Imhotep’s security forces and divinations. It has assassinated two priests with shocking violence, and called for a fatwah against the demon Imhotep. Whether it can instigate a more general rebellion is another matter: so far, its tactics have appalled more than inspired. top
Imhotep has brought back magical secrets that even Egypt’s other sorcerers had forgotten. His own power is little short of miraculous, and he is accounted one of the most powerful sorcerers in history. Egyptian magic includes diverse fields like divination, weather control, necromancy, hekau (much like the Roman Nomine), geomancy, curses and healing. top
Before Imhotep’s re-awakening, Egypt’s armed forces were undergoing a modernisation under the Ottoman Pashahs, training under French and Avalonian officers using arms bought from the workshops of Europe. Imhotep has allowed himself to be convinced by the arguments of his generals that technological warfare is acceptable, if not preferable to sorcery. Egypt’s army is organised on an European model with infantry vastly predominating. The battalions are new to modern warfare and untested in combat, and their serious, slow drilling and practice manoeuvres have given other nations little cause for concern so far. The small cavalry is fairly light, predominantly made up of Bedouin and Berber nomads, who are adept at dealing with the local arid conditions and conducting lightning raids. Egypt’s navy runs to half a dozen antique gunboats (French surplus) that it uses in the Nile Delta and Red Sea. Of more concern to military observers is the unknown prowess of Egypt’s battle-mages, and especially Imhotep. Necromancy, weather control, divination and biblical-scale curses could very well turn a battle against a superior force facing an Egyptian army. top
Imhotep is an unknown quantity. His actions in the past five years have undone every bit of goodwill-building Egypt had managed since Napoleon. However, the enemies he has made do not trust each other long enough to let any of them be the one to crush Egypt—and take its riches. He does not trust any technology more advanced than a shadoof or chariot, preferring sorcery. However is he smart enough to realise that his nation will founder without it. Pharaoh is apparently a puppet of his tjaty. Once he was considered a sophisticated and even enlightened young monarch. Now he seems to be just a tool. Resistance to Imhotep’s Egypt is growing slowly. It has two main foci: firstly, the educated and influential actions of her exiled nobles and middle classes in foreign nations. They lobby the great powers incessantly, but so far with little actual success. The other focus is the Brotherhood of Islam and its peers: violent, aggressive, fanatical foes of the new state. The Suez Canal is mere months way from being finished. Since Pharaoh nationalised the structure, France has been threatening a naval blockade of it until its controlling share is honoured, or fair compensation is paid (a ruinous sum). There has even been talk of a French expedition to seize the canal back from Egypt. top
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