Ancient Khem

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Ancient Khem, also known as Ancient Egypt

A pulp/Lovecraftian setting in Ancient Egypt, populated with hidden histories, buried tombs, mummy's curses, fringe history and archaeology, weird science, and the like.

Description

Mammoths constructing the Pyramids of Ancient Khem in 10,000 BC (2008 film) - pulp history and science at work!

A prehistoric Egyptian setting, Ancient Khem, that assumes the Ancient Egypt according to traditional history to be the latest remnant of an antediluvian civilization built from the Hyborian Age civilization of Stygia by the Vanir People. The setting's tropes include a green Sahara, prehistoric Egyptian dynasties of mummified yet living Pharaohs, living gods in hybrid animal forms, a Sphinx of far more ancient and mysterious construction than believed by science, pyramids constructed by mad cults and ancient alien astronauts for mysterious purposes of lost super-science, a monstrous Hollow Earth civilization buried beneath the encroaching sands, cursed artifacts such as mirrors and blasphemous scrolls, and more; the Egypt known to modern history is assumed to be a post-apocalyptic shadow of a far greater and older and more advanced civilization still retreating from the consequences of the (then still "recent") fall of Atlantis.


History/Background/Timeline

Timeline of Ancient Khem; entries in italics denote inconsistencies introduced by other writers:

  1. At the end of the Hyborian Age in the remnants of Stygia, the Vanir race found the country of Khem. ("Black Eons (fiction)", by Robert E. Howard and Robert M. Price)
  2. Over 10,000 BC: The Great Sphinx - with its original, monstrous face - is completed, refined, or restored, though its full history is uncertain; the enigmatic monument may be one of the oldest monuments of the new civilization of Khem, or its original construction may date back to Lemurian hands in the depths of the Thurian Age. (fringe history and science, John Anthony West, based on erosion patterns)
  3. Over 10,000 BC: The construction of the Great Pyramids begins, constructed by slave labor and mammoth beasts. (10,000 BC (2008 film))
  4. Between c. 9550 BC and c. 7000 BC: The First Dynasty of Khem falls. A race of human-alien hybrids takes their place, building the earliest pyramids. ("Khai of Ancient Khem (fiction)", Brian Lumley)
  5. c. 7000 BC: Khasathut, decadent sixth pharaoh of the Second Dynasty of Khem, is overthrown by Khai, a probable descendant of the Vanir. Khai brings about the Third Dynasty of Khem. However, the country has been doomed by the sorcerous battle with Khasathut to become a desert. ("Khai of Ancient Khem (fiction)", Brian Lumley)
  6. c. 6000 BC: The rains in Khem which eroded the stone of the Great Sphinx cease falling, and in time Khem slowly enters an apocalyptic age of drought, famine, war, pestilence, plague, and horror.
  7. c. 3400 BC: Earliest date for the dawn off the First Dynasty according to traditional history and science.
  8. c. 2890 BC: The Second Dynasty begins.
  9. c. 2686 BC: The Third Dynasty begins, and falls shortly afterward.
  10. c. 2600 BC: Nephren-Ka, a truly foul pharaoh, rises to power in Third Dynasty Egypt. He revives the worship of dark gods such as Nyarlat, whom he renames Nyarlathotep. He also finds the Shining Trapezohedron and builds a temple around it. The pharaoh Sneferu overthrows Nephren-Ka, and his name is utterly erased from Egyptian history. However, the dark religions he rediscovered are not forgotten again. ("Fane of the Black Pharaoh", Robert Bloch)
  11. Nephren-Ka and his followers flee to the underground Catacombs of Kish, where Nephren-Ka sacrifices a hundred victims to Nyarlathotep. In exchange, Nephren-Ka is given the gift of prophecy, and he spends the rest of his days drawing the future of the Earth on the walls of his tomb. ("Fane of the Black Pharaoh", Bloch)
  12. c. 2613 BC: The 4th Dynasty begins.
  13. c. 2500-2300 BC: The 5th Dynasty comes and goes during a turbulent and indefinite period, lasting about 150 years.
  14. c. 2345-2181 BC: the 6th Dinasty passes, lasting aboutt 160 years.
  15. c. 2200 BC: Queen Nitocris, the Ghoul-Queen, rises to power in Sixth Dynasty Egypt. She revives the worship of Nyarlathotep once more, and uncovers the Shining Trapezohedron. She engages in many unspeakable acts during her reign, weakening her nation sufficiently to usher in the First Intermediate Period of Egyptian history. She leaves behind an artifact known as the Mirror of Nitocris. (??; "Imprisoned with the Pharaohs (fiction)," Lovecraft and Houdini; "The Mirror of Nitocris (fiction)," Brian Lumley)
  16. c. 2150 BC: The Black Pharaoh, sometimes called Khotep, lives at the end of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt. ("Curse of the Black Pharaoh," Lin Carter)
  17. c. 2181, 2181-2160, 2160-2130, 2130-2040, 2150-1990 BC: The "Seventh", Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and 11th Dynasties are founded, and quickly disintegrate one after another in quick succession over a turbulent Early First Intermediate Period of 300 years of chaos and war.
  18. Between 1991 BC and 1783 BC: Nyarlathotep is worshipped, in the form of the Bringer of Pests, during Egypt's Twelfth Dynasty.
  19. 1991-1802, 1802-1649, 1725-1650 BC: the 12th, 13th, and 14th Dynasties rule Egypt with relative stability at the apex and decline of the Middle Period.
  20. Between 1783 BC and 1674 BC: The Thirteenth-Dynasty Egyptian high priest Luveh-Keraph, worshipper of Bast, writes the "Black Rites" in the Scroll of Bubastis.
  21. c. 1733 BC: Nophru-Ka, a Nyarlathotep-worshipper, founds an Egyptian separatist movement. He tries to overthrow Pharaoh Khasekhemre Neferhotep I, but is slain by the ruler. Nophru-Ka's followers are later killed by Shudde-M'ell and his spawn, but his line continues on, eventually leading to the Brotherhood of the Beast.
  22. 1650-1550 BC: Egypt is divided; the foreign (Hyksos) 15th Dynasties rule Upper Egypt through the Second Intermediate Period.
  23. 1649-1582 and 1580-1550 BC: The 16th and 17th Dynasties rule Lower Egypt from Thebes during the Second Intermediate Period.
  24. Between 1640 and 1674 BC: Khephnes, who lives during the Fourteenth Dynasty of Egypt, learns the secrets of Nyarlathotep. He is also among those who temporarily exchanges minds with one of the Great Race of Yith. ("Shadow Out of Time (fiction)", H.P. Lovecraft)
  25. 1550-1292, 1292-1189 BC: The 18th, 19th, and 20th Dynasties rule a reunited early New Kingdom Egypt, with the 18th or Thutmosid dynasty reigning under some of the most famous (in the modern era) pharaohs, including Tutankhamen, Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, and Akhenaten, followed by the Ramesside period, including the reigns of Ramesses III-XI.
  26. c. 1370 BC: During the 18th Dynasty of Egypt, Akhenaten raises the mummy of Nephren-Ka, who converts him to the worship of "Aten". Aten is in truth a disguise for Yog-Sothoth, imprisoned in nearby Mt. Sinai. (?; "The Winds of Zarr (fiction)", Richard Tierney)
  27. c. 1290 BC: During the 19th Dynasty of Egypt, the Zarr come to Earth to free Yog-Sothoth. As they do so, they attack the great cities of Egypt. Yog-Sothoth returns to his other-dimensional home. ("The Winds of Zarr (fiction)", Richard Tierney)
  28. 1069-945, 945-720, 837-728, 732-720, 744-656, 664-525 BC: The 21st-26th Dynasties mark the rise and fall the Third Intermediate Period; the 25th Dynasty or "Black Dynasty" was ruled by Kushite/Nubian Kings following a successful Nubian invasion, and the 26th Dynasty ruling from the city of Sais was the last native Egyptian dynasty to reunite and rule Egypt before the Persian Conquest of 525 BC (though others would follow).
  29. 525-323 BC: The Late Period of Ancient Egypt, under Persian rule, began with the 26th Dynasty, culminating in the Persian conquest in the 27th Dynasty, and lasting until the Persians were conquered in turn by Alexander the Great at the end of the 31st Dynasty, and the end of Ancient Egypt. Egypt would pass through Greco-Roman hands, followed by an Islamic conquest through the Medieval era, leading into Ottoman rule in the modern era, to being passed through various European hands, before eventually passing from the control of the British Empire since the Gaslight era into independence under representative governments beginning in the 1950s.

Life in Setting

TO_DO


Notable Locations

Valley of Hadoth

The sealed and unknown Valley of Hadoth by the Nile, beneath which were carved the Catacombs of Kish.

Catacombs of Kish

Beneath the Valley of Hadoth lay the Catacombs of Kish, a Hollow Earth location carved in prehistory from the living rock beneath modern Egypt. The catacombs one housed a temple of a cult led by the temple's builder, Nephren-Ka, under whose influence the catacombs would gain their evil reputation and epithet "Catacombs of Nephren-Ka" in the human era, and have ever since housed silent legions of reanimated Children of the Sphinx, shuffling endlessly in the darkness, in service to a gigantic tomb of the model of the original Sphinx, the nightmare face of which was stricken from the monument, and later recarved in the likeness of King Khephren. The Catacombs would later be known for being the place "where Nitokris plays" among the Ghouls following her supposed death. Entrances to the catacombs could be once be found in the Pyramids and in the secret chambers beneath the Sphinx, but the entrances were sealed at different periods in history by Kings Sneferu and Akhenaten.

Rock Tombs of Neb

TO_DO The Rock Tombs of Neb.

Pyramids

the Great Pyramids, built as tomb monuments for the Kingly Dead.

Valley of the Kings

TO_DO

Great Temple at Karnak

TO_DO

Heliopolis

TO_DO

Dahshur

Bent Pyramid, Black Pyramid, White Pyramid, Red Pyramid TO_DO

Memphite Necropolis

  • Memphite Necropolis (Memphis)
  • Abu Ghurab
  • Abusir (Busiris)
    • Pyramid of Neferefre
    • Pyramid of Neferirkare
    • Pyramid of Nyuserre
    • Pyramid of Sahure
    • Sun temple of Nyuserre
    • Sun temple of Userkaf

Saqqara

  • Sekhemkhet's Buried Pyramid
  • Gisr el-mudir
  • Haram el-Shawaf
  • Mazghuna
  • Pyramid of Ibi
  • Pyramid of Khendjer
  • Pyramid of Teti
  • Pyramid of Unas
  • Pyramid of Userkaf
  • Step Pyramid of Djoser
  • Southern South Saqqara pyramid

Library of Alexandria

TO_DO

Pharos of Alexandria

TO_DO

Sphinx

The monumental Sphinx was a horror with an inhuman face carved in antediluvian history in the likeness of a titanic, long-extinct monster, suspected of being an Avatar of Nyarlathotep. The monument was later "defaced" by Sneferu at the end of the reign of Npehren-Ka, who had unearthed and restored the Sphinx after it spoke to him in a dream. King Khephren would later have the defaced Sphinx's appearance altered to look like himself, as part of his attempt to restore the cult of Nyarlathotep.

Twisted Pyramid

The Twisted Pyramid or Lost Pyramid was Nephren-Ka's monument to himself, within which the Black Pharaoh retreated at the end of his reign and was entombed by Sneferu, the pyramid apparently banished from the Earth or buried by magic since it can no longer be found on Earth; it may be located in the Dreamlands. It is sometimes confused with the Bent Pyramid of Dahshur, which was built by Sneferu, though if these two pyramids are actually the same monument, no remains of Nephren-Ka have been found beneath them, nor any evidence of the prophecies of the future which Nephren-Ka is said to have inscribed upon the walls within while awaiting his fate at the hands of Sneferu and the Black Pharaoh's rebellious subjects; these carvings are said to be a prophecy of a time to come when the crypts of the Twisted Pyramid shall be torn open and the reign of Nephren-Ka would be restored on Earth in the name of Nyralathotep, his Lord, when the mummified armies of the Underworld shamble and shuffle forth to herald the return of their King.

Irem, City of Pillars

See Irem or City of Pillars.

Namess City

See Nameless City or The Nameless City (TO_DO - pick one, fix links, redirect otherwise; alternatively, one should be reserved to the Quake level and the other for the Lovecraftian location; "The Nameless City (fiction)" to be used for the short story.)

Timbuktu

(TO_DO - Actually in western Africa, but perhaps loosely connected to Ancient Khem as a rival empire?)


Associated Mythos Elements


Keeper Notes

Supporting Materials (if any)

Character Sheet

  • (none at this time; a Dreamlands character sheet would likely work just fine)


References

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