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It Belongs to a Museum

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Lurking_Badger said:
I might not be common enough in our world, but there is a ton of the stuff in Warhammer. In fact, it is mentioned that the undead armies of Nehekhara are usually completely covered in gold jewelry and gold-decorated equipment. They could probably make thousands of golden bodies with the stuff they have which would be enough for the royalty.
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Some problems: you need a soul tuned to Chamon for it to work, and the ritual can only do one set of body parts at a time, and each time there is a chance of horrific failure, and finally they have yet to figure out how to gild the brain, so you'll still eventually go into cognitive decline.

DeadmanwalkingXI said:
He's explicitly going to see Luther Harkon rather than Neferata due to travel risks, not him being unwilling to see her. And I think it's more "I literally saw this species invented, and have kept up with all the research" than anything else, I think. Like, if he was more involved than that it seems like he'd probably be a vampire? He was in a position to get one of Neferata's elixirs, and seemingly just...didn't.
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I mean, he is spry, unlike all the other liche priests, so maybe he just applied what he learned a little differently?

Anyways, voting

[X] Imprudent Tutor
[X] History-Maker of Nagash
[X] Student of Immortality
[X] Hunter of the Cult of Blood
[X] Legionary of Setep

I didn't vote for the Vampire Coast in order to solve the world's problems, I voted for Vampire Coast in order to become the world's problem. Whether that's endeavoring to turn into Ultimate Kars, teaching children how to play with bombs, punching gods in the face, or trying to get Harkon to start a-conquering, it's all good.

History-Maker is on the list because he's overqualified.
 
I am sorry that Survivor of Bhagar didn't do better. I voted for the Tutor as well, but the Survivor was probably my favorite. Nagash might not be The Worst Person Ever because the competition is really stiff, but he's surely got to be in the top ranks. Someone whose life ambition it to bring that bastard down would have been fun.

On the plus side, the Tutor has the best vampire knowledge of all of them so I guess he's best positioned to help Luthor recover his sanity. I mean, I guess that's arguably a plus, maybe, depending on your opinion of whether the world is safer with crazy Luthor or sane Luthor.
 
Boney said:
My main concern is that by making DL's butterflies canon to this quest, I'd also be making the full development of those butterflies as seen in this quest canon to DL. The only way to avoid that is to have this not just be part of the DL timeline, but diverging from it in 2491 when Mathilde presumably vanished in a puff of plot convenience, and that's even more convoluted and less accessible.
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Mathilde goes on Elfcation -> Teclis slaps her hand and says "tag out." -> Mathilde spends the next 30~ years as the High Loremaster, trapped and unable to return with the milk and smokes just as her predecessor was.
 
Briefvoice said:
I am sorry that Survivor of Bhagar didn't do better. I voted for the Tutor as well, but the Survivor was probably my favorite. Nagash might not be The Worst Person Ever because the competition is really stiff, but he's surely got to be in the top ranks. Someone whose life ambition it to bring that bastard down would have been fun.

On the plus side, the Tutor has the best vampire knowledge of all of them so I guess he's best positioned to help Luthor recover his sanity. I mean, I guess that's arguably a plus, maybe, depending on your opinion of whether the world is safer with crazy Luthor or sane Luthor.
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I think it's a really compelling character, but having an undead ancient driven by eternal vengeance when the aid he is trying to enlist is other undead and vampires who probably don't want to try messing with Nagash of all people, on the other side of the world...not a good time, probably.
 
Boney said:
My main concern is that by making DL's butterflies canon to this quest, I'd also be making the full development of those butterflies as seen in this quest canon to DL. The only way to avoid that is to have this not just be part of the DL timeline, but diverging from it in 2491 when Mathilde presumably vanished in a puff of plot convenience, and that's even more convoluted and less accessible.
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I always considered the butterfly that created DL to be the interference of The Unnamed Lawman Of Kelham
 
I am collating a collection of Nehekhara relevant posts from Boney's Divided Loyalties Quest. Very likely to contain spoilers to that Quest and maybe even spoilers to this Quest.
  • A short history of Araby from DL's "collection of important information".
Boney said:
Araby's early history is a number of city-states and nomad tribes being squeezed between Ulthuan's colonies and the then-living Nehekhara's expansions, and being exploited by both. Then within a few years around -2000, three things happened: Nagash was born, the Phoenix King shaved a Dwarven ambassador, and an astoundingly talented young man called Mullah Aklan'd started to build a resistance force to evict the Asur from his home of Fyrus. Before this time, Araby had been largely puppet states of Ulthuan and Nehekhara, and their Gods and their magic were both constructed from the scraps of secrets stolen or gifted from each. By the time Mullah Aklan'd was done, Araby was a unified state with its own religion¹, its own magical tradition based on elemental spirits called Djinn, and a kick-start in technology from secrets wrested from both east and west.

Over the coming centuries Araby managed to evict the Elves from the Arabyan coast and had contributed to the first defeat of Nagash at the hands of the Army of Seven Kings in -1600, but in the aftermath they were conquered by an opportunistic and freshly-arisen Tomb King. For a thousand years Araby's military was used as a cudgel against the remaining Vampire holdouts while in Araby itself, Nagash's first lieutenant wages an endless war against it. It only ends when Arkhan returns to a resurgent Nagash in -150 (which eventually ends in a showdown with Sigmar) and at that point Araby was little more than a fractured land of city-states and nomad tribes once more.

Skip forward a dozen centuries or so and Araby has restored most of its wealth and splendour. In 1240, Arabyan corsairs conquer Sartosa from the Norscans who had been using it as a base to raid Tilea from, and they use it as a base to raid Tilea from², marking the prelude to what the Old World calls the 'Arabyan Wars'. In the 1400s, egged on by Skaven and Daemons, a man named Jaffar reunited most of Araby by force, named himself the new Grand Sultan, and launched an invasion of Tilea and Estalia from Sartosa. At this time Bretonnia is only a few centuries old and the Empire is in the early stages of the Time of Three Emperors, and both look up from their internal conflicts to send forces to defend the southern realms and then to retaliate. In Araby the Crusaders are met by a rebellion against Jaffar's rule and the two forces join sides to wrest Araby from Jaffar's control, one city at a time. After a long and brutal war Jaffar was overthrown and killed, and those from the Old World that didn't want to leave until the last of those loyal to him were stamped out founded the cities of Antoch (Bretonnian) and Sudenburg (Empire) on the southern edge of Araby, which eventually became bustling trade ports.

In modern times, Araby is divided in times of peace and united in times of 'bloody hell, Nehekhara's at it again'. It's wealthy, advanced, and largely focused on internal debates over who gets to call themselves the truest inheritors of Mullah Aklan'd's legacy, not unlike the Empire before Magnus. Sure, Arabyan Corsairs from the Pirate Coast do raid the coasts of the Old World, but so do Sartosan pirates to Araby, so it's just seen as a fact of life instead of a geopolitical hot button. And it's got one advantage that is easy to overlook: it's on the equator. I've said a few times that to an Arabyan perspective, the entire Old World could be labelled Chaos Wastes. Imagine how much better off the Empire would be if Chaos cults were rare, Daemons were mere legends, Beastmen only existed in one isolated pocket, and Everchosen were completely unheard of. Sure, Nehekhara can be a pain, but it's a known quantity and a lot of the time they're open to being paid off.



1. In very early editions when Warhammer was more based on history than fantasy, the religion was the monotheistic worship of The One, fairly obviously based on Islam with Mullah Aklan'd being a Mohammed expy. In later editions it is instead a pantheon based on pre-Islamic Arabian religion with Mulah Aklan'd being more of a Saladin figure.
2. Incidentally, the Norscans had taken it from Settra's forces, who had been using it as a base to raid Tilea from, who had taken it from the Dark Elves, who had been using it as a base to raid Tilea from, who had taken it from Tileans, who had been using it as a base to raid Tilea from, who had taken it from Ulthuan, who had been using it as a base to do colonialism on Tilea from. Sartosa's pretty much always been like that.
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  • Titles of Settra
Boney said:
Settra, Great King, the Imperishable, Khemrikhara, The Great King of Nehekhara, King of Kings, Opener of the Way, Wielder of the Divine Flame, Punisher of Nomads, The Great Unifier, Commander of the Golden Legion, Sacred of Appearance, Bringer of Light, Father of Hawks, Builder of Cities, Protector of the Two Worlds, Keeper of the Hours, Chosen of Ptra, High Steward of the Horizon, Sailor of the Great Vitae, Sentinel of the Two Realms, The Undisputed, Begetter of the Begat, Scourge of the Faithless, Carrion-feeder, First of the Charnel Valley, Rider of the Sacred Chariot, Vanquisher of Vermin, Champion of the Death Arena, Mighty Lion of the Infinite Desert, Emperor of the Shifting Sands, He Who Holds The Sceptre, Great Hawk Of The Heavens, Arch-Sultan of Atalan, Waker of the Hierotitan, Monarch of the Sky, Majestic Emperor of the Shifting Sands, Champion of the Desert Gods, Breaker of the Ogre Clans, Builder of the Great Pyramid, Terror of the Living, Master of the Never-Ending Horizon, Master of the Necropolises, Taker of Souls, Tyrant to the Foolish, Bearer of Ptra's Holy Blade, Scion of Usirian, Scion of Nehek, The Great, Chaser of Nightmares, Keeper of the Royal Herat, Founder of the Mortuary Cult, Banisher of the Grand Hierophant, High Lord Admiral of the Deathfleets, Guardian of the Charnal Pass, Tamer of the Liche King, Unliving Jackal Lord, Dismisser of the Warrior Queen, Charioteer of the Gods, He Who Does Not Serve, Slayer off Reddittras, Scarab Purger, Favoured of Usirian, Player of the Great Game, Liberator of Life, Lord Sand, Wrangler of Scorpions, Emperor of the Dunes, Eternal Sovereign of Khemri's Legions, Seneschal of the Great Sandy Desert, Curserer of the Living, Regent of the Eastern Mountains, Warden of the Eternal Necropolis, Herald of all Heralds, Caller of the Bitter Wind, God-Tamer, Master of the Mortis River, Guardian of the Dead, Great Keeper of the Obelisks, Deacon of the Ash River, Belated of Wakers, General of the Mighty Frame, Summoner of Sandstorms, Master of all Necrotects, Prince of Dust, Tyrant of Araby, Purger of the Greenskin Breathers, Killer of the False God's Champions, Tyrant of the Gold Dunes, Golden Bone Lord, Avenger of the Dead, Carrion Master, Eternal Warden of Nehek's Lands, Breaker of Djaf's Bonds...

For short.
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  • On kings before Settra
Boney said:
There's a handful of predynastic Kings of Nehekhara that predate Settra and the First Dynasty who are still remembered. Nehek is the first of them, and little is known of him except that he predates both cities and writing. He might have been in charge when the ancestors of the Nehekharans arrived in the area, or he might have been the first to found a city, or he might just have been remembered when almost everyone else was forgotten because the region was named after him.
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  • Commentary on some artwork that contains snippets on Numas
Boney said:
pucflek said:
For a dose of d´aww and/or quite nice concept art, an artist known as Inkary on deviantart had a collection of Tomb Kings and Numas nomad interacting (quite noncanon, as quite a few involved non-violent skaven and i doubt the relations between Numas nomads and Tomb Kings are quite that warm, but they still look very nice).

EDIT2: I mean, look at em

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If the 'Numas nomads' are the Scythans (not to be confused with Scythians), then it's pretty canon, because they literally worship the Prince that Settra put in charge of Numas as a manifestation of their God.
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  • Excerpt from the chapter in which the protagonist first catalogued Nehekharan coins
Boney said:
Nehekhara was a land of city-states and each of them minted their own coins in glory of their rulers and their Gods, which means that even though there's only really a representation of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Dynaties, there's still a dizzying array of coins to catalogue, dating from Lahmizzar to Alcadizzar. That last one causes an itch of familiarity at the back of your mind and it takes you some time to realize why, and upon comparing the Nehekharan coins depicting Alcadizzar to the Mourkhainian ones with the unknown face, you find they're as identical as the quality of the coinage could reasonably permit. What few historical records there are agree that Mourkhain was founded by the Lodringen tribe, so why were they commemorating a Nehekharan King on their coinage? Did they take in Nehekharan refugees? Did Alcadizzar escape the fate of his homeland and spend time in Mourkhain? You put the matter aside as something to investigate in the unlikely event you ever have more time than you have things to do.

Apart from the odd sense of familiarity that the Nehekharan coins depicting a hooded snake cause you, the rest of the cataloguing is uneventful, and after weeks of work you're left with enough coins to fill several coin cabinets that Belegar had a hobbyist carpenter of Clan Angrund put together.
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  • Chapter excerpt where deities having progeny and parallels between pantheons are discussed and subsequent commentary on said chapter
Boney said:
"Nethu," you say. "Son of Asuryan, you said? Isn't Asuryan supposed to be married?"

"And Ulthuani belief would tell you that when Ereth Khial attempted to seduce Him, He rebuffed her and remained loyal to Lileath. But Nehekhara has the very same myth between the Sun God Ptra, the Moon Goddess Neru, and the jealous usurper Sakhmet, but in this version Sakhmet uses trickery and illusion to usurp the position of Neru for a night. While it is easy to see this as a mythologization of the phenomena you know as Hexensnacht, the similarities are too many to be coincidence. I believe the Kingdom of the Dead preserves a tale that the orthodoxy of modern Ulthuan rejects - the conception of Nethu, who I believe to be known to Nehekhara as Sokth."
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Boney said:
Codex said:
I noted the similarities between Ptra and Neru, but I didn't consider Ereth Khial being compared to Sakhmet. Does Cython just ignore Sakhmet's connection to Morrisleb, or do they consider it and thought "eh it fits Ereth Khial"? I wonder if there's any Nehekharan God who is stated to be Ptra's child, or if there is any Nehekharan God with domains that would fit Neru. In Nehekhara the God of War and Death is Djaf, and the God of the Underworld who watches over the gate and manages everything is Usirian. I don't think either fit.
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Cython mentioned the Morrsleib connection obliquely. Hexensnacht is when Morrsleib is full and Mannsleib is absent, and Cython's theory is that the Sekhmet-Morrsleib connection is a mythologization of Sekhmet boinking the moon's husband and thus 'taking her place'.
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  • Seasons
Boney said:
Nehekhara has three seasons,
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Boney said:
Egypt's Inundation/Emergence/Harvest
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  • Araby existed alongside Nehekhara
Boney said:
Araby has a long history with Nehekhara, including contributing forces to the Army of Seven Kings that overthrew Nagash the first time, and knows enough about them to mostly coexist with them even in their transformed state.
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  • Which Nehekharan deities have the fertility domain
Boney said:
Parabola said:
As far as the few canon materials regarding the Nehekharan pantheon go, they don't seem to have a god or goddess specifically for fertility. Was it the main domain of a minor-and-thus-unmentioned god/goddess, or a secondary domain of one or more known gods, before Nagash ruined Nehekhara and it became mostly a land of the dead, at which point it stopped being something the dead would ask for/associate those gods with? Or was Nehekhara's fertility and growth collectively attributed to the grace of all the gods?

The Old World's multitude of gods relating to nature and fertility makes this... odd, I guess?
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Aspects of that fall under Ptra, Basth, Asaph, and Neru. When you're in a floodplain, the line between fertile and not becomes vividly important and not the sort of thing you can just neatly encapsulate and hand to a single deity.
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  • Allusion to the origin of Nehekharan gods
Boney said:
It is said that the land of Nehekhara was desert before the 'Desert Gods'* transformed it into the fertile lands they were in exchange for the worship of their chosen people of the nomadic tribes that lived in the area. Some readings of it would suggest that they were merely led to an already-existing fertile land, but that's geographically unlikely considering that the then-Vitae River starts in the World's Edge Mountains and ends in the ocean, making it impossible to cross from the Old World to the Southlands without encountering it. So there might be angles to consider beyond the merely biological.

* Said Desert Gods were apparently fresh from a centuries-long fight against the forces of Chaos, led by what Cython would describe as a Sun God who is married to a Moon Goddess. Hmm. There's also friezes of Nehekharan soldiers fighting against Daemons alongside tall beardless beings with long thin swords and really pointy hats, which is a bit of a headscratcher as anything but a metaphor and if anything even more so if it is a metaphor.
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  • Some more Settra praise
Boney said:
Not really an obstacle to him. Settra went to Norsca in the War of Sand and Snow because a Norscan stole his crown.
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Boney said:
HanEmpire said:
Pah, that's no fun.

Let's think like a rogue instead. What's Ranald's opinion on siccing Settra on Malekith?
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He'd rather throw down against Mork again than poke Settra.
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Boney said:
Settra has had thirty-six centuries to cement his complete dominance over Nehekhara's hierarchy.
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Last edited:
[X] Student of Immortality
[X] History-Maker of Nagash
[X] Survivor of Bhagar
[X] The Last Firstborn
 
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[x] Student of Immortality
Hits everything I want honestly, delving ancient magics and bringing about true Immortality, very nice
[X] The Last Firstborn
Bringing back the old pantheon is a pretty cool idea too
 
[X] Imprudent Tutor

[X] Student of Immortality

[X] The Last Firstborn

[X] Hunter of the Cult of Blood

I honestly see no need to argue for my choices when I believe all on offer will make a fantastic story. But these have my preference.
 
I will make one argument for Student of Immortality - he is not only the oldest old guy, someone for whom even Nagash is a whippersnapper, but he is also the best at Preservation - our exhibits shall remain untouched by time. Plus, he will be personally interested in researching necromancy and vampires in a way even Tutor isn't.
 
Aliya said:
I will make one argument for Student of Immortality - he is not only the oldest old guy, someone for whom even Nagash is a whippersnapper, but he is also the best at Preservation - our exhibits shall remain untouched by time. Plus, he will be personally interested in researching necromancy and vampires in a way even Tutor isn't.
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The Tutor is interested in learning everything because he wants to teach, and he's already basically as much of an expert as you can get on Vampires and I think Death Magic as well which is to the side of Necromancy
 
Boney said:
[Depressing spoiler]
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Queen Rasut ruled for two years in her son's name. Based on what I get from a quick google search, that's enough time for the boy to become a toddler and start talking, if only in simple words and maybe simple sentences. He'd probably be very cranky and upset if woken up as a little mummy, but might be able to handle "say hi to the nice visitor we can't say no to" before being lulled back to sleep.

Still depressing and better off dormant, but not quite as depressing as an eternal infant - there'd be at least a rudimentary personality there and not just a bundle of stopped bodily functions.
 
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