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Eagles of Alexandria: A Ptolemaic-era Scion Quest

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You are a young nobleman coming of age at the very start of the decline of the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Ministers whisper evils into the ears of the Pharaoh, and opportunity exists among the growing disorder. Will you soar as an Eagle of Alexandria, or will the city and its dangers swallow you up?
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    • Rolman

    Rolman

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    A Ptolemaic-Era Scion Quest by Rolman​

    It is the 3rd year of the 139th Olympiad, in the year of the High Priest Nikanor. Just over a century has passed since the death of Megas Alexandros, the Son of Zeus-Ammon, the man who conquered the world. His somatophylakes fought over his empire as they did his body, and now the victors of those chaotic wars rule as kings in their own right, clinging to pieces of what was.

    Intrigue swirls around the newly-ascended Pharaoh-Basileus in the city of Alexandreia, the jewel of the Mediterranean. Said to be a man under the sway of his ministers, he has had nearly his entire family killed while war brews yet again with the Seleukidai over the domination of Mikra Asia and Koile Syria.

    All the world is in flux, and the sky's the limit for the cunning, the mighty, or the wise.


    Hello! I'm Rolman, and welcome to Eagles of Alexandria, a scion-style quest where you and the rest of the gang take on the role of a young nobleman coming of age in the Ptolemaic Kingdom in 221 BCE, the first year of the reign of Ptolemaios IV Philopator. This is my first ever quest, and I'm excited to get started.

    The Diadochi/Hellenistic Period has fascinated me for some time, and I would particularly like to thank the ambitious Europa Barbarorum Total War mods for inspiring me. I highly recommend you try EB1 or EB2 out if you own Rome: Total War or Medieval 2. They're great! In the vain of EB, I aspire to historical accuracy and the painting of an authentic(-ish) picture of life in the Ptolemaic Kingdom circa the 3rd century BCE. However, I am by no means a scholar on this period of history, and I hope to learn alongside all of you! I will do my best to explain anything that may seem alien to us today. With that in mind, anybody who is knowledgeable should feel free to correct me whenever I get anything wrong. Thank you in advance!

    Some books used for this game include: Hellenistic Egypt: Monarchy, Society, Economy, Culture by Jean Bingen, Ethnicity in Hellenistic Egypt eds. Bilde et al., Berenice II and the Golden Age of Ptolemaic Egypt by Dee L. Clayman, Law and Enforcement in Ptolemaic Egypt by John Bauschatz, Greeks in Ptolemaic Egypt by Naphtali Lewis, Ptolemaic Alexandria by P.M. Fraser, Army and Society in Ptolemaic Egypt by Christelle Fischer-Bovet, and Land and Power in Ptolemaic Egypt by Joseph Manning.

    Also, a brief warning: the Hellenistic Era, like most of the past, was a pretty ugly time. Sexism, slavery, xenophobia, and general brutality were all facts of life during the period, and characters may say or do some pretty reprehensible things by today's standards. While I will not go out of my way to shove the gross bits down anybody's throats, I will also not compromise when they must be necessarily depicted -- I did commit myself to historical accuracy, after all. Content warnings will be provided at the beginning of entries as needed. Thank you for your understanding!

    We also have a Discord channel for game discussion, on the GSRP server.     Here's a link, and the channel is called #council-of-quests.

    And remember, there's only one rule: be respectful both on the thread and on Discord!
     
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    • Char. Creation I: Birth
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    • Character Creation I: The Circumstances of Birth​

    You were born in the 1st year of the 135th Olympiad, the 8th year of the reign of Ptolemaios Euergetes and of the High Priest Onomastos, a few days after the festivities of the Elaphebolia concluded. The rains of early spring watered the earth as the midwives huddled around your mother, and a healthy baby boy was presented to your father after a relatively easy labor.

    But who are you? The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a truly multi-ethnic empire, spanning from the southern coasts of Anatolia to the fringes of the land called Kush. Dozens of peoples were united under the Pharaoh's reign, but their society was not an inclusive or strictly meritocratic one -- culture and social station would decide much in a noble scion's life and upbringing.

    You were born into a noble family of…

    [Please note that these are listed from "hardest" to "easiest," in terms of sociopolitical hurdles to jump.]

    [ ] Aigyptioi: Though your family speaks Greek and Hellenize their names in royal documents, they speak the tongue of Kemet in private and remain largely unassimilated culturally. The gods worshipped at home show little signs of the Hellenes' syncretism, and the men of the house are known to commune frequently with the native priesthood and nobility. This provides cultural-political inroads with a majority of the Kingdom's subjects and Aigyptioi aristocrats are therefore viewed with some amount of suspicion by their overlords; all but the most skilled are shut out from any serious amount of power. Nevertheless, families such as yours frequently contribute to the native priesthood, low to mid-level army officers, administrators, and commandants of the phylakitai, a police-like military force. Aigyptioi are thought to be silver-tongued and skilled in diplomacy, administration, and trade, but are also stereotyped as corruptible and duplicitous.

    [ ] Asiatikoi: Whether Karian, Lykian, Pisidian, or Pamphylian, your family hails from one of the semi-Hellenized Anatolian peoples of the peninsula's southern Mediterranean coast, bearing linguistic and blood descent from the Luwians of old. While Asiatikoi are hardy hillfolk, they are by no means unsophiscated -- their traders travel far and wide, and are known for their open-mindedness and xenophilia. Individual Asiatikoi are said to be courageous, religious to the point of superstition, and passionate in all things, for better or worse. Though considered to be a rather "rough" people by the Makedonian elites, they are not deemed barbaroi, and are trusted enough by the Ptolemaioi.

    [ ] Hellenes: Your family bears descent from one of the various Greek or Hellenistic followers of Megas Alexandros or Ptolemaios Soter. While not of the elite Makedones, these colonist-aristocrats have played a highly prominent role in every aspect of the Kingdom since its inception, having cast aside old identities with city-states in favor of their shared heritage. Hellenes hold high the pursuit of knowledge, especially utilizing the Museion and Library at Alexandreia and its tutors, and any good Hellene nobleman is expected to be well-versed in rhetoric, politics, history, mathematics, and drama. While capable tacticians, negotiators, and rulers, Hellenes are hobbled by their chauvinistic cultural attitudes, and are often thought soft and lacking in martial prowess (Alexandros, after all, was a Makedone) by those they deem barbaroi.

    [ ] Makedones: Like Ptolemaios Soter himself, the founder of your line served as a hetairos under Megas Alexandros, a personal companion and bodyguard who rode with him all the way from Makedonia to the very edges of the earth. He then aligned himself with Ptolemaios in the chaos after the world-conqueror's death, and became a high-ranking subordinate of the Pharaoh-Basileus. The prestige, influence, and wealth brought by your ancestor's position is still felt to this day, and your family, the Hermiai, are more or less fixtures at court, remaining close with the Lagidai. Members of Makedone houses such as yours frequently ascend to the highest halls of power, and their scions are afforded the best educations money can buy. However, like their Hellene brothers, Makedones are noted for haughtiness and xenophobia, and polis-dwelling Greeks consider people of your stock to be heavy-handed and prone to brutality.
     
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    • [X] Asiatikoi

    As someone who loves everything that is history, count me in. :D
     
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    Encyclopedia
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    • Loving the interest! Really appreciate it. I thought it'd maybe be prudent to have a running document for concepts and information pertaining to the history and the setting, to be updated as new things appear. If anybody needs anything written out, lemme know!
    Rolman's Μουσεῖον
    Your one-stop shop for everything you need to know.    ​

    PEOPLE:

    PLACES:
    One of the largest and most impressive sanctuaries of Apollo in the Hellenistic World, Didyma exists in its second incarnation having been rebuilt around a century ago after its destruction by the Persai. The oracle at Didyma is second in importance only to the famed one at Delphi, and the temple complex is effectively a small town unto itself (not counting the actual town surrounding it), home to hundreds of priests, seers, scholars, and scribes.
    MAPS:

    CONCEPTS:
    The Ptolemaioi reintroduced and revamped the native nome system, replacing the Persoi's satrapy, with the forty-two ancient nomes preserved save for the creation of a new one for Arsinoe-Krokodilopolis. Three cities, meanwhile, exist as autonomous, democratic Ancient Greek poleis, a reflection of the high numbers of Hellenic settlers in each: Alexandria, Naukratis, and Ptolemais Hermiou. All land outside these three poleis and their surrounding environs are considered to be Khora -- "country" -- areas in which the royal system of administration and law enforcement hold full sway.

    Nomes are administered by Pharaoh-appointed strategoi, who act as civil-military governors with executive power over both the nome's bureaucracy and local military forces. The strategoi in turn answer to the epistrategos, a member of the royal inner circle with unclear duties of oversight for all forty-three nomes. Below the strategoi are the provincial epistatai, magistrate-officials primarily concerned with issues of government corruption/misconduct and judicial proceedings. Epistatai are generally posted to cities and larger towns, and interface heavily with local police commanders and the highly influential native priesthood in the countryside. It was a bit misleading of me to say "of Naukratis" for a Chap. III voting choice regarding an epistates; "at Naukratis" is a better fit, as epistatai do not necessarily function as executives (not to mention Naukratis' polis status).

    Then, there is the network of scribes, a hierarchy ranging from lowly village scribes all the way up to provincial and even national Royal Scribes. These men deal with tax assessment, census-taking, surveying, the auditing of tax collectors' books, and other financial duties. The scribes work closely with the oikonomoi, or economic managers, who handle the transport of money and goods, oversee planting, harvesting, and irrigation, as well as the recruitment of tax collectors via auction. Unlike the strategoi and epistatai, scribes and oikonomoi tend to be majority-Aigyptioi at all but the highest levels. Similarly to the governor and his men, the scribes and managers work in tandem with local largeholders and the old priesthood. The chief oikonomos is the dioiketes, perhaps the most important office in the land and currently held by the sinister Sosibios, who rules the country de facto alongside fellow minister Agathokles.
    Hellenistic Egypt is unique in that it's the only Classical polity recorded as possessing a professional, well-defined civilian police force in all its corners. While the three poleis of the Kingdom possess their own local security forces, all khora lands and cities fall under the jurisdication of provincial Phylakitai.

    Firstly, semantics: one phylax, many phylakes, and the Phylakitai, used as "the police." Technically phylakes and phylakitai are interchangeable as the word "policemen" but forget it.

    The phylakitai were present at all levels of khora life; any village of more than a few dozen households were bound to have a handful of phylakes, drawn up from their own population and paid in cash or land grants. Rank-and-file officers answer to an archiphylax -- I'm gonna simply call them "police chiefs" or "commandants" -- with jurisdiction over a collection of villages or a larger town/city. Archiphylakes answer in turn to both the local epistates and a dedicated provincial epistates phylakiton. The primary duties of the phylakitai include criminal investigation and apprehension, debt collection, patrolling roads and waterways, and the protection of state property, particularly cash payrolls, state-owned fields, and granaries. Since phylakes are residents of the areas they police or nearby, patronage and corruption are rife and ethnic composition generally reflects the locality, with records of Hellenes and Aigyptioi serving side by side.

    We have no record of it, but the police forces of the poleis were likely a mixture of phylakitai-esque guardsmen working alongside the city's garrison, in addition to the many private guardsmen and thiefcatcher-bounty hunters hired by businesses and nobles. I distinguish Alexandrian police officials, such as Harnachtes and Sophon, from the phylakitai by referring to them as members of "the watch."
    It is Alexandria that holds the glorious distinction of hosting the body of the World-Conqueror, the son of Ammon and the man made God; he rests embalmed and in full panoply inside his sarcophagus. His divine role is twofold: both as the god of the Pharoahs -- deified Ptolemaioi share his temple -- and as the city-god in the more classical sense. Revered by Hellenes, Makedones, and even some of the more assimilated Aigyptioi, the Cult of Megas Alexandros is the foremost in the Kingdom. Indeed, the title of High Priest, usually held for just a year, is one of the highest and most prestigious offices in the land.
    We're a few centuries too early for Common/Dionysian dating, so we're relying on several methods of dating used during the Diadokhoi period:

    1. The Olympiad dating system, based around the four-year periods between Olympic Games, which have run uninterrupted since, well... The 1st year of the 1st Olympiad, or our 776 BCE. 221 BCE, when our scion comes of age, is therefore the 3rd year of the 139th Olympiad: 780-(139x4) = 224, with the 140th commencing midway thru our year 220 BCE.

    2. Regnal years, pretty self-explanatory. Year X of the reign of King blah. 221 BCE marks the first year of the reign of Ptolemaios IV Philopator, while 222 BCE would've been the 24th-ish year of Ptolemaios III Euergetes.

    3. Years of the eponymous High Priests of Alexandros -- this is the most widely-used system in the historic Ptolemaic Kingdom. It's a bit of a headache since High Priests' terms rarely extended beyond their year, but thankfully Wikipedia's come through for us.


    EVENTS:
     
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    • Quick question: How big are going to be able to go on this quest. Like, could we become the right-hand of the Pharoah at some point, or are we not going there?
     
    Duke William of said:
    Quick question: How big are going to be able to go on this quest. Like, could we become the right-hand of the Pharoah at some point, or are we not going there?
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    It's entirely up to the ambitions of the character/the players (not to mention some skill and luck)! After a railroad-ish chargen section, I intend to open up voting to a more plan-style system -- still hammering things out mechanically. Very interested to see what everyone's gonna try and get up to. I wanna keep things sandbox-y within reason. You can expect to enjoy a bit of protagonist privilege/plot armor, but you will have to work for what you have. No 25-year-old High Priests of Alexandros, for example. But when I said the sky's the limit, I really meant it.

    That ethnic totem pole of hard-to-easy will be somewhat consequential, though. Obviously, it would be much easier for a blue-blood Makedone to ascend to the highest levels of power than that of, say, the son of a Native Phylakitai commander. To be a little meta, though, there are several ways out for an Egyptian or Anatolian that may find themselves stifled by xenophobia. Namely, the historic rebellions of the secessionist Pharoahs and the outsized influence of Anatolians in their homelands and upon the tradelanes.

    To continue my meta-ness, aspiring courtiers will likely have to deal with the shrewd and vicious dual advisors of Ptolemaios IV Philopator:     Sosibios and Agathokles.

    Hope this helps!
     
    Rolman said:
    It's entirely up to the ambitions of the character/the players (not to mention some skill and luck)! After a railroad-ish chargen section, I intend to open up voting to a more plan-style system -- still hammering things out mechanically. Very interested to see what everyone's gonna try and get up to. I wanna keep things sandbox-y within reason. You can expect to enjoy a bit of protagonist privilege/plot armor, but you will have to work for what you have. No 25-year-old High Priests of Alexandros, for example. But when I said the sky's the limit, I really meant it.

    That ethnic totem pole of hard-to-easy will be somewhat consequential, though. Obviously, it would be much easier for a blue-blood Makedone to ascend to the highest levels of power than that of, say, the son of a Native Phylakitai commander. To be a little meta, though, there are several ways out for an Egyptian or Anatolian that may find themselves stifled by xenophobia. Namely, the historic rebellions of the secessionist Pharoahs and the outsized influence of Anatolians in their homelands and upon the tradelanes.

    To continue my meta-ness, aspiring courtiers will likely have to deal with the shrewd and vicious dual advisors of Ptolemaios IV Philopator:     Sosibios and Agathokles.

    Hope this helps!
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    Thanks for the reply! Yeah, that makes sense when you explain it like that. Can't wait to see what comes out of this, and I already hate the two advisors after reading six paragraphs on them.
     
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