It is Corindas, 4th of the Month of Amber, in the year 96
His Royal Majesty, King Nakht
Kingdom of Amu-Tep
Her Royal Majesty,
Queen Keket
Royal Consort,
Eshe
Royal Consort, Selket
As proud as a King Cobra with his cowl, the Amura of Amu-Tep are a society of highly civilised and technologically advanced serpentine people. Their kingdom is distant and small, engulfed by arid far-stretching lands, but through will and ambition they have conquered the desert wastes and created an environment they both thrive in and adeptly traverse out of. With burgeoning relationships with other cultures and countries, the Amura play their part as advisors, merchants, and philosophers. Will their lack of militaristic might fracture their recent history of peace as the world opens up around them?
“Something tells me that our doom lies beyond the sands. The world is vast to the north; who knows what skulks there amongst Elves and Men?”
- Amenhotep, the last Mehuri King, on the subject of opening the cities to foreigners.
Play As...
Amu-Tep
General Characteristic
Race
Amura
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Language
Common, Amuran
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Height
176cm - 195cm (5'8 - 6'4)
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Hair Colours
Black, Dark Brown
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Eye Colours
Black sclera, amber, gold, green, blue
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Skin Tone
Deep skin tones, yellow-toned, green-toned, any colour for scales
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Ethos
Communal
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Naming Convention
Ancient Egyptian
Amu-Tep Rundown
Themes
Diplomats, infiltrators, information brokers, clandestine, great influencers, Religious RP​
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Aesthetics
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Ancient Egyptian, Light Clothing, Snakes, Tropical Gardens, and architectural designs including flowing water or pools
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Unique Aspects
Snakes & Egypt, Subterfuge, Diplomacy over brute force, Highly Religious​​​
General Attitudes Towards
Attitude Scale:
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Allied
Friendly
Cordial
Neutral
Unfavourable
Antagonistic
War
Gallia:
Cordial
Dumanon:
Neutral
Great Houses:
Unfavourable
Azuchi:
Neutral
Daurans:
Neutral
Asturias:
Unfavourable
Komanali:
Neutral
Banen’Rhûn:
Antagonistic
Dynasty:
Neutral
Sasanshahr:
Cordial
Ancient Dwarves:
Cordial
Custodes:
Neutral
Turak:
Neutral
Amu-Tep and Aether Users:
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​Extremely rare, but if discovered, officially they do have a place in Amu-Tep society. Those who choose to go public or are found out, are squirrelled away into one of the Houses of the Gods, and forced to live a religious and very moderated life, where their abilities are used to the end of miracles and nurturing the faith of others. As the overwhelming majority of Amura are extremely devout, it is almost unheard of for an Attuned to resist this fate - most go gladly. Foreign Attuned however, are innately distrusted, to a greater measure than simply distrusting outsiders.​
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Amu-Tep and Devourers:
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With the rarity of Aether Users being more extreme here than in other parts of the world, demons are therefore even rarer. When one does take root along the great river, they would do well to pretend to be Attuned; on occasions where they are discovered, they must contend with the royal army and mobs, as they are seen as sinister intruders who have been tainted by magicks from outside of the safety of the Deshret. However, there is no record in Amuran history of a great event or catastrophe.​​​​
When Playing...
Amura should be played as an intelligent, socially savvy and ambitious people. They enjoy the finer things in life but know to work hard to keep them. Their familial bonds are somewhat weak. Their religion is prevalent in everything they do - there is no such thing as an Amuran who does not take the Gods seriously.
They are well-suited to roles like spies and infiltrators, merchants and priests.
The scattered kingdom of the Amura, known as Amu-Tep, is a streak of colour and life along the banks of the Iteru-Neth River. A stream of civility runs through the stark and harsh desert, known to them as Deshret, where scattered towns and cities provide the only refuge in the wastes.
Warm hosts, audacious merchants, and some of the best caravaneers the world over… But a meagre army, and miles of golden sand as their major defence. A unified front beneath a jolly king masks scars from civil war, but the healing nation is still ambitious.
Considering themselves enlightened and sparked with genius, the varied Amura people hold wisdom and cunning above all else; their role on the world stage is small, but as they bloom out of a period of great change, what may they accomplish?
“If those gates remain closed, the sand may as well smother us!”
- An Anumi rebel, moments before his execution.
The History of Amu-Tep
Their historical records chronicle a Prophet finding their current land in the dry desert and decreeing it as the perfect place, led there by visions of their creation. They went on to create a simple society, but with their advanced intelligence, soon came incredible water fixtures, basic piping and plumbing, and even greenhouses. All of these creations are very well documented.
The Anumi wanted to open up to this possibility - to expand and learn from a foreign culture. They wanted less of the local wealth spent on walls and armouries and more on travel, funding for caravaneers and on housing for foreign emissaries. The Anumi wanted to open the gates. But their peaceful goals could not be achieved without violence. The Mehhuri did not trust this at all, and came down with an iron fist. Their war raged long and hard, with cities turning coat and families tearing each other apart.
Eventually, a Mehhuri Overseer named Aziz saw an opportunity to claim power for himself. He seized control of the Mehhuri army and pulled almost every defensive soldier out of the capital, Apis, to strike hard at the Anumi centre in the far eastern city of Niwt-Smabehdet. It was a gamble, a strike as sudden as it could be, the lash of a cobra; the Mehhuri king was seized at the same time, and slaughtered by his own men.
However, their progress has boomed in the last sixty years, as before that they were hindered by internal strife and war. Over time the Amura split into two groups, known as the Mehhuri and the Anumi for their leading families, the Mehur and Anum.
The Mehhuri claimed to be direct descendants of Inaac the Prophet and had been in power for as long as their history books remembered. They had a generational paranoia, a deep-seated need to protect, reinforce, and militarise the serpent people. But they had long been alone in the desert, conquered the local wildlife, and when other races arrived at their sparse cities, they usually found the Amura completely foreign, unknown about, and were almost dead from travel in the wastes. The first major force to find them was the Gallic humans, who upon seeing the civilisation of the Amura, desired trade as the desert was far too harsh for them to traverse with the goal of conquering.
King Aziz
Aziz’s gamble paid off. The Anumi leaders were mostly slaughtered, with deals offered to turn or to die. The ones who did turn became an important part of the future regime. Aziz strove to create a middle ground out of his precise violence. He held that paranoia but knew his people needed contact to evolve. Anumi princesses and priestesses were married into Mehhuri households - he even took one for himself, unifying the families forever.
The House of Aziz was a new age. The gates opened, and the military was gradually defunded, but the Gallic were kept at arms length and serpents were sent out into their world to watch, learn, and report—the beginnings of a vast spy network and a turbulent reputation for the Amura.
Having had no tangible explanation for their creation, with their oldest history seemingly actively destroyed, the Amura sought insight via prophets. Years of visions and prayer have gradually pieced together a story that they uphold as a reason for their existence.
The world was once ruled by great snakes of the land, sea and sky. They were in perfect balance with each other, always moving, revelling in the great warmth of the sun. Their movements shaped the land, hills, and mountains - and created the waves in the water and the wind in the air. So to did they, with their auric power, create life. Birds for the sky, fish for the ocean and for the land, the greatest of the snakes created the Amura, part-mammalian and inspired by its own holy visage. They were kept safe and in a balanced, thick and humid rainforest, harmony kept by the constant shifting of the overseer serpents.
Creation Myth
But, then came an ill force. Shadows emerged from the night’s darkness, some say they were serpentine and others say they were humanoid, with long fingers and limbs and pointed, drawn-out ears that rose like jagged points of a crown aside their heads. Detailless, black figures that roamed through a long night and, when the sun should’ve warmed the earth, consumed it in eclipse. They bought a vast frost across the land, beginning in the north and driving south. In their wisdom, the great snakes knew they could not survive this darkness, but could lead the things they had created to safety. The snakes of the sea guided the fish to the depths of volcanic vents. The snakes of the sky lead the birds to high-up caves with vast mountainous systems to fly in. The snakes of the land left a trail, long and arduous, south into the desert where the world was warmest.
The eclipse lasted months, whilst the original Amura followed the trail left for them. Withering and weakening in the dark but kept strong by their faith in the great snakes, knowing they would not have been misled. The land snakes had found warm sands, not yet frozen, and burrowed deep under the earth there. They writhed and burrowed together, holding that warmth and keeping it alive at the cost of their own energy. Eventually, before the Amura could reach them, the snakes of the land had fully expended themselves - much like the other God-serpents - but had preserved that much-needed heat in those burrows. From their vast corpses, bones became shelter and support in the dune caves, and their blue blood flowed into a river that could not be turned into ice.
The original Prophet, Inaac, is said to have found this place. The Amura took shelter there and, when the eclipse ended, began a new life in a world absent of the great snakes.
“There is no progress for the snake that eats itself. Forever it may turn, but I desire more than that. With this night, I bring motion to Amu-Tep. I bring a path, and a future.”
- Aziz, after seizing control of the kingdom.
Amu-Tep:
Civilization & Politics
With the bloodshed of the civil war still in living memory, the Amura have a lukewarm but burgeoning commitment to peace and social civility. Certainly with regard to other races, they consider themselves above, holding intellect and creativity higher than other skill sets. Their military has certainly declined in recent years, turned largely into a ‘city watch’ form, and even the highest military Overseers are relatively low in the hierarchy of these people. Priests, philosophers and high artisans and alchemists are all above soldiers by caste.
The quick turn around and Aziz being a strict ruler, forced the other Amuran Houses to quickly adapt to a very social political landscape. It had already been a core part of their civilisation but now, with Aziz outlawing Houses having personal armies, they had to rely on it wholly. As a result, the upper political spheres have become incredibly dangerous, with a heavy threat of poisoning, assassinations, rumour mongering and character assassinations. Anything more outright has been severely punished. Aziz had most older currency replaced and melted down, reminted into Eyes - they typically have the imprint of his Eye on one side, and its said he watches every exchange of them from the realm of the dead.
However, Aziz himself has recently died, leaving his less strict son on the throne. As King Nakht [Nak-hut] gets comfortable in his role there is bound to be a great shift of power amongst the scheming Houses. He already has three wives, where his father had only one, and his first royal decrees involved legitimising his bastards and bringing the less favoured ones into the Royal Clutch even if they could not be blessed. Faith in him is rapidly declining amongst high society, but the people find him open, warm, and jolly.
The current primary divide is between idealistic scholars and philosophers, and freeguild mercantile developers and artisans. The gold-minded serpents are ambitious and strive to make the most of the new world, whilst scholars and philosophers seek to further improve the Amuras' great cities and institutions internally. Both are constantly clambering for funding and audiences with the king, but currently, the favour of the church leans toward the scholars - which is a great praise.
Cities are built in different layers, with palaces, high temples, grand libraries all built in the centre. Most of the few settlements are along the grand river that cuts through the desert - the capital Apis is at the centre of the river. In the east it eventually feeds into rainforest and ultimately, the ocean, but the Amura stick fervently to the deserts, believing them to be a place of safety. Further west where the water ends in a vast basin, there is one last bastion of civility known as Niwt-Nebetah, which is the most free-guild dominated of the cities, as it is the last opportunity for travellers to equip themselves and gain escorts through the desert beyond.
Branching out from the inner circles, the cities become poorer, but even the most poverty stricken outer-rings are kept very presentable. Tending to the plants and waterways is vital to the productivity and health of the Amuran people, as without it they would become sickly and dry-skinned. When areas fall into disrepair, there is a foul plague known as the Scale Rot that causes extreme weakness and lesions and eventually, for scales and flesh to slack right from the bone. Survivors of the Rot bear scars for the rest of their lives.
“Please, let there be gold within my sarcophagus. I cannot rest there without the shine of the Itet.”
- Radames, Priest of Itet, upon his deathbed.
Amu-Tep:
Faith
The Amuran Gods are all represented as humanoids with animal features, apart from the great snakes, sometimes known as the Lost Serpents. The great snakes are revered in a mournful way, as lost deities that can no longer be directly appealed to. They are kept alive as memories and foundational bricks for the Faith, used as a symbol for the basic elements of the world and thus, the beginning of all things.
“How odd they look. Their skin so plain - as if they are unfinished.”
- Hatshepsut, Seamstress to the Royal Clutch, after first meeting a Gallic retinue.
Amu-Tep:
Norms & Culture
A significant aspect of Amuran culture is that their children are raised communally, in ‘Clutches.’ This is usually done by dedicated elder women, though not exclusively, which frees up most parents for work. Everyone in Amuran society is expected to work, and there is no concept of retirement. Most often, older folk end up in well-revered positions like tending to the humidifying plants in the built waterways, or in the libraries, temples, and archives. Many may own businesses life-long or remain in other work, however. Their biology enables this for most of their lives.
Children are almost always educated - it is only in very outlandish cases that they may be kept at home, such as in dire situations with family businesses. Schools are free, provided by the carers of the Clutches until age fourteen, and beyond that there are many opportunities to venture into colleges of varying esteem. Otherwise, they are likely to begin working at that age.
Fashion in social spaces is usually somewhat languishing, revealing, and comfortable. They show off their scales and tattoos and bask in glass-house chambers and open-air gardens that are pumped with an alchemical incense known as Hettesh that elevates their moods mildly and eases inhibitions. It has, in recent years, proved poisonous for humans. As a result of this, in more multicultural areas, alcohol is favoured instead.
However, outside of these social settings, the Amura dress conservatively due to their environment. They will wrap up in flowing cloth and silks, lots of layers and colours, and ward off the dry sun with ointments based in aloe and fine-scented with herbs and flowers. They’ve conquered stylishly traversing the arid wastes.
The most highly regarded professions are that of priests, scholars, and artisans. Architects and alchemists in particular are vitally important to the people as those are the two positions that best manipulate the world around them to suit their reptilian needs. Body artists and tattooists often end up with some acclaim, similar to that of a musician.
When someone dies, they are typically preserved in a mummified fashion and taken to a tomb. Even the poor have access to tombs, with expansive ‘public’ areas built beneath cities to house the dead, but the rich will have lavish private crypts that are only accessed by their House. The primary reason for them being underground rather than in some of the great structures of their cities, is to be close to where the Lost Serpents died, and to be embraced by their God of Death.
Marriage, Social Status & Sexuality
It is not uncommon for the richest men and women to take multiple spouses, but the Faith doesn’t approve. Usually, it is done not out of love or even lust, but for political ties and deals. Generally, it is a patriarchal-leaning society, with titles following male heirs as priority. However, due to a few occasions where women have been the only option and performed adequately, there isn’t a regular uprising when a title does pass to an heiress instead. Women are most welcome in the Faith but are still occasionally accepted into scholastic positions and further down the economic chain, work all the same jobs as men. There is no need for them to stay at home to look after their children full-time, which means they lack a natural division of labour.
""Pointed ears. There's an ill omen in that."
- Overseer Teremun, an Advisor to King Nakht, on Elves.
Amu-Tep:
Reputation & Interactions
Their reputation is an up-and-coming one, with many people still not having a good understanding of their culture or capability. The one thing that stands out is their technology and ability to craft an area into a liveable, humid space for their needs. Their political landscape is seen as intimidating.
With Humans
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Humans will either see them as conquerable or as a reasonable ally - Amura consider humans beneath them, but are now open to them in terms of sharing in trade. Both sides are vary wary of spies from the other. Those who would turn to conquering, such as the Asturians, are mostly withheld by the harsh conditions that surround their cities.
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Although the peoples of Sasanshahr are treated more cordially.
With Elves
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Elves find them detestable creatures due to their reliance on and use of alchemy and poisons. Both Amura and Elves consider themselves a superior species to the other.
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The Komenali are only slightly different, though their exposure to the Amura is far less than the standard Elf. They do not hold as much disdain as their more civilised cousins.
With Dwarves
The Amura hold a decent relationship with the Ancient Dwarves who managed to disregard their physical nature for the sake of trade. This relationship has developed into an alliance named 'The League'.
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The Custodes on the other hand hold a general dislike for the Amura. They are not as concerned about the openness of trade and are more suspicious of their motives.
With Banen’Rhûn
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Amura has the unfortunate situation of being aggressed upon by the Banen'Rhûn for reasons beyond their control. These people believe the Amura are servants of the demons whose goal is to wipe them all out.
With Turak
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One of the few mutual peaceable meetings to ever have happened. The Amura and Turak are connected on many wavelengths in outward disposition.
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Over time this relationship has developed so that both are now part of 'The League' alliance with the Ancient Dwarves.
Author: Oakbug
Contributions by: Hokan & Hugh-Gi-Oh
Page Created by: Hokan