Khapesh

Kingdom of Khapesh
Capital	Palace of the Dazzling Sun
Ruler	Chephren the Learned
Government	Bureaucratic monarchy
Demonym	Khapeshan
Adjective	Khapeshan
Languages	Common, Meroitic
Religions	Khapeshan pantheon, especially Sokar and Harakhte; other pantheons to lesser degrees

Khapesh (pronounced kah-PESH), formally the Kingdom of Khapesh, is an ancient land full of mysteries and remnants of the distant past. Old ruins are frequently only a short distance from major cities, and the remains of a prehistoric civilization hide beneath the sands. One of the most densely populated regions of the world, the Aur River provides the lifeblood of Khapesh within the inhospitable deserts of the Red Lands.

Geography, flora, and fauna

Khapesh is centered around the Aur River, its lifeblood in the otherwise hot and inhospitable Sangora Desolation. Aside from small settlements around oases within the Red Lands, the Khapeshan term for the Desolation, almost the entire population of Khapesh lives along the river. The Aur River provides the means of transportation that ties the kingdom together by trade, and the river’s regular yearly cycles of flooding ensures agricultural plenty in the middle of the desert. Farmlands, mostly growing wheat and other grains, cling close to the river. Reeds and other tall grasses grow along the riverbank in places where it is not cultivated.

To the north the Aur reaches the Chaska Sea - most international travel and trade from Khapesh comes and goes by this route. To the east is the Salt Coast of the Kilche Sea. Far less kind than the northern coast to most living creatures, there is little here beyond beaches of salt and outposts established to collect it. Some small fortresses exist here as well, in an attempt to deter pirates along the trade routes between Avaris, Rudamun, and Tarkuus.

Sandstorms are a periodic concern to the inhabitants of Khapesh. Sometimes taking days to pass, these storms inhibit travel, damage crops, pose health concerns, and cover settlements with a thick layer of sand once they pass.

The Red Lands are a barren wasteland of rocky sand and dunes. Small shrubs and cacti, well adapted to live in these dry conditions, are the only vegetation to be seen. Most vegetation in the Red Lands is inedible to people, save for sparse prickly pair cacti, black persimmon, and a handful of other species. Few choose to travel through these harsh conditions, much less live in it.

Along with a handful of smaller oases, the Turquoise and Sphinx oases are the major sites away from the Aur River. These refuges from the desert remain sparsely inhabited, though ancient ruins are common sights near both. Rumors abound of strange phenomena surrounding both oases. There is little to entice adventurers or other travelers, however, and most stay away.

The fauna of Khapesh varies primarily based on a region's proximity to water. Along the river, northern coast, and oases, one can find crocodiles, hippopotami, and large flocks of birds. Within the Red Lands there are few animals besides scorpions, snakes, small rodents and reptiles, jackals, and foxes. Magical creatures are also relatively commonplace within Khapesh. While most native magical creatures live only in remote parts of the river or in the desert away from civilization, non-native magical creatures can be found with relative ease near the cities, whether they moved there by choice or were inadvertently set free.

History

The modern Kingdom of Khapesh is built upon the ruins of thousands of years of history. Founded somewhere around Y2300^* by the quasi-mythical Narmer the Conqueror, Khapesh has been ruled since by monarchs of forty-three dynasties. This has not all been a time of peace, with many wars, both external and within, breaking up long periods of fairly high degrees of stability. At times the lands of Khapesh have been temporarily divided among multiple states and later reunified again - though histories of the nation generally present Khapeshan control of the Aur and its delta as a continuous line, in reality it has frequently been broken, often info small realms that coalesce around the most prominent cities along the river. Traditionally, the official chronologies of Khapeshan monarchs omit these periods so as to reinforce their own image of strength.

Age of Unification - Y2300^* (approx) to Y4087^*

Though historical records are inexact, sometime around Y2300^* Khapesh was founded by Narmer the Conqueror, bringing the separate small kingdoms and city states along the Aur River into a unified nation. Contrary to the name given to him by later historians, evidence points to the unification as a mostly diplomatic effort, not borne of conflict. Some inscriptions from this period recount migrations out of the desert and towards the river, but it is not clear if these are factual or the self-aggrandizement of past rulers seeking to describe how they began to rule over ever-larger populations.

Beginning in the third millennium settlements the first major settlements were founded in Upper Khapesh, away from the early unification in the delta. Worship of the Khapeshan pantheon became well established in this period as temples began to be established around these local deities.

Time of the Scouring - Y4087^* to Y4292^*

The Scouring, a massive centuries-long magical sandstorm, forced drastic changes in Khapesh, causing a near total societal collapse. Those that survived were forced into a pattern of yearly or sometimes seasonal migrations along the river, moving to avoid the worst of the storm. Most settlements are abandoned during this time. It is unknown what caused this storm.

Age of Expansion - Y4292^* to Y7030^*

During the later part of this period, the kingdom reached its greatest extent, stretching east up to the Tela River and the Lakes of False Promises, and south to Lake Nulukkhaz.

The Stoics of Iteru were formed during the Age of Expansion. While they have varied in size and influence since, the order of immortal royal guards remains active to the present day.

King Khentimeresh the Evil reigned from Y4756^* to Y5001^*. A despotic tyrant, Khentimeresh is best remembered for his attempts to attain immortality via lichdom. Legends hold that magical countermeasures of some type were put in place so that this could not happen again, though there is much dispute as to what form this would take.

Time of the Empty Throne - Y7030^* to Y7955^*

Internal wars caused by droughts and famines brought upon the separation of Khapesh into shifting alliances of city states. Control of Khapesh’s outer territories collapsed, helped by scavenging bandits and raider lords.

Age of the Restored Crowns - Y7955^* to present

The Age of the Restored Crowns has been an almost two millennia long era with a high degree of stability, aside from the Reign of the Six Kings from Y8422^* until Y8455^*.

During the Incident at Faiyan in Y9975^*, ancient automatons under the control of Zamanth, one of the vizers of Faiyan, terrorized the area around the city before they were defeated and contained.

Prior to Y9976^*, Khapesh was nominally ruled by King Menes II. Even before his disappearance in Y9975^* he was rarely seen outside of his traditional role in pageantry and parades. Few had even seen the king directly, as he would almost never appear in public as anything more than a shadowy figure in a carriage, and all royal communication was handled by his retinue of scribes. Most of the primarily human population of Khapesh never knew another monarch, as Menes II had been the ruler for almost three hundred years - supernaturally long for a human.

After the disappearance of Menes II in Y9975^*, most nomarchs briefly turned their cities into their own personal fiefdoms. The rulers of Faiyan, Sakha, Arthribis, and Akhmis, in Upper Khapesh, formed an alliance but the others became de facto independent, at least for a time. With the ascension of the new king Chephren the Learned to the throne in Y9976^*, this situation was soon righted.

Demographics

The population of Khapesh is largely human, though the cities tend to be quite cosmopolitan, and those of the delta especially so. Gnomes, tengu, catfolk, and dwarves live in Khapesh as well, alongside individuals of many other ancestries.

Away from the river, bands of Seshem kasatha live within the Red Lands. Not large in number and to a significant degree separate from the rest of Khapeshan society, these kasatha live as nomadic hunters within the desert. It is rare for a kasatha to live in a river-dwelling community, though some find work as guards and guides.

Culture

Religion

Worship of the Khapeshan pantheon has a long and enduring history in the kingdom. The veneration of these gods began many millennia ago, in the Age of Unification, and has continued largely uninterrupted since. Each major city within Khapesh has a patron deity - in most cases, the patron deity has a particularly large temple and following within the city’s surroundings. These patrons are important protectors and guides to the city, and their areas of concern are often related to matters of day to day life in the community. However, the reverence towards the entire pantheon stretches across all of Khapesh; a city with a grand temple to Sokar, for example, will still have smaller temples dedicated to Shai, Maahes, and so on.

Temples in Khapesh can be truly grandiose. These large complexes serve not only as places for prayer, but additionally as social, economic, and civic centers of their cities. In addition to their religious roles, clerics also frequently serve as bureaucrats or scribes for the city's nomarch.

Religion and the state are inextricably intertwined in Khapesh. Khapeshan monarchs act as intermediaries between their people and the gods, giving offerings and entreating the divines in ways sure to attract attention and, hopefully, bring favor to the nation. Their visits and rites at major temples are a core part of the role of kings and queens in Khapesh, and whether a deity smiles or frowns upon the Khapeshan people, the monarch as their representative is ultimately responsible.

Society

Strong class divides exist in Khapeshan society. Scribes, priests, mages, architects, engineers, and other educated figures form the upper classes, above the farmers, pastoralists, merchants, and artisans who account for the bulk of the population of Khapesh. These divides are somewhat meritocratic, however, as it is possible to rise in prestige and social standing through education, even if personal connections remain critical all the same.

Khapeshans tend to be superstitious about the ancient ruins surrounding them. While adventurers might gladly enter such structures in search of treasures or mysteries within, ordinary citizens tend to associate these ruins with burial places of the long dead. While Khapeshan scribes and scholars recognize the wealth of knowledge and items that could be found, they tend to be focused more on the vast amounts of poorly understood material already in easy access to them, and do not usually venture forth themselves or hire others to explore and gain more.

In addition to their religious roles, Khapeshan temples are economically central to live around the Aur River. Rather than bringing their goods to a marketplace to sell individually or to a private merchant, as is the case in most other regions around the Chaska Sea, in Khapesh farmers, artisans, and so forth sell their goods to local temples, who are then responsible for distributing them through the marketplaces of their cities and towns. Some temples are more critical to this system than others, but all are involved. While the benefits of this system are clear to the people of Khapesh - as prices are set by temples coordinating across Khapesh, the costs of basic goods are always known and predictable, ensuring fairness and facilitating trade - it brings great power and wealth to the temples as well. As the patron of farmers, for example, those of Sokar are tasked with overseeing the supply of food in the nation, and all basic foodstuffs pass through temple larders and storehouses at some point, granting them immense political leverage, even if they are socially and religiously mandated to do the best for the people in the name of their deity.

Not all goods in Khapesh are bought and sold through temple intermediaries, however, only basic necessities and common items. Buyers seeking specialty magical wares, for example, must still seek out a producer of such an item and negotiate an agreement with them directly.

Traditions

Many of the cultural traditions of Khapesh are as similarly ancient as their religious beliefs. The yearly flooding of the Aur River serves as the beginning of a series of festivals and rituals, both a celebration and an offering to their gods to ensure an orderly and prosperous year. These festivities vary by city, but typically include the giving of alms and offerings to the major temples, elaborate reenactments of particular stories of their pantheon, feasts, and the consultation of oracles.

The Khapeshan calendar is divided into three seasons - Akhet (inundation), Peret (growth), and Shemu (harvest). As the Aur river floods with great regularity, these seasons end up starting at very nearly the same times every year. Irregularities tend to be viewed with superstition or fear, usually prompting more and greater offerings to the Khapeshan deities. The start of the year is considered to be the end of Akhet, when the river’s flooding ceases.

The beginning of the year is marked across Khapesh with a great week-long festival, celebrating another year passed and giving offerings to ensure the next is bountiful. Communal feasts and gifts of food between neighbors are traditional, and generally looked forward to with anticipation by Khapeshans. Most tavern and inn keepers will make their goods and services available for free during this time (though donations are, of course, appreciated). In most cities, a large parade is organized, typically featuring large numbers of musicians and dancers. Until recently, the king and his retinue would also travel from city to city during this time to take part in the parades as well.

Another week-long festival marks the end of Shemu, or the harvest season. This is a more muted affair, focusing more on rest and recuperation after the hard work put in during the last two seasons. Non-essential shops typically close, and those that remain open tend to only be available during the early part of the morning. Even less devout followers of the Khapeshan pantheon frequently spend long periods at the temples during this time in the year.

Arts

Khapeshan music, often performed by devotees of Meshkenet, usually centers around vocals accompanied by flutes, harps, clarinets, shells used as whistles, and a variety of percussion instruments, particularly cymbals. Most Khapeshan bards are not soloists, but rather train as part of a group or choir. Music is frequently involved in religious and magical rituals in Khapesh. Funerary rites also usually involve rituals of chanting, other instrumentation, and dancing.

Khapeshan art follows a tradition many thousands of years old. While artists have their own techniques and flairs, they follow famously stable guidelines and standards that have persisted across the ages. Khapeshan paintings, carvings, and reliefs commonly feature simple lines and shapes, flat areas of color, and flat projections of figures without spatial depth, all done in order to create highly ordered works. Temples, palaces, graves, stelae, and other structures of socio-religious importance are usually covered in reliefs and paintings that depict subjects closely related to the structure’s purpose. Art often depicts historical or religious events, and is a method to teach about these events to the common people. Stone is the most common medium, and paints are usually sourced from mineral ores.

Languages

Today most citizens of Khapesh speak Common, though it is not unusual to hear the languages of other ancestries and regions in the major cities. In the past Khapesh had multiple languages of its own but these largely died out thousands of years ago. Meroitic is the only remaining Khapeshan language in wide use, both as a scholarly language and as an everyday language by the common people. Those that use Meroitic as their primary tongue tend to live in upper Khapesh, away from the cosmopolitan delta, where there is less reason to learn Common to communicate with people of diverse backgrounds. Other older languages, for example Old Khapeshan, are completely extinct. In the northern coastal cities Telan, Thadrian, and Hellean are also quite often heard.

Architecture

Many Khapeshan cities have been continually, or nearly continually, inhabited for thousands of years, built upon or from the ruins of what came before. Architecturally Khapeshans favor structures made of sandstone or mud brick, usually with flat roofs and many canopies to provide shade and cool the structure. In smaller towns and villages buildings are somewhat more commonly made of wood. Reeds are frequently used to construct awnings and other scaffolding, as well as for floor mats. The style of temples vary by the deity but often include open courtyards, large enclosed halls, and copious religious artwork. Temples to a city’s patron deity are usually constructed as large centerpieces of their cities.

Khapeshan cities tend to be quite densely populated, though with larger than normal distances between them. Cities are exclusively located along the Aur River, as the waters of the river provide for the irrigation and means of travel that the cities require. Along the river between the cities are low-density, rural, agricultural landscapes - comparatively little of the land surrounding the Aur is wild in the modern day, as much of it has been developed for agriculture or small settlements. Each city relies on the food produced in a large area up and down the river from itself in order to support its high population. The majority of Khapeshan people live in the rural regions, though rarely more than a day's travel from the nearest major settlement.

Food and cuisine

Most people in Khapesh eat diets centering around bread, rice, vegetables, legumes, olive oil, dates, beer, and fish. Spices are commonly used, such as pepper, ginger, coriander, and garlic. Other spices are imported into Khapesh, mostly from Tarkuus, though these are often priced out of the reach of most people. 

On the Salt Coast, a popular method to prepare seafood involves creating a mixture of egg white, salt, and optionally extra spices for flavoring, completely encasing the whole but gutted and cleaned fish with the mixture, and slowly cooking it over a low fire.

Many domesticated animals are kept in Khapesh. Oxen and cattle are most commonly used as draft animals or for meat - in the past, native aurochs were kept for this purpose, though they have been functionally extinct in the region for millennia. Domesticated waterfowl are kept for meat and eggs. Some hunters and scouts are known to train jackals to assist them in their treks across the desert.

Medicine

Khapeshan healers are well-known across the Chaska Sea and widely sought for their expertise. Through years of study these figures often become highly specialized, only treating certain ailments or injuries but peerless in their narrow spaces. The libraries of Khapesh house massive corpora of medical works written by Khapeshan doctors in all manner of topics, collected from their research and experiences across the centuries.

Technology

While the technology of Khapesh is quite similar to the rest of the world, broadly speaking, the subterranean workshops of Peremoun are especially renowned for their remarkable clockwork creations. Elsewhere in Khapesh, particularly around Faiyan, these clockworks are often seen with suspicion due to their similarities with the more advanced ancient automatons that have appeared on occasion. Khapeshan agriculture relies on quite advanced irrigation techniques and methods, a necessity when the river is the only consistent source of water. Paper in Khapesh is made from the plentiful papyrus that grows on the river bank, used for books and other written material.

Sports

Khapeshan sports tend to center around displays of practical skills, including rowing, javelin-throwing, archery, weightlifting, and other physical feats. Sporting activities are generally unorganized - unlike in Hellea, there are no central guilds to govern the rules of sportsmanship. Board games are quite popular among all people in Khapeshan society, from farmers to nomarchs. Games often emphasize strategy or random chance, and betting is widespread.

Fashion

Linen is by far the most common textile and material used in Khapeshan clothing. Dyes derived from plants are sometimes used to add extra color, but more commonly the material is left in its natural color. Among the upper class, bleached and dyed clothes are more widespread, along with jewelry and other cosmetics like perfumes. Sewn leather sandals are the most common footwear. All clothing is designed to be light and avoid excess material, in order to keep the wearer cool in the hot desert climate.

Clothing made of crocodile leather is often worn by the wealthy and influential as a status symbol.

Education

The cities of lower Khapesh are widely known for their printing industries, as large numbers of books are published there, printed on sheets of papyrus paper and bound in leather covers. Books are inexpensive enough that an average commoner can afford to buy one or two a year without too much trouble. Broadside newspapers are also fixtures of many Khapeshan cities, though usually only published on a weekly basis.

Education and magical studies in Khapesh are closely tied to the temples. Even non-religious learning is usually conducted by priests and priestesses. While most Khapeshans receive their primary education as children, temple schools are open to the public and those of any age who wish to learn. Besides general studies, temples usually also teach classes that emphasize the domains of their deity. For example, temples to Ptah often teach metalworking and other forms of craftsmanship.

Magic

Khapeshan mages, while generally experienced and learned in the same types of magic as elsewhere, also know certain spells and techniques more specific to the kingdom. These include spells involved in the internment of the dead, manipulation of aging, and unique methods to raise and control undead.

Travel

Most travel within Khapesh is done via the Aur River. Most settlements are located directly beside the river and feature at least small docks, so the river provides a reliable method of transportation. Boats range from smaller vessels, able to carry a couple individuals, to larger river boats. Almost all are made of bundled reeds, sometimes coated in tar for waterproofing, and propelled by a combination setting poles, oars, and sails (on the larger vessels).  In the cities, wooden carts are used by those that can afford them, though more commonly seen are sledges. Either can be pulled by draft animals but typically are not. Within the desert, most travellers wisely choose to travel light, as the effort required to move cargo over the rough terrain is rarely worth it.

Burial practices

Great care is given to the interment of deceased Khapeshans. While wealthy or powerful figures might be buried in elaborate rock-cut tombs, mastabas, or even pyramids, it is very atypical for the common people to afford such a luxury. Instead they place the bodies of their loved ones in family tombs, if they are somewhat well-off, or else city catacombs of such an expense is still beyond them. Still, many Khapeshans are willing to forgo luxuries over the course of their lives in order to save the funds to place their deceased relatives in a place of honor.

Regardless of where the bodies of the dead are interred, it is critical to Khapeshans that they be given the proper rites by priests of Shai. Funerary rites and rituals are of central importance in Khapeshan religion, all carefully recorded and preserved so they will never be forgotten. Indeed, Khapeshan burial practices have changed very little in millennia, in large part due to the diligence of Shai's priesthood. In addition to the rituals performed for the dead, they are also buried with copies of Emerging Forth into the Light, Shai's holy text, as well as various foods, items from their lives, and other grave goods, all to prepare their souls for the Rivers of the Dead.

Government

Khapesh is, and has long been, a bureaucratic monarchy. In principle the king or queen possesses absolute authority, yet in reality they rarely choose to exercise it, as the large size and diverse concerns of the kingdom render most issues better solved at a local level. The monarch remains in full control of the Khapeshan military but most other responsibilities are delegated to the nomarchs.

Each city and surrounding area within Khapesh is administered by one or more nomarchs, entrusted by the monarch with near complete autonomy to oversee the day to day governance. Nomarchs are granted a great deal of discretion over their territory, and are essentially given a lifetime position as long as they perform in line with their liege's expectations. However, it is not unknown for a nomarch to be recalled and replaced if the monarch judges them incompetent.

Khapeshan law focuses more on resolving conflicts on a case by case basis rather than adhering to written statues or previous decisions, even if the outcomes of all trials are diligently recorded by scribes in the temples of Harakhte. A thief, for example, may be given more leniency if they stole an item to sell for basic necessities than if they did the same seeking personal wealth.

Economy

Khapesh's economy is primarily agricultural - in years of good floods the kingdom is able to produce an amount of food well in excess of what its inhabitants require. Much of this agricultural output is exported to other lands, traded in exchange for raw resources, spices, and precious metals. A thriving gray market deals in antiquities, selling relics of Khapesh’s ancient past to wealthy collectors and scholars overseas. Some cities within the kingdom have more specialized economies - for example, the workshops of Peremoun prosper through selling their mechanical contraptions. The coastal cities benefit through trade passing through as well, supporting the large number of merchant vessels within the Chaska Sea.

Relations

Khapesh has generally good relations with its neighbors and has not been involved in an external war in many centuries. Instead it prefers diplomacy by trade, exchanging its agricultural surplus, magical expertise, and ancient relics for resources that cannot be found in the desert or along the river. Despite past conflicts over mutual ambitions along the Taseti Coast, relations with Tamkaranu are today quite close, the last hostilities ending with the collapse of Tamkaranu's monarchy. In addition to engaging in commerce, Khapesh has at times also provided military support in defense of Tamkaranu's western colonies. This has mutual benefits, as Khapesh has become increasingly reliant on the mineral wealth extracted from Ellu in particular.

Aside from trade and diplomatic formalities, Khapesh has little interest in becoming involved with the affairs of its other neighbors across the Chaska Sea. Khapeshan monarchs and nomarchs generally view the tensions between the many states of Hellea and surrounding islands as petty squabbles, unworthy of getting involved in.

Khapesh has very close ties with the city state of Avaris. Nearly all Khapeshan trade within the Kilche Sea passes through the ports of Avaris, and Khapesh maintains something of a client state relationship with the city. Avaris is mostly left to continue its day to day operations under its own terms, but trade and diplomacy is dictated by Khapesh.

Prior to the collapse of Akhom, Khapesh had cordial but not close relations. After the Deluge, Khapesh assisted in the rescue and transport of the survivors to Rudamun. Khapeshan merchants frequently travel the Kilche Sea to Rudamun, though there remain no official relations.

Cultists in the Archipelago of Elabras are openly antagonistic to Khapesh, and Khapesh often responds in kind. Pirates hired by the cultists search the trade routes within the Kilche for easy targets, looking for ships to raid and capture. All Khapeshan travelers are told to remain well clear of the archipelago, and Khapeshan warships attempt to intercept the pirates when given the opportunity.

In spite of some past conflicts, relations between Tarkuus and Khapesh are quite good. Both are now mutually dependent on their trade, and have an agreement to stay out of each other's affairs, even when it may lead to conflicting interests.

Khapeshan relations with the Sun Refuge are complicated. On one hand, Khapesh wishes to maintain a good standing with the crusader state, to avoid provoking the ire of Harrina's followers both inside and outside of Khapesh. On the other hand, Khapesh's ties to Tarkuus greatly complicates this. The official stance, then, has become an odd arrangement of both providing occasional gifts and tributes to the Sun Refuge while at all other times pretending it doesn’t exist.