Slytunkhamen I - c. 1280 B.C.
I inscribe onto this papyrus the details of the events that led me to my fortune. With this tome I intend to immortalize the legacy of those who have perfected the art of thievery. Should my descendants preserve its pages, I shall instill upon them my knowledge.
I have no clear memory of my immediate family, but I do know they were impoverished nomads who had succumbed to the harsh elements of the desert. By miracle I managed to survive, alone, young and helpless. No one would take me in; no charity would I receive. The only shelter I found were the tombs of pharaohs past, surviving meagerly off the land. But it was within these chambers where I read the hieroglyphics of priests, telling of the gods' power of blending into this realm within the shadows. In time, I would learn this power from years of connecting my senses with the realm of the Underworld.
By age eighteen, I had been surviving off of robbing others, stealing food and clothing from passing merchants. Eventually I had begun acquiring money to buy my way into civilization, along with valuable treasures I could sell to prospective traders. I had never considered the life of a thief to be low, squalid and immoral as others would say; it was the only life I knew.
Soon I had begun incorporating my knowledge of the arcane with my thieving skills. I could sense opportunities of thieving advantage in the form of a distinct aura. More and more I found myself able to avoid detection through feats of dexterity and stealth. I recall one day when I attempted to steal a vase from a merchant in broad sunlight. A city guard approached my direction and I had no means of hiding or escape. All I could do was tap into my thief aura. To my surprise, the lawman saw right through me, as if I was not even there. He was however perplexed by the floating necklace and my presence was exposed. From that day forward, I honed my skills even further, to the point of mastering the illusion of invisibility.
Through the years I had risen from a common street thief to a master of the criminal underworld. I managed a syndicate of black market dealers specializing in golden artifacts and jewelry. Soon I acquired a substantial wealth in my young adulthood, just beyond the watchful gaze of the law. But I had not yet realized how engrossed I had become in my power.
One night I stole a valuable urn from a family home, later pawning it for a hefty sum. The next day, I found the very same family in the town square and overheard them as they begged before an imposing nobleman. The parents told him that they had planned to use the urn as payment to him for a debt, but could not find it. The greedy aristocrat was unforgiving and banished the couple along with their four children to the desert for their negligence. I became morose upon realizing that I had condemned the poor family to a life of squalor, just as I had grown up in. On that day, I swore a vow to myself that I would no longer prey upon the innocent, and would only steal from those who do not deserve their wealth.
Thus I began to turn on my allies in the black market, stealing the fortunes that they had built up from dealing with me. In my effort to protect the innocent, I made more and more enemies, and soon I could no longer safely dwell amongst the public. Once again I retreated back into the shadows, living far from any city and keeping watch over my amassed fortune. I felt I had all the wealth in Egypt, but no other to share in it with.
This was before I met Tey. As I was transporting water from an oasis, I found the young woman collapsed in the sand, on the verge of starvation. After helping her back to my homestead and offering her food, I learned that she and her family had been servants of the Pharoah, but they were recently banished by him for sympathizing with the previous king. Tey's family had since perished in the desert and only she remained. She had no others on which to rely and felt indebted to me for saving her life. I let her stay with me on the condition that we keep each other's whereabouts in secrecy.
In a short time, Tey and I had grown strong affection for each other. Soon we were traveling the Nile in disguise, spending the fortune I shared with her and living like nobles. We married in secret and considered settling into a common life. But she still harbored lament for her lost family. Having known her sense of loneliness, I vowed to help her seek justice. And so I traveled alone to Thebes for the greatest heist of my life.
Using my years of experience and my shadow power, I managed to slip into the palace of the Pharaoh himself. It had been my intention at first to steal as much gold as I could from the engorged king. But upon reading a private tablet, I discovered that the Pharaoh had been banishing to the desert those he deemed inferior for his entire reign, including a servant family of raccoons. To this day I am still uncertain if this was the family erased from my childhood. Regardless, I acted in retribution.
Stealing a pair of khopesh, I exposed myself and challenged the Pharaoh to combat in order to disprove his immortality. The king accepted, believing he was a truly invincible god, and attacked me with immense strength, swooping at me with his imposing size. Alas, he was still only mortal and I managed to defeat him with speed and agility. I stood, having withstood the onslaught, with my cane raised ready to upset the balance of all Egypt.
As he lay beaten in his own courtyard, many spectators could see him bloodied and bruised, proving that the Pharaoh was no god. He ordered his guards to subdue me, but they no longer pledged their faith to him. Then, he said to me "You raccoons are all inferior! I should have wiped all of you out long ago!" My last reply to him was "I am no mere raccoon. I am Slytunkhamen. King of Thieves. And you are no more than a criminal." But I was no killer. I left the corrupt bird to wallow in his shame. This Pharaoh would fade into obscurity.
After loading a train of camels with the Pharaoh's treasures, I returned home to my beloved Tey, ready to spend the rest of our lives in endless riches. But the greatest treasure I received that day was her announcement that she was pregnant.
In fifty years of life, I had gone from living as an urchin in the desert, to controlling the criminal underworld, to becoming a husband and father living in peace. I had led a grander life than any pharoah. My son was eager and impressionable in his childhood. He always wanted to learn the powers of stealth in order to become a master thief, and I was obliged to teach him. I had this lasting vision in my mind of a lineage of honorable thieves, stealing from bloated kings and changing the world for the better.
Now seventy, I am only content in living leisurely with my family. My son talks of building a massive vault in which to store the treasures he and I had accumulated throughout our lives. I see no reason for a good thief to sit on his wealth without using it to better himself. But soon, I will have no say in the matter, my thieving days behind me. The boy has grown to be a powerful thief indeed, though not as in tune with the shadows as I am. And with a child of his own due to be born, I am confident he will carry on a true legacy of master thieves.