Note: If you would like to read ahead, the next three chapters after this chapter are available on P^A^T^R^E^O^N / Boombox117
Tjenu / Thinis – Three years after the Death of KANG… (3232 B.C.)
Nur was deep in his meditations when he heard his vizier call on him.
"Your Eminence."
Nur opened his eyes and the sight of the upper portion of the chamber hall greeted him. Nur moved his head down and cast his gaze down to the men who stood by the entrance.
His vizier was flanked by two of the royal guards and as his gaze fell upon them, they bowed their heads deeply. Nur exhaled silently and began to reduce his mass and his size, slowly shrinking from the twelve metre tall figure he'd assumed in his meditation.
Nur unfurled his legs from beneath him as he leaned on his still abnormally large legs and placed them beneath, his arms hastening their reduction to size back to his base dimensions.
It was a neat trick he figured out recently, to change the weight and size of different appendages of his body. He was sure though that it was but the beginning with what he could do, with his mutant abilities.
And yes…he was quite sure that this body size and strength manipulation was far from the only ability he possessed. He knew that Apocalypse might have gained other abilities elsewhere during his very long life – this was the Marvel universe after all, where abilities could be picked up as easily as a cent off of the Parisian streets – but he knew that he had within him other abilities that he could control.
He'd levitated in the air after he'd been run through with several dozen spearheads and had lit up like a Christmas tree as well, both abilities that were sure to be within him. Frustratingly though…he had not managed to call upon them over the past three years despite all his attempts.
Hence the whole 'search within thyself' meditation he was now doing.
He'd tried everything else, even having run himself through with two dozen spears just to try and trigger the abilities. Unfortunately, it did not work and it also served to traumatise – whilst also causing them to venerate him even further as a son of the Gods – a number of his officials…including a rather irate wife who had elected to take a passive aggressive compliance stance with him for the attempt.
And so, here he was, meditating.
Irritatingly, it does actually work.
He was getting familiar with this shapeshifting ability of his – along with understanding that his ability was more than just mass manipulation – and was now able to enhance himself to the point where spears could no longer pierce his skin.
He could increase his size to fifteen metres – before he could only increase his muscle mass – and everyday he was slowly raising the bar to what he could achieve.
And he would need to achieve much in order to be able to combat the dangers of this universe, where gods and entities of immense power existed. Compared to them…he was no better than an amoeba.
Nur clenched his fists slowly before he turned towards the royal attire that had been laid out for him. He could only enhance his body, and so he was always naked during these meditations.
A drawback but it was a drawback only until he could figure out how to synthesize the right materials from one the mostly intact devices he suspected could do it within the Sphinx that Kang had used to place all of the technology he could recover from his crashlanding when he first arrived in this era.
Although…when he'd managed to figure it was something he could not quite determine. The interface of the technology was somewhat strange and the inputs even stranger – it seems as if he needed to specifically use code language to get anywhere which was…of course not ideal.
Nur was smart, smarter than smart even. He noticed it when he managed to figure out things a lot faster than he ought to given that much of the technology was centuries if not more advanced than technology had been in Nur's first life, but there were still many things that were out of his grasp, one of them being breaking the some of the security that Kang had tied into some of the technologies.
Thankfully, there were troubleshooting guidebooks he discovered a few months ago within the main computer system located in the lab-like main room, guidebooks that were geared to other technologies that Nur didn't see – he suspected they might have been destroyed in the crash – and that bore the same kind of code language that he'd need to get the damn synthesising device to work…and perhaps he'd also figure out how to break the security on the other technologies.
He was getting there, in terms of grasping the coding language in full, faster than he ought given that he barely spent any time in the sphinx, but he would be able to set the right parameters and requirements in the synthesiser in the coming years.
The only concern was that he'd draw out too much energy from the reactor – which was beyond Nur at present – to synthesise matter from energy as the power levels were about forty percent. He'd have to decide later if it was worth creating the materials just to save his modesty.
"Speak, Vizier Imephor." Nur told the man as he turned back around to face the Vizier. The man humbly rose his head and looked upon Nur with a look of reverence.
A look of true belief.
And it was a look shared by all of Egypt when word of his defeat of Kang…Rama Tut, had managed to travel to all villages and towns on the Nile River…and beyond.
Siamun'Nur…the Son of the Gods, they called him, brought to Egypt to save it from the blasphemer and to guide the people of Egypt in accordance to the Gods' will.
"The Queen's water has broken moments ago, my Pharaoh." Imephor said with a joyous look on his face. The coming of a child of his and Ha'Nepthi's union had long been awaited in a society that considered the Pharaoh a living God, even more so now that he was Pharaoh with the powers of a god…in their eyes.
Nur nodded to the Vizier and walked passed the man and made his way towards Ha'Nepthi's royal chambers, his mind drifting off as he contemplated the situation.
It would take up to a day, or two, before Ha'Nepthi would give birth to either his son or his daughter. His child. His child…
In his first life, he never had the chance to become a father nor did he wish to be one either. He'd been too jaded with all that he'd seen and the relationships he did have, he'd been far too distant with the women in his life for it to have ever come up.
And now, he'd have a child that he may well outlive should their mutation, should it ever manifest, be markedly different to that of his own.
Nur paid little heed to the kneeling servants and guards as he walked past through the halls of the palace, his gaze fixated on the blue colourings of the walls as he walked towards his wife's chambers.
If he was telling the truth, it was his care for Ha'Nepthi and the pressure this society had on her that he decided to stop preventing himself from getting her with child.
Ha'Nepthi had been virginal, as expected of an unmarried Princess in a primitive patriarchal society, despite being in her twenties, and so it had not been difficult to pleasure her and provide her with sexual satisfaction without ever climaxing in her.
That wasn't to say that she did not understand what he was doing.
No, this society might be primitive but they did know the importance sperm had in begetting women with children. It was partially why the pressure was always with the woman, to fall pregnant, for in the minds of the people, barrenness can only come from the woman rather than the man, a curse handed down by the Gods to punish the woman for one or another slight against the Gods.
She'd asked him about it and he'd evaded the questioning and told her that the Gods would provide when it was time, words she'd taken to heart given how pious she was, but over the years he could see the impact the lack of child was having on her.
The number of times he'd seen the high Priest of Mut, the Goddess Mut meaning mother and the embodiment of the ideal Egyptian woman, praying for Ha'Nepthi to get with child…
The last straw had been when the Priest offered Ha'Nepthi potions of ground up animal genitals and description of a ritual to promote fertility.
In the end, he'd relented with himself and got her with child, knowing that this eventuality was all but certain when he decided to take Ha'Nepthi to wife rather than rule alone as he could have done with ease.
The guards by her royal chambers kneeled before Nur as he walked past them and he found Ha'Nepthi groaning softly as she lay on the bed. She was being attended to by a small army of servants, some fanning her with broad wide fans, some dabbing her body with wet cloths whilst others were preparing the birthing chair and the last few women were carrying out religious rituals with totems and amulets associated with the Gods, one of them being the Goddess Mut.
Nur grimaced as he looked upon the extravagantly built chair. The idea of the chair was brought back from Mesopotamia a century or so ago and it was used by only the wealthiest of families who could afford to pay for the wood of the chair.
The women would sit on a birth chair and the midwifes would position themselves in front of the woman to help the delivery and catch the baby.
It was…not ideal but unfortunately, he knew too little about child delivery and even if he did know how to fashion things like forceps out of scrap metal from the materials in the Sphinx, it would not matter safe delivery could be done if the mother and the child were to die because there was no way to make the equipment sterile.
He might know a little how to make beer and wine but the method of producing pure alcohol was far from something he could produce at present given all of the material and equipment he'd need to prepare.
The knowledge within Kang's Sphinx monument that Nur presumed the man had recovered along with the rest of the technology there, knowledge within computer systems that Nur could approximate to be the equivalent of the troubleshooting and how-to guidebooks, was useful, yes, but it was not as if it was an encyclopaedia.
The most useful information that Kang had stored there was related to his impersonation of a Pharaoh, where he had some geographical data of the African continent where the man could mine for resources should he need it.
Had the timeship – which also had nothing of immediate value in the computer systems – within the Sphinx not been intact like it was, Kang likely would have sent the Egyptians deep into the interior of Africa to mine for the rare earth metals and minerals.
Nur shook away those thoughts and refocused on the birthing chair. No, at present all he could do is wait and hope for the best, as much as he hated doing so.
Nur walked towards the side of Ha'Nepthi's bed and their eyes latched onto one another's. Ha'Nepthi smiled slightly despite the discomfort she was feeling and Nur returned a faint smile.
Their marriage was not one of love but it was one of care for one another.
At least that was what he hoped it was for both of them. His current looks, muscular but lean with his hair intact probably helped at least. In any case, Ha'Nepthi was a dutiful woman and she has been important in cementing Nur's status as a living God on Earth in the eyes of the people.
As queen, she played an important role in religious processions and celebrations, whilst also helping him setting the Kingdom back to rights after Kang's heavy handedness and his dereliction of governance of most of the realm outside of the immediate region of Tjenu.
She also taught him Egyptian statecraft the way she knew it, allowing him to assimilate Egyptian culture with ease as the months and years passed by.
"Wife." Nur said with a hint of affection in his voice before he glanced at her overly large belly that looked ready to burst open.
"Husband." Ha'Nepthi said with a smile as she reached out to him with her dainty hand and Nur took it, her small hand less than a third his size as he held it gently.
"How are you feeling?" Nur asked as he glanced at her belly.
"Ready." Ha'Nepthi said with conviction in her voice and Nur looked back at her and saw the conviction in her eyes mixing with traces of joy. Nur was about to say something but Ha'Nepthi grimaced with some pain seeping into her face.
Ha'Nepthi's hand went to her belly and she huffed out a little strained before she looked to Nur once more. Nur must have looked concerned as she gave a reassuring smile. "I must admit, it is more painful than I thought it would be" there was a note of displeasure mixed with some exasperation in her voice.
Nur saw from the corner that some of the midwifes, the older ones, look somewhat amused by Ha'Nepthi's words, an amusement that came from knowing experience.
Nur wasn't quite sure what to say and simply nodded slightly with a faint smile on his face. In the presence of the servants and the guards he could not speak or jest freely, the mask of divine royalty was always on in the presence of others.
Instead, Nur began to speak of the royal festival they would throw in honour of the birth of their child, a topic that Ha'Nepthi eagerly latched upon and it was some time later his Vizier returned.
"Your Eminence, the meeting with the esteemed High Priest of Ra at the temple is upon us." His Vizier said humbly with a bowed head.
"Go, my husband. The Gods cannot be made to wait any longer, even by their son." Ha'Nepthi said with gentle urgency in her voice as she squeezed his hand.
Nur stood upon and relinquished her hand, and, after one last look, he left and made his way towards the temple dedicated to Ra. As Pharaoh, his duties were irritatingly quite intense and he sparingly had much time to himself.
From religious duties to administrative duties – the powers of a Pharaoh was absolute and all the land within the Kingdom belonged to him which he could apportion to the nobility and the clergy – to military affairs, he was occupied during nearly all of the waking hours, with only an hour or two free for him to explore his abilities or the sphinx.
He could do away with much of it, like Kang had, but he knew that this was a highly religious and highly dutiful society where the Pharaoh was held to the same standards as the Gods, standards that these people understood in the form representing an aspect of existence, like the sun, or motherhood like Mut, and for Nur, as Pharaoh of the people of Egypt, he represented the divine intermediary between the Gods and the people of Egypt.
It was why Kang was despised as much as he was by nearly everyone, the man who did away with the traditions and the religious matters that defined the entire existence of these people.
To these people, Kang was a blasphemer who spat on the Gods and the ways of Egypt, and it was only through force and fear that Kang maintained his power over these people.
Nur could do the same, with much greater effect and compliance, but he'd long decided that he would be a Pharaoh of Egypt, for Egypt. And that meant assimilating to their way of life, to their Gods and to their culture and traditions.
Of course, that didn't mean that he wouldn't change things. Far from it.
He would uplift them, the use of hieroglyphs was already centuries old and he could use the characters and their meanings to develop a pure alphabet that in time would be able to form into robust writing system that one day even the peasants could use.
He would further the sciences – Logos' loss was a shame given the platform he created with Kang's patronage – which these people had a want for given their natural curiosity and the stories and rituals they crafted to bend nature and the world to their desires.
Medicine, sanitation, farming – which was done with wooden ploughs made of either acacia or tamarisk, and required the vast majority of the Egyptian peoples to work the fields – and irrigation – vases were used to transport water to crops and fields – and so much more.
As Nur walked out of the palace and made his way towards the temple, he gazed upon the city before him, a city that was brimming with life with its craftsmen and markets as evening settled in and dinner was being had after another long day of labour.
Nur looked upon the east, on the other side of the river, where much of the construction was taking place. He set task for the labourers and the indentured workers to dissemble two of the pyramids – the third one would be for Ha'Nepthi – and worked with his architects to plan the expansion of the city.
Using the stones of two of the finished pyramids – Nur could only think that the man wanted to replicate the Pyramids of Giza which was something that seemed to be within character of the megalomaniac – Nur commissioned the construction of stone homes and temples on the other side of the Nile River beyond the floodlands, stone homes built with rooms and configurations of modern times that would house the people of this city and temples for each major God of the Egyptian Pantheon.
Later, when the work was completed, the next stage would be to demolish the mudbrick buildings this side of the river and do the same.
When news of his tale and ascent to Pharaohdom had been heard by the people of Egypt, there had been a steady influx of people to Tjenu, often times traversing the crocodile infested Nile on flimsy boats or the ravaging desert simply to see him and prostrate before him.
It was unsettling, at times, to see the intense devotion in the eyes of these people, to see how much he mattered to them, the visible sign of their gods, and his appearance only seemed to increase their sense of awe and their assuredness of his divinity.
Nur looked away and turned his gaze to the desert that always seemed to be encroaching. He had to order these people to return home to their lord's lands when the city became overcrowded with these people who wished to live in close proximity of the Son of the Gods, an order that he regretted making despite its necessity.
These people…
It was strange for Nur.
To feel such a close connection to these people and perhaps part of why he felt so much responsibility to these people was because he was deceiving them, even if he was deceiving them no more than the Pharaohs before him deceived the people with their talk being divinity.
And perhaps there was a part of him that also admired these people, as they were and what they would have become even without his presence, along with their perception of the world and nature. Hmm…yes…and it wasn't a small part either.
When he'd joined the French Foreign Legion, he did more than just cast aside his name and his heritage. He lost his future, a future that had envisioned the search of the truth of the past, a future that he'd not even he'd admitted he'd wanted.
Yet Nur also knew that it was a future that likely would not have happened, knowing that he'd have succumbed to the pressures of finding a high paying job for the sake of his family. Which was ironic because the road he'd been on, where at the end of the road saw him look upon humanity with dispassion with only flickers of light in the form of his family, had led him here, now, in the far past, living the very life Nur had wanted to spend his life investigating…discovering.
He was walking atop the rivers of history, amongst people who once upon a time, amongst many other peoples, had inspired such interest and imagination within him.
And, as he got to know the ways of these people, how they perceive the natural world, which was of a very different perspective than any in his time, one that made them deeply attuned to these lands spiritually, he realised the gift that he was given.
And, despite seeing these people and their religion through the lens of foreknowledge, of knowledge, Nur intimately understood why they believed what they believed, regardless if the Egyptian Gods existed or not.
A land protected by deserts to the west, east and the south, protecting the people from most enemies and raiders, and Nur deeply understood the influence of the River Nile, and all that it did for the people, had on the psyche of these people.
It was a gift given by the Gods, this life bearing and giving river that replenished the soil every year like clockwork. River oasis that never ended and never dried up, amidst oceans of desert and scorching heat.
As Nur arrived at the footsteps of the temple, no longer escorted by his guards for the temple was only to be walked in upon by the Pharoah and the priests that served the God or Gods, he mused on the thought that as much as he wanted to change some of the superstitions and the dangerous practices, like the use of animal faeces in rituals and health, he would have to do it carefully…and slowly.
Nur would uplift them, yes, that was never in question, but he would do it in a way that was organic and in line with the holistic nature of these people.
After all, Nur mused to himself, he had all the time in the world to make Egypt a land that would endure into the modern times and a power that could protect this world from the universe at large…and from itself.
The long awaited meeting with the High Priest of Ra went on for several hours as the man spoke of the need for temples in honour of Ra needing to be built in Lower Egypt – who venerated Atum above most other gods of the Ennead though Amun was making a resurgence now that the tale of his ascent to Pharoah was known to the people – and Nur played his part as dutiful Pharaoh as he listened to the man.
By the end of the meeting, the High Priest extracted a promise from Nur that he'd see to it that he'd have four temples built in Lower Egypt when he toured the other half of the Kingdom, something that he'd have to do, he suspected, sooner rather than later given the skirmishes that were happening with the desert tribes.
Day turned into night and during the stroke of midnight, Ha'Nepthi went into the latter stages of labour, her screams of labour echoing through the palace as he paced silently in his royal chambers adjacent to hers.
The birthing room was not a place for men, and not even for a Pharaoh, and so he was consigned to listen to Ha'Nepthi with his keen hearing.
And so, when he no longer heard Ha'Nepthi cry out, he came to a still, his sense of hearing sharpened ever more as his breath stilled in his throat, until, until he heard a sound that shocked him greatly, a sound that sounded as sweet as anything he'd ever tasted before, the cries of an infant…his infant.
He wasn't sure how long he stood there, it could have been minutes, it could even be far longer, all sense of time lost to him as he listened to the sound of his wailing child and before Nur knew it, he was out of his royal chambers and into hers, walking past the army of women towards her bed.
"Your Eminence." The old crone of a midwife croaked out in surprise and reverence as she held the wailing babe in her arms and Nur walked up to her.
"The child…" Nur said with intensity as he stared at the red and wet face of the babe.
"Your daughter, Your Greatness." The old crone said with a toothless smile as she angled the babe to Nur. and Nur raised his arms to receive her.
"Give her to me." Nur said, his eyes focused on his daughter.
If the old crone was surprised or against this breach of tradition, where the child was meant to be cleansed with a ritual, Nur cared not for it, not when he felt such a strong calling to his first ever child.
He gingerly accepted the wailing infant from the crone and Nur carefully balanced his daughter in the crook of his arms, his white eyes staring deeply into face of his wailing daughter. She shared the same kind of complexion as her mother, though several shades lighter that he expected would darken with time, the same nose and the same black hair though they were but tufts at present, every bit her mother's child…except for one thing.
His daughter's eyes were the same as his…white irises with pupils that were only a shade darker than the whiteness of the irises.
He began to rock her slightly into his arms, something he only noticed he was doing several moments later, and her crying began to subside a little, causing Nur to smile a little at his child, a smile that grew a little more when he felt her gaze on him.
"Husband…" Ha'Nepthi's voice broke him out of his trance and he turned towards his wife, ignoring the gazes and presence of the others in the room and he saw the look of want on her face and Nur obliged and walked towards her.
"Our daughter." Nur said as he gingerly placed their daughter in her arms and gestured to the fan-bearers to stop their motion for the time being.
"She has your eyes." Ha'Nepthi commented as she marvelled at their child.
"She has your everything else, wife." Nur said with humour in his voice and Ha'Nepthi smiled a little to herself before she nodded.
"She does. She will be beautiful." Ha'Nepthi declared and Nur wisely kept any comments to himself about the vanity of such a statement.
"What will you call her?" Ha'Nepthi's soft question almost startled Nur and Nur frowned in contemplation. Truthfully…he had not quite considered it. When Ha'Nepthi got with child, the thought of a name seemed so distant despite the fact he was more often than not thinking in terms of decades and centuries and millennia.
Nur leaned down and reached out to his daughter.
"Nefer-Tentamun" Nur said after a few moments as he stroked the cheek of his daughter with his finger. 'Beautiful one of Amun' is what the name meant.
He considered naming her Zara, after his sister, but it was a childish thought. His daughter was of Egypt and so, she'd have a name of the land and people. Her people.
"It is a good name." Ha'Nepthi said with approval in her voice "Amun would surely watch over our daughter." Ha'Nepthi said with a hint of exhaustion in her voice and Nur looked upon the servants and the servants understood what his look meant as he stepped away from the bed with some reluctance.
Ha'Nepthi likewise was reluctant in relinquishing their daughter from her hands but eventually she did so too and Nur gestured the guards to go with the midwifes where they would stand watch as they cleaned his daughter and performed the rites of birth with the High Priest of Mut.
Ha'Nepthi in the meantime would be 'cleansed' as well, to remove negative 'pollutants' of giving birth, with spells and rituals and amulets, before she was handed back their daughter for her to feed and take care of.
Even though Ha'Nepthi was royalty, a queen, responsibilities of feeding and watching children was not given away to servants and nannies. Again, it was another example of leading the creed and life as set out by the Gods, creed and life that even the queen was bound by.
Nur took Ha'Nepthi's hand squeezed it gently before he left Ha'Nepthi to recover, and went towards the royal quarters where his daughter would be, unwilling as he was to be part of his first child.
-Break-
In the deserts west of Men-Nefer (Memphis)
Four years later… (3228 B.C.)
The scorching heat of the sun pressed down upon parched earth, the air shimmering in a playful dance that sought to play on the mind, waiting and waiting to ensnare the mind.
Summers…
Summers in this climate were brutal and in the deserts even more so. He remembered all too well, still, from his Sandstormers days of how perilous the desert could be.
Baal's tribe every year ventured deep within the deserts during the height of summer, away from any known oasis, to weed out the weak amongst them. Weakness was more than physical weakness, to the Sandstormers. All forms of weakness, weakness of the mind and the body were as equally abhorred amongst the Sandstormers.
He remembered when one of the strongest in the tribe had passed out because of dehydration and physical exhaustion, unable to meet the pace that younger and older and weaker were able to do. A man that once had been honoured as the strongest man in the tribe, had been simply left behind to be buried amongst the sands.
Nur broke out of his thoughts and gazed upon the men behind him, men who were sweating and struggling under the scorching conditions. He turned back to the front, his gaze set upon the distant crop of rock in a sea of sand.
The march had been hard and fast as Nur led his army in the heart of the desert and it needed to be, lest they lose the raiders they finally found into the depths of desert.
Ever since the death of Sekhen, the fear the desert-dwelling tribes had of Egypt had lessened. Kang might have been Pharaoh, but it had been Sekhen who inspired fear of reprisals in the hearts of the raiders.
Fear the tribes no longer felt as news of his death and the death of Kang became known across all of Egypt. It was part of the reason he had come to Men-Nefer, the would-be capital of numerous dynasties, to deal with the raids that had increased dramatically over the past two years.
Nur arrived with an army of two thousand at his back, assuaging the fears of the people who lived in this growing town and that of the people of the Nile Delta, whilst also going on a kind of tour, showing himself before them, the 'god' they had only heard stories of by the priests and the officials.
To say that the public relations tour had been successful would be understating it.
His grey skin and his strange look that could only be that of the Gods – Gods that bore heads of cats and jackals and crocodiles – sold the image of a living god more than anything.
Fortunately, he looked human to them lest he look too fearing. His control over his self-matter manipulation had grown enough that he had adjusted his face over time into a more human-like appearance, no more so alien to the eyes of the people.
In any case, as to why he was here in deserts during the height of summer?
Finally, after failure after failure of tracking the raiders, scouts finally managed to locate the area where the raiders were attacking from. An outcrop of sandstone rocks that hid a small oasis that a tribe of three hundred and fifty or so camped by.
It was several hours later that they arrived at the periphery of the oasis, hidden as they were by the lone sandstone rock on this parched land.
Hmm…
Nur wondered if once upon a time there was another lake like the Piom, the body of fresh water that later might have been known as the salty Lake Qarun, but instead dried up rather than replenished and still connected to the Nile river.
"Your Eminence, shall we attack?" Nur's general asked and Nur turned to face the man. Nur could see the bloodlust in the man's eyes, the want to kill all members of this tribe.
Not out of retribution, no, more out of desires that had been instilled in Sekhen's army. Desires that saw them butcher entire peoples and villages for merest slights, disobedience, or, in some instances, sheer avarice.
Nur had weeded out the more…unreasonably and unhinged violent members of the army and guardsmen – the killing of the slaves and the commoners had been justification enough – and spared the smarter and more restrained amongst them.
And, as much as the his general was bloodthirsty, it was to be expected. Unfortunately for the general however, he had different plans for these raiders.
"Follow me but do not attack. They will surrender before me." Nur told the general and turned to look to the men behind him.
"Ma'at has spoken to me. Justice shall be given." Nur said and the words hit the men deeply and their looks of reverence grew as they believed his words without doubt. Ma'at was the goddess of truth, justice, balance and order.
After the death of the body, everyone passed through the Halls of Judgement once their underworld journey came to an end. Their hearts would then be weighed against Ma'at's feather of truth.
They walked towards the oasis and as the raiders came to see them, Nur cast down the leopard skin on his shoulders and the lion tail on his belt, and then, he grew.
One step went forward and his feet grew. Another step forward and his other foot was larger than the other, again and again this went on as his body grew, all until he was twenty metres tall, tall enough to block out the sun for all those who were beneath him, Nur's half pleated kilt swaying with every step.
The panic amongst the raiders was evident and the tribe made to run but then they stopped as still as a corpse when Nur spoke.
"I AM SIAMUN'NUR, SON OF THE GODS. THERE CAN BE NO PLACE YOU CAN RUN FROM MY JUDGEMENT" Nur's voice was booming, violent as his voice travelled to every corner in the horizon.
It took some time for them to move again as Nur continued to walk towards them, and it seemed as if they had come to a decision as the old and the young remained by the oasis and the men came towards him.
Nur came to a stop some hundred metres away from them, his gaze set upon them as they approached him, and, as they neared, Nur could see their expressions.
Expression of awe, of fear, and of reverence.
Finally, after they were about fifty metres away from him, they came to a stop and threw aside their weapons. They got on their knees and began to prostrate before Nur, and he heard, with his keen hearing, mutterings of 'It's true', 'The gods walk amongst us again' and Nur began to walk once more.
The ground shook as Nur walked, shaking as if the megafauna of yesteryears still walked amongst men, his feet leaving behind indentations in the land that were as long as men themselves.
Nur came to a stop and looked down to gaze upon the men who prostrated before Nur, men who wore rags for armour kissed the desert ground with their heads.
Their spears and the few swords, stolen as they may be, were cast aside beside them, their surrender total.
They were somewhat alike to the Sandstormers, though, it was only superficial truly, for the Sandstormers were more like a scourge upon the people of these lands, responsible for the decimation of countless tribes that once called the deserts home.
No, these men were more alike to the Medjay, a nomadic desert tribe from Nubia, where they roamed the deserts and mountains of the West as they travelled from oasis to oasis.
And, at times, throughout history, they raided the towns and villages of the Kingdom, especially during the days of when the land had been of Two.
One of the men, of brown skinned and a hardy face, looked up twenty metres to meet Nur's eyes that was almost as large as the man's head.
"Holy Siamun'Nur, the great Pharaoh of Egypt, forgive us for our transgression. We did not know the tales of the Gods walking amongst us were true." The man said with fear and awe in his voice, and Nur thought it sounded strange to come from such a man who looked like he'd never spoken with fear in his voice.
"Lies!" Piankhi, a general of Nur's army, voiced out angrily as the man came to stand by Nur's foot, his spear at the ready to impale the desert tribesman.
"From Tjenu to Men-Nefer, the tales of the son of Amun have been told and known to be true! You knew it to be true yet you still raided our villages!"
The prostrating man looked disdainfully at Piankhi "We believed them to be no more true than the tales of Rama-Tut, the blasphemer. Who could have believed another such tale of Godhood without seeing it true with one's own eyes?"
Nur raised his massive hand and it silenced all.
Nur looked down upon the tribesman for a long few moments and the man averted his eyes away from Nur, returning his head back to kissing the ground.
"You see me now, oh sand-dweller." Nur's booming voice seemed to disturb the very environment with the strength and power with which he spoke.
"Yes, yes, I do, Son of the Gods." The tribesman said fearfully as he looked up.
"And what do you believe is just punishment for your transgression against those who were under my protection which is the same protection as that of my father's?"
The tribesman paled at that and seemed to struggle with himself before he answered despondently "Death, Holy Siamun'Nur." This caused some of the men behind the tribal chief to make some despairing noises. Interestingly though, not all were audibly upset by the prospect of death.
Perhaps they truly did believe in the Egyptian religion.
As with any people who were in contact with one another, there was transference of ideas, words, and, in the right conditions, the transference of belief.
Egypt was already an ancient land with an ancient people. Hundreds of small towns, villages really, had existed for thousands of years before the present day. These people lived small and local little lives and their horizons never extended any further than what their eyes could see.
Generations passed and some communities grew larger, stronger, more resourceful, than others and over time, in time, other communities, weaker than others, further than the eye could see had resources and crafts that the stronger communities wanted and so they began to raid, to take.
This was a pattern that repeated all along the Nile.
The stronger grew stronger and the weaker grew weaker as their resources – and people – were deprived and lost, and over time, as ideas of community and rulership changed, communities became districts and districts became chiefdoms until chiefdoms became kingdoms and kingdoms became Kingdom.
These desert tribes, as Nur gazed upon the features of this man, were likely the remnants of communities that were cast out to the desert, having lost their land to other stronger communities but had not lost their religion and beliefs.
Or it could even be that they were an admixture of a number of different tribes, possibly born from the remnants of a branch of people who once called the Green Sahara home, and it had been one of the later additions to the tribe – like the addition of slaves taken in raids on Egyptian towns – that made these people have the Egyptian faith as their own.
Whatever the origins of these people were, Nur had an opportunity here.
"Should you die, you will not be honoured a place in the afterlife. Your souls would be cast into the abyss, fated to forever walk amongst nothingness. Ma'at has spoken of this to me." Nur declared and it broke the men before him as their faith was rekindled in the sight of him.
"What must we do to restore ourselves in the eyes of the Gods, Pharaoh?!" One of the raiders cried out as he got to his knees, no more prostrating as a look of despair came across his face. This cry was echoed by many others of the men.
Humanity had always been the same when consequences came knocking. Some, like the tribal chief were stoic in the face of consequence, whilst others buckled, regretful. How many amongst these people meant that regret, Nur did not know, though, perhaps in this day and age, where religion explained the nature of the world, perhaps it was more genuine than the regret even the truly regretful had felt.
"As you are, you cannot. You are unbalanced. You have struck against those who live in balance as the Gods decree without just cause." Nur told the raiders, his huge white eyes gazing down upon them.
"We had nothing they wanted, we needed to raid!" one cried out and other such similar cries were voiced out.
It did not surprise him, that they used this excuse.
"What has changed in the past years that cause you to raid the faithful, sand-dwellers? Has the desert become too unmerciful? I think not. Have you lost the experience of your forebearers to find food and water? I think not. Or have you decided you no longer needed to fear the Kingdom of Egypt now that Sekhen, the arm of the blasphemer no longer lives?" Nur said calmly though accusation was in his voice.
Shame made several look away, knowing that what he accused them of was true.
"Son of the Gods." The tribal chief called out reverently, his head bowed as he spoke once more "We have no excuse for our crimes. I can only ask for mercy for my men. It is I who led them to raids. It is I who they looked to for answers."
The tribal chief lifted his head and looked upon Nur "Punish me for their crimes and let them live so they may atone for their crimes and earn their passage to the afterlife." The tribal chief finished before he bowed his head once more.
"You would take on their crimes onto your soul, knowing that you will be certain to roam the abyss for all time?" Nur questioned, his voice harsh.
"Yes, Pharaoh." The tribal chief said and the silence that permeated was deafening.
Hmm…
Nur liked this tribesman.
"What is your name, chief of the Western Sand-Dwellers?" Nur asked finally after a few long moments of silence.
"I am called Weh-Pi, Pharaoh." The tribal chief named Weh-Pi said.
"Rise, Weh-Pi, chief of the Western Sand-Dwellers. I have decided my judgement."
The man rose and met Nur's gaze, his face mixed with resignation and fear.
"You cannot take on the sins of others onto your soul. Such is not the way of Egypt nor is it what the Gods will allow." Nur decreed and the look of dismay was prevalent on Weh-Pi's face and the despair was heard from the men.
Nur gave them a hard look, silencing them once more and he spoke as he looked back to Weh-Pi "Your willingness however, to take on their sins, has not gone unnoticed." At this, the chief's interest was peaked as hope bloomed on his face.
"I and the Gods have decided. The judgement shall be that you and your men shall serve me in my army against the Nubians. Even once the war is won, you shall fight for Egypt and you shall only be released in death, for such is your crime that service to Egypt shall be the only way you may balance your soul to reach the afterlife."
This surprised the men and the waves of relief was palpable.
Nur continued, his gaze on the chief "Your women and children shall be spared from punishment however, they too, shall be in service in Egypt for they shall work the fields and feed its people. This is so decreed, and so shall it be." Nur finished.
The tribal chief's expression had been quietly elated when he told the man of his judgement of his and his men and was more relieved at the news of the fate of their young and their wives. The tribal chief spoke up "Thank you, Son of the Gods, for your mercy."
"It is not mercy, Weh-Pi." Nur said to the man, his gaze hard.
"For if you break the terms of your judgement, you shall have a fate worse than the abyss for I shall personally deliver your souls to the underworld and be tormented for all eternity by the jackals of Anubis, where all those disdained by the Gods reside." Nur's voice grew in volume, in intensity, the air vibrated with murderous intent and Nur got what he wanted as he struck fear in their hearts.
It wasn't long after that the other members of the tribe came out from the oasis and joined the march back to Men-Nefer. That evening, as they stopped in their march to rest, Piankhi said, as he stared upon the tribesmen with a heavy look of disdain "They will betray you, Your Eminence"
"Have the Gods blessed you with the Sight, Piankhi?" Nur asked of Piankhi with a calm voice. Piankhi looked away from Nur's gaze.
"The Gods have not, Your Eminence. But I know their kind. They are traitors."
Nur hummed silently as he nodded slightly. "Perhaps. They have lived amongst themselves for a long time. They see themselves as different than the people of Egypt. But they keep the same faith, the true faith. I do not think they will betray us knowing that the Gods will damn them for their treachery." Nur looked at Piankhi.
"The Gods wish for the people who live in their land to live as they decreed, general. Even the wayward tribes. This is what they have asked for and this is how it must be. Have faith." Nur said as he smiled somewhat at Piankhi.
"Always, Your Eminence." Piankhi said with a bowed head before he continued "Forgive me if I seemed to show otherwise." Nur only smiled encouragingly at the man, easing his nerves.
It took eight more days march before they arrived in Men-Nefer, and Nur had the women and children – for there were no elderly who could not work, not amongst hardy tribespeople – assigned to a noble in the Nile Valley in need of labour for whom they would work the land for.
It was the way of things, this system of indentured labour.
Nobles were assigned a tract of land in the Kingdom, who were expected to meet yield and crop type expectations as assigned by the royal government, and the Egyptian labourers would work the land.
The nobles, even if the meaning of noble was stretched for many of these so called nobility were mostly simply families who were in favour by the officials and the Pharaoh, did not work and toil on the fields, despite the imageries they entombed with them, no, that was all the Egyptian common people.
And these people toiled in the fields every day, from dawn to sunset, working hard, so hard that they needed to eat ridiculous amounts of food, even if they only ate twice a day.
Each of these families were granted a parcel of land for them work, and though they could expect the fruits of their labour, the majority of it went to the Lord who then redirected a significant portion of that portion to the officials who would take it the royal granaries, to be kept safe in times of famine.
But it was not the only responsibilities of the common people as Nur gazed upon the sculpture the royal architects created with his direction.
The Egyptians also incorporated a system of corvee, a form of unpaid labour intermittent in nature, lasting for limited periods of time which coincided with the times of when the River Nile flooded and replenished the land.
Nur mused that the system likely had been in place since the early days of human settlement on the Nile River and what was remarkable was that in his world it had likely stayed that way well into the medieval era, perhaps even well into the industrial revolution era, if not still practiced in the 20th century.
"This is excellent, Meketre." Nur said as refocused and he walked around the edges of the incredibly detailed sculpture. Dozens upon dozens of tall buildings and temples neatly fitted on either side of streets, pillars that represented palm trees were situated in every block of neighbourhoods.
Taller than even the buildings, were the walls that squared off the city, the city walls that in future, Nur hoped, would form to be second most inner wall as the city grew. He gazed upon the innermost wall, the wall that would protect the palace, the temples of the most powerful of the Gods, and more.
He knew that on this Earth there were those who would make walls mean absolutely nothing, perhaps even now, they existed, but none the less, enemies could still be normal humans and he'd protect against them nonetheless.
And, Nur knew, it was very early to concern himself with walls given that those who could wage war on such a scale were non-existent in this era.
But he also knew that the Egyptians were incredibly traditional in their ways. For thousands of years, Ancient Egypt had remained as it had been without much fundamental change, not like what the Sumerians had gone through over time.
The Egyptians had no such pressures of calamitous war and defeat, only truly falling under the rule of others because of internal strife, and so they were rarely forced to consider such threats.
Nur wanted that element of their society to change, over time, but for now, to incorporate the importance of walls in their holiest of cities in the minds of the people, was enough.
Nur stepped back and smiled as he took in the details of the features that stood out the most in the sculpture. Men-Nefer, for now, would be all on one side, opposite to the mountains on the other side of the river, and it would boast seven pyramids.
Four that were about fourteen stories high and the other three…
The other three were giants in comparison. They were over thirty stories high.
"And you are certain you can build the three pyramids?" Nur asked as he turned his gaze to the architect. The man had been a favoured engineer under Logos. According to the officials and to Ha'Nepthi, the man was as talented as Logos had been.
"I am certain, Your Eminence." Meketre said humbly though determination shown in his eyes. "I recollect every method Logos used and shown by the blasphemer. The building of the pyramids will succeed, I swear it before the Gods." Meketre vowed.
Nur smiled faintly at Meketre before he glanced at the sculpture.
Whilst Tjenu would remain the capital for now, because of its central location in the Kingdom, Men-Nefer would one day likely become the capital of Egypt due its closer proximity to the Mediterranean.
That day would be distant though, Nur mused to himself, for he would first conquer and secure further upstream the Nile, all the way to Ethiopia, or Kanaan as it would come to be known in the coming centuries, and Egyptianise them, uniting these peoples in both faith and in culture.
Nur returned his attentions back to Meketre "Then you shall have a place amongst the Honoured when your time comes, Meketre, for this shall be worthy of it."
Meketre bowed his head though not before Nur could see the deep satisfaction in Meketre's face.
One of the things Nur had told his people in the last few years was that Nur would not age and would not die of old age.
He was sure that not all understood what he meant for death was as certain as the sun rising and falling but nevertheless, enough understood somewhat what it meant.
It was also why he came up with the idea of the 'Honoured' those who served Nur well in their lifetimes and who would be entombed in pyramids as one of the 'Honoured'.
Nur did not want the pyramids to lose their purpose, the symbol of Ancient Egypt's greatness, nor did he want them to fade away into history and so this was his way to ensure that the legacy of Ancient Egypt would tower through time.
And, Nur thought to himself, he expected that in the coming centuries, other architects will want to surpass the legacy of other architects, increasing the pressure of innovation of construction and design.
For Egypt would come to move like the sands that surrounded it.
Ever changing.