THE THEOCRACY OF RA

 

 

 

 

 

Location               NN36

 

 

Ruler                    His Glory, Narlohotep I, High Priest of Amen-Ra and Pharaoh of The Celestial Barge.

 

Military               Army is rated excellent:        49   (Size    7,           Quality   7)

                              Navy is rated average:             6   (Size    1,  (1),   Quality   4)

 

Major Cities        Heliopolis                  (pop.       35,000)   (capital)

 

Population           500,000 (80% human, 15% dwarvish, 5% other).

 

Resources             Agriculture, minerals, cloth.

 

Major Religions  Egyptian.  Very intolerant of other religions.

 

History &                    Ra is one of the most recent countries on Darkhold.  While the Egyptians

Description          had always existed as a people, they had never possessed enough power to confront the Moslems and Greeks ruling the desert reaches that contained the great pyramids built, the Egyptians believed, by Ra himself.  A cleric of Ra, Narlohotep, was the one who finally organized an army of religious warriors to perform raids on the Greeks in the area south of God's Cup.  In the interest of keeping peace in the region, the Council of God's Cup intervened and granted to Narlohotep the rights to settle the area to the south.  Narlohotep called for all Egyptians to come and colonize and region in the year 340.  Through hard work the area, which was fertile, was turned into a large agricultural producer.  Narlohotep thought that the best interest of the Egyptian people would be served by disallowing any other religions in the area.  

        The great city of Heliopolis was completed in the year 350.  This city houses the principle temples of the major Egyptian dieties in the world of Dark­hold.  The city is built along an east-west axis so that, on the sunrise of a par­ticular day each year, the sun pours through the great gate of Ra and strikes the Road of the God, up to the main temple of Ra in the center of the city.  The city is the cultural center for the nation, and pilgrims come from the far reaches of the world to worship there.  Adventurers, too, come, but to seek the rumored riches hidden within the sacred pyramids in the desert.  Narlohotep does not deem it necessary to guard the pyramids from intruders, for he believes that Ra will send Anubis to deal with any perpetrators of such blasphemy. 

        The country is very much lawful good in outlook.  While there are temples to the evil Egyptian dieties within the country, none lie within the walls of the capital city.  Note, however, that a worshipper of an evil Egyptian diety is far more tolerated than a worshipper of a good diety of any other pantheon.  The intolerance, however, extends only towards the building of temples, the buying of property, and the breaking of religious taboos.  Tourists are tolerated and encouraged to spend extravagantly.