Ankhtepot
Ankhtepot, the Darklord of Har’Akir, is a withered, deathless tyrant—a high priest who betrayed the divine order and now exists as both ruler and relic of a forgotten age. Bound within a gilded sarcophagus deep within the tomb-palace of Pharaoh’s Rest, Ankhtepot is no longer a man, nor a god—only a monument to hubris, sustained by a curse older than the desert itself.
Har’Akir is a vast desert of crumbling pyramids, sand-choked cities, and forgotten gods. Beneath its surface lie countless tombs, most undisturbed, some cursed, all watched by the dead.
- Pharaoh’s Rest is Ankhtepot’s eternal seat—part tomb, part palace, and entirely sacred. His priests serve him with ritual precision, offering false prayers in echoing chambers.
- Priests and Mummies: Those who died with Ankhtepot still serve him—intelligent undead bound to his will, acting as emissaries and enforcers in the land of the living.
- The People: The mortals of Har’Akir revere their ancient gods, unknowing or willfully blind to the fact that the one they call Pharaoh Eternal is no god, only a curse in a crown.
- Borders: When Ankhtepot closes Har’Akir’s borders, divine sandstorms howl across the horizon, swallowing roads and devouring travelers in blinding, burning winds.
Ankhtepot's torment is elegant in its simplicity: he cannot die.
He sought immortality as a god; he was given undeath as a mockery. He longs for his ka, believing its return will allow him to ascend—or finally to rest. But the truth is crueler: no apotheosis awaits him. His divine failure is absolute, and every act of worship, every moment of control, only strengthens the jail cell made of silence and time.
Ankhtepot is an undying priest-king cursed with godless eternity, ruling over a lifeless land in search of the soul he will never find.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Ankhtepot is a mummified husk, adorned in faded gold and priestly regalia, his skin stretched like parchment over brittle bones. His eyes glow with the light of a sun that no longer shines, and his voice, when heard, booms with hollow majesty. Though immobile for most of the year, he awakens for rituals—not out of devotion, but to maintain control.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Once the high priest to three generations of sacred kings in the Land of Reeds and Lotuses, Ankhtepot craved power not as a servant of the gods, but as their peer. When the time came to sanctify a pharaoh's divine right, Ankhtepot usurped it, murdering his sovereign in a blasphemous ritual intended to elevate himself to godhood. But the gods he sought to bind rejected him. As punishment, he was buried alive in his corpse, trapped in paralyzed torment as his fellow conspirators died and decayed around him.
Only when his name was forgotten by the land he defiled did the Dark Powers whisper their terrible question: “Do you still believe you are worthy to rule?” Thus was he drawn into Har’Akir, a bleak reflection of his ancient homeland, where his curse deepened.
Social
Mannerisms
- Cold and Detached: Ankhtepot regards the living not with hatred, but indifference. He does not mourn their suffering or celebrate their loyalty; he simply uses them.
- Obsessed with Order: A tyrant shaped by divine betrayal, he clings to strict hierarchies and ritual. To him, society must be preserved at any cost—its stability a mirror of his own immobile eternity.
- Haunted by the Ka: He believes his soul fragment (ka) was lost during his failed ascension. All efforts, from rebuilding temples to summoning spirits, are veiled attempts to reclaim his divine spark and, perhaps, finally earn death.
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