Nehekhara

Nehekhara and its cities, prior to the destruction of the latter in the End Times.

Nehekhara was the ancient land of the Tomb Kings, analogous to real life Egypt. It was a cradle of human civilization and prosperous enough to rival High Elves' culture. Thanks to one dick boner, Nehekhara became a bone-filled dry hellhole with majestic cities, then it later lost even those.

History

Unlike Egypt, it encompasses most of Warhammer Fantasy Africa as a giant desert where a whole topographical layer of skeletons sit beneath the sand (many of whom have a predilection to get up and get grumpy when disturbed). Originally a lush land that was rich in gold that developed civilization back when the rest of the humans in the world (other than possible Cathay) were tribal savages being kept as slaves by High Elf colonists or used as target practice by Dwarfs, Nehekhara was a paradise. It was ruled over by supreme rulers leading individual kingdoms which fought against each other constantly. Although there were fair differences between kingdom to kingdom, generally speaking the High Priests and the Kings (and rarely Queens) had supreme power over all. The pantheon of the Nehekharans was numerous and diverse, although death was a central theme in each important deity. Priests had their own magic Lore as a derivative of the Lore of Death due to the Winds of Magic tied to Death being the only one to blow through the land, making Nehekharans the first humans to not only discover but also master a form of magic independent of Daemon assistance.

Eventually, all of Nehekhara was unified under Settra the Imperishable, although with his death the kingdoms once again became independent. With the rise of Nagash the magic of the land became unstable, and in two wars all the kingdoms of the land united to wage war on the Undead threat. With the kingdom of Lahmia falling to Vampirism, the kingdom of Khemri (birthplace of both Settra and Khalida) lead the charge. In his (second) death throes Nagash cast a spell which killed all plant, animal, and human life in the land. The spell resurrected everything that had died as an Undead servant. With Nagash's death from Alcadizzar, who stabbed sleepy necromancer with a blade made of Warpstone, the spell was somewhat broken: the Nehekharans were still "alive" but no more slaves to Nagash's will.

Most Undead were devoid of much intelligence, only retaining enough to perform tasks with a degree of skill unseen in the skeletal servants raised by common Necromancy. But the nobility of the land, well-preserved in their elaborate tombs and burials, awoke with their personalities intact and their souls forever bound to the land that gave them birth and held their corpse in death.

Each former ruler sought to retake their throne, only to find a hundred generations of rulers prior and a hundred after also claimed the throne. The land became a giant battle of skeleton against skeleton, a whirling skull-tossing fight that would have made Khorne jizz himself watching had he known of it, until the former High Priests throughout the ages gathered and conducted a ritual to awaken the most powerful of the Tomb Kings who had not yet arisen. The greatest of them, Settra the Imperishable, immediately slapped the shit of EVERY other Tomb King and demanded them swear fealty to him. Those that did had their thrones and kingdoms divided between the families who all had a claim to them. Some, like Queen Khalida, were not particularly interested in rulership beyond what they saw as fair and became allies of Settra rather than servants. Others saw fit to rebel, and most were given fates worse than death (trapping their spirit in just their skull to be used as catapult ammunition is a popular one).

Modern Warhammer Fantasy History

More Tomb Kings continue to awaken, and each gets their shit slapped by Settra. Often, other races seek incursions into the land. Dwarfs invade seeking gold (which to them is not plunder, as non-Dwarfs are shit in their eyes and the dead have no claim to possessions...unless they're honored Dwarven dead anyway; good old Dwarven hypocris... honor). The Empire mounts expeditions for gold, or to seek alliances with the intelligent Undead (despite the heresy of it).

High Elves seek to establish Waystones in the land, sometimes with the aid and permission of the Tomb Kings and others against the will of the Undead. Bretonnians and Warriors of Chaos invade looking for challenges and loot, although this has never once turned out well for the invaders...

End Times

Despite being one of GW's more original ideas, the End Times was hard for Nehekhara. Nagash and Arkhan conquer Mahrak and Quatar by zerg-rushing them with all the skeletons from Nagashizzar, and Nagash using magic to entice a few of the remaining the Tomb Kings to turn traitor. After defeating Settra, Nagash used magic and sandstorms to pulverize Khemri, utterly destroying it. The rest of Nehekhara's cities only get a single sentence mentioning that Nagash and his armies destroyed them too. A bad end for an ancient (in-game) and relatively interesting setting.

The final nail in the fucking sarcophagus came in Age of Sigmar, with the Tomb Kings having been revealed to have been squatted.