Editing Settra the Imperishable (section)

==The Legend==
===Life===
Of all the kings of Nehekhara, none could match the splendor, cruelty and arrogance of Settra, first King of Khemri (<s>Except Nagash</s> Usurpers don't count, and Settra made Nehekhara a splendid unified kingdom while Nagash fucked it over). Before he became king Settra saw a lot of shit as Nehekhara was a desolate place torn apart by wars between cities. Wanting his subjects to love him, Settra listened to the advice of his priest who stated only a king with the gods on their side could command the respect of their people. So, alone amongst the kings, Settra rebuilt the gods temples, made statues of them, attended sermons, prayed to them nightly all that stuff. On the first anniversary of his coronation, Settra organized a huge ceremony where he prayed for an end to the drought and asked them to bless the kingdom, [[Grimdark|sacrificing his own children to show his dedication to the gods]]. The next day there was a huge rainstorm, the Nile-equivalent river flooded, washing away plague and the farmer's harvest was the best in history (at the time), proof that the gods favored Settra.

Settra had fought alongside his father's legion for many years before ascending to Khemri's throne. As a result, he had the skill of a ruthless warlord, and his keen tactical and strategic sense was matched only by his courage and martial skill. From there he started reunifying Nehekhara under his rule, [[Blam|giving a beatdown]] to anyone who even slightly challenged his authority. He sent envoys and armies across the world, promoting trade or taking plunder, making Nehekhara a rich kingdom in material wealth, intellectual drive and faith, Nehekhara became the pinnacle of human civilization that has rarely been equaled (maybe Cathay) and only surpassed by the Elder races, such as the High Elves, at the height of their power. At some point he got his herald, Nekaph, a man (implied to be of [[Warriors of Chaos|Norsii]] descent) strong enough to crush a person's skull with his fists but smart enough to remember everything important about Settra. Nekaph may have been like a replacement son to him, as Setty gave Nekaph an awesome hand-me-down, his old weapon the Flail of Skulls.

When he was forty (or in the fortieth year of his reign; thank you very much vaguely-worded fluff), he grew vexed with the idea that he would grow mortal and die, as there would be lands left unruled by him. Even worse, death would rob him of all of his achievements in life. He gathered the priesthood and demanded they find a way to stop him dying. While their views on the matter were unknown, the priest agreed searching far and wide across the world. Various methods, including so-called immortality elixirs, rejuvenating treatments and even skin creams, were tried. Those attempts did slow down the king's ageing, but were ultimately unsuccessful at granting him the true immortality he craved. As time went on the Priests discovered a lot and extended their own lives as well. There were limits but they didn't tell Settra that [[Blam|for obvious reasons]].

According to the Nagash novel, at some point in life he could no longer offer his sons to the gods in order to honor their pact (<s>infertility at old age? or he has gone soft?</s>Seriously? This ''is'' Settra the <s>Chad</s> Thad we're talking), so he married a high priestess of Ptra named Hatsushepra instead. Since Hatsushepra was of royalty from Lahmia, Settra's act of marriage had started a tradition where the priest king of Khemri must marry the princess of Lahmia in order to fulfill their pact with their gods. Despite sacrificing many of his sons to the gods, his bloodline continued with his fifth son '''Amenophis''', who was exiled by Settra for the suspicion of murdering Settra's other son Djoser. With some luck and talent, Amenophis's descendant eventually found their way to form a royal family at [[Rasetra]] and continued the bloodline, which eventually lead to [[Alcadizzar|Alcadizzar the Conqueror]], whom killed Nagash at the cost of his life and his kingdom.

After living for several hundred years beyond a human's natural span (even among the long-lived Nehekharans), Settra became frail enough to be said to be on his deathbed. During this time the priests came forth and told Settra that while they could not prevent his death ''right now'', they could find a way for him to return to life later and then reign for eternity (sweetening the deal with the mention of an immortal, immaculate gold body). Pissed off that he was going to die but, for once up against an enemy he couldn't defeat, Settra agreed to their plan. He ordered a HEUG pyramid tomb complex built for himself and his army and gave a last speech to the Khemrians. After that, Settra died with a curse on his lips that would do an [[Angry Marine]] proud.

[[Awesome|A boss to the end.]]

===Death (and all the bullshit that happened when he wasn't around to keep the peace)===
After his death and burial (including the customary ritual suicide of his army to serve him in the afterlife; <s>by the way, Nehekhara must have been full of carefree sex if they can afford to keep the population up despite sacrificing an army every time the reigning king dies</s> remember "there are as many breed fodder(ede) as the plot requires." [[Derp|Consistency and logic can take a back seat to rule of cool, it's all good]]), another king took the throne. This continued for generations, bringing the kingdom of Nehekhara further into contact with the outside world. Each king built a grand tomb for when they died, but none of them (except the Usurper mentioned below) dared make one bigger or better than Settra's. In the first version of Settra's lore, back in 4th edition when Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings were just Warhammer: Undead, Settra was a tyrant and his death was met with much rejoicing throughout the land. Suffice it to say the newer lore has been better received.

The Mortuary Cult went on to become more powerful, even harnessing magic. Despite various types of kings Nehekhara remained strong until the reign of king Thutep. While his older brother was given to the Priesthood as is traditional, Thutep was a diplomatic but overly accommodating king, leading to the kings of other cities trying to get one over on Khemri. Despite that, the worst-case scenario would have been a change in Khermi's socio-political position; Nehekhara would likely still have thrived.

Unfortunately for Nehekhara and much of the world, that aforementioned older brother of Thutep was [[Nagash|a certain someone we all know and love to hate]]. You can read what he did on his page, but tl;dr Nagash’s dying dick move was to flood the land with necromantic energies, spreading the curse of undeath over all Nehekharan lands.

After the fall of Nehekhara, the now-undead Kings had regained their will they realised that the Mortuary Cult's preservation methods were not 100% perfect; they had succeeded in keeping their souls in their corpses but their bodies had nonetheless shrivelled up and decayed somewhat, with the most decayed being almost mindless. Naturally, one can imagine that this was a depressing situation for them. Many generations of kings from each city had to decide who got to hold the throne they all had at some point. Weaker kings who had sat on the laurels of stronger kings now had to contend with those stronger kings. Countless generations of dynasties took one look at having to spend the rest of eternity alongside each other and started beating the shit out of each other, trying to figure out who could be top dog. Throughout it all Settra and his forces were still resting in the peace of death, the wards on Settra's pyramid protecting the occupants from the necromantic magic that had inundated the land.

===Return===
{{Topquote|And behold, the almighty God-King Settra did awaken from his sleep of blessed oblivion. His legions, long buried beneath the sands, did arise and stand to attention, awaiting his order. And he did say "War!", and the world did tremble.|Grand Hierophant Khatep.}}

The Liche Priests eventually despaired that the incessant fighting between the returned dynasties was Not Good. In fact, there was a very real chance that the Tomb Kings would destroy each other out of sheer pride. Finally, the head of the Mortuary Cult, Grand Hierophant [[Khatep]], decided he would get shit done. He broke the seals on Settra's pyramid, scurried inside, and deliberately awoke Settra, who promptly rode out like a sandstorm from nowhere and smashed heads together until all of the other lesser Tomb Kings agreed to sit down and shut up. Even [[Arkhan the Black]] was driven back, although his sorcerous powers are mighty enough that even Settra can't beat him permanently and he has to give Arkhan the occasional pimp-slapping to make him keep his nose out of Settra's business. Unfortunately the question of why he didn't order the other Tomb Kings to join in the war so that he could permanently kill Arkhan is never answered, aside from author favouritism for Arkhan.

After he finally had a chance to sit down and hear what happened during the two thousand years he was dead, Settra was pissed. Seriously pissed. In his rage, he declared Khatep an exile, forbidden to ever set foot in any of the great cities until such a time that he can fulfill the Mortuary Cult's ancient promise and reinstate the golden age of Nehekhara. At first he declared the kings return to their sleep and await his call; he vowed never to sleep again lest his kingdom fall to ruin. Ever since, Settra focused on trying to restore his former empire, rebuilding damaged structures, taking back stolen treasures and driving out occupying enemy forces and bandits. Throughout he kept a particular watch for the inevitable return of [[Nagash]], determined to kill the Liche Lord and ensure only one undying monarch would rule over Nehekhara; he also had the side project of trying to destroy Nagash's Black Pyramid in older lore but every attempt, be it by war-machine or magic, failed.

Along the way, Settra had many legendary exploits that undoubtedly earned him new titles. At one point, a mad liche priest accidentally opened a rift to the realm of chaos, allowing a vast daemon legion to spill right into the heart of Khemri. Settra returned from campaign, furious that the daemons DARED set foot in his city, and went on to solo a [[Great Unclean One]] (who was likely bummed that the dead can't be made to sicken) that was leading the invasion. He then grabbed the idiot liche priest that caused this in the first place and threw him into the rift, sealing the breach forever. Another daemonic invasion occurred elsewhere later which was defeated when Settra, in a generous mood, accepted the help of a nearby group of High Elves led by Prince Althran, who were allowed to leave with their dignity afterwards.

One of his shining moments came after an army of Chaos Warriors, led by Valgar the Butcher, invaded Nehekhara to loot it. Settra led an army against and fought Valgar, but it ended up being a mutual kill. The Tomb Kings army was defeated but there were only the twelve survivors from the Norsii. Those survivors had rallied under Valgar's lieutenant, Khagul Bloodfist, and fled with as much Nhekharan treasure as they could carry, including Settra's crown which Khagul himself took. When he came back a decade later, Settra was filled with RAGE over the whole thing (most of all them taking his crown), and swore that he wouldn't return to Khemri until he'd killed the survivors and reclaimed all the stolen treasures right down to the last coin. [[Awesome|He proceeded to do just that. He mustered the mightiest of Nehekhara's troops into a massive army and tracked down the twelve survivors via magic and his spy network]] (since they'd become stinking rich from the loot, each one had become powerful and well-known and thus easy to find). Using Zandri's fleet as transport, [[Awesome|Settra and his army traveled to the Northern Wastes and wiped the twelve men out along with their tribes and mutated monsters in a long campaign of battles that ended with Settra retaking his crown and Khagul killed by Prince Apophas]] (High Elves wanting the Phoenix Crown back, takes notes).

Many years passed, then Settra woke all of the other kings up. He declared an age of expansion and massed the armies to expand Nehekhara beyond its previous boundaries and make the name of Settra once again feared (but not hated) across the world.