Egypt
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Egypt is a region of Africa that is home to one of the oldest known civilizations in the world. The ancient Egyptians are best remembered for their intricate beliefs about the importance of the afterlife, which led to their creation of the pyramid (a square-based triangular tomb of stone) and the mummy (a bandaged corpse specially prepared to last for eternity); while other civilizations . They are generally the only African culture that the mass majority of people outside of Africa is actually aware of, which can at least be partly blamed on its presence in the Bible and the "Egyptology" craze that hit the US in the mid-1900s. Most people categorize it as a Middle-Eastern area due to the sand and the political influence of modern day Egypt, but most of its famous points are west of the Red Sea.
As one of the earliest civilizations, the genetic makeup of their civilization and particularly their ruling classes are of great interest to those studying them. Despite being located in Africa, Egypt was not always a solely black civilization; the pharaohs of the Ptolemaic dynasty in particular were outright Greeks who, with the exception of Cleopatra, didn't speak the local language. Earlier mummies have been found with blonde and red hair, as well as non-African DNA. This is likely the result of constant campaigns by other civilizations into the continent early in the country's history, which would naturally require passage through Egypt, thus further emphasizing its importance in African history.
Due to their cultural association with the afterlife, fictional portrayals of Egypt, or any fantasy equivalents thereof, will focus heavily on the undead and/or some means of attaining immortality (vis a vis mummification). The pyramids and the value of their tombs' contents - both in the sense of uncovering details about their culture throughout various era and in the sense of actual monetary value - tended to overlap with this, and both were ideal fodder for many an aspiring writer/director/what have you. Adventure movies, pulp novels, comic books - whatever the medium, the raiding of Egyptian tombs for treasures and the curses triggered by such robbery became fictional staples.
In fantasy games, Egypt is generally portrayed as a hyper-religious dustbowl (ignoring that the civilization itself was actually centered around the enormous Nile River, which creates fertile land for them to farm) ruled over by grim and sinister priests, with ancient ruins half-buried in the desert full of ghosts, mummies and curses, and all manner of nasty desert beasts running around, most prominently various flavors of snake, scorpion and crocodile.
Fantasy Egypts
- Mulhorand & Unther: Two declined nations in the Forgotten Realms setting of Dungeons & Dragons, based on the fact Egypt was actually divided into the separate kingdoms of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt for most of its history. Also, at least one ethnicity in the Forgotten Realms descends from Earthly ancient Egyptians who were summoned by evil wizards to be a slave race, but fought their way to independence.
- The Amber Wastes: A Cluster in the Demiplane of Dread based around Egypt.
- Nithia: The Egypt region of Mystara and the Hollow World.
- Osiron: The Egypt region of Golarion
- Nehekhara: The Egyptian region of the Warhammer Fantasy world, inhabited solely by sapient mummy kings ruling over huge armies of mindless skeleton warriors because an insane necromancer with aspirations of godhood used an epic level spell to extinguish all life in the country and then raise it as undead.
- Amonkhet: The Egyptian plane for Magic: The Gathering. Civilization consists of a single mega-city in a great zombie-infested desert, where the occupants spend their entire lives training in magic and martial arts, as well as pumping out kids, before undertaking a "sacred rite" that sees the entire generation slaughtered in ritual combat to be transformed into uber-mummy warriors. Those who died in the trials leading up to this rite are instead turned into the army of mummy laborers who handle all of the work, like producing food and rearing the children.