Ameth
Ameth is a low fantasy Egypt setting. It features undead self proclaimed gods that runs the country from the shadows, serpent man, persian elves, cities of the dead. Ameth is the name of the desert. A big desert with two rivers around which towns are build. Humans are the principal race. They have high life standards and a liberal set of mind. The field and hard work is delegated to the mindless undead slaves, allowing a rich life to most citizens. They are ruled by pharaons. Currently there are 4 countries with a pharoah each. Yet all of them share the same centrlaized religion, the faith of the 7 gods. The church controls the whole population simply: if you pray hard enough, follow church rules and give a shit ton of gold to it, after the death you return as un undead, able to enjoy the life for all eternity.
A lot of misticism surrounds the process, the soul being judget by th egods ecc. In reality in the burial chamber the priests decide if resurrect the dead pr not.
there are 3 types of undead: Mindless ones: Used as field workers and church soldiers. Sentient ones: Normal mummies. That is what most people want to become. Liches: powerful church members are resurrected as liches gaining even more power.
At the top of the church there are the 7 gods. Each rules for 10 years and is then replaced by the successive one. THose are the same liches that molded Ameth to their desire to use its people as cattle. They need human life force to sustain themself and to use it in powerful magical rituals. To collect life force living citiziens must go work for a year each 5 years for the church works. It is usualy about building a new pyramid. The formal excuse is that this work is too complicated to be given to undead workers. On the work magical devices steal life force and put it in batteries (you don0t want to know how those batteries are made). Workers fell mor etired then usual but most of the time accpe tit with gratitude as it elevates their chances of being resurrected after death and the pay is very good. Stealing life force rarely kills people.
Church is very lax in it rules. They allow wars between different pharaons. It is fine if you slaughter the whole family of the rival pharaon, but if you massacre his whole city the church gets angry. Fuck you killed a ton of our cattle! This usualy ends in a amssive army of undead soldiers sent to kill the offending pharaon. This led to rulers using small highly specialized and trained forces instead of large armies. Ancient egyptian spetznaz!
The sentient dead after returning must not visit his family for 1001 nights. This rule is introduced cause human psicology is quite fragile and people cope better with such a drammatic change of events if they are given time to rest.
The dead life in cities of the dead. Usualy protected by high walls and forbidden for livings. This is mainly beacause the number of necormancer is much higher among the dead. And people begging to have a relative resurrected are quite annoying.
The pyramids are giant magical circles powered by the collected life force. Some are used by the 7 gods to communciate ELder entities beyond the stars, Some to protect cities form giant worms roaming the deserts. Some rituals require more then life force. Sometimes
The reason that the 7 gods haven't killed each other for power over the nation is because