Ancient Egypt Adventure Assistance Asked

[doctorjest]

Alliteration aside...

I have a player who requested a story for our DWAITAS game to be set in Ancient Egypt. Specifically, during the reign of Akhenaten, and that it feature the religious strife of the time, and touch upon his unusual art style.

So the ideas I have so far is the story would obviously take place in Akhetaten, and I'd like it to be near the end of his reign (allowing for possibly seeing the end of his reign and the re-assertion of the cult of Amun-Ra). 

Some things I'm chewing on:

1.) Speculation about Akhenaten's art style have run rampant. Anything from he had an unusual artistic aesthetic to he was unusual looking, possibly due to a genetic illness (there's some evidence this may have been true). Of course there are those who insist he was an alien. I'd like to play up that possibility but have it be a red herring. The truth would either be a genetic illness or genetic mutation due to exposure to whatever is actually going on.

2.) He had temples built with no roofs so as to allow people to worship the sun in the sky. Or was it for another reason?

3.) Akhenaten was very focused on internal problems in Egypt, but couldn't neglect foreign policy since those hittites are just waiting for an opportunity to attack if Egypt is weak. His religious shift is a part of this. While it appears to divide Egypt against itself, its because he sees an advantage, perhaps with an alien power or a high tech machine that requires he build these temples to the sun? 

4.) I see him as possibly being a bit of the villain of the piece but out of concern for his kingdom and toying with something he doesn't understand (which may be altering his mind and body) that needs to be stopped.

5.) He moved his capital from Thebes to Akhetaten, although all Akhetaten has to offer is some mines. Why?

Ideas I've toyed with is some kind of artifact or alien tech or some kind of energy being who presents itself as the god Aten. I'm just not sure where to go with it.

Things I know I don't want to do: Silurians (just did them recently), Daleks (ditto), Osirians (too obvious - although Osirian technology unearthed at Akhetaten would be possible, but what does it do, and why is it important and how does it link to the need for sun worship?). And I definitely don't want to go with the idea he's an alien himself, but I wouldn't mind misleading the PCs (the Timelord PC tends to zoom in on the obvious and stop investigating early so I want to use that against her).

Anyways, that's where I'm at and could use some spitballing to help me figure out a good direction to go with this and how to wrap an adventure around it. If anyone has any thoughts, please share them, I'd be very grateful.

[Catsmate]

Oct 3, 2014 22:47:35 GMT doctorjest said:

Alliteration aside...

I have a player who requested a story for our DWAITAS game to be set in Ancient Egypt. Specifically, during the reign of Akhenaten, and that it feature the religious strife of the time, and touch upon his unusual art style.

So the ideas I have so far is the story would obviously take place in Akhetaten, and I'd like it to be near the end of his reign (allowing for possibly seeing the end of his reign and the re-assertion of the cult of Amun-Ra). 

Some things I'm chewing on:

1.) Speculation about Akhenaten's art style have run rampant. Anything from he had an unusual artistic aesthetic to he was unusual looking, possibly due to a genetic illness (there's some evidence this may have been true). Of course there are those who insist he was an alien. I'd like to play up that possibility but have it be a red herring. The truth would either be a genetic illness or genetic mutation due to exposure to whatever is actually going on.

2.) He had temples built with no roofs so as to allow people to worship the sun in the sky. Or was it for another reason?

3.) Akhenaten was very focused on internal problems in Egypt, but couldn't neglect foreign policy since those hittites are just waiting for an opportunity to attack if Egypt is weak. His religious shift is a part of this. While it appears to divide Egypt against itself, its because he sees an advantage, perhaps with an alien power or a high tech machine that requires he build these temples to the sun? 

4.) I see him as possibly being a bit of the villain of the piece but out of concern for his kingdom and toying with something he doesn't understand (which may be altering his mind and body) that needs to be stopped.

5.) He moved his capital from Thebes to Akhetaten, although all Akhetaten has to offer is some mines. Why?

Ideas I've toyed with is some kind of artifact or alien tech or some kind of energy being who presents itself as the god Aten. I'm just not sure where to go with it.

Things I know I don't want to do: Silurians (just did them recently), Daleks (ditto), Osirians (too obvious - although Osirian technology unearthed at Akhetaten would be possible, but what does it do, and why is it important and how does it link to the need for sun worship?). And I definitely don't want to go with the idea he's an alien himself, but I wouldn't mind misleading the PCs (the Timelord PC tends to zoom in on the obvious and stop investigating early so I want to use that against her).

Anyways, that's where I'm at and could use some spitballing to help me figure out a good direction to go with this and how to wrap an adventure around it. If anyone has any thoughts, please share them, I'd be very grateful.

I did a bit of research on Akhenaten for a RPG some time ago. The main problem is that there's very little definitive information, and a lot of contradictions; Egyptological chronology suffers has a great deal of controversy, even his birth and death dates [~1388BCE - ~1362BCE] are uncertain. Anyway here's my take.

Appearance: 1.68m/60kg; fairly typical 'Egyptian' looks but somewhat deformed, with thin limbs, prominent hips, breasts and paunch, an elongated skull, thick lips, and a jutting chin. Probably wearing a light robe and jewelled sandals. Probably accompanied by several personal bodyguards.

There are several theories about Akhenaten's appearance, he may simply have been rather ugly (possibly connected to traditional Egyptian royal inbreeding) or he may have had Marfan's syndrome. This is a genetic condition effecting the connective tissue, it causes elongation of the limbs and face, growth of the jaw, and poor eyesight.
He also seems to have suffered from Froelich's syndrome, a disease of the pituitary gland that interferes with the development of the  secondary sexual characteristics from. It's also been suggested that he suffered from severe migraines.

• There are other, less probable, theories; that he was in fact a woman or that he had been castrated in youth.

Personal characteristics: based on various analyses he seemed to have enjoyed basking in the sun (and required ceremonies to be performed in sunlight); he was very  close to his mother (Tiye), had a weakness for flattery and was fond of nature. His profligatel spending and and was fondness for naturalistic art seems to have been consequences of his fanatical Atenism.

It appears that he had been a sickly child, expected to die young, which, combined with his deformities, kept him out of the spotlight in the court of his father, Amenophis III. He took to religion and the arts and joined the growing cult
of the Aten (Disc), a sun god. He was married to the beautiful (and formidable) Neferti early in his reign, though he had at least one other wife and may have fathered Tutankhamen on one of his sisters. He's credited with fathering six daughters.

Hope this helps.

[doctorjest]

I am familiar with the scant historical information we have. Personally, I favor the idea he had Marfan's syndrome instead of Froelich's since Froelich's causes sterility, and Marfan's often results in a cleft palate, which Tutankhamun had. Marfan's also makes it difficult to see without very bright light.

But the lack of historical certainty around this time and figure is not a problem. It's an opportunity to be inventive without having to be concerned with historical accuracy, and it's being inventive that I really could use a little help with.

[Catsmate]

And given that it's the Whoniverse you could have him effected by mysterious radiation, Osirian artefacts, nanomachines, mutagenic bacteria and more. You could even have him the product of a Stargate-style sarcophagus.
Perhaps his Atenism was influenced by exposure to a space or time traveller, give the prominence of the Sun motif this could be added easily.

[doctorjest]

Oct 4, 2014 20:14:48 GMT Catsmate said:

And given that it's the Whoniverse you could have him effected by mysterious radiation, Osirian artefacts, nanomachines, mutagenic bacteria and more. You could even have him the product of a Stargate-style sarcophagus.
Perhaps his Atenism was influenced by exposure to a space or time traveller, give the prominence of the Sun motif this could be added easily.

Right, I've touched on some of those in my original post. I'm just having a bit of trouble honing those ideas down to something coherent to base an adventure around. I'm sorry I don't think I'm doing a very good job of expressing myself 

[doctorjest]

I guess what I am looking for is some brainstorming assistance where it comes to connecting the dots from historical data to Whovian Adventure. I've nwver really done alt history advetures before, I get the historial stuff and I get the sci-fi stuff, but I don't quite get how to integrate them in a way that's interesting for an RPG adventure in this particular case.

[bilbo]

What if Akhenatan looks weird, acts weird, and does all these weird things all for ordinary reasons - I've read that he may have had a disease that made it hard to see in dim light, making worship of a Sun god and open air temples understandable - I've also read that he may have been epileptic, which could give rise to spiritual visions - just make it all reasonable....but have it all look like some sort of alien influence, possession, strange artifact, etc is behind it.

Then bring in Nefertiti begging for the characters help, because she believes he's possessed too. But in reality she's just a Lady MacBeth sort, manipulating the PCs up to take out her hubby so she can take possession of the throne. It's well known that she had a status above the norm for the time and she has been depicted as at least his equal.

Then when the characters screw things up, they have to put them right again. Could be a total old school historical! With Li'l Tut for comic relief