The Nile

The Nile is the greatest river on Mythic Earth. It rises in the Atlas Mountains, before sweeping south, through the desert and to the very edge of the habitable world. It turns east, through the countries of the Plinian races, until it nears the east coast of Africa. Then it turns north again, through the lands of gold and black men. It floods Egypt annually, leaving farming soil almost magical in its fertility, before disgorging into the Mediterranean. Even tiny creeks in Mythic Europe may have elementals: the Nile's Spirit is so vastly powerful it needs to create avatars or invest emissaries, simply so humans can comprehend it.

The great mystical presence which is embodied in these waters has had many names over the centuries. The Copts, who know its ancient Egyptian name, call it Kheme. which is also the word for the color black, and the land of Egypt itself. The Black is not the same as Isis, the Faerie goddess of the river, but she, perhaps, served the Black and was nurtured by its vitality. The Blemmyaes of Philae, who worshiped Isis in ancient times, are often agents of the Black. In the west of Africa the Black is served by a tribe of seven-headed rain serpents. Their physical form may mirror the river's, with its delta of seven mouths. Elsewhere in Egypt the Black calls up horusbeasts, the ascended dead, Coptic alchemists, jinn, and faeries for its ceaseless war with the Red.

The Red is a great force of desiccation and sterility, which is most powerful in the center of the Sahara. The Black encircles it with the Nile, and prevents its ravenous appetite from consuming Africa. Its servants are detailed in Between Sand and Sea, but include hedge magi who draw power from the decay of the natural environment, the set beasts, tribes of werehyenas, and great afrits of smokeless flame. Some say that every lie makes the Sahara a grain bigger, so every liar serves the Red. Others say that if you don't want the Black to notice you, you must never drink the water.

Pliny listed seven heads for the Nile, but not all of these can be used in 1220. Some are silted up, and some are simply not where he implies them to be. The main distributary is the Phatmetic Mouth, which disgorges at Damietta, in the eastern Delta. This has been the main port in Egypt, used by merchants wishing to trade along the Nile, for decades. The Christian invasion of Damietta has diverted pilgrims and traders from North Africa and Iberia toward Alexandria. Alexandria is the main port on the western edge of the Delta. It does not link directly to the Nile, and so it is less convenient as a port, despite its excellent harbor.

Some of the silted, or missing, mouths of the Nile have been withdrawn from the mortal world by the Black. Some have been recoiled as reflections of injuries suffered in its skirmishes with the Red. One, the Pelusiac Mouth, has been hidden, to provide a secure base for the Servants of the Black.

Cairo Coptic Cairo

Cairo is the capital of Egypt, but has only had that role for just over 50 years. It is a new and wonderful city, praised by pilgrims from all over the world. Many locals call Cairo "Misr," which is the Arabic name for all of Egypt. It is believed to be the name of a son of Noah, who was the first king of the country after the Flood. Misr's sons went on to found many of the great cities of Egypt.

Cairo retains a large and prosperous Coptic community. The Christian community in Egypt is treated better than in most other parts of the Muslim world. There are several reasons for this. Egypt surrendered to Islam rather than being taken by force, which made the Copts dhimmi, and gently restrains the legal options for exploitation available to the ruler. There are hadiths (sayings) from the Prophet granting Copts a special status as the "instruments and help" of the Muslims. Ismail ibn Ibrahim, the patriarch of the Arabs, had a Coptic mother, and the Prophet had a Coptic wife. The previous, Fatimid, period was largely one of tolerance for the Copts, and this has continued into the current dynasty.

Copts in Egypt have some advantages over dhimmis elsewhere. Those who live in Alexandria pay no taxes except a sort of compulsory charitable giving for the poor. In many other areas, new churches are forbidden, but in Egypt they are often built. Islamic legal scholars allow this on the basis that presumably little towns had churches before the Arabs took power, and so the new buildings are in some sense merely continuations and enlargements of old places of worship. Dhimmis are not permit-

Referring to the fertile headwaters of the Nile as a "delta" is one of Herodotus's ideas. It refers to the triangular shape of the land, on certain maps. A "delta" is a triangular Greek letter. The Egyptians in ancient times, and the Copts who speak the old language, called this region Ta-Mehu, which means "Land of the Papyrus." This is notably similar to the Field of Reeds in Duat, the ancient afterlife, which is described in more detail in Chapter 4: Tombs. There are many gates to Faerie and the Magic Realm hidden in Ta Mehu.

The position of Patriarch of Alexandria has been vacant since 1216. There is a particular priest, Cyril ibn Laqlaq, who has such wealth and political influence that it is impossible to elect anyone else, but whom a core group oppose. If your version of Mythic Europe echoes real life, Cyril III will be ordained in 1235, and will be a notorious simoniac: possibly the reason the opposition to him was so zealous. The lack of a formal leader weakens Coptic influence, and player characters able to break the deadlock might gain the gratitude of the successful side.

ted to ride horses, but in Egypt they often do, being careful to dismount when passing the houses of Islamic noblemen and legal officers if when necessary.

Copts are still third class citizens (behind Muslims and new converts to Islam) and so are not permitted to carry weapons. This is important to the rulers, and is enforced stringently. In part this is because a hadith from the Prophet says that Egyptians are the finest soldiers in the world. If, as this seems to imply, Egyptians have an innate talent for war, this means that the average Egyptian peasant mob is far more dangerous than a group of rebellious farmers elsewhere. Coptic revolts have been put down, with some difficulty, in various places, and the sultans have countered by raising Egyptian children as Muslims, separate from their Christian parents, as slave soldiers. This cadre are called the mamluks.

The Coptic community is led, in a moral sense, by the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria. Following the relocation of the capital, it has been more convenient for the patriarch to live in the older part of Cairo than in Alexandria, where his official see lies. He believes himself to be the spiritual custodian of all Christians in Africa, but travel is so difficult that many of the Churches in communion with him act with great independence, and there is a Greek claimant to the See of Mark who actually still lives in Alexandria.The Hanging Church, the patriarch's cathedral, is located above the gatehouse of Babylon Fortress. Babylon Fortress was a Roman strongpoint. It is from here, it can be argued, that the Empire withdrew from Egypt, passing the territory, and the Copts, into the keeping of Islam.

A naphtha pot is is a ceramic hand grenade, in which white water naphtha (petroleum) is held in a gel. The simplest are incendiaries, and catch fire when the ceramic casing cracks and the contents are exposed to air. A more complex version is explosive, and these are often made in an aerodynamic shape, so that they travel greater distances when launched by siege engines. A lighting bomb is a naphtha pot used as a fuse for other bombs, for example if they are set as a demolition charge. The can also be used to set fire to flammable objects, like thatch, crops, and furniture.

An incendiary naphtha pot is a thrown weapon. The damage it does depends on the viscosity of the fuel within it. Most pots contain a thick gel that burns for several minutes, doing +10 damage each turn to whatever the fuel touches. The fuel can instead be runnier, so that after it lands it spreads in a pool of flame that does +5 damage to every flammable thing it touches. The fuel can also be left as liquid petroleum, so that it becomes a brief ball of fire when the ceramic case cracks. This does (+5 – 1 per pace from the pot) Damage, for one round, but may start other fires.

An explosive naphtha pot does +10 Damage if it strikes a target, diminishing by 1 per foot. This damage is caused primarily by the fuel of the pot igniting. Naphtha pots are relatively weak explosives, and shrapnel from the ceramic jacket of the grenade may cause minor injuries, but high velocity explosions or metal jackets are beyond the usual level of skill found in bazaar-trading Egyptian alchemist. They are only encountered as special items in stories, or if made by player characters.

A poison pot releases toxic smoke. As poison is expensive, these grenades do not burst until they hit something, and as it is difficult to disperse a toxin in sufficient concentration over a large enough area, they are rarely preferable as an armament to an explosive grenade. They are, however, useful for sabotage, assassination, and perhaps, in large enough numbers, for dictating the movement of enemy forces on the battlefield. Player characters may also find them handy when confronting tomb spirits repelled by various types of incense.

Most professional Egyptian soldiers have seen naphtha bombs, and so do not panic when they are deployed. Untrained troops, mercenaries from other parts of the world, and horses, often break formation, and may flee, if attacked with explosives or incendiaries. Characters may face the naphtha with a Brave Personality trait roll against an Ease Factor of 5.

Rare specialists can create more potent effects than those listed above. The finest alchemists in Egypt, excepting perhaps those who serve the household of the sultan, are, however, Christian monks. They have little interest in experimenting with better grenade designs.

Making Naphtha With Magic

Naphtha can be created with Creo Aquam spells, and is a processed natural liquid. This gives Creo Aquam spells a Base level of 3, and the Base Individual target is a pool one foot across and six inches deep, regardless of the viscosity of the naphtha. This is about one and a half gallons. naphtha created outside a container ignites immediately, due to contact with air.

Fustat

Fustat was the capital of Egypt until its destruction in 1168. Prior to 1168, Shawar, the vizier of Egypt, had kept the country's Syrian and Christian neighbors at bay by playing them against each other. In 1168 Amalric of Jerusalem invaded. Sawar or-

This mosque was built on the site of the magical duel between Moses and the magicians of pharaoh. Player characters can call up the ghosts of these magicians, with the right assistance or Hermetic Virtues. Lacking any relic of the magicians, the characters must make an Arcane Connection to the spirits of the dead. Fortunately, the names of the two magicians are recorded, and one died during the Plague of the Death of the First Born Sons. Leadworkers (see Houses of Hermes: True Lineages) or those who practice defixiones (Ancient Magic) can use names to create Arcane Connections to the dead, and so can summon a pharaonic wizard here. Sadly, some of their magic was performed by trickery.

dered Fustat to be abandoned and burned, so that it could not be used as a base by the invaders. His forces used 20,000 naphtha pots and 10,000 lighting bombs to destroy the city. The Christian invasion was halted, and the Syrians then invaded, sweeping away the Christian forces and claiming Egypt for themselves.

The people of Fustat, one of the largest and most prosperous cities in Mythic Africa, were not permitted to take their property or riches with them as they fled. Many of the nobles of Fustat buried their wealth, or stayed to chance the Christian invasion, dying in the vizier's inferno. These treasures are still often found by treasure hunters, but they are also used by faeries and demons to tempt and reward humans caught up in their schemes.

Under the reign of Saladin and his immediate successors Fustat and Cairo were encircled by a single defensive wall.This is still under construction by innumerable Christian slaves, preferably from the Eastern Empire, because Byzantines are attributed with unparalleled skill as builders by the Egyptians. Although the single wall has made Fustat part of the capital, the ruined city has never been systematically rebuilt. It is a part of town where noxious trades are carried on, and waste is dumped.

The Maristans

The Cairo Hospital, supported by the Sultan, is one of the finest in the world. It is a center not only for medical treatment, but for research and teaching. Students travel from across the world to serve in the hospital. The building itself was originally a royal palace, and was given to the sick as an act of charity. The palace opposite was then turned into a women's hospital. Finally, a third building was constructed, for the treatment of the insane.

Mosque of Ibn Tulun

This is the oldest mosque in Cairo, and one of the finest. It was originally built as a personal mosque by Ibn Tulun, the governor of Egypt, and adjoined his palace. His capital city, called Al-Qatta'i, has been completely demolished, with only this building left standing as successive capitals have grown about the site. It was constructed with treasure found by Ibn Tulun, reported to be over four tons of gold, on a single excavation. This mosque is reserved for the free use of students and travelers from the Maghreb, and supported by a subsidy from the sultan.

The Nilometer

A nilometer is a device to measure the height of the floodwaters of the Nile. The nilometer at Cairo is, in a legal sense, the official one, but many people keep their own nilometers as well. A suspiciously large number of old Coptic monks keep nilometers, and those who believe they retain some of the magic of the Ancient Egyptians consider these ritual objects. The monks gently mock this superstition.

The Cairo nilometer is a white, octagonal marble column kept in a square well near the city. It is divided into 22 cubits, called "fingers." When the annual flood reaches 16 cubits, this is called "full water." A festival begins immediately, and carries on for several days. The sultan is legally entitled to his land

As one of the most effective hospitals in the world, these buildings are a great place for player characters to recuperate after traumatic events. The hospitals cure the sick, but also have bath-houses, an excellent library, and free lectures where the interested, including recuperating patients, can develop their Medicine skill. Alchemists, paid for by the sultan, dispense basic cures, and can refer patients to more specialized care.

Perfect Ingredient

A plague has broken out in Egypt. The characters discover that it was last seen three hundred years ago, and that a particular scholar cured it somehow. An account by one of his students is found in the library of the Maristan, It says that a peculiar talisman was used to seal the illness into the pit where the final victims were laid. It also gives accidental clues to the location of the pit. The head of the Maristan, on becoming aware of this, sends an expedition.

The pit has been opened by grave robbers, who have carried off the talismans as spoils. While they own the distinctive talismans, they will not become ill, but can carry the sickness to others. The Maristan and the Guild of Seekers combine to track down these men, examine the talismans and find a way of replicating them. Each requires a rare ingredient, which the player characters are encouraged to fetch. A rival group has discovered the Maristan's plan, and wishes to harvest as much of the ingredient as they can, then destroy the source, so that their stores are of incalculable value.

The Magical Air

In Barcelona, previously normal people have begun developing the Magical Air Flaw. This is causing great strife, and some churchmen who have noticed the similarity between this affliction and the Gifted are blaming the Order. A local member of House Criamon has suggested that the Air is caused by an environmental contaminant, but how to find or treat it is beyond his knowledge. The Tribunal decides to try as many strategies as possible, and sends a delegation to the Maristan, to see if a similar problem occurs in their records.

The Returnee

A young woman in the Maristan for the mentally unwell has begun making ridiculous claims, which would be ignored if they were not in an archaic form of Latin. A Coptic monk suggests that the only time he has heard similar phrases was from a particular scholar, who is a member of the Order of Hermes.The girl claims to be Lucia of the line of Trianoma, returned from Twilight. The girl's parents swear this is not true, that she is the daughter of their bodies and they have raised her since her birth. How then does she know the Parma Magica?

taxes and tributes in any year that full water is reached, and the average height is 17 cubits. The festival involves dousing people with Nile water for luck, and dates back to pharaonic times. It's strikingly similar, in some ways, to the European feast of fools, where social conventions are turned on their head.

If full water is not reached, the sultan's almost-magical ability to pay for things begins to fail. This is rare: it happens perhaps every twenty years. Sometimes, perhaps to express the displeasure of the Divine, the flood fails for several years in a row. During these times famine is rife and, in the words of ibn-Jabyr, the only hope is God. Some theorize that the Sultan's almost-magical ability to pay for things is somehow based on ancient Nile magic. Coptic monks insist that this is not the case, and that crop failure due to lack of water is a far better explanation for the severity of famine when full water is not reached.

The House is a school, said to be in the grounds of the citadel, that prepares agents for the sultan's service. The House does not appear to take many students, perhaps as few as twelve at a time, and it is unclear what its students learn. It is known that the finest smith in Egypt is trained in the House, then retained as a teacher for his successor. An alchemist seems to be trained similarly, although his claim to being the greatest might be contested by some of the Coptic monks. Various diplomats and, if rumors are true, assassins have been trained by the House. Some have theorized that the curriculum of the House changes, depending on the problems the sultan's advisers can foresee, and the skill of the agents who have already been trained.

Teacher of the House (Mystery Initiation Path)

The House is, effectively, a machine to allow intense teaching. It houses excellent teachers, but more than this, it trains specialists in other skills how to teach them. It even provides Initiations that grant Virtues to aid teaching. The Initiation Scripts for teachers of the House require a mystagogue who has a new Ability called Lore of the House, which is an Organization Lore for the Cult. Beyond its ritual use, the Lore of the House includes information about its history, students, missions, and resources.

Mystery Initiations are simply easier for Gifted People than unGifted ones (compare The Mysteries: Revised Edition page 14 for Gifted and Hedge Magic: Revised Edition page 14 for unGifted initiates). The House may have faster paths of Initiation for the Gifted, but most students use those below.

Good Teacher (Minor Virtue): The mystagogue must have a (Presence + Lore of the House) total of at least 6. The candidate undergoes a ritual Ordeal, using magical items taken from the ancient House, and gains a Major Personality Flaw that makes the character loyal to the goals of the House (Vow or Code of Honor, as examples). Note that this is not the same thing as loyalty either to the sultan or the current leader of the House. This provides a script bonus of 9, for the required total of 15.

Affinity with Teaching: The mystagogue must have have a (Presence + Lore of the House) total of at least 8. The character must make a pilgrimage, and find a great and charismatic teacher. She must then perform a difficult task that aids that teacher to spread his message. Script bonus (Special place and time (+3), Quest (+3) Loss of Time (+1), for the required total of 15.

Improved or Great Communication: The mystagogue must have have a (Presence + Lore of the House) total of at least 8. The character and mystagogue travel to the site of an ancient library site and perform a ritual, which seems to invoke the Goddess Seshat. The character debates with Seshat, and if the character successfully persuades her to grant the character influence to teach, he is allowed to leave. (This requires a Communication + Charm roll against an Ease factor of 12). A character who argues with Seshat and fails to convince her is Spirited Away to her realm in Faerie, and forced to maintain her library until the next solar eclipse in Egypt (which happens at the discretion of the troupe, but is predictable by characters with astrological skills). Some humans who are Spirited Away age and develop new skills while in Faerie: others do not. Troupes should use whichever best suits their saga. A character who successfully persuades Seshat, or escapes her realm, is granted 3 Characteristic points which must be spent on Communication. If the character already has a score of 3, she gains the Great Characteristic Virtue. If she already has this Virtue, discuss alternatives with the Troupe.

This ritual has script bonus of +7 (Special place and Time (+3), Quest (+3), Loss of Time (+1)) for the required total of 15.

Some suggest that leaders of the House have undergone, or at least know scripts for, further Initiations, designed for the priesthood from which they descend.