Rashotep's Bio
Name: Rashotep I
Age: Unknown
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 195lbs
Blood Type: A
Origins:
Rashotep I unified the Upper Nile one thousand years ago. Hailed as a divine incarnation of Ra on earth, Rashotep ordered the construction of a great tomb in Abydos, the grandest yet made. Begun decades before his death and finally completed years after the pharaoh was embalmed and interred, its dizzying and terrible array of traps and defenses have stood to this day.
One thousand years later, Rashotep appears to have returned. After the death of Khufu without an heir, Rashotep rose quickly to prominence and used his mastery of warfare, his uncanny sorcery, and his commanding presence to effect a remarkably bloodless coup. In less than six months and with only a handful of battles worthy of the name, Rashotep assumed the throne of the Upper and Lower Nile and now reigns from Abydos as Rashotep I.
There are many who do not believe that the man sitting the throne of Egypt is the legendary pharaoh reborn. These men and women, including the Order of the Celestial Dawn, believe Rashotep to be a fraud and a tyrant, using myth and fear to secure his control over the Nile kingdoms. The Celestial Dawn has sponsored or dispatched several expeditions to brave Rashotep's tomb and determine whether or not his body is still interred therein; all such missions have ended with the disappearance and presumed death of all involved, either at the hands of Rashotep's minions and guards or the traps that still guard the mythic tomb.
The common people of the Nile appear to believe wholeheartedly in the divine radiance that is their pharaoh. Just as Osiris was reborn, so, too, they claim, has their greatest leader returned to them in their time of need. Rashotep's evident sorcery is held up as all the proof they need of his legitimacy.
Regardless of whatever else might be true, Rashotep is a peerless warrior and a stern ruler. Under his reign, the Unified Nile has enjoyed peace if not precisely prosperity. The pharaoh has cultivated friendly relations with the Covenant of Twilight and contributed to the installation of friendly rulers in nearby Carthage and Persia. However, Rashotep brooks no interference within his own borders without his express invitation. To date, he has asked for Covenant assistance in Egypt precisely once, allowing them to track and capture a particularly troublesome Celestial Dawn agent, a northwoman named Astrid.
Personality
Although he publicly reveres all the gods of Egypt, Rashotep reserves his private devotions for Set, the god of soldiers and the desert, the champion of Ra and the defeater of Apep the Chaos-Serpent. He respects strength and, in his own strange and somewhat brutal way, cultivates that strength in those around him. The punishment for failure in Rashotep's service is harsh, and so his servants strive to become stronger. When Rashotep fights in person (which despite his elevated status is surprisingly common), he will spare an opponent whose strength he respects and show no mercy to those who prove themselves weak.
Rashotep is proud, firm, clever, and quick to frown. He is capable of great feats of heroism in defense of his kingdom and his people, and also great feats of tyranny in protection of his right to rule. He is incredibly secretive, not even taking a concubine or a wife and allowing no one into his personal chambers in Abydos. The suspicious see this as evidence that he is not truly Rashotep. His supporters point out that the needs and desires of a man who has been dead for one thousand years might seem odd to the living.
Rashotep is feared and loved, generous and terrible, proud and respectful, all at the same time.
Fighting Style
Rashotep is a strong man and prefers to fight in close with a style that emphasizes grappling and bursts of sudden energy and movement. His Ka energy is enormously powerful at close range, like a burst of desert lightning or the rush of the flooded Nile. After grabbing his opponent, Rashotep will pin his foe painfully and then with a burst of strength and Ka hurl him away, preferably into a nearby solid object (normally plentiful in the monument-strewn battlegrounds of Egypt).
Even in battle, Rashotep moves with the grace and dignity of a king, approaching his enemy with due solemnity and the patience of the immortal. He uses his ferocious strength and Ka energy to screen himself from attacks during his inexorable approach, then once within range moves with speed and power that seem more than merely human. When faced with an enemy who refuses to close within range, Rashotep is capable of channeling his Ka into effects that deny any explanation save that of magic and sorcery. From transforming his staff into a serpent to conjuring a sandstorm from the desert, reports of impossible feats at Rashotep's hands are widespread and inconsistent.
