Towering, gold-encrusted monuments break the unending monotony of a horizon formed of sun-blasted sand. Awe-inspiring, animal-headed gods walk among the people, offering them care and protection from the horrors of the desert. A wide, life-giving river offers its abundant bounty, providing for every physical need. Happy, hopeful people offer sacrifices in grand temples dedicated to their benevolent gods, addressing their spiritual needs. For they know that this life, as wonderful as it might be, is just the beginning—a prelude to the perfection that awaits them in the afterlife, promised to them by their God-Pharaoh.
Amonkhet is a plane of dichotomy. Beyond the lush river valley spreads endless scorching desert. Accursed, desiccated mummies roam that desert, while carefully embalmed mummies attend to the needs of the living in the glorious city-state. The people have everything they need. They are protected from the desert heat and wandering mummies by the magical barrier called the Hekma, and they spend their lives in focused training, honing body and mind to perfection. Yet they eagerly anticipate the time when they will be permitted to die in combat and leave this world behind.
On the surface, Amonkhet seems like a marvelous place to live. But something unsettling and nefarious lurks behind the grand facade. The wise and benevolent God-Pharaoh, said to be busy preparing the wondrous afterlife for the worthy, is actually Nicol Bolas—the malevolent dragon Planeswalker whose schemes reach far beyond this plane. And all the preparation and training, all the trials and contests, all the effort to be made worthy—all of this is meant to prepare the people of Amonkhet for transformation into an undead army under Bolas's command.
Behind the Facade
Unknown to any of the plane's inhabitants, the entire society of Amonkhet has been manipulated by Nicol Bolas, who has seized control of the world, the gods, and the magic of the plane. Bolas chose this plane for his schemes because of the presence of a magical substance called lazotep, which interacts with the magic of necromancy in strange and powerful ways. Conveniently, he also found here a pious, structured civilization that he could easily subvert to his own purposes. Making himself the God-Pharaoh, he brought the gods themselves under his control, and eliminated anyone who tried to stand against him. Then he transformed the world into a factory designed to produce a huge army of perfect undead soldiers—mummies embalmed in lazotep.
Adapting the peculiar magic of the plane, Bolas found a means to preserve the combat skills of the living after death. He has selected five aspects of character that he desires most in his undead soldiers, and has built the society of Amonkhet around a series of trials designed to hone and perfect those aspects of body and mind. Throughout their lives, the people of the plane believe they are drawing nearer to the promised afterlife—and at last they die in the final trial, a mass battle with no survivors. But rather than earning a place in the afterlife, they are instead embalmed in lazotep and stored in Bolas's great necropolis, adding to the ranks of his undead army.
The Curse of Wandering
Part of the magic of Amonkhet that Bolas has been able to exploit is a necromantic phenomenon called the Curse of Wandering. This naturally occurring magic causes any being who dies on the plane to rise again after a short time, cursed with insatiable hunger and an irresistible drive to attack the living. Desiccated mummies created by the Curse of Wandering fill the desert wasteland that dominates the plane, constantly threatening what little life remains. But the people of Amonkhet do not fear the threat of attack as much as they dread the knowledge that all who live will one day die and fall under the same curse. Death under the effect of the Curse of Wandering is a terrifying afterlife filled with endless suffering.
What God-Pharaoh Nicol Bolas offers to the people of Amonkhet is an alternative to an eternity of wandering: an afterlife of glorious delights. And all they need to do to attain this eternal bliss is prove that they are worthy. As such, the threat of the Curse of Wandering is a strong motivation for people to undergo the trials of devotion that the God-Pharaoh demands.
Putting Devotion to the Test
The inhabitants of Amonkhet, mortal and divine alike, believe that the God-Pharaoh left the five gods as stewards of the populace when he departed to prepare the afterlife. While he is gone, the God-Pharaoh expects the people to devote their lives to proving they are worthy of this great reward. Since the afterlife will be perfect, the people who enter it must also be perfect.
The gods are custodians of the path to the afterlife, established by the God-Pharaoh to purify and perfect the people who follow that path and undergo its trials. Each god oversees one of five trials, instructing the initiates who prepare to face that trial by helping them cultivate one of the five aspects of mortal perfection.
Solidarity
Oketra the True, the cat-headed god of solidarity, teaches that the worthy shall know and respect all others whom the God-Pharaoh deems as worthy. For in the afterlife, all will be together in purpose and in action.
Knowledge
Kefnet the Mindful, the ibis-headed god of knowledge, teaches that the worthy shall cultivate a nimble mind—one capable of perceiving the wonders beyond imagining that await in the afterlife
Strength. Rhonas the Indomitable, the cobra-headed god of strength, teaches that the worthy shall hone a strong body that can endure throughout an endless life.
Ambition
Bontu the Glorified, the crocodile-headed god of ambition, teaches that the worthy shall strive for greatness, as supremacy will be rewarded in the afterlife.
Zeal
Hazoret the Fervent, the jackal-headed god of zeal, teaches that the worthy shall rush toward the afterlife with unhesitating fervor. Relentlessly, they will rise to overcome any obstacle in the way of earning a place at the God-Pharaoh's side.
Initiates who pass one of the trials are awarded a cartouche—a magical emblem they will take with them to the afterlife. The trials culminate in the Trial of Zeal, which is a combat to the death. Dying in this final battle is proof of worthiness, with a glorified death earning the initiate a place in the afterlife. The bodies of the slain are loaded onto funerary barges and sent through the Gate to the Afterlife. But this is not an end. Rather, it marks the beginning of the most wondrous part of an initiate's existence. Each looks forward to death in the final trial, hoping to find a glorious end at the hand of a close friend, so that together, they can live as Eternals in the afterlife with the God-Pharaoh. Forever.
People of Naktamun
The citizens of Amonkhet begin training for the trials of the five gods at a very young age. Children as young as five years old are invited to become acolytes—the first stage of their spiritual development. An annual ceremony serves as a rite of passage for these youths, marking the beginning of their journey toward the afterlife.
After completing their training and the construction of the obelisk that will be defended during the Trial of Solidarity, a crop of acolytes is finally prepared to stand before the five gods in the Ceremony of Measurement. Those who are judged worthy are asked to continue their journey toward the afterlife as the God-Pharaoh's initiates. Others are selected by individual gods to take an alternative route to the afterlife, becoming viziers in service to the gods. But some stand in the light of the two suns and are deemed unworthy of either course, lacking in the virtues necessary to secure entry into the afterlife. In particular, acolytes who doubt the God-Pharaoh's teachings or the way of life in Naktamun are culled from the crop and exiled from the city-state.
Your character's background can reflect the results of the Ceremony of Measurement.
- Initiate
- Initiate (Dissenter)
- Vizier
- Vizier (Dissenter)