Guide to Mummies

What are Mummies?

Mummies are a type of supernatural creature in the World of Darkness. The ones you probably know are the Amenti, the Mummies created with the Spell of Life. There are four types of Mummies you can play. The Egyptian Amenti, the traitorous Bane Mummies, the rogue Ishmaelites, who broke from Horus but refused to serve Aophis, and the Cabiri, those taught by the Ishmaelites that formed their own path in Greece.

Unlike Vampires, Mummies are creatures of life and vitality. They are creatures that dedicate themselves to a cause. They learn much faster than Vampires, often opposing them, as Servants of the monstrous Set, the traitorous uncle of Horus. The Setites are the greatest enemies to the Amenti, and they must ready themselves against them. The Undying are enemies of Apophis, a great beast of destruction that threatens to corrupt all of creation. The vampires are some of their greatest champions, and you stand outnumbered and vulnerable. But you can take back the lands the vampiric servants of corruption took from Balance.

In Princes of Darkness, you can play the Mummies by going to the 1230 Inquisition Bookmark, which has them placed in several locations. The Amenti are in Upper Egypt, in the Southern Nile to the south of Nubia, the Ishmaelites along the North-Western African Coast, the Cabiri in Naissos in Bulgaria, and the Bane Mummies hidden in the Steppes, in the Kingdom of Zhetysu. There is also the option to create your own mummy, of one of these 4 groups of Immortals.

Playing Mummies

Mummies, like Vampires, are ageless creatures, but they can still be destroyed. Instead of the Embrace, the Mummies have the Spell of Life, a powerful spell that costs 10000 piety if you are playing as Horus or Cabirus, that makes the prospective mortal an eternal mummy, but otherwise, you are very few in number. However, unlike vampires, you are still fertile. You can have biological children, but these children will be mortal. If you are killed, you can even come back to life! Mortals will be key to expanding your power base, as Neteru. You can make mortals your Neteru based on your personality, or your biological children will follow you as Neteru.

Sekhem

Sekhem is the Vampiric equivalent of Blood. You regenerate it at a slow pace every month (Mummy Duchy Buildings do not affect this), and is the main source of power for your abilities. With it, you can heal wounds, give yourself buffs, manipulate the weather, use true name powers, summon animals, and shapechange. This reservoir of spiritual energy is critical for your more powerful effects, and can be game changing if used correctly. However, in order to regenerate it, you have to be in the heartlands of old power, the Lands of Faith, which is Northern Africa, the Middle East, and the Ancient Persian Heartlands. For the Cabiri, you can generate Sekhem in Anatolia and Europe.

Sekhem exists on a scale of 10 to -9. 10 is the max you can hold, and is drawn from as you use your abilities. Different abilities use different amounts of Sekhem. If you go into the negatives, your body begins to deteriorate, which is represented as health penalties. If you hit -9, you have drawn too much, and you will die. Be careful!

Lifestyles

Mummies learn faster than Vampires. Instead of Disciplines, you have 6 trees of abilities. The smallest of these trees has 32 perks! A sufficiently old mummy can be a terrifying foe. Most of them offer modifiers similar to vampiric disciplines, but are a bit more varied in scope. Additionally, all Mummies have access to their 6 trees, and thus, your choice of mummy won’t have lost access to any content.

The Lifestyles of the Undying

Mummies have 6 lifestyle trees, and they are as follows:*

Alchemy, the Magic of Understanding how things are and how they’re made.

Amulets, the Magic of wards of power and using talismans for magical means.
Celestial, the Magic of Weather, fate, and the stars, and manipulation thereof.
Effigy, the Magic of symbols and the flow of powers through dedicated figurines.
Necromancy, the Magic of the Underworld and the flow of souls.
Nomenclature, the Magic of true names and the power they hold over others.

Each of these lifestyles represent the powers Mummies can wield. The perks each tree has ranges from modifiers, unlocking duel moves, special abilities, new interactions, and new terrifying abilities. The most experienced mummy you can be in the mod is Horus himself, the Egyptian God of Kemet itself, the greatest of the mummies. However, given time, your very own custom mummy might rise above and become the greatest champion of balance, or possibly the worst evil unleashed by Apophis. The possibilities are immense, and an experienced mummy can put even a Master Methuselah to shame in battle.

Buildings

Like Inquisitors, Vampires, and Kuei-Jin, Mummies have their own unique lines of buildings. There are 5 as of writing, as well as a line of duchy buildings. These buildings are different then the ones vampires have access to. Mummies don’t need to worry about things like the Masquerade or Blood, and thus, work a little differently.

The 5 main buildings you have access to are as follows:*

Mortal Army, which represents your martial mortal followers, which increases Levvies and Damage your Men at Arms do, with static and percentage bonuses.

Sets of Worshippers, which represents your mortal cult, increasing your tax income, control growth, popular opinion, and piety.
Comprador Residence, which are the vampires that have sided with you and where they reside, giving you additional piety and prestige based on knights, and increasing their effectiveness.
Tomb, where you reform your body where it might be destroyed (what is a self respecting mummy without their pyramid!), which increases Fort Level, Defender Advantage, Garrison, and the damages and toughness of certain Men at Arms.
Legacy, your mark on the mortal world, which increases taxes, prestige, and renown.

Finally, instead of Princedoms, in the duchies of the Lands of Faith, you have access to the powerful web of faith, a lattice of spiritual energy that spans the Middle East, Northern Africa, Eastern Africa, and Persia.

Like Princedoms, the Webs of Faith are incredibly valuable. From building construction to development, to personal bonuses and duchy wide effects, the Webs of Faith do it all. Duchy Capitals are thus very important sites for mummies to hold. Holding and upgrading these fonts of power are going to be the subject of numerous wars, as you do everything you can to take and hold these precious zones of power.

The Powers of the Hekau

Hekau, or the lifestyle powers you have, open up a whole new avenue of crafting. Mummies are industrious and ingenious, and don’t need inspiration to let forth their creative energy. As such, once you have the relevant perks in their respective lifestyles, you can make artifacts, called Effigies, Amulets, and you can perform rites of Alchemy. You will see them available once you have the right perk in the Decisions tab.

When crafting, you may first choose from materials. Higher quality materials will yield you better results, at certain costs.

Effigies

are functionally courtiers that are bound to you, servitors to your will. They can perform different functions and other tasks, and you can use them to mimic others and gain access to their skills in your court. Effigies are grayed out mortals, usually innocent, and can be quite usefl depending on what you want them for.

Amulets

Amulets are artifacts you can create. They offer bonuses based on what perks you have and what you invest in them. Like effigies, you can be quite versatile with them, and you can gain quite a lot of different tricks with them. As with effigies, you will get more functionality as you better understand the Amulet Lifestyle, and further grow what you can do with this master of artifice.

Here is a list of amulets you can make

Amulet Modifiers

Alchemy

is just as versatile. You choose materials, and then you make several skill tests (Learning), as you perform several rituals to make alchemical products.

What you gain can vary, but you can get quite a few products from the get go. The quality of these items will depend on the materials and the results of your test, and once completed, you will be told what items you got. Then, when you right click on your character, you will see ‘Use Alchemical Product’ under Mummy. Clicking on that will tell you what products you have, and then each one will tell you what modifiers they give you. Most last for 3 years once used, and you can stockpile them. Say you want someone assassinated, use a dangerous poison beforehand to increase your odds. If you’re hurting for gold, you can also sell them to other rulers, using your alchemical knowledge to bolster your economy.

Celestial

Magic is your ability to divine the stars and manipulate weather. Mummies may seem a bit silly with their bandages and their unusual d4s in the deserts, but vampires stop laughing when a swarm of meteors destroy their haven!

Based on learning and with the expenditure of Sekhem, you can unleash some truly horrifying effects on your enemies. Your magic is usually going to be aimed at an enemy realm, but more experienced Mummies can perform terrifying feats of global destruction. You make a learning test, and then your target is hit with a debuff based on the power you chose. You get access to more through the Celestial Lifestyle.

Necromancy

is your understanding of death and souls. It can be used similar to how vampires use Wraiths, but as a living creature, you have access to an even greater aspect of the Umbra, the Spiritual Worlds

Above the Royal Court Icon, there will be a symbol of two crescents, and that is the Umbra. Once you have developed yourself in Necromancy, you can step into the Umbra and explore all it has to offer for yourself.

Nomenclature

is the magic of names. You can learn them through decisions and practice pronunciation. Learning them isn’t like learning a language, but rather the mastery of their ‘ren’ , the essence of their name.

For learning the ren, there will be an option under mummies for the relevant true name. For example, learning Tree’s ren gives Horus access to the Tree option in ‘Asking the Trees’, allowing me to invoke the true name for a buff.

True Names can also be used more deviously, for various abilities. You will need to scheme against them, depending on intrigue. Once you learn their true name, it gives you a hook you can use for a variety of things, based on the perks you have.

The Endgames

Mummies have a Major Decision based on the type that they are. The type of mummy you are will determine what Decision that is. This means the religion and type of mummy you are determines the bigger Decisions you can make as a Ruler.

The Shemsu-Heru, those loyal to Horus and starting in Alwa, will have their major decision surrounding the reclamation of Kemet, and taking the land back from the foul Setites. The Ishmaelites, political breakaways against Horus, will need to maintain good terms with their vassals and prevent natural disasters in order to finish theirs. The Cabiri are much the same, but they also lose the enmity of the Shemsu-Heru, proving themselves to be Wardens of Balance. Finally, Bane Mummies complete their Major Decision by living up to their destiny as the chosen monsters of Apophis, by despoiling all those before you, and embracing the cataclysms Apophis desires.