Deshermet

Nation Profile
Description	The Eternal Kingdom
Government	De Jure Pharonic Monarchy, De Facto Sepatarchy
Real World Inspiration	Ancient Egypt
Other Names
Geography
Location	Inland, southwest of the basin
Largest City	Inej-Sat (The Great Cataract)
Demography
Demonym	Desh, Deshermen
Population	around 8 million
Languages	Desh, Halfling
Races and Ethnicities	Deshermen (humans), Desh halflings(Lightfoot Halflings), Scaly Elves(Wood Elves)
Religion	Desh Pantheon
Currency	Deben

Nation Overview

Society

Culture

Deshermet is an intensely lawful and religious society. The most fundamental concept in their society is that of Geh, a state of universal order which must be maintained in order for the land and people to prosper. This extends to the literal laws of the land which are seen as holy commandments handed down from the gods, but also to the societal and social organization of the land. A sekhti(Commoner) is a sekhti because he is meant to be and must dutifully carry out the responsibilities of that position. Even into the afterlife they will remain in that position, working the endless fields of a spiritual mirror of the living world alongside their entire family line for all time. The same applies to those at all levels of their rigorous hierarchy from slave to pharaoh.

This society is thoroughly feudal with strongly defined classes and little opportunity for mobility. The main exception to this rule are the many influential cults that exist in Desh society. Cults in Desh society are more than just religious organizations; they also act as guilds that perform and administrate different professions. For example, as the goddess of healing, Shepnet's acts as a sort of doctor's guild. Training, connecting, and representing the interests of the medical professionals of Deshermet. Most Deshermen are a member of a cult, this doesn't mean they shun the other gods or that they need to be a member of whatever professions their cult sponsers. More that they consider themselves to have a special relationship and special responsibilities to a particular deity, and are accepted into the orginization by the cult hierarchy. Commoners find one of their only means of societal advancement in cult membership, either through gaining a position of prominence in one of the cults favored by the common folk or by being accepted into a higher class cult that will make them an artisan or tradesmen. It is up to the cult to accept them or not however, and there are a limited number of spots.

Though they don't necessarily understand or interpret all of their history accurately Desh people are proud of their long legacy of civilization and take pride in being Deshermen. This strong idea of culture is defined in opposition to those who are not Desh, the people of the desert. Scaly Elves, Necromancers, Bandits heathens and criminals. The desert is a land of those who the Desh have excluded from their society. The great threat held over each citizens head by the government and the greatest punishment by their laws is exile to the desert. Those that are banished to the desert are shunned, forced into desperate acts such as banditry to survive, and according to the Desh religion damned to wander the desert eternally as a mournful ghost after death. The fear of this exclusion and of the desperate exiles in the desert keep most Desh people in line.

They have a particular fixation on the condition of their bodies after death. To the Deshermen the afterlife is a spiritual mirror of the living world. That which is ruined here can only cast a pale shadow there and thusly they put much effort into preserving their bodies. Those of high status build elaborate tombs and have their bodies mummified so that they enter the afterlife in tact and with an extravagant collection of their possessions. Poorer citizens have much more humble burials, an important possession or two and a single canopic jar for the organs. Most important of all is the heart which must be preserved lest the deceased become a terrible have no way to get into the afterlife and rise again as a terrible heartless undead. The place of death matters also, to reach the Desh afterlife one must be buried in Deshermet, other lands leave them beholden to other gods. Worst case of all is for the body to be lost in the desert, causing the deceased to become a lost spirit wandering the desert in an eternal tortured search for a salvation which does not exist. Fittingly, the worst crimes in Desh society are those related to desecration of the dead such as grave robbery or, most unspeakable of crimes, necromancy.

Government

The government of Deshermet is a centralized monarchy lead by a divine Pharaoh. The Pharaoh and the many ministers, advisors, and scribes who live with them in the royal palace function as the highest level of government. Handing down unquestionable rulings and decrees to the people of the realm. Below that the realm is divided into provinces, called Sepats, that are ruled by a Headman and land owning lords who take care of the day to day business of running the area. Cults also play a role in governance as influential organizations representing the interests of different groups of the general populace. Various duties have over the years been delegated to cults and they function sometimes like political parties for the underclasses.

In practice today the Desh government is a mess. There is no pharaoh, the last one died decades ago and has not been replaced. The realm is united only in name. De facto it is divided between the various Sepats and their Headmen who, more like warlords than governors, struggle against each other for power. Perhaps hoping to become the next Pharoh. Within the palace the government is a tangled web of officials and committees and rules that have grown over thousands of years of Desh history that no one person really understands. Like the warring Headmen the officials in the palace struggle against each other for influence, neglecting key tasks of governance. The cults are perhaps the most stable institutions in the land, picking up the slack and taking over more responsibilities to hold the land together but also spreading themselves so thin they have little ability to do much else. The Government of Deshermet today is a headless chicken flailing against itself in internecine conflicts and waiting for the seemingly inevitable collapse.

Inhabitants

Desh people are as old as the land they live upon, generations have lived and died in the same place doing the same jobs. An immensely agrarian nation, most of its people are farmers or do work in some way related to farming. The large surplus' of food the people generate every year have also lead to Deshermet having a comparatively massive population to other nations. Rivermen and fishermen who work the great River Iru are also quite common jobs for the common person. Most Deshermen live along the river's banks in farming settlements or great cities, arteries along a great life giving vein. In the cities you can find craftsman and artisans transforming the crops grown in the countryside and ferried by river to them into all varieties of goods. For instance the linen that makes up most of their loose, desert friendly, attire. Amoung the lower classes its common to go shirtless or even mostly nude during the hot working day.

Immensely religious, its normal for a person to have a particular god they consider to be their patron or to join one of the many religious cults in the nation(You do not have to be a cleric or other divined themed class to do this, it's a mundane thing to them). Arcane spellcasting and Psionics are rare here, magic is almost solely the realm of clerics and divine casters. Fighters and Rangers are the most common martial classes, especially practitioners of the most honored martial art in Deshermet: Archery. While the pride themselves on their bows Deshermet is a land with scarce ore reserves and in close quarters they make use mostly of wooden weapons like clubs or weapons that take little metal like spears, axes, and maces. Swords are very rare and mostly only wielded by the wealthy as a status symbol.

Besides the humans there are two other humanoid races one might encounter in Deshermet.

Halflings are considered equal members of society, so much that the term 'Deshermen' is understood by locals to include both human and halfling people of the state. They live throughout the country but are most concentrated around Inej-Sat the capital and a few other cities that were traditionally the seats of the largest Halfling clans. In fact Inej-Sat only became the capital during the 16th dynasty of 'little pharaohs', Halflings who rose to the highest position in the land. They tend to be more enthusiastic about spending time in the, admittedly dangerous, great river. Fishing, swimming, and ferrying people across in their river boats. Halflings are also the only ones capeble of riding the small horses native to Deshermet in the saddle, Humans are for the most part relegated to riding in chariots and carriages drawn by horse rather than on their back.

The other race are the Scaly Elves(wood elves mechanically). Originally they were the protectors of vast forests that covered Deshermet in ancient times. But those forests were swallowed by the desert and in a climactic battle with the forces of the great enemy, Yapyimayet, the elves betrayed the humans and halflings they had formerly stood in solidarity with. Gaining temporary domination over the land, but being cursed with scaly skin that burns and peels in the harsh sunlight of their homeland and forever making them an enemy to their former friends. Eventually the Deshermen reorganized and smashed the Elven dominion, repaying their treachery with interest. The survivors of the massacre that followed fled into the desert, swearing eternal vengeance on the Deshermen. Desperate and enraged they doubled down on their devotion to dark gods and dark powers. Scaly Elves today consort with monsters like Yuan-Ti and practice necromancy among other unnatural and evil magicks. They are the anti-thesis to the society of order along the River Iru, Desert dwellers dedicated to Yapyimayet and the destruction of Deshermet.

Geography

Climate

Deshermet is a sun baked land where, as the people say, water comes up from the ground rather than falling from above.

Ecology

The red silt of the River Iru are rich and make things grow plentiful and strong. Without many other natural resources worth anything Deshermet invests most of its labour in developing their land and growing crops. Dates, Pomegranates, Olives, and watermelon are some of the favorite foodstuffs grown alongside industrial crops like flax and papyrus. More than anything else the people of Deshermet are the world's foremost Grainiacs. Every year their farms produce mountains of barley, sorghum, wheat, and other cereal crops. Supporting the growth of a massive population and, in the days when trade existed, giving them their main export. They have domesticated several species such as donkeys, oxen, and goats. The horses of Deshermet are smaller and weaker than the work and war horses of other nations, they are still helpful but can manage only a halfling rider in most cases. Traditionally Griffons, while not domesticated, have had a close relationship with the people here. Griffon riders feature in many heroic tales and they are considered holy animals. No griffon has allowed a rider in living memory however, and it seems that they have forsaken the people.

The wide desert is much larger than the populated riverland and is filled with fierce wildlife and monsters. Venomous snakes and scorpions, Dire Jackals, ant-lions, basilisks, and all manner of other terrible desert creatures fight over scraps in a zero sum ecosystem. Yuan-Ti, gnolls, and exiled men set ambushes and plot raids into the fertile land. Besides the rare oasis, there is little water and almost no shelter from the elements. Desert Flora exists but is small and uncommon. The desert is massive, barren, and dangerous. Only the bravest or most foolish dare to cross it. There are hunters who set out to take rare game but this is a job for only the most desperate or committed of Deshermen.

Landscape

Deshermet is a vast land, but the majority of it is inhospitable desert wasteland. The river Iru flows from the mountains in the west across the desert and eventually down into the foreign lands of Lunda and Ngonda. The banks of the river, fed every year by floods that bring a fresh layer of fertile dark red silt, are so filled with life it's as if an entire land's vitality had been concentrated into one narrow strip of land. Grasses and reeds overgrow the muddy red banks in places, in others rows upon rows of evenly plowed earth stretch as far as the eye can sea along the banks. The river has several notable cataracts where waterfalls and rapids churn the water white and create rainbows with their spray. These cataracts have made navigating back up the river immensely difficult for the peoples to the south and protected the land in times when diplomacy with the Lundans and Ngondans has soured.

History

Deshermet is an old nation with a long long history. 26 Dynasties of holy god kings have reigned in the fertile slice of land that cuts through the vast desert and maintained the holy natural order, Geh. Once the land was green and bursting with life but an ancient crime destroyed the Geh of that era and allowed the creation of Yapyimayet, the great serpent. Yapyimayet is the ultimate enemy of the Deshermen, a deity of pure malice and chaos devoted to the destruction of Geh. They have been locked in conflict with it for their entire history. At the definitive battle of the first age, when the great heroes and gods of the green land had their chance to slay Yapyimayet and maybe return things to the way they had been, the elves betrayed their allies and turned the victory into a rout where those great men and gods died. The sun itself was swallowed by the great serpent and the dying land was taken over by the elves as humans and halflings were split and scattered to the ends of the land What followed was an era of darkness ended only when the great heros Kesmer and Ahakh brought the people together again and through many adventures and campaigns reclaimed the land from the elves, created the great river Iru which sustained life in part of the land, and brought back the sun from the belly of the beast.

That is considered the founding of the first dynasty and since then have been 26 dynasties of history. The people have built great, things, fought great wars, and grown their cities to sizes unheard of in previous times. But the great serpent was never defeated. Some say it never can be. Its followers enact dark plots throughout the land and it's said that one day a third final battle with the forces of chaos will come to decide the land's fate. The time of heroes was long ago. Today there is no Pharaoh to protect Geh. Warlords squabble while common people struggle. Priests of the river god measure that Iru grows shallower each year, sandstorms and insect plagues grow more frequent, Griffons no longer let men ride them. Some say the final battle comes and there is no great host to meet the foe.

The Eternal Kingdom is watching the last grains of sand slip through it's hourglass.

Religion

Deshermet Pantheon

Deity 1

Describe the deity here. Ideally, a player should be able to create a character who follows this diety from the description written here.
What is this deity like? How does it fit into the greater cosmology of this pantheon? Who are its allies and enemies?
What do its followers believe? Do they dislike certain religions or alignments? How would a devoted follower properly honor this god?

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