An-Hepsu XI

An-Hepsu XI

(Person)

Aliases

Pharaoh of No Rain
Incorruptible Pharaoh
Lich Pharaoh

Titles

Pharaoh

Alignment

Neutral evil

Ancestry/Species

Human lich

Class

Cleric 18

Gender

Male

Homeland

Osirion

Deity

Nethys

Source: Osirion, Legacy of Pharaohs, pg(s). 50

Pharaoh An-Hepsu XI (also known as the Pharaoh of No Rain, the Lich Pharaoh, and the Incorruptible Pharaoh) ruled Osirion with unquestioned might from -2168 AR to -1768 AR. He is considered to be the mightiest pharaoh in Osirion's entire history, and under his reign, the country reached its nadir of decadence and instability before he was overthrown and imprisoned inside a secret tomb.

Background

Early life

As a young man, An-Hepsu XI was said to have travelled far into Garund to study the Aeromantic Infadibulum, an experience said to have instilled within him a limitless hunger for life and knowledge.

Undeath

The last of his dynastic line and likely unable to father children, An-Hepsu XI become obsessed with his mortality as he aged and sought to magically prolong his life, but even wish magic could only give him a few decades of youth. He then switched his study to mummification and necromancy, theorising that the mind could live forever when the body is still intact, and began transplanting the organs of younger people into himself, most of whom were still alive when the procedures were performed by his advisors. When these attempts stopped working, An-Hepsu XI began to mummify his skin and remove his organs. In the end, he turned himself into a lich.

An-Hepsu XI's undead condition was not suspected for another 80 years. Horrified, Osirion's people rebelled against him, but by this time, his magical might was too great for them.

Zelishkar

In -2044 AR, with the aid of the Rider of War Szuriel, An-Hepsu XI released the daemonic harbinger Zelishkar from the Labyrinth of Shiman-Sekh and unleashed him against a Shory flying city. However, he could not control the daemon, who managed to devastate several Osirian settlements before being re-imprisoned. This act would come to be seen as An-Hepsu XI's greatest error.

Downfall

An-Hepsu's rule only came to an abrupt end when his closest advisors and pupils united against him. Unable to destroy him, they cut his corpse into many pieces, sealed his mummified organs and body in separate, warded containers to prevent his regeneration or his otherworldly release, and hid them in different parts of his tomb. The Pyramid of An-Hepsu XI was then placed in a demiplane strongly connected to Creation's Forge to mitigate An-Hepsu XI's undead powers, while the entrance was hidden in the Pillars of the Sun, away from the royal necropoleis and the desert elementals. Finally, his assailants, except for Kemusar I, committed suicide in such a way that none could resurrect them and force them to reveal their former master's tomb.

Kemusar I then took the throne as crown regent, closed the entrance to his predecessor's pyramid, and forever hid it. He then arranged for his own tomb to disappear soon after his death, to destroy the last clues to An-Hepsu XI's resting place. In the following years, a number of angels and archons have sealed themselves away in the pyramid to ensure An-Hepsu XI never returns.

References

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.