Rakh-amn-hotep
Rakh-amn-hotep was a Priest King of the city of Rasetra in Nehekhara. [1a]
Cunning and savage, he was easily angered and when enraged became relentless. [1a]
Appearance
Short and stout with a blunt, pugnacious face, his left cheek scared from a lizardmens spear and a barrel chest. [1a]
Family
His son and heir was Shepret. [1m]
History
He was the first of his name to rule the then young city-state. [1a]
In -1750 IC, He and his ally, King Hekhmenukep of Lybaras went to war against the usurper king of Khemri, Nagash. They marched through the Valley of Kings, attempting to reach the Gates of the Dawn before Quatar could intercept them. [1a] King Nemuhareb however led his Tomb Guard to block them, initally clashing with the advance guard of light horsemen and driving them back before the Battle at the Gates of the Dawn truely began. [1b] The Lizard drawn chariots of Rasetra and the Tomb Scorpions of Lybaras destroyed the enemy army and cut off from the retreating remnants, the king of Quatar surrendered to the allied kings. [1c]
In -1744 IC he mustered every warrior he could as well as jungle beasts and with Hekhmenukep and his war mchines marched on Khemri, [1d] first travelling to Quatar by Lybaran sky-boat with an advance force. [1e] Attempting to reach the Springs of Eternal Life and its vital water, he defeated a larger defending army at the Battle at the Springs of Eternal Life but was then confronted by a second much larger army and had to order his exhausted warriors to retreat. [1f]
He returned with the rest of the allied armies and he and Hekhmenukep defeated a much larger army of Khemri, Numas and Zandri at the 2nd Battle at the Springs of Eternal Life. Only then did they discover that that the Usurper had filled the once silvery water of the Springs with rotting corpses, covering it with a scum of corruption and foulness. The airship they were travelling on was then attacked by a swarm of locusts under the control of Nagash and his immortals and crashed to the ground. [1g]
Both kings survived the crash, although the Lybaran king suffered a punctured lung from broken ribs. Rakh-mn-hotep was rescued by Ekhreb and a chariot rearguard and wearily ordered the retreat once more, trying to reach Quatar before they all died of thirst. [1h] Little of the once mighty combined army survived the march, with all the Lizardmen and their great beasts perishing.[1i]
Arriving at Quatar they quickly discovered that the dead had taken the city and once more they were forced to retreat, heading for Mahrak, hoping to reach it before the army of Nagash caught them. [1j] The King himself led the rearguard and as they withdrew beyond the range of the skeletal bowmen, he took an arrow to the throat. [1k] His men carried him to the Gates of the Dusk where priestesses of Asaph healed him and Nebunefer told him that Nagash enslavement of Neferem cut off the priests from the gods. The king ordered the retreat to Mahrak. [1l]
Four years later, in -1740 IC he gathered his army in the hills south-east of Mahrak - a pale shadow of what he could once field with every man he could gather. Lybaras had done the same under Hekhmenukep and the two old allies introduced their sons to each other. [1m]
Following victory at the Siege of Mahrak, he had 1000 men searching for the body of Nagash before joing the other kings marching on Khemri. As they prepared to breach the Black Pyramid, King Amn-nasir warns him that King Lamashizzar should not be trusted. A swarm of insects flew out of sarcophagus of Nagash as it is opened, leaving it empty. Rakh-amn-hotep then marched on to liberate Ka-Sabar. [1n]
Retinue
Weapons and Armour
Often at war, he wore a thick shirt of lizard hide, a heavy kilit of cotton, overlaid by cured Thunder Lizard hide. [1a]
Sources
- 1: Rise of Nagash (anthology) by Mike Lee, Book 1: Nagash the Sorcerer
- 1a: A Storm out of the East, pg. 75-77
- 1b: A Storm out of the East, pg. 75-77
- 1c: A Storm out of the East, pg. 84-85
- 1d: Tidings of War, pg. 133
- 1e: The Game of Kings, pg. 137-141
- 1f: Chapter Sixteen: The Creeping Darkness, pg. 191-198
- 1g: Chapter Nineteen: Blood and Water, pg. 218-229
- 1h: Chapter Twenty: The Long, Bitter Road, pg. 236-239
- 1i: Chapter Twenty Three: The White Gates, pg. 264
- 1j: Chapter Twenty Five: The Road of Bones, pg. 287-289
- 1k: Chapter Twenty Five: The Road of Bones, pg. 292
- 1l: Chapter Twenty Six: The City of the Gods, pg. 298-304
- 1m: Chapter Twenty Nine: The Lord of the Dead Lands, pg. 342-345
- 1n: Epilogue, pg. 371-377
