The Ptolemaic Empire
Form of Government	Theocratic Monarchy
Official language	Egyptian
Capital	Alexandria, Geb
Head of State and Commander-in-Chief	King Ptolemy MCII
Legislative Branch	High Priests of Infinity
Formed from	The Egyptian Empire/The Greek Empire
Establishment	334 BC
Founding Document	The Book of the Dead
Currency	Gold
National Holiday	Festival of the Fishermen

The Children of the Nile, or The Ptolemaic Empire are the descendants of the ancient Egyptians in an alternate timeline. They are a massive empire, its colonies extending across their galaxy, although they are one of very few species to inhabit their galaxy. They used hyperdrive engines until a few years ago when a major development in quantum replacement allowed them to travel to the Star Wars Galaxy where they conquered the Rak Sector because it was an easy target and because of the massive amounts of yridium in the system.

They use a dating system based on the founding of Alexandria, their capital city on their Geb. AA being Ante Alexandriam, or Before Alexandria, and PA being Post Alexandriam or After Alexandria.

ALSO SEE: Ptolemaic Law, Ptolemaic Ship Classes, Ptolemaic Ground Forces

__Pre-Hyperdrive History__

The Egyptians, a long established empire, was conquered by Alexander the Great, a Greek Macedonian, in 2 AA. After founding the great city of Alexandria, he put his cousin Ptolemy in power. This first Ptolemy would eventually be succeeded by a long line of rulers, all named either Ptolemy, Alexander, Cleopatra, Berenice, or Arsinoe.

Ptolemy XII became a puppet of the Roman government in 254 PA, and left his empire to his son and daughter, Ptolemy XIII and Cleopatra VII. The ensuing civil war between brother and sister became of great interest to the Romans, who attempted to use the strife to overthrow the established government. However, when Caesar attempted to bring the two feuding siblings together, Ptolemy XIII tricked them into entering a room together, unarmed and alone, and having them both killed. In the ensuing chaos, Ptolemy's forces destroyed the Romans and the rag-tag group of Cleopatra's followers.

After a short battle with some leftover Roman legions in Africa, the Egyptian forces moved north across the Mediterranean and sacked Rome, burning everything and pulling every building to the ground. To prevent a reformation of Rome, they salted the surrounding Italian farmland, and covered the Appian Way with sod.

The Egyptians continued to conquer, using genocide when diplomacy and subduing did not work. The Egyptians used germ warfare against the Kelts, Irish, and Anglos, who refused to be conquered. For example, under Queen Arsinoe IX, they brought bodies of those who had died of Ebola (which was dealt with after the conquering of sub-saharan Africe) and put them in all the major drinking water sources for the entirety of the British Isles.

In less brutal fashion, King Alexander V conquered the Chinamen in 783 PA with careful wording in a treaty. The Chinese Emperor accidentally signed a document handing over singular trade rights with Egypt, and they starved him out until he ceded his entire empire to the Egyptians.

After slow and calculated conquering, the Children of the Nile put an iron grip on the Geb, their planet. With a mass intellectual marketplace and a highly capitalist society, the industrial age came quickly, and the digital age soon after that. Following the digital age was the genetic age. Massive leaps were made in genetic engineering, and the upper eschelons of society stopped being born, but were produced through perfect genetic blending. Also, the Children of the Nile no longer needed slaves to be conquered - they bred their own. This led to a golden age of civil liberties for the common people. With slaves doing all the difficult labor for the nationalized base industries (mining, textile fabrication, etc.) and the upper government ruled by genetic masterpieces, the natural-borns became the merchant class, obtaining raw material from the government and using them for goods.

The economic system for the Ptolemaics is under a very different social contract. The government is responsible for extracting raw materials, even food, and providing them to the distributors. The distributors then keep construction workers building, doctors seeing patients, and academies producing new technologies. The government would give a newly registered business one free shipment of materials, but each new one would cost the business. The cost would be directly proportionate to its ratio of return to the community.

This kind of supportive capitalism kept the people of Geb content, but comptetive.

__Space-Age Ptolemaics__

After developing hyperdrive, the Children of the Nile began colonizing other planets. First the moon, then Mars, and then expanding to the much more vast expanse of space. After developing new colonies on terraformed planets across the galaxy, the Children came upon their first extra-terrestrial nemesis, the Ahrimaen. The Ahrimaen were vicious monster-creatures with biological ships. The Children had very little weaponry, not expecting to face a serious opponent, but soon developed Graviton Guns, AZ Torpedoes, and advanced shielding. The ensuing war was probably due to miscommunication, and who fired first is unknown, but the Children managed to fend off the Ahrimaen and continue expanding.

After a series of minor civil skirmishes with local populations on colony worlds, Queen Arsinoe CXVI captured the cityship HSS Seth and escaped into space, raiding colonies lyoal to the King and attacking lone starships for their goods. Condemned as a pirate and rebel by the King, the Queen still holds a decent following.

The most significant thing about her capture of the HSS Seth is that the Seth was testing a new quantum replacement technology, allowing one to move an entire ship, one even the full two-miles long of the Seth, to any place in the universe in an instant, with any trip taking exactly the same energy expenditure. The only catch was that you had to know where you were going before you went there.

Attempting to track the Queen on her cityship, the King's fleets began expanding on one of the older prototypes. The subsequent tests sent several ships to the Star Wars Galaxy. After perfecting the technology, the ships were recovered, but the King decided to divert attention away from the Queen, who had not been seen in a few months, to begin expansion in the newly discovered galaxy.

__In the Star Wars Galaxy__

The Children of the Nile, under the leadership of their three Generals, General Hapu, General Osaze, and General Ebo, a collection of Ptolemaic warships invaded a poverty-stricken region called the Rak Sector, inhabited by The Gorn and Sluagh Empire. They made short work of the most obivously populous species, the Gorn, and the Sluagh committed mass suicide rather than be destroyed by the Children. The three Generals began colonizing Rak 4, which they dubbed New Egypt, and reformatting Space Station Rak.

Shortly after their conquest, however, the Dread Conglomerate engaged the flagships of King Ptolemy, claiming the Rak Sector for themselves, and in the ensuing battle the two forces saw that they were equally matched. The war, although not formally over, was postponed.

The King has come for an extended stay in the new colony onboard the HHS Ammut, and has begun talking to representatives of the Tragolite Federation, as well as the Imperial Remnant leader Supreme Commander Kael.

__Cults and Military__

The theological center of the Empire is the Divine Gods of Infinity, who are Anubis, Osiris, and Thoth. The three individual cults each have one head, a General. That General has the appearance of their patron god, thanks to genetic engineering. These Generals have no ranking amongst themselves, they are equals. They are, together, the High Preists of Infinity.

• Anubis

In the year 600 PA the cult of Anubis shifted from purely embalming to become more focused on justice, particularly moral, from Anubis's position in the afterlife of weighing the hearts of men. More and more, the police and judges of Alexandria became followers of the cult of Anubis, and this gave Anubis the status of enforcer of heavenly laws. King Ptolemy XVIII was an incarnation of Anubis, and was known for his strict moral laws. The cult became so powerful that for a brief period in 952-976 PA, Queen Arsinoe VII (an incarnation of Anubiset, the female form of Anubis) made it the only religion of the Egyptian Empire, paralleling Amenhotep's attempt with the god Ra 965 AA.

The Anubian fleet's main responsibility is defense of the Ptolemaic Empire, which occasionally takes them into the battlefield on the offensive, so they are very well armed.

• Osiris

Osiris was once considered the King of Gods, an almost Jupiter figure, until the death of King Ptolemy X in 352 PA, when his cult lost status. Ptolemy XV, son of King Ptolemy XIII and his sister-wife Arsinoe IV (who succeeded her sister Cleopatra VII, after being assassinated by her former brother-husband Ptolemy XIII), was not an incarnate of Osiris as many expected, but instead of Ra. For a while, the Lord of the Dead, Osiris, was just a mummy god, almost a demonic, feared figure for his close association with death. But the Cult of Osiris made a comeback in 494 PA, when he became the uniter God, not exactly all-encompassing, and not a King among Gods, but a negotiator, a friend to all, and one whose words were sometimes hurtful, but always honest. Many followers of other cults saw Osiris as a lesser god, but after the great Egyptian Civil War of 2000 PA, another Pharaoh was incarnated from Osiris, and he reunited the fragments of the Egyptian Empire. From this, Osiris became a unifying symbol of Egypt, not powerful by himself, but calling upon the power of the other Gods. Thus the Divine Gods of Infinity were born of Osiris uniting the brash and violent Anubis, and the wise and thoughtful Thoth.

The Osiran fleet's main responsibility is filling the gaps in the other two fleets, the Thothian and Anubian, which means often cargo hauling, extended diplomacy, settling newly explored territory, and aiding the other Generals in any campaigns.

• Thoth

The Cult of Thoth has always been respected in the Royal Palace, the scribes and wisemen all belonging to the cult. But it wasn't until King Alexander V (an incarnate of Thoth) conquered the Chinamen in 783 PA with careful wording in a treaty, that Thoth became a deity of Government. Since then, Thoth has not only been a God of wisdom and writing, but also of dominion through superior intellect. Followers of the Cult of Thoth were instrumental in the development of advanced weaponry when fighting the Ahrimaen, and in developing the quantum replacement engines now used to conquer vast tracts of space. In most civilizations, science is a peaceful practice, wanting only to explore. But the science of the Children is such as to obtain a certain goal, which makes Thothians very dangerous.

The Thothian fleet's main responsibility is exploration and expansion of the Empire, which forces them often into unknown combat situations, but they them the most flexible fleet in the galaxy and are known for their cunning use of technology for purposes other than that prescribed.

__Notable Children of the Nile__

• King Ptolemy MCII
• General Hapu
• General Osaze
• General Ebo
• Arsinoe CXVI

__Extra-Galactic Fleet Registry__