The world left behind by the mighty sun god, Ra, soon teeters on the brink of war and destruction. It turns out that the Neteru are just as human--and flawed--as are the humans themselves, and without some sort of divine intervention, their world may not make it. The thing is...what form will divine intervention take...and could it possibly end up destroying the world anyway...?
Osiris, grandson of Ra, may be a god in blood but feels himself closer to the mortals; he takes it upon himself to try to restore order to the chaotic remnants of their society, and Kemet enters a new golden age. But golden ages never last forever...especially when the seeds of chaos, corruption, and hate lie hidden within one's own family...
STORY DETAILS
Storyline Creation Date:
Idea: 1980s
First known writing: circa 1988
Stories:
The King Kuts series (complete/WIP)
Osiris (WIP)
Horus (complete)
Kingdom Of The Hawk (unwritten)
The Rebel Prince (unwritten)
City Of The Sun (WIP)
Tales Of Kemet (complete/WIP)
The Ameni Chronicles (WIP)
The Ameni Chronicles: Related Tales (complete/WIP)
Antakh Of The Apsiu (Rewrite) (WIP)
Various adult novellas/short stories/scenes (complete/WIP)
CONTENT WARNINGS
I can't cover for every objectionable topic that may emerge in this storyline. Although the majority falls between PG and PG-13, the Ameni Chronicles spinoff is hard NC-17, and there is potential for future R-rated content.
Generic warnings: Mild adult language, adult dialogue, adult situations, violence. (See the Ameni Chronicles page for warnings specific to that story.)
More specific warnings: This is a storyline set in ancient Egypt and based on mythology. The Egyptians practiced royal incest, so this is considered normal in the story. There are cultural/mythological references to violence (e. g., fratricide), religious practices, warfare, criminal punishments, slavery, etc. As the lifespan was shorter, women often had children in their teens, and polygamy was also practiced.
Although I will post NO GRAPHIC CONTENT on this site (my content here should remain PG-13 and below), there is lots of mention of such things in character profiles and world information. Here's an attempted partial list of trigger/content warnings: Reference to and casual treatment of sexual harassment and assault. Vulgar/offensive language. Child abuse. Torture. Religious themes. Suicide and suicidal ideation. References to trauma and mental illness, including outdated terms and methods of treatment. Prostitution. Slavery. LGBT+ themes. Domestic violence. Implied dominant/submissive relationships. Alcohol and drug use/abuse/addiction. Classism/class discrimination. Execution and mass murder. Physical/medical injury/disability. Sexual discussion/language/innuendo. Animal death. Miscarriage. Arranged marriage. Implied sexual fetishes. Other possible warnings I'm forgetting.
DISCLAIMERS
This is a storyline (partly anthropomorphic) set in ancient Egypt and largely based on Egyptian mythology. While it makes heavy reference to actual customs and beliefs, much is also artistic license. The gods and myths as they're presented here should not be taken as an accurate representation or source of information on ancient Egyptian belief.
Additional disclaimer: King Kuts is a trademark of the Quaker Oats Company. Back in the late 1980s I wrote a letter to the company, requesting permission to use him as a character in my stories; amazingly, the company wrote back granting my request, as long as the stories were for personal use and I made no profit off of them. Granted, this occurred decades ago, I've since lost the letter, and the legal situation may have changed since then. As well, certain other characters in this storyline are based on real people, but are not intended to be accurate representations of said people.
STORYLINE HISTORY/INSPIRATION
Around 1986, my mother and I first saw a commercial for a dog food called "King Kuts." I recall that I knew enough to say, "Egyptian dogs," when the little cartoons first appeared on the screen; then we both laughed hysterically when the song began. However, the seeds were planted, and I started thinking about the funny little dancing Egyptian dog and coming up with ideas for him and his friends. Some time later while pestering my father in the kitchen, he told me, in exasperation, to go write a story. I left the room, picked up a notepad, and started writing. After a while I returned to my dad with it half filled and he exclaimed, "I told you to write a story, not a novel!" That story was called King Kuts--and it was the start of me taking writing seriously. Although I'd written plenty of stories before then, I recall this moment, at age eleven, as being the time when I finally settled on wanting to write--and not only wanting to write, but wanting to write series stories, one after another, seemingly without end. This habit continues to the present day. I think at heart I've just always been a series writer, and the fact that the King Kuts series ran for five completed (and several unfinished) books, plus spinning off various related stories, proves this. As a result, I feel I owe the entire body of my writing to the viewing of a dog food commercial.
My interest in the rather juvenile King Kuts stories faded over time, but in addition to spurring my interest in writing, this spurred my interest in ancient Egypt and Egyptian mythology in particular. Among the early books I wrote were retellings of the Horus and Osiris myths. Parts of these still exist among my childhood writing, in all their ridiculous and anachronistic glory, but in the Nineties I outlined and completely rewrote Horus as one of a proposed set of at least four novels. (The others--Osiris, Kingdom Of The Hawk, and The Rebel Prince--have not been written, though Osiris was outlined and partly written.) This interest persisted for years, and in the Nineties I wrote a lengthy series of short stories/novellas entitled City Of The Sun, various "original myths" that I made up myself concerning the Egyptian gods. After coming online in 2000, I decided to redo these stories (a few of them being incorporated into Horus and Osiris), while reserving the title City Of The Sun for a potential novel I may write in the future. Once the original stories were redone, I started on some newer ones (heavily inspired by Meeks's and Favard-Meeks's Daily Life Of The Egyptian Gods), and every so often, even though my almost maniacal earlier interest in ancient Egypt has waned, I'll come up with another. The Egyptian gods will always hold a place close to my heart.
Seeing how long ago it was written, Horus will someday be rewritten should I make the time; I wasn't entirely satisfied with it even shortly after its completion. I also hope to get around to the other novels in the series, as well as City Of The Sun. Perhaps in the future.
RANDOM OBSERVATIONS
Recurring themes: Tradition. The divine and the mortal. Family, for better or worse. Even the gods are only human. Something greater and unknown behind the whole. Destiny...can you fight it?
The Ameni Chronicles Character/Story InfoInfo on the spinoff series.
Character InformationCharacter profiles and brainstorming infodumps.
Storyline InformationEssays and info.