Feline Wars Episode I - Foundation

Rameses yawned. He hated all these ceremonies, with the high priests of the temple chanting unpronounceable incantations and having fits every minute of the day. He preferred relaxing in his royal bedchamber with a couple of dancers and plenty of wine. But he feared the wrath of Ra, the Sun-god, the all-powerful one whom he represented here on Earth. As the high priest had once told him, “The day Ra disowns you, the people will revolt. They will choose a new Pharaoh. And you can then drink all the wine you like in your afterlife. And it won’t be in the subterranean depths of a pyramid either.” ‘Oh well,’ he thought, ‘might as well get it over with.’

The ceremony involved sacrificing the brightest minds of the land to Pasht, the goddess of feminine beauty and intelligence. The best brains of the land, selected after a grueling test, would then be further tested for their wit, and only the best would be chosen. These would then be sacrificed at the altar of Pasht, whereby their souls would ascend to the higher realm, and after being blessed by Ra, they would descend again to the Earth, and would be the pillars of the society.

The Pharaoh hated the concept of people not born into the royal family becoming the pillars of the society. In fact, he hated the concept of anyone other than himself running the land. But the will of Ra was, well, the will of Ra, and if the will of Ra was not obeyed, then he would have no time to even make a will before the will of the people made a way into his palace and cast him down from the throne. But his scheming mind had started thinking of a plan to cast down the ‘Order of the Sacrificed’ (popularly called the Mobai) and rule as the supreme emperor. He retired to his private chamber feigning a headache and called Fart Maul, the leader of his private army, the Shitlords, to meet him.

“Disrupt the ceremony. Go in disguise, make sure nothing can be traced to me, and ensure that the people are convinced that the ceremony is evil and is merely a ruse by the Devil to eat the souls of innocent youngsters and make them his followers and rule the land.”

Fart Maul was an accomplished reader of the heavens. He was also an expert at speaking the tongue of snakes, his favorite being the horned asp. He knew that the ceremony had begun three lunar cycles after the flooding of the Nile, and would go on till the harvest of the winter crop. He found that there was a solar eclipse at the peak of winter, and there had been none before that for many generations of men, which meant none knew its significance. The day of the eclipse, he wrapped himself in a cloak and hood, and leaping onto the altar, shouted, “O subjects of the mighty Pharaoh!! The supreme god Ra sends me to convey his displeasure at this sacrifice. Ra wishes that this be stopped once and for all; else he shall cease to cast the light of life upon you.” The high priest retorted, “O naïve fool! You do not know of what you speak. I read the messages of Ra in the wind, in the water, in the annual flooding of the Nile. This ceremony is necessary for the good of society. Do not disrupt it, or the wrath of Pasht will strike you.” Then Fart Maul spoke, “Fool you are who speaks this way. Watch now. Ra will hide his face.” And as he spoke these words, the solar eclipse began.

What followed can best be described as chaos. The high priest had collapsed, and would never rise again. People were shrieking, screaming and fainting all over the place. Then Fart Maul yelled, “O people, witness the wrath of Ra. Destroy this altar and the Mobai temple, and Ra will shine again, else you shall live forever in the darkness of the void.” Incited thus, the crowd roared forward, led by Fart Maul, who was armed with a glowing saber.

Up in the heavens, Pasht was furious. She went to Ra and asked him if this injustice was his will. Ra replied, “A day comes when evil grows so strong that instead of fighting it, one should bow down and let it pass. Evil shall never last, and in the end, Good shall prevail. Even my dear friend Odin had some similar problem, but in their land they have a situation called Ragnarok after which Good wins. In our case, it is much more complex. But worry not, for the Mobai is indestructible. The sacrifice those brave children have made have enriched their mind and their soul, and they can handle anything in this world. And they have the Force of Ra running through their veins. Watch now, and marvel at the power of Good.” And as Pasht watched, an earthquake smote the valley of the Nile, burying the temple of the Mobai and the altar of Pasht, leaving it out of reach of the mob.
Ra smiled, “Let Evil rule on Earth now. A day will come when the temple will rise from the Earth, and not just once, but a full six times. And the Mobai will rule over the Earth again. But it will not be in this accursed valley of the Nile, but in that beautiful land named after a king who played with lion cubs as a child. Till that day, let this burial site be hallowed, and a Sphinx I shall place atop it, to keep away the Evil. And the Sphinx shall have no nose, to symbolize the deep sense of shame this event has caused. Till the day of Resurrection, this site shall serve as the Foundation.”