How mummies rule the world?

[wyrdhamster]

I generally do not like Mummy: The Cures as gameline, because of many gripes. One of them showed Seidmadr lately, writing about Scandinavian Witch Trials Dark Eras with mummies in it.

My problem with the Mummies in renaissance Scandinavia is... Well.. What would Mummies be doing up here then? The contacts between the north and Africa has generally been minimal, and there's 0 reason for a Mummy to be up here.
I suppose a cult or two could have found their way here, but here, more than any other game with Mummy, it becomes extremely contrived to play more than 1 Mummy. They are rare enough to begin with, and this is a place that shouldn't have them.

It's my problem with Mummy: The Curse as gameline - HOW 'Egypt area only' ( previous Nameless Empire ) mummies are found around world? Maybe answer to this will change my attitude to look over this game more.

[Vent0]

I generally do not like Mummy: The Cures as gameline, because of many gripes. One of them showed Seidmadr lately, writing about Scandinavian Witch Trials Dark Eras with mummies in it.



It's my problem with Mummy: The Curse as gameline - HOW 'Egypt area only' ( previous Nameless Empire ) mummies are found around world? Maybe answer to this will change my attitude to look over this game more.

The most simple answer is - they migrate. As true immortals with powers, they can migrate fairly far. Their diaspora started thousands of years ago, giving them even more time to spread.

As for why?
* Needs of their Cult.
* In pursuit of a Relic.
* In pursuit of a personal project.
* Dictates of their Judge (or what think is the dictates of their Judge).
* To escape (political heat, memories of the area, or just needing a change in scenery).
* Any other weird crap Fate/the ST can come up with.

[Michael]

It's my problem with Mummy: The Curse as gameline - HOW 'Egypt area only' ( previous Nameless Empire ) mummies are found around world? Maybe answer to this will change my attitude to look over this game more.

They move. More specifically, Sothis Ascends reveals that Egypt wasn't really safe for the Arisen. Aside from there being a lot of shuankhsen, the Arisen cause problems when they gather together.

[reseru]

You know there's going to be a Mummy Era set in medieval China, right?

[wyrdhamster]

You know there's going to be a Mummy Era set in medieval China, right?

And I'm interested how this works, to be fair. Maybe it convince me to the MtC gameline at large...

[Stupid Loserman]

How were the "Italian area only" Romans able to spread so far across Europe, Africa and Asia? That, but moreso. It's partially that the Empire was heavily expansionist and quite successful at being so, and partially that the Empire was fantastically widespread for its time. The Nameless Empire was not "Egypt area only." It was centered in Egypt, but its conquests took its borders far beyond, like the Romans' took theirs, to the coast of the Mediterranean and the edges of Mesopotamia.

Add in the post-imperial diaspora and the use of Arisen magic to cover ground and wander in search of new places to gather bases of power, and yeah, they can reach Scandinavia. They can reach Australia.

[atamajakki]

They’ve had five thousand years to move around.

EDIT: Oh my god oh my god oh my god maybe this Era will have more support for Pyramid play.

[wyrdhamster]

Add in the post-imperial diaspora and the use of Arisen magic to cover ground and wander in search of new places to gather bases of power, and yeah, they can reach Scandinavia. They can reach Australia.

I do not believe it would work that way. 1/10th of Awakened mages has Space Arcanum letting them literally to teleport on other end of the Earth - and still Diamond Orders of wizards did not win the world, all that once. It's exactly why we have Nameless sorcerers and their Orders, all over the world, even now. Arisen mummies traveling to Scandinavia or Australia seems... unrealistic, from what I know.

[TyrannicalRabbit]

I do not believe it would work that way. 1/10th of Awakened mages has Space Arcanum letting them literally to teleport on other end of the Earth - and still Diamond Orders of wizards did not win the world, all that once. It's exactly why we have Nameless sorcerers and their Orders, all over the world, even now. Arisen mummies traveling to Scandinavia or Australia seems... unrealistic, from what I know.

In consideration that there was very important information about the history of the setting you were unaware of, that again, might be the culprit. If memory serves there is a supernatural phenomena in Australia that isn't kind to the Arisen so their presence there isn't heavy, but there is nothing inherent to the setting information we currently have available that makes Scandinavia or many other places for that matter somewhere an impossibility of migration for a cult to have taken them to.

[Second Chances]

They’ve had five thousand years to move around.

EDIT: Oh my god oh my god oh my god maybe this Era will have more support for Pyramid play.

Inshallah. This would be an excellent opportunity to support Pyramid play. That was one of my first thoughts too. I think odds are reasonable since I know the backer who suggested the era wanted something similar.

[atamajakki]

I do not believe it would work that way. 1/10th of Awakened mages has Space Arcanum letting them literally to teleport on other end of the Earth - and still Diamond Orders of wizards did not win the world, all that once. It's exactly why we have Nameless sorcerers and their Orders, all over the world, even now. Arisen mummies traveling to Scandinavia or Australia seems... unrealistic, from what I know.

Again, they’re immortal, driven by cosmic forces to seek strange things out, tied to the movements of mortals, and have had a couple thousand years to wander the earth.

You might as well say that it’s unrealistic for Europepeans to have ever left Europe.

[nofather]

You might as well say that it’s unrealistic for Europepeans to have ever left Europe.

To be fair, Europeans aren't hindered by a magically compelled torpor and can propagate themselves much better than mummies, and mummies are limited in number.

Rather than putting all the burden on the mummies, a lot of the movement would be done by their cults while the mummies are asleep. Sensing economic, political or religious discord they could flee like everyone else, taking the primary aspect of their religion (the mummy) with them.

[Second Chances]

You might as well say that it’s unrealistic for Europepeans to have ever left Europe.

Seriously, this. Egypt, Scandinavia, and China have been linked by trade networks almost as long as the Arisen have been kicking around. They can travel by mundane means if they have to. If you think that's unrealistic, I would strongly suggest you try checking out medievalPOC first, because Africans from much further away than Egypt have inhabited Europe for a very long time.

[atamajakki]

Instead of saying “the Arisen would never end up there,” why not ask “why would the Arisen end up there?”

There’s fiat-y answers, of course: they wake up in Scandinavia at the whim of cosmic Fate, they receive a vision of something important there, they feel the pull of some great Relic in the north, etc. You can also look at mortal migrations, with North Africa to Rome to the British Isles to Scandinavia as a perfectly plausible cours to travel over the course of the long ages just to name one. Maybe they wound up as misidentified saint’s bones in a British monastery and were stolen as raiding loot back in Viking times? Maybe they traveled with European traders and diplomats to these courts? Maybe they wound up in Northh America and crossed the sea with some skrælings?

[wyrdhamster]

I mark this openly - I'm totally noob in area of M:tC gameline. I was disinterested in it's development when reading one of first first Dev Notes that will be based on ONLY Egyptian-like mythology mummies and not include Chinesses or American beliefs like beings - which I think was so very unNWOD design to previous lines that were much more multicultural.

I got a gist here and there on forum, but I can have very large gaps in knowledge of gameline as I did not read MtC corebook and still is not interested enough in it to read it. So treat me, really, as baby first reading about Arisen - and really can write as to someone not knowing anything about game.

Maybe they wound up as misidentified saint’s bones in a British monastery and were stolen as raiding loot back in Viking times? Maybe they traveled with European traders and diplomats to these courts? Maybe they wound up in Northh America and crossed the sea with some skrælings?

Wait, what? Mummy can be totally take for dead persons bones?! I assumed their 'Torpor-like' 'sleep' is more like they look... well, as Egyptian mummies. So like those:

Not those:

You cannot called something that has skin and organs as 'bones' in my POV. Not too mention that saint corpses were almost instantly chopped into pices, to sell them for biggest sum. I do not belive that Arisen would be glad to miss all the fingers, ankles and hands just because one of trade interested monks would be glad to chop him in few years.