D&D: An Adventurer’s Guide to Ankhtepot, Mummy Lord of Har’Akir
The Darklord Ankhtepot rules over the sandy vistas of Har’Akir with an undead fist that crushes all, body and soul.
The Domain of Dread known as Har’Akir is a vast desert full of ancient tombs and long-forgotten peoples. There, amid four Oases that provide shelter from swirling sandstorms, the Akirrans carve out a rich life from the barren environs. But their lives, their culture, and even the gods they worship are all the machinations of one being: the Darklord of Har’Akir, the god-usurping priest-king, Ankhtepot.
Ankhtepot was more than just the Mummy Lord of Har’Akir. As ruler of the Dark Domain, he saw to it that the very gods who punished him were eradicated from the hearts and minds of the people trapped in the Mists of Ravenloft with him. But this is merely one turn in a long cycle of vengeance. It all begins in a long-forgotten land in Faerun’s distant past.
Ankhtepot – Mortal Priest
Little is known of Ankhtepot’s homeland. Known only as the Land of Reeds and Lotuses, it was an ancient country long vanished. Its people worshipped a vast pantheon of divinities. Their wisdom brought forth prosperity and the strength to endure hardships. Ankhtepot was a faithful priest in his mortal life. He served three generations of pharaohs as a high priest.
He watched how a leader’s will and vision could influence an entire people. And while the first two pharaohs he served were just, kind rulers. The third, who ascended the throne after his mother, the previous pharaoh died suddenly, was by all accounts unworthy in every respect.
Though his name is long forgotten, his reputation remains. He quickly became unpopular among both people and priests. His cruelty and hedonism drove many to despair. But Ankhtepot saw this as a sign from the gods.
Ankhtepot believed that they were giving him a sign that they wanted another to take the pharaoh’s place — someone who understood their divine intentions. And who knew how to spread their word and wisdom.
And so, on the day that the pharaoh was to be consecrated and bound to the gods, Ankhtepot gathered loyal priests and slew their pharaoh. But Ankhtepot was mistaken.
Thousands of Years of Torment
Ankhtepot had misjudged the will of the gods. And the loyalty of the people of his homeland. They rose up against the rebellious priests, and executed them publicly, Ankhtepot last of all.
In death, Ankhtepot learned he had offended the gods themselves. As he stood before them in death, the immortals abandoned him, cursing his existence and denying him the release of the afterlife. Their judgment was harsh and swift. They banished Ankhotep from the afterlife, returning him o the world, but not before stripping away a piece of his soul: his Ka — the vital essence that inspires all living things.
Cursed, Ankhtepot reawakened within his own corpse as he was mummified alongside his treacherous fellow priests. He felt the pain of every cut, of every organ removed as he was mummified “alive but undying.”
Then he was buried in an unmarked crypt, left to suffer and starve for untold millennia until the last memory of Ankhtepot’s name faded from his homeland. Then a voice came, intruding into his solitary crypt. This mysterious voice had one question: did he still believe he was worthy to rule?
And through the ages, the murderous priest’s arrogance had only grown. So when he spoke aloud his affirmative, the Dark Powers of Ravenloft freed him, and he emerged from the crypt into the sun-baked desert of his own Domain of Dread: Har’Akir.
Blasphemy in Har’Akir
The mummified priest led a cursed existence. Lacking his Ka, he could only rage at the living. The people of Har’Akir were pious, and devoted to the same gods that he once had served. For Ankhtepot, this would not do.
So with murderous rage and unholy power, he quickly set about slaying all who followed the religion he felt had abandoned him. And using blasphemous rites, he resurrected the priests buried with him as powerful mummies. And through this dark rite, he manufactured new, false divinities of his own imagining.
So it was that Ankhtepot’s new faith supplanted Har’Akir. In place of the true gods, there were the Children of Ankhtepot. Horrific mummies were gifted animal heads and power by their lord. So it was that the dead conquered the very souls of Har’Akir.
And now, the mummy lord of Har’Akir seeks that which he craves most, the missing piece of his soul, lost in the deep deserts of Har’Akir.
