Ancient Egypt: Building a Theme Park in the Underworld Theme (Part 2)

The Egyptian Underworld, 1400 BCE. Keon (aka Kheper) is knee-deep in the afterlife, and the jackal-headed god Anubis is deciding whether to weigh his heart or just rip it out of his chest. Keon's not here to be judged. He's here to pitch a theme park.

Picking up from last week's descent into the ancient world, Kheper's plan for the Underworld involves talking his way past a series of increasingly irritated gods, persuading Egypt's already overworked labour force that building yet another monument is an "exciting opportunity," and launching "the Kheper" as an iconic beard style. The Game Master is playing strict. Keon's lives are draining. And somewhere between the trial of the Sphinx and a conversation with a mad pharaoh, the line between ambition and delusion disappears entirely.

The Duat, the Egyptian Underworld, was a twelve-hour nocturnal journey through darkness, populated by demons, serpents, and a panel of forty-two divine judges. The weighing of the heart against Ma'at's feather of truth determined your eternal fate: pass into the Field of Reeds, or have your heart devoured by the monster Ammit. Nobody in three thousand years of Egyptian theology had considered "build a theme park" as a third option.