Crimson Ruins

These remains of the ancient City of Nu'ashtet are situated about 500 mil to the west of the Akashic temple – to the left of the older temple pylon. This settlement is known as *The Throne of the Sands*

Time has ultimately reduced the city to a seemingly unassuming and unglamorous ruin save for several buildings and a Pyramid theorized to have been erected by Sehk-Pa-Mefer III. Now uncovered by the winds and sand. Regardless Nu'ashtet or The Crimson Ruins is monument that contains evidence of more Nekhemrian history and is of great archaeological interest.. Although major parts of the settlement show severe signs of erosion, enough is preserved to gain information from as far back as 8000 years. The remains of the settlement provide an insight into the early Kingdoms and the ever shifting climate of Nekhemri's Ju'khesh period. The settlement at Nu'ashtet was the capital of the Souphis region centralized around what was once the Souphis Oasis, and played an important role within the region. The oldest part of the city which can be dated to the late Old Kingdom lies on the eastern part of the ruin, not far from the Pyramid. There is evidence that the town flourished during the late Het'tesh Period when it expanded extensively to the east. But it seems when the Oasis receded the City fell to ruin.

> ***From the Desk of Professor Aloysius Felderwin II:***
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Saint's Bells!, What a Discovery! My Expedition into the deserts has bore fruit. When we arrive the crew and I were met with sight of it. Th ruins of a long forgotten Nekhemrian City and an incredible man-made mountain dominated the now recently unearthed skyline, the pyramid rises out of the desert sands, a relic of an earlier age. Its limestone casing blocks are weathered from millennia of scouring sands, but the structure seems solid and intact. A stone wall, buttressed by drifts of sand, surrounds the entire structure. To the east stands a squat stone building, connected to the pyramid by a long, covered causeway. At the Entrance to the structure a pair of carved and brightly painted granite columns support the ceiling of this darkened, roughly triangular chamber. To the east, stone statues of a regal Draconid holding a crook and flail and wearing a striped cloth headdress stand on either side of the chamber, though the head of one of the two statues now lies cracked and broken on the alabaster floor. Two more stone statues depicting the various Draconic Gods. The smooth granite walls were decorated with hieroglyphs and faded murals that depicted loyal subjects and... slaves presenting offerings to a pharaoh who sits on a gilded throne, Behind which looms a figure of apparant fiendish appearance. My extensive research following that trip has uncovered this ancient story:

> *"Pharaoh Sekh-pa-Mefer III ruled the city of Nu'ashtet during its First Age, some 7,500 years ago. Called the Crimson Pharaoh, Sekh-pa-Mefer was always believed to have communed with the dark spirits of the Nekhemrian desert and was rumored to have hosted a fair number of the enigmatic creatures at his court. During his reign, it was believed that the spirits had shared with him the secret of eternal life, and promised that he would return after his death as a god to lead the Desert Kingdoms into a golden age of wisdom and prosperity. After his death, Sekh-pa-Mefer was mummified and interred in his grand pyramid. But the Crimson Pharaoh never made his promised reappearance, and over the millennia his tomb was buried beneath the ever-shifting sands of the desert. But I have come to learn during my voyage, Eternal life did indeed come to Sekh-pa-Mefer, however—just not in the way he expected. It seems with the removal of his brain during mummification, the pharaoh lost the timeless wisdom he had learn, and he rose from the dead not as a god, but as a mummy, his intellect replaced with undying strength, a boundless rage, and a thirst for vengeance against the living. Was this truly a cruel twist of fate, or the machinations of the Desert Spirits. The pharaoh had waited, quietly raging, for centuries, and it is my theory his anger has slowly spread through his tomb to animate those interred with him as undead guardians. Thankfully the pharaoh has been silence and the wealth of history can be shared."*
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