House of Amun

The **House of Amun** has been the ruling lineage of the Sepaut of Saturania since Sekhemperamun I was crowned as Pharaoh in the year 1 ASC, thus being in power for over four millennia. Because of Sekhemperamun I the House traces its roots back to Auron and Ket. It has had many generational branches with different names across the centuries, but its latest active dynasty since the Modern Ages is the Egyps Dynasty. The lineage also belongs to the Great Houses of Saturania.

The most important requisite to become Pharaoh of Saturania is to have direct House of Amun ancestry. The only period of time where the rulers of Saturania were not descendants from the House of Amun was during the Late Period, from Alexander the Great and the Ptolemaios Dynasty to the Roman Conquest, until it came back to power under Sekhemperamun II in 3000 ASC.

## Name

For his coronation as king of the Waset territory, Sekhemperamun I chose his Throne Name to mean "Powerful is the House of Amun", paying tribute to Amun, the patron god of Waset who would become the national god of the empire and king of the Netjeru in the future. The "House of Amun" in his name could signify either the city of Khalem as abode of Amun, his temple, or the king himself who aligned with Amun once becoming king.

During the Classical Egyptian Ages his descendants only claimed they descended from Auron and Ket and Sekhemperamun I respectively, but the bloodline had no explicit name. Manetho, an ancient Egyptian historian born during the Ptolemaios Dynasty, wrote the largest treatise of all chronological Classical Egyptian history, the *Aegyptiaca*, and separated the royal family ancestry into dynasties related by the same genealogy but presenting discontinuity through the centuries. To give a single name to the entire bloodline he was inspired by the name of the first king, thus he named the lineage "House of Amun". His work was so widespread at the time of publication that the name stuck.

## Sigil

In ancient times the House had no official symbol, but its closest alternative was that of a falcon representing Horus, god of kingship, with the sun disc on his head. The final dynasties before the Ptolemaios implemented different iterations of the sigil, but adding a set of ram horns to the falcon.

When the Roman Conquest ended and the Aegyptus Dynasty rose to power they implemented the horned falcon as well as other additions. Later the Egyps Dynasty would use the same horned falcon with another set of variations. Furthermore, the standard sigil of the House of Amun became the horned falcon crowned by the sun disc. Variations depend on the dynasty.

On its part, the sigil of the House of Amun has become synonymous with the national identity of Saturania. For that reason the official coat of arms of the United Sepaut of Saturania includes a falcon with its wings extended wearing the sun disc as a crown (ram horns are not included), nicknamed the Imperial Falcon.

## Dynasties

### Dynasties of the Classical Egyptian Ages

Historical records of the Pharaonic succession from the Classical Egyptian Ages are not very clear, thus historians have had to reconstruct the lineage from various pieces of information. Manetho was the first historian to compile all of the previous information and then establish the dynasties. According to his division, still followed by modern historians, this time period that encompassed more than 2000 years had a total of 29 dynasties. Following the example of some of the Great Houses of Saturania, he named a good portion of the dynasties according to what he considered to be their first ruler.

### Aegyptus Dynasty

This particular dynasty was the first to give themselves a name. They trace their roots back to Madja, a member of the House of Amun bloodline who married Alexander the Great to further legitimize his ascension to Pharaoh. They had a single daughter, Helene of Alexandria.

By the end of the Roman Age when the Egyptians defeated the Romans, Sekhemperamun II, from the direct lineage of Helene of Alexandria, was crowned as the new Pharaoh. He himself decided to name his line "Aegyptus", the latinized version of the term the Hellenistic gave the Saturanian continent and its people, as a way to assert they were the foremost of the Egyptians.

The Aegyptus Dynasty ruled over the Sepaut of Saturania for a total of 722 years, thus being the longest line of the House of Amun to be in consecutive power. Due to a succession conflict from the last Aegyptus generation its last Pharaoh was Useret I, whose reign is considered to be the start of the Modern Ages.

### Egyps Dynasty

As Useret I gained a cult of personality for being a "virginal queen" she never married or produced an offspring. Her nearest relative was a cousin two-times-removed named Hordjedef, who became her Heir and was crowned Pharaoh after her death in 3722 ASC. Because of his fairly distant blood relation to his predecessor and her ancestors, he founded the Egyps Dynasty, named after a modernized version of the term "Aegyptus", claiming the original meaning behind it and to symbolize the new line as a direct descendant and continuation of the previous dynasty.

Hordjedef I was not very liked by the Court Houses, as he was a Reformer. From the start of his reign he created new laws which gave individual Sepaut more autonomy and the Senate more power over the Pharaoh and his Court. Thus, he slowly started the process of the Saturanian government transitioning to a constitutional monarchy, and which his descendants would eventually complete. To symbolize this, he chose to add the Khopesh swords to the House of Amun horned falcon as the dynasty sigil, affirming the fact that the Pharaoh and the Court Houses were meant to be weapons for the people.

As of the year 4021 ASC, the current head of both the House of Amun and the Egyps Dynasty is Aharon I.

## Physical Traits

Legend attests that both Auron and his wife Ket had golden-blonde hair, a physical trait they supposedly passed down to their direct kin. Sekhemperamun I is also pictorially represented and described in official documents and inscriptions as having golden-colored hair alike the skin of the Netjeru, as do his sons and grandsons. In they descriptions they are said to be "blessed by the sunlight of Ra". Other Pharaohs and members of the royal families are not always described or depicted with such hair color, but it was often used as a political tool to legitimize a Pharaoh's reign as a true heir of the House of Amun. In fact, it is known that many Pharaohs dyed their hair blond or wore blonde wigs (sometimes ornamented with gold) for the same reason. More than one case exists where a member of the House could claim they were the rightful Heirs of the Egyptian Throne because they were blonder than their other family members.

Nevertheless, the blonde hair gene has somewhat survived to modern times, although it is not as common. It is thought that by the end of the Aegyptus Dynasty, one of the reasons Hordjedef I Egyps was chosen by the Senate as Useret I Aegyptus' successor was because his hair, as well as the hair of his children, leaned to a golden shade "blessed by Ra". Some past and present members of the Egyps Dynasty inherited their ancestors' golden-blonde shade of hair.