The Rise of Kemet

The Rise of Kemet is the first novel in The Bronze Horus series, self-published on Amazon.com and all its regional sites by Julius Janeliūnas. It was released on July 16th, 2021.

## Back cover

In our world, in the 12th century BCE the Late Bronze Age Collapse devastated the Near East, putting an end to many prosperous civilizations, and beginning the dark ages, setting the region back by centuries.

But not in this timeline.

Here, disaster is averted. The civilizations survive – Egyptians, Hittites, Assyrians, Kassites in Babylonia, Elamites, and Mycenaean Greeks retain their kingdoms and continue prospering and advancing in all ways. Technological, political, economic, and social progress continues rapidly, and in some areas even begins approaching our modern world, despite barely a century passing from the divergence point.

But not all is as well as it seems. Tensions still run as high as ever, with the world being in a cold war between two factions, led by the Egyptians and the Hittites, with them and their allies ardent on imposing their order on the rest of the region.

It is the year 22 of the reign of the pharaoh Ramesses X and the Great Powers’ Club Conference is about to commence, where the most important rulers will meet to discuss the future of the known world. Many are hoping that this will finally usher in an era of eternal peace, yet with every king having his own interests and willing to go to great lengths to achieve them, nothing is certain…

## Plot summary

The novel begins with Amenemheb, royal envoy to every foreign land of Egypt, arriving to the city of Paaleq in Egyptian Kush to negotiate a truce between Egyptian soldiers and Kushite rebels. However, by the time he arrives, the Egyptian army had already engaged and killed most rebels, now executing the remaining ones in the central square. Frustrated, Amenemheb leaves the city for the capital, as he is summoned back by the pharaoh. In the capital Men-nefer, Amenemheb meets up with his friends Kefennu, the chief of the pharaoh's royal guard, Iornuf, a court alchemist, and Misaphris, a court scribe. He also meets with the pharaoh Ramesses X who informs him that the Fifth Great Powers' Club Conference will soon begin in Ugarit and that the envoy has to prepare for it. After a few days, Ramesses, Amenemheb, and the rest of the entourage depart for Ugarit.

In Ugarit, the Conference begins after all the kings arrive - Ramesses X of Egypt, Suppiluliuma IV of Hatti, Ashur-resh-ishi of Assyria, and Marduk-apla-idinna II of Karduniash. They discuss various issues over the following days with their envoys, including Amenemheb, present in the meeting as well. Eventually, near the end of the Conference, the kings are invited to a feast in the mayor's palace. During the feast, Amenemheb and his friends drunkenly discover that the Brew of the Gods - which is about to be served to the kings - was poisoned, yet they are too late and the kings unknowingly drink the poison and all die, leading to immense chaos in the city. The entourages of the now deceased kings begin fighting among themselves and the locals, who are being blamed for the death of the monarchs. Ugarit is engulfed in anarchy as much of it is consumed by soldier and gang violence, looted, and partially destroyed. Led by Kefennu, the remaining Egyptians manage to reach the docks and escape the city before being killed themselves.

Soon, the sons of the deceased kings hear about the events in Ugarit and become the new rulers of their countries. In Hatti, the young Muwatalli III, consumed by anger over the death of his father and influenced by the chief advisor Hakkarpili, declares war on Egypt, believing that this is the best moment to settle the conflict between the two countries for good. Through the alliance webs of the Triple Alliance and the Hattusa-Babylon Axis, Assyria, Karduniash, and the Mycenaean Confederation soon join the war as well, thus starting the Great Powers' War. In Egypt, Ramesses XI mourns the death of his father and prepares for the war, while Amenemheb is sent to Elam to ask for their support. Amenemheb travels there and the king Shilhak-Inshushinak is indeed receptive to the idea, joining the war immediately on the side of the Triple Alliance, which is now transformed into the Pact of Civilizations to include all four members.

The war takes place on multiple fronts. In the Levant, Egyptians fight the advancing Hittites, with the front soon stabilizing around Byblos. In Mesopotamia, Assyria, under Tiglath-Pileser, and Elam, under Shilhak-Inshushinak, invade and quickly conquer Karduniash, putting an end to it after taking Babylon and dividing the kingdom between themselves, with the Kingdom of Babylonia being established as an Elamite puppet kingdom there. In western Anatolia, the Mycenaeans, under the wanax Eteweokles, fight the Hittites, and while at first are pushed back, eventually defeat their opponents in a decisive battle near Milawanda, which allows them to begin their own offensive. And in Kush, the newly founded Kingdom of Kush, working with the Kushite rebels, continuously pushes the Egyptian forces north, taking more and more territory and winning most battles.

All the while, Amenemheb is tasked with dealing with various groups of rebels within Egypt, which are thought to be connected and funded by their enemies. Kefennu becomes Amenemheb's chief of guards, while Iornuf and Misaphris also join his entourage as full time members. The group first sails to Iunet, where a group of women have taken over the city and are trying to secede from Egypt. Amenmheb's group is arrested but manages to escape and defeat the rebels, forcing them to surrender. Misaphris and Duathathor, one of the three rebel leaders, fall in love during the events and Duathathor sails back with Amenemheb's group to Men-nefer, where she explains how the rebellion was funded by a mysterious person from the east. The second target is Shedet, but upon arriving the group realizes that this was just a hoax, as the mayor wanted to profit by taking the funds from the mysterious sponsors but not actually rebelling or causing any trouble. The last location is Khemenu, where the treasurer speaks of government overreach and promises no taxes to the population, thus swaying them to his side. He is talked into backing down once Amenemheb's group forges a fake copy of the Book of Thoth and gives it to the treasurer in exchange for surrendering, yet the treasurer is killed once his soldiers discover this. A bloodbath ensues but eventually order is restored to the city.

After the rebels are dealt with, Amenemheb is sent to Alashiya to talk with the Hittite puppet king Huzaru who breaks free from the Hittite hold and, together with Egyptian troops, liberates his island. Now being an independent king, Huzaru join the Pact of Civilizations and starts helping Egypt fight the Hittites in the war. Amenemheb takes a vacation to Shedet, yet is soon recalled once new troubles arise, this time in Canaan. There, the Hittites start funding and arming a monotheist revolt led by a priest Zeror, hoping to disrupt Egyptian supply lines and so break the stalemate up north. But this plan fails, as Amenemheb negotiates a deal with the Edomites and Moabites in outer Canaan, so that they would attack the rebelling Hebrews and the Arameans supplying them, respectively. The Hebrew Rebellion is crushed by the Edomites after they eliminate most of the forces and leadership in Jerusalem, and the remaining holdouts are cleared by Egyptian forces. Ramesses himself travels through Canaan and eventually joins the front in the north and begins pushing the Hittites back.

After securing Mesopotamia, the Assyrian army moves north to defeat the Hittite puppet kingdom of Hayasa-Azzi and so reach Hatti without having to go through the Levant. The campaign is successful, but proves to be much longer and more deadly than expected, with many Assyrians dead or injured by the time Hatti is reached. However, at this point Shilhak-Inshushinak's plan is revealed, as he unexpectedly invades Assyria and defeats what little resistance is left there, including the returning exhausted army of Tiglath-Pileser near Ashur. After quickly conquering the rest of Assyria and establishing a puppet kingdom there, Shilhak turns west and crosses the Euphrates, on the heels of the retreating Assyrian army remnant. At that point, Amenemheb receives a letter where Shilhak explains that he was in fact the person who funded all the rebellions in Egypt, hoping to both destabilize Egypt and test its capabilities, and offers Amenemheb a chance to join him. Amenemheb promptly refuses and tries to warn Ramesses XI, but is too late. As the Battle of Qatna is taking place between Egyptians and Hittites, it is interrupted by the Elamite army which causes large casualties on both sides and forces them to retreat.

Muwatalli's army tries to return to Hatti, but is denied passage, unaware that Hakkarpili has usurped the throne of the kingdom, eliminated most opponents, killed the Pankus members, and allied with Shilhak. With no other option, Muwatalli returns to Ugarit and sails out to Egypt, as most of northern Levant has fallen to Shilhak's forces. In Egypt the Hittites try to take the fortress city of Per-Amun, but are talked down by Amenemheb and brought to the negotiating table. Meanwhile in the Levant, the former king of Ugarit Harharran emerges and is named the King of the Levant, yet another ruler of a puppet kingdom, by Shilhak. It is revealed that it was Harharran who acquired the poison and had his agents use it on the Brew of the Gods so as to have the kings attending the Conference killed and that Hakkarpili also played his part in accordance by urging the grieving Muwatalli to start the war and so drag all major powers, with young and inexperienced rulers, into the greatest conflict of all time. This significantly weakened most of them and allowed Shilhak, who had been building up forces for years, to easily sweep through most of the region and expand his realm, while Harharran was promised the entire Levant instead of just the Kingdom of Ugarit, and Hakkarpili had and used the opportunity to seize the Hittite throne.

In Egypt, the desperate remaining free kingdoms and Assyrian and Hittite exiles gather to decide on how to defeat Shilhak and avenge their fathers. They agree to put aside their differences and form the Organization of Free Kingdoms, the members of which are Egypt under Ramesses XI, Alashiya under Huzaru, the Mycenaean Confederation under Eteweokles, the Assyrian exiles under Tiglath-Pileser, and the Hittite exiles under Muwatalli III, who agreed to join his recent foes as now they all had a new common enemy. In response, Shilhak formalized his own faction by creating the Eastern Coalition, consisting of Elam under him, his puppet states of Babylonia, Assyria, and the Levant, under Nebuchadnezzar, Ninsina, and Harharran respectively, and the independent Hatti under Hakkarpili. Thus, the Great Powers' War comes to an end and the OFK-EC War begins.

In the Epilogue, the qore of Kush Taharqa, who is also now revealed to have been funded by Elam and has now officially allied with the EC, receives a new shipment from the east. It contains supplies for Kush but also armaments to be delivered to through there to a new rebel organization in Egypt, one much more powerful and organized than the previous ones. The qore's brother Harsiotef argues with the ruler that an Elamite victory would not help Kush, that they should no longer help their eastern benefactors, and that instead they should try negotiating with Egypt while they have an upper hand. Taharqa dismisses this and goes ahead with the plan, sending supplies to the Egyptian rebels as asked by Shilhak.