Kush (independent kingdom)

**Spoiler warning: this page contains heavy spoilers for the novels The Rise of Kemet and The March of Deshret.**

The Kingdom of Kush was a short lived established state by Taharqa. The country originally, from 67 AEE to 71 AEE, contained the area from the Egyptian border near the Fifth Cataract of the Nile in the north to somewhere more to the south, past the Sixth Cataract.

The Kushite Rebellion, starting in 70 AEE, was funded by the Kingdom of Kush, with Kush itself being funded at first by Karduniash and later by Elam. Once the Great Powers' War started, Kush officially entered the war and invaded Egypt, with the intention of conquering the entirety of Egyptian Kush. While everyone suspected Kush to be aligned with the Hattusa-Babylon Axis, in reality for most of the time Kush was in league with Elam, and eventually the Eastern Coalition, though never formally becoming a member of any faction.

Immediately upon invading Egypt, Kush started winning battles due to the population supporting them and the Egyptians constantly suffering from low morale and supply issues. The Kushites easily crossed the Fifth Cataract and later the Fourth. After winning the battles of Napata, Kawa, and Kerma, they crossed the Third Cataract as well, and Kerma was made into the new capital instead of Meroe, so it would be closer to the front. In 73 AEE Taharqa also became a middleman for funding the terrorist group the Sons of Montu in Egypt in an attempt by Elam to destabilize it. He also took the city of Chenem-Waset, the capital of Egyptian Kush, and moved his seat of power there, though Kerma still remained the administrative capital from where the conquered territories were managed, mostly by Taharqa's brother Harsiotef.

In 75 AEE Taharqa was assassinated by an Egyptian assassin known as the Silver Serpent and a supporting team of Egyptian operatives. This sparked the Kushite Civil War, with Harsiotef, secretly supported by Egypt, fighting Benemba, Taharqa's wife. The war lasted only a few months and soon Harsiotef emerged victorious and assumed control of the entire Kush, while also making a ceasefire with the Egyptians. And in 76 AEE, once the OFK-EC War had ended, Harsiotef, just like he had promised the Egyptians in exchange for supporting him, joined his country into a union with Egypt and Retjenu (formerly Egyptian Levant), thus forming the Commonwealth of Kemet, Kush, and Retjenu. Kush became an autonomous state within the commonwealth, with Harsiotef being this state's leader, ruling the area all the way up to the First Cataract, though the pharaoh Ramesses XI still remained the supreme ruler of the commonwealth and so of Kush too.

The GDP per capita of the country was the lowest of any civilized state in the known world, though it was increasing as more and more Egyptian lands came under it. The Kingdom also had really low rates of urbanization and literacy, at only 6.2% and 3.9% respectively, though both Taharqa and Harsiotef were trying to improve them and raise them to match Egypt's level. Kush had no navy, but had an ever-growing army, due to more and more Egyptian Kushite population coming under it, with the kingdom fielding around 70 000 troops at its peak. Women were not allowed into the army as soldiers, but they served as medics and support personnel and also took up various administrative and other duties traditionally reserved for men due to many of them fighting at the front.