Khnum Khufu

Name	Khnum Khufu
Race	Undead
Type	Physical
Faction	Independent
Premiere	Desideratum: Blood Bonds
Relative(s)	None Applicable

Khufu (/ˈkuːfuː/, full name Khnum Khufu (/ˈknuːm ˈkuːfuː/), known to the ancient Greeks as Cheops) was an ancient Egyptian monarch who was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, in the first half of the Old Kingdom period (26th century BC). Khufu succeeded his father Sneferu as king. He is generally accepted as having commissioned the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, but many other aspects of his reign are poorly documented, especially in regards to his fight against the very first group of Nightbred ever to walk the Earth, more than a thousand years before Hatshepsut. Everything known about Khufu, to the general public, comes from inscriptions in his necropolis at Giza and later documents. What those scholars do not know is that during the reign of Khufu, Nuit had come. The pharaoh refused her offer to make him immortal. Incensed, Nuit stormed away.

However, Khufu had his enemies and she went to them promising that they would replace the royal family. Complete sacrilege and yet, these people accepted. They rose as the first Nightbred ever, attacking the palace and slaying the guards the very next night. Khufu was saved by priests of Ra who managed to hold the creatures back until, just before dawn, the vampires fled back into the wilderness to hide from the sun. Khufu went to the Nile and beseeched his namesake, Khnum, for aid. Because Nuit had interfered with the mortals, the god heard his pleas and granted the pharaoh two scepters. One granted life, the Scepter of Isis, and the other granted death, the Scepter of Osiris. The next night, as the Nightbred attacked again, Khufu had a choice. Though these were his enemies, he could again grant them life and remove the undeath or he could enslave them to do his bidding with the power of death.

As the gods waited for the mortal to exercise free will, the vampires grew closer. Khufu granted them back their lives. The corruption of Nuit removed from them, the pharaoh ordered them to leave Egypt forever. Ashamed, they acquiesced.

Now Khufu went in search of Nuit. As the priests of Ra intoned their magical incantations, Khufu used the power of the Scepter of Osiris and banished her back into the Outer Darkness. Upon his return, the people saw his power and he ruled a long while. As death neared, rituals were performed and he was granted undying life by the scepters that he wielded. Too powerful for normal mortals, he was buried with them. His sarcophagus was magically sealed, and only magic could undo those enchantments. For thousands of years slept the pharaoh, until Evelyn Addams broke the seal upon his tomb with her magic. He knew that he would only have been revived if Nuit had again come to the world, which was the prophecy. Absinthe Van Gothen expected to have to fight the pharaoh, but he saw that she was a warrior hero.

He offered to aid her, but now awakened knew that his right to rule had been reinstated. With him at the helm, all evil would be scourged from the Earth. Abby refused to submit and they fought. The intense battle waged, but in the end, through the use of the magical artifact, Dyrnwyn, Absinthe prevailed. The enchanted sword of flame sliced through Khufu’s magical armor and he was no more. She then claimed the two scepters.