Credits Special Thanks Writers: Eric Berg, J. Dymphna Coy, Matthew Dawkins, We want to extend a special acknowledgment to the fol- Nathan Dorey, Steffie de Vaan, Meghan Fitzgerald, Rachel E. lowing Kickstarter backers, who helped us shine some light Judd, Eloy Lasanta, Jonathan Lavallee, Hayley Margules, Nik into some of the most fascinating corners of the Chronicles May, Leath Sheales, Malcom Sheppard, Michael “Hollywood” of Darkness. Tomasek Jr., Vera Vartanian, Monica Valentinelli, Stew • Karen Joseph, for Princes of the Conquered Land Wilson, Filamena Young, Eric Zawadzki Developers: Dave Brookshaw, Michelle Lyons-McFarland, • Margarete Strawn, for The Soulless & The Dead Matt M. McElroy, Matthew McFarland, C. A. Suleiman, Filamena Young • Andrew Jensen, for When the Horsemen Rode Setting Consultant: Katrina Keefer, Ph.D. Project Coordinator: Matthew McFarland Editor: Dixie Cochran Artists: Leo Albiero, Doug Stambaugh, Luis Sanz, Vince Locke, Drew Tucker, Brian Leblanc, Alida Sason, Justin Norman Art Director: Michael Chaney Creative Director: Richard Thomas

© 2017 White Wolf Publishing AB. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of White Wolf Publishing AB. Reproduction prohibitions do not apply to the character sheets contained in this book when reproduced for personal use. White Wolf, Vampire and Chronicles of Darkness are registered trademarks of White Wolf Publishing AB. All rights reserved. Night Horrors: Unbidden, Vampire the Requiem, Werewolf the Forsaken, Mage the Awakening, Storytelling System, and Ancient Bloodlines are trademarks of White Wolf Publishing AB.. All rights reserved. All characters, names, places and text herein are copyrighted by White Wolf Publishing AB. The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright concerned. This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements are fiction and intended for entertain- Samplement purposes only. Reader discretion is advised. file Check out White Wolf online at http://www.white-wolf.com Check out the Onyx Path at http://www.theonyxpath.com

2 Dark Eras: Companion Introduction 8 Relics 36 Bane Relics 37 What’s In This Book? 8 Seba 39 The Isireion 40 The Fall of Isireion 12 A Sleeping Threat 42 Theme: Ambition and Collapse 12 The Legio 43 Mood: Nostalgia Betrayed 13 Clutching at Immortality 44 Timeline of ’s Age 13 Blood Bathers 44 Settings — Lands of the Deathless 15 Body Thieves 48 16 Inspirations 50 Rome 17 The Age of Isis 19 Manifestations of the Prophecy 19 Forsaken by Rome 54 The Cult of Isis 20 Theme and Mood 54 A Private Religious War 20 How to Use This Dark Era 55 Contending Factions 21 Glossary 55 The Arisen Guilds 23 What Has Come Before 55 Maa-Kep 23 Hoc Vero Narro 57 Mesen-Nebu 24 Thato Spello Trewweza Isti 61 Sesha-Hebsu 24 What Is To Come 64 Su-Menent 24 9CE — Mission Accomplished? 64 Tef-Aabhi 25 The Battle of Teutoburg Forest 64 The Deceived 25 The Uprising 66 Sorcerous Servants 27 10-15CE — The War Years 66 Sorcery Arisen 27 16-17 CE — The Bitter End 68 What Can Sorcerers Do? 27 Germania’s Legacy 69 Sorcerous Rites 30 The Supernatural 69 SampleSorcerer Cults of Egypt 33 Shadow Dwellers file70 Parangelía Seth 33 The Army Advances 72 Parangelía Rituals 34 Legion of the Damned 73

Table of Contents 3 Germania 74 The Alchemist’s Gambit 107 The River’s Curse 74 Bastiano di Fiorenza 108 The Forests 76 The Fisher King 109 Playing the Game 76 The Fisher King 110 The Pure Monster 76 The Lance 111 Step Five: Add Pure Template 76 Cachexy 112 Step Six: Add Merits 78 Epilogue: Arrival 113 Sacred Prey and the Hunt 78 The Siskur-Dah 79 Running with the Legions 79 Princes of the The Free Tribes 80 Conquered Land 116 Waging War 81 Sample Characters 82 Theme: A Clash of Ancestors 116 Servius Rabireus 82 Mood: Anticipation and Instability 117 Gifugeld 83 The Mutapa Empire 117 What Has Come Before 117 Inspirations 83 Where We Are 118 Mwenemutapa 120 The Soulless Society and Politics 120 and the Dead 86 Religion 121 New Supernatural Merits 123 Theme: Apocalypse 86 Tributaries and Traders 124 Mood: Existential 87 Sertanejos 125 Sources and Inspiration 87 Portuguese Explorers, Traders, What Has Come Before 88 and Missionaries 125 The Land 88 Muslim Traders 126 War 88 The Supernatural 126 The Nobility 88 Mage: The Royal Mediums 127 The Middle Class 89 The Mhondoro Lineages 127 The Peasantry 89 Mutupos: Four Totems as One 130 The Church 89 Foreign Relations 131 The Supernatural 89 Mummy: Strange Artisans 132 The Damned in the 14th Century 90 The Alien South 132 Al-Hamasoun 91 Cults of the Shavi 133 The Gallows Post 92 Crossover in the Conquered Land 135 Morbus 94 Lands of the Dead 136 The Promethean Soul 96 Mana and Pillars 137 Lineages inthe 14th Century 96 Mages Affecting Mummies 138 Amirani 98 Mummies Affecting Mages 139 The Plague 100 Story Seeds 140 The Anatomy of a Pandemic 100 The Road to Great Zimbabwe 140 Exposure to the Plague 101 Accidental Crusade 141 Reacting to the Plague 101 The Ghost-Maker 142 The March of Death 102 Mines of King 142 Autumn 1346: Inspirational Material 143 Outbreak in Caffa 103 March 1348: The Vultures of Florence 103 What Is to Come 104 When the SampleJourney 105 Horsemen Rodefile 146 Playing the Game 106 The Red Horse (Slaughter) 147 The Inquisition of Constantinople 106 The Problem 147

4 Dark Eras: Companion The Twist Foreboding Lands 174 148Scenes 148 Theme: Mystery 175 Storyteller Characters 150 Mood: Terror 175 Ufayr 150 Race to Colonization 175 Bishop Friedrich Förner 150 Race to Roanoke 175 Captain Eduard Weber 151 Lands of Troubled Crowns 177 The White Horse (Conquest) 151 Oceans Apart 178 The Location 151 Boats, Sails, and Ports 180 The Problem 151 Fort Roanoke 181 The Twist 151 Secotan Village 181 Scenes 152 Mattamuskeet Lake 182 Storyteller Characters 154 Golden Hinde 182 Ingrid Maier 154 Tragic Futures 182 Frau Egger 155 The Supernatural 183 Bernhard Bahruth 155 The World Made By Our Hands 184 The Black Horse (Famine) 155 The Bound 184 The Location 155 The Torn: Death by Violence 185 The Problem 156 The Silent: Death by Deprivation 186 The Twist 156 The Prey: Death by Nature 186 Scenes 156 The Stricken: Death by Pestilence 188 Storyteller Characters 159 The Forgotten: Death by Chance 189 Jakob Hofmann 159 The Pious 190 Torsten 159 The Depths Below 192 Katrina Keil 159 Great Hunter: Chief of the Shades 192 The Pale Horse (Death) 160 Burnt Swamp 192 The Location 160 Queen of the Two Rivers 193 The Problem 160 Dread Convergence 193 The Twist 160 Knights of the Two Rivers 193 Scenes 160 Shade Warfare 194 Storyteller Characters 162 Abmortals 194 Maria Agnes 162 Astraea 195 Maria Anna Junius 163 Acolyte of the Astraea 196 Mother Superior 163 Jacobo Moreno de la Villalobos 196 Pneuma 164 Margaret Walker 197 Storytelling the End of the World 166 Crooked Man 198 Setting Goals and Boundaries 166 Story Hooks 199 Getting Started and Going Places 166 The Haunted Forest 199 Bringing the Story to Life 166 Lost in Translation 200 The Righteous and the Hungry 167 Ancient Horror 200 Arno Popel 167 Lost at Sea 200 Kurt Rogge 168 Inspirations 200 Lea and Torben Maier 168 Natali Hofstetter 169 The Year Ruprecht Mauritz 169 Sofia Hopfer 170 Without a Summer 204 Veronika Turnau 170 Themes 204 Inspiration 171 Moods 205 SampleWhat Has Come Before file205 Unexpected Progress 207

Table of Contents 5 Looking for a Reason 207 New Nightmares 250 The Shelley Circle 208 Heroes of the South 250 What Is To Come 213 Apexes 252 After Tambora 213 Locations of Interest 252 After Diodati 214 Playing the Game 253 The Supernatural 215 Fears of the South 253 Family Drama 215 Roleplaying Race 254 The Golden Thorn 218 The Slow Crawl of Progress 255 A Land in Flux 219 Chronicle Seeds 255 Places of Interest 219 Story Hooks 256 Playing the Game: Story Hooks 221 Alaska 256 Geneva, Switzerland 221 Louisiana 257 Adam 222 Nebraska 257 Dr. John William Polidori 223 Pennsylvania 258 Cork, Ireland 224 South Carolina 258 Virginia 258 Dearbhail 224 Bologna, Italy 225 Inspirations 258 L’Indovino 226 Darmstadt, Grand Duchy of Hesse 227 Lifting the Veil 262 Ely and Littleport, England 228 Theme and Mood 262 Inspirations 229 The United States 263 Fiction 229 Spiritual Sisters in Burned Over Districts 263 Non-Fiction 229 Science and Skepticism 264 Television, Movies, and Video Games 230 Suffragettes in Spirit 265 The Civil War 266 A Fearful Lesson 234 Northern Confederation 266 The United Kingdom 267 Introduction 234 The Rise of Spiritualism 267 The Lesson of War 235 Class 269 Reaping the Whirlwind 235 Scientific Enquiry 270 What Has Come Before 235 Welcome to the Twilight 271 Social Forces at Play 236 Reconstructed Rifts 271 What is To Come 240 The Golden Jubilee 271 Corruption, Graft, and Scandal 240 Union Dues 272 The Compromise of 1877 240 Spiritualism’s Internal Conflict 273 To Raise Up a Child 241 The Supernatural 275 Justice Deferred 242 Psychics and Frauds 275 The Rise of Jim Crow 242 The Theosophical Society 278 Flags, Masks, & Other Symbols 243 The Society for Psychical Research 279 Blood is Thicker than Fear 243 Pulling Back the Veil 282 Economy and Industry 244 Modern Spiritualists 284 Southern Belles & Working Women 244 Americans of Other Colors 245 Inspirations 287 The Rise of the Lost Cause 245 Books 287 Southern Living & American Culture 245 Television and Film 287 The Supernatural 246 Mages 246 The Master’s Tools 290 Vampires 247 Theme and Mood 290 Sin-Eaters 248 SampleLexicon file291 The Lost 249 What Has Come Before 292 The Forsaken 250

6 Dark Eras: Companion Serfdom 293 Preindustrial Infrastructure 311 The Russo-Japanese War Faithless Faith 311 and the Revolution of 1905 294 Angels Opposed 312 The Great War 294 Playing the Game in Analog 312 Eight Months of Revolution 297 Story Hooks 313 Red October 301 The Revolutionary Panopticon – What Is To Come 302 Petrograd, 1918 313 Three Fronts, Three Generals 303 Sudba 314 Lenin’s Decline — Stalin’s Rise 305 Is There Anybody Out There — The Great Purge 305 Nizhny Novgorod, 1919 315 The Supernatural 307 The Last One Out — Murmansk, 1919 315 Fluid Politics 309 Ten Cuts That Retconned the World — Agencies Divided 309 Leningrad, 1927 316 Covers Unmasked 310 Sources of Inspiration 316

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Table of Contents 7 Introduction

Welcome to the Dark Eras Companion. Much like its sister text, Dark Eras, this book examines a number of historical eras from the perspective of one (or more) of the Chronicles of Darkness games. The Introduction to Dark Eras discusses some of the mechanical concerns for running historical games, different Skills, Merits, and so forth, but in this book, we’re going to get straight to the point, as it were. What’s In This Book? The eras that you’ll find in this book, in chronological order beginning with the oldest, are as follows: • Mummy: The Curse — The Fall of Isireion (69 BCE–30 BCE): One of the most storied figures of the ancient world, Cleopatra Philopator would be the last Egyptian ruler of Egypt for nearly 2,000 years. Under the Ptolemies, the blossoming power of the cults rises to the fore, pitting the Deathless against not merely the Lifeless, but also against the living. Come, fall into a tale of failed divine ascension, superlative political skill, sorcery, and deathless ambition.

• Werewolf: The Forsaken — Forsaken by Rome (9 CE to 12CE): When Rome set out to conquer Magna Germania, the last real challenge to their power in central Europe, they assumed their historic military might would easily triumph. They were wrong. Despite the ancient treaty between Pure and Forsaken, Rome's might is toppled by betrayal and corruption; will you work to salvage the Augustan Empire from collapse, or will you join with the Wolf-Blooded of the German forests and fight to live free?

• Vampire: The Requiem/Promethean: The Created — The Soulless and the Dead (1346-1353): A disease the likes of which no one has ever imagined ravages Europe, killing millions. The undead starve for want of blood, and the Created pine for want of human contact.

• Mage: The Awakening/Mummy: The Curse — Princes of the Conquered Land (1501-1568): Heir to Great Zimbabwe, the Mutapa Empire has long endured the tension between the Awakened Royal Mediums and the Arisen craft societies, but both now face the loss of everything they've built. The Portuguese have arrived, and Mutapa is about to fall.

• Promethean: The Created — When the Horseman Rode (1618-1648): For the people living in the fractured remains of the Holy Roman Empire, it really did seem like the harbingers of the Apocalypse rode from the four corners Sampleof the Earth. What can the Created do but followfile their Pilgrimage through a world torn apart by Famine, Conquest, War, and Death?

8 Introduction • Geist: The Sin-Eaters — Foreboding Lands (1585-1590): Sir wrecked, ungoverned, and violent, and the Children Walter Raleigh's vision of an English settlement brings of the Dark Mother are there in the wreckage, teaching new mysteries to Sin-Eaters as they encounter not only their savage lessons. their counterparts among the Native people in the New World, but also the strange immortal beings that control • Second Sight — Lifting the Veil (1885-1890): What hap- the dead. As the Anglo-Spanish War rages across land pens to the division between Twilight and the physical and sea, what horrors must the Bound confront? world when suddenly the western world sets out to "pierce the veil" between the worlds en masse? The rise • Promethean: The Created — The Year Without a of spiritualism in the late Victorian era challenges the Summer (1816): The eruption of Mount Tambora natural order of things, bringing spirits and ghosts out spawned global climate changes, food shortages across of the realm of religious belief and into the world of Europe, and other strangeness. It also indirectly led science. to a summer getaway in Switzerland, which, in turn, led to the rise of a new Lineage of Created. • Demon: The Descent — The Master’s Tools (1917): The Tsar is dead. Russia is in a state of revolution. The fu- • Beast: The Primordial — The Fearful Lesson (1865- ture is bleak and punctuated by a bloody dictatorship. 1867): The American Civil War is winding down. Is this what the God-Machine intended all along? The The Emancipation Proclamation becomes law, and Unchained are unclear, but they know one thing for the slaves are (nominally) free. The post-war South is certain: They are also unsafe.

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Whats In This Book 9 Sample file Her jaw snaps and groans like breaking green branches. There’s a face in her mouth. It disappears when she swallows. She spits and it smells of raw meat and ancient dust. Nefersobk rolls the blue, withered corpse off the slab. Its head is gone.

She ate it.

“Send it down the river,” she says. “His worshippers will find it.” And I will find them, and him again. And again and again and again. But for now she’s as close to sated as she’ll ever be. The hole in her soul never goes away completely, but feasting makes it feel smaller: something to step over and ignore, for a time.

Besides, she plans to eat again, soon.

Her servants cart the “deathless” one’s body away as she reels, clutching the mortuary slab. Sekhem’s stronger than hashish or unmixed wine, but it doesn’t confuse her. It makes her brilliant, like a child seeing constellations in the stars for the first time. Out of nothing but sky, the gods dance. She’s the smartest woman in the world again.

Mortals dance, too, in Alexandria tonight: Laborers stagger drunk and full through the narrow streets, sometimes stalked by thieves, and sometimes stalking each other with wine-soaked aggression, ready to fight. Whenever people drink and kill they refresh the earth, too, opening each other with small knives and letting Shezmu’s red vintage drip out.

In red-roofed mansions, courtyards glow with fires where the well-to-do celebrate less enthusiastically, with plentiful food, watery wine, and nervous chatter. Today, Mark Antony made himself Osiris to Cleopatra’s Isis. Nefersobk lives in such a house but mostly alone, and in the dark. Her fires have died and she can see all the Fate-arrayed stars above. She sent her servants home, well-paid and discreet, and she has no slaves to stoke the flames at night. She passes her outer walls for the streets.

Divine titles aren’t blasphemous, as long as you can keep them. It has always been right for gods to rule the Black Land, and for men and women of power to be their bau-presences in this world. Unfortunately, even the gods obey political realities. The wealthy know this. Cleopatra’s father bought his way back to the throne with Roman money, so her divine ascension was never foreordained, but a business transaction. They called him the Flutist, the Bastard, the Debtor. She hears a loud, rich neighbor say the names tonight as she walks past his house (but he stays away from her dark, cursed house). She avoids firelight as she goes. People here have two basic responses to a woman walking alone at night and they both enrage her. She doesn’t want to kill anyone right now.

The Bastard debased coins to pay back Rome, so aristocrats hoard old and foreign money. Everybody knows it. That’s why thieves a cut above Alexandria’s street muggers will climb their walls tonight, with longer, sharper knives. Some of them are Nefersobk’s agents. They are not necessarily aware of the fact. The chain of influence, through bored scribes, bribed tax collectors, and hawkeyed nomads, is too complex to fully describe to anyone stupider than her — or even to her, when she hasn’t eaten enough to manifest her full brilliance — but in the end a list of names and houses reached a certain village at the edge of the desert, and its redheaded, mad natives saw an opportunity to get rich and perform certain rites for the glory of Sutek, who they call a forefather.

These Parangelía Seth are witches. Nefersobk is smart enough to keep her distance. She turns down a crooked alley. Tonight will be the first time she’s ever met them. The Arisen are not as intelligent. When Sybaris twitched, a great snake nailed to the world by Fate’s fallen stars, they came back. They woke up buried brethren and they’re all so excited by what they read out of the Sickness, of Azar’s return, of Cleopatra as Esit, the god-king’s vessel of rebirth. She notes that of course, Esit is nothing but a womb with a crown to the Deathless, who have always been unimaginative users of men and particularly, women.

She understands why: To enslave others, one must believe in his heart that every person has a natural owner. As the Arisen own they long to be owned, to be ruled again, and not merely influenced by cryptic Judges. They can’t imagine that the Black Land left them behind, gave its fertility to new owners: mortals, sorcerers who learnedSample from old scrolls and omens in this magic-soaked land. file ARE YOU NOT OWNED AS WELL? The voice is not hers, but echoes from the hole in her soul, from the ever- hungry jaws under all worlds. And her mind chants: Not by choice.

Never by choice. The Fall of Isireion

This era is about the fall of a mighty civilization: a tale the Arisen know well. Yet saying that a civilization “falls” is simplistic. Civilizations evolve under new rulers, infecting them with their values. The Deathless believe that certain eternal truths remain, indestructible, through every culture that builds cities. Their gods created these truths. They engineered the infection of Empire, so every empire owes them a tithe in Sekhem. The Arisen exist to collect it. But this is Egypt, the direct successor of Irem: a paradox in the world of the Deathless. It inherited much of Irem’s culture but turned away from the Judges of Duat, relegating them to minor functionaries beneath the gods. Egypt is where the Deathless first returned and their only true home, but the First Turn triggered a war and called up mobs of Shuankhsen, inspiring the Great Diaspora. Few Arisen remain in the land of the Nile. But in the blink of an immortal eye, Egypt was conquered (or as popular opinion had it, liberated) by , and inherited by his reputed half-brother, Ptolemy, called Soter, whose names mean “warlike savior.” Alexander the Great died in Babylon but was entombed in Egypt as a sleeping god: Zeus-Ammon. He is a god, and knows A sleeping god and his rumored brother, the warlike savior. “ Sorcerers surrounded the Ptolemaic court and battled for control of Alexander’s What is most right: coffin, but destroyed each other. People whispered that gods-in-flesh had returned mine honour was not to rule like true . Signs appeared in the land and sky. Scarabs swarmed; yielded, comets burned. Oracles babbled verses about Azar reborn. Arisen crept from foreign But conquer’d merely. lands and secret tombs to weave these clues into a prophecy, and the prophecy ” into action. Using theories born of half-remembered myths they hope to raise Azar — William Shakespeare, from Duat so that he’ll end their duties, and grant the supreme reward: A’aru, Antony and Cleopatra the heaven in the stars. (Act 3, Scene XIII) They were all betrayed. So, then, this is the story of a failed divine ascension, a woman of superlative political skill, of sorcery, and of Deathless ambition. THEME: AMBITION AND COLLAPSE They say Alexander was Zeus-Ammon. For every accusation of hubris there’s a shadow of belief, because Egyptians are used to god-kings. Ptolemy Soter stole Alexander’s body to become his successor in Egypt. His family became the new royal house, but often ignores the land’s ancient traditions. They remain Greek. Cleopatra (Actually Cleopatra VII, called Philopator) honors her people’s culture instead and calls herself Isis: Esit reborn. But the Ptolemaic line is old, debt-ridden, and on the cusp of a fall. Roman armies and suitors court Cleopatra. She looks for a way to preserve Egypt, through men who want to rule the world and perhaps become living gods. SampleOn the streets of Alexandria, renewed religious file fervor reflects the rulers’ divine posturing. Through the devout, the old gods rage against their nation’s decline. Prophets ply the dusty streets and export Egyptian religion to Rome, but in the end all that will be left is the shouting and the shell of the faith, as events

12 THE FALL OF ISEREION obsidian sandstorm. No, better to let mortals rule the age, and let the gods sleep like Alexander in his gilded coffin, or Vaster Than the Caesar in a wounded, waxen effigy. Library of Alexandria TIMELINE OF CLEOPATRA’S AGE One advantage of running a chronicle in this Note: Regnal numbers (such as Ptolemy “XII”) are used period is the sheer amount of information avail- by historians, but during the period rulers were known by a able. This ranges from articles on particular topics to primary sources such as Dio, Cicero, and regnal name (such as Cleopatra Philopator) and the time of Horace. Consequently, we’ve gone a bit lighter on their reign. mundane information from the period, since library 69 BCE: Birth of Cleopatra VII (the central Cleopatra of and Internet sources are so comprehensive and this chapter, who will be referred to without a regnal number), easy to find for the rest. Use them aggressively. called Philopator. Her mother is unknown to history, but is possibly Cleopatra V Tryphaena of the royal house. Her father is Ptolemy XII, called Auletes (“flutist”) as an insult. His rule is weak, challenged by the rise of Rome. destroy its substance and bring people under the heel of yet 58 BCE: Ptolemy’s brother loses Cyprus to Rome. another empire. Ptolemy does nothing; he owes money to the Republic, and passes the debt on to his people through heavy taxes. Aggravated by blows to their pride and purses, Egyptians MOOD: NOSTALGIA BETRAYED revolt. Ptolemy and Cleopatra exile themselves to Rome, In the last age of pre-, centuries collide and leaving Cleopatra V and her daughter Berenice as co-rulers. compress. The country’s heavy with history. Remnants of (This chapter adheres to the theory that the Cleopatra Persian, Greek, Asian, and native influences shape forgotten “VI” mentioned in some sources is actually Cleopatra V.) temples and busy markets alike, under Cleopatra as Nea Isis, Cleopatra V briefly snatches power from Ptolemy XII, but Esit returned. Civil conflicts, rampant poverty, and famines dies a year later, possibly poisoned. There appear to have been turn people toward the old tombs. Men and women loot efforts to erase records of Cleopatra V in the ancient fashion. them to thwart starvation. Everywhere you look the ancients 55 BCE: Ptolemy and Cleopatra return after three rise from the sand, in statues and grave goods newly exposed years spent as Pompey’s guests. Rome supports Ptolemy’s to light. restoration to restart debt payments. Ptolemy pays Aulus Behind it all, returned Arisen lay Sybaris across the land Gabinius 10,000 talents to retake Egypt with Roman legions. and rekindle their cults. They believe the backward-looking, They smash through frontier forces and seize the country, but pious people prepare themselves for resurrected gods and its treasury is too poor to easily pay the debt. Ptolemy makes perhaps a Nameless Empire come again, under reborn Azar. one of his Roman creditors the finance minister, shifting Their culture’s a sweet taste of the oldest ways of all. The popular resentment to Rome. Ptolemy makes Cleopatra his Deathless don’t realize that this very nostalgia carries the seeds co-regent. of betrayal, for they’re not the only ones to sense the mythic 51 BCE: Ptolemy dies, age 66. He makes Rome the potential of the time. Sorcerers who inherited the slightest executor of his will. Pompey oversees the process. It stipulates whispers of Iremite magic see great danger in this era, because that Cleopatra should be co-regent with younger brother, cruel things inhabit Duat, and could scour the world like an Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator (b. 62 BCE). They marry, but dislike each other, and Cleopatra assumes the dominant role. Only she appears on coins. Their father leaves them a more stable but deeply indebted kingdom. Cleopatra is 18 years old It Could Have but Ptolemy XIII is 10, so the court eunuch Phothinus acts as the boy’s regent. Eight year old Ptolemy XIV has no official Gone Another Way role in government. It is a period of famine and plague. 49 BCE: Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, beginning The timeline below mixes reputable history, tradi- an era of political dominance. tion, and a bit of supposition. Some sources say Mark Antony survived his wound long enough to 48 BCE: Ptolemy XIII and Phothinus depose Cleopatra, die in Cleopatra’s arms. Plutarch’s accounts used sparking civil war. In the ensuing chaos, her sister Arsinoe unreliable sources, were vulnerable to political claims the throne as well. Ptolemy and Phothinus invite motives, and may have been altered to tell a Pompey to Egypt, but assassinate him to please Caesar. particularSample story. Nobody knows exactly how 47 BCE: Caesar is disgusted by Pompey’sfile assassination died. and takes Alexandria. Cleopatra smuggles herself into his chambers, beginning a relationship with him. Nine months later she gives birth to their son, Caesarion. Caesar defeats

13 TIMELINE OF CLEOPATRA'S AGE Ptolemy XIII’s forces; Ptolemy himself drowns in the Nile. speaks Egyptian, honors the full set of traditions, and has Caesar supports Cleopatra’s ascension and political marriage grown popular among her people. She gives birth to another to the powerless youngest brother, Ptolemy XIV. Caesar and of Mark Antony’s children, Ptolemy Philadelphus. Cleopatra banish her sister Arsinoe to Rome. 34-33 BCE: The Donations of Alexandria. In 34 BCE, 46 BCE: Open lovers, Cleopatra and Caesar visit Rome with Mark Antony gives Rome, Parthia, and other territories Caesarion. The people dislike Cleopatra intensely, especially to Cleopatra and her children through a grand ceremony. since she’s had a child by Caesar before his Roman wife. Caesar Cleopatra is called Queen of Kings and Isis, and Caesarion raises a statue of Cleopatra as Isis in a temple to Venus Genetrix. is acclaimed King of Kings, son of Julius Caesar as god and He does not formally acknowledge Caesarion as his son. man, and manifestation of Horus. The Roman Senate refuses 44-43 BCE: Assassination of Julius Caesar. Ptolemy to recognize the grant, and Octavian sees it as a challenge to XIV dies, thought to have been poisoned by Cleopatra. She his status as Caesar’s heir. This leads to the end of the Second makes Caesarion co-ruler and, pressing his claim as Caesar’s Triumvirate in 33 BCE, and inevitable war. heir, joins the Caesarian faction. But Caesar posthumously 32-30 BCE: Final War of the Republic. Antony and adopts Octavian in his will and hinders these ambitions. Cleopatra fight Octavian for control of Rome’s conquests. Roman intrigue makes it impractical for Brutus and Cassius’ The Battle of Actium (31 BCE) proves to be the decisive Liberatores faction to invade Egypt. Storms and enemies engagement of the war. Octavian routs Cleopatra’s ships and prevent Cleopatra from sailing to the other Caesarians, and virtually destroys Mark Antony’s fleet. After a winter’s pause, she returns to Egypt in 43 BCE. Octavian marches troops overland to conquer Egypt. They 41-40 BCE: Caesarian faction Triumvir Mark Antony lay siege to Alexandria with superior numbers, and Mark visits Cleopatra to determine her loyalties but, enthralled, Antony’s troops often surrender without a fight. stays in Alexandria for a year. They become lovers. She On August 1, 30 BCE, Mark Antony falls on his sword. convinces Mark Antony to order Arsinoe’s death, and his Cleopatra negotiates with Octavian to spare Caesarion, but partisans kill her on the steps of the Temple of Artemis, the rival heir to Caesar refuses and describes how she will where she had taken sanctuary. To Romans, the killing is a be paraded before Rome as a prisoner. This fate befalls her blasphemous act. In 40 BCE, Cleopatra gives birth to Mark children by Mark Antony, who will be displayed in golden SampleAntony’s twins: Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene II. chains during Octavian’s triumph.file She commits suicide on 36 BCE: Mark Antony returns and marries Cleopatra August 12 by the bite of an Egyptian cobra. under Egyptian rites before leaving for Parthia. The people Octavian has Caesarion killed — strangled, some say. This identify her with Isis. Unlike her recent predecessors, she act destroys three legacies. It extinguishes the bloodline of Julii

14 THE FALL OF ISEREION