Honored

In an alternate timeline, the Egyptian empire did not fall. It adapted, survived centuries of pressure, and endured into the nineteenth century — governing itself through religious law and declaring all its edicts divine. The rest of the world resented its prosperity long enough that a coordinated northern assault eventually came, and for the first time the empire could not hold. The Egyptian response was to build automatons powered by the Nile — machines fearsome enough to turn the tide of the great war. Afterward, those same machines became the instruments of domestic oppression. You are a slave born of sacred lineage, singled out by a religious leader who believes your bloodline carries the power to end the empire's cruelty. That power can be used to free the people. It can also be used to replace one tyrant with another. The choice is yours.