Irem

The Nameless Empire is the pre-historic prganization that spawned the Rite of Return. Ruled by the god-priests of the Shan'iatu, it was among the earliest cultures of humanity.

History
The fractured nature of memory makes it difficult for the Arisen to recollect the history of the Nameless Empire, but it seems certain that the Shan'iatu united the nomad tribes in prehistoric Egypt and fashioned them into a nation. Under the battle standard of the scorpion, the Shan'iatu divided the tribes of the land into castes that were to serve them. They taught that spirits and ghosts have lords as well—the 42 Judges of the Underworld and their own divine patron, the god Azar. They produced for Irem, the capital of their realm, a king and high priest of Azar, called Pharaoh. The Shan’iatu declared themselves a senate of sanctified necromancers, Priests of Duat, who serve that dark realm’s god and its assessors of the soul of man—that dread assembly that is the Judges of Duat. The Priests of Duat replaced tribal warrior societies with legions, appropriating the traditional initiations to reinforce military brotherhood. These troops learned their trade by suppressing internal revolts.

Irem soon became one of the foremost of early cities, and began to assault its neighbours. In Kanaan, they met reistance in the early empire of the Ki-En-Gir and their citadel Ubar. In a display of their command of ancient magic, the Shan'iatu generals managed to break them and enslaved their people. After the fall of Ubar, Irem bled the outer territories for resources with which to glorify itself in temples, statuary, and ever more grand and solemn pillars. During this time, the Shan'iatu began to develop the Rite of Return and created the first mummies in their service. It is also from then on, that mummies fail to actually remember how the Nameless Empire exactly collapsed and what happened to their masters.