New Egypt is one of the half-dozen known super powers in Oceana.
New Egypt is the oldest human civilization on Oceana. It was founded in 800 BCE.
Over the coming centuries New Egypt expanded to include nearby islands.
New Egypt proper is a very long island that runs northeast to southwest. It consists of a the Nile River Valley and the mountain ranges that surround it on three sides. The fourth side, the southwest side, is open to the ocean. The island is located in the southeast corner of the known world. .
The change of the seasons, brought on the change of the axial tilt of the planet provides for seasonal rains in the north west section of the island. When the northeast trade winds shift south from 15 degrees to 10 degrees, the northern part of the island gets rain. The moisture moves south over the lower northern mountains and loses it's moisture when it hits the higher southern range. In the moutains this appears as both rain and snow. Every spring this water floods the Nile River Valley, making possible fairly high yield agriculture.
All passes from the mountains to the Nile River are heavily fortified and garrisoned. The entire Nile River Valley is well covered with hard dirt and stone roads. This permits the use of horse draw chariot flying columns to support the garrisions except during the rainy season when all the roads turn to mud. The Egyptians know how to build excellent stone all weather roads, but such roads are to destructive to horses.
The islands of New Egypt cover about square miles (
lots of copper mining by Dwarves. major source of copper for all of Oceana. even well off Romans use Egyptian copper utensials. (poor romans use pottery). exports are linen, cotton, rice, wheat, peanuts and horses. Egypt is the primary source of horses for Oceana. They are one of the few islands that has a huge surplus of feed stock.
Egypt is as much a barter economy as it is a cash economy. Peasant taxes are collected in labor, grain and goods instead of cash.
Egyptian Army is armed with the war chariot. They are very mobile and fast compared to other armies. They are traditionally armed and armoured though. They use lots of copper headed spears, light shields, bows and the Egyptian style swords. Soldiers wear light copper studded / copper scale plated jerkins. Over 90% of the army is armed and armoured this way. Only 10% of the army uses flintlocks, mostly the Pharoh's Guard units. The Egyptian army is the largest known army on Oceana with XXXXX troops under arms normally. They rely heavily on great amounts of mass infantry and chariots.
Egypt is a heriditory theocratic monarchy plus a noble class. The Pharoh is the head of the government. There is no parliment. Instead of an elected or heriditary political body, there is the Pharoh's court. The nobles run estates that are heriditary, but heirs must be confirmed by the Pharoh. The government is fairly liberal for a theocracy. There is freedom of inquiry. there is some social mobilty, but only into the middle and priestly classes.
The Pharohs are very in-bred. They must marry a sister or first cousin if at all possible. The oldest son, or designated heir, will kill all of his brothers upon taking the throne. This is similar to the Byzantium Empire under the Sultan.
Land is owned by the nobles, with the most of the population treated as serfs.
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