Hidden within ancient tombs in the Sea of Sand, mummies are long-dead, well-preserved corpses, who evoke fear in the hearts of all who discover them.
Raised by dark funerary rites through necromantic rituals, mummies unquestioningly serve the whims of their masters for as long as they live. However, once those masters are gone a rare few mummies may choose to stray from their ancient tasks, traveling out of their tombs to inflict themselves on the world above. The tradition of "mummification" began in the ancient Empire of Shorafa.
The Will of Dark Gods
An undead mummy is created when the priest of a death god or other dark deity ritually imbues a prepared corpse with necromantic magic. The mummy's linen wrappings are inscribed with necromantic markings before the burial ritual concludes with an invocation to darkness. As a mummy endures in undeath, it animates in response to conditions specified by the ritual. Most commonly, a transgression against its tomb, treasures, lands, or former loved ones will cause a mummy to rise. The long burial rituals that accompany a mummy's entombment help protect its body from rot. In the embalming process, the newly dead creature's organs are removed and placed in special jars, and its corpse is treated with preserving oils, herbs, and wrappings. After the body has been prepared, the corpse is typically wrapped in linen bandages.
The Punished
Once deceased, an individual has no say in whether or not its body is made into a mummy. Some mummies were powerful individuals who displeased a high priest or pharaoh, or who committed crimes of treason, adultery, or murder. As punishment, they were cursed with eternal undeath, embalmed, mummified, and sealed away. Other times, mummies acting as tomb guardians are created from slaves put to death specifically to serve a greater purpose. Once created, a mummy obeys the conditions and parameters laid down by the rituals that created it, driven only to punish transgressors.
Timeless Undeath
Most mummies have existed far longer than even the oldest elves, though most of them have remained in their tomb for nearly the entire period. Once they awake, they cannot remember their past life or personality, so they remain dry husks even throughout their eons of “life” if you could call it that. However, some mummies do gain some knowledge of the outside world, and even the most rudimentary knowledge from when they were first created may hold untold secrets to the modern world. As a result, some serve as undead repositories of lost lore, and can be consulted by the descendants of those who created them. Powerful individuals sometimes intentionally sequester mummies away for occasional consultation, and particularly talkative mummies are treasured by historians.
