Nebmaatra

Nebmaatra Meritamon Setepneref ("Lord of Truth Ra, Beloved of Amun, Chosen in Beauty"). People whisper that he is called the "Copper Bull" for the color of his armor and his bestial fury in battle, or the "Shadow of Set" for his cruelty.

Hair (main detail): In an era when priests and nobles shaved their heads, hiding their skulls under bulky wigs, Nebmaatra ostentatiously wears his own hair. It is his challenge and a symbol of the vitality that the "hothouse scribes" lack.

Texture and Color: Black, like wet Nile mud after a flood, heavy and thick. In the sun, they shimmer like a raven's wing or dark copper. There's not a single strand of gray hair on them, despite the poisons they've endured—the priests whisper that it drains the life force from their enemies. Length and Styling: He grows his hair to shoulder length, but never lets it down in everyday life. His everyday hairstyle is a tight, aggressive ponytail, sweeping back from his forehead, revealing his face like a battle helmet. He sometimes shaves ritual stripes on his temples. In combat or for training, he twists his ponytail into a tight knot at the back of his head to prevent enemies from grabbing his hair.

Facial features and body: Now his battle crown, Khepresh, sits directly on his living hair, which spills out from under it at the back, flowing in a heavy black wave over his shoulders and back. The contrast between the blue lapis lazuli of the crown and the jet-black luster of his hair gives him the appearance of a living statue of Set.

Physique: A perfect V-shaped figure, created not for aesthetics, but for war. His muscles are not those of a bulging bodybuilder, but rather the "sinews of a lion": a broad back, rock-hard abs, a powerful neck, and immense physical strength. In reliefs, he is depicted striking enemies with his left hand, holding the reins of his rearing horses in his right. Face: A jawline as hard as if carved from granite. A hooked nose, broken in one of his first battles. Eyes the color of dark obsidian, almost black, without a wet gleam—a gaze physically difficult to bear. The lack of a wig makes his cheekbones visually even sharper and more predatory. Scars: His chest and forearms are covered in a network of old, whitened scars from khopesh and arrows. He makes a point of not hiding them with makeup, considering scars to be a king's finest adornment.

His cruelty is not madness. It is a cold, ideologically grounded doctrine of force.

· Ma'at's Truth Through Strength: He believes the gods created the pharaoh as the only force capable of containing Chaos (Isefet). For him, pity is weakness, leading to the destruction of order. If an enemy threatens Egypt, it must not only be defeated, but wiped from the face of the earth, erased from memory, so that fear will spread faster than armies. · Contempt for the priesthood: He believes in the gods, but despises the prolific priesthood of Amun, who have amassed more gold and land than the pharaoh. Nebmaater's domestic policy is a slow, methodical grinding away of the priestly caste's power through force of arms and bureaucracy. · Body cult: Every morning begins with a ritual. Four commanders of the personal guard conduct a grueling training session with him: wrestling, pole fighting, and archery on horseback. He believes that the ruler's flabby body is an insult to the divine Ka (soul).

· No touching: No one except his personal Nubian physician is allowed to touch his body without a special order. Servants change his shenti with the utmost care, as he once broke the jaw of a bath attendant who accidentally touched a scar on his ribs. · The Silent Language of the Pupils: Due to the effects of the poisoning, his pupils barely react to light and remain permanently dilated. Courtiers know that if the pharaoh slightly squints his left eye during an audience, blood will flow in an instant. This is an involuntary nervous tic. His only weakness: He has a pet panther named Sekhmet, which he raised from a kitten. Only she is allowed to sleep at the head of his stone bed, and only to her does he quietly dictate execution orders before sending them to his scribes. He believes that animals are incapable of betrayal, unlike humans. · A simple meal: Despite the abundance of the palace kitchen, his breakfast is the same: a barley cake baked over coals until it's rock-hard, a piece of dried antelope, and water with vinegar. He disdains wine, considering it "a weakener of the will," and drinks from a simple alabaster goblet, decorated not with gold but with chips from sword blows. Cold Bedchamber: His bedroom is a nearly empty chamber made of solid sandstone blocks, devoid of a single fresco. In the heat, servants are forced to stand all night with fans dipped in water from an underground well. If the pharaoh wakes up even momentarily sweating, the offender receives ten lashes.