“Now then,” Evy began. “I suppose I should start from the very beginning. Over 3,000 years ago, Imhotep served as the High Priest of Pharaoh Seti I, until eventually he fell in love with a woman named Anck-su-namun. The problem with that was that the Pharaoh had already arranged to marry Anck-su-namun, so the two lovers decided to get rid of the Pharaoh so that they could be together.
“Imhotep managed to get away with it, for a while at least, but Anck-su-namun was caught in the act. It’s not entirely clear what happened next, but the legend has it that darkness consumed Anck-su-namun’s heart as a result of her actions that night. Based on your descriptions and what little I’ve seen of her, it’s quite possible that she became a Heartless much like you’ve described.
“In any case, Imhotep was determined to restore her. He and a few loyal priests broke into Hamunaptra and stole the Book of the Dead, intending to use its power in a ritual to replace the heart Anck-su-namun had lost. But in order to do that, they needed a fresh heart from a human sacrifice to serve as the replacement, and for that they chose the heart of a young man from the Medjai tribes whose men Seti had employed as his personal guard. The poor thing hadn’t even seen his first battle yet and had barely reached manhood at all, and so his heart was purer than most, which to Imhotep made him the perfect sacrifice. Imhotep sent his priests to kidnap the young man, but thankfully the other Medjai found him just in time and put a stop to the ritual.
“To say that Imhotep would not be so lucky is an understatement. Seti’s successor, Ramesses II, found Imhotep and his priests guilty of high treason, sacrilege, and attempted murder by means of black magic: all more than enough to earn a grave punishment for each and every one of them. Imhotep’s priests were all mummified alive, and Imhotep himself was condemned to suffer the Hom-Dai: a curse so terrible that it was reserved only for the most evil of criminals. In fact, in all of my research, there’s never been any other record of the Hom-Dai ever having actually been performed, and perhaps for good reason.
“In the millennia since then, whatever humanity Imhotep may have once possessed has long since been stripped away, turning him into an undead creature who would turn into a plague upon the Earth if he were ever released. To this day, the Medjai still keep watch over Hamunaptra, Ardeth included, because the danger is simply too great for them to take even the slightest chance.
“Rick already told you the rest of the story. We were all there to witness the first and so far only time that Imhotep was brought back, and although we did manage to defeat him in the end, the damage he did and all the lives lost in those few days alone were so extensive that I doubt this world will ever fully recover. I only wish I hadn’t been so skeptical at first. It was my idea to go to Hamunaptra and read from the Book of the Dead, but if I’d known the extent of the risks involved, I never would have gone anywhere near it.”
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