New Beginnings: 1001 Interesting Nights

I am in the preliminary stages of our next Interesting Times arc, tentatively called 1001 Interesting Nights. The inspiration for this game draws heavily from the middle east. All of the 1001 Nights stories, historical figures like Saladin, and themes from the era are in play.

Since I'm so early in development for the story, I thought I'd share with everyone as things develop. Right now the campaign is in its earliest stage. As things develop I'll share them here.

To get everything started, I thought I'd share a short piece I wrote for the gaming group's Facebook page. This is a short explanation of the Medjai, which I'd like to use as a nascent version of the men in black, the government organizations in IT that deal with supernatural and extranormal threats to humanity.

1001 Interesting Nights – The Medjai:

Once the Medjai (Or Medjay) were the court guards of the pharaohs of Egypt. Drawn from the Nubian peoples of Egypt's northern lands, the warriors of the Medjai trained to become the an elite paramilitary force.

By the 20th Dynasty of the Egyptian Empire, the Medjai were erased from the history of the empire. Their erasure was due, not to any sin of the Medjai chiefs, but of a higher purpose. During the 19th Dynasty, the vizier of the Pharaoh, a man named Imhotep, defied the deity Seti I. Imhotep desired the Pharaoh's wife and defied the will of heaven for her.

When he was discovered, Imhotep was mummified alive and sustained by the magic of Seti's most powerful sorcerers. The Medjai transformed to become the stewards of Imhotep. They guarded the faithless vizier's resting place. In doing so, the chieftains of the Medjai instructed their tribes to learn more about the world beneath the world of the living. In a few generations, the Medjai became as committed to the understanding of greater mysteries as they once were to the sword and spear alone.

Now, the Medjai are a secret order. They study the mysterious forces that act upon the world. They alone stand ready to resist them. Clad in the black robes and turbans of their order, every Medjai warrior understands that there are forces beyond the understanding of mankind. That there are entities who envy the world of the living and that wish to destroy it. On the edge of their scimitars countless djinn have been destroyed. Through their wisdom countless more are tracked, studied, and selected for destruction.

Centuries later, the numbers of the Medjai have waned, but they are more committed to their purpose than ever. Their hidden agents dwell among every city of the empire, each individual tasked with the protection of countless acres of desert. Wandering members of their order serve their many masters, hiding among the common populace. There is no more pharoah to protect them; the mystical secrets of their order are forbidden by the laws of the Prophet.

They are the first, last, and only line of defense protecting our world from the danger of any other. They are the men and women swathed in black. They are the Medjai.