JCollins
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May Q&A answers
🕑 Added 2025-06-01 17:53:47 +0000 UTCOne time you released a short story where MC meets a child Ahmose 13 years from the main story. Is that meeting going to be brought up during the game?
Probably not, because I don't think any of them remembers it. Ahmose was only 5 at the time, so they definitely don't remember the meeting, and based on your MC's age, they could also have been anywhere between 5 and 16. The older ones may remember it, but only a noble MC would have recognized Ahmose as a child from the palace. However, the MC didn't know that Ahmose was the king's child because Ahmose's real identity was a pretty close-kept secret at the time for security reasons. So… yeah, a lot of variations are at play here, and for that reason, it probably won't be brought up, but you can of course headcanon them talking about it off-screen :)
can u say hi to qenna for me
Qenna, looking at MC, who's standing right next to them with a goofy smile: "Uh… hi? We're traveling together, sunshine. You don't have to say hi every time you see me."
Don't know if this has been asked already, feel free to ignore it if so. But what sources do you usually refer to when researching ancient Egypt? Always curious to learn about authors' research practices when it comes to historical fiction!
I have some books that I collected during the years. I started off by going to my university's Egyptology Department's website and checking out their recommended list of readings for their students. I ordered a few of those books from their bookshop. I 100% recommend doing this if you need historical reference books and don't know where to start! You can probably find these books in bigger libraries too if you are short on money, just don't go there in exam season.
And then… I kinda just picked up this and that through the years. I like going to bookshops and check out their history sections from time to time. This is how I found Trachten by Friedrich Hottenroth by accident, on a discount, which is still one of the best books I've ever owned.
I also got a few books from the British Museum every time I went there, which is how I found the book I have about learning to read basic hieroglyphs. I used that one for the illustrations, and I also got another book about Ancient Egyptian cities that has lots of maps and descriptions of how the towns may have looked like back in the days.
Then, of course, when I'm in a hurry or I need some info quickly, I go to Wikipedia. Many of the things written there are incorrect though, so I like to cross-reference their info with my sources, but it's a place to start at least :)
To Author - If you could hang out with one of your characters for a day and ask them all sorts of questions, who would it be?
Hm… Qenna, probably, because they know a lot about many things.
To ROs - could you forgive a betrayal from someone you love?
Narmer: "It depends what kind of betrayal."
Qenna: "Do they regret it? Then maybe. But I'll never trust them again."
Zaia: "They'll have to work hard for my forgiveness."
Tabiry: "I don't know… Maybe. I would try, if it was truly a mistake, or something they regret. But I don't know. It would be hard, I think."
Ahmose: "I'd like to say yes, but… I don't think I can forget something like that. It would always linger in the back of my mind, you know? So I think the trust would definitely be broken."
Do you consider yourself to be a nice person?
Narmer: "I don't know. Does it matter what I think about myself?"
Qenna: "No."
Zaia: "Not particularly, but I don't think I'm unreasonable when I'm rude."
Tabiry: "I'm trying to be, at least."
Ahmose: "Sure…? Why? Don't you think I am?"
If you were turned into a mouse for a day, what would you do? Do you think you could even survive the day?
Narmer: "Ahh…" He starts laughing. "Would I know that I'm going to turn back? Because then I would just hide under my bed until it's over, I think."
Qenna: "I would use the opportunity to break into Harkhuf's study and read all his correspondence. Then I would chew on them. Not eat them completely, just damage them enough so that he has to write them all over again."
Zaia: "…I can do that any time though."
Tabiry: "Oh, gods… Am I in the palace? Or in the streets? Or at home? No, wait, none of them are good, they are all full of cats… No, I think I would definitely die in five minutes."
Ahmose: "That would be kinda cool! Unless I get eaten by a cat. But imagine the possibilities! I could go anywhere without being seen! But maybe I'd just run up to my dad. He would recognize me even as a mouse, I'm sure."
To Old Man Narmer - what's something you miss from the time you reigned over Egypt?
Old Narmer: "…Meriamon should grow up. I don't like this low perspective."
Petmes, from the background: "He misses his family, and he thinks this new fashion is weird… And he used to be taller."
So...faces, huh? Why such a taste for faces and not some other body part?
Old Narmer: "BECAUSE WHERE IS MINE?!"
I think I need more explanation about the exact magic mc can do, why can't my healing adjacent priest run after Narmer screaming "let me heal you"
There is a long post that explains the magic in the game here.
And then there is also the reason that Narmer likes torturing himself because he thinks he deserves it.
And also because I need to implement a separate, simple code for healers because at the moment, this is what I have to type out for every single line about specific healing magic:
*if ((background = 1) and ((godname = "Mut") or ((godname = "Isis") or (godname = "Ptah"))))
It's a bit of a hassle at the moment, which is why lots of flavor text is missing, but I'm planning to add them later.
Even so, Narmer won't let himself be healed by MC for a while. He has a specific healer team when things get rough (the ones who started healing his broken arm for example), and other than that, he just chooses to heal naturally when he can. He might change his mind later, deeper in the romance, but no magic works wonders anyway.
You could see that in Tia's case in the beginning. She was being treated by a team, which helped tremendously with the healing process, but it still couldn't heal her properly. Noble MC's spouse also died for a reason. Magic helps accelerating the healing process, but it's usually not enough to heal something completely, unless the injury is mild.
Even after Narmer is being treated by a team of priests, his arm still stays broken. His injury was quite serious because it was broken twice, in two separate places. A single priest MC couldn't heal it, but they could help later with the pain (once Narmer lets them). So that's why he still wears a cast and an arm sling. The magic the priests treated him with helped to accelerate the process, so instead of wearing a cast for, let's say, three months, now it can heal in one. But it still needs that one month, and even after that, it will need special care. Still, it's a lot better than [i]without[/i] magic, so the magic isn't useless. The chances of proper healing are much, much better with magic, but it doesn't work like in Harry Potter or something where you can just snap your fingers and the broken arm is good as new.
Petmes probably could've healed Narmer's arm, but Petmes wasn't there, and Narmer wouldn't have let him do it anyway.
I saw there was a greyed-out option for Noble!MC to recognize Narmer right away when they first meet in the Palace ("Narmer? Of course, stupid me, of course i know him!" Or something like that), but no matter what I did, the option couldn't be picked. Am I missing something or is it always unavailable?
That choice is tied to the achievement called 'Common sense is not that common'. You can find a guide for it here.
