Based on what I know of Mesopotamia and Egypt, making the BBEG an emperor/pharaoh or god would be one of the easiest ways to keep the lore in your world closer to reality. A few of these fact might help you be able to craft your BBEG:
The earliest leaders in Mesopotamia were priests, because people believed the most powerful ones were those who could communicate with the gods.
Sargon of Akkad created the first empire around 2350 BCE by conquering all of Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia and Egypt were both polytheistic.
Most ancient people's religion reflected the nature of their surroundings, and the Mesopotamian gods were as hostile and dangerous as the environment. Basically, mortals were viewed as merely servants to the gods and the dead went to a land of no return.
Mesopotamian kings were all-powerful and worshipped as a god.
Unfortunately I'm not as read up on Egyptian culture as I am Mesopotamian, but I hope you can find a potential character within all these facts and I hope this was helpful!
Maybe a worshipper of set, the god of destruction. A cult, that seeks to destroy the domains of every other god, so that they must worship set. They do this in a few stages: first, they start to drain the Nile - type river. Sobek had left them! (All this happens over a few days or weeks. Make sure not everyone dies from these events, and that a nearby water source is available.). They then kill all the priests. Thoth has left them; he has forsaken all of his servants, and left then to die. They then target the barracks: (can't remember her name. She's the goddess of war, and she has a lion head. ) This means that she has gone against the army, showing them to be weak or to be unjust. They then steal all the dead, and destroy the embalmer's places. Anubis and Osiris have left them. They deserve to die! The devourer has been painted in many places, showing that they will go to hell. Finally, the temples of set welcome and help all, making sure everyone knows that set saved them, the others left.
I hope this helped.
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'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
Thanks guys! I was thinking dragons might work, considering Tiamat originally came from Mesopotamian mythology before she was a D&D monster. Maybe she's imprisoned in the Duat (Egyptian underworld) and her cultists are trying to release her onto the material plane. The players could venture into the Duat to stop the cultists.
Go on DTRPG and buy an old 2e Forgotten Realms book called Old Empires. It contains details about Mulhorand (basically ancient Egypt), Unther (basically Mesopotamia) and Chessenta (a collection of pretty cool city-states including one ruled by a sentient Sphere of Annihilation). One of my exes actually got me into D&D for the first time a few years ago by showing me his copy of Old Empires.The setting is really cool and it’s not that hard to convert to 5e. The book is pretty old and there have been a lot of changes to canon since they published it, but if you’re just using it as inspiration dw about that.
If you want bad guys there’s an ancient dead (a mummy) who is also a priestess of the evil god Set, Gilgeam the immortal god-king of Unther and Tchazzar, a shape changed great wyrm red dragon trying to unite Chessenta under his rule.
Think of it. The King due to inbreeding has become insane - forming a monotheist cult in his image with thousands of followers. In the name of the Old Gods, he and his followers must stop. In the name of the New God the followers and heretics of the Old Ones, must stop. You could go either way with the PCs.
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I want to run a campaign based off of Egypt and Mesopotamia but I'm having trouble coming up with a BBEG. Any ideas or suggestions?
Based on what I know of Mesopotamia and Egypt, making the BBEG an emperor/pharaoh or god would be one of the easiest ways to keep the lore in your world closer to reality. A few of these fact might help you be able to craft your BBEG:
Unfortunately I'm not as read up on Egyptian culture as I am Mesopotamian, but I hope you can find a potential character within all these facts and I hope this was helpful!
love is stored in the frog :)
Maybe a worshipper of set, the god of destruction. A cult, that seeks to destroy the domains of every other god, so that they must worship set. They do this in a few stages: first, they start to drain the Nile - type river. Sobek had left them! (All this happens over a few days or weeks. Make sure not everyone dies from these events, and that a nearby water source is available.). They then kill all the priests. Thoth has left them; he has forsaken all of his servants, and left then to die. They then target the barracks: (can't remember her name. She's the goddess of war, and she has a lion head. ) This means that she has gone against the army, showing them to be weak or to be unjust. They then steal all the dead, and destroy the embalmer's places. Anubis and Osiris have left them. They deserve to die! The devourer has been painted in many places, showing that they will go to hell. Finally, the temples of set welcome and help all, making sure everyone knows that set saved them, the others left.
I hope this helped.
'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
I'll worldbuild for your DnD games!
Just a D&D enjoyer, check out my fiverr page if you need any worldbuilding done for ya!
Thanks guys! I was thinking dragons might work, considering Tiamat originally came from Mesopotamian mythology before she was a D&D monster. Maybe she's imprisoned in the Duat (Egyptian underworld) and her cultists are trying to release her onto the material plane. The players could venture into the Duat to stop the cultists.
I have an idea 😊
Go on DTRPG and buy an old 2e Forgotten Realms book called Old Empires. It contains details about Mulhorand (basically ancient Egypt), Unther (basically Mesopotamia) and Chessenta (a collection of pretty cool city-states including one ruled by a sentient Sphere of Annihilation). One of my exes actually got me into D&D for the first time a few years ago by showing me his copy of Old Empires.The setting is really cool and it’s not that hard to convert to 5e. The book is pretty old and there have been a lot of changes to canon since they published it, but if you’re just using it as inspiration dw about that.
If you want bad guys there’s an ancient dead (a mummy) who is also a priestess of the evil god Set, Gilgeam the immortal god-king of Unther and Tchazzar, a shape changed great wyrm red dragon trying to unite Chessenta under his rule.
Hope this helps
Akhenaton
Think of it. The King due to inbreeding has become insane - forming a monotheist cult in his image with thousands of followers. In the name of the Old Gods, he and his followers must stop. In the name of the New God the followers and heretics of the Old Ones, must stop. You could go either way with the PCs.