File: remember to archive.jpg (530 KB, 769x1000)

530 KB JPG

-Remember to archive the previous thread, as well as this one.
Also try to keep a master archive list either on the wiki or on 1d6chan (https://1d6chan.miraheze.org/wiki/Setting:Expedition:_Agarthan_Descent_-_Scramble_to_the_Center_of_the_Earth).

ARCHIVE LINKS
(Filled in a gap in the last post's list)
1 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/88453902
2 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/88499775
3 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/88521841
4 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/88546020
5 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/88573764
6 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/88609944
7 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/88644608
8 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/88673440
9 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/88692518
10 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/88708594
11 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/88727682
12 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/88778228
13 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/88870359
14 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/88914758
15 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/88977888
16 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/89025754
17 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/89115225
18 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/89200203
19 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/89297989
20 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/89382116
21 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/89461008
22 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/89544852
23 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/89631080
24 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/89713196
25 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/89792722

28 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/90025795
29 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/90105561
30 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/90181640
31 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/90257150
32 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/90336310
33 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/90413108
34 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/90499203
35 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/90584650
36 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/90673309
37 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/90753468
38 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/90829747
39 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/90908926
40 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/90986494
41 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/91065344
42 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/91137325
43 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/91204984
44 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/91275538
45 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/91338794
46 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/91416168
47 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/91510472
48 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/91592820
49 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/91701936
50 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/91784100

(25-27 since my copy-paste missed them)
25 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/89792722
26 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/89869127
27 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2023/89947037

51 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/91857566
52 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/91925480
53 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/92067118
54 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/92133409
55 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/92198903
56 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/92268614
57 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/92338736
58 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/92416368
59 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/92493882
60- https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/92579565/
61- https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/92646124/
62- https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/92679993/
63- https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/92748455/
64- https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/92815189/
65- https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/92949461/
66- https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/93012689/
67- https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/93073590/
68- https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/93142524/
69- https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/93213106/
70- https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/93343390/
71- https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/93406555/
72- https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/93611222/
73 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/93679678/
74 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/93813764/
75 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/93876241/

76- https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/93937759/
77 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/94053855/
78 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/94152611/
79 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/94264995/
80 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2024/94405801/
81 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2025/94589801/
82 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2025/94893612/
83 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2025/95024451/
84 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2025/95315094/
85 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2025/95454912/
86 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2025/95554306/
87 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2025/95695218/
88 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2025/95816829/
89 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2025/95970490/
90 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2025/96146473/
91 - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2025/96307884/

Previous thread archived.

https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2025/96528583/

File: mv0862qs6kdd1.jpg (90 KB, 736x978)

90 KB JPG

Anon here who just discovered this the other day and has been reading the lore doc, and made a couple spelling/formatting corrections. I don't have much for mechanics or playtesting, but I love me some Hollow Earth bullshit and worldbuilding, if any of that is still being worked on, I've got a few ideas to bounce around. Pic...semi-related. Balloons are already established, shipping down a dirigible airship in pieces and assembling it in one of the bigger caverns wouldn't be impossible, but everyone's done airships and I've got some other shit too. Minor nations and regions, some tech stuff, bookloads of Hollow Earth lore...

>>96678478
>Filled in a gap in the last post's list
Which ones did you add?

>>96680006
Lay it on us when you've got the time, welcome aboard!

Also,
>>96677527
I found this site which might be of interest to you, if you haven't seen it already.
http://www.germancolonialuniforms.co.uk/

>>96680255
85-89 were missing.

File: Son_Doong_Cave_5.jpg (1.78 MB, 2700x3426)

1.78 MB JPG

>>96680327
Potential entrance locations: going with the theme of caves, especially ones with weird associations, a couple main hotspots will be central Europe, southeast Asia and a few additions I'll mention for North America in a second.
Czechoslovakia and the surrounding countries have extensive karst caves, but two interesting things jump right to mind
>Houska Castle and its alleged bottomless pit/hell hole. Castle built in the 13th century about 30 miles from Prague, in a location of no real strategic value, and none of the normal defences a castle would have. The fortifications seem to point inwards, and legend has it that a pit in the lowest level of the castle is a portal to hell that was known to spit up human-animal mixes, horrible flying things, etc

>the Moonshaft in Slovakia. Supposed cavern with walls of a blue substance that pickaxes and bullets won't break, and a distinctly artificial feel, found by Slovak resistance fighters in WWII. But y'know, weird caverns tend to be preexisting.

>whatever the fuck is supposed to have happened with the Tsarichina cave in Bulgaria, IRL not excavated until the 1990s but also found by a psychic, so easy enough to throw back a century or so

Southeast Asia I know a bit less about, but if they kept their overseas colonies, Son Doong Cave in Vietnam (French Indochina) would probably be of interest to France. Largest natural cave in the world by volume, and has a fast-moving underground river.

For the Americas, there's the whole Tennessee-Alabama-Georgia area, Mammoth Cave is already on the list. But there's a long-running tradition of stories about massive caverns and lost underground cities in the southwest, specifically Death Valley and around the Grand Canyon. Mummified giants, Egyptian artifacts in the Grand Canyon, and even claims of cavern systems partially or fully underwater leading from Death Valley out to the continental shelf. Also Devil's Hole, a hotspring cave with no measured bottom in Death Valley.

>>96681009
>Moonshaft in Slovakia [] cavern with walls of a blue substance that pickaxes and bullets won't break, and a distinctly artificial feel
Well, there's your Atlan-Austria connection.
>Son Doong Cave in Vietnam (French Indochina)
I'm glad you brought this up.

>>96681009
If we're going to add an entrance in Vietnam, then that's a big point of contention between France and Spain. Since both countries partook in the itervention in Vietnam against the lemurians, and Carlist Spain would greatly use an entrance to the deep, I can see them pushing for control of Vietnam alongside the french. I'm not sure if giving France further entrances would make sense, though, since they are already struggling with controlling their vasts territories in Mnemosynia and Pangea.

Still, this would be interesting to see in the long run, if we do move the timeline forward.

>>96681140
With a lot of potential entrances we have the option of saying they're hard to exploit due to danger, or taking way too long, or being in a weird spot.
That way they're open for small expeditions to get somewhere they might otherwise not be able to, or for things to make it up to the surface, but not for whole new colonies to spring up underground.

File: Devils_Hole_4.jpg (872 KB, 2000x1692)

872 KB JPG

>>96681009
Devil's Hole was also seen to have waves directly after an earthquake in China, which is...interesting. And Charles Manson thought it was some kind of Biblical bottomless pit where his cult could hide from the coming apocalypse. And for another crater option like Chicxulub, there's the Manicougan crater in central Quebec, 215 million years old and sixth-largest by diameter on Earth. And conversely, if you want somewhere that the subterraneans won't be able to fuck with, the Canadian Shield is a good one.

Tech things: Siemens wants to build an electric inter-layer elevator with "magnetic dynamos", which I'm taking to mean sort of an electric tram, not a conventional elevator with cables. That means big fucking linear motors (I'd think), and from there it's not a huge leap to magnetic accelerator guns. IRL a Frenchman came up with the idea for the railgun in 1917. Exotic inner-earth metals might make it actually viable.

Then there's the various weird occultic things you could tie in. The Five Root Races are practically established already. But this whole concept naturally brings to mind the Shaver Mystery...thing. If you're not familiar, it's this whole bizarre cavern world thing from the '50s that kind of intersects early UFOlogy with scifi from the era - Shaver himself wrote it all as a true story and sent it in to Amazing Stories magazine where Ray Palmer reworked it into a novella titled "I Remember Lemuria" and published it. Then THAT took off and - long story short, this is the thing with deros and teros and that whole mess. Bunch of different fan zines popped up about it running into the '70s featuring allegedly real encounters, which then started blending into the Deep Underground Military Bases mythos of the '80s and '90s, which goes way more Delta Green.

This is a good read for a bunch of the supposedly "real" stuff tied in with mythology and some insanity
>https://archive.org/details/caverns-cauldrens-and-concealed-creatures

>>96681184
I think Son Doong is worth keeping in the back of the mind.

>>96676454
>Leaders, Specialists and Heroes to spend AP to force the model holding the rifle to Attack, regardless of whether it needs to Reload right now or not.
I would specify Faction Specialists.
>>96677334
It was a good game. I really like how the walls and pits played into it. I think with the proposed Kropatchek rules 2eanon would have had a very good chance of wining, especially with cheaper or no Einmanpackung. The Felduberstzer felt like the MVP to me, across both lists. While my attention and forces were constantly split, his never really were. It's a very strong model defensively and thematically. In the past I was worried it would be too strong, or nullify too much the tactical side of things, but seeing all the random bullshit the Austrians have to deal with, i'd say they could use the relief. I think Expagarscra is very much a strategic game, but as this battle shows, tactics do matter. I think the Felduberstzer would pair well with Trenches.
>Even though I had a really rough 4th turn, i think that game was pretty secure over all.
More accurate: I felt confident until the 4th, when i spooked, but in hindsight i see i spooked over (ultimately) nothing, and my rashness after (probably) wouldn't have cost me the game. Even if Warfex died, although it would be a big silver lead, only my Nurse would have been Shaken, so I could still have routed him and won that way, but it would have been very close.

>>96681140
>I'm not sure if giving France further entrances would make sense
At the very least, France would be unwilling to give up such a resource without concessions

>>96675233
Still open for name ideas.

File: USA.png (4.65 MB, 4983x2815)

4.65 MB PNG

>>96681754
>I would specify Faction Specialists.
Good catch!
>>96681754
>It was a good game.
Glad you enjoyed, you had moments of insane bad luck and still pulled through.
>>96681754
>The Felduberstzer felt like the MVP to me, across both lists.
Its a very strong support piece, definitely, and will probably impact every game its in. Perhaps boost to 15 Silver?
>>96681754
>In the past I was worried it would be too strong, or nullify too much the tactical side of things, but seeing all the random bullshit the Austrians have to deal with, i'd say they could use the relief.
Well, this also wasn't us trying to make a broken OP list with it as well. Probably something with grenade throwing spam. But also, you'll want to keep your mean from spreading out too much using him, so at the same time you open yourself up to getting punished with artillery, explosives, aoe, etc.
> picrel
Agartha Caverunner Burger Edition. At least a start.

>>96681793
Sure. As it is, with their poor industrial base and economy, Carlist Spain would struggle mightily to control an agarthan territory. I can see them depending on France for the building of the infrastructure needed to connect the two layers, as well as for the general infrastructure (especially railways, since french companies built most of the Spanish railways during the 19th century in the original timeline anyway). And at the same time, if France ever has enough resouces and interests to expand through that area, the Spanish can't just say no to using the entrance.

It would be something akin to the actual Franco-Spanish intervention in Vietnam, where both nations went to Vietnam, but the french's political manouvers made it so that they kept Vietnam for themselves and gave Spain a pittance in finantial compensation for the effort.

TL,DR: France would get Spain to pay for the brunt of the effort, while also guaranteeing their access to the entrance if they ever want to.

Ok, I rewrote the lore of the egyptian history and Giza Tath Al’ard. Let's see if this works.
-------
The land of Egypt has been admired and envied by many civilizations for millennia. The kingdom of the pharaohs was, at one point, one of the most powerful nation in all known history, blessed by untold riches, and even more importantly, the life-giving waters of the Nile. Even after Egypt lost its independence at the hands of foreign powers, it was the crown jewel of those who controlled their blessed lands: from Alexander’s rule to the roman emperors to the arab conquests, Egypt was always a keystone of the power of those who could control it. Yet, over the years, the blessings of the Nile were slowly but surely set aside, as the powers in the West grew mighty due to their expansion across the world and the gifts from their industry and science. Even then, the mysteries that the land of the Nile held quite a lot of power, and power always attracts great men. During his campaign in Egypt, Napoleon Bonaparte became fascinated by the legacies of the pharaohs, and every moment there that was not dedicated to fighting the ottomans and the british was left to learn from the remnants of those ancient rulers. After his famous victory at the feet of the pyramids, rumors abound of his entrance into the Giza Pyramid. Whatever he saw within it, he never told anyone. However, whatever project the french general had over Egypt was short lived: the french defeat at the hands of the English fleet forced Napoleon to retreat back to France, to continue his destiny as the ruler of his nation.

>>96687275
Egypt, meanwhile, was left changed by the arrival and departure of Bonaparte. The ottomans, having been pushed around by the french and having to be helped time and time again by the british, had shown their weakness in this modern time, something that would continue in the following decades. At the time, the mamluks, the old slave-soldiers turned into the rulers of Egypt for centuries, had been left severely weakened, their stranglehold over the country severely disrupted. This power vacuum resulted into a civil war, who saw neither the ottomans nor the mamluks as the true rulers of the region. Instead, this power fell into the hands of Muhammad Ali: an ambitious man sent initially by the ottomans to fight Napoleon’s armies, he skillfully maneuvered both factions against each other and managed to become the true power in Egypt. Having managed to backstab the mamluks and purge them out of any further position of relevance, the ottoman authorities recognized his rule over Egypt, though they still claimed nominal authority over the land. Thus, Muhammad Ali started a comprehensive project of modernization, both of the army and of the economy.

>>96687284
Over the years, Muhammad Ali partakes in multiple campaigns, expanding Egyptian influence over Sudan and in Arabia. During the Greek rebellions in the 1820’s, Muhammad Ali sends a great deal of military help to push against the hellenic uprising alongside other ottoman forces, though despite the combined efforts of the empire, the eventual western help led to the birth of the Kingdom of Greece. Defeated and quite weakened in the eyes of the world, the Ottomans had to cave to Muhammad Ali’s demands for greater authority within the empire. However, once the demands expand outside Egypt and into other ottoman provinces the ottomans began pushing against Muhammad Ali, seeing him as too big a threat to the empire’s unity to leave alone. While the First Egyptian-Ottoman War initially looked like a permanent Egyptian victory, forcing the ottomans to recognize a de facto independence of Egypt within the Sultanate, the need to keep the Ottoman Empire standing led the western powers to move in favor of the Sultan, least the balance of power in the East affected them in the long run.

>>96687293
Thus, Muhammad Ali’s ambitions were checked by the moment. While this seemed like a momentary setback, as he had gained the right of hereditary rule in Egypt for his dynasty, the results of his efforts looked feeble at best. His heir was sickly and he himself was beginning to feel the ravages of time. The previously dynamic and sharp mind gave way to senility. Seeking to find a way to heal this ailment, he began receiving visits from strange robed men, many of whom bore strange marks and icons within their skin, reminiscent of pagan rituals from the time of the pharaohs. Nobody knew who these people were, and to this day, this mystery remains unsolved, as well as the role they had in the following events. However, what we do know is that it was at this point when Muhammad Ali decided to abandon the rule of Egypt, leaving it to his son, and began a seemingly final pilgrimage into the heart of Egypt. In early 1848, he, alongside a clique of followers, departed from Cairo, and seemingly disappeared, being lost in the dunes.

>>96687310
The rule of Egypt afterwards was one of convulsion. Muhammad Ali’s heir Ibrahim died a couple months after due to disease, and Abbas Helmy’s projects were contrary to the previous attempts to modernize the country. Feeling distrust for the european powers, he helped the ottomans in the Crimean War, but the defeat of the Coalition resulted in a hard blow for his rule, with the signing of the Treaty of Berlin in 1856 hurting the prestige of both ottomans and Egyptians alike. Many Egyptians at this time, fed up by the ottoman inability to defend their own territories from harm, consider Abbas Helmy’s rule an abject failure, as he was not able to obtain a total independence from the ottomans during a time where the ottomans were seen as a crippled power.

>>96687323
His successor, Sa’id Pasha, was a man with a different vision. Wanting to return to modernize Egypt, and much more open to western influence than his predecessor, he quickly strengthened ties with the western businessmen. He took advantage of the british loss of India and the American Civil War to turn Egypt into the world’s main producer of cotton, something that gained Egypt great acclaim, and thus helped attract investors. In particular, the advancements of technology and the growing world trade makes the old dream of a water canal across Suez an achievable goal now. Thus, the project of the Suez Canal began, giving a great deal of concessions to the french to build it. The project quickly proves to be much harder than expected, and he gets british investments as well due to the costs. While the sinking of Paris in 1860 threatens to derail the project, a quick intervention by british investors result in the construction moving along. While Sa’id Pasha’s rule left Egypt more powerful than before, it did result in a growing western (specifically british) influence in the government, as well as a growing amount of debt.

>>96687332
The next ruler of Egypt, Isma'il, was a very ambitious man. Seeking to fulfill his dynasty’s dream of finally being free from ottoman rule and to expand their borders across the Levant and Arabia, he began preparing his forces, waiting for the chance to strike. That chance came in 1871, when a series of disputes between the ottomans and the Bulgarians led to a war with the Tsardom and the Austrians. A short but brutal war, the Sultanate is forced to abandon most of their lands in the Balkans. Seeing this humiliation as the moment he was waiting for, Isma’il launched a massive campaign against the Sultan, rising in revolt against ottoman rule, and promoting further rebellions within the empire. The Hejaz campaign is quickly successful, taking advantage of the anti-ottoman sentiment of the region, with the cities of Mecca and Medina fall in months. While these victories gained him great prestige within the muslim community, he is convinced to not advance further, though, as british diplomacy convinces him to stop and consolidate, wanting to slow down the now seemingly inevitable collapse of the Ottoman Empire as much as possible.

>>96687341
It is at this point when the events of the Second Oriental Crisis began. With Istambul in chaos, Murad V, who claimed to be the savior of the sultanate, deposed the ottoman sultan Abdulaziz. While this move was relatively easy for Murad V, he realized he was ruling over a dying empire, and mad with desperation, he began to plan the dark deeds that would mark the period. Initially, the new sultan personally launched a near suicidal campaign against Egypt, with a savagery that surprised all witnesses. He spent no time consolidating his victories or establishing logistic routes: the ottoman forces just marched straight forward, sacking and burning every territory they came across, taking everything they needed to move on, taking no prisoners, abandoning their wounded men to their fates and going from battle to battle with suicidal fervor. This caught the Egyptian forces completely by surprise, being routed back to Egypt. However, when the ottoman forces arrived to El Cairo, Murad V shocked Isma’il by asking for a parlay. Murad V, in the eyes of the Egyptians feverishly mad and one foot in the grave, asked to be allowed to enter the Pyramid of Giza, for reasons that were not disclosed to the Egyptian authorities. Utterly confused by this proposal, and after truly confirming this was some sort of ruse, Isma’il allowed it, no doubt thinking this was the final proof of the madness of the final ottoman ruler, a last act to die as the pharaohs of old, buried beneath the pyramid with his armies. Once Murad and the remaining ottoman army enter the Giza Pyramid, the Egyptians decide to seal the tomb from the outside once they are in, thinking they won’t be able to escape.

>>96687354
When news of this arrive to the Ottoman Empire, the sultanate enters in a state of complete and utter panic. With their leader seemingly gone, the nation begins quickly fracturing as a result. Anti-ottoman rebellions spread like wildfire across the empire, and many generals begin stablishing their own fiefdoms. Abdul Hamid II quickly took over Istambul and the remaining ottoman administration, trying to no avail to put all the pieces of the empire together, a now clearly impossible task. Things only worsened a week after “the entombing” of Murad V: a massive earthquake ravaged Istambul, and after the monumental cloud of dust and debris cleared, it showed a dreadful spectacle: just as Paris had fallen, most of Istambul had disappeared into the depths. At this point, the different powers bordering the now headless Ottoman Empire began moving for the kill, trying to conquer as much territory as possible before their rivals did.

>>96687359
However, none of those witnessing the death of the empire could predict what would happen afterwards. A month after Murad V’s entombing, news of the dead rising all over the empire began spreading. Reports of many cemeteries suddenly being emptied as those resting suddenly began moving again, taking arms against the living. Soon, an immortal army of over 100,000 skeletons began a seemingly cause-less war against the surface. Utter chaos spread across the land, as the unimaginable happened right in front of everyone: from Anatolia to Hejaz to the Holy Land, the blasphemous rise of the dead caused everyone to fear for their souls: some surrendered to the dead, feeling this as a sign of the End Times; some fought to the death, seeing this abominable event as the work of dark powers; and some took their own lives as penance for their sins; and some just were driven mad, shedding the blood of anything and anyone, their minds lost in insanity. All while the dead spread their grasp over the land.

>>96687369
After eleven days of undead revolt, something began stirring from the gap on the earth in what once was Istambul. Coming from what would be eventually known as the Capadocian Caves, Murad V came out of the shadows, now an undead husk, at the head of a massive army of undead. From there, he launched a massive campaign of subjugation throughout the Sultanate, gaining both living and undead troops to his cause in his march to reunite the empire together. By winter of 1874, Murad’s undead legion had managed to recover control over the Sultanate, and was pushing into those neighbors who had dared to move against the ottomans during the period of weakness: the Balkans were invaded, with hordes of undead moving into Greece, launching the Second War of Greek Independence, and threatening Bulgarian independence. The Tsardom’s borders at the Caucasus were also threatened, the cold winter in the mountains being no problem to the undead. The Zagros Mountains also became under attack by the husk armies, driving Persian borders back.

>>96687392
However, the brunt of the attention of the undead army was against the Egyptian forces. Having advanced further into the sultanate than any other power, and seeking to punish the Egyptians for daring to defy the rule of the Great Sultan, Murad’s armies pushed the now routed Egyptian armies back to the Sinai. With the dead also coming from the sea and spreading across the Egyptian lands, Isma’il began losing his mind, seeing all of this impossibility as the end of the world. Unstable and unable to lead the Egyptian forces, the french and the british send help to whatever Egyptian authority is still standing against the undead, both to protect their interests in the Suez Canal and to stop this seemingly impossible threat.

>>96687413
The resulting Battle of Suez gathered the hastily organized forces of the western powers alongside the demoralized Egyptian army, using the Suez Canal as a line of defense to stop the unliving wave. A massive sandstorm covered the battlefield, blocking all visibility for days. Seeing that fighting was impossible under this conditions, and knowing the undead had no issue moving across the sandstorm, they decided to withdraw, with the Egyptian forces left manning the barricades and trenches made by the french and the English, quickly overwhelming them. When all seemed lost, a dust cloud moving in the opposite direction blew into the battlefield: from the dust and sand poured hundreds of warriors tattooed with ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and animal masks, charging at the husks in an eerie, yet completely silent, zealous rage. At their head, a figure mounted on a coal black horse and carrying a golden khopesh gave a cry of defiance against the undead, encouraging the Egyptian defenders to push the ottoman demons, sending them to whatever hell they came from. Confused, but emboldened, the Egyptian forces charged out of their trenches to destroy the walking corpses, whose advance now faltered against the living. After the ottoman undead were pushed back and destroyed, the strange tattooed men burning the corpses with sacred oils, the Egyptian forces realized that the figure that had rallied them from despair and defeat and into victory was no other than Muhammad Ali himself. Seemingly alive, he showed no sign of husking, but instead still alive after many decades, somehow rejuvenated by some sort of unknown miracle. The “Miracle of The Desert” quickly spread across Egypt, and tens of thousands of volunteers moved to fight the ottomans, launching a jihad against the unholy monsters. With Muhammad Ali at the head, the Egyptian army scoured the land from ottomans, pushing the turks back again and again.

>>96687424
After the final victory at the Battle of Suakin, the triumphal forces of Muhammad Ali returned triumphantly to El Cairo, seeing almost as a figure of religious adoration. Seeing his grandfather, believed to be long dead, returned restored in youth and having saved Egypt fror the ottoman demons, Isma'il Pasha collapsed, suffering a nervous breakdown that saw him die a couple of days later. With Isma’il’s death, Muhammad Ali took the mantle of leader of Egypt once again, with the roaring approval of the population who he had saved. Many began believing that his miraculous return against the living death meant that he was the “Mahdi”, chosen by Allah and prophesized to fight against Evil during the End Times. However, not everyone received him with open arms. The western powers had great doubts of him truly being whom he said he was, but over time, the need of having a power in charge of Egypt and defending the Suez Canal made it expedient to just accept him. Many other simply refused to believe his claims of being Muhammad Ali, and rebelled against him. These “Mahdist Wars” were specially serious and violent in the Sudanese territories under Egyptian rule, and to this day, Egypt fights frequent mahdist rebellions. Even many who knew Muhammad Ali in life speak of a change in him: while he famously cut his palms in front of his army to prove he was not a husk, dark rumors abound that, even in the most luminous days of summer, Muhammad Ali’s body does not cast a shadow anymore. He was also seen carrying multiple ancient Egyptian trinkets at all times, which makes the more faithful worried, though not at the extent in which the ottoman husks would be preferable.

>>96687441
The Battle of Suakin also marked the beginning of the changing tide for the other nations bordering the Ottoman Empire, managed to push back the waves of undead the following years. The Tsardom and the Persian forces managed to fight the husks to a standstill in the Battle of Lake Urmia in 1872, and the franco-british coalition managed to help the greeks push back the undead, ending with the liberation of Crete and its division between the two powers in the Treaty of Heraclion in 1873. The Austrians and the Bulgarians also pushed back the ottoman undead, though they were not able to fully dislodge them from the Balkans. Even the Italians managed to take advantage of the situation, occupying the shores of Tripolitania and guaranteeing control over Albania. While Egypt had lost the territories east of the Suez Canal, it is considered a lesser evil in comparison to ottoman rule.

>>96687447
By late 1873, the ottomans are considered contained enough to begin planning a more organized long-term strategy against the dead man of Europe. The following investigation of the events that had taken place resulted in the discovery that the Pyramid of Giza held a hidden entrance to Agartha, reaching the layer of Pangea. Seeing the potential of agarthan expansion, while also knowing the risk of ottoman attack to the heart of Egypt, Muhammad Ali planned a multinational project to set up an outpost on the 4th. The Treaty of Athens in 1875 agreed to the creation of Giza Tath Al’ard, an epigean settlement in Pangea under nominal rule of Egypt. Muhammad Ali managed to establish that Egypt was to be treated as “a fully sovereign item”, agreeing that no western power is allowed to claim Egypt under their colonial wing. However, due to their massive debt, Egypt is, in reality, much closer to the Anglo-French sphere of influence than to other western powers.

>>96687453
Nowadays, Giza Tath Al’ard is not treated as colony or a settlement, but as the “world’s biggest military outpost”, as its goal is to push back against ottoman expansion within Pangea. The development of the outpost has resulted in a strange blend of Egyptian and european customs and styles. The city is an amalgamation of the different forces living there, with districts being almost independent entities in and of themselves. Giza Tath Al’ard is witness of collaboration and espionage, as rarely one can see so many powers rivaling each other coexisting together. The city is also the biggest weapons market in all of Agartha: from the latest designs to the oldest army leftovers, the leadership of Giza Tath Al’ard promotes that any man, woman and child is armed and is proficient enough to defend themselves, least the armies’ forces are not enough to contain the undead. Should the ottomans ever manage to take over Giza Tath Al’ard, the Egyptians are ordered to seal the passages of the pyramid utterly, blocking the pass through them forevermore.

If my writing is a bit rough, please forgive me, I have the mother of all headaches and I just wanted to finish this, I had posponed making the writeup for too long. Any feedback will be appreciated, but I'll see it tomorrow, as I need to sleep now, let's see if it improves things.