Mayday Plays - Heroes You Should Know: Hatschepsut

Episode Date: May 30, 2021

Join Allegra and Zakiya as they discuss Egyptian queen, Hatschepsut.

Oh, Brad, cool, thank you. Thank you, Erin, for leading us into this. Hi, friends. This is Heroes You Should Know. The, what do I call it, usually the double nerd show where we talk about historical figures that we really definitely should know and don't for a plethora of reasons.

And then we turn them into D&D characters because why wouldn't we? And this week, I have my buddy Zakiya with me. I'm very, I'm very glad you're here to do this. This nonsense show with me, I love history, I love friendship, I love D&D. What's not to be excited about? I try and think if there are any announcements

to get out of the way. I don't think there are besides the fact that Ashoka is coming back tomorrow, not tomorrow. Friday, that's the word. Yeah, that's the one. One day I'll get better at this, I swear. It's not today. And on that note, hi.

We are gonna be talking about Hatshepsut, who was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh. She's super cool, we're gonna get into it in just a minute. But at the top of this, I'm just gonna give a blanket warning. Because this is ancient royalty, there's gonna be some incest up in this. And like, it's unavoidable, sorry.

Also, on a similar note, I'm, yo. Cool, cool, cool. We'll take a quick pause. I'll have a sip of my juice and my cat cup. It's all good. You know, I says, we've all seen Game of Thrones. Green Vader says, your eye shadow is fire, and they're correct.

It's bomb as hell. It's bomb as hell. It's bomb as hell. It's bomb as hell. It's bomb as hell. Well, you're beautiful as always. And we're, what were we talking, oh yes. So, royals.

I don't care about them terribly at all. Nobility has no interest to me. And so the like stacking of things shake out with nobility. I did my very best to understand it, but I don't care about it that much. So I'm, so it'll be a little wispy at times. Apologies.

And then also I took Egyptology in college and there are facts about Egypt bouncing around in my head that I don't know what to do with. And so sometimes they may come out, they may be relevant. They may not. I apologize. One off the top of my head, the only one I remember with any kind of clarity

is that the name Susan is actually from ancient Egypt because there are cartouches that have the Sue, the Z and the N sound and it makes Susan. Fun fact. The eternal Susan. And as always with history this long ago, there are going to be discrepancies in the length of time, where things happened, when things happened,

who things happened to. Well, we're doing our best. We're just taking the widely, the most widely accepted numbers, the most with them. Are they 100% true? Hopefully. But, you know, it was 3000 plus years ago. So who knows?

It's definitely before. Yeah. Yes, it is. Anyway, so let's jump into this right now. So Hatshepsut was the second female pharaoh and the longest reigning female pharaoh of any indigenous dynasty period. She's the first confirmed,

so I'm sorry, so the first confirmed female pharaoh was Sobe Kenefru, who was the last ruler of the 12th dynasty in Egypt and ruled for about four years between 1806 and 1802, BCE. So like, we're working, we're working backwards the time. So she died without an heir and was subsequently brought around the end of the 12th dynasty

and ushered in the 13th. So there are also other earlier women who were rulers and led different dynasties, like way back in the 1st dynasty there was Marenith, Nidocris in the 6th, but there's no like full-on proof that they were that they were actual rulers.

I like the idea that they were real rulers though. Anyway, back to Hatshepsut. She is considered one of the most successful pharaohs in the ancient Egyptian middle kingdom. So there's like the old kingdom, the middle kingdom and the new kingdom. And that's like, the old kingdom is the oldest time period,

middle kingdom, obviously the middle and the new kingdom is when they interacted with like the Greeks and like the library of Alexandria came about Cleopatra, the Roman, all that kind of stuff happened to the new kingdom. So we are in the middle kingdom, specifically in the 18th dynasty. So she is the 5th pharaoh of the 18th dynasty.

Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba. My last new place, of course I did. There we are, okay. So this is also when ancient Egypt is like at its height. There are a few other notable 18th dynasty rulers. There was Tuttmos. There are like multiple Tuttmos, as we're actually going to talk about,

at least three of them. Tuttmos one, two and three. There is Akhenaten, who was formerly called Amenhotep IV. So he moved like the capital city around away from Thebes and then it got moved back to Thebes afterwards because he started a cult called the cult of Aten, which was the whole idea of his was that he was going to

have like a monotheistic kind of mood going rather than polytheistic. But it didn't last super long. It lasted only for his reign. And then they moved the capital back to Thebes away from Amarnato, and they moved it back to Thebes. Anyway, and then there was Neferu Taten,

who was more commonly known as Nefertiti. She was Akhenaten's great royal wife, which is the title that like the first, like the most important wife the pharaoh gets. And there's talks that she might have ruled for a little bit in like in the in the in between times before Tutankhamen came into power. But that's kind of unconfirmed.

And then, of course, there's King Tut, who ruled, died young. We all know about King Tut. Yes. But before all of those people, they were closer to the end of the 18th dynasty. We are on Hatshepsut. She was born in 1507 BCE.

So her father is Tutmose the first, and he's a pharaoh, and her mother is his consort Amos. So Tutmose the first dies. He's like, he's a dude. He's going to die because he doesn't matter in this one specifically. Besides the fact that he's the pharaoh before Tutmose the second,

who is his son, and he takes the throne around 1493. And he is technically Hatshepsut's half-brother, or half, yes, half-brother. That's right. We were hitting the incest real quick. They were half-siblings because Tutmose's other consort was Mujno Fret,

and that was Tutmose the second's mother, where Amos was Hatshepsut's, and she would have been around like 13 or 14 when they got married. Fun times. Let's see. So yes, she ends up marrying her half-brother. And so Tutmose the second and Hatshepsut have one kid.

It's Neferore, who is their daughter. She's a princess. She eventually takes on some of the roles that Hatshepsut took on when her dad was king. So she kind of takes over where her mother left off essentially. And after that, Hatshepsut can't have any more kids. So then eventually, Tutmose's rule comes to an end because he dies in 1479.

And his son, which is Tutmose the third, with Isit, who was a different consort from Hatshepsut, is two years old. And so obviously we can't have a two-year-old running a dynasty. So, right. Like, in what world is that a good idea? Go wrong. Just like candy for dinner and no sleep.

That's how it works. Yep. Say he'll tell it like it is. He will. Yes. So two-year-old can't run a dynasty. Hatshepsut is the... What's the...

Oh my gosh, I... Where are the words? Where are the words that I need? They're gone today. And it's okay. So she's like the foremost wife. Hatshepsut is the foremost wife of Tutmose the second. And even though she isn't Tutmose the third's mother,

she takes over as queen regent, which basically means she's ruling as a placeholder for the true heir. But about seven years after that, she takes the... She takes the title of Pharaoh. And so the entirety of her reign, she and Tutmose the third,

or yes, Tutmose the third, are technically co-regents, which means they're co-rulers. But for the most part, she's the one that kind of handles everything. So she's 28. Her husband brother has died. Her stepson nephew is technically the king,

and she's in charge of all of ancient Egypt. So basically this happened in a couple of different ways. The long and short of it is she was very smart in the way she did things. Yes. So during this time in ancient Egypt, it was a pretty patriarchal society,

but women could own an inherent land. They could get an education. They could hold political power. It was just kind of like dude-led. But because she's a princess and she's high up and has a pretty high standing in society, she's super-educated, which wasn't always available to all women in ancient Egypt.

They had more access to education than in other civilizations, like in Rome anyway. But also lower-class folks had significantly less access to education or quality or quantity of education, which is something we continue to see to this day. So same song, different era. So yes, so she's educated. And then she's also super well-connected

because she's a princess and she's the wife of a pharaoh and she's the daughter of a pharaoh. And she already has this incredible understanding of how the inner workings of the government work, how the inner workings of religion work, and she has a way that she can kind of spin it in her favor. Because like I said, she already has these connections, these people that know her, that trust her

and have worked with her. And then she is the god's wife of Amun, which is usually a title given to wives or daughters of pharaohs, which is what Neferere becomes. So this basically refers to the myth of the divine birthing a king, aka the mother of a pharaoh is actually impregnated by the god of sun and air, which is Amun, who is like the king of the gods, basically.

So saying that she is the god's wife of Amun is basically like saying I married the version of Amun that's walking around. So like I'm obviously already worthy. Yes. Yeah. Which is like very smart. It's just like a system that they have in place.

And then adding on top of that, her bloodline is basically undeniable because she is daughter, wife, and sister to two pharaohs. Triple threat. That's what that means. It's definitely what that means. Yeah. So she's got a lot going for her.

She knows how stuff works. She's already on the inside. And her competition is a two year old. So seventh year of ruling, she proclaimed herself as king of Egypt, but keeps the third as co-region. And her reign is somewhere between 21 and 22 years. And it's ostensibly very peaceful. There was like maybe a brief successful military campaign

into Nubia, but that's kind of unconfirmed. There are kind of like conflicting historical. Yeah, yeah. It may or may not have happened. And if it did, it was very brief. It was pretty peaceable. It wasn't like an all out blood bath. So what does she do during this time?

Well, a lot. So first she reestablishes trade routes that had been destroyed when the Hyksos occupied Egypt during the second intermediate period. Going back to my small amount of knowledge. So there's like, there's the old kingdom. And somewhere in the old kingdom, there's an intermediate period. And that intermediate period is when Egypt is ruled by other folks that aren't like Egyptians.

And then there's a second intermediate period where the Hyksos came in and it's about a hundred years before Hecheps its reign. So it's in the early 1600s ish. Excuse me. So she's, so yeah, so the Hyksos came in, they kind of took over. They ruled everything for a bit. And then the Egyptians got them out of there. This was kind of like the first one of the first big like expulsions of people of foreign powers.

I guess it was. So I couldn't really get like a full bead on exactly where they were from. But for the most part, it was talked about either somewhere north close to the Mediterranean or from the very western part of Asia. So like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, that kind of area, or like a little bit like, or like pushing into where Greece eventually is. I see. So they've, they've, they've gotten rid of the Hyksos and they're trying, they've,

they're trying to like rebuild these connections that they had before. So, okay, so to get kind of a geographical idea of what things are. So here's the like, here's the delta of the Nile and up here is the Mediterranean. And it curves down and then there's like this little hook in it. And then it goes down a little further. And in that hook on the outside of it is where thieves is Egypt, ancient Egyptian thieves, not Greek thieves. And a little further, and then there's like the, the little pointy part of the horn of Africa. Yes.

Yes. The pointy part of Africa. Yes. Good. Yes. So the horn of Africa and at the horn of Africa is a civilization called punt. And punt was, it's, it's close to like where modern day Somalia is. And it was known for like producing and exporting goods like gold, ivory, aromatic resins, blackwood, ebony and wild animals.

So back in like the fifth dynasty, Egyptians and the puntians, punt folks, I don't know. The punts. Yeah. Yeah, I like that. I think I like that best. And they would kind of, they had, they had pretty regular trade and, and punt was a very, it was known for like all of the, the, the nice things that it, that it exported. And it was kind of like lavish and, and it was, what's the word I'm looking for gosh. It's, it's, it's just gave to me.

It doesn't matter. It's, it was, it was a cool place. It was a, it was a nice, fancy place and trade with them was important. So this is in the ninth year of her reign. She sends a full fleet of five ships into the Red Sea with about 210 soldiers and rowers. And they come back with a ton of goods like frankincense, which, okay. So I realized that I should know what frankincense is because that's, that's, I don't, I don't know what frankincense is. And for anyone else who didn't know what frankincense was, it is an aromatic resin from a baswalia tree that is used in incense and perfume.

They also had Mer, which again, I have no idea what it actually is. Here we go. It's another. Yeah. It's a gun. I would say it's, those are both, my brain wants to say Jesus props. It's an important story. Yes.

Jesus stories. So that's, which is why I didn't really know what they were growing up on religious. I had no idea what they were. And I was, I, like, I always heard, I was like, Oh yeah, frankincense and Mer. Mer. And that's the only like the only. That's good. So I decided I would finally look up what the hell they were.

It's pretty cool. They're from trees from those like spiky bitch trees, the comforia trees. They're very pretty. Also, you could use Mer for medicine apparently. Who knew? Anyway, so delegations from punt return with 21 live Mer trees and the roots had been kept in baskets for the return trip. And this was the first recorded attempt to transplant foreign trees. And then she also planted those trees in the courts of her mortuary temple complex, which is so cool.

That's a power move. Yeah. But also like, they transplanted plants up a river, or I guess technically down a river. Yeah. Up north down the river. Yes. Up south the river. Exactly.

That's trophy garden. For sure. And she also would grant up the frankincense into her coal eyeliner, which I think is interesting to have like smell good eyeliner, like scratch into the highlighter. I feel like that would be so painful, but that just speaks to power. Yeah, like beauty is paying right. Yes. She said girl boss. I still don't understand that girl boss gatekeep.

Whatever me. I don't keep it either. I think it's just the absurdity of it. Awesome. Not just burn your eyes. I don't know, Amanda. I've never personally. It would as someone who's who's made weird.

Made weird shit with plants and accidentally got it in their eye. It does burn. It would burn. That's gonna be real fucking careful. Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm catching up on chat and seeing seeing my friend talking about the vine. I got you, ladybug.

I had a herbalism phase there and I got you. I want to talk about that at some point, please. Just you and me. I'd love to just sit and talk about herbalism. I don't know anything, but I'm interested in it. And I would like to, I would like to hear your. I just like to hear your experiences. My friend trial by error is the experiences.

Great. I love it. Would you, okay. Like if you were, if someone was like, here's some coal eyeliner from like the middle kingdom of ancient Egypt. Do you think you would try to use it? Yes. I know it would be bad.

Should not use it at all. It should be kept as like, like something to look back on as an artifact. Right. Immediately going on a lash line. Thick cat eye. Yeah. Immediately. Yeah.

I'm here for it. I'm in support of you experimenting with this. However you see fit. Ancient eyeliner. Yes. Actually, yeah. If anyone in chat has ancient eyeliner that they want to see. We don't have a PO box yet, but hold on.

We'll, we'll get it to you. If you're, if you're an illegal archeologist and you want to. Oh, especially honestly, if you're an illegal archeologist, I want to talk to you because that's cool as fuck. I mean, maybe not the illegal part of it, but I just want to talk to you about archeology. I have an anthropology minor. I won't be able to keep up, but I like it. Oh, Aaron said group trip to Egypt.

Absolutely. Yes. In fact, we're doing it. Yes. Meg said, would that just be a grave rubber? And she's right. It would. Um, but I don't, you're right.

It's going to say a grave rubber, but with government grants. There it is. But then I would also want to do like an, like a, like a heist and be like, Hey, cool. Let's talk about this thing. Let me see this artifact you found. All right. You're asleep. I'm taking it back and putting it where it belongs.

And then that we, yeah, we only do. We only do archeology that's already been discovered and we put it back. Yes. Yes. Yes. That's, that's the new, that's the new meeting move is hold the podcast. We have to go find archeologists first. Yes.

Yes. Um, Now that we've officially, uh, Sidelined ourselves. Uh, we'll bring it back. We'll bring it back. Um, So there are also reports that she sent rainy expeditions to Biblos in the Sinai

peninsula. Um, But it also again questionable because historically her foreign policy was mostly peaceful. So questionable could have happened. Could not. Um, There's also evidence that she renewed trade with Western Asia and the Aegean islands.

So connection and like talking to, uh, Folks that they're eventually going to have contact with in ancient Egypt. Um, But a little earlier than expected again, not confirmed, but just a cool possibility. She was also a pretty prolific builder. Um, I mean, I mean, like she, she wasn't the physical builder of things. She commissioned things and like hundreds of construction projects all throughout

like upper and lower Egypt. Um, And so she works with a couple of architects, which is in an eye who worked for her father. Uh, And her husband and her brother. Um, Is that one person?

Uh, no, actually it's two. Okay. Um, And then also Senemut who is an architect and government official. Uh, they were said to have a pretty close relationship. Um, Like they were lovers, but also who knows. Um,

So she had a ton of monuments constructed at the temple of Karnak, which was constructed in the 1900s BCE and was added to by, by most pharaohs all the way up through the Ptolemaic period, which is in the, um, in like the thirties BCE. So that thing has been going for nearly, I guess nearly 4,000 years now. Wild. I mean, I don't think it's been like built on since the thirties BCE,

but still it's been around since then. And that's fucking dope. Yes. That's today is the, I was, okay, this is another sort of diatribe, but I was looking in my almanac today. Um, because I found it under the bed looking for D and D books. And I realized today is the day of it's the anniversary of the,

um, the alleged discovery of the library of Alexandria or rediscovery rather, um, in 2004. So on this day we do Egypt shit. Yes. It's, it's a, it's Egypt holiday. Yes.

I'm sorry. Go ahead. No, no, this is great. I love, I love being sidetracked. It's that sounded like that sounds sarcastic, but it was genuine. I do like,

No. It's okay. I just don't, I don't want to throw off your groove and I keep doing it. I have no groove. I've never had a groove ever in my life. I just like talking about things and then my mouth gets ahead of my brain or my brain gets ahead of my mouth and it's all a mess.

But we're here now and we're talking about the temple of Karnak. And now we're going to talk about restoration of the original priest, precinct of Moot. So Moot is a, a goddess who's like the primordial mother deity associated with new, which is the primordial waters from which everything is born. So they're like, they're the like two land meets water kind of creation myth,

I suppose. So it had been destroyed by the Hixos, Hixos occupation. And that unfortunately got torn down by other pharaohs. So she, so she put a bunch of work into the precinct of Moot and then it got turned down by their pharaohs, which wasn't an uncommon thing.

Pharaohs would tear things down to use those resources for their own projects. They would tear them down to be like, no, I can make this better. It was, it was just kind of a, a grab bag of what survived and what didn't. But at the precinct of Moot, she commissioned twin obelisks, which were the tallest obelisks in the world at the time to stand at the entrance of the temple, one of which is actually still standing today and is the tallest surviving ancient obelisk on earth.

And it's called Hetshepsut's Needle, which I think is super cool. Yeah. Sorry. Oh, I was going to say that's good branding for her. Yeah. Like if it's lasted this long, we still call it Hetshepsut's Needle. So there's also the temple of pocket,

which, which she builds it is a temple to the lioness warrior goddess. So she's kind of believed to be a, a combination of Bostet from lower Egypt and second hat from Upper Egypt. Flip those. And so it's a, it's a temple to a God that's maybe a combination of the two. And it's actually built pretty near the border where Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt were. So that's cool, I think. So it's a huge underground temple, cut into the rock cliffs, lots of lioness imagery.

And when the, so, so for like kind of a reference, when the Greeks saw it, they kind of immediately associated with associated it with Artemis. So kind of neat. I see. I mean, I feel like all, all ancient, not all, but a lot of ancient like deities are going to have a ton of crossover. Like, like how we saw it in Hedjuana and like words. I can't remember their names. Aphrodite was where they ended up.

I, one day my brain will work guys and it'll be a glorious day. It'll be over for everyone. But for now we continue because of course she builds a mortuary temple like most pharaohs do. So hers was called Jacer Jaceru. And it is in Deir el-Bahri, Deir el-Bahri, which is on the west banks of the Nile. So, so basically we're back to this little like curve in the, in the Nile. And her, like Thebes is over here, kind of near where Luxor is in Egypt now, present day. And then in, in the little inlet across the river is where the mortuary temple was built.

And so it was designed by Sen and Mut and was one of the first buildings in the Valley of Kings. And so the Valley of Kings is where pharaohs would later be laid to rest. They all built their, like a lot of them built their complexes there. Her father, I think her father was actually the first pharaoh laid to rest in the Valley of Kings. So it's, it's a super complex facade. There's like colonnades, which, and it was built almost a thousand years before the Parthenon, which is kind of like the most recognized, colonnaded structure. And this is a thousand years before that, which is cool.

And it had like terraces where there were ponds and gardens and like they, they made it like lush and beautiful. And it's a pretty significant advance in architecture, which I realized she can't take credit for. And there were architects that were doing the work that she was commissioning, but having them implemented is cool. And having that like be a significant part of her, her reign, I think is neat. Yeah, so overall, her rule is marked as a pretty big time of growth and expansion and accomplishment. And between her involvement, as I was saying with her dad and her husband's brother, as fair as in her intelligence and her position as Queen Regent, no one really questioned her place of power.

Excuse me. And that included Tatmos III. So he, you know, he grows older and he kind of starts to take on more responsibility as co-regent. And he's kind of in charge of the army, which, which technically, if you think about it, would have given him the necessary power to, to like overwhelm her and usurp her and take like full pharaonic title of like, it's just me, I'm the pharaoh, that's it. But he didn't, which I think is kind of cool. Yeah, I think it's, it's kind of interesting. That's usually if there's a woman in power, her whole narrative is generally about not dying because she's a woman in power. And everyone around her just kind of seems chill.

Yeah. It's nice. And a lot of times also, I'm like, hey, peaceful. He's a woman of power. Cool. Nice. Come to that event. That sounds cool. Yeah.

Yeah. So he's, he's pretty, I think he, it seems like from this evidence, he's pretty happy with how things are going. He's pretty comfortable with it. And now we get to kind of more interesting. I'm not that everything wasn't interesting, but like another kind of layer of all of this. About why she may have kept her power, why she may have had the power to begin with. So she wears all the like pharaonic regalia. So there's the cot, which is like the head cloth, and then the, the uraeus, which is the, you know, the like classic big head piece that like kind of comes down the shoulder. That's the uraeus.

And so she wears that, she wears the fake beard, which other, which, which male pharaohs wore too. And it was like a symbol of status essentially. And then there's a shinded kilt, which is kind of like a, like an asymmetrical kind of. Yes. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You like, these are all things that we've definitely seen in like ancient Egyptian. Media.

These are the words for them. So there are also a number of statues that present her in a female or like a feminine form, and then also in a more masculine form. And it's pretty, it's pretty equal how she's, how she's depicted, but she is always in that like royal garb. There are, there are statues and things like that where like she, like she's sculpted in a traditionally masculine way and is standing in a traditionally masculine posture. On the flip side, traditionally feminine form and posture. There are, I think there are a few where she's in a traditionally feminine pose, but in it, but like sculpted as a masculine form. It's really interesting. It's kind of like a whole like, could be anything.

So she also takes the throne name Maat Kare, or truth is the soul of the Sun God to emphasize her connection to Amen, while also respecting a Pharaoh's responsibility to Maat and Maat is the, the goddess of justice balance and order. And there are two As in both of those names in Maat and Maat Kare. So I, I think Maat's super interesting and there are like seven principles of Maat that a Pharaoh was supposed to uphold and they are truth, balance, order, harmony, righteousness, morality and justice. And so I, in, in connecting yourself both with Amen and with Maat, she's kind of taking on the two biggest parts of being a Pharaoh and being like, yeah, I got it. I'm here. This is I am the Pharaoh, like there should be no questioning. And the reason we know that she took the name Maat Kare is because there are cartouches of Maat Kare directly next to cartouches of her, her birth name Hatshepsut. And so it's, it's clear that that's who that is there wasn't another person.

There are even Osirian statues of her. So Pharaohs usually got statues of themselves as Osiris, who is the god of fertility and life and resurrection, which is, which is kind of to show like they'll be resurrected after death and they'll like, they'll come back in a different form kind of. So, so like she has all of the kind of accolades that go along with being a Pharaoh. There are, there are legends of her birth, which are my favorite and the, the, the main one is so Amen, the, the god, the, the king of the gods, essentially, goes to Amos, who was Hatshepsut's mother. But he looks like Tatmos the first, who was her father, and awakens her with pleasant odors. And then he touches his uncle to almost his nose and boom, she's pregnant, baby, it's happening. That's what the legend says. And then the god, Kenum is instructed on how to create her body and her soul, which is the soul was usually referred to as Ka.

And Kenum was the, the god who forms the bodies of humans. I don't remember if that's true. I'm not going to say that because I can't remember if that's true for me to tell you. So we'll go on. And then Kenum and Hekhet, the goddess of life, led Amos to a lioness's bed where she gave birth to Hatshepsut. So she's got connections with one, two, three, four, four different gods. Hold on just a second. Waiterly.

Let him chime in. I have to go stop her or she won't stop. Please excuse me and enjoy some Zakiha time. Okay. Well, hey gang. Let's see. I don't want to just start telling a whole story and then have to stop. But I did bring up the idea of being an herbalist earlier.

So I will talk about the time I made candles that exploded and didn't know until I sold. Hey. Hello. I apologize for my loud baby cat. What about exploding? I was, I was going to talk about herbalism for a minute and I brought up, I made candles that accidentally exploded. And I didn't realize until after I'd sold a lot of them. Like a lot of them.

That oil to beeswax ratio was really important. Can I ask you, can I commission you to make me exploding candles? Is that a thing I can ask of you as my friends? Can I pay you to make me exploding candles? It's, it's not safe. It's not safe. I'll make one for you, but it's sort of like a will, will it or won't it? And that's sort of the fun of it.

I have people to send these to. Oh, got you. Okay. Yes. Thank you everyone for hanging in there with all of this chaos today. Anyway, so she's got connections with somewhere around four to six gods and she makes them very public. And so whether people believe the legend of her birth to be true or not, the rumor that she has this kind of connection is enough to further cement her place as kind of the rightful ruler. But like good story either way, great story.

There's even a pottery, pottery wheel of Kenham, which depicts her as a little boy to kind of like further further that along like Kenham, like clearly Kenham was part of this if he like has a, if there's pottery of her depicted as a little boy like that's definitely right. And on that similar note, she kind of maintains the entire time that she with her was her father's intended heir, even if Tup most the second ruled first. She maintained that she was the one that he though he meant to take the, take the throne all along. Reliefs carved by an oracle of almond who proclaimed that Hedge Up said was also almonds chosen as well, which is interesting. I kind of like the idea that she had that confidence of like, no, my dad knew I was supposed to be the one doing this. We just had to like sit through my brother for a little bit. Yeah.

Yeah. Why not. If you're King Queen might as well. Yeah. So nearing the end of her reign, she lets Tom was the third have an increasingly prominent role as leader, which is, I think, a very smart way of like passing it off if you've if you've been co region for with with him for years, and being like, okay, I'm going to I'm going to phase myself out, you tag in. And so Hedge Up so dies early in the year of 1458 in her 22nd year as King. She either died of an an infected tooth abscess, a toxic ingredient used in an ointment to alleviate a chronic skin condition, or bone cancer.

They're not really sure which one they're pretty sure they have the right mommy, but they're not sure which one was like the final piece of it all, I guess. I guess that's, I mean, it's pretty good for 600 years. Yeah, I mean, she was, she was, she was 50 when she died. And then she might have been moved, but she might not have been moved. But we're pretty sure we found her. That's all it takes. That's good enough for now. Yeah.

So originally she's interred with her dad. But Turing Tutmo's the third rain a new tune for him is constructed. And then he's moved and reinterred somewhere else. I didn't specify which one because a lot of a lot of dig sites in Egypt are just designated by KV and then 60 or KV 45 or whatever. And that's not helpful to anyone in terms of location. So we're just going to say they moved him. Erin says better check to make sure she's not in St. Peter's specific. Yeah. I mean, I'm pretty sure she's not there. I hope not. I'm not surprised.

That's, yeah, that's her. Yeah, so she's interred. She may have been reinterred somewhere else as well. We're not entirely sure, but we're pretty sure we have the right mommy. And then near the end of Tutmo's the third rain when his son, Omen Hotep, the second is co-regent. And then also into the run of Omen Hotep the second. Records of Hetshepsut are being purged like public records of her are purged, cartouches and images and statues and walls and all kinds of things that she built are torn down or scraped away. Or the obelisks were walled up. Like they're trying to erase what she did.

So most people think this was, most people don't think this was a like a malicious act. It was either done by Omen Hotep the second to try and strengthen his claim to the throne, which wasn't super strong. It was technically Tutmo's the third son, but he was born to a secondary or a tertiary wife rather than like the great, the main queen. Or it was Tutmo's the third trying to do a similar thing and kind of keep his son, you know, like this is the appropriate heir. This is my son. He is the appropriate heir. So there's those two main beliefs about why this was there's also kind of a school of thought that was Omen Hotep was trying to, Omen Hotep and Tutmo's were trying to dissuade women from trying to do the same thing, even though it was like a pretty chill run. She didn't beef it it was pretty great. It was a good job.

Haters. So who's to say. Omen Hotep, I'm, I'm low key annoyed at Omen Hotep because he like also tries to claim Hetshepsut's building projects as his own and like other accomplishments as his own. And then he's also kind of shitty because his reign is pretty infamous for not recording the names of his queens, and kind of eliminating powerful titles and official roles for women like God, wife of Omen. So like, Omen Hotep's not that great. He's just mad. Yeah, he's just kind of a dick and like, and like uncomfortable with his not super strong claim to the throne, I think, which get out of here. Get over yourself, baby.

Yeah. But thankfully, most of the records and images of her that were destroyed were just the most public ones. So, so like, by the time like the 1800s CE roll around and people start like breaking into tombs and kind of being shitty, but like, archaeologically digging quote unquote. And they find the tombs, like all the information about her kind of comes out and her histories on earth again and she she kind of comes back into the world, which is great. So thankfully, thankfully they didn't like you good. Yes. They didn't like take like take shit too far and like go into tombs and try and wreck that. So that's nice. And that's how we know about her. So, okay, so like one last big hatchups of thing I know I've been talking for like 45 minutes about this.

This is the last big historic thing. Was it like gender non conforming? Was she gender queer? Was she trans? Was it like, was it all just a political act to get a wider acceptance of her subjects on her side? And the answer is we really don't know. She's the best, like I said, she's depicted with like a male like a traditionally masculine physique and a fake beard and all of that and cartooshes. Where Hetshepsut is referred to as his majesty. But there are also ones where she's referred to as the king herself. But also the male pharaohs were the fake beard to the sign of status and there are depictions of her in a more feminine way. Not all a fab pharaohs had themselves depicted in a more masculine form.

That was kind of her choice. I don't think so we can efforted any of that or Cleopatra or any of that. So maybe maybe not. We're not really entirely sure. This could also be kind of a side effect of a patriarchal society where people are less likely to believe in your ability to lead if you're not a man. And so it's there's there's a ton of schools of thought about like the gender queerness of Hetshepsut and how entirely valid it was and how entirely true it was. And honestly, the only person who knows died 3000 years ago. So we we won't know. And really it's not that much of our business. I hope she was happy. That's really all I care about.

Exactly. So long as she had a good time. Yeah, like she did a good ass job. So who knows. But yeah, I just think that's an interesting like thing to be brought up from from history. May or may not have been genderqueer, but was definitely a badass. And on that note, that's all my notes. So do you want to talk about your bills? I do. Okay, I'll walk you through the where I was at in my brain in my heart in my mind. I was building her. So easily, like I she's phenomenal. She's very smart.

And she did a lot. And part of me was just like, this is like a really well sponsored cleric. Or wallop. Same difference. But then it was like, no, no, no, because she did all this work to make sure that like this pharaoh is connected to the gods. She's everybody's wife, mom, sister, daughter, friend and lover. Like she's so connected to the bloodline in so many different ways. Yeah, I think she's the God. So I was like, how do you build a class for someone that would be someone's patron? Oh, so no cleric, no warlock.

She's that for somebody else, whoever everyone potentially. So here we have our very simple mastermind rogue. And I'm going to take it's officially Mr. Gygax would have me call it the clockwork soul sorcerer. But this is Egypt. So it's the sundial sort soul sorcerer. So cool. So here we are. I only gave I only gave her three levels in mastermind rogue. First off, I love rogue subclasses that are not about being tricky or like being like a thief.

I love that. So she class features here we are. Okay, so she has like these can things like that I gave her proficiencies and insight persuasion performance and investigation because she's a politician. I don't think she needs to learn how to sneak around. I mean, I think she probably does know, but that's the firework man, of course. Yeah, I think these are the most important ones. I gave her expertise and performance and insight, controlling her perception and reading other peoples. Every all the ropes of sneak attack and thieves can't. She has master of intrigue which gives her efficiency at a game and two languages.

I mean, like I can pick D&D languages, but there's whatever the languages work time would make sense. She knows in punt and yes, yes. And the people that invaded better either from the Mediterranean or the Hexas. Yes. Yeah. Let's see master of tactics, but she can use the help action as a bonus action. Again, I'm like all of these things that she's doing and thinking they're on her way when she decides to them and they're usually to benefit some sort of project that she's doing. She has it like a degree of altruism, but in the way that she's in charge of everyone. So yeah, everything she has a degree of altruism.

So that's what we have for rogue. Love it. Then sundial soul. Yes. Let's see, these are just spells. That's not what I want. Class features. Okay.

So this is sort of clockwork souls weird. I thought it kind of seems like the steampunk subclass, but it's not. It's like a cosmic force. This is a cosmic force of order has fused you with magic. But it comes. It's like, it's about efficiency and like inter dimensionality and like, like taking the phrase being at the right place at the right time and just sort of like expanding it. So I was like the way that the gods have set her up to rule the way that she set herself up all of her success.

Dimension interdimensional right place at the right time. This is where she's moving from. So get back to my other notes. None of that. Okay, so clockwork magic sheets access to a lot of like, like lesser restoration to spell magic protection from evil and good, that kind of thing. She has something called restore balance. So she can equalize chaotic moments when a creature you can see within 60 feet of you is about to roll a d20 with advantage or disadvantage.

You can use your reaction to prevent the roll from being affected by an advantage or disadvantage. That's so cool. She's powerful. I'm thinking of things that she can use when she's like in a court with people without it being like, this is my staff. You know, I want to give her subtle things. She can do that too if she wants. But she can do that the number of times that is equal to her proficiency bonus, which in this case is. I think she'd be four if she's a 10.

Yes, it's four. Then we have font of magic, which is just sorcery points. Meta magic, I gave her subtle, subtle spell, which again, subtleties everything and seeking spell. So if you make an attack roll for a spell and miss, you can spend two sorcery points to reroll the d20. So essentially it looks like she never misses. She's a king. Then I gave exactly. Now that's a t shirt.

I want it to the list. Thank you. Ability score improvement. We'll get to the score is why I gave her constitution and intelligence. We'll get there. But there, this is what I gave her sundial soul for something called something called bastion of law that it says you can tap into the grand equation of existence to imbue a creature with shimmering shield of order. You can expend one to five sorcery points to create a magical ward around yourself and another creature within 30 feet of you. That's a lot.

They call shield. Yeah. Essentially. Let's see the word last until you finish a long rest or until you use this feature again. The word is represented by a number of dates equal to the numbers was okay. Numbers, numbers. It takes damage. It can expend a number of those dice roll them and reduce the damage taken by the total rolled by those dice.

So it's a shield that can like take damage for you. Which is so good. And when we're going to get to ability score just why I think she would just use this on herself. But definitely one of her brother has been uncle son fathers. Right. For sure. Because I gave highest with.

Oh, no, this is without the modifiers highest is intelligence of 16 because she's smart. She's educated. She went to Egyptian Spellman. I'm sure she has high charisma score 15 because politician. Yes, yes, yes. High decks. Mostly I just feel like there's a lot of like walking around. I was thinking about like when you work at Disneyland, the amount of moving during the day.

It would feel like an easy job. It's not. So high decks. Then. Constitution, I beefed up her Constitution. One, because I feel like she parties hard and two, I feel like genetically, like the money is just not there to support her. Yeah, just not enough there. And then I gave her low wisdom because I honestly feel like she like nothing about being a royal is like natural.

Like all of this has to be learned. I can see that. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, you can't like rely on human instinct. Like that's not how most rulers work. I feel. So I gave her a 10 on wisdom and then very low on strength again, because everyone's a little related. A lot of related, actually. Very much related.

And what does she need strength for? What is she carrying other than the kingdom on her shoulders, but metaphorically? That's a metaphor. Yeah. You don't need a high strength score for that. That's where she got high intelligence for all those metaphors. Exactly. To delegate, to do the things that a good strength score could do. What else? What do we talk about? We talked about mastermind. Oh, background.

I gave her a royal background, which is by someone named JD on D&D Beyond. Their home pre-section is beautiful. It's essentially the same. It gives you proficiencies in history and performance, two extra languages, and there's a feature called bow peasant. People are obligated to respect your choices, obey your commands, and grant your wishes. Essentially, a little bit of a charisma boost. Yeah. Which is really nice.

And what is left? You don't need big, like, spells, like big, important spells that you were motivated by, particularly. I was going to say, most of them are, like, regular things that would help. I tried to give as many, like, earth-related spells because she's not an architect, but I imagine she could, like, go to a construction site and flex if she wanted to. Right. Like, she knows what's up. Yes. If she wanted to do Maximillian's Earth and Grasp to just sort of show off, she can. Yeah.

Whatever. Makes sense to me. Yeah, no, I think that's, like, message, mine, sliver, mold earth, mage armor, these kind of things. Her magic items, though. Yes. Hit me with those. I only gave her two. I gave her a rod of alertness that I wanted to be a scepter. Yes, I had that one, too.

Yeah. Okay, cool. Then I won't go over it. Yeah. Yeah, so I gave her that, and then I gave the cloak of invisibility, but it was something else. I think I made it a ring. But that, because I just think that would just be helpful. Sometimes you don't want to be seen. She's out here being famous. I just think that would be nice.

Yeah. And then I think that's it. Oh, what did her HP end up? Oh, you're right. You're right. Okay. Every time. Ah, cat time. It's cat time. He's fine.

She's sleeping. She has 56 hit points on our class of 12, which again, royal guards. Yeah. And plus two to initiative. Nice. I mean, she doesn't even need the royal guards. She has that cool ass shield. She can just hold. Like, if something pops off, she can just hold in place. She'll be all right.

Yeah, exactly. I just refused to be her today. So I just, yeah, so this was, this was the homebrew pre God bills. I love it. That's so good. Our lovely King. Okay. Now what are you working with?

I kind of went a similar idea except for I went demigod, not full God. Yes. So I started with four levels of divine soul sorcerer. Yes. And then three levels of college of lore barred and then bring it around with order domain, order, order, order domain cleric. Yes. I tried, I kind of tried to like stack it like it would have gone in life.

Like here's like her origin story because she's, you know, demigod baby kid and then like college of lore and like in all of that, like talking and mingling she does with all the girls. And then finally order domain cleric kind of going back to that mod kind of mentality. I realized that there is the almond cat like things that could have been taken, but also that's like cheating. Yes. Yes.

Um, so for divine soul, let me pull this up. Hold on. Uh, for divine soul, she gets, uh, favored by the God. So if you fail a saving throw or miss an attack, you can add 2d4 and add that to the total, possibly changing the outcome, which is in the same vein of Kings. Don't miss. Yes. Um, she gets cure wounds cause she's good.

Um, cause I like, she's not evil. I don't think she's neutral. I think she's good. Um, and that's really all she gets for divine soul as a, she's only a fourth level cause I went double multi-glass. Um, but for her, her meta magic. I gave her subtle spell as well. Uh, and then I also gave her twin spell.

Um, just so maybe if like, she can get a little bit more coverage of her abilities. Um, and then college of lower barred, she, you know, you get jackable trades, sex, all that, all that, all that business. Uh, she also gets three extra proficiencies, skill proficiencies, um, for technically for multi-classing into barred. Um, and then cutting words. So you can use your wit to distract, confuse, or otherwise sap the confidence of, confidence or competence of others.

Um, which just seems like king shit essentially. Yes. Um, I think that would be cool. I like it. So that's where I went with that. And then also, uh, for order domain cleric, she gets a command heroism zone of truth and hold person just for being an order domain or order domain cleric. Um, she also gets proficiency with, uh, intimidation and persuasion.

Wait, really? It's okay. Um, so she gets those as well, which I hadn't necessarily given her yet or I'd given her persuasion, but I was like, okay, well, I'll take intimidation too since I get it. Um, and then there's voice of authority, which is you invoke the power of the power of law here, but I think it's kind of like the power of like order and, um, all of those seven lovely traits, um, to embolden the attack of an ally. So just like pumping allies.

Uh, and then channel divinity, divinity orders demand, which is, um, wave, it's okay. Come here. Come here. Come over here. Come sit with me. Yes. Hello. Okay.

Hi. Oh, she is here to say hello. Um, so you can use like your holy symbol and a creature of your choice that can see or hear you within 30 feet has to make a wisdom saving throw or be charmed by you until the end of their next term. So kind of turning people to her side, which is what she did for, you know, most of, most of her, most of her time is, time is king. Um, I thought a cool arcane focus for her would be the beard because it's such like

a symbol of power. So having like the beard as an arcane focus would be kind of cool. Yes. Very cool. Yeah. I was, I was pleased with that. Uh, also, I know I couldn't find a ton of like weaponry for the middle kingdom. All of it was pretty like pretty standard, like spears and javelins and all that.

And I was like, no, that really fits. But I gave her two daggers because daggers are royal and sexy. Yeah. That's what I say. So they can be really cute. Um, she gets expertise. I gave her expertise in persuasion and religion, which puts her persuasion at a plus 12, which is stupid.

Yes. Um, and then religion, I gave, I gave it a double up because she, you know, she has such like this big, not like this big overarching knowledge of, of religion and using it to her advantage. Uh, and then she also has arcana, deception, history, insight, intimidation, perception and performance. Um, because lots of, lots of multi-class means lots of skill proficiency. Yes.

Uh, and split to, I didn't even think about our comments. Yeah. That would have, I didn't give her any of the physical ones because there's no reason, like you said. Um, her charisma ended up at 18 because I took the, the skill bump at level four for sorcerer, um, wisdoms of 15. I, I, I like what you said about all of them, the like wisdom stuff being taught or all the, all the royal stuff being taught and I hadn't considered it from that angle.

And I think if I had, I would have flipped intelligence and wisdom because her intelligence is a 13, which isn't bad or anything. Yeah. I really like the idea of like Royals have to be taught this and it's not Nate, which makes so much sense. Yeah. But I like that too. That like kind of gives her, like it lets her own her own success.

Yeah. Like it was just in her the whole time. That was kind of the iteration I was thinking. Yeah. Um, so there's that. And then const, and also like from a strictly like building standpoint, she should have high wisdom because she's part cleric, but we don't talk about that. Um, constitutions of 14 for those concentration checks.

Uh, and like you said, you got to, you got to have something in your corner when you're a product of many, many generations of incest, um, dexterity is an 11, uh, and strength is a nine because there's no reason, uh, she has broad inspiration, which is cool. Um, and then I think, so I have a truly ridiculous amount of spells. I think something like 16 or 17 spells. Yeah. Um, but I only, but I can only pick from first and second level spells because of multiple multi classes, but I can cast those up to level five.

So it all kind of like shakes out in the wash. I also have 10 cantrips for fucking no reason. Um, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just a lot, like a whole book of just like, Hey, do I need to do this? Hey, do I need to do this? Who knows?

Um, she's got vicious mockery, um, because I like the idea of a queen. This is saying too much about me. I'm not going to say that. Um, dancing lights, thaumaturgy, sacred flame, precedentation, shocking grasp, minor illusion, all those kind of good, good base cantrips that are, that are going to be really versatile as a, as a royal. I'm not looking at Twitch. She's going to make Aaron, did they say it?

He's not going to say it. No, I'm not doing it. Um, she has protection from good and evil and cure wounds from being a cleric, a charm person. And then I also gave her both bless and bane because she, she deserves it. She deserves it. Um, healing word because I feel like, like there's, there's that little bit of altruism and like she's kind of bringing, she's bringing them back from this period of, of being cut

off from everything. So I like the idea of like healing in that way too, uh, comprehend languages for the same reason that you gave her a shit ton of languages. Um, and then I wanted her to have some kind of offensive magic. So I gave her witch bolts and thunder wave because they seem very like every time, every time I play with which bolt and thunder wave, I'm like, this feels very like I'm just going to be over here wrecking your shit with this spell. So that, not maybe not royal, but a little bit.

Yes. At least bougie is not royal. That's the word. It's bougie. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Um, what are the, the last big ones?

Lesser restoration, same reason as the healing and prayer of healing, um, phantasmal force just because I like the idea of a lot of these can like feed into her, her narrative of being a demigod. Um, and then my last big one was alter self because that'd be nice. Yeah. Sometimes that'd be nice. I think that would be really helpful. I think she would definitely take advantage of that.

Yeah. Especially with like, okay, like, like card, like I need this statue, but I need to be in like a more masculine figure traditionally. And then like, here's, here's the example. Go for it. Yes. Oh. Oh yeah.

The ability to alter self as like a figure model would be here. We have an artist. There need to be smells. There just need to be smells. I agree. If I could do magic. Oh, that would be so fun. Um, I have a few options of cool things that I think thought she could have, um, amulet

of planes. Oh, we're speeding. We're going. Uh, amulet of planes, uh, because who, who doesn't want to pop over into a different plane and chat with their godly parent? Yes. Uh, circlet of blasting, one, because circlets are pretty and two, because circlet of blasting is a very cool way to smite someone who's kissing you off, um, gem of seeing so she

can keep an eye on things and see like, uh, what was it? I don't have the book with me right now, but she can see like the, I think it's invisible things and like hidden things, uh, brought up alertness, like you said, and then lion figurines of wondrous power, which I think just would like sit with her, her, her vibe very well. And, um, I know I hate flying, maybe bug says that I hate flying and she's right. I do. Um, but I would like to, I would like that option and Aaron saying so anyway, I started

blasting. Thank you. Thank you for these two beautiful gifts. Yes. Yes. Not gifts. Um, yeah, just the idea of her being able to like throw out lion figurines and then like walking out into like the promenade and being like, hello, I'm here.

I'm the Pharaoh. What's up? Yes. The image. If I, if I had artistic ability, I would draw the shit out of that, but the key has seen my artistic ability and none leg does have artistic ability. I don't, all of you, I think if we request enough of it, maybe we'll get, I'll just give you, we'll do a week of, of a show cut and a week of, um, to repeat where the artists,

I would love for you to do the art for a week. I would, I would cry the kids, the kids I take care of sometimes you're like, Hey, will you, will you draw this animal for me? And I genuinely feel a wave of anxiety rush through me when they're like, Hey, can you draw a giraffe? And I'm like, absolutely fucking can't, but you're three and I can't tell you that. So art is terrible, Aaron, stop saying things. Um, and that my friends is the end of our talks on Hatshepsut.

I'm sorry. It was a little hectic this week. I had a blast. I'm glad Zakiya was with me. Thank you so much, my friend. Of course. This was fun. Yes.

As always, we have all kinds of fun things coming up, um, like I said at the beginning, Ashoka's back on Friday, uh, episode seven is a wild ride. I was looking at my notes and they're, they're rad. No pun intended. I was going to say it. We have to separate. Um, so yes, that'll be coming back on Friday, uh, as always on Mondays, watch Aaron on the sheet farm, playing, playing through some video games, Assassin's Creed has been the

most recent. Uh, and we should thank Aaron for running OBS Aaron and Sergio always run OBS for heroes and I can't make a heart with my hands right now, but I appreciate you. One of these. So. Oh yeah. I forgot. That's all you can do.

This always just looks like an X to me. Like, I thought it was money at first. It was like, oh yeah, I see that. But yeah, it's a little baby art. Wow. Uh, and I think you're next on the iron's horn. Right. I think I rolled you.

I would like, really? I'm pretty sure I rolled you. Oh boy. Okay. I think it was you. It was either you or Eli. I'm pretty sure. I mean, I have to catch up.

I'm like three episodes behind. That's okay. But it's very stressful. It's I heard we're in a good safe place right now that everything's going to be fine. Everyone's going to live. I think we ended somewhere pretty safe. I can't remember. I, there was lots of fighting.

It was very fun. Okay. You still, you still have a wife. You still have a child. You still have big old beefcake arms. So you're sad. That's all I need. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, is there anything that you want to shout out or plug before we, before we end this chaos? Oh boy. Not that I can think of, not yet. Very soon. There will be many things.

But for now, it's fine. I'm very excited to hear all of those when you can tell us them. In the meantime, everyone take care of yourselves. There's still a pandemic going on. Please wear masks. Um, hug people that you are safe to hug. Tell people that you love, that you love them. These are all reminders that humans should have.

I, yeah, everyone just take care. Thank you guys for joining us in this lovely night. Good night. Good night.