Nemer's Revelation

Construction beginning/end

Nemer is given a revelation and starts his grand project.

In the southern deserts, life was harsh and unforgiving. Lacking the mountains and forests the two ancestries called home in other corners of the earth, dwarves and elves had been forced to work together to survive. While the mountain dwarves had heard the call of Gaia and the elves in the north had been united by Avalon, no such fortune smiled on the sun-seared deserts in the south.
Life was a constant struggle over water, oasi and rivers becoming the centers of civilization. The people were nomads, travelling from one spring to the next, moving only during the cold nights.
Into this constant struggle to survive Nemer was born. While his youth was as grueling as that of others born there, Nemer was unusual in one way. A child of an elf and a dwarf, Nemer was gifted with both the craftsmanship of the dwarves and the creativity of elves.
For him, survival was not enough. He wanted to prosper, to build kingdoms to rival those of Avalon and the Mountain Kings. The key, he thought, was the Sun. Most people thought of the Sun as an enemy that must be beaten, but Nemer disagreed. It was simply not a fight that could be won.
So what do you do, then, if you are facing an enemy too powerful for you to defeat?
You appease it.
And so Nemer did. At midday, he wandered out into the desert, with no water or cover, and lay upon the sands. at the sun, he made promises and he begged. Even as the tears flowed from his eyes and even as his vision was burned away, he kept on. And as the last of his sight became darkness, Helios noticed him.
Nemer would build a mountain hold, one as grand as any the mountain kings had built for Gaia, honoring the beauty and might of Helios. When Nemer returned to his people, they judged him mad. A mountain hold in a land with no mountains? Clearly, the sun had made him as blind as it had blind.
And so, Nemer had to set about his work himself.
Day or night was the same to Nemer and he worked either way. DIgging into the sand, he searched for rocks and when he found any, he pulled them up and chipped them to shape.
While his people thought him quite insane, they nevertheless felt sorry for him and every day, some would bring him food and water. Stone by stone, day by day, Nemer built. Years passed and then decades and still Nemer worked. While his first work had been rough and imprecise, being blinded as he was, the stones he laid out was now beautiful and perfectly measured.
After fifty years, the artificial mountain was large enough that it cast shade on the small village. People no longer came out of pity, but out of admiration, to see the majestic work Nemer was performing. He was no longer being given only food, but precious gems and valuable jewelry. While Nemer rarely spoke with anyone, many traveler sought the blessings they were sure his work could confer on them.
It would take 100 years before his work was finished and at this time, Nemer was an old man. While he had inherited many blessings from his parents, their longevity was not one. As he laid the last stone, he turned his face to the sun and asked; “Is this enough? Is this a worthwhile tribute?” And as he did, Helios’ answer came - Not in words, but in the return of the sight Helios had taken from him. At last, Nemer could look upon the work he had wrought himself and he wept with joy.   As Nemer descended from the pyramid he had built, he saw that the people had gathered below it, mouths agape with awe.
“For what purpose have you built this?” One awed and Nemer smiled.
“For Ra, the Sun.” He said “And for us.”
And with that, Nemer pushed on a stone and to the gasped surprise of the people, a doorway was revealed, leading into a darkened hallway.
During his labors, Nemer had not only put stone on top of stone, but had created tunnels and hallways within his mountain, a hold where there was no mountains.
Soon, people from all across the desert would seek out Nemer’s hold, called a Pyramid, for that was its shape, seeking shelter from the harshness of the sun and soon Nemer was crowned king of a new nation.
Upon his death, Nemer was interred in a crypt below the Pyramid, his organs carefully removed and preserved, his body wrapped in protective linens and blessings of Ra written upon his sarcophagus.