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"Egypt shall be reborn anew! The clock will go back and it will propel us into the future!"
-Administrator Ramesses Salah, 2018
Ramesses Salah was born in the year 1952 in Memphis, Egypt as the eldest child in what would soon become a very large family. His father, whom Ramesses looked up to and adored for his entire life, was a captain in the Egyptian army, soon to become Major after the Suez Crisis in which he fought with distinction. But unlike his schoolmates and friends, who were all brought up as Muslims, Ramesses was raised to worship not just one god, but a wide pantheon of them. Ra, Horus and Osiris weren't just ancient mythical beings for Ramesses or his family, they were the true gods of Egypt. Gods who one day would restore the land of the Pharaohs to its former glory and wreak a terrible and bloody revenge on all who had turned their backs on the old ways.
Growing up in the capitol of Ancient Egypt, Ramesses was surrounded by the decaying remnants of the bygone age he so desperately wanted to return to. For hours at a time he would sit and stare at half-collapsed statues and partially submerged ruins, dreaming of a time when they stood tall and proud under Ra's light and of a time when they would do so again.
At the age of 21, Ramesses would graduate from the military academy at the rank of second lieutenant to the great approval of his father and siblings, of which he now had several. By pulling a few strings and using some old friends, Ramesses' father landed his son a position as his own adjutant, serving right by his side at Egyptian army headquarters. Even though the blatant nepotism was lain bare for all to see, Egyptian military command were far too busy with preparations for the upcoming Yom Kippur war to pay attention to some complaints of corruption.
It was during the Yom Kippur war that Ramesses would indeed catch the attention of the Egyptian top brass, but when the young lieutenant came face to face with President Sadat and General Ahmad Ismail Ali it was not in front of a tribunal, but at a medal ceremony, for Ramesses had become a hero overnight. During the initial crossing of the Suez canal, Ramesses had been allowed by his father to partake in the attack himself, replacing the sick second in command of an infantry unit. Almost as soon as they reached the eastern bank, a stray bullet had hit and killed the captain who was leading them. Stepping into the breach almost immediately, Ramesses took command and led his men forwards and into the Bar-Lev line, rallying them and personally leading the charge into the Israeli fortress.
Decorated for bravery and quickly promoted up to Captain within a few short years, Ramesses would become of Egypt's finest young officers, a darling of the media and beloved by his troops, Ramesses future in the military was secure. Over the years he would rise further and further in the ranks, coming to rest at the venerable rank of Colonel. However through it all, he never forget those dreams of an ancient land restored to its former glory, and his faith in the old gods only grew stronger with every new victory for himself and for Egypt.
When the Black Mesa incident threw the world into chaos, Ramesses saw the invading Xenians initially as the holy revenge of the gods made manifest, his father's predictions finally coming true at last. However, when a Vortigaunt butchered his now elderly father in his own home, Ramesses saw a new truth. They were demons, evil creatures sent by Apep, the serpent of chaos, to destroy Egypt once and for all. From that day on, Ramesses viewed all Xenians as beings of pure evil. Each one was a servant of chaos and thus they had to die, all of them. And so one of the most brutal and effective campaigns on the planets came to be waged on the Xenians in the deserts of Egypt. However, Ramesses' quenchless desire for revenge came at the cost of his distinguished career. Despite numerous orders to return to Cairo and have his men help in the reconstruction effort, Ramesses ignored them all, choosing instead to lead a merciless purge all down the Nile and into the desert beyond. By the time his army marched back into Siwa almost a year after they had set out, they were a fraction of the initial force. Most had been swallowed by the desert they sought to cleanse, but cleanse it they had, their own military prowess, the harsh environment of the desert and pure luck creating one of the only truly Xen free zones on the planet. Southern Egypt had been purged of the demons, it was time for the north.
When the already enraged Egyptian government found out that Ramesses wanted to repeat his campaign of cruel extermination in the north and in the cities, they reacted as one would expect. Ramesses was stripped of his medals, his ranks and his citizenship. Thrown into jail and left to rot...
If the Xenian invasion was Apep's attack, then the 7 hour war was Ra's revenge. In a mere 7 hours, the old world was destroyed in fire and flame, scorched clean and burned to cinders by the inferno of the Combine. For Ramesses, this was nothing less than divine retribution. The world had turned their back on the light of Amun and Ra and instead embraced the dark of Apep and Set, and so it had to burn. Order had to be restored to chaos, and the Combine were the instruments of the god's divine will.
With his military background identified, the Overwatch AI initially designated Ramesses to be commander of a Conscript division, but the newly appointed City 40 CCA saw a far better use for the ruthless Colonel after examining the way he helped crush civil dissent and wipe out the Xenians in the desert. Ramesses was given an offer, he could join the Arteria as a high ranking officer and return to his old life, ranks and medals. Or he could help to found something new, something that had never been done before. Civil Protection. Ramesses chose the latter and became one of the first Overseers of City 40, helping to establish the paramilitary body and direct it to cement the Combine's rule.
As he always did, Ramesses led his men from the front. Ever since he leapt from his landing boat onto the eastern bank of Suez all those years ago he had always held that to ask his men to do anything he would not do himself was wrong and unjust. And as such whenever there was a major raid into a slums district, a large riot to contain or a terrorist cell to
neutralize, Ramesses was always there leading the charge. As the years went by, the respect held for Ramesses by the officers under his command only grew and grew. Soon, they were more loyal to him than the administration, something which worried them greatly. And so, they devised a plan to get rid of him.
The M.D.F was created to be Ramesses' death sentence. He would be put in charge and then given a seemingly impossible task. Take the fight to the rebels in the desert and win. When he returned from the M.D.F's first mission with the rebel cell destroyed, their leader in chains and with only a few officers dead, they were shocked. When he did it again a second time with only 2 casualties they were furious. And when he returned a third time with the now veteran force having decapitated the many headed hydra that was the entire leadership of North Africa's most prolific rebel group and with no Civil Protection casualties, they just gave up.
The M.D.F soon became the pride of City 40, and in an attempt to ruin him the administration had turned Ramesses into nothing short of a hero. Frequently seen on B.O.E broadcasts, interviews and all public events. Furthermore, due to the highly public and extravagant ceremonies the City favored, the charismatic Overseer became an icon for thousands of officers and loyalists alike, gaining a cult of personality around him and becoming utterly despised by the administration both for his vehement opposition to their kleptocratic polices and how he was now without a doubt the most popular man in City 40, for loyalists at least.
As the years ticked on by, Ramesses popularity and power only grew. Beloved by loyalists, de facto leader of the entire Civil Protection garrison and with the famed M.D.F loyal to him and him alone, Ramesses was nearly equal to the Administrator in terms of actual power now, all of which he had gained by simply sitting back and letting the incompetent fools hand him more and more opportunities for fame and glory.
However, the position of City Administrator, the thing Ramesses needed to usher in his new Egyptian golden age and make the gods proud was just ever so tantalizingly out of reach. No matter how obvious it was, obtaining proof of the Administration's corruption was nigh-impossible, and due to Ramesses over-effective clampdowns on rebellion and dissent there was nothing to show their self-serving actions were causing harm to the City, instead it looked like their management was actually causing Cairo to slowly rebuild, something which infuriated Ramesses greatly.
But once again, all Ramesses had to do was wait and the Administration would once again dig their own graves. Their corrupt dealings with the N.R.A.U had let the power of the group begin to spiral out of control in late 2017, and despite his repeated requests to send the M.D.F out to destroy them, the Cairo Administration refused for profit's sake and let the union grow more and more powerful.
When the Administrator finally saw that the balance of power was shifting, he dispatched a delegation to negotiate with the N.R.A.U and try to regain control of the situation, but the negotiations failed completely and City 40 entered its greatest period of crisis yet, the famine.
As citizens and loyalists starved in the streets, with a death toll only rising by the day, Ramesses decided that now was finally the time to act. The City was experiencing unrest of the likes he hadn't seen since the first days of the Combine's rule, riots and looting was commonplace, people were murdering each other for just a loaf of bread and the Civil Protection were hard-pressed to keep the City from descending into total chaos. The perfect excuse for a coup.
On the 12th February, 2018 Overseer Ramesses Salah launches a coup d'état against the City 40 Administration. At 9:30 AM the core Administration are summoned to a meeting as scheduled by the City Administrator, as they entered that room, their fates are sealed. At 9:40 Civil Protection lock down the streets and close off escape routes around the Nexus, at 9:45 the 125th Arteria Arm are redeployed from the banks of the Nile to the City outskirts. At approximately 10:00 Ramesses and his praetorians, the M.D.F, arrive at the Overwatch Nexus after a 2 hour meeting with the other Overseers and the City's OSI Director, all of whom agree to back the coup after an impassioned speech. At 10:04, Ramesses and his men storm into the meeting room and place all administration members present under arrest for criminal mismanagement, corruption, inaction and treason. When the OTA guards remain silent and do not move to prevent Ramesses' takeover, the Administration realize they have been beaten and resign themselves at their fate. At 10:07 AM the mass arrests of hundreds of City and district officials from all departments begins, Civil Protection launch a coordinated strike on all targets and with the aid of Dispatch, quickly apprehend all of those on what would come to be known as "Ramesses' list." At 11:30 AM the coup ends in total triumph for Ramesses, most of those on the list are quietly disposed of within district nexuses, whilst the more fortunate ones are merely demoted to minor roles and put on a razor train to another city far away. Ramesses has won.
In the aftermath of the coup, Ramesses was sworn in as Administrator to cheering crowds of Loyalists outside the City Nexus. Promising to lead City 40 out of the food crisis and into a new golden age, Ramesses further promises to turn back the clock and restore Ancient Egypt's lost splendor in a cultural rebirth, its power and glory magnified a thousandfold by the Combine's gifts. Ramesses coins this fusion of Ancient Egyptian revivalism and futuristic Combine technology and ideals "Egypto-Humanism"
But before the aspirant Pharaoh can finally make his dreams a reality, he must first attend to the issues which plague his only days-old administration. The famine continues to hit City 40 hard, and unless he finds a solution and quick, Ramesses may find the anger of the people returning in even greater force. And as a military dictator in all but name, Ramesses is a complete dark horse among his newfound fellows in the planetary administration, one with no friends and no experience of politics whatsoever. Lastly, City 40's core CCA is completely empty save for the OSI. Ramesses is still in the process of forming his new government, and an internal struggle has already begun inside the various departments and political groups for who will gain entry to Ramesses' court, but there are whispers that he may do away entirely with the independence of the CCA and place the entire city under Civil Protection command. Whether these whispers are just baseless speculation or the indication of a new form of martial rule is entirely unknown.
Regardless, Ramesses will confront these issues as he always has done. Head on and with a legion of loyal men behind him. He has the Civil Protection's unwavering support and obedience, he has his ever loyal and elite M.D.F by his side and for now at least, overwhelming popular support within City 40 itself. And above all of them, he has the support of the gods themselves. For true Egypt shall be born again.
No matter the cost.
-Administrator Ramesses Salah, 2018
Ramesses Salah was born in the year 1952 in Memphis, Egypt as the eldest child in what would soon become a very large family. His father, whom Ramesses looked up to and adored for his entire life, was a captain in the Egyptian army, soon to become Major after the Suez Crisis in which he fought with distinction. But unlike his schoolmates and friends, who were all brought up as Muslims, Ramesses was raised to worship not just one god, but a wide pantheon of them. Ra, Horus and Osiris weren't just ancient mythical beings for Ramesses or his family, they were the true gods of Egypt. Gods who one day would restore the land of the Pharaohs to its former glory and wreak a terrible and bloody revenge on all who had turned their backs on the old ways.
Growing up in the capitol of Ancient Egypt, Ramesses was surrounded by the decaying remnants of the bygone age he so desperately wanted to return to. For hours at a time he would sit and stare at half-collapsed statues and partially submerged ruins, dreaming of a time when they stood tall and proud under Ra's light and of a time when they would do so again.
At the age of 21, Ramesses would graduate from the military academy at the rank of second lieutenant to the great approval of his father and siblings, of which he now had several. By pulling a few strings and using some old friends, Ramesses' father landed his son a position as his own adjutant, serving right by his side at Egyptian army headquarters. Even though the blatant nepotism was lain bare for all to see, Egyptian military command were far too busy with preparations for the upcoming Yom Kippur war to pay attention to some complaints of corruption.
It was during the Yom Kippur war that Ramesses would indeed catch the attention of the Egyptian top brass, but when the young lieutenant came face to face with President Sadat and General Ahmad Ismail Ali it was not in front of a tribunal, but at a medal ceremony, for Ramesses had become a hero overnight. During the initial crossing of the Suez canal, Ramesses had been allowed by his father to partake in the attack himself, replacing the sick second in command of an infantry unit. Almost as soon as they reached the eastern bank, a stray bullet had hit and killed the captain who was leading them. Stepping into the breach almost immediately, Ramesses took command and led his men forwards and into the Bar-Lev line, rallying them and personally leading the charge into the Israeli fortress.
Decorated for bravery and quickly promoted up to Captain within a few short years, Ramesses would become of Egypt's finest young officers, a darling of the media and beloved by his troops, Ramesses future in the military was secure. Over the years he would rise further and further in the ranks, coming to rest at the venerable rank of Colonel. However through it all, he never forget those dreams of an ancient land restored to its former glory, and his faith in the old gods only grew stronger with every new victory for himself and for Egypt.
When the Black Mesa incident threw the world into chaos, Ramesses saw the invading Xenians initially as the holy revenge of the gods made manifest, his father's predictions finally coming true at last. However, when a Vortigaunt butchered his now elderly father in his own home, Ramesses saw a new truth. They were demons, evil creatures sent by Apep, the serpent of chaos, to destroy Egypt once and for all. From that day on, Ramesses viewed all Xenians as beings of pure evil. Each one was a servant of chaos and thus they had to die, all of them. And so one of the most brutal and effective campaigns on the planets came to be waged on the Xenians in the deserts of Egypt. However, Ramesses' quenchless desire for revenge came at the cost of his distinguished career. Despite numerous orders to return to Cairo and have his men help in the reconstruction effort, Ramesses ignored them all, choosing instead to lead a merciless purge all down the Nile and into the desert beyond. By the time his army marched back into Siwa almost a year after they had set out, they were a fraction of the initial force. Most had been swallowed by the desert they sought to cleanse, but cleanse it they had, their own military prowess, the harsh environment of the desert and pure luck creating one of the only truly Xen free zones on the planet. Southern Egypt had been purged of the demons, it was time for the north.
When the already enraged Egyptian government found out that Ramesses wanted to repeat his campaign of cruel extermination in the north and in the cities, they reacted as one would expect. Ramesses was stripped of his medals, his ranks and his citizenship. Thrown into jail and left to rot...
If the Xenian invasion was Apep's attack, then the 7 hour war was Ra's revenge. In a mere 7 hours, the old world was destroyed in fire and flame, scorched clean and burned to cinders by the inferno of the Combine. For Ramesses, this was nothing less than divine retribution. The world had turned their back on the light of Amun and Ra and instead embraced the dark of Apep and Set, and so it had to burn. Order had to be restored to chaos, and the Combine were the instruments of the god's divine will.
With his military background identified, the Overwatch AI initially designated Ramesses to be commander of a Conscript division, but the newly appointed City 40 CCA saw a far better use for the ruthless Colonel after examining the way he helped crush civil dissent and wipe out the Xenians in the desert. Ramesses was given an offer, he could join the Arteria as a high ranking officer and return to his old life, ranks and medals. Or he could help to found something new, something that had never been done before. Civil Protection. Ramesses chose the latter and became one of the first Overseers of City 40, helping to establish the paramilitary body and direct it to cement the Combine's rule.
As he always did, Ramesses led his men from the front. Ever since he leapt from his landing boat onto the eastern bank of Suez all those years ago he had always held that to ask his men to do anything he would not do himself was wrong and unjust. And as such whenever there was a major raid into a slums district, a large riot to contain or a terrorist cell to
neutralize, Ramesses was always there leading the charge. As the years went by, the respect held for Ramesses by the officers under his command only grew and grew. Soon, they were more loyal to him than the administration, something which worried them greatly. And so, they devised a plan to get rid of him.
The M.D.F was created to be Ramesses' death sentence. He would be put in charge and then given a seemingly impossible task. Take the fight to the rebels in the desert and win. When he returned from the M.D.F's first mission with the rebel cell destroyed, their leader in chains and with only a few officers dead, they were shocked. When he did it again a second time with only 2 casualties they were furious. And when he returned a third time with the now veteran force having decapitated the many headed hydra that was the entire leadership of North Africa's most prolific rebel group and with no Civil Protection casualties, they just gave up.
The M.D.F soon became the pride of City 40, and in an attempt to ruin him the administration had turned Ramesses into nothing short of a hero. Frequently seen on B.O.E broadcasts, interviews and all public events. Furthermore, due to the highly public and extravagant ceremonies the City favored, the charismatic Overseer became an icon for thousands of officers and loyalists alike, gaining a cult of personality around him and becoming utterly despised by the administration both for his vehement opposition to their kleptocratic polices and how he was now without a doubt the most popular man in City 40, for loyalists at least.
As the years ticked on by, Ramesses popularity and power only grew. Beloved by loyalists, de facto leader of the entire Civil Protection garrison and with the famed M.D.F loyal to him and him alone, Ramesses was nearly equal to the Administrator in terms of actual power now, all of which he had gained by simply sitting back and letting the incompetent fools hand him more and more opportunities for fame and glory.
However, the position of City Administrator, the thing Ramesses needed to usher in his new Egyptian golden age and make the gods proud was just ever so tantalizingly out of reach. No matter how obvious it was, obtaining proof of the Administration's corruption was nigh-impossible, and due to Ramesses over-effective clampdowns on rebellion and dissent there was nothing to show their self-serving actions were causing harm to the City, instead it looked like their management was actually causing Cairo to slowly rebuild, something which infuriated Ramesses greatly.
But once again, all Ramesses had to do was wait and the Administration would once again dig their own graves. Their corrupt dealings with the N.R.A.U had let the power of the group begin to spiral out of control in late 2017, and despite his repeated requests to send the M.D.F out to destroy them, the Cairo Administration refused for profit's sake and let the union grow more and more powerful.
When the Administrator finally saw that the balance of power was shifting, he dispatched a delegation to negotiate with the N.R.A.U and try to regain control of the situation, but the negotiations failed completely and City 40 entered its greatest period of crisis yet, the famine.
As citizens and loyalists starved in the streets, with a death toll only rising by the day, Ramesses decided that now was finally the time to act. The City was experiencing unrest of the likes he hadn't seen since the first days of the Combine's rule, riots and looting was commonplace, people were murdering each other for just a loaf of bread and the Civil Protection were hard-pressed to keep the City from descending into total chaos. The perfect excuse for a coup.
On the 12th February, 2018 Overseer Ramesses Salah launches a coup d'état against the City 40 Administration. At 9:30 AM the core Administration are summoned to a meeting as scheduled by the City Administrator, as they entered that room, their fates are sealed. At 9:40 Civil Protection lock down the streets and close off escape routes around the Nexus, at 9:45 the 125th Arteria Arm are redeployed from the banks of the Nile to the City outskirts. At approximately 10:00 Ramesses and his praetorians, the M.D.F, arrive at the Overwatch Nexus after a 2 hour meeting with the other Overseers and the City's OSI Director, all of whom agree to back the coup after an impassioned speech. At 10:04, Ramesses and his men storm into the meeting room and place all administration members present under arrest for criminal mismanagement, corruption, inaction and treason. When the OTA guards remain silent and do not move to prevent Ramesses' takeover, the Administration realize they have been beaten and resign themselves at their fate. At 10:07 AM the mass arrests of hundreds of City and district officials from all departments begins, Civil Protection launch a coordinated strike on all targets and with the aid of Dispatch, quickly apprehend all of those on what would come to be known as "Ramesses' list." At 11:30 AM the coup ends in total triumph for Ramesses, most of those on the list are quietly disposed of within district nexuses, whilst the more fortunate ones are merely demoted to minor roles and put on a razor train to another city far away. Ramesses has won.
In the aftermath of the coup, Ramesses was sworn in as Administrator to cheering crowds of Loyalists outside the City Nexus. Promising to lead City 40 out of the food crisis and into a new golden age, Ramesses further promises to turn back the clock and restore Ancient Egypt's lost splendor in a cultural rebirth, its power and glory magnified a thousandfold by the Combine's gifts. Ramesses coins this fusion of Ancient Egyptian revivalism and futuristic Combine technology and ideals "Egypto-Humanism"
But before the aspirant Pharaoh can finally make his dreams a reality, he must first attend to the issues which plague his only days-old administration. The famine continues to hit City 40 hard, and unless he finds a solution and quick, Ramesses may find the anger of the people returning in even greater force. And as a military dictator in all but name, Ramesses is a complete dark horse among his newfound fellows in the planetary administration, one with no friends and no experience of politics whatsoever. Lastly, City 40's core CCA is completely empty save for the OSI. Ramesses is still in the process of forming his new government, and an internal struggle has already begun inside the various departments and political groups for who will gain entry to Ramesses' court, but there are whispers that he may do away entirely with the independence of the CCA and place the entire city under Civil Protection command. Whether these whispers are just baseless speculation or the indication of a new form of martial rule is entirely unknown.
Regardless, Ramesses will confront these issues as he always has done. Head on and with a legion of loyal men behind him. He has the Civil Protection's unwavering support and obedience, he has his ever loyal and elite M.D.F by his side and for now at least, overwhelming popular support within City 40 itself. And above all of them, he has the support of the gods themselves. For true Egypt shall be born again.
No matter the cost.
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