Khem (KEM) is a civilized, rich country, cultured and largely peaceful. The people are Kheman (KEM-an. A fine type of wheat is grown here, so good that it can be used in leavened bread. The rich lands, annually flooded, produce two crops a year. Even peasants eat leavened bread.

Khem is a smug and self-confident land, whose people are almost as insular as the Promethians. They call themselves the True Folk, and everyone else Mud People.

There are several large cities. Irrock (EAR-rock) is the capital and seat of government. The Chronicle of Years is housed in the Temple of Varna in Irrock.

Judges are priestesses of Varhitnah, but high officials are priestesses of Varna. (There are some males in the priesthood, but not many.) This means that law and government are administered separately. Sometimes they clash, as priestesses of Varhitnah are more concerned with individual rights, those of Varna with the welfare of the state.

The Council that advises the Queen is composed of all the High Priestesses, and is ruled by the High Priestess of Varna.

High rank is not inherited, except the monarchy. The Royal Kin is composed of close blood-relatives to the Queen It is not uncommon to meet a merchant or farmer with the rank of Prince or Princess, and such ranks are little regarded.

Children with rich parents have a better chance of rising to high position than peasants' offspring, but only if they can pass the tests administered by the temples at every stage of their career.

Peasants are required to do public service, or to pay for a laborer to replace them. Palaces and temples are built with public labor, and so are facilities like public baths and gymnasiums. A canal has been dug to extend the major river, the Hittor, so that shipping can move between the Shallow Sea and the Inner Sea.

Foreigners’ religions are ignored: Gods not worshipped in Khem are thought to be Kheman Gods given different names by the ignorant. Any worship involving human sacrifice or mutilation (especially castration) is forbidden. Otherwise, foreigners are free to worship, and even build temples if they wish.

Temples in Khem are beautiful. There are white marble pillars, delicately painted with stylized flowers and birds; the mosaic floors are inlaid with naturalistic pictures of the Gods: playing chess, boating, fishing, playing knucklebones, reading a scroll, and so on. All worshippers are welcomed to the outer courts, and ceremonies are held there. The inner areas are too sacred for normal worshippers, only priests (and the initiates who clean the temples) may enter the inner rooms.

In recent years it has become customary to embalm those who can afford it, and bury them in vaulted beehive tombs in the desert, with a selection of the goods they cherished most in life. This is regarded as rather disgusting by the old-fashioned, who continue to bury the bodies of their dead on their own land, where they will enrich the soil they loved in life.

After death, faithful worshippers are taken into Varna’s hand, to rest and refresh themselves for as long as they like. If they choose, they may be reborn, but have no control over their state or status in the new life: it is a lottery, to bring interest to eternity.

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