Ancient Egypt Plot Generator
Generate ancient Egypt plots from three thousand years of history, from the crews who hauled stone at Giza to the copyists of Ptolemaic Alexandria. The tips below help you choose a dynasty and fill it with working people.
- Sample
Year Twenty-Nine
Deir el-Medina, Year 29 of Ramesses III. Hori, a young draftsman who sketches the outlines in royal tombs, wants to marry the foreman's daughter, and he can't do it on an empty storehouse. The grain ration is weeks late, so the crews lay down their tools and sit behind a temple until someone listens. Then a tomb robber offers Hori a full sack of barley for one map.
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The Friends of Khufu
Giza, in the reign of Khufu. Neferet runs a bakery in the workers' town below the rising pyramid, and she wants the contract to feed a whole gang, the crew that calls itself the Friends of Khufu. Then a block slips and crushes two haulers, and the overseer blames sour bread from her ovens. To clear her name, she starts asking who changed the gang's ropes the night before.
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The Dock Fires
Alexandria, 48 BCE. Ptolemy XIII's army has Julius Caesar and Cleopatra penned in the palace quarter, and Dion, a copyist in the royal library, wants only to keep his post and his scrolls. When Caesar's men set fire to the ships in the harbor, the flames reach warehouses where books wait to be catalogued. Dion is sent to save them, but his brother is a soldier on the other side of the barricade.
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The Weight of the Sand
A scholarly slave girl decodes hieroglyphs in secret, leading to the discovery of a pharaoh's tomb. Unbeknownst to her, she's stepping into a deadly legacy that's been concealed for centuries.
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Under the Eagle's Shadow
Amidst the grandeur of Ancient Egypt, a humble fisherman becomes the unlikely hero, plotting the assassination of a tyrannical Pharaoh, while manoeuvring the dangerous games of the palace.
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The Lily of Thebes
In the thriving city of Thebes, a young princess - betrothed to a Pharaoh she detests - finds an unlikely ally in a Jewish slave. Together, they conspire to alter the course of their destinies.
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Stone and Papyrus
A young scribe learns of a prophecy predicting the downfall of the Pharaoh's rule and must navigate through political intrigue, the suppression of knowledge, and his own doubts to bring truth to light.
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Sun in the House of the Scorpion
Set in the time of Akhenaten's reign; a high priestess must choose between her loyalty to the heretic pharaoh and her devotion to the old gods, while an undercover Hittite spy stokes the fires of conflict.
Ancient Egypt: what makes the plot work
Ancient Egypt fiction explores the mysteries, rituals, and grandeur of one of the world's most iconic civilizations.
Pick a dynasty, not just Egypt
Pharaonic Egypt lasted about three thousand years. Cleopatra VII lived closer in time to the moon landing than to the building of the Great Pyramid, and the Old Kingdom, the New Kingdom and Ptolemaic Alexandria had different capitals, favored gods and enemies. Choose a reign and a regnal year before you choose a plot.
Mine the surviving paperwork
Egyptians left letters, contracts, wills and court records, and they make better plot seeds than another curse. Agatha Christie built Death Comes as the End, a murder mystery set in a household near Thebes around 2000 BCE, from the letters of a farmer-priest named Heqanakht. Read translated documents for the quarrels people actually had.
Go to the workers' village
The tomb builders of Deir el-Medina left records of absences, loans, feuds and a famous strike in the 29th year of Ramesses III, when their grain rations didn't arrive. Papyri from a later reign record the trials of tomb robbers. A plot among artisans and scribes gets you into the royal tombs without a royal point of view.
Give your lead a door-opening profession
The Egyptian by Mika Waltari follows Sinuhe, a physician whose work takes him from the poor quarters of Thebes to Akhenaten's court and abroad. Doctors, scribes, embalmers and priests could move between classes, which lets one character witness palace intrigue and street life in the same book.
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Names, a first scene and a title
- Name generatorEgyptian god namesName the cast before they walk on stage.
- Name generatorEgyptian namesName the cast before they walk on stage.
- Writing promptsAncient Egypt writing promptsA first scene to write from, today.
- Title generatorHistorical Fiction title generatorTry a title on the plot you picked.
Questions about Ancient Egypt plots
Did slaves build the pyramids?
The evidence points to organized crews of fed and housed workers, many rotating in from farms, rather than masses of slaves. Excavations at Giza found a workers' town with bakeries and breweries, and workers' tombs near the pyramids. Slavery existed in Egypt, but the slave-built pyramid owes more to later legend and film than to the evidence.
How did ancient Egyptians count years?
By the reign of the current king: 'Year 8 of Ramesses II' rather than a running count like BCE. Using regnal years in letters and dialogue is an easy way to sound right. The year was divided into three seasons of four months each, tied to the Nile: inundation, growing and harvest.
Should I use Greek or Egyptian forms of names?
Many famous names reach us in Greek: Cheops for Khufu, Thebes for Waset, Memphis for Men-nefer. Egyptian forms feel more immersive and Greek forms are easier for readers, so pick one system and keep to it, with a glossary if needed. In a Ptolemaic novel the Greek forms are true to the court.
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