Encounter-a-Day

The Kamit are a race of dwarves living in the Shalasta desert. They build massive pyramids to house their cities and twisting catacombs underneath the pyramids to store their dead. Kamit have skin colors ranging from light tan to deep brown. They tend not to grow beards as long as other dwarves, and goatees are quite common. Facial hair is kept immaculately groomed and bound in jeweled bands of precious metals.

The cultural, religious and economic center of Kamit society is a massive pyramid-city known as Crocodilopolis (literally City of the Crocodiles). Crocodilopolis’s square base measures three miles to a side and nearly two miles from ground to its tallest point. It took thousands of years to build and is made up of three hundred and thirty-three levels, not counting the palace at the very tip.

Kamit society is very religious. Their primary gods are Sobek, a dwarf with the head of a crocodile, and Anubis, a dwarf with the head of a jackal. In the palace at the tip of Crocodilopolis there is a pool in which is kept the Petsuchos, a great crocodile believed to be the son of Sobek. When the Petsuchos dies, a replacement is found from the nearby Elin river.

They are also quite focused on death and the afterlife. All Kamit are interred within the catacombs beneath a pyramid-city, and they are given tributes to take with them into the afterlife. The leaders of the Kamit, the pharaohs, are given labyrinthine chambers the size of an entire village and said to be buried with treasures that even a dragon would be jealous of.

Needless to say, the catacombs are heavily guarded and considered sacrosanct. Any non-Kamit who entered them would be killed immediately, though that hasn’t stopped many from trying to steal the treasures buried within. The Keepers of the Dead are the most elite warriors the Kamit have. It is the greatest honor to become a Keeper, an honor usually reserved for members of the royal guard who have proven themselves time and time again.