Check out some cool Mummy
links and files
To begin with, I've included some
information on Mummy in movies and books as well some sample tracks
recommended by the writers to evoke the feel of ancient Egypt. I
intend to add more media clips and sounds related to Mummy later on. I
will also find additional links for the Mummy game on the web and post
them here.
Check out an online review of Mummy: The
Resurrection
here.
Books Non-fiction
Ernest A. Wallis Budge wrote a number of
books around the turn of the century that are virtually the standard of
Egyptology. These texts include:
The Mummy: A Handbook of Egyptian Funerary Archaeology , Egyptian
Religion, Egyptian Magic , Egyptian Language: Easy Lessons in Egyptian
Hieroglyphics and The Book of the Dead.
Bob Brier, Ancient Egyptian Magic,
Encyclopedia of Mummies - Brier and a team of scientists mummified a
human corpse according to ancient Egyptian practices in 1994 in
Maryland.
Samuel A. B. Mercer, Egyptian
Hieroglyphs, A Study of the Ancient Language - This book contains
lessons on the language including verb conjugation.
Stephane Rossini, Egyptian
Hieroglyphics: How to Read and Write Them- A really good guide to
doing exactly what it says.
Gaston Maspero, Popular Stories of
Ancient Egypt - This collection gives Egyptian folk tales as told
during ancient times.
Bill Manley, The Penguin Historical
Atlas of Ancient Egypt. This text is valuable for its numerous color
maps of various states of Egyptian history, including religious sites
and famous battles.
Religious Texts
It is impossible to study the lands of
faith without studying at least some of the ancient scriptures that come
from those faiths. The Bible and a number of apocryphal testaments tell
the stories that compose the Christian mythology. Judaism similarly
possesses a diverse number of texts, of which the Torah is the most
important. Islam continues to be the dominant faith of the Middle East
in the modern age, and its highest holy book is the Koran.
The Book of the Dead is an ancient
Egyptian religious text so important it eventually became standard to
include it in every tomb. Translations are easy to find, and the early
concepts of a benevolent god who is the source of eternal life and the
Resurrection are impossible to miss.
Fiction
Arabian Nights - The classic
collection of 1001 stories including the famous tales of Ali Baba and
the Forty Thieves and Aladdin and the Lamp. The ubiquitous expurgated
version is often thought of as a collection of children's stories, but
the unexpurgated version, originally translated by Sir Richard Burton,
has some pretty racy parts.
Agatha Christie, Death Comes as the
End - Murder mystery set in ancient Egypt.
Anne Rice, Mummy: Ramses the Damned
- Although the novel is practically a porn fantasy about Cleopatra, it
does have a strong World of Darkness feel. The brutality of the flawed
Cleopatra is a good model for Bane mummies or those who stray too far
from the path of balance and justice.
Bram Stoker, The Jewel of the Seven
Stars - The author of Dracula writes about ancient Egypt.
Movies
Hollywood has never given mummies the life they breathe into other
horror genres' monsters. Normally the mummy is a shambling, virtually
mindless killing machine. The plot almost always involves archaeologists
or villainous cultists opening a tomb that is better left alone or
intentionally animating the mad creature.
Therefore, most of the mummy
movies are far better examples of what can go wrong with the
resurrection than they are of how to play a mummy.
The Mummy, Universal 1932 - the
movie that put the mummy in the horror genre along with Dracula,
Frankenstein and the Wolfman. Boris Karloff's character is closer to the
game's conception of a mummy than most of them.
The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb,
The Mummy's Ghost, The Mummy's Curse, Universal, 1940-1944 - sequels
to The Mummy that perpetuated an ever more mindless killing machine. The
culmination of this degeneration came in the form of Abbott and
Costello Meet the Mummy in 1945.
Blood From the Mummy's Tomb,
Hammer 1971- This Hammer movie was loosely based on Bram Stoker's The
Jewel of the Seven Stars.
The Awakening, Solo/Orion/EMI
1980- another adaptation of Stoker's novel with Charlton Heston as the
crazed archaeologist trying to restore an Egyptian queen to life.
Music
Peter Gabriel's Passion -
Soundtrack for The Last Temptation of Christ. The exotic, Eastern
ambience it instills is inspirational.
Streaming Media clips - Listen to
these great songs for Mummy: The Resurrection. Click each of the links
to play the streaming audio in surround stereo (RealMedia format).
Kula Shaker
Govinda - Govinda, the primeval Lord of Indian mythology who
is not subject to decay, is without a beginning, whose form is endless.
He is believed to be the beginning and the eternal "purusa". Yet he is a
person possessing the beauty of blooming youth.
A hypnotic song evoking
the magic of the Middle East.
Sisters of Mercy Cry Little Sister - This track was made
famous by inclusion in the 80's film The Lost Boys. Although that
film was about vampires, this music could very well apply to any
campaigns set in the World of Darkness gaming universe.
Peter
Gabriel Blood of Eden - Another great song by Gabriel,
Blood of Eden could very well have been written as a love song in
ancient Egypt.
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