Nile Empire Torg Eternity Extended Review

 While not as strong an entry as say the Living Land or Orrosh sourcebooks (both absolutely worth the purchase price and which should be your first purchases as far as torg eternity cosm sourcebooks - see also if you like my review of said books) the nile empire cosm sourcebook was an enjoyable read for me and a worthy addition to the torg eternity line of cosm sourcebooks though it can, and should , be viewed as a "partner book" to the even better "fires of ra" mega-length prepublished adventure set within the Nile Empire.. the fires of ra does a great job of highlighting and emphasizing just how nonsensically fun in true four color pulp comic over the top unbelievable non stop action style nile empire adventures can be, as well the fires of ra acts as a companion piece to the nile empire book in that it fills in a lot of the blanks on the amazons who deserve more than one page write-up they get in the nile empire book (no doubt because the writers knew it would be covered in greater detail in the fires of ra anyways).

Unfortunately the same criticism I had of Aysle applies here albeit less so.. as I mention in my Aysle review given the epic, heroic, nature of the Aysle cosm it practically demands a lot of "write up" and content which the torg eternity team simply couldn't fit into a book the same size as all the other torg eternity cosm books.. as well a number of stats are needed that are not included in the torg eternity version which makes the original 1990's Aysle sourcebook a practical requirement, not just a recommendation.

In the case of the torg eternity nile empire book possession of the original 1990's torg nile empire book is not so much required as it is helpful, if nothing else for the stats given for high lord Mobius's second in commands, the overgovernors ... but the same problem with Aysle applies to the nile empire albeit to a lesser degree... and in all fairness this was an issue I felt even the original 1990's nile empire book struggled with.. the heady mix of ancient Egyptian mythology coming to life in the form of miracles and the worship of Mobius as the literal pharaoh by a transformed Egypt-earth populace , mathematicians and engineers who practice their own ancient Egypt style form of magic, and four color pulp comics of the 1930's complete with costumed heroes and villains and gangs of mobsters that have their own agenda heavily influenced by the Indiana Jones movies that can and should serve as inspiration for how any nile empire adventure is run.. it's absolutely a campaign setting you can have a lot of fun with... 

...the problem is this creates an intriguing atmosphere that's so broad in scope it needs and deserves a longer, more detailed write up than it gets in torg eternity (and to be fair even the 1990's original nile empire book too) ... I do find myself hoping that this can be addressed with say a "cairo torg eternity city-book" in the future that describes life in Cairo, Egypt in greater detail complete with a longer writeup of notable competing mob factions and their agendas and plans, pulp heroes and villains and expanded notes on the scheming plots of said villains, the schemes of overgovernor Wu Han, a detailed look at the various districts and areas within Cairo, a detailed write up of the inevitable tombs and pyramids within Egypt and the guardians, treasures and secrets inside and so forth (it gets a four page or so writeup in the nile empire which was fun to read but honestly it could really use a full length sourcebook in and by itself, a not unfamiliar concept for old school 1990 torg fans like myself who enjoyed the "Berlin", "los angeles" and "tokyo" city sourcebooks although unlike the 1990's books I would argue more attention should be paid to the cosm the city is in or influenced by)... pulling that off would really make the nile empire "pop" and truly bring it to life.    This is done to a lesser degree in the still excellent and well worth the purchase price fires of ra but given the epic scope and length of the adventure and how much it covers the writers would have had to triple the price and length of that book to give say Cairo the write up I'm recommending.

Still that says something right there, that I liked the Nile Empire so much that I want and need more of it so, again well worth the purchase price.. I am now about to go into the truly extended part of the review where I cite all the parts I liked and all the parts that I felt could do with some improvement which understandably might make your eyes glaze over  :)  and you might not want to read the whole thing.. the takeaway is this.. buy both the nile empire sourcebook and the fires of ra, read both, run the fires of ra with your players and you'll have a blast.. seriously, fires of ra is a ton of fun (though see also my review of fires of ra and the blogger post in there , I have  a lot of ideas if you're interested for areas where I felt the fires of ra could have used some more detail ) and the GM and players will thoroughly enjoy running through it but I would argue the nile empire cosm book is essential to being able to run fires of ra properly.

The introductory flavor text for the Nile Empire is a lot different than the original 1990's torg nile empire book which is a lot more "dark" in nature but to me perfectly highlights Mobius's dark, evil, sinister not to mention insane nature.. the introductory text here is much more lighthearted in nature which was a turn off for me at first until I realized that it perfectly illustrates the over the top , action packed, humorous nature of nile empire adventures ... the part about the two storm knights, hard boiled pan pacifica detective and martial artist Zhi and light hearted core earth realm runner Aiden laughing in the face of the predictably "corny" , as befits a four color pulp comic villain, Wu-Han's completely and utterly comic-style-villain behavior .. as one would expect from the nile empire given the very reality of the cosm.. totally made sense and gives the GM an important clue, that bad guys should be run in an at times corny and clichéd, totally over the top fashion that will make PC's roll their eyes and/or make sarcastic comments.. though I do have fond memories of the original 1990's torg campaign I ran with the nile empire "law of corny-ness", a home brewed world law where PC's found themselves resorting to the same clichés and dramatic " good always wins evil will never triumph" speeches complete with dramatic poses, wind blowing stylishly though their hair... obviously given players can and should be protective of their control over their beloved creation (the player's PC) I didn't flat out declare the PCs HAD to start doing this but I was very generous in awarding possibilities to players who went along with it simply stating the PC was feeling the urge to be "corny" thanks to the change in reality itself the PC found themselves in due to Nile Empire axioms and it was up to the player if the PC went along with it or not.   Interested players who took me up on it made the campaign all the more fun for me as a GM and for other players who got into it (with real life eye rolling from players who weren't such a big fan of it but who weren't aggravated enough to drop out of the game in real life either) and I heartily suggest you introduce this as a home brewed world law in your own torg eternity nile empire games.

The introductory "Welcome to the Nile Empire" section does a great job of outlining how different the Nile Empire is from core earth and why given the highlights I've mentioned above as well as the focus on the "pulp powers" heroes and villains alike wield whether it be weird science technology or powers natively inherent to said PC's or NPC's as well as describing how the nile empire is like, and not like, the 1930's era America that it draws inspiration from in terms of social norms and structure, the new government under Mobius' rule and how said government is enforced, where pulp heroes and villains are concentrated (apparently mostly cairo and the gaza strip) and the response military and otherwise to the beleaguered regions of earth next to the nile empire Mobius is working on conquering terrified of his reality bombs (see below) .    

The writers also made a good point of pointing out that just because the pulp comics of the 1930's pandered to the at the time racial and chauvinistic stereotypes at the time that can and should be an embarrassment to our modern sensibilities doesn't mean that the GM has to "faithfully reproduce" this prejudice ... and indeed it makes sense , the nile empire is in it's own way an alternate version of Earth so just because there was prejudice against non-Caucasian races in 1930's Earth doesn't mean that the Nile Empire version of Earth necessarily developed that way... which is something I would have a discussion with players first in case there's some die-hard historian in the group who demands to know why say for example the Caucasians in the nile empire aren't being racist towards "persons of color" or why husbands aren't threatening to beat wives who have the temerity to go out and join the workforce with paid employment .. these are often the same historian-players who indignantly defend their "good aligned PC's" evil actions by detailing how brutal medieval times were to the point where mercy and compassion were foreign and alien concepts.    

To be clear as I mention in my review of the Ororsh torg eternity sourcebook most of the players I've gamed with.. especially my gaming group from the 1990's when Torg first edition came out.. would love the opportunity to have their PC's punch a racist or chauvinist NPC in the face in-game (note that I said IN GAME, obviously I'm not advocating real life violence against even the worst racists and or/chauvinists let's not stoop to their level) and given the literally horrific nature of Orrosh there's a lot of opportunity for real life evil there in the Earth countries Orrosh takes place in (my home country of the USA has plenty of evil too so please don't think I'm playing favorites - again I go into more detail on this in my orrosh book review)  to result in some monstrosity that players in Orrosh can have the pleasure of defeating in-game and at least symbolically dealing a blow to the real life prejudices that sadly haunt our real-life earth existence as made painfully clear if you look at any of the major news headlines... but given the light hearted comic book nature of the Nile Empire as satisfying as it would be for a player to punch a racist Nazi pulp powered villain in the jaw, introducing real life prejudice in the game to me would be a jarring experience at odds with the light hearted tone and feel of the nile empire cosm... on the other hand as I mention in the Israel-Palestine conflict ideas I had below there's an opportunity to include real-world conflicts in the torg campaign to really "bring it to life" so to speak provided the GM and players are comfortable with that sort of real-world controversy... 

...still, given the admittedly enjoyable mish-mash of things that's already taking place .. Egyptian deity worship, 1930's era American culture, four color pulp comic reality and over the top Indiana Jones style action... somehow I feel like throwing some Nazi in there snarling and being racist and anti-Semitic would somehow get lost given everything that's already taking place ... I could be wrong and a player playing say a Jewish PC who's already being oppressed under Mobius's rule since the Jewish PC is not free to practice his/her religious beliefs (along with fellow oppressed Muslims, Christians, and Bantu religious worshippers see below in that) might take great pleasure in punching a self proclaimed Nazi villain from the nile empire in the face.. sadly anti-Semitism is still very much a thing as our real world news headlines regarding attacks on Jewish synagogues by white supremacist power groups tells any observer.   This does however beg the question as to whether or not the Jewish religion even exists on Mobius's home cosm of Terra, as well as  the religions of Christianity and Islam or for that matter if the Jews were persecuted in Terra the same way they were here in real life earth during world war two, a question the GM would have to address if the GM wants to make Nazi pulp villains prejudiced in the same way real world Nazi’s were/are.   If you go by the 1990's torg terra book these religions are listed as existing in Terra as well, and Hitler is described as the hate mongering racist that he was in our "real life" Earth although nothing is said about whether he fomented hatred towards the Jews of Germany in Terra.   

Having said that the book does appear to have a personality conflict with itself... page 8 of the book states " While Torg Eternity encourages players to enjoy all the over-the-top action and drama of the 1930s pulps, we want to make it clear that this can be done without reinforcing racism, sexism, and other prejudices. If you use the archetypes of the period we urge you to make them nuanced, layered characters rather than damaging caricatures. You are not obligated to adhere to damaging stereotypes when playing any character." .. but page 80 of the book states " A 21st Century Core Earther feels as if they’ve journeyed back in time about 75 years. Although women and men do enjoy legal equality, they still have strict gender roles, and those who defy those roles are subject to derision and shame. Social mores

are very much "pre-60s."  So which is it as far as women’s' rights are concerned?   I suppose you could enforce the 1930's view that if children behaved badly it was the mother's fault as the "primary caregiver" for example but this really seems to fly in the face of what was mentioned on page 8 and honestly I felt uncomfortable even just typing that example "out loud"... I would amend what page 80 says to the following.. basically, men and women are equal in the nile empire, period, and while the social norms of the 1930's do apply they apply to both men and women equally.. for example both men and women would be openly ridiculed if it's clear they're engaging in intimate physical relations with someone before marriage and would be expected to at least do this in secret behind closed doors with it being a rather scandalous thing if it was exposed publicly (although obviously say your average bad guy NPC isn't going to care about social standards in the slightest in this area I would imagine nor are they going to care about the public's opinion of them... then again given that Mobius's shocktroopers are the everday police and enforcers of the nile empire perhaps even they are expected to at least "keep up appearances").   

Likewise, given the average 1930's American was expected to be a devout Christian and the church was important, I would replace this with the Egyptian deity worship in the nile empire with great importance placed on at least giving the pretense of honoring the Egyptian deities (and pharaoh Mobius as well as their divine representative in the nile empire), attending routine Egyptian deity services of worship and so forth... note that's in reference to transplants coming in from Dr. Mobius's home cosm of Terra, in the case of transformed Egyptians it's much more simple - they're reverted back to a form of the Egyptian deity worship their long ago ancestors practiced at one point thanks to the nile empire axiom wash albeit with the twist that Mobius is the divine pharaoh selected by their deities.. the patriotism of your average 1930's American is already covered thanks to the near fanatical belief in Mobius your average Egyptian feels thanks to the nile empire axiom wash with transplants from Terra simply having felt that way all along anyways... I would imagine most of these social norms can be carried over to say the parts of Africa mentioned in the Nile Empire sourcebook that have transformed to Nile Empire reality although as the book mentions the fanatical devotion to Mobius that resulted due to the axiom wash (and weird science "pylons" Mobius used to boot) isn't the case in Nile Empire conquered areas outside of Egypt where they're more likely to go along with what Mobius says just because he's a power mad dictator who will kill them otherwise (as the book states his shocktroopers administrating and patrolling conquered areas of Africa are either transformed formerly core earth Egyptians or migrants from Mobius's home cosm Terra, fanatical followers of Mobius either way) .  Of course violating any of those particular social norms (openly showing religious beliefs other than the official state religion and/or openly defying Mobius's rule) doesn't result in just being socially shamed, it results in being rounded up by shocktroopers and tossed in jail or an even worse fate.. as the nile empire book states Mobius runs a dictatorship being an evil kind of guy.

It's a bit of a head scratcher how an average citizen of the nile empire would react to a member of the LGBT population given that such a member of the population would face extreme prejudice in 1930's America yet as page 8 mentions it's best to forego prejudice entirely in the nile empire and, again, given the light hearted comic adventure nature of the realm it seems like a rather ugly thing introducing prejudice against the LGBT population in the Nile Empire.. given this is an area the writers have not addressed I would handle it the following way.. it's unusual (in other words the heterosexual population is far greater than the LGBT population) but not entirely unheard of.. so your average Nile Empire citizen might react with surprise at first when discovering someone is LGBT but then think about it, remember they've heard stories about someone who was LGBT and that person was an, to use nile empire speak " Okay guy / Okay gal " , shrug their shoulders and then continue speaking, the person's status as LGBT clearly not having much of an impact beyond the initial " that's unusual around here" reaction.   Likewise while the average Nile Empire citizen might react with surprise at first when encountering say two married men or two married women given it's uncommon compared to the larger number of heterosexual married couples, they're going to stop, think about it, remember " Oh yeah I heard about a couple like that in the town next door.. didn't hear anything bad about them though" and then proceed to just treat the same-sex couple like everyone else, meaning that marriage between same-sex genders is legal in the nile empire although a same sex couple suspected of or who is engaging in pre-marital physical relations would endure the same social derision a heterosexual couple would face for not waiting until marriage.   In my heart of hearts I would like to assume this (the lack of discrimination beyond the initial surprise) applies in all the nile empire conquered areas, a result of the axiom wash.  Note also the writeup in the book of one of Mobius's overgovernors.. "when Natatiri is seducing men or women in order to achieve her goals, she manages to hide her true feelings." page 96

The Terra sourcebook was mentioned earlier on ... as I've mentioned in my other torg eternity reviews I really do feel like the torg eternity team should have drastically lowered the price of the original 1990's torg books to at most a few dollars per title treating them as additional "world building" supplemental role playing material that really should have been included (a simple copy and paste would have done the trick) in the revised torg eternity books not to mention stats for important NPC's included in the original 1990's torg books but left out of the torg eternity books as I note later on below.. having said that I would argue to really bring the nile empire to life that one not only pick up the 1990's torg nile empire book but also the terra book for the stats of several notable heroes (Dr. Frest, the Guardian and others) as well as their background stories and the background stories and stats for pulp villains that can be easily adapted and plunked into torg eternity, a detailed look at the alternate history of Terra compared to core earth, a more in depth look at Mobius's backstory after his resurrection and his activities in Terra (one interesting fact was Mobius never "conquered" terra in terms of setting up stelae and draining possibilities from it, essentially leaving his home cosm "alone" in favor of conquering other cosms instead), little details that really make the world building / role playing aspect pop like a detailed description of the life style of various lower, middle and upper class social stratas

 ( I really enjoyed that part in terms of how it "brings the world to life", for example the almost financially destitute lower class barely hanging on, the not quite so bad but still lower class , the upper class factory owner and so forth)

 a detailed description of gear easily adapted to torg eternity, and what I consider to be a far better adaption of the law of morality in torg as opposed to the majority of people being more of a mixture of good and evil (your average citizen who isn't say a shocktrooper) and the detailed explanation as to how this works .. while the part about the majority of people being of "good" inclination admittedly wouldn't work on nile empire conquered Egypt lest the population promptly rise up against Mobius (so there the more murky "not clear cut good or evil" bit is necessary) , I loved the description-examples of say the good inclined reporter who has to report the truth in order to "save people" and "let them know" even if costs the reporter her job (a time honored but enjoyable cliché) versus the evil inclined teacher who freely gives out " F " grades even when the student presumably didn't deserve it because the teacher enjoys watching children cry... another situation in which the 1990's torg books really nail the world building/role playing concept in a way the torg eternity books simply don't have the "room" to do so due to their focus on "big picture" concepts... and while I understand the budgetary constraints the torg eternity team was working under (people might pay $20 for a pdf copy of a cosm sourcebook but ballooning the cost to $30 to get all that extra material in there might cost the torg eternity team sales) again I would argue the original 1990's torg books need to be deeply discounted in price and treated as optional but valuable supplemental material for interested torg GM's and players.

The sidebar on page 9 regarding the "power level" of heroes in the nile empire should be carefully expanded on by the GM to players lest you have disappointed players on your hands. .. the sidebar says Batman, Green Arrow and Daredevil would be examples of the appropriate "power level" of nile empire heroes as opposed to say spider man or wonder woman who would be far beyond the abilities of your average nile empire pulp hero (or villain)... however the depiction of Batman and Daredevil in the comics , and even Green Arrow in his famous TV show Arrow of the CW network, varies wildly to the point where it depicts all three heroes as far more powerful than your average starting nile empire hero.. explain to your players that due to game balance requirements, super powers or no they aren't going to necessarily be more powerful than say an extremely skilled core earth soldier with the appropriate perks making him or her tough to kill .. basically nile empire heroes start out being as powerful as the other PC's not more so.. given enough experience points nile empire pulp heroes can obviously level up and grow more powerful as time goes by but so will their fellow non nile empire PC's presumably such that the power levels are still the same.. basically the players should be thinking more of the "flavor" of the character they want to play... do they want to play a truly "heroic hero" , over the top in comic book style who lives for death defying moments in the fight against the forces of evil?  Does the player enjoy being openly "corny" and "hamming it up" with overly melodramatic speeches?    If so then Nile Empire is the way the player should go with a PC but more due to the role playing aspect than because the player is looking to "power game".

Despite the fact that the Nile Empire is a dictatorship it's worth keeping in mind that Mobius is described as being a "big picture" kind of guy who is primarily interested in beating other High Lords and conquering more of core earth and taking down those interfering storm knights and especially his hated opposition the Mystery Men (pulp heroes of the Nile Empire) ... his underlings certainly can and do enforce said dictatorship anyways but also openly or quietly compete with each other which basically explains in my opinion how the PC's can move around safely in conquered areas of the Nile Empire as long as they aren't brazenly defiant of Mobius's rule in public ...unless of course a situation arises where they have to do their job as heroes - Mobius is just one of many bad guys they have to fight after all - in which case the PC's will also have to deal with shocktrooper foes in addition  to their other problems though as the fires of ra mega-adventure shows this isn't necessarily an overwhelming problem that can't be overcome the same way it might be in other cosms - the very nature of the nile empire means the PC's will likely overcome overwhelming odds on a routine basis and which is also mentioned in the axioms and world laws section of the nile empire sourcebook.   

It's also interesting that while the nile empire sourcebook says the police handle facing off against criminals (said police obviously being transformed to persons who now see Mobius as "the law" in Egypt or the police chief and all dissenting officers presumably being replaced with people loyal to Mobius or at least afraid of him in nile empire conquered areas outside of Egypt) , in the fires of ra adventure the PC's are described as having to face off against shocktroopers in Egypt if they draw too much attention to themselves.. personally I'd explain it as the following.. the police handle "routine" lawbreakers and are the first line of offense against them but in the case of "extremely dangerous criminals" (the PC's would obviously qualify as would any fellow storm knight and/or known delphi council agent) the police either show up to confront the PC's but call in shocktrooper backup that arrives shortly thereafter.. or , the better option in my case, the police are ordered to leave dangerous situations like that alone completely and have "the military" (shocktroopers) brought in to handle it much like core earth's military being brought in instead of or alongside the police in particularly dangerous situations.. stats for a core earth police officer are given on page 266 of the torg eternity core rules which a GM could use for their nile empire version, but omit the ballistic vest , give them the truncheon described on pages 148-149 of the core rules and give them either a Mauser Pistol or an M1918 BAR rifle as described on page 148-149 of the core rules instead of the more modern firearm a core earth officer would have.   

Of course it's entirely possible you'll have confused players who want to know what the police are doing in the nile empire and why they follow Mobius as well as presenting the PC's with a moral dilemma... do they attack and kill police officers who are simply doing their sworn duty and who genuinely see the PC's as the bad guys?    The situation is sticky enough such that a GM might even consider avoiding sending police in completely especially given that, as pages 181-182 of the core rules makes clear (the PC's moment of crisis that allowed them to become possibility rated involving making a deliberate choice for good over evil and the storm knight's listed role of protecting innocents.. not to mention it's clear from reading the fires of ra , or the godbox or delphi council rising storm for that matter, published adventures that the writers clearly expect the PC's to unquestionably be the good guys in order for the adventures to function properly) there should never be any doubt that the PC's are the good guys... unless the GM feels like the players can handle the responsibility and will find some way to sneak away or defuse the situation without killing police officers.

The end notes at each warzone section come in very useful here and are greatly appreciated in terms of telling the GM what "typical" threats might be to PC storm knights in that particular warzone area as far as NPC's they'll have to overcome complete with stats.. one big drawback is that the masked marauder only has one set of stats (the nile empire pulp villain basically) and I do find myself hoping someone using the Torg Infiniverse license will come up with a mini-sourcebook of nile empire pulp comic book villains, or maybe a combination of pulp heroes (mystery men) and villains, who is the arch foe of whom and how each one feels about all the others which would be a huge asset to the Nile Empire setting.  A lot of pulp villains are given in the fires of ra and fights with them prior to the fires of ra could conceivably make the fires of ra all the more fun to run when the players have to fight the same pulp villains they fought before but it's critically important that the GM go over the world laws described in this book  including the law of inevitable return and how both PC's (as the introductory nile empire adventure in the "day one" pay what you want sourcebook makes clear .. grab it and don't feel guilty if you can only pay say one dollar or less the writers intend it as the gateway drug towards you buying more torg products :)  ) and villains alike who are seemingly "killed" show up again and again with some unbelievable story as to how they survived ... warning players ahead of time that "death doesn't take .. normally" will hopefully help relive player frustration especially when you point out that in real life comic books heroes and villains always come back from the dead and that's just the nature of the nile empire (and I've found RPG players are often comic book fans as well so hopefully this will strike a chord with them).

As one would imagine in a dictatorship, Mobius directly controls all news outlets but I got a chuckle out of how Mobius freely allows comics to be printed that show the real life adventures and battles of pulp heroes versus villains, which absolutely makes sense given the comic book nature of the realm although Mobius, being an egotistical maniac, makes sure that any comic book writers who portray Mobius himself in a negative light mysteriously vanish (no doubt killed and their bodies disposed of)... this is a great opportunity for a GM to have comic books based on the exploits of the PC's start to circulate around the Nile Empire, with amusing deviations from what actually happened either because the comic book writer is relying on second hand information (unless you have an adventure involving a comic book writer who gets to accompany the PC's and witness everything first hand which is an intriguing concept by itself) or the writer takes "dramatic license" and changes events to make it "flow in a more narratively pleasing experience" as is common with the liberties movies and TV shows take in real life with their "based on a true story" depictions... of course if a PC is willing to sit down and tell the comic book writer everything that happened ...players understandably might be reluctant to do this given they might feel enemies can and will use the information portrayed in the comic books against the PC's.. on the other hand it should be pointed out to the players this is a great way to spread potential glory seeds and refilling the people of earth with possibility energy per the torg eternity core rules reality chapter such that the people of earth can survive a second transformation back to core earth reality when stelae are ripped out is one of the primary goals of storm knights.    

I can imagine these comic books even making their way out of the nile empire and being picked up and reprinted by other publishers (possibly even with the original comic writer's blessing especially if the writer understands the concept and importance of spreading tales of glory) in cosms (core earth obviously but also pan pacifica, the cyberpapacy, tharkold .. a bit of a head scratcher as to whether the comics would transform to some Victorian version of themselves in Orrosh and of course they wouldn't survive long in the Living Land) that would support the tech/social axiom of the comics.  I would argue the original nile empire book from the 1990's is great as far as flavor text - it's dotted with non-comic "all words"  but still interesting stories written about the heroes and villains of the nile empire that the GM can swipe and use as a player handout to add to the flavor and feel of the nile empire ... pulp magazines, short stories known for their sensational, dramatic subject matter , were a real life thing of 1930's and 1940's America so it makes sense to introduce this right alongside comics if the GM cares to do so in the nile empire .. see the Wikipedia entry below which I encourage you to look over particularly the "genres" and "notable original characters" and "popular pulp characters" section (though obviously you'd want to say for example come up with the nile empire version of Tarzan rather than just dumping a jungle pulp powered hero raised by apes also named Tarzan in the nile empire and confusing the players)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_magazine

While the villains mentioned in the nile empire (except for Dr. Mobius as I'm sure writers are well aware of their fate should anyone write about Mobius) absolutely should appear in both the comics and the pulp magazines ... as well as the known heroes from the nile empire should the GM choose to make them part of his campaign (the "pay what you want" death of the mystery men adventure comes in handy here as it gives a number of named nile empire heroes as does the archetypes section in the also pay what you want gm's screen in that the GM can just use the nile empire hero archetypes mentioned there and give them a suitably flashy name) the PC's whether nile empire or not should , as long as there's some conceivable way some eye witness saw the PC's heroics, can and should make their way into both the comics and the pulp fiction write ups.    Speaking of heroes... as I mention in the fires of ra review I was disappointed to see no stats for Dr. Frest given how important he is to the events in that adventure not to mention being a person of importance in the nile empire in general (no stats for him in the torg eternity nile empire book either).. however there are "updated" stats for him in the terra nile empire sourcebook, which while not essential is also a recommended purpose for players and GM's who focus on the "world building/role playing" aspect of campaigns as much as I do - the terra sourcebook for example gives a detailed look at the alternate history of Terra , similar to yet also dramatically different to core earth's , and how it was influenced by Mobius , weird science, how world wars one and two differed on Mobius's home cosm... and possibly the home cosm of PC's who came over from Terra to fight Mobius ... 

The reality bombs were a neat concept from the original 1990's Torg that have been carried through to torg eternity continuing to make mobius a particularly deadly foe.. bombs created from mined eternium (a naturally occurring mineral apparently in the torg eternity world mentioned also in revenge of the carredon and found in aysle conquered London England as well though I'm not certain if eternium deposits occur naturally outside of the nile empire as well or if the eternium core mentioned in revenge of the carredon was simply made from eternium purchased or stolen from the nile empire) that when dropped and detonated enforce nile empire reality axioms , rendering core earth's higher tech tanks, planes, firearms wielded by it's soldiers and so forth useless and allowing Mobius's 1930's era tech (not to mention his pulp villains, weird science gadgets, miracle casting nile priests and arcane magic casting mathematicians) to roll over and decimate core earth forces, making him frighteningly powerful in the areas of core earth under attack  by Mobius.. but also giving pause to Mobius' invasion at times as he waits to mine more eternium for more reality bombs.  

Particularly interesting was Israel, cowed by Mobius's reality bomb after their first armed forces exchange of hostilities, basically telling the other countries Mobius was attacking " We have a non aggression pact with Mobius - good luck you're on your own!" ... which raises the interesting possibility of rogue Israeli agents hunted by both their own government ("Do  you WANT Israel to be conquered by Mobius and vanish as a nation?!?" ) and Mobius's forces, a storm knight who isn't content to just sit there and watch Mobius commit his atrocities and, if appraised of the nature of the possibility wars, drain Earth of it's very essence (possibilities).... note that I'm talking about overt, open, well publicized (the kind that's required to spread tales of glory and reclaim the Earth) from a known Israel former special agent, the book does state Israel is engaged in more quiet espionage "cold war" hostilities against the Nile Empire and visa versa.   Germany and Italy are in the same boat but also in their case due to Mobius's control over the waters of the Suez Canal which Germany and Italy are so dependent on due to the need to ship goods necessary to their economy through said waters - Mobius has declared he "has no quarrel" with them (a blatant lie that everyone can obviously see, surely Mobius wouldn't hesitate to conquer them the moment it's convenient) and the two countries have as a result not aided their fellow "earthers" in the possibility wars except very covertly (though in defense of the two countries the cyberpapacy sourcebook does mention the cyberpapacy's aggression against Germany and Italy an excuse that Israel does not have)... which again raises an intriguing notion of famous German and/or Italian storm knights hunted by their own countries to appease Mobius unless they can play the storm knight off as a "rogue agent" acting contrary to orders.. particularly interesting would be what would happen if Mobius decides the time is right to invade either country and publicly uses the storm knight character as an excuse.

I did notice that no mention is given to the Palestine-Israel conflict but looking at the emotional response it triggers in real life amongst people I find myself wondering if the writers decided it was best to leave that out entirely... this does leave the GM with the problem of how to address this in his or her campaign ... does the GM assume that the ongoing conflict between the two countries was taking place in the torg eternity earth prior to the possibility wars?  And if so how did the possibility wars affect that?  At the time I write this review (the year 2022) trusted news sources like CNN or the Guardian (a Google search for "Israel persecution Palestine guardian" in particular will come up with several articles to that effect by the Guardian) definitely tend to lean towards the view that Israel has gained the upper hand to the point where they are persecuting Palestine brutally , not a surprise when you consider the tendencies of it's right wing leaning nationalist (which sadly in today's political climate tends to mean harnessing hatred of those different than you for political gain ) government .. this would be a rather depressing thing to include in your campaign given it happens in real life too ... but I always like to see things like these as a possibility for telling inspiring stories that can lift one's spirits.. what about a band of plucky Palestine storm knights who take the fight to Mobius and are so good at it they become a well known band of heroes in their own right?   Public attention would then focus on these persons, let's say who's families were persecuted by Israel's (let's face it borderline power mad - and lest someone think I'm picking on Israel I have the same view of our power-mad president Trump who we endured for four years here in my home country of the USA ) president's government ... and still became well known heroes in their own right?  And furthermore they're ignoring Israel's " please don't conquer us Mobius" treaty they arrived at with a dimensional invader sucking earth's very possibility energy out of it... 

....how does the rest of the world react to the Palestine storm knights' growing popularity?  Does Israel's president send his own armed forces after the Palestine storm knights in an attempt to appease Mobius?   Does the rest of the world react with even more outrage than they already have towards Israel (not to mention Germany and Italy who I'm sure would also get their share of collective "boos" from the rest of the world once their non aggression pact with Mobius becomes more of a public focus) over their treaties with Mobius in the face of the Palestine storm knight activity?   And yes I did read the part in the book where it says Israel is preparing it's own 1930's tech tanks planes and weapons for the inevitable war against Mobius but the fact remains that the book also states Israel agreed to a cease fire while neighboring countries risk their lives fighting against Mobius.   There's a tendency to assume anyone who criticizes Israel is anti-Semitic and I would like to assure you that this is absolutely not my intention..  "white power" groups of scum who hate the Jewish people as much as they hate Muslims or people of color have sadly gained their own base of political power here in my stomping grounds of the USA thanks to , again, our power man ex-president actively courting their support and it makes me nauseous just to think about it.    Bigotry in any form is bad, period.    If you read my review of the godbox I have some ideas about incorporating real life hatred in the USA into the agendas of enemies the PC's can overcome and hopefully make the players feel good about striking a symbolic blow against said bigotry so, again, please don't think I'm leaving my own country out of these kinds of criticisms.   Obviously given the controversial nature of this sort of thing you'd want to clear it with your players to see if anyone would get upset about it in real life at the gaming table and I could definitely see how a gamesmaster would not want to touch these sensitive "real life" topics at all.

Also intriguing .. overjoying really given the sad rise of Islamophobia that seems to fuel so many real world politics today especially in the USA but even other countries outside of it as well.. was the depiction of Mecca and Medina as core earth hardpoints that have stubbornly dug in and openly resist Mobius's forces not to mention the glory result in Mecca resulting in a nile empire stelae being dug up and Mecca returning fully to core earth axioms.   I would have loved to see a longer write up of Mecca and Medina and the Islamic faithful within carrying on the fight against Mobius's forces and I would love to see either the "official" torg eternity writers or writers taking advantage of Torg Eternity's Infiniverse license (basically the official torg eternity team giving others permission to write torg eternity products, a brilliant move in my opinion that has resulted in the excellent pay what you want products "the reality choir", "rooting out orrosh" and "the storm knight's guide to monster hunters" which you should definitely purchase and read even if you can't afford the full asking price given the writers' generous pay what you want offer) to write up a "two city sourcebook" so to speak featuring the two cities, the factions and forces located there, Mobius's counter efforts against them, their relations with the surrounding countries and reaction to say the cyberpapacy's missionaries, pan pacifica kanawa agents infiltrating them, agents from say Orrosh, Aysle and possibly even Tharkold who have taken an interest in events there (I can't see Kaah of the Living Land bothering with something so far away given the nature of the Living Land , he'd probably be far more concerned with subduing North and South America and Mexico and the Caribbean first) .

The section on mathematics .. the nile empire version of arcane spellcasting.. and engineering, the other nile empire version of spellcasting with it's emphasis on pyramids and structures and it's relation to astrology as a whole makes for a fascinating read.. despite that I can't see it being of more than passing interest to a player given the limited scope of an engineer's abilities.. maybe a mathematician though honestly I can see the players getting more excited about the intriguing and impressive expanded description and array of pulp powers (although as I stated earlier it's worth warning excited players this doesn't necessarily make them more powerful than say a fellow PC who is a core earth reality rated soldier who keeps bumping up his or her attribute scores, perks and skills).

The religion/spellcasting chapter is a wonderful read given that, not surprisingly , given his role as Pharaoh Mobius has made sure the entire relgion centers around him to the point where (it appears) people honestly believe Mobius is more important "divinely speaking" than the very deities the people of the Nile empire worship and that Mobius will join their ranks upon his death as a deity and that if you're practicing the religion properly Mobius is always right and then there's "the lessers obey their betters" part of the religion that of course serves Mobius well since as far as he's concerned he's better than anyone else (truly a perverted religion given the much more noble sensitivities of say Islam/Muslim, Christianity or Judiasm, none of those three religions being built around the power mad agenda of the egotistical maniac that is Dr Mobius) .. given the fanatical devotion your average transformed Egyptian to the nile empire reality has for Mobius not to mention the average Terran native from his home cosm Mobius brought over no wonder they're all a bunch of deluded fanatics... the one potential quibble that can annoy players is the curse bestoyed upon deities by killing one of their sacred animals given that crocodiles can and will attack the PC's and then to have the PC's deal with a curse from  Sebek since "crocodiles belong to him" could leave your players feeling rather annoyed .. I would at the very least warn players telling them their PC heard the story of persons who kill crocodiles being cursed but also point out that the crocodiles are trying to eat the PC's and they have to defend themselves followed by a shrugging of the shoulders and saying " that's the nile empire for you".. possibily followed by meeting up with a sympathetic religious figure (the religion chapter and in other areas throughout the book does a wonderful job of talking about repressed and oppressed other faiths like Islam/Muslim , Christianity and Judiasm who can be divine spellcasters in their own right - one of those would be ideal) who helps the PC out with a remove curse divine miracle spell.

which leads me to a sticky point.. what if you have someone who is say Christian, Islam/Muslim and or Jewish in real life as a player and you present them with the ability to cast divine miracle spells suited to their faith?  I know I had a devoutly Christian player among my torg 1990's gaming group who just went with it ... and certainly you can have players like that who simply see it as an affirmation of their real life faith.. but then you can have other players who will see this as being very uncomfortable and don't feel that the ability to cast miracles from a faith they fervently belief in, in real life,  at the gaming table  is something they're comfortable with.. as the GM I would flat out ask players about this if you're planning to do such a thing, gently encourage players not to be shy and that they're "not wrecking your campaign plans " and to be just be honest with you and to just leave that part out entirely if it makes a player uncomfortable.   Having said that I have to admit part of me absolutely loves the idea of Christian and Jewish priest spellcasters being able to fight Mobius's twisted Egyptian religion with their own divine miracles.. though on the other hand I'll be the first one to admit that as a person of religious faith in real life considering NPC divine spellcasters who practice the same faith.... I find myself conflicted, loving it on the one hand but on the other hand knowing full well divine miracles like this per my religious beliefs actually took place long centuries ago per the religious scriptures I believe in and it might be a bit "much" to have PC or NPC faithcasters of my particular religion being able to do this in-game today .. or maybe it could be seen as an imaginary scenario, what if possibility raters invaded real life earth.. in his infinitely generous and merciful nature would our Creator grant miracles to his faithful in this imaginary scenario that is not meant to reflect our real life situation here on real life earth?  this is a question I ... anyone of the faiths mentioned, Muslim, Jewish, Christian...  would have to struggle with this and it and requires a lot of deep introspective thought .. at the very least the divine spellcaster  who is Muslim, Jewish or Christian would have to a heck of a job of role playing it out making their love for their creator unquestionable in the eyes of all observers were you to have a player (or GM for that matter) who actually belongs to that religion in real life seeing this at the gaming table to make sure that this depiction is not disrespectful to the real life version of said religion... which I'm inclined to think would happen anyways.. for example we've all seen the Christian priest in books, TV shows, movies and so forth using his faith in the war against evil so players would definitely have some idea of how to role play such a character.... given the prevalence of Christianity in western media we're far less likely to see say a devout Muslim or Jewish person using their faith against supernatural evil but given how readily available information is on these religions on the internet (just make sure it's a reliable website run by persons actually belonging to that particular faith) this can be researched and if you have a player or GM who belongs to that faith in real life that's a potential source of information right there - just ask that particular player or GM to stop you and correct you in real life if you get something wrong playing the character.. in that way it could be a wonderfully enlightening experience giving you an inside glimpse at someone else's faith.  

Moving on to the gear chapter I was delighted to see that the simple act of wearing a mask ... the trademark of many pulp heroes and villains.. grants +2 body armor that grants full body armor despite the fact the mask only covers the face, though it's worth noting this benefit applies only with nile empire axioms where the world law of masks is in effect not to mention being marked either as a pulp villain associated with Mobius or a pulp hero who is an enemy of Mobius and needs to be hunted by the populace (which in turn leads to the classic time honored bit where the pulp hero dramatically dons his/her mask only when getting ready to fight the forces of evil).    The weakened weird science gear that duplicates pulp powers available for purchase was also intriguing and while becoming useless (on a roll of 1 to 2 as a mishap the eternium chip powering it burns out rendering the device temporarily useless) might annoy players who "paid good money for this" I can see how it's necessary to support game balance ... I would make a point of making sure the PC's encounter a friendly weird scientist sooner or later who can hook the PC's up with a new eternium shard to power their currently non powered item and make sure you let the players know this is a possibility lest the heartbroken and depressed player angrily throw away the offending device.

The protective ankh.. full body armor of +1 that works only for that particular wearer (no doubt a bad guy given they're created by tne nile empire religion that is fanatically devoted to Mobius) is also a useful tool in the GM's arsenal.

Also enjoyable was the small but useful write up of melee weapons that can absolutely be a common feature in the Nile Empire whether they be the brass knuckles favored by "bad guy bruiser goons" such as mob members , the lasso (favored by amazons but also practically a staple of the Indiana Jones movies that serve as a huge inspiration to the nile empire adventures) , the classically Egyptian Kopesh sword that grants a bonus to disarm attacks and the shruiken favored by the nile empire martial artists (not to be confused with the pan pacifica version the nile empire guys are more the "corny" types found in four color pulp comics) 

Also fun was the noted differences between cars of the 1930's nile empire tech axioms (a throwback to real life 1930's cars I'm sure in earth america) mentioned in the earlier chapters of the book but also here in the gear section.. no seatbelts (good luck if there's a collission - as GM I would absolutely have the PC's make a Strength or Dexterity check to see if they go flying out of the car in true dramatic nile empire frantic paced action style not to mention the bad guys as well) but the cars are built tougher and stronger.

While I enjoyed some part of the nile empire possibilities you can earn while in the nile empire I have some qualms about it as written...

"Unlike standard

Possibilities, these are only granted for role-playing and choices that reinforce the pulpy heroics

of Terra, or as a result of Nile Empire Cosm cards. Between acts, when you refresh Possibilities,

you may keep the same number of Nile Empire Possibilities (up to the maximum refresh) or

reset them to standard Possibilities.

When you spend a Nile Empire Possibility to invoke the Law of Action, add the new die rather

than only taking the better one. Outside the Nile Empire this Possibility may be spent after another

to roll again, taking the better roll just as if the Law of Action were present. If spent on a weird

science device (including Pulp Powers) there is no minimum 10 result for added dice, and

a 1 causes a Malfunction even if it's not on the first die roll."

I love the fact they're only granted for role playing and choices that reinforce the pulpy heroics of Terra, but I don't like all the restrictions they throw out there like not being able to take the better of the two die result rolls under the Law of Action as this seems to fly in the face of the nile empire world laws rules that the heroes routinely face overwhelming odds and survive.. as a house rule I would eliminate that restriction entirely .. I would also ignore the no minimum 10 result and any 1 causing a malfunction for weird science devices for the same reason.

The warzone section was a fun read (though see above for my fervent wish for a Cairo city sourcebook) though oddly enough I didn't find myself as "satisfied" after reading it compared to say the Living Land or Orrosh warzones sections... perhaps it's because the genres of the Living Land.. edgar rice burroughs novels, prehistoric savage dinosaur era, and lost cities containing wonders you've never seen before are concepts I can more easily grasp given my previous exposure to them in other works of fiction not to mention being famliiar with the USA, Canada and to a lesser extend Mexico and even South American given how close they are to my "stomping grounds"... similarly in the Orrosh sourcebook horror movies and books are something we're all so familiar with that in combation with the .. to a lot of Western minds like myself anyways.. exotic locale of India  (and I would argue Bangladesh and Pakistan by comparison) as well as our familiarity with that region given the rising prevalence of "India" Indians ( I say that only to not confuse them with say native Indians of North America)  in popular culture today accompanied by a look (albeit no doubt stereotyped) at their culture and our growing familiarity with India's Bollywood , the two familiar concepts .. horror and India.. "mesh" well in one's mind to the point where I can grasp it more easily.. for persons like myself not so familiar with the earth areas conquered by the nile empire while the torg eternity team does a great job of describing it in broad strokes for those of us who don't live there or who are otherwise unfamiliar with it, given our unfamiliarity with the "real life" earth area combined with the large scope of genres and themes the nile empire covers, it just feels like the warzones chapter needs a lot more detail to make the reader feel like " Okay now I can really imagine and 'feel' what's going on" as opposed to say the Living Land or Orrosh.. the Aysle warzones section is something that surprisingly gives me the same feeling of not being as familiar with the core earth "real life" regions as I would like despite the popularity of British culture in the USA (see also my review of the asyle torg eternity sourcebook and revenge of the carredon aysle based mega adventure books if you like).. the fires of ra, again, goes a long way towards making me feel more at home with the nile empire and if you like see my review of that book as well.

One part of the Egypt warzone entry that I found intriguing was how many gang mobsters work for Wu Han to the point where, while as mentioned above the police answer to Pharaoh Mobius and assumedly Mobius's overgovernors such as Wu Han, it's clear that Wu Han lets the gangs run amuck and actually enforce "order" of a sort for Wu Han with a cut of their profits going directly into Wu Han's pockets to further his plans ... of course if hapless innocents are cut down in the frequent gang wars in Cairo and Gaza I'm sure Wu Han doesn't care in the slightest (the "order" enforced here by the gangsters in this case would seem to mean heroic do-gooders not upsetting Wu Han, and thus indirectly Mobius's , control over the area).   But again this is where a Cairo sourcebook would come in handy ... exactly what nefarious schemes is Wu Han up to?   Also enjoyable was the concept of Egypt having it's very own version of Hollywood specifically for the Nile Empire, "Dreamland" where the films (albeit     as mentioned in the introduction to this book) are made ... this areas gets more of a write up in the fires of ra but, again, I would love to see still more of a write up for them in a Cairo sourcebook.

I was disappointed in that the sisters of the serpent are only mentioned in passing given how prominent (and enjoyable in my opinion) a presence they were in the original 1990's nile empire book... as I mention later on when I get to my review of Mobius's second in command the overgovernors, while the original 1990's nile empire book isn't a requirement per se like it would be to run say Aysle adventures there's a lot of great content from the 1990's book that a gamesmaster can mine and bring over to the torg eternity nile empire, like stats for said overgovernors, lots of interesting NPC's and their stats as well, a more throrough write up of Mobius's backstory/origin story and a closer look at the sisters of the serpent .. an evil religious sect that worships wadjet and has the benefit of a large number of stormers within their rank who (naturally) are capable of casting divine miracles, allies of Mobius although they don't report directly to him... though given the torg eternity book does state in passing (page 65) that sebek is the deity most favored by Mobius setting him up as the target of the sisters' ire (who want the worship of wadjet to rise to such prominence that the worship  of all other Egyptian deities fades to insignificance) you'd have to decide if Mobius has  a strong bias towards sebek worship like the original 1990's nile empire book says he does .. given Mobius's personality write up in torg eternity honestly I'm thinking he'd view that as inconsequential... sure he no doubt believes that he will join the deities upon his death like the religion practiced in the nile empire says he will (remember he's a power mad egotistical maniac, something made clear in the original 1990's torg nile empire book) and I'm sure he has a fondness for Sebek but given his overconfident egomaniacal nature (his  write up as a high lord in this book mentions he's honestly convinced he can win at all times) I'm sure his focus isn't so much on " what happens to me after I die " (which in turn would imply allying himself with Sebek to overcome the sisters of wadjet would be something he'd consider beneath him... not enough of a "big picture" kind of thing he'd probably impatiently send underlings to deal with the sisters if they become a problem) and concentrate on his current immediate focus... subjugating Earth and beating the other High Lords of other invading cosms.   

The healing pool created by the nile empire axiom wash in the nile basis warzone is an interesting concept given that Mobius is described as entering the ranks of the deities upon his death as page 43 of the book states (see also the writeup on Mobius as a high lord later on for more of his backstory and why he's considered to be the "divine pharaoh" in nile empire religion) ... my first assumption was that all the Egyptian deities are positively predisposed towards Mobius but then on page 43 it hints at previous tensions between the various deities and page 99 confirms that the head priestesses of horus and wadjet are, shockingly, secretly bent on overthrowing the evil inherent in Mobius's rule and freeing the populace from his dictatorship though neither one is aware of the other's intentions no doubt due to having to keep their true agenda hidden out of a sense of self preservation... which leads me to believe that despite storm knights taking advantage of the healing properties described in the pool (the possibility of storm knights regaining a formerly permanently lost attribute point as a one time thing as well as apparently being able to heal wounds suffered on a regular basis) Horus , perhaps out of some machination against Mobius, would allow Mobius's enemies the storm knights to use a healing pool dedicated to and "powered" by Horus... for his part Mobius (or a Mobius underling working on his behalf) no doubt keeps track of storm knights who use the healing pool , no doubt taking note of their presence and identities and probably ordering his underlings to launch an attack on said storm knight PC's later on as opposed to simply attacking the storm knights at the healing pool and destroying this honey trap that has effectively fallen into Mobius's lap (something I would imagine the clergy of Horus are aware of yet they have to keep up the pretense of being loyal Mobius followers lest an angry Mobius wipe all the Horus clergy out which I'm sure he could do easily).  

If memory serves me correctly there's a priestess worshipping Horus who has turned against Mobius and is a potential ally of the PC's and/or delphi council agents.. there's not much on Wadjet worshippers who are against Mobius and why, which  something I would have liked to see addressed in greater detail but in their case  I'm also sure the clergy of Horus are perfectly aware Mobius wouldn't hesitate to crush them if their "treachery" became public knowledge forcing them to tread carefully (even if Mobius is a big-picture kind of guy who normally ignores what he considers to be small-scale events you can be sure the people who report to Mobius will take note and go after traitorous Horus or Wadjet clergy themselves out of both fear of Mobius and an attempt to win Mobius's favor).  It's worth noting on page 42 that Horus is the deity of life while Wadjet is the deity of protection which perhaps explains why they are opposed to Mobius's rule given the large scale slaughter high lords tend to perform during their conquests and said conquests being the exact opposite of protection (assuming Wadjet is all about protection of the defenseless that is.. also worth noting is the delphi council chapter is the write up of the head priestess of Wadjet Ahaneith who is secretly a member of the delphi council using a - no doubt secret - part of her temple as a safe house for delphi council agents such as the storm knights and who, obviously, opposes Mobius while giving the pretense of being loyal to Mobius in public) ... still a more detailed explanation of each deity's clergy and their views of Mobius would have been welcome here beyond the general " Mobius is going to become a deity who joins the ranks of our beloved deities" general statement

Absolutely loved the various statues of Mobius in stances of victory and triumph mentioned in the thebes and luxuor warzone write up which absolutely suits Mobius's egotistical nature.. personally I would dot Mobius statues throughout other areas of Egypt too for the PC's to see though the GM should be prepared for the inevitable defiant PC openly defacing the statue despite warnings that it can bring a ton of shocktroopers (not to mention a possibly outraged mob of devoted Mobius followers - remember what the book says 90 percent of the people of Egypt fall into this category after the axiom wash - attacking the PC's) .. which could make for a fun get away the PC's could absolutely survive given the world laws over the top emphasis on ridiculously fun action sequences and surviving death defying odds.

The "appears and vanishes randomly" oasis in the desert is a great "save PC's who get in over their heads" device since it comes complete with healing water (that loses it's potency if taken outside the oasis as so not to upset game balance I am guessing) ... it's listed under the Libya warzone but I would personally change this to say it can pop up anywhere in nile empire reality where the PC's find themselves in or next to a desert .. I really enjoyed the part where certain Greek islands have changed such that gorgons, manticores and hydras can be found and most of all the sudden appearance (well transformation of former core earthers, even the males transforming into females) of the amazons and the concept of an island of ten thousand battle-ready female warriors that gives Mobius pause ... on the one hand he could simply deactivate the stelae surrounding them , transforming them back to core earth and killing the ones without the reality skill (most of them I would assume given  persons who have the reality skill are supposed to be rare compared to the rest of the population) ... on the other hand this stops Mobius from using the stelae to conquer adjacent areas and transform them to the nile empire as well so he's been watching them without interfering with them... again the fires of ra goes into much greater detail on the amazons and also includes stats for the gorgon though sadly neither the nile empire sourcebook nor the fires of ra has stats for the manticore and hydra mentioned.. going back to the 1990's "creatures of aysle" sourcebook will net you stats for a manticore easily adapted to torg eternity but strangely enough I don't recall stats for a hydra being given in any of the 1990's torg books (I could be wrong about that).. it still seems like a big omission for the torg eternity books given how big hydras are in our real world modern day folklore.

As mentioned above I particularly enjoyed the writeup of mecca and medina and the notes about how the delphi council has come to the aid of these two core earth hardpoints was an enjoyable read as well, no doubt and albeit with some difficulty given the intense reality storms that are no doubt spawning from the two conflicting realities .. indeed the two cities gave such staunch opposition that Mobius decided to put them on the "back burner" and focus his more aggressive conquest efforts elsewhere though his underling Natatiri continues to wage war against the two cities (as well the stelae close by to the two cities unfortunately continue to be able to harvest possibility energy).. I also enjoyed how the size of the hardpoint that is Mecca has actually increased with the addition of many Muslims whose very spiritual beliefs reinforce core earth reality though the book was a bit vague as to whether this refers to "on the fence, Muslim in name" Muslims already within Mecca who because devout Muslims due to the possibility wars or if it refers to the immigration of Muslims flocking to Mecca due to the possibility wars.. and if it's immigration how do the Muslims immigrating into Mecca get through the reality storms?   In the middle east warzone section where Mecca and Medina are covered it notes an increase in caves and lava tubes (presumably cold and hardened into "rock tunnels" and not active right now though given the dramatic nature of the nile empire one assumes that could change at any moment ) ... perhaps  there's an underground tunnel leading into Mecca which allows one to bypass the reality storms?   Though the complication with that is that if Natatiri or Mobius ever find out they can use that tunnel to lay siege to Mecca... again I would love to see a Mecca/Medina "city sourcebook" by the torg eternity writers or some writer who takes this up under the Torg Infiniverse license.

The sidebar note on page 72 was also quite interesting, noting that there aren't nearly as many refugees fleeing Mobius's conquered areas as there are in other cosms and that the standard of living for the average citizen has actually increased in a lot of areas Mobius has conquered ... not quite the same as the cyberpapacy situation where the populace is effectively brainwashed into Jean Malreux's twisted version of "Christianity" (said in quotes because it's not real Christianity at all just something warped to serve Malreus's agenda) but something worth noting as far as the average citizen who "doesn't want any trouble" possibly being reluctant to help PC storm knights or even going so far as to report the PC's to Mobius's forces.. of course the book also mentions the repressed religions.. Muslims, Jews, Christians, certain religions native to Africa like the Bantu religion.. who are not happy about their religion being declared illegal and who would no doubt either quietly or (if they're very brave and don't mind being arrested and/or killed by any of Mobius's shocktroopers or other servants who find out when the storm knights leave the area) openly assist the PC's.

As a western reader I wasn't too familiar with the Bantu religion the nile empire book references .. here's a link I found with more info on it 

https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/central-bantu-religions

The next thing I'm going to address, while clearly referenced by the torg eternity writers, is still a rather sensitive matter and I want to emphasize that I am not by any means looking down on or otherwise trying to be prejudiced against the countries of Africa.. having said that in real life earth it's painfully, tragically clear that world hunger and starvation is absolutely a problem in certain countries there (to be clear despite the patriotic claims of many that the USA is the "greatest country in the world" we can and do have children who go to bed hungry here too.. I say this not in an "America first!" kind of fashion which has become a rather pathetic rallying cry for some of my more bigoted "fellow Americans" but rather only to point out I am absolutely including my own home country in terms of how the poor get taken advantage of) ... 

....so when the nile empire book says that one of the overgovernors answering to Mobius (Heneru) has arranged things during the invasion such that the invading government actually pays attention to the formerly starving persons in his region and makes sure they get fed.. and you combine that with the earlier comment about how certain portions of the areas conquered have actually seen their lives improve under Mobius's rule.. it drives home the point I just made earlier above.. intriguingly, Heneru is described as an older man who has been through many of Mobius's invasions of other cosms and is now having second thoughts about his loyalty to Mobius, making him a potential convert to the PC's/Delphi Council's side though this does beg the question of how to make the players aware of this in the first place so they can decide if they want to take advantage of this opportunity.. perhaps it could start with the conquered persons in Heneru's areas of conquest surprising the PC's by describing the invaders in glowing terms, stating how much better their lives have become (the book also describes investment in infrastructure like railroads and the industrialization of the area) and then sadly commenting on how they were ignored by the world at large prior to the invasion - (particularly interesting is the commentary on the use of the nile empire version of arcane magic, mathematics and engineering described in the axiom and world laws section as respectively either allowing for limited glimpses into the future allowing for valuable insights during said infrastructure construction " You're doing that project too soon hold off" or " hurry up this needs to get done NOW " .. and for engineering allowing construction to advance at supernatural speed ... the nile empire obviously has a huge advantage in rapidly creating infrastructure which, while it might be stuck at 1930's tech level , is still better than no infrastructure at all) ...

... perhaps follow this up with the inevitable PC capture and escape (which the fires of ra and the nile empire sourcebook make clear is a time honored tradition though you would have to carefully make clear to the players that this is simply a "staple" of the comic book reality here and refer them to real life comic books where the heroes are captured and escape on a regular basis ... players tend to hate having their PC's captured and I'd recommend making rubber bullets available that do non lethal shock only damage such that overwhelming numbers of shocktroopers can basically knock the PC's into unconscious with overwhelming firepower) ...follow that with a very private audience where a world weary Heneru talks to the PC's about the suffering he's witnessed as cosm after cosm is drained of it's possibility energy leaving it a lifeless husk , how much it's beginning to weigh on him, and then have him wistfully ask the PC's what it's like to be a hero... to have a clear conscience?   Hopefully this prompts a PC to reach out to him and suggest joining the "side of the good guys".   The GM could keep Heneru in place as an overgovernor who "looks the other way" in the future when the PC's have their adventures in his area of influence and who even offers them covert aid.. but remember that the nile empire book says there is a pair of overgovernors here, the other one being Ramses who is fanatically loyal to Mobius.. inevitably Heneru would be found out and no doubt die an incredibly painful death at an annoyed Mobius's hands.. unless the PC's choose to rescue him which could be another great adventure in and by itself.

I was intrigued by the "Egypt that never was" part of the realm too, with Egyptian tombs complete with powerful items and/or valuable knowledge which are one of Mobius's priorities as far as finding and looting said areas and giving potential "floating adventure seeds" for the GM right there.. " You come across Mobius's henchmen looting what appears to be an Egyptian tomb - what do you do?" that can be plopped anywhere there's desert area (of which there's plenty) in the areas Mobius has conquered... intriguing as well is the description of mines within the parts of Africa Mobius has conquered containing something even more valuable than gold or silver.. eternium, used to create Mobius's dreaded reality bombs and also crucially important to power weird science gadgets.    Obviously denying Mobius access to such areas would be a huge win for player character storm knights.

The axioms and world laws chapter, as with all other cosm sourcebooks was as always an incredibly enjoyable read.. .the GM should pay careful attention to the notes given in the axioms section to be able to better replicate the "feel" of the Nile Empire to players, for example the tech axiom notes stating that while televisions are just starting to make their appearance they certainly aren't a common household item and your average citizen is more likely to listen to the radio they probably have in their household instead.  Given the limited amount of space the torg eternity writers obviously have to work with - otherwise they would have simply copied and pasted the wealth of rich world building detail from the original 1990's torg books - the tech axiom section doesn't mention say for example that any subway system in place in sections of what was core earth prior to the nile empire axiom wash survived (albeit no doubt now a 1930's version of itself) again in the tech axiom section since that was covered earlier on in the book on page 11... likewise while the tech axiom talks about how cars of the nile empire compare to the core earth versions, page 11 states that most people don't have cars and are more likely to use public transit (subways, railroads trolleys and so forth or simply walk if close enough to their destination).. I'm not complaining I love these little details the writers have put into the nile empire here in torg eternity but this means  die hard world building / really capturing the role playing essence of the world GM's like myself will probably want to take their own notes while reading this (or any other cosm sourcebook) for reference when writing adventures or simply running prewritten adventures ... so the GM is prepared if a player say for example states " I turn on the TV to see what the news says" and the GM has to break the news to the player that since they're not in the household of a rich upper class citizen there is no TV .. but there is a radio.. or if the player asks to borrow the car of the same friendly citizen whose house they're hiding out on the citizen chuckles and says " Yeah, wish I could afford one of those buddy I'm not rich ! " and then directs the player character to the nearest subway, trolley or train system.  

As enjoyable as the axioms section is, the world law write up is where the nile empire truly shines though as I've mentioned repeatedly the GM needs to warn the players about these world laws and then warn the players again each and every time they enter a zone where nile empire laws are in play (let's face it, the wonderful thing about Torg is being able to experience so many different realities and the axioms and world laws within but the players may, understandably, have a hard time remembering all of the many, many world laws in sum total when you consider all the cosms invading earth).    Again, ask the players about the comic books they've read in real life... is death ever permanent either for a superhero or a super villain?   Do heroes routinely get caught in death traps only to escape?   Now ask the players to consider the specific example of 1930's four color pulp comics.. some players will be familiar with them off the top of their head but if not you'll have to educate the heroes on the nature of those long-ago comics... was it absolutely clear at all times who were the good guys and who were the bad guys?  ...ask the players to think about the morality of 1930's America in terms of it's fictional tales whether comic books or radio shows at the time... heck if the players are familiar with the dearly beloved and now departed Adam West and his Batman show use that as a prime example even if it was from 1956 instead of the 1930's, albeit with violence not being censored out with "pow" and "bam" balloons ... now ask the players to think about the non stop over the top action scenes in your typical Indiana Jones movie and how everything that could go wrong did go wrong and yet Indiana Jones always somehow managed to survive and even triumph.     Using all of these as examples will help educate players about the world laws of action, drama, heroism, morality,  law of inevitable return and law of masks.    I would go so far as to encourage players who have the time to read up on all the world laws directly from the nile empire cosm sourcebook.

As far as players who grumble what's the point of playing if their PC's or the NPC foes are going to keep coming back and nobody can truly die, point out that while surviving what appears to be death is common for heroes and villains alike there are some situations where a PC or NPC really can die, period, law of inevitable return or not although these situations are admittedly rare.. if you see a bad guy dissolve in a tub of acid or a volcano (surprisingly common occurrences given the dramatic over the top nature of the nile empire) you can assume the NPC is really dead for example since there's no plausible explanation , even an outlandish one, that could account for the NPC's survival   (this is different than what the book states, that even bad guys who you watched get disintegrated in front of your eyes, can come back since it was "just an illusion" or something similar but you can if you choose to adopt this approach if players are becoming rather annoyed with this world law as some players might - obviously if all your players are okay with this campy corny unrealistic but totally in keeping with the nile empire reality sort of thing then go for it  the bad guys never truly die - something I personally would be okay with as a player given the nature of the nile empire but not all players are going to feel that way).. you can comfort such players with the knowledge that this isn't going to be the case for all cosms either, the nile empire is only one of several invading cosms (although if you're running say the fires of ra advise grumbling players to buckle in as they will be enduring the law of inevitable return for months of real life game time.. still a very enjoyable adventure in my opinion and honestly only one pulp villain in there needs to have the law of inevitable return working in said villain’s favor, the others can actually be killed normally and the adventure can still proceed as written).    

One change I would make regarding the law of Action.. it seems rather unfair to let a player spend two possibilities and then only let the player enjoy the better of the two die roll results.. normally I could see how this would be necessary for game balance but given the law of drama and all the obstacle piling the GM is encouraged to do, I personally would let players who want to do so freely spend the two possibilities and add both dice rolls to their total to ensure the truly dramatic, heroic, over the top action that is inherent to the nile empire reality .. but also warn the players villains can and will use their possibilities to the same effect.   

If you're using my suggestion in the torg eternity core rules review to, rather than having bad guys being able to take away a card from the player's deck with a successful interaction attack or other approved action under the right circumstances (I still clearly remember the look of disappointment on my players' faces when I did that and stopped doing it entirely after a while) and simply awarding the bad guys a possibility or, if the NPC who succeeded at the interaction attack is not possibility rated, simply giving the bad guy back one shock point worth of damage, then the bad guys will have opportunities to rack up possibilities too ... normally I'd be worried about game balance if a player decides to spend two possibilities and on top of that use cards from the drama deck to his or her advantage but when you look at the world laws of the nile empire - to present seemingly impossible to overcome obstacles to the PC's all the time - it makes sense to give the players the tools to overcome said obstacles.    Personally I would also be liberal in awarding possibilities on the spot for either heroic "do gooder" actions (something as simple as gripping an ordinary citizen by the shoulder and giving an inspiring speech about how the PC is going to save the day and the NPC need not worry - it doesn't necessarily have to be that hammy and melodramatic though doing so would be perfectly in tune with the nile empire reality, up to the player) as well as awarding possibilities for campy over the top dialogue as I mentioned towards the beginning of this review.. then remind players that all those extra possibilities will go bye-bye if they wait too long and get to the next act at which point they reset back to three possibilities, hopefully encouraging player to get into the nile empire spirit of things and spend those possibilities at an appropriately dramatic moment instead of hoarding them.

Personally I would also institute a house rule I use in my torg campaign (one player hated it, others loved it or were indifferent but I did it anyways :)  ) which I had the temerity to call "the law of corniness".. no matter how fast or deadly a PC (or NPC is for that matter) any NPC (or PC who chooses to invoke this law) can let loose with a dramatic dialogue as long as the character likes.. time seems to crawl to a halt as the monologue continues, the ticking time bomb slows to a crawl to the point where the countdown is seemingly non existent, angry frustrated PC's (like the player I mentioned who hated said world law furiously holding onto the throwing stars he wanted to kill the offending campy-dialogue NPC with but couldn't until the NPC had a chance to finish his speech) or NPC's are seemingly unable to act, and no advantage or disadvantage is enjoyed by either side no matter how long the speech takes.. this in my opinion is particularly appropriate to the nile empire and honestly is more of a role playing thing that doesn't really change things that much... the angry ninja player I used as an example still got to kill the NPC annoying him, the player just had to wait a little while :)   (to be clear in my torg campaign from the 1990's the players played the torg version of their real life selves and this particular player decided in real life he'd be very, very angry at ALL the dimensional invaders messing with his beloved earth so it showed in his actions .. he actually did a great job role playing the torg version of himself as did his fellow players).  

Regarding the obstacle piling table in the book.. which is an incredible useful tool.. I would amend the obstacle where the bad guy was "just faking it" and gets up recovering all shock and wounds to a situation where instead the clearly injured bad guy recovers say one shock and one wound "temporarily" just long enough to let loose with a final action before becoming unconscious once again or "dying for real this time" lest you have understandably outraged players on your hands.. and warn the players this is a potential obstacle they might have to face in advance too.. to be fair I would allow players who want to spend a possibility to be able to do the exact same thing although the torg core rules do state already that dying PC's get one final heroic action before they expire so it would be of more use to PC's who suffered enough shock to be knocked unconscious.

The personality and background write up for the high lords is always an enjoyable experience for me and the nile empire sourcebook was no exception... I was delighted to see how Mobius's unique backstory was carried over in entirety from the original 1990's torg book to torg eternity although I was a bit puzzled that given his gadgeteer, gizmo, and weird scientist perks the writers didn't come up with a list of gizmos and gadgets Mobius could be employing at any one time... on the other hand given the nature of the nile empire and Mobius's hands on nature to the point where he can and will face off against the PC's from time to time - and the PC's actually survive it !  (if nothing else due to the inevitable setback he suffers due to his curse which gives the PC's an easy way out ... if nothing else Mobius could snarl " thrice damned teleporter always malfunctioning" and have his own weird science gadget literally teleport him away just as he's about to kill the PC's ... the GM should then promptly explain to groaning players who feel like you are an overly merciful GM who will never ' let them fail ' that Mobius per his write up in his stats will always suffer some sort of Setback in each and every fight he's in ).   

Also enjoyable was the revelation that mobius single handedly pioneered the field of weird science in his home cosm of Terra meaning that even heroic storm knights who use weird science gadgets to fight the forces of evil indirectly owe their success to Mobius himself, something I would have an NPC comment casually on if say a transformed formerly core earth now nile empire weird scientist PC doesn't know about in order to encourage the "world building" aspect of torg.. obviously a weird scientist hailing from Terra would , I assume, be fully aware of this.

Also intriguing was the added description that Mobius's terrifying (to those he traps within it anyways) omegatron not only drains hapless storm knights placed within it (or even let's say stormers who have displeased mobius) of their possibilities to be turned into eternium (waste not want not) but also the revelation that the device actually sorts possibilities in a manner that lets it sort possibilities and come up with possible futures as a result letting Mobius to come up with plan B (and C for that matter  and D and E and so forth) ... something previously attributed only to Mobius's admittedly vast intellect.

I was disappointed in the lack of statistics given for Mobius's "trusted" six advisors and his overgovernors (except for Wu Han whose stats can be found in the threats chapter towards the end of the book), found in the original 1990's nile empire book (and easily adaptable from that book into torg eternity if you choose to purchase the 1990's nile empire book) but not in torg eternity again presumably due to space and budget considerations... the personality and background write-ups are an enjoyable read and to be fair the stats for the red hand (an overgovernor) can be found in the fires of ra but still, stats would have been welcome and useful.     

The delphi council chapter actually wasn't as fun a read for me as it was in other cosm sourcebooks ... the part about the countries making up the membership of the delphi council being enemies prior to the invasion making cooperation difficult at times was intriguing but it's only mentioned in passing leaving it to the GM to work out the specifics... at the risk of sounding brutal I found the write-ups of the NPC's who make up the leadership of the delphi council somewhat bland, surprisingly so given the dramatic over the top nature of the nile empire although given the delphi council leadership for the most part hails from core earth I guess this is understandable to some degree just not that exciting... the delphi council leadership in the cyberpapacy by way of comparison was a lot more interesting to me... as with all the cosm sourcebooks sadly no statistics are provided for these NPC's either... the insight the chapter provides into how the delphi council wages it's war against the nile empire by working around the nile empire's axioms ... for example not really being able to use encrypted communications of a higher tech level than the nile empire allows and lower tech encryption easily decoded by Mobius's weird science devices forcing the delphi council to rely on say physical notes passed through dead drops or brush passes.    The tension between the Israel and Iran members of the delphi council was interesting but, again, not enough is really given on the two men to really make it "pop".. what was most disappointing to me given the well publicized disregard of women’s' rights in the middle east was the lack of a middle eastern woman within the ranks of the delphi council.. I appreciated the two female delphi council leader-type members who are both African women but honestly I feel like the torg eternity writers really dropped the ball in terms of not adding a female middle eastern woman to the ranks.. which raises an interesting question..

How does the GM feel about putting the torg version of real life people inside of a torg campaign?  This could either really make the campaign interesting and really drive home the "our earth but different" aspect of it... or it could result in players being annoyed because the players feel all the important personages within the game should be entirely fictitious and including real life persons is too "jarring"... it's a discussion that the GM should probably have with his or her players... having said that a quick internet search turned up this interesting person

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loujain_al-Hathloul

and even better she has a stand up comedian for a husband 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahad_Albutairi

which allows for all sorts of role playing possibilities.. a possibility rated Loujain (known in real life for her activism in women’s' rights in Saudi Arabia and who has been jailed and tortured as a result by the Saudi Arabia government)  who became a storm knight backed up by a wisecracking husband who uses Mobius (and the other high lords for that matter) as fodder for his comedy routines, no doubt mentioning the player characters by name as part of his routine making fun of the high lords, has some intriguing possibilities (although the two are divorced in real life so you'd have to make the torg version a pair that never got divorced - maybe the possibility wars and surviving the dangerous events together that resulted in Loujain transcending made them fall in love all over again?) ... even if the players roll their eyes at the concept of using such real life persons the GM could easily use them as inspiration for his or her own fictional characters.. or how about a non real life based middle eastern woman oppressed by her family .. which sadly enough is an all too common occurrence, see

https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/01/30/saudi-arabia-10-reasons-why-women-flee

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia

(and that's just Saudi Arabia alone, from what I understand it's not the only country suffering from a women’s' rights problem) 

who flees the abusive male members of her family, finds herself in an area formerly core earth that transforms to the nile empire, has her moment of crisis transcending as a storm knight and on top of that also transforms to the nile empire reality and gains super powers in the process.. perhaps a combination of the possibility energy when she's transcending intermingling with say an explosive launched by a nile empire tank at the hapless woman  .. but in true nile empire comic book fashion she actually gains powers from the explosion allowing her to harness and release explosive energy from her hands, perhaps in a low-intensity continued explosion she uses from her hands to propel herself forward (flight pulp superpower) and of course she can use the explosive energy offensively (ray pulp power) .. as she continues to advance let's say she gets more pulp powers like dazzle and deflect (deflect in this case meaning she uses the explosive energy to "zap" objects fired at her effectively nullifying them) .. let's give her adds in faith (Islam) that increase over time too.. I would like to point out that anyone who truly practices Islam the way you're supposed to by the way, who's actually read the Quran and follows it's teachings, would never abuse a woman ... sadly just like other religions it's entirely possible to pervert Islam and it's teachings and to declare you are being a "Muslim" by oppressing women when in fact you're doing the exact opposite.. there are reams of information online about Muslim women fighting for women’s' rights who haven't given up on their faith and who practice it the way it's supposed to be practiced which I leave to your discretion to research online if you choose to .. let's say this woman comes to the attention of "Snowflake", head of the delphi council who promptly recruits her, trains her in the arts of spy craft that he knows so well being a former CIA agent, and she is an apt pupil who ends up joining the leadership ranks of the delphi council.  

One absolutely fascinating detail .. a wrinkle in the interaction between the nile empire reality and terrorism .. is mentioned in the Iraq and Kuwait entry on page 106 ... the world law of morality.. where bad guys are definitely bad guys, selfish, self centered and out for themselves.. and good guys are definitely good guys, who don't murder if they can't help it.. has actually influenced the resistance fighters such that they've, as the book states "tilted their tactics to lessen civilian casualties, and so there has been significantly fewer uses of IEDs (improvised explosive devices) than previously... the same page also mentions a new found cooperation between the Sunni, Shia and Kurdish cells and while I admit to being completely ignorant about the real life version of said conflict it's interesting to see them banding together in the face of a common enemy, Mobius ... a quick Google search shows the Sunni and Shia are Islamic in faith and apparently a majority of the Kurdish too and the book does state Muslims are not happy about having their faith actively repressed in  the countries Mobius has conquered so banding together to oppose Mobius would absolutely make sense.   At the same time with the law of morality in play I now imagine these cells as taking efforts to force an evacuation of a targeted building (pull the fire alarm? bomb scare but let everyone get out before detonating the bomb?) before blowing it up, hollering at non combatants to " get out of the way" while engaged in fire combat with Mobius's shocktroopers and so forth ... it wouldn't be surprising at all to see such persons being hailed as heroes in areas of core earth actively opposing Mobius ... 

....honestly in my mind's eye I can even find myself picturing something like this.. a resistance fighter who's declared himself Islamic by faith exchanging a long stare with an experienced Israel special forces operative who has declared himself Jewish in faith... the resistance fighter says " I don't like you"   The Israel special forces soldier replies "I don't like you either.. but we'll settle this later."   Then with a battle cry the two charge over the barricades shoulder by shoulder towards the Mobius battalion of troops leading their respective factions in true Indiana Jones over the top action-sequence style , perfectly in tune with the reality of the nile empire.. and overcoming overwhelming odds while doing so, also in keeping with nile empire reality.

While the background and personality write up of the mystery men pulp heroes who oppose Mobius is interesting it's marred by again the lack of stats.. fortunately the pay what you want death of the mystery men title by torg eternity has the stats for several of these heroes.. other hero stats can be found in the aforementioned 1990's torg terra sourcebook as well as the original 1990's nile empire sourcebook and easily adapted to torg eternity.. I particularly enjoyed the writeup of the adorable ensign Egypt although the lack of stats for her mentor , Colonel Cairo, is annoying.

The adventures in the nile empire section makes an interesting point the gamesmaster should take note of ...  why mobius lets heroes and pulp villains have free rein in cairo given his threat that pulp villains robbing banks or otherwise disrupting his rule would be destroyed by mobius.. unless they limit themselves to cairo.. likewise this keeps wu han busy managing cairo since mobius knows his darkness device is interested in wu han as a possible replacement should the darkness device feel mobius is no longer performing "up to par" as far as spreading the destruction the darkness device craves "adventures in the nile empire" section.. there's a thorough writeup of traps in tombs and notes on deathtraps that will be of use to the GM ... 

The threats section particularly the notes on elite shocktroppers and gospog was an interesting read .. I enjoyed the part about the reality rated scarab warriors as the nile empire's answer to the  armored rocket rangers who oppose mobius (and who would make great "random encounter" opponents to drop in on PC's who are having too easy a time of it in true over the top dramatic nile empire fashion).. the write up of divine mummies as being mummified versions of actual pharaohs nobles sorcerers and/or priests accompanied by their own "normal" mummy servants was also interesting.  The walking deities section provided a fascinating look at avatars of the deities of Egypt come to life more often than not as guardians of tombs and crypts... also enjoyable was the writeup of "the triumvirate" and baron insidia pulp villains... the pay what you want torg eternity day one has write ups of three more pulp villains and the fires of ra has stats for a lot of pulp villains though, again, both the original 1990's nile empire book and in particular the 1990's terra book also have pulp villain whose stats can be easily adapted to torg eternity.  The stats for your standard Nile empire pulp ninja and mob gunman should also come in handy and of course the writeup including stats of Wu Han will be very useful although I do think back when he's first mentioned among the overgovernors earlier on in the book the writers should have mentioned his stats are in the threats chapter at the end of the book lest say an overzealous GM immediately start writing stats for Wu Han.  Wu Han is surprisingly powerful and I was intrigued by the concept of how he deliberately plays into the stereotype of the "Chinese villain mastermind" so popular from the 1930's pulp comics in order to get his foes to underestimate him , which in turn makes me realize why the writers portrayed him as so.. well, clichéd at the flavor text at the start of the campaign - it's all part of his plot to get his opponents to underestimate him.

Normally I'm not a big fan of the eternity shards chapter that concludes each torg eternity book but I have to say I really enjoyed the write ups of the eternity shards both core earth and nile empire in nature .. given it's dramatic role in the Indiana Jones movie of course the ark of the covenant would get it's own write up ... also great from the world building/role playing aspect was the detailed look at what eternium looks like and how it's processed.

Honestly speaking now that I've read through the nile empire book twice and find myself catching all the cross references between the details of this realm I find myself enjoying and appreciating the book more than I did on my first read.. while, like Aysle, the book is ambitious enough such that it really doesn't feel complete without say a Cairo city sourcebook and the lack of stats for key NPC's is a problem, there's a lot to love about this book and it's absolutely a valuable addition to any torg eternity GM (or player's for that matter) library.