A woman of the temple of Thebes, and the Maahes who decided what the mantle would forever be. Takhat-Mut held it for 67 years, through the most prosperous stretch of the age and through a time when a king tried to change the gods of the land itself. She had more offers of power than any Maahes before or after her.
She turned them all down. The royal court offered her titles, estates, a place among the king's household and a guard of her own. A priesthood offered her control of the temple watchers. A general offered her an army. Each time she asked the same question: who commands the Maahes after this? And each time, the answer was the same: someone other than the Pride.
In her fortieth year, she called together every senior watcher in Thebes and laid down the rule that has stood for more than three thousand years since: the Maahes holds no office of state, no title of any court, and no command that is not given by the Roll. A Maahes who accepts a throne, a rank or a salary from any ruler has abandoned the mantle in everything but name.
It was the shortest and most important law in the history of the Pride.
What she left behind: the Rule of the Empty Hand, and a Pride that stayed neutral through a time when it could have chosen a side.
