Portrait of a Pharaoh • Ahkmenrah x Reader (NATM) ✔️

A theory on the tablet

Posting this in here because it's my only NATM book. But I have been thinking a lot about the tablet recently (as one does) and I think I've figured out how it works and what the rules are. So I'm gonna break down my theory here.

So we know from the 3rd movie it's blessed by Khonsu and activates under the moonlight, needed to be exposed to moonlight every so often to retain its power. The fact it's been blessed by a god implies that the Egyptian gods and their realms actually do exist in this universe. We know there's an underworld because Kah tried to open it up in the second movie. Weather other pantheons exist is unknown, but the Egyptian one absolutely does in this universe.

Since the is an underworld and thus an afterlife, I think that the tablet works by placing the soul of a person/being into the object it's bringing to life.

The whole reason the tablet was created was so Ahk and his parents could be together forever even after death, the whole point of it is to resurrect the dead. So the enchantment is one that takes the soul of a dead being and places it back into the body as long as it's nearby enough to the tablet, and under the light of the moon/ charged with the moon. I do find Khonsu an odd choice for resurrection magic, since he's not really a death god. But he is a moon god and watches over night travellers, both living and dead. So the fact the tablet brings the beings back to life at night checks out.

1. What can come to life?

We also know that objects that aren't a corpse like Ahk can be animated. Like the minis and wax figures. Not just people but animals like Dexter and Rexy. So I think the rule there is that as long as it resembles a living being, real or mythical it can come to life.

2. Who can come to life and how?

If the figure represents a specific person (Teddy, Sacajawea, Atilla etc) the tablet will place that persons soul into the figure and that person will come to life with the memories, personality etc if that person carried by the soul.

If the figure doesn't represent a particular person, the tablet will find a soul that somewhat matches the figure and use that. Like the minis. Because let's be honest there's no way the museum named every single mini and modelled them all after real people. So the tablet saw a figure of a Roman general, found the soul of Gauis Octavius who was a known Roman general and placed his soul in the figure. It saw a cowboy, and picked a soul from that same area and time period to place into the figure. The real Jedediah was actually a mountain man, but mountain men and cowboys are similar enough the tablet made that figure Jedediah Strong Smith anyway.

In the case of animals, the same rule applies. If the figure represents a particular animal (like the space monkey Abe from the second movie) it'll put that soul in the figure. If it's just a random animal it'll just put a random animals soul that matches the species and time period.

And in the case of mythical creatures, it'll create a kind of puedo-soul to fill it. Lancelot isn't actually a real person, but it is likely he was inspired by real people. So the tablet saw a figure meant to be lancet and took the soul of a knight that inspired Lancelot, made some tweaks and put it into Lancelot figure. And with creatures like the giant snake thing (I can't remember the name) from the third movie it did something similar, taking several snakes souls and giving each head one of them. Similarly, the Anubis-Jackal guards that protect Ahkmenrahs exhibit are probably pseudo-souls created using warriors/guards and jackals. Made with the intent to protect Ahkmenrah and his belongings.

With the artworks, it again depends on who or what the art is depicting. If it's just a scenery, it'll simply open up a kind of pocket dimension (like the ones Larry jumped through in the 2nd movie) that resembles the scenery.  If it's depicting a real person, it'll put that persons soul in. If it's depicting random people it'll place a soul from the time period in. As well as creating a pocket dimension of that place and time for the people to exist in.

Like the the photo of the solider kissing the nurse, it took a the souls of people from the time period and placed them into the photo. In the case of this particular photo, the subjects in the picture are unknown although some contenders exist, and are still alive. So the tablet kinda just took a random set of souls from the time and shoved them in, the man being kissed in this tablet pocket dimension photo ended up being Joey Motorola who was one of the people who invented the mobile phone. Larry accidentally created a time anomaly that day, when he dropped his phone in the painting and Joey picked it up, reverse engineering it to make the phone.

Btw Joey is played by Jay Baruchel, who is the voice of Hiccup and I can't ever un-hear him as Hiccup from my HTTYD days. So when he talks in the movie I was all "omg hiccup?"

Anyway-

3. How real are the living figures?

We know they can be hurt, as when Jed and Octavius were still in their enemies phase of their enemies to lovers arc, they whack each other up and react in pain. We also know they can eat and drink, since there's a set of advertisement skits for the 3rd movie that shows them eating and drinking. For people like Ahk, real corpses reanimated it'd simply just be their bodies reanimating and the tablets magic allowing them to function. In cases where they're missing organs, like Ahk being mummified as thus having his organs taken out or, being made of wax etc and not having organs, the tablet with simulate them. Allowing them to eat, drink, get tired and out of breath after running etc.

So yes, that means you could probably do the no pants dance with one of the exhibits because they'd have simulated organs.

But, they can't die. Not unless the tablet does. We see them start to loose life in the 3rd movie. Ahk stars to mummify and the others start to act up and freeze. But we know they can't die any other way because Teddy literally got chopped in half in the first movie and was able to just melt some wax to put himself back together. Jed and Octavius definitely should have died in that RC car crash too, but they lived. And if Jed ended up covered in sand by that hourglass, he's likely not fully die since he can't, but he'd definitely be in constant agony breathing in sand and basically endlessly suffocating. And we've established they can still be hurt, so he'd be... alive but very traumatised. Not fun.

The tablet simulates restores or simulates bodily function by putting that soul into the vessel. It's magic keeps them alive until the sun comes up.

4. Other powers.

We do see that the tablet can do some other things, in the first movie when Ahk says some commands to it and it pulls all the exhibits back to the museum. That is a power I can understand since you know, Khonsu, watcher over travellers. Makes sense the tablet can draw people to a meeting point.

It can also open portals, as shown in the second movie. Now you could argue the painting pocket dimension things are portals, which is just a side effect of brining in animated objects to life. I'd assume the only portals it can open is the underworld one, since the original purpose of the tablet was to resurrect the dead, you might need to get the dead from the underworld for that. And those painting ones which wasn't the initial plan, just a side effect.

But that's all we really see it do. So I don't really know what else it could do.

TLDR:

The tablet was originally made to resurrect the dead, being blessed by Khonsu. The tablet works by placing a soul into a vessel, allowing it life. The soul carries the memories and personality etc of the person it once was. The vessel it's in has simulated body functions. It can also draw people to a meeting point and open portals. All of this does fit with the kind of powers Khonsu would be able to grant as a moon god and watcher of night travellers both living and dead. It needs moonlight every so often to stay 'charged'. It responds to the ancient Egyptian language, certain symbols of tiles in a particular order and likely can only be activated by Ahkmenrah and his families use.

And there you go, that's my theory on how the tablet works. That's all I got for now, I'd I find anything else I'll add it in.