| The Living Gods | |
| |
| Biographical Information | |
| Type | Religious order |
| Purpose | Religious instruction, tourism |
| Operational Information | |
| Status | Active |
| Base of Operations | Temple of the Living Gods, Luxor (formerly) New Temple, Karnak Luxor Hotel, Las Vegas |
| Place of Formation | Luxor, Egypt |
| Origin | |
| First Appearance | Aces Abroad |
| Creator | Gail Gerstner-Miller |
The Living Gods are a group of mostly wild carders whose wild card abilities and appearances resemble those of the mythological Egyptian gods. They were originally based in Luxor, Egypt, before building their New Template at Karnak, and some have emigrated to USA to establish a new home in Las Vegas. In both Egypt and America the Live Gods primarily earn a living through tourism.
History[]
The Living Gods were founded by former Egyptian archeologist Opet Kemel after he observed a boy making rain to water crops on his father's fields. When he saw the boy he immediately grasped on the child's appearance as an incarnation of Min, an ancient Egyptian god of crops. Opet Kemel had recently discovered an ancient temple complex beneath Luxor at the time and decided to use that as a focal point to which he drew more wild carders with resemblances to Egyptian deities. Some, like the boy, were aces and could perform the miracles that would give legitimacy to their epithet of "Living Gods", while others were jokers and reinforced the group's public image.
The Temple of the Living Gods was visited by the 1987 WHO Tour when it stopped in Egypt. This proved to be an ill-fated meeting when terrorists of the Nur broke in and opened fire during the Living Gods' public ceremony. Peregrine made the startling discovery that she was unable to fly, a side effect of her pregnancy, and Hiram Worchester was left to play the hero by using his gravitational control to incapacitate the intruders. Taurt later approached Peregrine and assured her that she was destined to give birth to a healthy son.
In later years, the Living Gods were forced to abandon their original holding in Luxor. Osiris and Thoth led a group of them to the United States of America where they continued to tap into the tourist market from the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas. Those who remained in Egypt followed Opet Kemel to a new location at Karnak where they purchased land and build a new temple.
This group was eventually pushed out of their temple in 2007 when the Caliph Abdul-Alim ordered the extermination of all jokers in Egypt. Peregine's son John Fortune, along with Lohengrin and Jonathan Hive, stood with them against this aggression, and Serquet was slain, but the Caliphate forced them from the temple and they fled south along the Nile. It wasn't until more aces from USA arrived that the tide was finally turned, and their intervention gave the Living Gods and other Egyptian jokers some measure of peace.
Members[]
- Opet Kemel - Founder
- Banebdjedet - Four-headed joker
- Bast - Cat-like joker
- Bes - Dwarf
- Black Anubis
- Hapi - Bull-like joker
- Horus - Winged joker
- Isis
- Little Isis
- Little Fat Boy
- Min - Rainmaker
- Osiris - Joker-ace with limited precognitive abilities
- Red Anubis
- Serquet - Beautiful-faced female joker-ace with the body of a red scorpion
- Simoon - Ace daughter of Isis.
- Sobek - Crocodile-skinned joker
- Shu - Flying joker-ace
- Taurt - Eases childbirth
- Tawaret - Hippopotamus-headed joker and leader of the Karnak Living Gods
- Tefnut - Flying joker-ace
- Thoth - Lie detecting ibis-headed joker-ace
Selected Reading[]
- Wild Cards Volume IV: Aces Abroad - "Down by the Nile"
- Wild Cards Volume XVII: Death Draws Five
- Wild Cards Volume XVIII: Inside Straight
- Wild Cards Volume XXIX: Joker Moon