Secret Time: 2700 BC
Secret Location: Various ancient kingdoms spanning Mesopotamia and North Africa
A long time ago, a group of powerful mystics with an advanced knowledge of the material world decided their superiority over the common people was so vast it made them gods and not mere kings.
The mystics command the construction of a great tower that would be the tallest in not just this country but the entire world. The people obey, because they love and trust the mystics guidance.
Relocating to a great palace with hanging gardens, the mystics oversee the construction of the tower while living in seclusion with only their most devoted servants.
After a whiles, the most obedient servants are ordained as holy priests, and as their wealth and power grow they become as reclusive as their masters.
Using the Speaking Well, the priests could appear in any surface of water and speak directly with the people from afar and spread their teachings.
The priests convince their followers that great structures must be built to honor the gods (formerly mystics), they know that people are eager to please and will help for free if they say the right things.. and they’re right. Some people prove difficult, but are easily convinced with a bit of shaming, intimidation and stronger coercion.
Due to a lack of sophisticated engineering technology, the tower begins to have major problems but the priests don’t want to hear it.
The tower falls when it’s foundations crack from the weight of the structure, causing widespread destruction and loss of life. For a while, the region becomes uninhabitable and a great exodus to a new land is necessitated.
Fearing a repeat of this incident happening again, the priests command the development of a new structure to honor the gods, one that won’t fall over as easily – the pyramid.
The first pyramids are built, but they take so long that the people begin to question the reasons they are doing it. Unknown to them, the mystics had designed special chambers deep within the structure where they could live in total luxury and in total secret.
A rebellion ensues after the first primitive pyramids are completed, a cup bearer overhears his masters talk about how the pyramids have no function other than to make the gods feel good, flies into a rage and sends a warning to all the people using the Speaking Well. They were told the pyramids aligned with the stars so that the sky would bless the harvest for as long as the pyramids stood tall. That was a lie!
The priests are able to subdue the rebellion of the cup bearer, at great cost to human life. They enslave all the workers who had previously been labouring out of love, care and devotion to their community.
One day the “gods” simply vanish, leaving the priests to nominate themselves as the new gods. Pharoahs.
The society of the pyramid survives a few thousand years, but the knowledge of magic is lost without the mystics who were the only ones who knew how it worked. The priests were able to use what they knew about the material world to convince the people they still had a connection to the gods, but over time the people stopped believing it and the kingdom fell to ruin
Epilogue:
Secret Time: 1908 AD
Secret Location: Egypt
Archeologists uncover a Sarcophagus and within it an ancient mummy whose heart is still beating, albeit very slowly and faintly.
The mummy begins to move, fast. The scientists are quickly dispatched, and the mummy begins to remove his bandages to reveal a pale skinned balding middle aged man.
At first, the mummy operates in secret seeding the beginnings of the electronic age. After a few decades, he reveals himself to the world as a tech billionaire from America.
The mummy was ready to be worshipped as a god, after his failed stint as a Pharoah, he would lead a new generation of his flock and finally be revered as the God on Earth he was all along.
Charming, rich, smart and successful, he becomes a celebrity, frequently invited to talk about his vision for the future. Because becoming a god is the best way for a person to gain the attention, love and admiration one deserves, at least he believed so anyway.