Editing Khemu

{{Era|Individuals}}
{{Revamp}}
{{Quote|You are a child of both Egypt and Greece. You are proof they don’t hate each other.|Bayek to Khemu.|Assassin's Creed: Origins}}
{{Character_Infobox
|name = Khemu
|native = 
|image = DM Characters 8-Khemu Map.PNG
|birth = c. 56 BCE<br />[[Siwa]], [[Ptolemaic Kingdom]]
|death = 49 BCE<br />Siwa, Ptolemaic Kingdom
|species = [[Human]]
|affiliates = 
|voice = {{IMDb|nm9395132|Xhanti Mbonzongwana}}
}}
'''Khemu''' (c. 56 BCE – 49 BCE) was the [[Egypt]]ian son of [[Bayek]], the [[Medjay]] of [[Siwa]], and his wife [[Aya]], He was also the descendant of both [[Darius]], the inventor of the Hidden Blade, and the ''misthios'' [[Kassandra]] through his maternal line. During his life, he enjoyed an idyllic childhood with his parents. His father mentored him in the ways of the Medjay and in vital skills such as [[hunting]].

In 49 BCE, Khemu was taken hostage by the [[Order of the Ancients]] as a means of forcing his father to unlock the [[Siwa Vault]] under the [[Temple of Amun]] for them. When the two resisted, the boy was slain by [[Flavius Metellus]], one among the Order, who redirected Bayek's knife into his son's heart.

Khemu's demise became the pivotal event that led to the foundation of the [[Assassins|Assassin Brotherhood]]. His grief-stricken parents mercilessly hunted down each and every last member of the Order they knew from 49 BCE to 47 BCE, a vengeful journey that became embroiled in the wider political conflicts of the waning [[Ptolemaic dynasty]] and would culminate in the rise of the [[Hidden Ones]], the first generation of Assassins.

==Biography==
===Conception===
Khemu was conceived around 56 BCE by the [[Medjay]] of Siwa, Bayek, and his partner, Aya while the two were hiding from an assassin in Bayek's old desert training grounds. This assassin, [[Bion]], sought to extinguish the last remnants of the Medjay bloodline on behalf of [[Raia]], a member of the [[Order of the Ancients]].<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed: Desert Oath]]'' – Chapter 50</ref> After killing Bayek's father, [[Sabu]], Bion discovered that Aya was pregnant and so targeted her and Bayek next. The lovers managed to eliminate their would-be murderer, however,<ref>''Assassin's Creed: Desert Oath'' – Chapter 69</ref> and Khemu was born months later.<ref>''Assassin's Creed: Desert Oath'' – Epilogue</ref>

Owing to their love and duty to Egypt, his parents named him ''Khemu'' after the Egyptian word for their nation, ''Kemet''.<ref name="Bayek's Promise">''[[Assassin's Creed: Origins]]'' – [[Bayek's Promise]]</ref> Because of the half-[[Greece|Greek]] heritage of his mother, Khemu was seen by his father as a child of both Egypt and Greece, a living proof that the two peoples could coexist in love and harmony.<ref name="The Great Twins">''Assassin's Creed: Origins'' – [[The Great Twins]]</ref>

===Childhood===
Growing up in the remote oasis town of Siwa, Khemu enjoyed a peaceful life with his loving parents. His father devoted much of his time and attention to rearing him, instilling in him the values of the Medjay with the expectation that he would one day inherit the mantle as Bayek did from his own father.<ref name="Bayek's Promise" /><ref name="The False Oracle">''Assassin's Creed: Origins'' – [[The False Oracle]]</ref>

===Stars of the gods===
On many nights, his father took him to the [[Stone Circle|circle of stones]] on the outskirts of Siwa. There, Bayek taught Khemu the constellations of the Egyptian deities and the ideals they each symbolized. Because his grandfather had once said that these stars reveal not just the gods' place in the world but that of every individual as well, the ecstatic boy declared that he would someday visit every Stone Circle along with the [[Great Sphinx of Giza|Great Sphinx]] and [[Great Pyramid of Giza|Pyramids of Giza]]. These words were forever etched into Bayek's mind, and he vowed to fulfill this dream of Khemu after his death.<ref name="Bayek's Promise" />

From night to night beneath the stars, Khemu would share many personal thoughts, feelings, and questions about life with his father while Bayek would invoke a god thematically related to his quandaries or the lesson at hand.<ref name="Bayek's Promise" /> Bayek shared the stories of [[Horus]] and [[Osiris]],<ref name="Horus">''Assassin's Creed: Origins'' – [[Horus (Stone Circle)|Horus]]</ref><ref name="Osiris">''Assassin's Creed: Origins'' – [[Osiris (Stone Circle)|Osiris]]</ref> extolling the Pharaoh as a Medjay would for being the "[the former] in life and [the latter] in death". He claimed to his son that a true Pharaoh was ruler not just of Egypt, but "the whole world".<ref name="Horus" />

Through [[Amun]], he taught Khemu that though Egyptian society had declined in the name of greed over honour, the Medjay shall always endure to restore justice to Egypt.<ref name="Amun">''Assassin's Creed: Origins'' – [[Amun (Stone Circle)|Amun]]</ref> Through the [[Divine Lion]], he praised his progress in combat training while reminding him the duty of the Medjay as warriors who fight only when it was right to do so.<ref name="Divine Lion">''Assassin's Creed: Origins'' – [[Divine Lion]]</ref> He echoed these themes once more via the constellation of the Scales, which he explained measures truth and justice, the two crowning principles of the Medjay.<ref name="The Scales">''Assassin's Creed: Origins'' – [[The Scales]]</ref>

Once, Khemu heard a priest at the temple schools proclaim that the Greeks were destroying Egypt, and he became concerned about the ethnic strife between Egyptians and Greeks. In light of this, Bayek showed him the stars of the Great Twins and assured him that he was proof that the two peoples could love one another and that every individual regardless of heritage had the capacity for good or evil.<ref name="The Great Twins">''Assassin's Creed: Origins'' – [[The Great Twins]]</ref>

When Khemu's friend [[Kenon]] told him that "what is best in life" was to conquer one's enemies and revel in their women's suffering, he relayed the question back to his father. Pointing to the constellation of [[Apis]], Bayek instead taught him that the answer was to protect the poor and vulnerable, seek truth and justice, live a life of honour, and to be a loving son to his mother.<ref name="Amun">''Assassin's Creed: Origins'' – [[Amun (Stone Circle)|Amun]]</ref>

===First crush===
Khemu developed an early crush on a female friend, an affection intense enough that it pained him to feel it.<ref name="Serqet">''Assassin's Creed: Origins'' – [[Serqet (Stone Circle)|Serqet]]</ref> Whether out of disinterest or shyness, the girl's behaviour toward him eventually shifted, and she began to avoid him.<ref name="Goat Fish">''Assassin's Creed: Origins'' – [[Goat Fish]]</ref> Inexperienced with love,<ref name="Serqet" /> Khemu confided in his father about her despite initially denying that he liked her.<ref name="Serqet" /><ref name="Goat Fish" /> On one occasion while gazing at the stars of the [[Goat Fish]], Bayek suggested that the girl's sudden aloofness may actually be a sign of reciprocation,<ref name="Goat Fish" /> but otherwise, he felt unqualified to explain the mysteries of love to his son, instead directing him to [[Hathor]].<ref name="Hathor">''Assassin's Creed: Origins'' – [[Hathor (Stone Circle)|Hathor]]</ref> He expressed that no gods, not even [[Serqet]], can protect [[human]]s from the agony that love may bring.<ref name="Serqet" />

Because of these romantic feelings, Khemu conveyed his hope for marriage someday, along with a great many children. When his father remarked that at his age, he had no need to be impatient about such matters, he asserted that it was not that he was in a rush, but that he felt he "already knew". Bayek thereupon guided him to the constellation of [[Taweret]], the goddess of fertility and childbirth,<ref name="Taweret">''Assassin's Creed: Origins'' – [[Taweret (Stone Circle)|Taweret]]</ref> but in spite of Khemu's intuition, he would prove wrong about his future.<ref name="The False Oracle" />

===The fateful afternoon===
[[File:The False Oracle 04.jpg|thumb|250px|Bayek teaching Khemu to shoot]]
In 49 BCE, on the day that a ceremony was to be held in Siwa in honour of the visiting Pharaoh [[Ptolemy XIII]], Khemu was out among the hills of Siwa being drilled in [[bow|archery]] by his father. Bayek had just playfully messed up Khemu's last shot when Khemu's friend [[Chenzira]] appeared to tell him about a [[hyena]] cave he had discovered. Though Khemu was initially eager to join Chenzira in checking it out, he changed his mind upon hearing that there were as many sixteen hyenas in the cave. While Chenzira was teasing Khemu for being too scared for adventures, Bayek interrupted them with a different idea: he would take them on a real hunt. The [[Oracle of Amun]], after all, had requested an [[ibex]] pelt for the ceremony that evening.<ref name="The False Oracle" />

[[File:The False Oracle 06.jpg|thumb|250px|left|Bayek and Khemu hunting the ibex]]
Chenzira accompanied the two only as far as the oasis where they found the ibex pack they were targeting; Bayek dismissed the boy by reminding him that his [[Rebecca (Siwa)|mother]] was expecting him back home. With Chenzira returning home alone, Bayek resumed his hunt, demonstrating to Khemu his skill by killing the ibex pack leader with one clean shot to its heart.<ref name="The False Oracle" />

===Jump===
As father and son hurried back to their village with the ibex pelt in hand, Khemu, remembering Chenzira's earlier remark, admitted he feared he was too much of a coward to ever succeed Bayek as a true Medjay. It was then that Bayek decided that they should take a detour, stopping at [[Halma Point]] along the way. This was where decades ago, his own father, Sabu, had helped him overcome his fears as a child. There, standing above a precipice overlooking the great oasis of Siwa, Bayek gave the same simple instruction to Khemu that his father did before him: "jump". All that was required was to take a [[Leap of Faith]], and Khemu would forever conquer his fears.<ref name="The False Oracle" />

[[File:The False Oracle 08.jpg|thumb|250px|Khemu failing to perform the Leap of Faith]]
Much to Bayek's dismay, Khemu failed several times to jump, and before the boy could right this disappointment, the two were met by the screams of Chenzira. Khemu's friend had been taken hostage by the Order of the Ancients, and their soldiers had forced him to lead them to the Medjay. Recognizing the danger, Bayek commanded Khemu to hurry back to his mother while he confronted the soldiers.<ref name="The False Oracle" />

[[File:Origins Quest04TheFalseOracle Part01.PNG|thumb|left|250px|Khemu and Bayek among the Order]]
===Death===
Khemu did not make it safely home, and by nightfall, he had been seized by five agents of the Order of the Ancients and taken to the entrance of the [[Isu|Precusor]] [[Siwa Vault|vault]] beneath the [[Temple of Amun]]. He was joined shortly after by his father who had been overwhelmed by the soldiers. Mistakenly believing that Bayek, as a Medjay, had the knowledge to open the vault, the Order interrogated him for answers before being interrupted by the arrival of Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII.<ref name="The False Oracle" />

Defying his usual meekness, Khemu took advantage of the confusion to [[Pickpocketing|steal]] a knife from one of the Order and free his father. This was to little avail, as their captors returned scarcely a second later desperate to unlock the vault before the Pharaoh learned of their operation. One among them, [[Flavius Metellus]], became so agitated that he turned his knife to Khemu, threatening to gouge out his heart. This drove Bayek into a panicked frenzy, and he lashed out suddenly with the stolen knife he had been keeping behind his back. Amidst the fray, Flavius redirected Bayek's knife into his own son's heart, and the boy succumbed to his wound almost immediately to the everlasting guilt of his father.<ref name="The False Oracle" />

===Legacy===
[[File:ACO Khemu's Tomb.jpg|thumb|250px|Khemu's tomb in the Mountain of the Dead]]
Despite his short life, Khemu's death triggered a series of events which would result in the founding of the [[Hidden Ones]], a secretive cabal which later evolved into the [[Assassin Brotherhood]].<ref name="ACO">''Assassin's Creed: Origins''</ref>

Following Khemu's murder, both Bayek and Aya embarked on a quest for vengeance against the Order of the Ancients. By 47 BCE, most of the Order's members in [[Egypt]] had been assassinated, with only [[Lucius Septimius]] and [[Flavius Metellus]], Khemu's murderer, remaining. While Aya went after Septimius, Bayek pursued Flavius to [[Cyrene]]. Bayek confronted the [[Rome|Roman]] Consul in the Temple of Zeus in Cyrene and, despite Flavius taking advantage of an [[Apple of Eden 2|ancient relic of the gods]], killed him. In the void, Khemu asked his father to let go of him before he rubbed the feather against Flavius, putting him to peace and satisfying Bayek's quest for vengeance.<ref name="ACO" />

The eagle skull necklace worn by Khemu, and later by his father, would later serve as the "template" from which the [[Assassin insignia]] was derived.<ref name="ACO" />

==Personality and characteristics==
{{Quote|But I get scared. I try to be brave, but sometimes it's hard.|Khemu to Bayek, 49 BCE|Assassin's Creed: Origins}}Unlike his family, Khemu was timid and fearful of danger, often lacking the bravery to join his friend, Chenzira, in his latest risky adventures such as observing hyenas from afar. Frequently teased by Chenzira, he was well aware of this quality and internalized the self-image of a coward to the extent that he doubted his ability to live up to his father's legacy as a Medjay. Nonetheless, he bore within himself an earnest determination to overcome his fears and learn to be courageous; when he failed to perform the Leap of Faith to his father's disappointment, he still insisted that he would be able to do it.<ref name="The False Oracle" />

A good-natured and dutiful child, Khemu eagerly listened to his father's frequent lessons on the values and purpose to being a Medjay. To him, Bayek was an obvious idol, and he admired his convictions in justice, honour, and fighting to protect Egypt and the poor. He was dreamy, innocent, and idealistic, always excitedly looking for the day he would inherit Bayek's mantle and become a strong hero, as was the expectation.<ref name="The False Oracle" />

The shy boy also had a touch of a romantic side, and his budding feelings for a female friend led him to be inquisitive as to the nature of love despite his young age.<ref name="Serqet" /><ref name="Goat Fish" /><ref name="Hathor" /> This penchant for curiosity extended to other matters of life as well, providing his father an ever abundant stream of questions to address as the next lesson. While outwardly skittish,<ref name="The False Oracle" /> Khemu had a fairly mature mind for his age, for he frequently ruminated on profound subjects such as the ethnic tensions between Egyptians and Greeks, the gap between the rich and the poor, and the meaning of death.<ref name="The Great Twins" /><ref name="Amun" /><ref name="Pisces">''Assassin's Creed: Origins'' – [[Pisces (Stone Circle)|Pisces]]</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery captionalign="center" position="center" spacing="small" widths="180">
Khemu - Concept art.jpg|Concept art of Khemu
ACO Khemu.jpg|Khemu
Khemu-temple-origins.jpg|Khemu as the avatar for a [[Discovery Tour]] through [[Alexandria]]
The False Oracle 05.jpg|Bayek, Khemu, and Chenzira on their way to the ibex lair
Origins Quest22TheFinalWeighing Part16.PNG|Bayek and Khemu bidding farewell to each other
Origins Quest22TheFinalWeighing Part15.PNG|Flavius Metellus and Khemu
</gallery>

==Appearances==
*''[[Assassin's Creed: Desert Oath]]'' {{1st}}
*''[[Assassin's Creed: Origins]]''

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{ACO}}
{{ACDO}}
[[Category:56 BCE births]]
[[Category:49 BCE deaths]]
[[Category:Individuals]]
[[Category:Egyptians]]
[[Category:Ethnic Egyptians]]
[[Category:Ethnic Greeks]]
[[Category:Siwans]]