Bayek's Promise was a virtual representation of one of Bayek's genetic memories, relived by Layla Hassan in 2017 through the Portable Animus HR-8.
Description[]
A chance encounter with an ancient and enigmatic circle of stones triggered memories from Bayek's past, and he decided to fulfill a promise made to his deceased son, Khemu.
Dialogue[]
While on a viewpoint above Camp Shetjeh in Siwa, Bayek spotted a stone circle in the desert.
- Bayek: Ah. The stone circle. I brought Khemu here not so long ago.
Bayek traveled to the stone circle.
- Bayek: My son, you wanted the stars...
He had a flashback of a night in the desert with his son, with Khemu using rocks to build a map on the sand of the stone circles, the pyramids, and the Great Sphinx.
- Bayek: The stone circles show the gods' place in the sky. And your grandfather once told me they also show our place in the world.
Khemu wishing to locate all the stone circles in Egypt
- Khemu: I'm going to find every stone circle. The Sphinx and the pyramids, too. And I'll find my place.
The flashback ended, and Bayek entered the stone circle.
- Bayek: And you will have them.
Another flashback to a conversation between Bayek and Khemu began.
- Khemu: Papo (Father), why are there so many poor in Egypt? Yet those who don't belong here are rich.
- Bayek: Egypt has forgotten who she is. Many chose wealth over honor. In the end, they got neither and lost justice as well.
Amun
- Khemu: But we are Medjay. We will bring justice and honor back to Egypt.
- Bayek: Yes, my son. We have not forgotten who we are. We will endure no matter our origin. Amun, the king of gods, divided into two forms as the great goddess of invisibility Amunet, and master of the wind. He upholds justice. Lord of the shadows and the silence, he comes at the voice of the poor. He hears the confessions of the humble and forgives them.
Bayek visited the other stone circles located through Egypt and aligned the constellations. At each location he reminisced on conversations he had with his son and took a small stone from the circle with him.
Apis
- Khemu: Papo (Father), what is best in life?
- Bayek: To seek justice and truth. To live with honor, to protect the weak and the poor. And to love your mother.
- Khemu: My friend Kenon said it was to crush our enemies, and to hear the lamentations of their women.
- Bayek: We are Medjay son, not barbarians. Apis, the bull god. He is the strength of the Pharaoh. Each year he is born as a calf with special markings. The Pharaoh finds this calf, and worships it.
Sekhmet
- Bayek: Medjay have a duty to the gods. We must be strong, and ready to fight. But we must only fight when it is just.
- Khemu: I'll practice hard, Papo (Father). I want to be strong and hunt like you do.
- Bayek: You are already better with your weapons than many men. You'll make a fine Medjay, son.
- Khemu: Like mom says, "May your victories multiply!"
- Bayek: The Divine Lion, the powerful one. Her breath formed the desert. The fiercest of hunters, she lead the armies of the Pharaoh into battle.
The Goat-Fish
- Bayek: Have you talked to this girl you like?
- Khemu: I didn't say I like her. We were friends. But she's being strange and avoiding me.
- Bayek: Maybe because she likes you too. We often do not say what we mean, it will come to you in bursts.
- Khemu: Why would she avoid me if she likes me?
- Bayek: This... is something your mother should explain. I am better with the stars. The Goat-Fish, called Capricornus by the Greeks. The god has the head of a ram and the body of a fish. You see, even the gods do not always make sense.
The Great Twins
- Khemu: Papo (Father), you know how you're Egyptian and Mother is Greek. What if Egypt and Greece go to war?
- Bayek: Egyptians and Greeks don't hate each other. We're all the same.
- Khemu: It feels like they do. The priest in the temple schools said Greeks were destroying Egypt.
- Bayek: He was wrong to say that. There is good and bad in everyone. You are a child of both Egypt and Greece. You are proof they don't hate each other. Ah, the Great Twins. To the Greeks, they are twin brothers. To the Egyptians, they are he-goats that rise from the underworld, bringing pestilence and protections. Even the gods have two sides.
Horus
- Bayek: That is Horus, the Falcon. The Great Black One. God of the sky. The sun is his right eye and the moon is his left eye. Forever he flies across the heavens, making night and day.
- [Khemu: The eye of Horus is what the Medjay wear?
- Bayek: Yes, Khemu.
- Khemu: And the Pharaoh is Horus, right?
- Bayek: Yes, my son. The Pharaoh is Horus in life, and Osiris in death. That is why the Pharaoh rules not only Egypt, but the whole world. Only a true Pharaoh though.
Pisces
- Khemu: Papo (Father), why do people die?
- Bayek: We are not gods. Everything must die. It is what Amun has ordained for us.
- Khemu: Will we be together in the afterlife?
- Bayek: Be brave and strong. Fight for justice. Do not lie. This is all anyone can do. Ma'at will decide if we're worthy to walk together in the Field of Reeds. I'm sure you will though. Your ka is good. Pisces, the two fish. Joined by the thread of this life, they are forever balanced between the afterlife and the underworld.
The Scales
- Bayek: Those are the Scales, called Khonsu. When we die, the goddess Ma'at weighs our hearts on them against her white feather.
- Khemu: I remember this. If our hearts are pure and light, we walk in the Field of Reeds.
- Bayek: Very good. You were listening. The Scales measure truth and justice. Which is why Medjay pursue these two things above all others.
Serqet
- Khemu: Papo (Father), how do you know if you're in love?
- Bayek: Why Khemu? Do you think you are in love?
- Khemu: I don't know. Love should feel good. You and mom are the only ones I love. But this hurts. Sometimes I can't even think straight.
- Bayek: That sounds like love. It could be. I was once like that. I'm very sorry son. The scorpion goddess, Serqet. She protected Iset and Horus from jealous Set. She still protects against poisonous animals. But not love. Against that there is no protection, not even the gods can.
Tawaret
- Khemu: Papo (Father), do you think I'll have many children?
- Bayek: I hope you give your mother and I many grandchildren.
- Khemu: I'll have to find a wife, then.
- Bayek: You're young, my son. There's no reason to rush.
- Khemu: I won't rush. But what if I already know.
- Bayek: You need to learn how to be a Medjay first. Oh, Taweret, the hippopotamus who walks. Lady of the Birth House, she is the goddess of fertility and childbirth. Mistress of the Horizon, she brings with her the yearly flood of Ar.
The Ankh
- Bayek: These stars are all we share now, Khemu. The Ankh gives me a view of your world, my son. It is carried along the Nile and through the waters of the sea of reeds, beyond the mouth of the gorges and forever. The Ankh is carried by Sheshat, goddess of writing. The great wife and daughter to Thoth, she reminds us that if we do not record that what was, it does not exist. The mistress of the House of Books holds you to the sky and oversees the most important of scrolls. I keep the Ankh of Ra, Horus and the sky, it reminds me we are always one, Khemu. Sheshat has stretched the cord and helped lay the great foundations of our Ankh. The symbol is buried with the skulls of falcons onto our rooftops and embedded in rock upon my heart.
Sobek
- Bayek: These stars are all we share now, my Khemu. But it is enough. Before us is the God who dared feast on Osiris, lover of thieves, cold and ruthless. Great Sobek, protector of the Nile, of Ra, of Horus, all the great gods confront you. I serve you yet I do not trust you. Anything is moral in your reign, for truth is something you ignore. Having eaten babies, sacrificed all for chaos and madness, you mate with the waves of the Nile and reign over all gods. And I will slay you if I must.
Bayek returned to the Amun stone circle in Siwa. He placed the shards taken from each stone circle, remembering what Khemu had said.
- Khemu: I'm going to find every stone circle. The Sphinx and the pyramids, too. And I'll find my place.
Bayek knelt at the map of rocks Khemu had made, and placed the shards on each stone circle's location on it.
- Bayek: My son. Your name, Khemu, means Egypt. Like Egypt, you have forever changed. The stars are yours now, and your place is with them.
Outcome[]
Bayek discovered every stone circle in Egypt and aligned them with the constellation in the sky, fulfilling his promise to his son.
Behind the scenes[]
The constellation diagrams used are not the traditional ones, but rather the diagrams created by German illustrator Hans Augusto Rey. These constellations align with the Greek or Babylonian zodiac rather than the Egyptian decans.