dirtyvegasrp
Name: He doesn't often use his human name (Gupta Muhammad Hassan), mostly because it often changes depending on his people. Instead, he prefers مَصْر [ Maṣr ] or Egypt.
Fandom: Axis Powers Hetalia.
History: [ most of this is.. headcanon based on the region's history. ]
Fact of the matter is, Egypt is a pretty minor character as far as Hetalia goes. It's generally assumed that he's probably Rome's son and Greece's half-brother, but frankly, I don't think so. I think his history goes back a little further than that. To start out, his mother is the original Kemet, who came into being when the first tribal peoples began to settle along the Nile-- around 6000 BC.
On the other hand, as a nation, by 3200 BC Egypt had developed into two separate but very intertwined entities-- Upper and Lower Egypt. The boy was born around this time, becoming the Upper Egypt (or Ta Shemau) to his mother's Lower Egypt (or Ta Mehu), and continued to represent Upper Egypt long after the lands were united. There were many times in Egyptian history in which the southern and northern lands were divided, so the boy was never truly unneeded. Still, his mother was the 'true' Egypt, as well, so few outside the nation's elite even knew of his existence.
When Rome came, and Kemet fell in love with him, she made him a sort of father to her son (despite the difference in age). It was clear, however, that there were few ties between them, and even fewer after Kemet died. Rome favoured the young Greece, his own child, and it was all too apparent. Egypt hated Rome, though he belonged to the Empire for hundreds of years, until the Persians came, and at last the Arabs.
The Arabs invaded in 639 AD, establishing a new Caliphate and urging the growth of Islam. This period was marked with trouble, but he was rather fond of Saladin. .. In 1517, Egypt was taken by the Ottoman Empire, and though the Empire treated conquered states well, Egypt was a particularly difficult nation to rule, especially after the French invasion. Eventually, he was taken by the United Kingdom, and won his independence again at last in 1922.
.. And the rest, as they say, is a Wiki article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Egypt), because frankly, there's a whole lot of history. :\
Age: .. Oh. Oh God. Uhh.. We don't know. It hasn't really said, yet, but I play him as having been born around the time Egypt was called Upper and Lower Egypt. So he's over 5000 years old, and looks to be in his mid- to late-teens.
Canon Point: Aha. He'll be coming from 2010. So modern-day Egypt.
Personality: Well, the first thing people notice about Egypt is that he's ridiculously quiet and apparently very, very serious. In fact, he speaks so rarely that most people don't even realise that he can, and it tends to take people by surprise when he does. It's not that he's shy, and it's not that he doesn't know what to say-- he's just lived so long that he doesn't really find speech all that necessary anymore. Words don't mean a lot unless there's something to back them up, and he takes that entirely to heart. For the most part, he's content to let the younger nations squabble it all out, and he keeps to himself and his people.
Most of his people are Muslim, now, so he's adapted to understand the religion and all its rules and quirks-- he even changed his human name a long time ago to make his leaders more comfortable with him. He doesn't practice it, though, still largely faithful to his roots in the beliefs of the pharaohs.
A fierce warrior from a nation of warriors, he much prefers to be on the front line with his people, and that has been true since he was still very young. He has been invaded, conquered, bombed, burned, and most recently, endured the rise of modern terrorism and the fear and hate it has spread. No matter what, though, he's always managed to recover, and become stronger and more resilient than ever. Because of his youthful appearance and seemingly-passive personality, most nations don't understand how deadly he actually is-- and really, that's how he prefers it. He's very focused on his loved ones and his people, and while he's very willing to fight as hard as he must for them, he much prefers peace. --For the most part, he gets along with the other nations in the region fairly well, and seems especially fond of Turkey and Greece, since he's known them for so long.
Despite his silence and his rather serious demeanor, Egypt apparently does have a sense of humour, and it reveals itself in unexpected, sometimes bizarre ways. He occasionally brings wares from home and tries at random to sell them to people-- most would swear just to see their reactions. He also pretends not to understand the European nations-- again, apparently just to frustrate them and see their reactions.
Because of his age and quiet mannerisms, as well as his tendency to remain uninvolved with the others, he's considered quite exotic and mysterious, and though the opinion seems to amuse him, it's nothing he attempts to correct. He's happy enough letting people think what they will.
Powers/Abilities: According to his canon, he's apparently pretty good with magic, but he rarely (if ever) uses it, especially since his people are largely Muslim, now. Being a nation, he's more or less immortal, and being from the Middle East (and so old), he's been through a great deal over the centuries, so he's pretty tough.
Prose Sample: President Mubarak wanted him to live closer to Cairo---and in all honesty, when he was actually needed, he didn't mind it. When he wasn't, though, he liked being away from the hustle and noise of the city that his capital had become. Oh, he loved his children, and he loved to see the progress that had been made and was still being made.. but the truth was that Egypt, as a person, was a very old man, and liked his old-fashioned ways. He was so old, in fact, that there was no nation left on Earth that remembered his origins. China came closest-- they were close in age, but back then, they'd not known one another the way they did now. Back then, the distance between them would have seemed impossibly great. Now, it was a few hours to fly between, or a phone call away.
He hated phones.
Egypt owned a satellite phone only with great reluctance. His president had handed it to him one day a few years ago. He worried, he'd said, because his nation lived so far away, in a small village. What if something happened? What if he was needed? So the ancient being had accepted the phone with thanks, because nothing ever came of worrying his rulers (even though he certainly hadn't had phones twenty or thirty or forty years ago), and kept it in his bedroom, now. He could count the number of times he used it in a month on a single hand. No one but his leadership had the number-- even his loved ones didn't have it. They found other ways to contact him, or went through his president. Greece and Turkey, at least, knew where he lived when in Cairo, and he tried to be there when one of them wanted to visit. For the most part, though, they'd known one another for so long that they didn't need the constant contact that younger nations seemed to need between themselves. --They knew their places in the world.
Egypt's place (as a person, as Hassan) was his village. Was a hundred, a thousand other similar villages. Was the Nile and the flood-planes. Was the farmers and the hunters, husbands, wives, children. He played football with the kids in the streets, seeing his future in each bright, laughing little face. He worked the fields alongside the men and women who had kept him alive and strong for generations.
"Hassan!"
The deceptively young man glanced up at hearing his human name, shading golden eyes with a slender hand. The other rose in a short wave, affection filling his features as he spotted the children who'd come to see him. Judging from the lack of a ball in the lead boy's arms, they'd probably come to ask him for a story. --He always had excellent ones, of course, because he'd lived so long. Mostly the kids just thought he had an impressive imagination. After all, he didn't look much older than a teenager.
"Come sit down," he greeted, soft monotone fond, shifting in his position and patting the space beside him as they crowded around and jostled for the best seat. "You'll have to tell me where I left off."