I apologise if I'm mistaken, but from your post, i get the sense that you are lukewarm about the inclusion of avens/nagas/minotaurs in an Egyptian-themed plane. So I'm curious what other races/folk you feel would have been a better fit to join the khenra/humans/zombies in Amonkhet.
No need to apologise, “lukewarm” is in fact an accurate description of my feelings on the aven/naga/minotaurs. Though I must say that the minotaurs are the biggest culprit in this, followed by the naga, for the simple fact that they are races described with terms from different cultures. Aven is a term native to Magic (I believe?), and therefore less of an issue for me.
So I have little trouble with the aven and only in terms of nomenclature with the naga. My issue with the minotaurs, however, is divided in three parts:
Semantics: Minotauros means Bull of Minos. The minotaurs of Amonkhet have ram’s heads, which is an effort to make them fit in I recognise and appreciate, but at the same time also makes it feel all the more off to me.
Cultural: They’re Greek things. Greek. Ew.
Cultural, part 2: Going a bit deeper into Egyptian iconography, by and large the ram was a solar (god) symbol. Having the minotaurs in red and black thus doesn’t do it for me flavour-wise.
Personally, I like the Amonkhetu ammit, but those aren’t depicted (part) anthropomorphically, so I don’t think they count as a self-aware species like humans etc. I would’ve liked to see a race perhaps inspired by the Bennu bird, however difficult it may be to differentiate these from the aven. Though at the same time that is exactly what would have made it so eminently suited for Amonkhet. Not only were there a great many deities depicted with bird’s heads, there are no less than 265 attested bird hieroglyphs. Egypt was drowning in birds, is what I’m saying.
In fact, I would’ve been perfectly content had Amonkhet been populated with different bird-races only. The bird had a great many symbolical hats in ancient Egypt, from the realm of the gods to being an integral part of voice offerings to the bird-catching scenes that represented the containment of chaos/evil.
Bonus fun fact: An ancient Egyptian slur was sparrow-head. Sparrows were so ubiquitous that the Egyptians considered them agents of chaos, and thus a prime contender to base a curse word around.
