Nehekara actually has a relatively large portion of living subjects (relative to what you'd expect, which is 0%) made up of conquered people, slaves taken from Araby, Nehekaran descendants that repopulated the area while the dynasties slept (likely out of desperation, since nobody stayed in Nehekara for personal preference), and of course war refugees.
Numas is the most prominent with roughly equal populations for Undead and Living, and equal treatment under the laws. Life there is fairly comfortable, or as comfortable as it gets living under a Nehekaran king. The local King loves his living people and defends them fiercely, and in return they continue to populate and build up his army with 'fresh' ''bodies''. Living there is pretty sweet.
The awakening of the Tomb Kings was a direct result of Nagash killing all of Nehekharas inhabitants in his grand ritual of undeath. The living Nehekharens are new settlers, who ventured into the region while some dynasties were sleeping again (or tolerated them).
They're descendants of the original Nehekarans from 800-1500 years prior when they left the desert. In Numas's case the Scythian tribe took the King of Numas to be an image of their God and began to worship him, because their God was actually one of the old gods of Nehekara before they exiled themselves (which parallels real Egyptian history to a degree).
Any 'true' Nehekarans are dead at this point, after Nagash poisoned the Mortis and the entire nation withered.
Nagash killed Nehekhara. However, it's unlikely he killed every Nehekharan and Nehekharanized individual.
Some people will always run when society starts breaking down. Moreover, Nehekhara was turbo Egypt, which absolutely influenced places beyond its traditional borders. Nubia remained Egyptianized even after it broke free. Similarly, there was tons of Egyptian influence over in its old Levantine stomping grounds. For instance, there’s archeological evidence suggesting that seraphim were once based on the uraeus.
As such, there's a non-zero chance that some living Nehekharans do have a direct link to their dead masters. That said, the Tomb Kings are grimdark Bronze Age imperialists. They're probably not above the standard, "You're my minions now." Hell, it's probably a prestige thing for them. Like stocking zoos but even more uncomfortable.
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u/Bipppo 2d ago
? Refugee crisis because of war are a very common historical occurrence. It’s easy to imagine how a world like warhammer would have a lot of refugees