I am the god Set, bringer of chaos and destruction. I am Entropy. I am the mightiest of all the gods, for it is only I who strengthens all. Order stagnates by its nature. It freezes the lifeblood and slowly cuts off the energy flow in all things. Without me, everything would be frozen in time because it is only through me that time can march on. Pathetic, perfect monuments would be built, and without me they could never be built upon and made grander.
So it is I who is responsible for making all things possible, for making all things great. Without me, even the great Osiris himself would be weak and useless. I HAD MADE HIM STRONG! I SHOULD ALWAYS RULE OVER HIM! HOW DARE HE PLACE HIMSELF ABOVE ME! HOW DARE HE TAKE THE LOVER, ISIS, WHO SHOULD BE MINE!
But it is I, his brother, who had let him down. He had become too powerful, too entrenched in his position, so I endeavored to unmake him as I would allow the ant to be stepped on by the lowliest slave.
Now Osiris loves parties. He is incapable of refusing any single party, as any soft being is. This is one of his pathetic weaknesses. So I used it to my advantage and held a party for him. Everyone got drunk on wine and beer, making all who attended vulnerable.
It was at this time that I brought out a grand sarcophagus. I must admit I had outdone myself, transforming the base wood into carvings of great beauty. It was my spider web to lure one of these drunken, weak flies. Not just any fly but Osiris himself. You see, the measurements of the sarcophagus exactly fit the weak God.
I pretended to be drunk myself, and in a false moment of revelry, I had a slave bring my sarcophagus. I was planning on possessing it for myself, I declared, but it was too small for me. Therefore, I would give it to the one who fit it. In their drunken stupor, no one knew what I was planning.
One by one, the gods at the party, stumbling, spilling wine from the cups they held, placed themselves in the coffin. The first one who wasn’t too tall to fit inside made a death-sound, and everyone roared in laughter. From then on, they all did, even the ones who didn’t fit. I must admit, the whole thing was rather funny, even to me.
It wasn’t long, however, before Osiris, King of the Gods, muscled his way through to the death-chamber. Immediately after placing himself inside, the coffin shut itself and locked, as I had triggered it to do. Everyone roared with laughter. I made a show of trying the lock but to no avail, and sent it off with the slave. I lied that I was sending him to the locksmith, laughing and pretending to be drunk. Everyone thought it was funny, the event of the party.
Instead, 72 of my most loyal slaves had it sealed in lead and thrown into the Nile. Osiris drowned until dead. Imagine, the self-proclaimed King of the Gods dead by simple drowning. Again, pathetic.
Now I took my rightful place as King of the Gods, and I took Isis, our sister, for my wife. Alas, all of the gods bowed before me, seeing the throne as justly mine.
All, that is, except for Isis. She defied me and looked for Osiris’ body.
Isis searched the length, breadth and depth of the Nile but to no avail. She then searched the Nile delta, and finally the sea that you now call Mediterranean, but, again, to no avail. Figuring that it may have been stolen, she asked around until she had heard the story of how the coffin had settled on the coast of Byblos, an area that you now call Lebanon. It was embedded in the trunk of a cedar tree that was subsequently used as a pillar to support a palace for the King of that state. Isis, getting permission that she didn’t have to get from the Queen of Byblos, retrieved the coffin from the pillar.
Isis then took Osiris’ body and placed it in the house of the gods in Egypt. She cast a spell and through the spell was impregnated by Osiris, though he was dead. The child was called Horus, and was hid on an island that was hidden even to me.
All of this I would not have known about, but Isis got greedy, and one of her disloyal slaves told me that she and my brother, Thoth, betrayer, had conspired to bring Osiris back to life. Thoth, god of magick, delved into his magick and created the Ritual of Life, which gives everlasting life after death. He put the spell into his Book of Shadows, which is known to you as the lost Book of Thoth. The ritual required that Thoth rebuild Osiris body so that his spirit would recognize it and rejoin him.
I arrived to interrupt the spell just in time. I stole Osiris’ body, and this time I carved it up into 14 pieces, 13 for each of the possible moons for the year, with the final piece being his genitals. I hid all 13 pieces throughout Egypt, and then ate the genitals for good measure. I was sure Osiris could never be resurrected.
But now that Isis and Thoth had defied me, others did, too. They all conspired against me without my knowledge. Nephthys, my sister, quested to find one piece at a time, with Thoth casting a spell on each part, until all the 13 pieces were gathered. From these pieces and my betrayal, Thoth replaced the lunar calendar from the solar calendar. From the 13 pieces, he used 12 pieces of the lunar calendar, which comprised 360 days. The other piece, imbued with 1/72nd of the moon’s light, due to my 72 slaves that killed Osiris. 1/72nd of 360 equals 5, and so 5 days is added to the calendar of 360 days to make 365.
Anubis, god of the underworld, sewed the pieces back together, embalmed him, and then cast Thoth’s Ritual of Life, with gold genitals, molded by Isis, standing in for the genitals that I had eaten.
When I heard of this, I was furious, but I was calmed down when I learned he was still among the dead and could not live. Anubis had stepped aside, and Osiris had become Lord of the Dead.
But even with Osiris out of the picture, I had to deal with Horus, for as Osiris’ son, he has a rightful claim to the throne. But Horus defeated all of the demons that I sent to kill him. The defiant Isis and Thoth, once again, defied me, as they both gave Horus great magick, including a magickal knife, to defeat me.
And that was my undoing. Horus and I fought for many days, but with the magick of my betrayers, he defeated me. And with his magick knife, he cut off my testicles.
But I would not give up my throne, despite Horus’ rightful claim. We fought a glorious civil war among the gods, and though I was not defeated, my allies betrayed me by submitting to arbitration with the council of Neith. They declared Horus King of the Gods, and he cast me out into the darkness.
But the darkness only strengthened me. I can bring the darkness, the chaos and destruction, into daily life. For it is only through strife, when the strong survive, that all can become greater than before. I cannot rule forever, it seems, try as I might. Darkness comes and darkness recedes. When I bring dark times, those times teach us all lessons from which a new strength is reborn. Even I am subject to the lessons of dark times. My defeat at the hands of Horus only served to strengthen my resolve and take my rightful place in the darkness. I am the source of darkness, chaos and destruction. And that is where I belong.
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