Creation and History of the Gods

## Creation

In the beginning was an empty void of nothingness. From this void sprang two entities, Chaos and Order. Order took the form of a singular eye and Chaos that of a serpent. The eye opened and perceived for the first time, and created a swirling and beautiful universe filled with planets, stars, galaxies, stretching endlessly to fill the empty space. Chaos was enraged, for it sought disorder in this new plane, and began chasing Order through the vast universe, eventually coming to a standstill at one of these planets. The Eye and the Serpent continued to hurtle endlessly around and around this planet. Forever locked in this chase, Order began perceiving and creating on the planet below. The eye created its vessel first. Naming itself Horakhty, the Eye’s vessel could move freely on Earth even as it was pursued by the Serpent. With this freedom, Horakhty created life, making first plants, then animals, and finally humans, which he created in his own image.

He then formed his first children, Bast and Aser, from the muddy waters of a river bank. Bast took the form of a woman with the head of a cat, but her soul was connected to her father’s, and she took a place at his right hand in the sky, protecting him from the serpent’s onslaught. Aser was assigned with creating the underworld, where mortal souls would be sent to be judged at death, and the maintenance of order in the universe would take place. However, Aser quickly grew lonely in his hidden plane, and created for himself a wife, Aset, and a son, Anubis. Anubis quickly became the hand of judgement and the commander of the Scales of Truth, gaining power in his father’s realm and condemning the souls of mortals to eternal reward or else be eaten by his monstrous companion Ammit.

Horakhty then created Baal, to protect and provide strength for the mortals; Djehuty, the ibis headed god, to preserve the knowledge of the mortal realm; Khnemu, the genderless ram-headed entity, to give life and nurture the people; and Khonsu, the falcon headed god, to illuminate the night sky and protect travelers. Khnemu began creating new mortals, making Elves and Dwarves first, and continuing to create more beings with every passing year. They named the land Abydos, and worshipped their gods who were kind and provided for them.

## Baal's War and The Second Kingdom

However, the Serpent lurked in dark corners, influencing some of these new races. The Elves fell first to its sway, rising up against the Humans in the first war of all time. It did not take long for the power-hungry Baal, drawn by the blood and slaughter, to fall to the influences of chaos, becoming Baal the Red One. After tricking Bast away from her place at Horakhty’s side, the serpent was able to catch up and swallow the Eye, drowning the world in darkness and leaving the Eye’s vessel a weak, mortal man. Aser attempted to stop his brother, but was brutally murdered and dismembered by Baal, with his corpse scattered across the plane. Aset managed to escape with her life, and began searching the world over for her husband’s body in order to give him burial rites.

Baal claimed a role at the head of the gods, beginning a new era of destruction and chaos. Anubis, forced to abandon his post in the underworld by the chaos god, raised an army from those of his priests who had already passed into the beyond. Fusing their sacred masks with their faces and giving them new life, he created fierce zealot warriors who rose up in the mortal plane and overthrew the despotic Elven rule, reimposing the order which Horakhty had given them by divine inspiration.

With the help of Khonsu and Bast, Anubis then turned towards the gods. Together the triad defeated Baal in combat and imprisoned him in Anubis’s realm. Bast returned to her father’s side and decapitated the Serpent, freeing the Eye and ending the reign of terror. Horakhty returned to his throne and created a new plane, the Realm of the 12 Caves, and a cruel and bloodthirsty race of Cavern Fiends to govern it. Aasimar warriors guarded its gates and prevented these fiends from escaping. Here he locked Baal, forcing him to go through horrific torture for all eternity as punishment for his actions.

## The Rise of the New Gods and the Third Kingdom

Horakhty, tired and weary, then took human form and went to Earth to live among his children. He met a human woman, and together they had twin sons. But millennia of existence had made Horakhty hard, and when the sons were born he lavished praise on the stronger of the two, Abraham, neglecting his brother Apa. He raised Abraham to be a leader, giving him anything he could ask for, training him in the ways of the magical arts, and, when the time was right, revealing his godly nature to him. Eventually, he placed Abraham on the throne of Abydos, beginning a new era of prosperity. However, this did not last long. Soon Abraham, leading an army into battle against corrupted Dwarves, was killed. Horakhty, devastated to have lost yet another son, became mad with grief. Taking the corpse of Abraham, he skinned his youngest son in order to create a new flesh shell for his favored child. Apa, still alive, was banished to the Realm of the 12 Caves. Meanwhile, Abraham was resurrected and took a new form as an avenging patchwork creation hell-bent on destroying those who wronged him. He descended into Abydos, bringing plagues, slaughter, and terror everywhere he went. The dwarves were driven underground as they were nearly entirely killed by this raging monster. But Abraham did not discriminate. Anyone who crossed his path was mercilessly slaughtered. Horakhty, recovering from his grief, quickly realized the abomination which he had created. He attempted to smite Abraham, but this merely angered the undead demigod more.

Abraham, lusting for power and blood, and urged on by the Serpent, turned against the old gods. He murdered the Aasimar protecting the Twelve Caves, releasing Baal and his brother Apa from their imprisonment. Baal escaped and disappeared to wreak his own havoc, and Apa returned to his brother’s side, forging a new skin for himself from pure molten metal. They corrupted the souls of four unborn children, who emerged from their mothers’ wombs as monstrosities and crawled their ways into the arms of the brothers. These four represented the new gods, a race of abominations bent on aiding their creators and imprisoning the old gods. Together they waged a long and violent war against Horakhty and his family.

Bast was taken first, and imprisoned in the Twelve Caves, chained in the deepest bowels of the realm to be eternally tortured by the Cavern Fiends. The Serpent devoured the Eye entirely, drowning the world in darkness and blinding Horakhty completely. Without Bast to protect him, he was driven into the darkness of the underworld. The rest of the gods put up a bloody fight, but Anubis’s holy warriors, the Khenra, were all killed, and the gods were weakened without the power of Horakhty and Bast. Slowly but surely, nearly every one of the old gods was imprisoned in the underworld, except for Aset, who hid herself among the mortals as she continued to search for the lost body parts of Aser, and Baal, who escaped his torture a new and insane man. The new gods then created a race of daemons to guard the gates of the underworld and prevent the escape of the old gods using powerful magic. They wiped the records of the old gods, killing their devout worshipers and driving the rest into hiding, beginning a new era in Abydos. The gods have spent centuries locked in their underworld prison, each going insane in their own ways, and each scheming to work towards their eventual escape and return to power.