Malakht

in: Gods & Religions

## Introduction

The first mentions of the god Malakht come from the earliest days of civilization within the lands that would someday become Khemet. He is foremost a guardian of the crossing between the world of the dead and the living, a being that acts as the sorter of the dead and sends them forth to whatever fate awaits them after they leave the land of the living.The common thread in every culture’s keeping of Malakht is that he is a God of Death. Unlike gods with more material concerns such as harvests or otherwise, his realm is almost entirely spiritual and so he is a god only rarely evoked outside of funerary rites or specific circumstances where death is a factor. This is true at least with the common people, but there exist temples and cults not only in Khemet but in other nations where priesthoods and occult circles delve deeply into the worship and teachings of Malakht, that they might somehow master the secrets of death itself.

### Jackal-Headed Man

He is always associated with canine imagery, with the original Khemetian illustrations often depicting him as a jackal-headed man. Other cultures that have adopted the god in one form or another sometimes depict him differently, from making him more wolf or doglike to even reducing him to a fully canine and inhuman figure. Some of these even depict him as having multiple heads so that he may better guard the veil and devour those trying to cross improperly. Overall the worship of Malakht is in decline, with its last true stronghold left where it sprang from in the deserts of Khemet. He is still a god of many names and places however, and whispered prayers to the God of Death continue in many dark corners across the world.

## Temples and Priesthood in Khemet

Within Khemet, the temples of Malakht are declining but still a notable force within the politics and culture of that nation. While not as popular with the common people as Pra or Bast, the priesthood of Malakht retained some power as the presiding ministers over funerals, especially those of the elite. A Pharaoh may go their whole lives paying only the most minimal of service and respect to the God of the Dead, but will nearly always seek favor with the temples of Malakht when they are approaching the end of their lives. This means that the power of the temples in Khemet experiences great highs and great lows, depending on the age and health of the current Pharaohs and the local patronage of other powerful elites. This isn’t to say that they lack their own festivals and rites however, as they conduct many, including some minor rites such as seances and communications with the worlds beyond the veil. The temples themselves take several different forms, from small shrines attended to by a single priest of the Death God to more sprawling complexes akin to the temples kept by other gods. Most impressive though are the pyramid-tombs erected by the greatest and wealthiest of pharaohs. These not only serve to house the tomb of the pharaoh who built them, but also house active temples attended to by the priests of Malakht. Such a gift to the priesthood comes with numerous assurances from them that the pharaoh’s body will be well taken care of, their journey into the next life assured, and their tomb-goods guarded over. The priesthood itself includes both men and women without notable difference in their roles and has a ranked hierarchy of members within Khemet. Theoretically any member has a chance of rising to the highest and most prestigious positions within the temple hierarchy, but in practice it is nearly always the spare sons and daughters of the nobility which fill out the most prestigious positions. These are usually second, third or later children who would otherwise not stand to inherit much from their parents. The core belief of the Khemetian priesthood of Malakht is that he is the god who stands at the gateway between worlds, not only receiving the souls of the dead and sending them forth to their ultimate fates, but also keeping those things that want to cross from the other side at bay. He is a judge, a bureaucrat, but also a powerful guardian when necessary against those threats that come from other planes. He is said to be a staunch enemy of both demons and the fey, and also to strictly oppose other gods sending their agents across the veil in the form of angels. All of these are interferences with his charge of guarding the gateway, and he takes to none of them kindly.

## Beliefs and Rituals in Khemet

### *Dead Prepared*

The priesthood believes that the dead should be properly prepared for their journey through the gateway and into the next life. Much more than a simple burial or cremation, they expect that the body should be prepared with special embalming fluids and blessed bandaging, with certain organs removed and even incense burned nearby in order to best preserve the body. They believe that the better preserved the body, the easier time the soul will have when traveling the spiritual ways that lead to Malakht’s gateway and beyond. Further, they believe that these preserved bodies should be provided with as many earthly goods as possible to be of assistance on this journey, and even to use as gifts for spirits and even Gods encountered on the way. Only the most despicable of people should ever be denied burial at all according to the priests of Malakht as simply leaving a body to rot, throwing it in a ditch, or cremation all make it considerably more difficult for that soul to reach judgment.

### *Festivals*

Festivals do not play as strong a role as they do for some other religions, but what few the temples and priests in Khemet hold are often unique and grand affairs. Most famous is the Day of Spirits, when the priests claim that Malakht allows the spirit world a window to see into the mortal realm. Great kings are honored once more, ancestors and recently deceased relatives both are caught up on the stories of their descendants and families, and offerings are left for left for all of these. In some cases, this can mean that the sarcophagus of a particularly important figure might even be brought out and into the midst of a party that they might experience it all for themselves. Besides these few festivals, funerals themselves often become affairs to some extent especially if someone important has died.

### *Weighing of the Heart*

Part of the funerary process is also the famous weighing of the heart ceremony. The heart is temporarily removed from the chest cavity of particularly important people and weighed upon a set of scales against a bronzed feather. The scales are intended to balance to show that the deceased has lived a virtuous and worthwhile life and will be judged accordingly when they reach Malakht’s gates. If the scales do not balance, the person is said to have led an unbalanced or wicked life and would have to either somehow argue their case before Malakht himself and atone, or else be damned to the terrible fate of having their souls devoured such that they will never reach their intended fate. In most cases the scales balance, though when they do not, it is most often someone who has greatly maligned the priesthood in some way. The priesthood is also known for providing an extremely sought after service both to the common people and the rich alike. They claim to be able to send and receive messages from the afterlife by contacting spirits, though this practice is said to be imprecise. The priests are said to be able to reach through to contact a spirit in the afterlife, which they can then ask questions. Often these questions for the common people ask about the wellbeing of a deceased loved one, though the priests have often fielded much stranger questions at the behest of wealthy patrons. These seances almost invariably involve considerable theater, and sometimes even involve the use of special herbs and incense said to better open the mind to the spirit world.

### *Necromancy and the Priesthood*

One extremely controversial subject even within the priesthood in Khemet is on the use of necromancy. Malakht is strictly opposed to the desecration of the dead, and the defiling of tombs and other resting places of the dead are among the worst crimes imaginable to his priests. This would seem to utterly preclude the use of necromancy by the priesthood, but instead, it remains a topic of considerable disagreement all the way up to the highest levels of the priesthood. All of Malakht’s priests agree that under most circumstances, the use of necromancy is unforgivable. The dead should never be used for mundane tasks or used for the personal ambitions of priests, generals or even pharaohs. When Khemet launches a military campaign, the priesthood of the God of the Dead will likely accompany them to see to the casualties, but they will never be leading undead contingents to bolster the army.

### *Necromancy in Desperation*

However, some priests consider that there are those scenarios where using the power of necromancy is not only necessary, but is in fact the correct and only defensible choice. When a temple itself comes under attack, particularly desperate priests may turn to dark powers to raise specially anointed tomb guardians to its defense. Such specially prepared vessels are often the bodies of former priests or especially renowned warriors who agreed that they could be used beyond death for this purpose. Use of the undead to attack rather than defend is even more controversial still, and is only ever done when a massive offense has been committed against the faith, such as the theft of important relics or possibly punitively after the successful sack of a temple. Not returning the bodies used to their proper resting places afterward would still be considered a terrible sin for the priest, and damn them in the eyes of their peers. Whenever a priest of Malakht does raise these guardians, the ritual is always to be performed with the utmost care. The priests adorn themselves entirely in black clothing and paints, so that they might better serve as a conduit and avatar of Malakht throughout the ceremony. Incense is burned, extensive readings are done from sacred texts and the God himself is asked for both his allowance and his forgiveness. Any interruption or lack of sufficient preparation for such a ritual is seen as a terrible omen and potentially even an insult to Malakht, and priests have been known to either abandon the ritual entirely or to severely punish those responsible for doing so.

## Daily Life of a Priest in Khemet

While the most powerful rituals may be performed infrequently or only in circumstances of dire need, the priesthood of Malahkt has a number of routine rites and duties that need to be attended to every day. The number of these varies by the size of the site they find themselves at, and at some temples, there may be priests who devote themselves almost entirely to a single one of these tasks. In many temples however, a priest must keep a number of important duties themselves as they may lack the novices or peers to split them among.

### *Morning*

From the lowest of novices to the highest and most prestigious of priests in Khemet, every priest of Malakht begins their day with a morning prayer. The standard form is to visit the temple proper and prostrate oneself beneath the god’s idol in humility, and sound a litany in praise to Malakht which can take the form of a whispered prayer, a chant, or even a song depending on local tradition. This prayer is not to ask Malakht for favor or guidance, but rather to give the God himself the continued strength to maintain his duty. This reflects that the priests are not seekers of the God’s benevolence, but rather his willing servants.

### *Priests as Judges*

Another important duty in many villages and local areas that the priests of Malakht often attend to is adjudication. Their God is a god of judgment in the most important matters of all and the priests are often seen as beneficiaries of that wisdom, and are sometimes even well read into legal matters and precedents set down throughout the long centuries of Khemet’s existence. Common people especially submit themselves to the judgment of priests to resolve the disputes of everyday life, with secular authority often being unavailable or out of their reach.

### *Evening*

When evening falls over the locale, the priests of Malakht light candles throughout their temple grounds in honor of the dead often kept there. This is considered most important for the recently dead, that their souls might have a lit path in their journey toward Malakht’s gateway and their judgment. Even those temples which might not house the dead may also keep many candles that their temple might serve as a beacon on that spiritual road, and so it is seen as neglectful to not light them. The day closes for the average priest only well into the evening hours and they often use much of this time in study. Their pursuits might be purely religious or they may also study legal concepts, magic, or even learning the nuances of the temple’s supernatural enemies. A priest may over time develop an expertise in more than one subject, as they have more time and support to pursue knowledge than many in Khemet or elsewhere.

Priests then either fast for the entire morning or can traditionally break that fast with the consumption of dates. The most strict of temples will be sure that only dates are eaten if anything at all, while more liberal high priests may allow baked goods containing dates and honey to be eaten instead. Before the sun reaches its noon point, the priests are expected to conduct their first spreading of incense through the temple grounds with a mixture of special herbs including cedarwood and cinnamon. The result is a heavy but not unpleasant aroma throughout the grounds, strong enough to cover the lingering chemical and musty scents that might otherwise pervade the sacred spaces of a temple also used for the preparation of the dead. The temple grounds are traditionally opened to the people either during or just after the spreading of incense, and priests are expected to receive supplicants. Those people may be seeking many different potential services from the priests, from making funerary arrangements to even asking that the priests use their great talents to check upon their loved ones in the afterlife. These priests also give out blessings said to stave off the influence of the otherworldly and supernatural, whether that be demons, angels, or even creatures such as the fey. Such a blessing usually involves the giving of a painted mark, usually a mere smudge of black paint across the forehead but occasionally a much more grand body painting may be performed if the need is great enough.

## The Death Cults Outside Khemet

While the worship of Malakht has greatly shrunk from the world especially outside the borders of Khemet, there are still some remnant cults throughout the world from the time when his worship was more widespread. In these places he is known by many more names and his practices grow very far indeed from the orthodox ways of the old priesthood. Within these cults, they may have entirely different taboos or rites that differ wildly from the main branch of the god’s worship. Tellingly, many of these cults are kept alive only by oral legacies or are based upon very few books or scrolls and so lack the grandeur and tradition of the true temples. Some examples of these remnant cults are listed below.

### *Nocturnim*

In the lands of the Nocturnim Empire, the worship of the God of the Dead was once widespread but has been almost entirely snuffed out and replaced with the keeping of Solanarium. What remains are only secretive cults in the darkest corners of the empire, under constant hunt by the inquisitors of the dominant faith. This secretiveness and their connection with death makes them a feared bogeyman in the countryside of that empire, and rumors persist that in their desperation they practice rites that would make the orthodox priesthood blanch. They call Malakht simply Malak, perhaps revealing them as having once been close to the Khemet branch.

### *Salvador*

In Salvador, there exist folk cults that may be a small remnant of the presence of the god of death’s worship. They speak and spread tales of what they call the Black Hound, which they see as either an omen of impending death or as a courier of recently dead souls to the afterlife. Traditionally, grave keepers charged with maintaining and guarding cemeteries keep black hounds as pets and sometimes even incorporate the image of these hounds into their personal heraldry.

### *Nords*

Within the icy lands of the far North where the Nords make their home, the god of death is known as Fenris or simply The Wolf. There the cult takes on a severe and fatalistic character, and the wolf itself is seen as both a guardian and a devourer. The wolf is said to escort the souls of the recently slain through the barrier between worlds on either to Valhalla or Hel. The cult in the northlands believes that the Wolf’s hunger need also be satisfied by the deaths of the wicked and those otherwise bound for Hel, and the followers of this northern sect seek to help this along by killing and sometimes even ritualistically eating the hearts of these victims.

### *Kingdom of White Thorns*

In the Kingdom of White Thorns the people have never kept the God of Death with particular fervor, but rumors do persist of a small splinter group that operates in the shadows. While they are not as known or whispered about as the Nocturnim cults for being dangerously inclined to the occult, they have taken it upon themselves as many of those in the kingdom do to perfect a particular craft. For them, this is the art of death itself, and they are said to be some of the most skilled assassins in the world. Instead of paying great attention to burial or funeral rites, every death they put their hands to they strive to be done with perfection. Not only must the killing act itself be a work of art, but even the body must be arranged in such a way that it leaves behind terrible perfection. They whisper a prayer to Grandfather Death after they complete the act, offering up their artwork whether genuinely or not as tribute to a skeletal figure with the head of a canine.

## Others

Many more cults exist throughout the world somehow connected with Malakht. Each of these keep their own traditions and practices separate from the original branch of faith in Khemet, and how far they have deviated from that orthodox form of worship varies greatly. They often incorporate local imagery, such as the most common canids in their own lands. Some of these may be more open or less open to normally taboo practices such as necromancy, and can range from being largely benevolent to truly malevolent forces in their locales.

*Credit for Lore: Rattenkrieg*