Set

Chaotic, volatile, and an incorrigible trickster—all these and more have been used to describe Set, the goddess of deserts, storms, and trickery. The younger sister of Osiris, patron of the earth's abundance, Set was as fickle as her brother was stoic. Among their many conflicts, one would change the face of the pantheon forever. The red soil of Urzyma was barren and dry, in contrast with the fertile black soil upon which the first humans built their civilizations. Osiris and his wife Aesys watched over them, cementing their status as symbols of nature, and left the scorching desert sands to Set. Unhappy with this arrangement, Set confronted Osiris, but his cold remark about her inability to govern the land she was given cut deep into her pride. In a fit of envious rage, Set mangled Osiris with her threads of darkness, leaving his body strewn along the riverbanks. It was said that on that day, her Sha—her totemic animal—howled the first storm into existence. Though Osiris would subsequently be reborn as the Lord of the netherworld Duat thanks to his wife's devotion, Set did not show up for his ceremony, and over the years slowly withdrew her attendance from their court. Shunned by her divine brethren, Set chose to slink through the lands of her undying brother instead, garnering widespread yet clandestine worship from those who skulk in the darkness as she does. As the patron of rogues, thieves, and assassins, worship of Set is generally frowned upon, but scribes—especially those of Thoth—advise their kings to be tolerant of her cult according to an ancient adage: there can be no Light without Darkness.