Rules

Akhu (pp. 163-165), the most widely practiced school of Setite Sorcery, resembles ancient Egyptian religion. The god Set to the ancient Egyptians was, among other things, the God of Storms. A practitioner of Akhu therefore erects a symbolic lightning rod through which she can attract a bolt of Set’s lightning to power her subsequent rites. However, in order to attract Set’s favor, she must make an offering to the Dark God that will please him greatly. The accepted way to achieve this among practitioners of Akhu (known as Lector Priests) is by following the instructions laid down by Set himself in The Book of Going Forth by Night.

A Lector Priest obtains the body of someone who has been buried in accordance with traditional ancient Egyptian practice (which is increasingly difficult in the

modern nights) and desecrates the corpse, thus plunging the deceased’s soul into eternal torment while it resides in Osiris’s dominion of the Western Lands. This serves a multitude of purposes. The soul in eternal torment disrupts the hold of Osiris on his afterlife dominion by showing the power Set commands in his followers. This blow against his ancient enemy pleases Set, and he channels his power to the Lector Priest. This show of Set’s power, furthermore, exposes the lie that is Osiris’s promise of eternal life in the Western Lands a little more; these dead shall not find paradise; they find only an eternity of torment.

The Book of Going Forth by Night is an inversion of The Book of Coming Forth by Day, commonly known as the Book of the Dead. Just as the shackles that bind the unbelievers will be corrupted and ultimately destroyed, revealing to them the truth of Set, the structure of Setite rituals are corruptions (or perversions) of ancient Egyptian practices. These rituals make their targets more susceptible to the corruption and manipulation that is ultimately for their own good.