Akhu

Orthodox practitioners of Akhu among the Mesu Bedshet are called “lector-priests”, and believe their magical power is drawn from Set himself. Their practices are near-identical to those of ancient Egyptian sorcerers, involving images, effigies, stories, names and words. Their most important tool, however, is the blasphemy-shrine, a ritual chamber in which the lector-priest defiles the bodies and belongings of the dead in an emulation of Set’s blasphemous dismemberment of his murdered brother Osiris. This perversion of traditional Egyptian burial customs unleashes power which fuels the lector-priest’s spells, allowing them to perform sorcery without the expenditure of Vitae. The magic need not be performed at the shrine, but it must be maintained for the magic to work.

The sacred book of Set’s lore, the Book of Going Forth by Night, contains only a few key instructions for performing Akhu. Most importantly, it details how to construct a blasphemy-shrine, and some of the rituals that can be performed on the dead and their grave goods there. It also contains rituals for creating consecrated copies of itself, for brewing sacramental blood beer, and to “open the gate”, or draw directly on the power of the dead to grant energy to the lector-priest, rather than power spells. All other knowledge of Akhu is drawn from the magical lore of Egypt, preserved by the Setites.

The knowledge required to make use of Akhu is vast: not only must a lector-priest understand the Egyptian lore of death, but also know the names of hundreds of gods, seek out the proper knowledge of the ancient Egyptian language, and must honour Set at least once a month in their properly constructed blasphemy-shrine.

Recently, branches of the Clan have tried to adapt Akhu for their own mythologies by drawing on mystic parallels of a primordial confrontation between rival gods within different mythologies. One example of such an adaptation by the Hall of Jörmungandr is the confrontation between Loki (in the role of Set) and Baldur (in role of Osiris); similarly the Children of Judas make extensive use of the Serpent of Eden in their practice of Akhu, considered blasphemous by the rest of their Clan.

Akhu follows the normal rules for Thaumaturgy. At character creation or when they buy the Akhu Merit, a lector-priest may select one Path from the list below that they can learn without a teacher at out-of-Clan costs along with The False Heart. In a similar way, Akhu rituals use all the normal rules for Rituals, and must be chosen from the list below.

Paths of Akhu

Level One Rituals

Level Two Rituals

Level Three Rituals

Level Four Rituals

Level Five Rituals