Set, the Tumultuous and the Storm, is a sinful god of the Mithric pantheon of the ancient Archontians, god of foreigners and outsiders. His cult is forbidden on the surface of the world; below it he keeps an armed priestly hierarchy.
| Type | Deity |
| Pantheon | Mithric (ancient Archontians) |
| Seat | Forum of Set, Ardenvull |
| Spanish entry | Set |
Signs
Set is known through objects:
- In the temple of Thoth stands a statue of Set whose eyes are gems, rubies in one account, opals in another; they can be pried out and sold.
- A removable Set “banner” flies in the Forum.
- “Symbols of Set’s animals of different kinds”: “that strange sort of donkey with square ears” and another “that also looks somewhat like a hippogriff”.
- Set “lost a hand in his death”, and someone kept that hand hanging.
Cult
His visible seat is the Forum of Set, in the commercial heart of Ardenvull, which his acolytes “occupied as an outpost”. There are the banner, at least one cleric, and guards: four on patrol, joined by another patrol of four, “now there are eight”. Removing the banner is read as a challenge, since Set’s symbols act as titles of possession over a place.
The invocation formula: «Set es el dios de los extranjeros, y nosotros somos los forasteros» (“Set is the god of foreigners, and we are the outsiders”), with its promise, “Set will receive me”. Since the cult is illegal above ground, it exists by infiltration: outposts, surveillance, patrolling guards and hired killers.
The cult runs on two axes:
- Mysteries: an initiatory hierarchy with at least a “Lord of the second mystery”, and acolyte grades up to the “advanced acolyte”.
- Offices: a pontificate (at least a second pontiff), clerics, guards, hired killers.
His clerics are of evil temper; their prayers include sanctuary, the knowing of alignment, blessing and protection against good, and they are warded against poison, so a pontiff can drink a poisoned cup unharmed. The second pontiff of Set is thin, middle-aged and long-nosed.
Punishment and mark
Whoever is not of lawful evil temper, above all whoever opposes Set, loses bodily vigor every week, wasting like a candle. The mark of Set, whose form no one describes, works as “a beacon of Set”: “all of Set’s people will come looking for us”.
Open questions
- Why Set’s statue stands in Thoth’s temple if the cult is forbidden.
- What the mark looks like, where it is borne, and how it is imposed or removed.
- How many mysteries there are.
- Whether the cult animals are creatures, astral symbols, or another animal misheard.
- Who killed Set and when, and how a dead god still punishes his enemies.
- Who forbade the cult, and whom the hired killers serve.