Scepter of Osiris
The Scepter of Osiris is one of a pair of scepters created by the Egyptian gods and bestowed upon the Pharaohs. When the Egyptians were nothing more than primitive warring tribes, the gods they worshipped fell into chaotic battle as well. Finally, the gods on both sides came to an agreement that balance must be maintained and that their progenitors, the Egyptians, should be unified. As such, they placed the powers of darkness into a stone and the powers of light into another. All but one of the gods, Set, believed this was needed. However, as god of war, his godly powers had grown stronger due to the constant fighting. With the entire pantheon demanding that he relent, he finally acquiesced, albeit angrily and grudgingly.
They gave these scepters to Osiris, a mortal man that has shown his prowess in battle, knowledge, wisdom, and magic. Ra himself descended at this time, in front of thousands, and bestowed the artifacts to Osiris, claiming that he would be first pharaoh of Egypt. The disciplined and selfless Osiris used the scepters to defeat the other tribes and to unite them. He would use the destructive magic of the shadow scepter to annihilate the opposition, and then use the benevolent magic of the bright scepter to resurrect the fallen on both sides, returning to life even his enemies. They felt in awe and obligated to follow him for his kindness.
Egypt unified under their pharaoh, and with such power, Osiris ruled for innumerable years lost to history. However, one god, Set, festered over the unification. He desired for the chaos of war to renew, and one night, he assaulted Osiris. He, himself, a god of war, nearly lost the battle, just barely managing to win. In embarrassed anger, that a mere mortal could almost destroy a god of war, Set slaughtered the pharaoh, cutting him into fourteen pieces. The people of Egypt mourned Osiris and fear of war passed through the country. Isis, Osiris’ wife, went on a quest to return him to life. Other gods intervened, and in the end, his rent soul was restored in full, but he remained in the realms just outside the Physical World. He became a god of the Underworld, and vowed to help the souls of mankind.
Isis returned to the people and told them of this. If an Egyptian died, Osiris would aid their spirits in the afterlife, and he would ensure they went to the dimension in which they belonged based on judgment by Anubis. The people did not war, and Osiris’ eldest son became the new pharaoh. The gods retrieved the pair of scepters, and took them back to the Inner Light. From then on, the Egyptian gods vowed to stay out of mortal affairs. And, for many dynasties and countless centuries, the Pharaonic line continued with the normal trials and tribulations humanity naturally endures or brings upon itself. However, in the first half of the Old Kingdom period (26th century BC), the pharaoh Khufu became arrogant in life. He never wanted to taste death. Nuit watched the man obsess with this fear, and though the gods of the Inner Light did not meddle with mortals, the dark gods of the Outer Darkness would, whenever possible, try to reap souls.
Nuit came to him and offered physical immortality, but Khufu was cunning and wise, and he refused knowing that it would bind him to Nuit, and he wanted to conquer death and remain his own power. However, Khufu had his enemies and the now rejected and angered goddess went to his enemies promising that they would replace the royal family. They accepted and rose as Nightbred, attacking the palace and slaying the guards the very next night. Khufu was saved by priests of Ra who managed to hold the creatures back with Light Magicks until, just before dawn, the vampires fled back into the wilderness to hide from the sun. Khufu went to the Nile and beseeched his namesake, Khnum, for aide. Because Nuit had interfered with the mortals, the god heard his pleas and granted the pharaoh two scepters. One granted life, the Scepter of Isis, and the other granted death, the Scepter of Osiris. The next night, as the Nightbred attacked again, Khufu had a choice. Though these were his enemies, he could again grant them life and remove the undeath or he could enslave them to do his bidding with the power of death. He knew the gods would be watching.
As the gods waited for the mortal to exercise free will, the vampires grew closer. Khufu granted them back their lives. The corruption of Nuit removed from them, the pharaoh ordered them to leave Egypt forever. Ashamed, they acquiesced. Now the cunning Khufu told the gods to let him keep the scepters and he would find Nuit and banish her. Because he had, though falsely, shown compassion to the vampires, the gods granted his request, allowing the mortal to stop the goddess so that none of them would need to return to the Physical World, possibly interfering in the lives of Man. Growing empowered by his deceit of the gods, Khufu went in search of Nuit. As the priests of Ra intoned their magical incantations, Khufu used the power of the Scepter of Osiris and banished her back into the Outer Darkness. Khufu did not return the scepters to the Inner Light. Growing mad with power and still obsessed with defeating death, he grew unhinged and selfish. He had the largest pyramid built and swore that he would live forever, that Anubis and Osiris would never see him, for he would become pharaoh of the Earth itself. Using the scepters as toys for his whim, he wrought pain and destruction based on his temperament at the time. Finally, the people rebelled.
A servant used a sedative in the pharaoh’s drink, and he fell into a deep slumber. They dressed him in his armor and placed him into a sarcophagus that priests cast magic upon. So long as it remained sealed, forever would Khufu sleep. The magic bindings were powerful, and it was thought impossible to open. The people had grown fearful of the artifacts so they sealed these inside as well, with the enchanted Khufu, seeing that as the safest place for such terrible power. No one would dare open it, for to do so, would only mean their demise at the hands of the evil pharaoh. Khufu, forever locked away with the very tools which he had abused, unable to live or die, was eternally unable to call upon the powers of the very scepters which he held in his hands. So utterly close and so impossibly far away. And, so it held true for thousands of years, until Evelyn Addams managed to break the magical seals with her immense powers of shadow.
