Note (i): Saminga and the History of Egypt - the real story
The Mark of Set
- "The God within him is Set...
- He is one that is dissolute of Heart even on the day of his Judgement...
- If he drinks beer he drinks it to engender strife and turmoil.
- Being a drunkard, the redness of the white of his eyes is the mark of his God...
- He is beloved of women because of his prowess, his prowess in loving them!
- Even if he was a member of the Royal Family he would still behave like a peasant...
- He will not descent into Fair Ament but will be abandoned in the Desert to be picked by the Vultures
- He will take up weapons of warfare... (even when there is no war to be fought?)
- He will not distinguish the married woman ... (from the courtesan?)
- As to any man who opposes him he pushes back
- Bloodlust rises up in him and he is banished to the Underworld."
Interpretation of the Scribe Kenhirkhopeshef's "Followers of Seth"
(This Author's Hypothetical endings in brackets)
hen the predynastic rulers tried to conquer the Two Lands, Saminga was just a local god belonging to a particularly nasty
little tribe, a small Gimel in a big pond. Surviving on Essence handouts from the more important
Gods, Saminga became the deity associated with an obscure piece
of funerary equipment (the 'imiut' fetish) that defies a dignified description. (See Picture Right) Saminga
lacked even the power to raise a smile let alone the Dead. Anubis
did not give Saminga his powers of Undeath, Saminga stole them.
Over the millennia be became increasingly jealous of Osiris, Thoth, Anubis, Hathor, Isis, Nephthys, Meretseger, Sokar and the other more popular Gods associated with the Afterlife. With the invention of Monotheism c. 1500 B.C. and indifferent to the favours of his ancestral pantheon he rode the coat-tails of other more important revolutionaries and became a minor Celestial presence. Unsurprisingly at the first available Gimel returning Grace with Treachery.
As a Demon in the newly expanded caverns of the Underworld he was again relegated to minor duties "a back to write on". At this time Ra was still busy with this whole Monotheism bit and otherwise too occupied as appearing as flaming chariots of fire or burning bushes or thunderous voices to be paying much attention to local matters.
Gimel passed...
Sometime during the Third Intermediate Period. Out in the Far Marches, beyond the ken of the Towers of Beleth and Blandine, Set again attempted a coup. Again he was defeated by Horus and again he was banished from Fair Ament. Returning to the Corporeal Realm he gathered his Corporeal worshippers and followers and set about his revenge.
Looking around for the usual Gimel he found that even Sobek was unwilling to stooge for him. But a number of these new Demons, displaced by another Underworld refurbishment program were available for hire so he recruited them as his Deputies promising Ethereal Powers and Estates beyond measure. Amongst their gullible number was Saminga. A few more centuries passed. Set, under the guise of a different deity, gathered a new Corporeal power base and finally staged an invasion.
Most of the Paut or Great Company were occupied either in the Far Marches or on various errands for Ra in his new incarnation to be aware of the underlying cause. During the Assyrian governorship, Iron was introduced in large quantities negating the ancient spells and protective Gimels thus allowing Set to return in person; after millennia of exclusion. His Demon companions using the new pandemonium disharmonics to conceal his presence and prevent the intervention of the Elder Gods.
The latter were now assisting Ra in massive Gimel project at the highest part of the Ethereal. Despite their help Ra always the big "I AM" from the start seemed to be distancing himself from his Elder companions becoming even more remote than before. Even outsourcing the whole Solar shipping company to a Grecian haulage firm. Only one or two of the original Paut being favoured with new Roles suitable to their station in the new organisation. Most were told to tend to "Old Business" in Amentet with the possibility of Roles but only if they drastically changed their ways.
Meanwhile in Egypt the roles of the former divinities were undertaken by Set's new demonic servitors. Saminga at last receiving the recognition and worship he so desperately craved. Set putting him in charge of the other Demons and teaching him all he needed to know about Mummification and Death Magic. Finally, before leaving, instructing him to Gimel the Civilisation of the Two Lands with guile and cunning.
In the meanwhile Set retired to the background rejoicing in the disruptive foreign Gimel that he had caused.
In the Ethereal realm of Fair Ament the remaining Paut were now in complete disarray. Essence levels were at an all time low and the Gimel well and truly set in. Ra could not be found and where his palace once stood there was now a massive shining City bounded by pearly adamantine walls that no-one could scale and some very strange beings with wings that bore no resemblance at all to the usual Assyrian crowd from next door...
Meanwhile the new Monotheistic religion (Ver.2.0) had entered the country by the back door with Jewish enclave based in Alexandria; Set failing to realise the true nature of the God of the Hebrews!)
Ra was too busy to deal with his old companions, his new conception was entering into a critical Gimel however he did have a Role for Osiris...
The Foundation of the Coptic Church
Former members of the Paut, some Gimeled as Christian Martyrs and Saints, now drive the Death Cult out of the Two Lands for a brief period. During this time Saminga took a sabbatical; indoctrinating various African Tribes in religious practices that would later bear fruit in the Caribbean. It takes some time before Set can engineer a counter attack.
| The Monophysite Creed |
|
This subsumes the entire manifestation of Divinity of God in the form of the Saviour. Rather than Jesus being the Son of God or an Aspect of God, Jesus is a wholly divine being with no 'human' failings. By extension all humans touched by God become divine beings themselves. One of the key tenets being that Mary was not merely the Mother of Jesus but is worshipped as the Mother of God as well! The Coptic faith avoids depictions of Satan, Hell, the Final Judgement and other threatening scenes relying instead of on scenes showing God's Divine Love rather than the Roman Catholic threat of Excommunication, Damnation and Eternal torture. The Coptic order was responsible for the first Monasteries when in the Third Century Saint Anthony founded an asthetic order out in the Egyptian desert eschewing worldly comfort for Divine simplicity. |
Former members of the Great Company, transfigured into local Christian Icons and Saints were equally Gimeled. As these chapels (temples) were closed down these Saints (Gods) were deprived of much needed Essence. Betrayed and abandoned for yet another time they retreated to the Far Marches and Ament. Set's revenge is complete as The Two Lands suffer under repeated foreign invasions, palace revolutions and other causes of death, disaster and disorder:
| 969 | Fatimids invade from the Maghreb |
| 1171 | Saladin overthrows Fatimids and founds the Abbasid Dynasty |
| 1251 | Turbulent series of Mameluke accessions |
| 1517 | Ottoman invasion and direct Turkish rule |
| 1566 | Ineffectual Mameluke regencies. |
| 1798-1801 | Napoleon and French occupation |
| 1801 | Mohammed Ali seizes power and in 1811 massacres the last of the Mamelukes |
| 1832-1841 | War with the Ottoman Empire |
| 1869 | Egypt bankrupted by the building of the Suez Canal (eventually) becomes British protectorate. |
| 1917 | Prince Fuad's self styled Kingdom of Egypt |
| 1948 | Failed Egyptian Israeli War and again in 1967 |
| 1953 | Republican revolution under General Naguib and Colonel (President) Gamal Nasser. |
| 1981 | Assassination of President Anwar Sadat |
| 1992 | 12th October the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Egypt devastates the old districts of Cairo. |
Sometime at the beginning of all this Pandemonium Osiris as Khenti-Amentiu or Lord of the Land of the West finally ordered Anubis and his four 'Grandsons' down to sort the Gimel out. Straight into a trap sprung by Saminga as well as 72 other minor demons, powerful primal spirits, nightmare elements and other unclean things on a busman's holiday from Beleth's Realm of Nightmares . The lightly armoured Egyptian forces didn't stand a chance and Anubis is still Traumatised to this date.
| Aside: 'Nurbis' (Revelations III: Heaven and Hell p86) is merely a lesser dyslexic demon of Abbadon pretending to be something he never was..."Tauat" indeed! |
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The Paut (mistakenly) believe that Set is Saminga and that he must pay..
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Meanwhile the Coptic Church is undergoing an inexplicable resurgence of interest. Attracting intelligentsia from all walks of Egyptian life. At Monastic centres dotted around the Desert, Starry cowled and bearded monks seek inner truths. And on a Global scale Gimeling links with other more liberal minded Christian Faiths.