Hex Crawl 23 #99: Lore Dump 2, Set and Mitra

 Four hexes northeast, two southeast of Alakran.

This dual religion dates back to the interregnum between the ages of Copper and Bronze, originating in the land of Lor to the north of the Salt Sea. The resemblances between these gods and two of the Urig Dead Gods are unmistakeable. While it is official Urig dogma to deny a connection, the cult of Mitra acknowledges that their goddess existed and died as Wajet to be reborn, while the cult of Set maintains the secret that their god was known as Sutekh and never truly died. Objective scholars also cannot deny that many of the ideas of Mitraism were picked up by the present-day Western Church of Invictus and Eastern Church of Odaus, with one-to-one copying of certain of the sacred hymns, rites, and writings. The mystique of Set likewise inspires the diabolic cults. Still, the worship of Mitra and Set in Urighem is not necessarily adversarial. While their teachings can be interpreted as conflict between good (Mitra) and evil (Set), the present-day priests of those gods prefer to see the way of Mitra as one of kindness, relenting, and mutual aid, while the way of Set embraces achievement, independence, and toughness.The older tradition provides a convenient common adversary.

The dual cult is dominant as a religion among the vassal kingdoms of Urighem, including Wahattu and Dulsharna, and has a significant following in the city of Tabirri. Priests dedicate themselves to one god or the other. There exist fanatical sects that rigidly dismiss the other of the pair, as well as conciliatory sects who openly cooperate with their counterparts. The aristocracy and bureacracy of Urighem see the newcomer religion as socially gauche, but tolerable within reason.

Human priests of Mitra wear garments dyed or lacquered with the red cochineal, and prefer ornaments of gold and copper. Their clerical domain is Light, and their sacred weapon is the spiked solar mace. Paladins of Mitra are known as Lions. The religion also includes dancing warrior-monks known as Dervishes. Services involve chanting, singing, self-mortification, communal eating of sun-cakes, and the sharing of wisdom.

Mitraism also has absorbed and tolerated the True Sun practice of the lizardfolk of the desert, whose Sun-worship is objectively based in the needs of a cold-blooded species, but is respected as pure and given greater meaning by the humans. True Sun lizardfolk clerics channel, reflect, and store solar energy in objects of mica.

Human priests of Set wear garments with a black dye that fades to purple under the sun, therefore giving the highest status to those who maintain the purest black. They wear ornaments of silver and metallic antimony. Their clerical domain is Trickery, and their sacred weapons are the double-ended sickle and the throwing knife. Services involve inhaling drugged vapours and drinking intoxicating drinks, hypnotic chanting, ecstatic dancing and handling of serpents, and symbolic, unconsummated human sacrifice leading to a feast of bread shaped as human body parts. It is an open secret that the cult includes an order, the Deniers or Deniable, who give up all open observance of the religion to blend in to the population. They are reputed to be spies at best and assassins at worst.

The shape-shifting Serpent People, long ago, were enthusiastic adopters of Setism as an extension of their ancient worship of the Chaos powers Yig and Hydra, known in Urig lore as Apep and Tiamat. Although they have since vanished from the sight of humanity, it is whispered that their bloodline lives in the high ranks of the Setite church.