Netjer (Pantheon)

Possibly the most ancient Pantheon of them all, the Netjer have existed since time immemorial with memories stretching back to the dawn of civilization where they watched other gods rise from the black from infancy to adulthood, governing what once was one of the most fertile and powerful empires in the world. They are seldom worshiped in the modern day, with their kingdom long ago dismantled and their ancient places of worship tenanted by archaeologists and overseen by the servants of the pervasive new faith of Islam, but they are never forgotten; few other pantheons can boast such an enduring and inescapable effect on the consciousness, dreams and perceptions of all the cultures to come after them.

Gods of fertility and of death, and most especially of rebirth, the Netjer may be secretly viewed as relics by some of the younger gods but those who ignore their formidable wisdom and ancient powers in the modern day are foolish indeed.

They are often drawn to water.

Overview
The Netjer, also called the Presedjet, originated in Egypt and are considered to be one of the oldest (if not the wisest) of the pantheons. This tribe of gods claims that its origins go back over 7,000 years to the banks of the Nile River in northeast Africa, and it has endured through cultural, mythic and physical changes in the World's very structure.

As a pantheon, the Netjer concerns itself with upholding Ma'at--justice and harmony expressed through social order. For the Netjer, everyone must know their place and each post must be filled with the right person. In the times before time, the Netjer ruled over the people of Egypt by establishing a social order in which people could live knowing their place in the hierarchy.

Today, the Netjer tend to concern themselves with disruptions in stability caused by the actions of Titan, spirit or even human. Movements of refugees, discontent caused by spiritual poverty and unemployment, revolutionary movements--these come to the Netjer's notice as disturbances in the mythic realms. Other pantheons view the Netjer as hidebound and conservative, but they grant that the Egyptian gods know how to impose long-lasting order wherever they happen to be.

The Netjer's greatest weakness is its commitment to stability and the upholding of ma'at at any cost. The Egyptian gods and their demigods prefer minimally disruptive solutions to problems, trusting in old patterns to maintain the status quo. Other gods find this attitude frustrating, as in times of crisis it can take the Netjer a long time to come to any sort of conclusion.

Like other gods, the Egyptian gods must inhabit a vessel to exist on our plane, though this occurs differently for them compared to most other pantheons. The Netjer are an older, more primeval breed of deity and between Divine Cycles, they remain somewhat active in the Duat. As such, their essences tend to "burn hot". That is, once a mortal vessel Awakens as an Egyptian god, little of the vessel remains, leaving only the god. They have the majority of their divine memories and are more powerful out of the gate than many other gods, though they are always influenced and colored by the personalities of their vessels as many take up the hobbies or interests of the people they inhabit.

As such, the Netjer do not refer to it as "Awakening" as almost all other gods do. Instead, they refer to it as "Possession", which isn't exactly an inaccurate term.

A Netjer's true form is terrible and brilliant to behold; part human, part animal, they are easily twice the size of their vessel and often possess multiple faces, horns, wings or some other inhuman characteristics. While these traits tend to remain subdued, the god can choose to "flare" this form if they wish as a form of intimidation. Humans are fully incapable of seeing these features.

The Netjer strictly adhere to ma'at, which is the will of the Mother expressed through harmony and social order. For 7,000 years, Ra was the personification of Mother's Will and was the sole arbiter of Her word and the judge and speaker of ma'at. Ra's will was always followed, no matter what. Mother represents something different to the various gods in the pantheon; some love Her, some fear Her, others hate Her for imposing ma'at on them. All respect Her and Her word.

Many of the Netjer can be described as emotionless, as they are not "permitted" to have feelings or free will. There are those who have compared the Egyptian gods to marble statues, in the sense that they are cold, loyal and have no choice in the matter. However, certain gods--such as Isis, Sobek, Anubis and Khepri--have shown a desire for independence, loyalty to mortals and conviction in these choices to act out against ma'at. Set and Isis share a deep love for one another. Sobek loves to party, Babi has shown clear signs of anger, pettiness and arrogance. To be more accurate, the Netjer are very much capable of human emotions and flaws of character, rather the majority of them choose not to show or admit to having emotions as they are considered "doorways to doubt", as well as a weakness in general. The Netjer are encouraged not to display emotions for these same reasons.

Due to their age and experiences, the majority of the Netjer look down on humanity and see them as inferior. Humans "turned" on the Netjer thousands of years ago and most still harbor resentment about that to this day, as evidenced by both Babi and Imhotep (among others). Almost all of them show some level of disregard or apathy toward human death. For the most part, the Netjer are less concerned with "protecting humans" as they are maintaining the balance. If killing humans would even the scales, they would slaughter them without hesitation.

Despite millennia of enforced arranged marriage, many of the Netjer do not particularly like one another, though exceptions certainly do exist. Most of the Netjer have had the same spouse for about 6,000 years and they are not permitted to lie with anyone else (mortals tend to be an exception). While there are no true siblings among the gods, just as it is among all pantheons, Ra refers to all of the other Netjer as "brother" and "sister", as they are all "Children of Mother".

Birth of the Pantheon
First there was Mother, who formed the Earth from nothing out of the Primordial Chaos. She put the sky above and carved out the Duat. Then she created the sun, who she called Ra, the first and greatest of the gods.

Ra was a perfect and supremely powerful god who was nearly omnipotent. He spoke to Mother, who passed to him the laws of ma'at and he used the laws to drive spirits away and watch over the primitive humans. Around that same time, six other divine beings awoke along the banks of the Nile--Set, Isis, Shu, Osiris, Thoth and Nut--and they watched Ra with admiration and jealousy.

Before long, Isis used her magic to conjure a snake to bite Ra with a powerful venom. She tricked him into telling her his true name so she could heal him and after she did, she bound him using his true name. To escape, she forced him to share his power with the rest of them. And he did--first to Set, then Isis, then Shu, Osiris, Thoth and finally Nut--and they became powerful gods like him.

The Golden Age & Civil War
Over time, more gods awoke--Anubis, Geb, Sobek, Bes, Ptah, Nephthys, Sekhmet and many, many others. Ancient Egypt became lush and beautiful and its people were happy living under the protection of the Netjer. Isis and Osiris wished to teach the humans but Ra forbade it; ma'at clearly indicated where gods and men stood in the heirarchy.

Ra indicated who should marry whom. All gods were married off to one another, which firmly entrenched the social hierarchy among the gods. But Set was unhappy with the lot he received, for he lusted after Isis. So, he tricked her husband Orisis into lying in a jeweled box and cut him to pieces using cursed blades--Scattering Osiris' essence.

This act sparked a civil war between Set and his followers and Ra and his. Isis did not partake, instead leaving to find a way to save Osiris' essence. Before she left, Thoth made for her a special amulet that allowed her to summon seven divine scorpions as protection.

Ra and Set's armies clashes often and Horus proved himself the mightiest of Ra's warriors. Horus and Set even wounded one another in a battle that created the desert. Several gods died and over time, Set and his followers warped and changed, become twisted reflections of themselves; gods of evil. Set gained a reputation as the darkest, most evil and most feared god among the Netjer.

The war ended when Isis returned, having gained insight from a Greek named Prometheus, and cast a spell that restored Osiris to godhood, but at a cost--he was much changed, very bitter, dour and angry. He was now the god of the Dead. The war ended with that moment, as Osiris enabled Set to be captured and killed (for that cycle). Osiris' relationship with Isis would never be the same.

Apophis
The end began several centuries later, when Apophis, the great Titan serpent, smashed into our world from the chaos of Limbo. Apophis hated the Material world and the gods, and he ate many gods and tries to destroy the world by consuming all of creation. The humans scrambled to the gods, begging for protection and knowledge to defend themselves. Ra relented and the Egyptians were taught how to write, to use magic and forge weapons, about engineering, medicine and agriculture.

The gods, their demigods and magicians waged a long war against Apophis that nearly resulted in the destruction of the Pantheon itself and the destruction of the world. But it was that Set and his dark gods joined the cause and through their combined power, drove Apophis into a prison in the Duat, binding him with Eleven Seals. The seals were recorded in the Book of Thoth, so that Apophish might never again be free.

Decline
In the wake of Apophis' defeat, the Pharaoh's turned on the Netjer and drove them from their lands. The humans rose to power and wrote down a version of history to suit and justify their backward, gross lifestyle. And one of the writers clearly had some issues he needed to work through.

Every cycle from then on has seen fewer Netjer re-awaken each time. Their power and influence lessened considerably and they suffered several defeats at the hands of the Persian and Olympian pantheons.

The Last Cycle
The only cycle we know anything about it the most recent cycle, which lasted from 1901-1923. The Netjer re-awoke in Paris, France and quickly consolidated power. Much of the renewed interest in Egyptian artifacts and history that occurred in Paris during this period is due directly to the Netjer's influence.

At some point during the cycle, Set attempted to blow up the Opera House but was captured and held captive in the jail-cells in the basement of the Netjer's manor house. Only Isis would tend to him. She would feed him and make sure he was alright but she would ignore his talking to her every time. Until one day, after a few months, she didn't.

After millennia of neglect and bitterness by her husband, Isis began to fall in love with Set, who was charming and affectionate but, more than anything, Isis could see something good in him that nobody else seemed to be able to see. After awhile, Isis freed Set from his jail and he escaped. The two began a torrid, passionate affair. After two years, Osiris began to grow suspicious of where his wife was going, so he followed her one day and caught her and Set in the act.

Ra spared punishing Isis directly and instead allowed Osiris to kill Set. When Set died, Ra bound his essence to the Duat, which would force Set to "remain a disembodied spirit as long as I will", which meant that before long, he would just turn into a powerful, crazed ghost or else fade entirely.

The Netjer were involved in WWI like many of the other Pantheons and were responsible for several major victories against the Asgardians. The Olympians were allies during the war. However, their bonds weren't strong enough and most of the pantheon died in the war. Ra in particular was killed in a suicide attack by Odin, Tyr and Thor together. After this, the power of the others faded until they were only mortal and by then none of them lasted very long.

Modern Cycle
The Netjer awoke, like the other pantheons, on the afternoon of April 23, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Unlike other Cycles, the gods were not contacted by Ra to a council, which meant many of the gods disappeared into the city. Shu gathered together as many gods as he could, forming a faction in Ra's absence, claiming he was the new vessel for Mother's Will. Babi became Shu's second in command.

Conviction
Among the gods of the Netjer, belief is all. It is from belief that their most enduring recognition among the people stems and it was the tribute they demanded of their worshipers at the height of their power. The Netjer believe firmly that they know what is right and what is not and that they should never be swayed from their causes; once they have chosen a course of action, it is followed through upon with unyielding conviction.

Harmony
As the gods of the Nile delta, where the endless cycle of flood, recede, and fertility was essential to all life, the Netjer understand the necessity for balance better than most. Disruptions to the natural balance of the World – or any of the other worlds – are abhorrent to them, and their stewardship and care of the cycles and weights of the universe is reflected in their roles as guardians of the natural bodies and formations of their homeland.

Order
The rule of Ma'at law is absolute for the Netjer; they respect authority (when it is legitimate) and those who wield it responsibly, and have no tolerance for law-breakers or those who seek to circumvent the rules created for the good of society. Their pantheon created order, they claim, from the formlessness of the chaos that preceded them, and they do not appreciate those who would flout it.

Piety
At the height of their power, the divinity and wisdom of the Netjer was a foregone conclusion for their people, who believed absolutely in the gods’ presence and powers. The Netjer themselves know that their divine nature is uncontestable, and that whatever they do is done for the good of the pantheon as a whole (and, by extension, usually all the other pantheons as well). Dedication and worship of the gods is never looked down upon among them, and even the mightiest of them spend time in veneration when appropriate.

Abilities
The Netjer possess all of the normal powers possessed by gods. Due to the nature of their physical existence, they tend to be more skilled in the use of their powers and magic at the start of a cycle, as their Divine memories are more complete and fresh in their minds.

Weaknesses
The Netjer possess all of the normal weaknesses of gods, with the following notable features:
 * Bans: Each of the Egyptian gods has a ban that repels them or that they cannot resist, such as Khonsu's inability to decline a bet.
 * Connection to Ra: The Netjer do not have a Sacred Tree like most Pantheons. Instead, their power is tied to Ra himself. If Ra is killed, their power fades and they become mortal again.
 * Sycamore Stakes: Netjer can be neutralized with a stake made of sycamore that has been held over a fire.