Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 3950591" data-attributes="member: 32164">As I pointed out above, I think Zehir is a reimagining of the Egyptian god Apep (or Apoph). Here's a bit from the wiki article on Apep."As the personification of all that was evil, Apep was seen as a giant snake, crocodile, serpent, or in later years, in a few cases, as a dragon, leading to titles such as Serpent from the Nile, and Evil lizard...After the end of the Middle Kingdom, the foreign Hyksos, now rulers over Egypt, chose Set, as their favorite deity, since he had been protector of Ra, and was associated with Lower Egypt, where their power base was. Consequently, because the foreign overlords were hated by nationalistic groups, Set became gradually demonised, and...eventually became thought of as the god of evil, and gradually took on all the characteristics of Apep. Consequently, Apep's identity was eventually entirely subsumed by that of Set...Apep was not so much worshipped, as worshipped against. His defeat each night, in favour of Ra, was thought to be ensured by the prayers of the Egyptian priests and worshipers at temples. The Egyptians practiced a number of rituals and superstitions that were thought to ward off Apep, and aid Ra to continue his journey across the sky."This sets Zehir naturally in opposition to Pelor. Which works for me. He's the personification of Chaos as well as darkness. And interesting, he was purported to have a hypnotic gaze (the "Serpent's Eye?")...I certainly think we've found the source material for ol' Zehir, and maybe the basis for the Serpent's Eye wizard tradition, as well.</blockquote>

Verification