Character Stories - Khamsa's Folly
Khamsa Anura
Khamsa Anura was a king living during the decline of the Manetho Empire who was extremely ambitious.
Khamsa Anura's power grew, he waged war with a number of neighboring kingdoms in an effort to expand the breadth of his domain. In one such battle, Khamsa slew a priest wielding the Flail of the Desert Kings, a powerful artifact from the rule of the Pharaohs. The dying priest defiantly spat a curse through bloodied lips as Khamsa tore the flail from his rigid, twisted grasp. The priest's spell cursed the flail forever and sealed Khamsa's fate.
Triumphant in his acquisition, Khamsa was oblivious to the evil smile that creased the face of the priest, who died content that his curse on the flail would bring him revenge from beyond the grave. When Khamsa donned the circlet of the adder, the priest's snakelike headpiece, the flail revealed its powers and the curse began its evil course. The priest's vengeance came swiftly. Unaware of the influence of the flail, the maddened king ordered his subjects to build an ornate temple out of the rock of a cliff overlooking his kingdom, where his divinity and power over the gods would be acknowledged in an elaborate benediction.
It is said that Khamsa squandered the riches of an age in constructing the palace, which further incensed the gods, for the spirit of a once great and proud people was drained in the effort. A society that had reached unparalleled levels of knowledge and prosperity, and had pioneered new developments in agriculture, philosophy, and the arts, was reduced to beggary by the avaricious aims of a heretic. Nonetheless, most of Khamsa's subjects followed his commands, whether through legitimate worship or fear for their lives, and the spurned gods plotted reprisals against both the people and their monarch for their sacrilege.
No deity was more wrathful than Set, something of an outcast among the Manetho gods. Known as the Father of Jackals and Brother of Serpents, this fiercely evil being had challenged the authority of the other deities for leadership of the pantheon and had been defeated. Already humiliated by this development, he reacted violently to Khamsa's attempt to usurp his authority, and his reprisals were vicious. As the human king proceeded in his ill-fated enterprise, Set methodically developed plans for a series of catastrophes to punish the king. Set chose as the vessel for his retribution Estrias the Creator.
