Prologue
In the beginning, there existed only Chaos. Chaos reigned unchallenged, reveling in the purity of his existence. As his confidence grew because of the lack of a rival force, he slowly let his guard down so that he could fully immerse himself in the pleasure of his self-created bliss.
While his energy was not concentrated on creating randomness, complex patterns started to form of their own accord on the edges of his existence. Very slowly these patterns became simpler and more organized. Soon after, there existed a force other than Chaos. It was called Order.
Order had a consciousness and an agenda of her own. While Chaos was still unaware, she created Time and Space and in that space, placed giant spheres. Next, to illuminate her spheres, she created the stars and carefully placed them into Space. Then she set the universe into motion.
Unsatisfied with only objects as creations, Order chose one of her precious spheres, the one which she called Earth, and created life. She started off by creating simple vegetation, then more complex plants, then simple animals, more complex animals, and finally man, the most complex of all, on whom she bestowed the gift of free will. Then, to spread her teachings of peace and justice, she created special super-beings she called gods and gave them power enough to govern the earth.
Finally satisfied, Order left Earth to instill life into her other spheres. But Chaos had become aware of her existence and was furious. Determined to destroy her so that he could once again reign unchallenged, Chaos started attacking Order by ruining Earth from the inside out. He first divided the human race, herding them into different areas of the earth by creating towering mountains and vast oceans. Next he divided the gods into different pantheons that corresponded with the different groups of people. He continued dividing mankind by giving each group a different language and different customs so that they would grow to hate each other through misunderstanding and begin to fight amongst themselves. Still unsatisfied with the state of the earth, he created the illnesses of suspicion and doubt, which spread through mankind like wildfire through dead forests. But he still wasn't happy. He then gave mankind the two most devastating flaws he could think of; thirst for power and hunger for knowledge.
While he was resting to contemplate his work, Order, sensing that her creation was in perilous danger, returned to find the earth in a sorry state. The humans had questioned her teachings, created their own methods for discovering truth, and now sought the power of their gods. Furthermore, their knowledge of the divine was growing to dangerous levels. Fearful of man's growing intelligence, each pantheon had distanced itself from its people, hoping to remain safely beyond human reach.
Order was furious. She wanted to put mankind back in its place, but could not undo what Chaos had done. Therefore, she created the one great equalizer which would restore balance and order to the earth; Death. Order realized that with only a limited time on earth, man would not be able to obtain enough power to rival the gods.
Chaos saw that Order was again reorganizing the earth and attacked her directly. But Order had been prepared and, by this time, was equally as powerful as Chaos. Battle ensued between the opposite forces, but neither could gain the upper hand. The struggle was deadlocked and Earth was left to its own devices…
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One of the pantheons created by Chaos was that of ancient Egypt, and on that pantheon was the great enchantress named Isis. As the goddess of magic, Isis gave magical powers to those humans she deemed worthy. These special humans were given secret knowledge of life and death and became high priests in the Egyptian society. As such, they were required to perform burial ceremonies in which they mummified the deceased and wrote on papyrus scrolls the passwords and spells that each spirit would need in the journey to the afterlife. These scrolls were placed with the mummy inside its tomb.
But non-magical people became suspicious of the high priests, who claimed to have magical powers but refused to demonstrate them, saying instead that they were bound by an oath to Isis in which they swore to never openly reveal their sacred powers to those who were not equally blessed. Many non-magic people began to doubt that such powers existed at all and started impersonating the high priests by writing fake scrolls that were much longer and more elaborate. They sold these scrolls, claiming that they were of better quality. The Egyptian public, who constantly strove for a better position in the afterlife, jumped at the chance to buy these scrolls. More and more people began to impersonate the high priests and more and more scrolls were faked and sold. To the non-magical people, the fake and the real scrolls were indistinguishable.
Thousands of years in the future these scrolls would be known collectively as the Book of the Dead. But there existed another set of scrolls that was known as the Book of the Dead long before tomb raiders and anthropologists would discover the significance of the rolled parchments they had found buried with Egyptian mummies. But there were only a precious few who knew of its existence…