新旧仇敌ENEMIES NEW AND OLD埃及众神的敌人出现了,每个都与他们有着不同的仇怨。
混沌之蛇·阿佩普Apep the Chaos-Serpent 潜伏在迷失的灵魂旋风之中,每天十二个小时都想要吞噬太阳的怪物。他是亘古的存在——每晚都攻击拉的太阳船,希望不管是巴斯特还是塞特都不会来帮助拉。但他们每天晚上都出现,太阳也会照常升起,挡住阿佩普的去路。但阿佩普很有耐心,因为总有一天他会赢的。
然后,在很长一段时间里,有些事情出了差错。太阳船没有经过这十二个小时,但太阳却照常升起又落下。阿佩普不能顺利地离开冥界,也不能把他的孩子送到人间。外面有什么东西在牵制着他——某种更新的、更强大的东西。
阿佩普一如既往地耐心。他选择蜷着身子进入睡眠,等待着改变再次发生。大约两千年后,太阳船又一次穿越了十二个小时。
阿佩普大喜若狂,发起了攻击。虽然拉和他的盟友仍然强大到足以阻止阿佩普摧毁它,但他们的领域却没有以前稳定。似乎随着时间的推移,事情已经发生了很大的变化,阿佩普在现实世界中的间谍证实了这一点。众神比以往任何时候都要虚弱,挣扎着重新确立自己的地位。
所以阿佩普选择阻挠他们,开始尽可能多地把他的生物送出冥界。他召集了僵尸大军,幽灵瘟疫,骷髅风暴,以及许多其他可怕的东西。他派他们到地面上与众神和他们的仆人争战。他们的目标不是要打败众神——阿佩普知道这几乎是不可能的——而是要在那些本应服务于众神的人的心中激起恐惧和混乱,让他们害怕那些他们无法解释的事情,而不是欢迎它们。
阿佩普很有耐心。阿佩普总有一天会赢。现在发生的一切只是朝着那个方向迈出的又一步。(译注:阿佩普还有一个名字,阿波菲斯)
劇透 - :
Lurking within the maddened whirlwind of lost souls and monsters that is the Twelve Hours is the creature that would eat the sun. Long has he been there – attacking Ra’s Sun-Boat each night, hoping that neither Bast nor Set will come to save Ra from his fangs. Each night they appeared, and each day the sun rose, thwarting Apep. But Apep was patient, for one day he must win, so he continued.
Then, for the longest time something was wrong. The SunBoat did not come through the Twelve Hours, yet the sun rose and set. Apep could not leave the Underworld triumphant, nor send his spawn out into the world. Something out there was keeping him at bay – something new and more powerful.
Apep was patient, as always. He merely curled up to sleep and waited for something to change once more. Almost two millennia later, the Sun-Boat once again traversed the Twelve Hours.
Overjoyed, Apep attacked, and while Ra and his allies were still powerful enough to keep Apep from wrecking it, there was an uncertainty in their stance. It would seem that things had changed much over the ages, and Apep’s spies in the living world confirmed this. The gods were weaker than ever and struggling to re-assert themselves.
So Apep has stymied them in this, sending as many of his creatures out of the Underworld as he can. He raises armies of zombies, plagues of ghosts, storms of skulls, and numerous other, horrible things. He sends them into the world to do battle with the gods and their servants. The goal is not to defeat the gods – Apep knows this is likely impossible – but to stir fear and chaos into the hearts of those the gods would have serve them, making them afraid of what they cannot explain, instead of welcoming of it.
Apep is patient. Apep will one day win. Everything that happens now is just a step in that direction.
被拒绝的阿顿神Aten the Denied 回归的神并不是他们的神系中第一个在精神上被消灭的神。在第18王朝,“无赖法老”奥克亨那坦宣布帝国为一神论国家,太阳神阿顿是唯一的神。在崇拜和赞美的推动下,大自然的力量都被赋予给一个真名上,并被赋予了知觉,获得了对所有事物的统治权。
其他的神都被新政权推翻了。他们以自己的忠诚换取阿顿的援助,但阿顿却冷漠无情地把他们打发走了。但当奥克亨那坦的统治在耻辱和耻辱中结束,阿顿崇拜的一切痕迹都被抹去时,其他的神对他的冷漠做出了报复。
由于缺乏灵气,阿顿无力阻止他们将他的真名变回回原本的样子。尽管如此,他们还是对他造成了一定的伤害:从此之后在太阳圆盘中总有一小片意识在尖叫,他被困在一种混沌的自然力量中,无法被听到。
当其他的神倒下,他们自己被遗忘时,他们无意中加入了阿顿的行列。当图坦卡蒙的坟墓被发现的时候,把他们带回来的力量浪潮也把阿顿带回来了——比其他人晚一点,带回的也不是完整的他。他苏醒过来,“想起”诸神对自己的背叛,发誓要报复那些曾经伤害过他的神。
因为害怕神灵会制服他,摧毁他的灵体,把他送回冥界,他从来没有想过要暴露自己。他模仿了他们的行为,秘密控制了一个互补性产业——霓虹灯用气体——并开始召唤新王国不愿召唤的诸神,那些被奥林匹斯神摧毁得无法为诸神服务的神。他尽自己可能地重塑了他们,并告诉他们那个背叛了他们的神是如何与罗马神合谋的。又告诉他们,在奥林匹斯山陷落之前,其他的神都从奥林匹斯山中获利,这不是真的,但在他所拯救的神看来却是相当可信的。
他给了他的神仆一个复仇的机会,只要他们愿意为此再死一次。他们当然愿意。
从那时起,新王国的众神就被一群不知名的“次等”神及其鬼魂仆人骚扰。他们窥探着更强大的存在的利益,猛攻之后,然后逃跑。那些被抓住的神在被迫开口之前就自焚死去。
在所有的原始神中,只有阿努比斯知道阿顿已经回来了,因为他们共享着死亡的统治权。阿努比斯目前掌握着这一信息,并计划将其作为与其他神灵讨价还价的筹码。但是,如果阿顿选择攻击他,可能会导致满盘皆输。
劇透 - :
The returned gods are not the first of their pantheon to be spiritually annihilated. In the 18th dynasty, the “rogue pharaoh” Akhenaten declared the empire a monotheistic state, proclaiming the sun-disk Aten to be the only god. Powered by worship and praise, the force of nature was given a ren and stirred to sentience, gaining dominion over all.
The other gods were swept aside by the new regime. They offered their fealty in exchange for Aten’s aid, but he dismissed them to their fate, cold and uncaring. But when the reign of Akhenaten ended in ignominy and shame, and all traces of Aten’s worship were obliterated, the other gods repaid him for his coldness.
Starved of sekhem, Aten was powerless to stop them from remolding his ren back to what it should have been. Nonetheless, the damage was done: ever after a tiny sliver of consciousness screamed within the sun-disk, trapped in a mostly mindless force of nature and unable to be heard.
When the other gods fell, themselves forgotten, they unwittingly joined Aten. When Tutankhamen’s tomb was uncovered, the power surge that brought them back brought him back as well – a little later than the others, perhaps not as fully. Reawakened, he “remembered” his betrayal and swore revenge upon those who had wronged him.
However, he had no desire to reveal himself, fearing that the gods might overpower him, destroy his mind, and send him back to the Underworld. Instead, he mirrored their actions, taking secret control of a complementary industry – gas for neon lighting – and began summoning gods the New Kingdom did not desire, those who had been too broken by the Olympians to be of any service. These he remade as best as possible and told them of how one of the gods had conspired with the Romans. He also told them that all other gods had profited by it until the fall of Olympus, which was hardly true, but believable to those he’d rescued.
He offered his divine servants a chance for revenge, so long as they were willing to die once more for it. They were.
Since then, the gods of the New Kingdom have been harried by an unknown group of “lesser” gods and their ghostly servants. They spy on the interests of more powerful beings, strike harshly, and then run away. Those who are caught immolate themselves before they can be forced to talk.
Of all the primal gods, only Anubis knows that Aten has returned, given their shared dominion of death. Anubis is sitting on this information for now, planning to use it as a bargaining chip with the others. If Aten should attack him, though, all bets may be off.
圣殿骑士团The Knights Templar那些身份不明的杀神者,实际上是14世纪被摧毁的基督教武装组织的残余分子。他们还活着,掌握着许多致命的秘密,并且发现了新王国的诸神。
很久以前,圣殿骑士们在所罗门的圣殿里发现了他的秘密,其中包括了昏厥、控制和毁灭超自然生物的方法。他们用这些知识代表教会在欧洲杀死妖怪和神灵,并摧毁十字军东征时在战场上遇到的精灵(djinn)。当他们被命令向当时腐败的梵蒂冈交出秘密时,法国腓力二世(Phillip II)伪造了毁灭教团的场景,然后将其转入了地下。
圣殿骑士团在此之后就一直潜伏在基督教世界的边缘,等待另一场十字军东征或天启,无论哪一个先到来。他们的武器从盾牌和刀剑升级到了凯夫拉和有毒子弹。他们也知道如何躲避神和其他超自然的实体,避免自己的思想被他们控制。
当他们潜入纽约市的一个新异教组织时,他们的探员发现了一个真正的异教神灵,并将其杀死。然后,他们跟随着线索,找到了另一个邪教,并杀死了他们崇拜的神灵,从它的垂死的耳语中知道了在上个世纪发生了什么。从那时起,他们就悄悄地、小心翼翼地监视着这个新王国。他们不知道他们杀死了奥西里斯,但是那次暗杀彻底改变了他们目标的行为模式,直到现在他们才重新调整。
圣殿骑士团是一个相对较小的、以小队为基础(cell-based)的组织,其资金来源于一个大型基督教慈善机构。他们一直在寻找在不完美的世界拥有完美的信仰,热心,贞洁的人。拉拢他们入会后会向他们揭示了有关他们敌人的震撼真相,以及如何让他们远离的方法。幸存者会成为骑士的侍从,被传授剑、猎枪和教团的魔法秘密。幸存下来的侍从们也许有一天会被封为骑士,并拥有自己的侍从。
劇透 - :
The as-yet unidentified god-assassins are, in fact, the remnants of a Christian militant order supposedly destroyed in the 14th century. They are alive and in command of a number of deadly secrets. And they have the gods of the New Kingdom in their sights.
Ages ago, the Templars found the secrets of Solomon inside his temple, including ways that supernatural beings could be confounded, contained, and destroyed. They used this knowledge to slay monsters and gods in Europe on behalf of the Church, and to destroy djinn encountered on the battlefield during the Crusades. When ordered to surrender their secrets to the then-corrupt Vatican, the order faked its destruction at the hands of Phillip II of France and went underground.
Since then the Templars have lurked at Christendom’s fringes, waiting for another Crusade or the Apocalypse, whichever comes first. They have graduated from shields and swords to Kevlar and theo-toxic bullets. They also know how to hide themselves from gods and other supernatural entities, and avoid having their minds controlled by them.
While infiltrating a neo-pagan group in New York City, their agents discovered a bona fide pagan god and dealt with it accordingly. Then they followed clues to another cult and dealt with its deity, learning from its dying whispers what had been happening over the last century. Since then, they have been quietly and carefully stalking the New Kingdom. They have no idea that they killed Osiris, but that assassination drastically changed their targets’ patterns, and it’s taken them until now to readjust.
The Templars are a relatively small, cell-based organization that exists on monies funneled from a large, Christian charity. They look for zealous, chaste men who struggle with having perfect faith in an imperfect world. Initiation reveals the mind-blasting truth about their spiritual enemies, and how to keep them at bay. Survivors become Pages to a Knight, to be taught the sword, the shotgun, and the magical secrets of the order. Pages who survive that may one day be knighted and take a Page of their own.