#kherty

May 21, 2026:

Oilslick Primary, Ridgeback, Magpie.

Hor the Elder and Setesh the Elder

Pre-Dynastic deity brothers who fuckin’ hate each other but live together in a Libyan oasis temple anyway, because obviously that’s how you solve your familial problems. Exposure. Or whatever.

In the timeline of Pantheon, their story begins in the pre-dynastic period prior to the unification of Kemet. Hor and Setesh, both royal princes who rule in Nekhen and Naqada respectively, got along fine with each other (aside from general sibling rivalry) until the abrupt death of their father, Andjety, the god of kingship, who drowned in the Nile. His body was not recovered.

Shit hit the fan.

See, there were two problems: first, the brothers encountered their first experience with true death. Not the kind where you go take a visit to the underworld and reunite your ba with your ka, but True Oblivion that comes from dying and leaving behind an unrecoverable body. Without the body preserved, there can be no resurrection.

The second issue? Andjety also didn’t leave a will for his kingdom. Lack of writing systems and all back in those days. So Hor and Setesh, shattered by the loss of their father, both sank into their grief, and both felt obligated to step into their father’s sandals and become the new king.

This resulted in constant warfare between the two Upper Egyptian city-states as their patron gods struggled to handle their loss. In the process, they crushed the kingdom of Abdju between them, sending its gods—Khenti-Amentiu, Anpu, Wepwawet, and Wepiu—fleeing north, where they allied with the Delta gods: Ptah, Sokar, Kherty, and Neith.

Hor and Setesh set aside their differences and united against the common threat. The two, reconciled, steamrolled the Delta resistance. Khenti-Amentiu and sons fled to the underworld through Saqqara, displacing Sokar and Kherty’s family in an attempt to avoid getting killed by the enraged brothers.

But after their victory, Hor turned against Setesh and banished him to a Libyan oasis. He wanted to be the one and only king, and even the mortal kings loved and took on his name. Sure, Peribsen tried recalling Setesh, but Hor chased him away again.

Which worked great, until a new threat arrived. He called himself Ra, and Hor was no match for him. He begged Setesh to help. Setesh told him to go fuck himself. Ra took over the lands by the 3rd Dynasty and banished Hor to Libya as well, laying the foundation for his ironclad rule.

The age of the sun had arrived.

1. Kherty, an ancient Egyptian earth god, described as both guarding the pharaoh’s tomb and attacking his spirit in the underworld.

2. Valac, the sixty-second demon of the Ars Goetia

They were the original ferryman of the Mesektet, working under Aken, but suddenly vanished under mysterious circumstances. What transpired that day is unknown to even themself. As far as anyone can tell, they just rematerialized in Duat one day to snatch a few of the deceased off the Mesektet barque during their journey. Theories range from them being corrupted by Apep's demons, getting lost and irreversibly warped by the Duat, murdered by another god, and beyond. Kherty does not care one way or the other.

Their appearance is likewise enigmatic, quite literally shrouded by shadow. What can be discerned is they have a snout and horns like a ram, webbed claws, and a fish-like tail. It's unknown whether they're capable of shape-shifting or not.

As aforementioned, Kherty poses a very real danger to the souls trying to make it to the afterlife. However, unlike many of the other obstacles, they're wholly unpredictable and seem to operate under ethics known only to them. They themself profess that they exist to "cull out" the "impurity" within Duat- though they've never elaborated on exactly what this means. All that is certain is they take it upon themself to abduct any of the deceased they deem "impure" before they can even be judged in the Hall of Two Truths. What they do to the souls they take is yet another thing shrouded in mystery, though it's widely accepted it is a similar if not worse fate than having one's heart fed to Ammit.

On the flip side, they have also been known to protect and defend souls as they see fit. More than once, someone that was captured by the net-throwers or dragged off by a demon is later found waiting on the shore when the Mesektet arrives to dock at the Hall. They can never accurately describe what transpired, only that a beast somewhere between a ram and fish rescued them. 

They seem to hold no hostility towards Ra, Aken, their replacement, or any of the gods aboard the Mesektet. However, they also evidently have no reverence for even Ra themself, forcing the deities to fight them whenever they lunge out from the depths.

Kherty seems to make their home in the central river of Duat, though they have appeared in the various channels and deltas, and even in the lake of fire.