Sebek

Sebek, the Lord of Crocodiles, the Smiling Death, is one of the outcast Laran of Mulhorand like his sometime ally Set.

 

Mythology

 

History

Sebek receives little mention in the Scrolls of Raurin, he is known as a brutish and cruel warrior with an uncontrollable temper. He took part in the siege of Inupras like the other Laren of the Mulan, but otherwise receives no other mention in history until the Orcgate Wars.

During the Orcgate Wars Sebek was noted as fighting in several large battles against the orcs, but otherwise achieved no distinctions in battle, except for being absent during the Battle of the Gods.

During the Mulhorandi civil war; the War of the Gods, Sebek was easily cowed by the power of the Regalia of the Pharaoh and quickly joined Osiris and Set. Following Osiris’ death, Sebek joined his forces with Set against Horus. For siding against Horus; and for the atrocities he committed during the War of the Gods, Sebek was exiled from the Empire of Muhorand.

The Empire of Mulhorand included little more than the Asanabis and the Menesankh in the first years following Horus-Re’s victory over Set. Sebek brooded over his mistakes in his domain; the Sekkar, and waited for Horus-Re’s vengeance.

It took 6 centuries for a Legion of Dawn to arrive in Sekkar intent on driving Sebek out of Mulhorand forever. The battle for Sekkar was brutal and bloody, Sebek had not spent the time brooding idly, and had instead transformed the landscape and littered it with traps and ambushes to waylay the army. Of the 729 soldiers that set out for Sekras (the capital of Sekkar), only 230 reached the gates uninjured.

The battle for Sekras was swift, the soldiers crept into the city through the desalination system and took the defenders unawares. Upon reaching Sebek, the Brotherhood of Those Who Smile in the Face of Death as they have come to be known, found that the Laran of Sekkar had changed much.

Sebek had taken to plundering the ruins around Sekkar; especially those near Azulduth which today are home to the sarrukh of Okoth, searching for weapons that would help him against Mulhorand. One of his discoveries was an elixir that transformed him into a part reptilian creature (a prototype for that used to create the Yuan-ti, which was later perfected by Merrshaulk) with a large reptilian head and the ability to transform into a crocodilian creature of immense size. Sebek was able to pass lesser versions of these abilities onto his descendants.

The final battle with the Smiling Death (so called because of his huge reptilian maw that seemed to be constantly smiling, even as he chewed people in half) slew 48 of the surviving 77 soldiers before diving into the waters of the River of Swords and escaping through an ancient portal to lands far to the west.

Navigating the rivers, seas, swamps, and marshes from the Lake of Steam to the Bay of Chessenta, Sebek became the scourge of the wetlands, taking advantage of the flooding of Adanu by establishing a new base in what was soon known as the Adder Swamp. Here he was known as Haaashastaak; after an ancient fey creature who was depicted as an enormous crocodile and which preyed upon the elves of Enyllstaar long ago.

Sebek was always drawn back to his homeland by some strange compulsion. The ruins of Sekras were cleared again in 1183 DR by the Brotherhood of Those Who Smile in the Face of Death. Reports of huge crocodiles amid the ruins are once again coming into Mulhorand from those travelers who pass by the ruins.