Set

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Set is a cruel and jealous god who demands constant sacrifice from his subjects. Many of his priests are too willing to comply, as they place naked virgins screaming onto altars to appease Set's bloodlust. In Stygia, the snake is considered holy and killing a snake is a mortal. If a snake slithers into the cities or streets, Set's subjects will lay prostrate before him, hoping to be found worthy of his bite. Set is master of darkness and the beasts that hunt by night, lord of the red desert, and ruler of the sunken cities. The tenets of Set worship are difficult and sheathed in many layers of dogma. Principally, the temples profess that Set is the most potent of gods, advocate of the strong, devourer of the weak, a powerful friend and a terrible enemy, and that it is the fate of mankind to serve. Set’s followers are a dark and scorned lot who (outside of Stygia) work under cover of darkness and keep themselves cloaked in treachery and deceit. Priests of Set, like most Stygian clergy, are clean-shaven and bald-headed. Due to the priesthood's exalted position, it is death for any Stygian commoner to even touch a priest of Set. Set's cult especially favors red-haired people, seeing this color as a sign of the god's favor. "Conan's soul quailed as he stared into the eyes of the demon that for a million years had striven to trample his race back into the mud from which it had slowly and painfully emerged."