In the golden age of the Nineteenth Dynasty, Prince Setna Khaemwaset, the fourth son of the great Pharaoh Ramses II, was known throughout the Two Lands not for his prowess in war, but for his insatiable hunger for ancient wisdom. As a High Priest of Ptah in the city of Memphis, Setna spent his days in the archives of the House of Life, translating scrolls that had turned to dust and seeking the secrets of the gods. However, no mundane scroll could satisfy his ambition; he sought the Book of Thoth, the legendary codex written by the hand of the Ibis-headed god himself, which was said to contain two spells: one to enchant the sky, the earth, the abyss, the mountains, and the sea, allowing a man to understand the language of birds and beasts; and a second to behold the sun god Ra appearing in the sky with his Ennead of gods, and the moon rising in its true form.
Setna’s search led him to a wise old man who whispered of a secret hidden within the Memphite Necropolis at Saqqara. The old man spoke of the tomb of Prince Neferkaptah, a royal scribe of a previous era who had successfully retrieved the book but paid a terrible price. Neferkaptah, along with his wife Ahwere and their son Merieb, rested in a hidden sepulcher, and it was there that the glowing Book of Thoth served as their eternal light. Driven by curiosity and a touch of arrogance, Setna, accompanied by his brother Inaros, descended into the vast sands of Saqqara, navigating the labyrinthine mastabas and the shadow of the great Step Pyramid to find the entrance to the forbidden vault.
Upon breaking the seals and entering the burial chamber, Setna found the tomb illuminated not by torches, but by a divine radiance emanating from the scroll resting near Neferkaptah’s head. As he approached, the ka-spirits of the family manifested. Ahwere stood before him, her ghostly form draped in fine linen, and pleaded with Setna to leave the book. She told the tragic tale of how Neferkaptah had stolen the book from the bottom of the Nile at Coptos, fighting off serpents and scorpions, only to have the god Thoth demand justice. Thoth had appealed to Ra, and Ra had decreed that Neferkaptah’s family should never return to Memphis alive. On their return voyage, little Merieb fell into the river and drowned, followed soon by Ahwere. Neferkaptah, unable to bear the grief, eventually succumbed as well. They were buried far apart, yet their spirits had gathered here in the Saqqara tomb to guard the cursed prize.
Setna, however, would not be swayed by stories of ghosts. He demanded the book. Neferkaptah’s spirit, seeing the prince's determination, challenged him to a game of Senet, the game of passing. If Setna won, the book was his; if he lost, he would remain in the tomb forever. They played four high-stakes rounds. Neferkaptah was a master of the board, and with every move, he used his magic to sink Setna into the ground. By the third round, Setna was buried up to his neck in the desert silt of the tomb floor. In a desperate cry, Setna called to his brother Inaros to bring the talismans of Ptah. With the touch of the sacred amulets, Setna broke the spell, seized the Book of Thoth, and fled the necropolis, the light of the scroll burning like a star in his hands as he emerged into the cool night air of Memphis.
But the gods are not easily robbed. As Setna studied the book in the safety of his villa, a strange madness began to take hold. While walking in the gardens of the Temple of Ptah, he encountered a woman of such ethereal beauty that his heart nearly ceased to beat. Her name was Tabubu, the daughter of a priest of Bastet. Overcome by a sudden, unnatural lust, Setna courted her, but Tabubu’s price was high. She lured him to her villa in Bubastis, where she demanded that he sign over all his lands and possessions to her. Setna, blinded by the illusion, agreed. Then, she demanded that he kill his own children so that they might not contest her inheritance. In his trance-like state, Setna watched in horror as his children were seemingly murdered and their bodies cast to the street to be eaten by dogs and cats. Just as he reached out to embrace Tabubu, her beautiful face transformed into a skeletal mask, and the villa dissolved into a void. Setna found himself standing naked and humiliated in the middle of a public road, the illusions of his crimes weighing heavy on his soul.