Set

Religion in NetHack
priests alignment alignment record altars atheism anger gods sacrifice prayer turn undead

Set is the chaotic god of the Barbarian pantheon. Set's high priest is Thoth Amon, the Barbarian quest nemesis.

Mythology

The origin of Set as a NetHack deity is unclear. Set(h) is the name of a god in ancient Egyptian mythology, but Set is also the name of a major deity in the Conan series by American author Robert E. Howard. The neutral Barbarian god Crom is also from the Conan series, so it would seem that the Hyborian god is meant; however, the NetHack 3.6.0 encyclopedia entry for Set describes the Egyptian god.

In the Conan series, Set, the serpent-god of darkness, is depicted as a seven-headed snake, and is primarily worshipped by wicked cults.

Set is first mentioned in the first Conan short story, The Phoenix on the Sword, published in 1932. He is extensively used in Marvel Comics' Conan series from the 1970s through 1990s as an infernally powerful antagonist.

Encyclopedia entry

The ancient Egyptian god of chaos (Set), the embodiment of
hostility and even of outright evil. He is also a god of war,
deserts, storms, and foreign lands. ... In the Book of the
Dead, Seth is called "Lord of the Northern Sky" and is held
responsible for storms and cloudy weather. ... Seth was
portrayed as a man with the head of undeterminable origin,
although some see in it the head of an aardvark. He had a
curved snout, erect square-tipped ears and a long forked tail.
He was sometimes entirely in animal form with the body similar
to that of a greyhound. Animals sacred to this god were the
dog, the jackal, the gazelle, the donkey, the crocodile, the
hippopotamus, and the pig.

[ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]

History

Prior to NetHack 3.6.0, Set was one of two gods not to have an in-game encyclopedia entry. The other was Mog.

This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.

It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.0. Information on this page may be out of date.

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