Character Concept Sketch

Jerry the Vampire was a frisky sort, and had the occasional encounter with other supernatural beings (deities)... make that STRANGE encounters. Take the one with Kali, f'r instance... or the one where he tries to get into heaven by sleeping in Jesus' tomb. Jane always had a real flair for unexpected stories.

So, following in her footsteps, we're bringing on some of the Old Gods. Not all of them, but a few favorite ones (and to be Anthropologically Correct, we're using deities from long dead cultures.)

To that end, here's a concept sketch of Set, god of deserts and chaos.

Set's an interesting deity, and one that started out fairly positive, turned ambiguous, and then (after being associated with foreigners during the Hyksos era), identified as a fairly negative being. He's one of the oldest gods in the Egyptian pantheon, which means he had about 3,000 years to develop a lot of history. They didn't have a true "devil" but he certainly ended up as a troublemaker.

Set had red hair and white skin (in spite of the tendency of modern artists to draw him as black on black) and was a god of warriors, desert, storms, thunder, and chaos. In spite of this bad rep, he is also the warrior who stands on the prow of the ship of Ra as it enters the underworld each night and battles the serpent, Apep (along with Bast, or Ra the Tomcat (yes, really) in some versions.) He was the patron of anyone with red hair (hence he's getting appropriated for Jerry the Vampire. Jerry has red hair.) Ramses the Great, who had red hair, had Set as his patron god and named one of his regiments for Set.

Anyway, rough sketch with his outfit based on Ramses' "returning home victorious from the war" scene. The hieroglyphs to the left of Set are one of the official ways of spelling his name. I was feeling too lazy to do the other versions.

-- Mel.