House of Books

The House of Books, Sanctuary of House Shaea

History

The origin of the House of Books or Hall of Khesef-hra-khemiu goes back into the mists of antiquity, but the first known sanctuary was at Hermopolis where the Order of Seshat quietly carried out their work under the formal protection of the Temple of Thoth. However even before the end of the Old Kingdom the Order of Seshat had spread across Egypt, establishing important chapters in Thebes and Heliopolis.

Then came the chaos of the First Intermediate Period, not only did central control collapse, but sanctuaries were sacked and travel became very difficult. For decades the Order debated what they should do, weighing the alternatives against each other, but in the end they decided to create a Sanctuary. In modern terms they created a Horizon realm, but they perceived it as bartering with Hapy for a small piece of the Nile to be carried up into the heavens and hidden from mortal eyes. The Sanctuary of the Hall of Books was both a library and a communications hub, allowing the Order of Seshat to freely travel and exchange information. However it was also a sanctuary for the members of the Order and their families, in extreme situations they could evacuate into the Hall of Books and stay there for extended periods of time. For that reason the realm was made large enough to conduct agriculture and support a large temple, also in a concession to their religious worries it included a rocky valley to the west suitable for performing burials.

For centuries to come, indeed for over a millennium, the sanctuary of the Hall of Books served them well, providing a library and fast travel in good times, and a place of shelter in bad. During this time a permanent settlement sprang up inside the sanctuary, made up of descendants of the Seshati as well as servants who had decided to stay rather than leave. Life here was better than elsewhere, food was more plentiful, the inundations less harmful, and the Seshati provided both guidance and practical aid. However the settlement never became large, partly due to secrecy and partly due to a strong sense that the community had achieved the right size.

Unfortunately the stability of Egypt would soon be rudely disturbed by the foreigners. Certainly Egypt had been conquered before by the Hyksos, but they had assimilated very quickly and didn’t really have any ideas to call their own. The Persians however brought Zoroastrianism, at first it seemed like a distraction, but in hindsight this was the first time the Celestial Chorus was able to bring their forces to bear since the days of Akenaten. Still, the Persians mostly left Egyptian religion alone, and respected Egyptian teachings. No, the real horror came from the Greeks...

It is hard to explain why the Greeks were so repellent, but it wasn’t simply their barbarous views on women, nor was it their arrogant assumption that their culture was superior to that of Egypt. No, it went deeper than that, their philosophers tried to tie up everything between heaven and earth and make it fit their preconceived notions. They ridiculed the idea of the Nile being a literal divinity; they created an artificial boundary between the living and the dead, bringing with them their views of a gloomy underworld; and they favoured Hellenism and syncretism over the pure Egyptian truths.

Contrary to popular beliefs the Order of Seshat were not instrumental in creating the library of Alexandria, rather they supported Heliopolis as a centre of learning. They remained deeply ambivalent about the library even when Heliopolis lost all royal support and it became essential to work in Alexandria. Officially they remained aloof, seeking to continue to convey ancient truths to the people and hoping that this too would pass. Unofficially many Seshati, as well as many other Egyptian mages, worked to bring about the end of Ptolemid rule. However not even the rise of Cleopatra, a somewhat loyal ally of the Seshati and Egyptian priesthood, could break the Greek influence.

The Greek and Roman periods were then a time of withdrawal, several families withdrew into the Sanctuary of the Hall of Books, and even the ones that remained found it increasingly difficult to affect the discourse. They were further weakened by the decline of the pure Egyptian religion and the general disillusionment of the people, who saw themselves oppressed and the priesthood co-operating with the oppressors. Despite their influence the Seshati found themselves unable to change the situation in any significant way.

With all of this in mind the rise of Christianity leading up the Edict of Tolerance in 313 didn’t really come as a surprise. Already then their auguries predicted the doom of old Egypt, but the doom predicted was so thorough that many of the Seshati simply couldn’t make themselves believe it. Increasingly forced into isolation by hostile magi and a changing paradigm they began dispersed efforts to rescue what they could of Egyptian knowledge and magic. In this they were aided by priests of various orders, but many of these relics were protected by powerful priestly orders who had no intentions of giving them up.

It was not before Theodosius’ decree in 390 and Hypatia’s death in 415 that these orders finally began to pay attention. Even then the other orders often relied upon the support of the local population, believing that the gods and the land of Egypt would surely expel the usurper. At most they would agree to this being a particularly dark period, like the Hyksos invasion or the Intermediate Periods. Thus they set up caches, many of whom were quietly moved into the Hall of books, much like they had previously established mummy caches to secure them from tomb robbers.

Though initially the Order of Seshat helped them fight this was only to make them hand over the various relics they still possessed. By the mid sixth-century Philae was all that remained, though the Seshati saw that the struggle was hopeless the remaining Egyptian orders insisted on inciting the Blemmye into attacking Byzantium. Though tactically the war went surprisingly well, forcing the Byzantines to tolerate Philae somewhat longer and letting the Blemmye visit, it was still a strategic defeat. This was when the Seshati turned their back on efforts to defeat the Christians by use of force.

Of course the Seshati had not been idle or purely focussing on military matters, they were teachers and they sought to teach. They helped promote Coptic, partially to separate the Egyptians from Greek, but also to preserve the ancient spells. As long as people called upon the names of the gods, even if they were delusional about their powers and nature, then as long the gods would still be active in Egypt and the Order of Seshat could recruit among the people there. They were however only delaying the inevitable and they knew it.

The last straw was the Arab invasion in 692. Already recruitment was almost impossible, from sheer necessity they were forced to throw their net wide; Norse volves, Hindu Tantraists, and those few African tribes not yet converted. As Islam and Christianity spread even those recruitment possibilities dried up, unlike many other occult orders the Seshati were incapable of deceiving new recruits as to their true nature or changing themselves into a pseudo-Christian / Muslim tradition. This however was a very slow process, but by the 1200s it is safe to say that recruitment was effectively non-existent.

Due to the lack of recruitment the order was forced to stimulate the population within their sanctuary. Through contacts among the scholars and what connections they still had they brought in waterwheels and better grains, but most importantly in 934 they brought the art of printing with metal plates. The latter was very controversial, it seemed to attack the very heart of the scribal arts, but at the same time it allowed them to distribute knowledge far more effectively. Indeed it was the latter that made them adopt metal plate printing and even try to use it to spread books outside their sanctuary, though these efforts were largely fruitless. Other ideas and thoughts also made it inside in fits and jerks, but they were altered, egyptianized, to prevent a repeat of the terrible experiences under the Ptolemies. After all they were always willing to learn new things, to expand their minds, to educate, but never to sacrifice what they knew to be true for a momentary advantage.

It was only after exhausting all of these possibilities, after enduring for centuries on local recruits and life-extending magic, that they finally asked to join the Order of Hermes. Even then they were insular, unwilling to let the Order in on all of their secrets, and quite willing to be tucked away in a corner and ignored. So long as they got what they wanted; the ability to poach promising female recruits, to gather books from every continent, and to gain the additional security that came with the Order of Hermes. What few people know is that they were for a while thinking of the Order of Reason, indeed had the Order of Reason been willing to set aside their fanatical monotheism the Seshati might very well have gone there instead. As it were they became the librarians of the Order of Hermes.

From now on the history of the Seshati and the sanctuary mostly follows that of the Order of Hermes in general. The one exception is that the Seshati were the first to truly realise how the Order of Reason was changing reality itself. This resulted in a slow and deliberate change to the paradigm within the House of Books, nothing major, nothing immediately obvious, but always carefully tuned to cause the Order of Reason as much trouble as possible if they should invade. Indeed these quiet efforts became more important later on as the Order of Reason became the Technocracy.

The next significant step forward for the House Shaea began with the dawn of the 19th Century. Though the Order of Reason viewed it as their greatest triumph the increased women’s rights, the romanticising of the pagan past, and the overall restlessness of the age finally allowed House Shaea another opening into western civilization. Much to the chagrin of traditionalists their power grew the most in the former Greek and Christian world, while Egypt itself lingered in darkness.

Of course their arrival on the scene and manipulation of the educational system didn’t go unnoticed. The Order of Reason and later Technocracy have the destruction of the Hall of Books as a priority, maybe not a very high priority but it’s on the list. This of course has forced a greater emphasis on defence and security; or rather many of their old security precautions are now for real. Despite that they have consistently refused to become a war-chantry, dedicating themselves to research and public relations.