Halim Bey
Scholar and resident of London during the Victorian Age.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
As a dealer in antiquities, Halim Bey had an interest in the obscure. When he was a very young child, he had come to believe the tales of Scheherazade were true. Although he never really expected to find the lamp of Aladdin, he found Egypt's artefacts almost as romantic. Perhaps, then, he was in the right frame of mind when he found the Scroll of Nephren-Ka, an Egyptian artefact of mythic significance. He celebrated his achievement by reading it aloud, savouring the rich language of ritual. Intoxicated by the mere thought of the power it promised, he went through the motions of performing the ceremony it described. The results he achieved were sobering.
Halim intoned the sacred words and gesticulated as though an outside force compelled him. At the ritual's conclusion, his skin wept copious amounts of blood. At the moment he collapsed, he finally realised the magic it promised was real. When he awakened, drained and weakened, a silent servitor stood watch over his prone body. The artefact had rewarded him with power over Nephren-Ka, an ancient mummy from a bygone age. Yet the power held a curse: a sacrifice in blood for each year he held the Amenti enthralled. The next morning, he read in the London Times of three men who had been brutally slain within a mile of his home.
A bloody ritual had bound the immortal servant to the will of the ritualist. Other occultists had pursued such power; tracking the artefact through mystic means, they found Halim instead. These madmen, knowing an opportunity when they saw it, abducted the poor fool who had summoned Nephren-Ka. As they transported their prisoner's body down the Thames River, the high priest of their Setite cult quickly and brutally Embraced him.
For three nights, the Setite cultists fled the vengeance of Halim's guardian. Sirian, their high priest, forced their captive into a blood bond as quickly as he could. Halim was kept imprisoned in complete darkness for a week. When he emerged from his oubliette, he still commanded the mummy, but Sirian held power over him. The antiquarian's innocence was gradually replaced by guile, if only to ensure his own survival. The Setite cultists swiftly returned to their temple in Alexandria. Faithfully, the mummy summoned by Halim followed, leaving death in his wake.
Despite the horror of this experience, Halim was astounded to see the wealth of Egyptian lore they had amassed. Their collection of artefacts impressed him even more, especially once he learned that several of them had been created by Assamite Sorcery. At first hesitant, he eventually found the idea of Set's actual existence to be a romantic one. Now that he knew that magic was real, he quickly adapted to the rituals of the cult. In darkness, dreams of great wealth and power took form.
By the early 1880s, foreigners had taken a particular interest in the artefacts Halim knew so well. The activities of a British archaeologist named Petrie began a veritable craze in the new science of Egyptology. When outsiders began to steal the treasures of Egypt, and even the artefacts dedicated to Set, Halim was outraged. He repeatedly summoned Nephren-Ka as the instrument of his vengeance, unintentionally adding to the mystery of Egypt when those same tomb raiders died horribly.
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