Chronicles of Sha'Lazar

Death, the peoples of Sha’lazar believe, is not the end of our struggles. They believe in an afterlife and that the worthy will go on to paradise, but their dead didn’t simply pass over to the other side. If they wanted eternal life, they would have to fight for it.

The souls of the Dead have to battle their way through the twelve chambers of hell, overcoming demons and monsters, crossing over lakes of fire, and finding their way past gates guarded by fire-breathing serpents. The path through the afterlife is violent, brutal, and dangerous. They can be killed in hell, and a death there meant an eternity in oblivion.

If they make it through unscathed, they will meet their judgement day. They will stand trial before the gods, who weigh their hearts against the weight of a feather. The worthy might go on to paradise, or even become a god – but the unworthy will have their hearts cast to the demons, torn to shreds, and devoured.



The Weighing of the Heart from the Book of the Dead of Ani. At left, Ani and his wife Tutu enter the assemblage of gods. At center, Anubis weighs Ani's heart against the feather of Maat. At right, the monster Ammut, who will devour Ani's soul if he is unworthy, awaits the verdict, while the god Thoth prepares to record it. On top, gods are acting as judges.

The peoples of Sha’lazar’s vision of the afterlife is incredibly complex. We see the decaying remains of their fixation on death: the massive pyramid tombs that dwarf the cities and the mummified bodies buried inside. But these are more than just monuments to the vanity of kings – they are gateways that get them ready for the afterlife, where priests prepare their souls for an incredible journey unlike anything they’d experienced in life.


When the body dies, the peoples of Sha’lazar believe, two parts of the soul will split apart. The life essence that makes up a man’s spark and energy will get up and move, free to roam around its tomb and to make its journey up into the afterlife. But the other part of the soul, the part that carries the personality, is left behind, trapped in the lifeless and motionless body that stays on the earth.

The dead’s only hope for eternal life and a reunited soul is to travel through hell and face judgement. If the essence of their soul can make its way down the Nahr al Du'at in Mis’aru, to Du’at, the Underworld, and pass judgement before the gods, their souls will be reunited – but this was no simple journey, and the clock is ticking. If the body crumbles into decay before their essence makes it down the netherworld, the part of the soul trapped inside will die. It will all be for nothing.

The lower river in Mis’aru, Nahr al Du'at, also known as the River of the Underworld, primarily to the strange fact that the river ~ unlike the other great river, or streams known to them ~ flows backwards from its impossible origin in the lower quarter of the desert plains in the southern muḥāfẓa of Dar El Salam, then flows north-by-westward, crossing the lower and upper deserts, ending on the east coast at a flourishing delta to the Great Ocean, midway of the muḥāfẓat (governates) of Qantara and Alamein. The north-by-eastward flow and the flooding off its banks at the warmest time of the year is still an unsolved mystery to the Mis'aruans and other scholars. These facts cause the Mis'aruans, and the Rash’anis, to believe the River is the gateway to the judgement, and the stars, thus reuniting with deceased ancestors.


The peoples of Sha’lazar are mummified to keep their souls alive. Their bodies need to stay preserved or else their chance at eternal life will be lost. And so, Embalmers will pull out their vital organs and their brains, leaving only the heart, the home of the soul, inside. They will drain their liquids until their bodies are completely dry, leaving them in a state that could be preserved for thousands of years.

Even after death, though, the soul trapped inside the body needs to eat. It could still starve – and so a sorcerer will have to call on the gods to open its own mouth. After the body is buried, priests will perform a long and complicated ritual, pulling open the mouth on the statue made in the image of the dead, begging the gods to let them eat, and leaving sacrificed animals at its foot so that the soul can feed.

The mummy of Hunefer is shown supported by the god Anubis (or a priest wearing a jackal mask). Hunefer's wife and daughter mourn and three priests perform rituals including the Opening of the Mouth ritual. The lower scene has a table bearing the various implements needed for the ritual and animals being led to sacrifice.

The rituals give them a fighting chance at eternal life, but this procedure is expensive. The Sovereigns, their consort, nobility, and the wealthy can get a tomb and an embalmer to help them earn their second life, but there is no protection offered to the souls of the poor. Their only option is to carry their dead out into the desert and bury them in a shallow grave in the hopes that the dry air will dehydrate their bodies long enough to reach paradise.


While one part of the soul stays behind in the decaying body, the essence of the soul has to make its journey through the netherworld. But this will not be an easy trip.

Between earth and the netherworld, the peoples of Sha’lazar believe, that at the end of great river Akem, is a path to eternity, that even the gods could not pass. The only person who could pass it was the ferryman of the gods, a creature with eyes on the back of his head. The ferryman, though, will not always help; sometimes, he has to be persuaded; and sometimes, he has to be threatened.

When a Sovereign, their consort, nobility, and the wealthy dies, successful sorcerers, who are paid very well, will spend days casting magic spells to help the soul make it into the netherworld. These will be pleas to the divine – and sometimes threats. An Example is when the Pharaoh Unas died, his sorcerers ordered the ferryman to take him across the river, threatening, “If you fail to ferry Unas, he will leap and sit on the wing of Thoth,” warning him that, if he did no obey, he will face the wrath of a god.



The ferry, though, will take them through Duat, the underworld, a land full of gods, demons, and monsters, many of which are out to kill the soul that tries to pass through. These creatures will prey on the souls of the dead, who has to fight them off with magic and weapons, and so the dead are often buried with spells and amulets to help them stay in the netherworlds.

To make their way through Duat, they will pass through twelve impenetrable gates lined with sharp spears and guarded by snakes who breathe venom and fire. The only way to pass through is to say the names of the guardians. Many sovereigns will be buried with these names, lest they forget.

Some are even buried with a map of hell. It will show a world not unlike Sha’Lazar, but dotted with supernatural wonders. Alongside caverns and deserts, a voyager travelling through Duat is promised to see forests of turquoise trees and lakes of fire.


For all the terrors of Duat, though, the Sovereigns, consorts, nobles, and wealthy find themselves are often the most horrifying things there. During the Old Kingdoms of Mis’aru, many sovereigns would threaten the gods before their deaths, warning them that they are coming into their domain, promising to butcher them and cannibalize their bodies.

Some left messages in their tombs, warning the gods that a sovereign is coming who “feeds on gods.” One promised that three gods were going to tie their brothers down and tear out their entrails so the sovereign could cook them and eat them.

Eating a god will give the sovereigns the strength to make it through the netherworld. They could steal a gods’ divine powers and knowledge by taking a bite out of a minor deity – or, as one sovereign promised, by devouring their heart, smashing their bones and sucking out their marrow.


The Judgment

If souls can make it through the twelve gates, they will arrive at the Kingdom of Osiris, the god of the dead. Here they will have to plead that they had lived good and just; lives by denying having committed a set of 42 sins. Then their hearts will be weighed against the feather of Ma’at, a symbol of goodness, to see if they were truly pure.

The innocent is reunited with the part of the soul left behind in the body. They will be granted eternal life and passage into paradise, where they will live with the gods in a land where the fields grow in an endless abundance.

Even here, though, a soul can meet its end. If the gods rule you were wicked, your heart will be thrown to The Devourer, a creature that was part lion, part hippo, and part crocodile. Then their souls will be cast into a pit of fire and they will be erased into oblivion.


The scribe Hunefer is conducted to the balance by jackal-headed Anubis, who also weighs the heart against the feather of truth. The ibis-headed Thoth records the result. Ammit, which is composed of the deadly crocodile, lion, and hippopotamus, watches. In the next panel, showing the scene after the weighing, a triumphant Hunefer is presented by falcon-headed Horus to the shrine of the green-skinned Osiris accompanied by Isis and Nephthys. 14 gods are shown above as judges.


The journey to paradise, for the people of Sha’Lazar, is no easy path, but it is far easier for a sovereign, consorts, nobility, or the wealthy, than a common man. There is no equality in the afterlife. Even in paradise, a sovereign will become a god, while a servant’s only reward will be to till a slightly higher grade of wheat.

This is actually a step up, though. In the early days of the Old Kingdoms, Priests taught that only the sovereign could enter paradise, while the rest had to stay in Duat forever, struggling to survive; unless they could pay their way and prove they were innocent and good in their life on the earth.

Even for the sovereign, consort, noble, or the wealthy, the path is never easy. Theirs is one of the most terrifying and challenging afterlives a culture can face. It was something a person might spend his whole life preparing to face. And, as the massive pyramids they leave behind make clear, it was a fate the Rash’ani and Mis’aruan truly believe awaits them on the other side.