The story (and the world, for that matter) begins with Nu, described as a "waste of water" and the "Great Father". Nu gave birth to Ra, the sun god, who birthed Shu and Tefnut, the wind and rain gods. Ra rules over humans, who, by the way, were made from his teardrops, for a very long time. One day, he learns that humans are rebelling against him, and in response, Horus (Ra's eye) kills everybody. What happens next is described in a very long and roundabout way like shining rays on reptiles and bringing 12 hours of light and dark but it essentially sounds like Ra becomes the sun.The next part of the story is about Osiris. Once Ra is out of the picture on Earth, Osiris rules over Egypt. His reign is peacefully and everything seems okay. That is, until Osiris' brother, Set, tricks Osiris into entering a small chest and then locking him in there and then throwing it in the river with the help of many others. Set becomes an evil ruler.
Soon, Isis (Osiris' wife) gives birth to a baby; Set becomes aware of this and wants the baby killed so that it does not overthrow him in the future. The baby does die to a what is said to be a scorpion bit at some point, but Ra brings it back to life and says it is destined to avenge its fathers death. Set continues to do some messed up things, like take Osiris' body out of the chest that was thrown in to the river and chop it up into pieces. Devastated, Isis manages to find all of the pieces of her husbands dead body except for one which was swallowed by a fish, and she makes tombs for each piece, which soon have temples built around them. Much later, Horus and Set battle for the throne; rather than one of them winning, the story goes that the gods determined Horus to be the rightful ruler.
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