            Hekau Systems To truly understand Senef-Hekau (or Ra-Hekau), one must understand both the history and theories behind these magical ways. Hekau: History & Theory A misunderstood Egyptian magic was the basis of Hermetic theory, and as such is very similar in its basic ways. Hekau was practiced by mage-priests, mixing both mathematics and theology to have, as a result, a magic whose foci where the words and the glyphs. Each being, each thing had a True Name, and knowing this True Name gave the magician great power over the thing... Or the being. Magic was a natural force of nature, and as such, was as real to ancient egyptians as the hieroglyghs they carved on the walls of their temples. True Hekau, then called Neter-Hekau, the Divine Path to Power, was the god-like possibility for the magician to use her will to change reality. The magician instantly understanded most basic principles of the universe, and could affect it at will. Ra, God of Sun, was known to have had this hability, and to have taught it (willingly or not) to Isis. Ptah was another Gods of Creation that wielded such powers. Soon enough, each priesthood claimed to wield its own True Magic, calling it Ra-Hekau in Heliopolis, or Ptah-Hekau in Memphis. And when Osiris became a greater God, around the fifth century before our Era, thanks to religious intrigue, the little number of surviving True Mages and biased memory of the arrogant Shemsu-Heru, Neter-Hekau was equated to Ra-Hekau, giving Horus an unjustified legitimation through his divine ancestry, as Ra was his great-grand-father (How Horus mistook his grand-grand-father for his grand-father is another proof of his failing memory...). Hekau, also known as Thot-Hekau, was a limited form of Neter-Hekau, favored by Thot. It was a collection of Paths that enabled a magician to cast Spells of these Paths. At the time, Thot priests had discovered such powerful Spells Hekau was considered equal to Ra-Hekau, very unlike the possible comparison of Hedge Magic and True Magick of our nights. The True Mages among the Shemsu-Heru had lost their power, and naturally turned to Hekau for supernatural power. It is even said that the Rite of Rebirth which created the Mummies was a Spell of Thot-Hekau, and not, as some claimed, the results of Ra-Hekau. Thot-Hekau, as Neter-Hekau, used sources of Sekhem to power its Spell, but while the Neter-Hekau Mages studied the full scope of their link to the universe, Thot-Hekau used mathematics and geometry to optimize the use of Sekhem, which enabled the most talented magicians to use what would be known later as High Spells. When the greeks came to Egypt, their first thought was to wonder at the cruelty of the Pharao who had killed hundreds of thousands slaves to build their final resting place. As everyone else, including the memory-weak mummies, the greeks never understood the truth behind the pyramids, the obelisks and the temples of Egypt. While most magicians of Thot used small components to accumulate Sekhem for them to use, High Spells asked so much Sekhem no amulet (and its wielder!) would have survived intact the flux of the magical energy. Greater sources of Sekhem were needed, and The priesthood of Thot discovered geometrical forms that could, if properly enchanted, serve as natural sources of Sekhem, enabling the Magician to which the object was attuned to cast Spells that would make Tremere himself open-mouthed if he knew about them. But Egypt never recovered from the Setite Purge and the decline of both the priesthoods and pharaos. Thot's Priesthood was decimated, Sechat's Bloodline was destroyed, and soon, not even the mummies remembered how to cast the High Spells. And now, everyone wonder at the legends about Egyptian Magic, and no one really understand its mysteries... No one but Sechat. Wife of Thot, and Vampire, she had to compensate her loss of Neter-Hekau with Blood Magic, this creating Senef Hekau, the Blood Path to Power. Hekau: Ra-Hekau This is True Magic, with the Foci and philosophy very similar to those of the Hermetic Tradition (replace any non-egyptian focus with an egyptian one). Refer to any Mage: The Ascension rulebook for more information. Note that Ra-Hekau is also known as Ptah-Hekau and Neter-Hekau. Hekau: Thot-Hekau Thot-Hekau is known as ''Hekau'' to the surviving Mummies, and is explained in World of Darkness: Mummy. The Mummies, being natural, self-resplenishing sources of Sekhem, don't need the amulets necessary to use Thot-Hekau. Because of their limited talent and understanding with the sciences of Magic, most mummies forgot Hekau's High Spells. Those who still remember, as Im-Hotep and Dja-Dja-Em-Ankh, would be still able to use High Spells, should they remember how to harvest the necessary Sekhem. But this secret they lost while in the Land of the Dead, it seems... Most magicians, being living and sentient beings, have a limited ''pool of Sekhem''. They can, in their own life energy, find enough Sekhem to power basic Spells, including Spells to create an amulet which will serve as an external source of Sekhem. These amulets can then feed more powerful (and sekhem demanding) Spells. Mortal magicians and Mummies can use their Sekhem to use most basic Spells of Thot-Hekau. These Spells' level range from the level 1 to the level 5. High Spells (6+ Level Spells) are beyond their power to cast (unless they gave their whole life-energy to cast it, and if they were lucky enough for the Spell to work!), and they must content themselves with slow castings provided by the Thot-Hekau Celestial Path Spells. Hekau: Senef-Hekau Sechat used her knowledge of Neter-Hekau, as well as of Thot-Hekau and of the power of her own Vitae, to replace the Sekhem with Vampire Blood. But Blood Magic is different from True Magick and Hedge Magic, and Senef Hekau became not one but three Discipline: Hekau Thaumaturgy, Hekau Necromancy and Hekau Celestial Magic. Hekau Necromancy and Hekau Thaumaturgy were inspired by the same Magick that inspired Hermetic Magick, and then the Necromancy and Thaumaturgy Disciplines, which means that they are fully compatible, and only differencied by the paths, chosen languages and energy source: While Necromancy and Thaumaturgy rely on Vitae, Hekau Necromancy and Hekau Thaumaturgy rely on Sekhem harvested from Amulets, or Celestial Structures. Celestial Magic has no comparable Discipline, propably because it relies on natural Sekhem produced by Celestial Structures to fuel its powers. Another Senef Hekau Discipline was created after the Setite purge. It is known as Setite Sorcery, even if its technical name is Hekau Set Sorcery. Like other Senef Hekau Disciplines, it relies in exterior magic to work. But it does use mummies' spiritual energy instead of Celestial Structures' Sekhem. Hekau: Spells & Sekhem Be it Thot or Senef Hekau, each Hekau Spell has a normal cost in Sekhem. The magician must spend the Sekhem required (sometimes more!) to create the desired effect. Mortal's most easy choice is spending their own Life Force to power their Thot-Hekau Spells, meaning each Spell can hurt them, easily disabbling, or even killing them (or even obliterating their soul, should they try a too much powerful Spell!). The most common way was to use either Sekhem Amulets or Celestial Structures. Mummies, in addition to mortal's ways, has a natural, self-respleneshing source of Sekhem, and spend them at will. Thus, they rarely use Sekhem Amulets, and even more rarely suffer any kind of damage from their Spells. Vampires have no life-force to fuel their magic, and Senef Hekau doesn't work with Vitae. Their only chance is to use a Sekhem Amulet, use the Hekau Thaumaturgy Path of Sekhem to burn Vitae into Sekhem (their body becomes, then, living pool of Sekhem), or use Celestial Structures. The Hekau Amulet is an amulet, attuned to the magician, with part of his True Name written in it, which can serve as source of Sekhem. The magician must create himself this Amulet by using Spells from the Path of Amulets and by spending his own life-force (no other would do, and no Hekau magician can use another Amulet than the one attuned to him). Most Hekau Amulets are just that, amulets, but these amulets' Sekhem Pool is most of the time too much limited. Thus greater Amulets are needed: Staves, Perctorals and Crowns are well-known amulets used as source of Sekhem. Because of the True Name written (in part, or in totality) on the Amulet, someone stealing an Amulet can have great power over the Magician should she discover and decifer this True Name, so Magician have few (if more than one) Amulet, and protects it with Hekau magic... Mummies usually forgot the use of amulets, so these supernatural creatures rarely have amulets, the amount of Sekhem not being worth the risk. Hekau: High Spells/Celestial Magic & Sekhem High Spells usually Costs at least 20 Sekhem, or even more, usually killing any living creature trying to use them with their own personnal power, perhaps even obliterating their souls. So they were out of range of Magicians, even if those Magicians who could prove the possibility were few and far between, and those who had the power to use them were even more rare. This limit was removed by the use of Celestial Structures: Sechat found the way when she formalized Celestial Magic. Certain structures, because of their physical geometry could be converted in natural sources of Sekhem. Giant-sized structures could then be source of a lot of Sekhem, thus enabling the use of High Spells. The ''human'' sized structures (as the Pyramidyon) couldn't harvest naturally the Sekhem, and could only serve as temporary pools, resplenished by Spells of Magicians. Greater structure changed this completly: Instead of naturally losing Sekhem, they could concentrate it from the surroundings, and thus be self-resplenishing, as were the Amulets. Hekau: Amulets & Celestial Structures The main difference between Amulets and Structures is the Path used to create them: Amulets are created through the Path of Amulets, while the Celestial Structures are created through the Path of Celestial Magic for Hekau, and through the Discipline of Hekau Celestial Magic for Senef Hekau. This fact alone explains everything else. The Amulets are attuned to one soul, while the Structures can be used by anyone (unless magically protected...). The Amulets are ''humain-sized'', while the Celestial Structures can be as little as an Obeliks, and as tall as a Pyramid! 
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