A wizened woman raises her hands, casting shadows over a campfire. She puppets shapes of a dog's head, and with whispers of magical words, sends shadows dancing mottled in the firelight. A hush falls over the children before her, as they lean closer to hear her story.

“Anubis! God of the dead! The lord of souls!” Her voice creaks like an old door, and the children murmur in interest. “Children, you all know of him, the watcher of death, the god with a jackal's face.”

“But a god always he was not. Listen close, as today I tell you of an ancient world, far, far from ours, where all people lived forever…”

When men were first made by the gods, it is told that there was no death and old age was unknown. When people were injured, their bodies simply healed. Only the occasional hero or martyr would be taken by the gods and brought to Cielo, an infinitely large place of peace and beauty.

Mortalkind grew fruitful and multiplied greatly. Over the next few centuries they gradually filled up the world with their spawn. Then things started to go downhill. Crowding and overpopulation caused strife, hunger, and pain. Since none could die, whole populations were held captive and forced to exist in pain. The very land became sterile, and food a luxury only held by the rich.

A young man, a hero who had rescued an entire nation from captivity, was rewarded by the gods by being sent to Cielo. He asked, “Why are so few granted this boon? Why do you revered gods and goddesses ignore the suffering and agony of your worshipers?”

The gods told him to be still and take his reward without objection. A rather heated argument ensued, ending by sending the young man summarily to Cielo, after silencing him by changing his head into that of a jackal. He found other heroes and martyrs living in Cielo, and spent the next few years creating a language of gestures and movements to communicate with them.

The others did this to satisfy their curiosity as to the origin of this unusual creature. Once he could be understood, he told them his story, and of the plight of the peoples of the world. Enlisting the aid of history’s heroes, he stormed the gate from the real world and forced the guardian deity there to let them pass. The army of heroes roamed the world, seeking out the most deserving to send onward to Cielo.

The gods gathered to punish this presumptuous mortal who had ruined their paradise. They caused the land to open and swallow up Cielo beneath the ground, now calling it Infero. Its beauty became bleakness instead. The heroes there decayed and became mere specters of their former selves, unable to enjoy life for theirs had been taken. Their brash leader was branded Anubis, “he who destroys,” and was exiled to lead the dead within Infero.

The gods soon realized the benefits of death. While the number of worshipers was much smaller, the resulting prosperity actually increased the gods’ powers. Having learned this lesson, they relented on Anubis, elevating him to godhood, and charged him to bring the release of death upon the world. He was to care for the dead's souls, and was given absolute dominion over the Infero to accomplish this task.

He took his great adamant throne at his world's entrance, and there he has remained ever since. In his great patience and duty, all of us can sleep easily at night, knowing the embrace of death will be in kind hands.