Setam and the Birth of Necromancy

Summary

The dreaded tales of the horrid arts of necromancy are actively hunted and burned whenever found, for necromancy is a vile art indeed. However, despite the best efforts of witch hunters and other such authorities, some do manage to slip through the cracks. Necromancy is as old as civilization itself, and its all thanks to one vile, black hearted man: Setam the Great Necromancer.
The tale starts, with an ending, for the Sun Death that brought ruin to the Shezarkai Kingdom had just finished its baleful gaze. When Ashtekhu, the vampiric sorcerer woman who is the now ruler of modern Shezarkai society, teleported her people away to the plane of fire, it did not teleport everyone. Setam would awake in the ruins and among the blood of his friends and family. Stealing himself, he would get to work exploring the ruins for a sign of anything left. Setam had in his earlier life, been a secret magic user hiding among the slums and back alleys with his family, but now all was gone. Finding nothing in his home city of Tatesut, he would venture out into the sands searching the kingdom for any sign of the society he once knew. Over and over again, he found nothing but ruin and doom, and was accosted many times by scattered bands of early Tajir nomads, and strange beasts of the sands. However, during his travels he finally came across a small but well defended city known as Akhmeset. This town was made up of the scattered remains of what was left behind of the Shezarkai kingdoms. Being welcomed in, he found the place to calm his senses and for a brief moment he considered simply living his days out as a fisher by the nearby river and forget the horror of the Sun Death. 
However, that all changed when he was invited to join the Cults of Death, who were said to be made up of cultists caring for the many dead ancestors of the fallen Shezarkai. Graciously accepting the offer, Setam proved himself an invaluable priest, and it was here he learned that the Cults of Death were also experimenting with the secrets to longer life. They had heard the rumors that Ashtekhu was an immortal being, and wanted the power for themselves. At first, he was annoyed by the priests desire for power, however it would slowly plague his mind that such a mind that had witnessed what he has through life would eventually fade away into nothing. The thought scared him, and so he as well began searching for the secret away from the other priests. This was when he found an ancient tome, sealed with thrice bound bones, and had the sigil of death locked upon it. He simply came across it in a cave being worshipped by a small band of tribal warlocks, who showed him what was in the book. The book clearly detailed his life, and that he would learn the secrets of eternal life, and that he was a descendant of the very first Shezarkaian king, Sa-amen. He would have the warlocks teach him everything he knew of the arts of dark magic, and when he became better then his tutors, he slaughtered them, for his heart had been slowly corrupted by the dark magic of his craft. He would return back to Akhmeset and in a speech to the current ruler, Nahresi, did lay out his ancient lineage.
He was enraged when they had mocked him, that some pathetic priest they had found wandering aimlessly in the desert would dare call himself the true king. He swore that come the night of the last day of the next month, he would make sure not a soul remembered this city. He would storm off, laughed at all the way, with the laughter constantly ringing out in his head. He was driven mad with rage, and got to work. He would right all he had to know about necromancy in 11 black tomes, and would move to a nearby pyramid and start chanting his spells. Come one month, the city slept easy knowing it was just a normal night. Oh how they were sorely mistaken, for suddenly an army of skeletal warriors would march relentlessly to the city. Setam led them from the front, and the ensuing battle would see the entire city slaughtered. Setam would ascened to his new throne, and use the souls of the recently slain to start the ritual of not just becoming the first lich, but becoming the most powerful in recorded history. However, during the final climax of the ritual was when he was most vunerable, and that is when an unexpected figure comes into play.
Though the ruler Nahresi was slain, his head mounted upon the top of the throne, his son Amkhu yet lived, and he was by all accounts an incredible warrior. He had been told to hide lest the blood line be fully slain, but now seeing Setam on the cusp of becoming a god, he would strike from the shadows with his weapon. Though Setam was able to become a powerful lich, he would find a blade striking him and his phylactery in one clean stroke. He would shout a thousand curses before instantly turning to dust, and his armies did simply fall like broken dolls. However, the ritual was not fully lost, as necromantic energies blasted throughout the lands of the Grand Desert, so that the undead would forever plague Carall. The energies did also curse Amkhu with eternal life, so that he may never truly die, and it is said he wanders the sands to this day.
However, as for Setam, rumors only exist, but some say that though he was prevented from being a god, he became something close, and that one day he will return to plague the land as lord of undeath, and rule the world as is his power hungry and vile nature.

Spread

Though it spread through to early Tajiran society, it was actively suppressed. However it was too late, and soon enough necromancers began to become a new type of magical art. They would eventually spread to all over the world, and though they are hunted for being the vile spawn of black magic, there always seems to be more cropping up each year,

In Literature

Though it has been suppressed in Tajir, some old tales among the nomad tribes tell of a great demon who brought with him a plague of undeath upon the tribes, though this tale is not as widely popular as it had once been.
The 11 books of Setam have been scattered and lost to time, Some are in the hands of powerful necromancers, some in the libraries of scheming vampires, and some locked away in the old pyramids now scattered around the Grand Desert, guarded by undead warriors of ancient Shezarkai.

Date of First Recording

Unkown

Date of Setting

Unkown, at some point during the collapse of the Old Shezarkai Kingdoms