More actions
and Trickery
Set is an Egyptian major god who focuses on ranged soldiers.
Attributes
God Power
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
 Vision |
Reveals a large area of the fog of war for 20 seconds. |
Technology
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
 Clairvoyance |
Favor cost of recasting Vision is removed and its cooldown reduced. |
Unique Units
Animals of Set: Units that can be trained by the Pharaoh some of which are also granted on Age advancement.
Bonuses
- Start the game with a Baboon of Set.
- Pharaohs can summon Animals of Set.
- Priests can convert wild animals, but converted animals lose 25% of their Food.
- +5% Spearman, Axeman, and Slinger speed.
- Barracks, Siege Works, and Migdol Strongholds cost -25% gold.
- Monuments reduce the cost of units in nearby Barracks and Migdol Strongholds by 5%.
Minor Gods
| Name | Focus |
|---|---|
 Anubis |
Infantry and myth units |
 Ptah |
Technology |
| Name | Focus |
|---|---|
 Nephthys |
Priests |
 Sekhmet |
Archers and siege weapons |
| Name | Focus |
|---|---|
 Horus |
Infantry |
 Thoth |
Migdol Stronghold units |
Strengths
Unlike the other Archaic Egyptian Gods, Set's bonuses are mostly military, focusing on ranged units.
Set's God Power is Vision, which has utilities ranging from locating huntables and Relics to scouting the enemy.
In the Classical Age Set's Slingers are trained faster, have more hit points and take less melee damage, making them more useful offensive units overall. In the Heroic Age, Chariot Archers are also trained faster, allowing them to be massed very quickly. Additionally, Migdol Strongholds are cheaper than normal, enabling them to be built more quickly, leading to even faster Chariot Archer production.
Set's most distinctive bonuses are all to do with animals. Set's Priests can convert wild animals to the player's side, though note that the time taken to convert varies greatly with different animals. The Pharaoh can summon animals, costing Favor, and each time a player advances an Age, some animals are automatically summoned at the Temple. These animals can be used to kill enemy Villagers early on, slowing their development. They can also help defend against an early ambush, or be used as food, which enables Set's Laborers to continue hunting deep into the game. Alternatively, Set's animals can scout; in the Archaic Age, this vastly improves on one of Egypt's main weaknesses.
Weaknesses
Players must remember that the animals of Set do use up population space. If an insufficient number of Houses or Town Centers have been built, the animals that spawn free upon aging up can use the last of the player's population, potentially stopping the production of Laborers or military units at a crucial moment. The speed at which Priests convert animals can be especially slow for the stronger beasts on a map. A Priest who is standing in the same spot for a long period of time can be discovered by raiding units and have his work interrupted by an attack. Converting animals also comes with a penalty as a converted huntable animal yields less Food than a wild one. Converting too many animals close to home can result in Food shortage but converting those in enemy territory leaves the Priest vulnerable. On maps where there are few animals to hunt such as Islands, this bonus becomes less useful.
Although Set's Slingers are overall better in combat, they are still counter archers. If the enemy does not produce archers of their own, or worse, produces mostly cavalry, the buff granted to Slingers becomes irrelevant. Against defensive gods such as Hades or Isis, Slingers and Chariots become even less practical as they lack the means to bypass defensive structures. Players will need to invest in melee soldiers or siege units to win.
Mythology
"The brother of Osiris (the god who brought civilization to Egypt), Set was a god of storms in Upper Egypt. Set became jealous of Osiris and worked unceasingly to destroy him. Through trickery, Set trapped Osiris in a coffin that was hidden in the Middle East. When Isis recovered the barely living Osiris, an enraged Set killed him and cut him into pieces that were scattered. His actions turned most of the other gods against him, but he felt his power was unassailable. Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris, eventually killed Set, and Set became identified as a god of evil. Set is associated closely with animals such as the dog, crocodile and scorpion. He is the god of chaos, the desert, and foreign lands. In the Book of the Dead, Set is called "Lord of the Northern Sky" and is held responsible for storms and cloudy weather. The tale of the long conflict between Set and Horus is seen by some as a representation of a long struggle between cults in Egypt. The winning cult may have portrayed the god of the enemy's cult the evil one."
In-game compendium
Trivia
- As per an interview with designer Greg Street "While it might seem strange for Set to choose Horus, we thought it even stranger for Set to choose Osiris (the final fourth-age Egyptian minor god). 'Horus' is a catchall name for an amalgam of Egyptian deities, so just assume that in your game, Set managed to get Horus on his side."
- According to the Age of Mythology guide book, Set was originally going to have a bonus for cheaper Migdol Stronghold units. The bonus was changed so that the Migdol Stronghold itself was cheaper.
- It is a matter of ongoing debate as to what kind of animal Set is based on. Proposed identities include an antelope, a saluki, a donkey, a camel, a Fennec fox, a giraffe, an okapi, an elephant shrew, a pig, an aardvark or even a mormyrid fish. His in-game portrait appears to favor the aardvark identification, but promotional art for the Extended Edition depicts an alternate more canine interpretation.
- In the early Chinese version of Retold, Set was incorrectly translated to "设置" (Shezhi), whereas the correct translation would be "塞特/赛特" (Saite, Set in Chinese).
List of Gods
