For centuries after the Otherwords were separated from the Mundane World, humans still tried to achieve immortality. One theory was that if a body was preserved, so was the soul--and so spells and rituals were developed to accomplish that goal. However, while the fetch was able to be preserved with he body, the wraith was not (see below concerning fetch/ka and wraith/ba). These spells shouldhave worked, though--it is only the separation of the Worlds by the daemons that prevents these methods from working properly. Without a wraith/ba, these preserved dead are open to desecration by the awakening Elder Things: taking the form of a false wraith (a "bane spirit"), a Younger Thing (a descendant of the Elder Things) can possess a mummy, merging with its body and fetch/ka--forming a new life form.
An unintended side effect of this desecration process is that the Desecrated Younger Thing is bound to the customs surrounding the specific rite used to create the mummy. Though references are made to mummies of other cultures, Mummy 2E primarily deals with Egyptian mummies--and the book is aware of that fact, identifying these "Shemsu-Heru" as ethnocentric in their use of the term "Others" to collectively refer to all other mummies. Shemsu-Heru only represent one of the main Rites. Here, I make an attempt to flesh out the other rites referenced in the original book, together with a few of my own. These Rites are:
- Cabiri, the Greco-Roman Rite
- Incorrupt, the Abrahamic Rite
- Mallki, the Andean Rite
- Shemsu-Heru, the Egyptian Rite
- Sokushinbutsu, the Dharmic Rite
