Matet

Matet/Semktet

Matet or Semktet, the name depending upon whether it was day or night, was a unique mystical ship  and according to some a demiplane. It was owned by the Pharaonic and Mulhorandi solar deity Ra and later his son Horus-Re.

Description
During daylight hours this ship had the form of a tremendous galley of war and was known by the moniker of Matet. During the night, the ship would transform into a barge, sometimes said to be a funerary barge,  and took on the moniker of Semktet.

The ship was notably crafted from part of a sun (though not “the sun” of Realmspace).

Powers
This ship was capable of sailing or floating through the sky, Wildspace, and even the Astral Plane. The ship was also said to be incapable of being affected by magic, but in reality it radiated an anti-magic shell that prevented anyone but its owner from casting spells, and due to its solar nature was surrounded by an aura of flames that would harm any being who touched the ship without its owner's permission.

Other abilities of the ship that could be activated at the command of its owner included being able to go invisible, assume a wraithform, or plane shift. And thrice per day, its owner could command the ship to fire a devastating bolt of solar fire.

Location
In both the Great Wheel and World Tree cosmologies, this ship was said to be found on Heliopolis. There its owner, whether Ra or Horus-Re, would ride it daily across the sky and with it carry the scorching sun that brought light to the plane. In the Great Wheel conception of Heliopolis, during the night Semktet was said to briefly provide light to Memphiria, the divine domain of Osiris.

Prior to coming to Realmspace, the avatar of Ra would often manifest alongside this ship. And following the Time of Troubles, Horus-Re would often manifest the ship on Toril alongside his avatar.

Inhabitants
Besides either of the ship's divine owners, this solar barge was inhabited and manned by a number of their proxies.

History
In ancient times, the great serpent Apep would regularly assail Mantet on behalf of the god Set, in an effort to destroy the sunlight it carried and plunge the Pharaonic pantheon into chaos.

On the world of Toril, in the year, the mages of a nation on the continent of Faerûn known as the Imaskar Empire sought to replenish their population after a devastating plague known as the Silent Death. To this end they opened two great gates to another world, using what they called the Bukhara Spires, and kidnapped numerous humans from two lands in two different periods of time. One of these lands was a desert, given life by the seasonal flooding of a great river, whose people worshiped the Pharaonic pantheon. The kidnapped humans would pray hard to the Pharaonic deities for salvation, but it was no use, as the divine scorning wizards of Imaskar had closed all their gates and put up wards to prevent their prayers from being heard.

The Overgod of Realmspace, Lord Ao, heard the prayers of these people and they contacted Ptah, an ancient deity of Wildspace with ties to the Pharaonic pantheon. At Lord Ao's request, Ptah returned to the home world of these people and informed the rest of his pantheon how they could circumvent the divine ward of the Imaskari, thus allowing them to come to the aid of their enslaved worshipers. Most of the Pharaonic deities went on to create powerful avatars known as manifestations (with Ra naming his Re) and traveled as them upon Matet through Wildspace under the shining guidance of Ptah’s Beacon of Light. Eventually, they reached the crystal sphere of Realmspace and its world of Toril, where Matet made landing upon the highest peaks of the Teyla Shan, a mountain range on the northeastern edge of the Imaskari Empire. There it landed close to the Galley of the Gods, a ship that the avatars of the later Untheric pantheon likewise used to access Realmspace.

In the 11 century DR, in a major battle that was part of a larger conflict in the Old Empires region known as the Orcgate Wars, Re died from injuries he received from the orc deity Gruumsh. Re transferred his divine power to his son Horus, who was from then on known as Horus-Re and inherited his father's ship.