"Souls bound to the Wheel of Life, Death and Rebirth" (quoted from the Everlasting, Book of the Spirits, page 252, © 1997-98 by Steven C. Brown)
The following quote is being re-printed from pages 6 and 7 of The Everlasting, The Magician's Companion, and describes Osirians:
Osirians are the premiere sorcerers among the eldritch. Indeed, it is through their magick that they have gained their peculiar form of immortality. Osirians are known as the Ever Reborn, for they are inextricably connected to the Cycle of Life, Death, and Rebirth.
An osirian comes into existence through a magickal rite known only to the Nephthysia, a secretive group among the osirian organization. Usually, only powerful magicians who are also spiritually wise are inducted, though exceptions have been made. If the candidate survives the transformation, she is taught the deep secrets of osirian magick - Ureret, the Ur-magick that lies beneath all other forms of magick, and conscious control of her cycle of incarnations. It is believed that the trasformation rite weeds out magicians who would not be able to withstand the rigors of eternal conscious reincarnation. The osirians are the most tightly-knit of the everlasting gentes, and they demand fierce loyalty to thier ideals and goals.
Osirians can only barely be called immortal: they live and die just like normal humans. They live a normal mortal lifespan, consistent with the country, culture, and standard of living into which they are born. They do not, however, suffer any limitations upon thier activites save those they and their fellows impose upon themselves, which is why other eldritch who know of the osirians fear them so much. Unless an eldritch sees an osirian in magickal combat or refealed in her glory of the Astra, he cannot tell her from any other mortal. And the enemies of the osirians, well... they tend to not last too long. How does an eldritch fight an enemy he made and thought he dispatched a hundred years ago when that enemy wears not a disguise, but an entirely different body? The first warning that his ehemy has returned- that deadly, magickal, levin-bolt that strikes him right in the brain stem- arrives a little too early (or too late, depending on one's point of view). And even if the eldritch kills the osirian, the osirian will one day return and exact revenge... Again.
Osirians are completely mortal in every way, though they are known to use their magick to enhance their bodies in various ways. They often use special elixers and unguents that permanently enhanced their strength, speed, dexterity, and resilience. Some osirians do possess magickal powers that have become so innate that they are not longer enchantments or spells but actual siddhis- special preternaturae they automatically inherit in each new life. Even the auras of osirians, though strong, do not mark them as anything other than mere humans, making it difficult for their enemies to recognize them as eldritch in any way.
An osirian comes into the world the same way everyone else does: kicking, screaming, and covered in blood. Newborn osirians cannot remember the particulars of the Bardo, the between-state they occupy before incarnation, but it is from mind-contact with these infants that other osirians have gathered what little is known of the Underworld, the way station realm for the newly dead and purgatory to some condemned souls. When an osirian child nears puberty, memories of her earlier lives begin to surface, often as deja vu and object-association. The memories increase in frequency and intensity until they become full sensory hallucinations. At this point, the child is contacted by the Kephera, who reveal to the child her true nature. The Kephera then perform the sacred ritual known as the Dawning, which restores to the osirian all the memories of all the lifetimes she has lived. The osirian also gains all the skills of the previous lifetimes, but she may be ill-suited to using them in her current body. The newly-Dawned osirian then emerges into osirian society, with all the rights, previleges, and respect due her, as well as the accompanying responsibilities.
When an osirian dies, she may use a power called life-forging, which allows her to dictate the circumstances of her next incarnation. The osirian can dictate the sex, race, culture, homeland, and bloodline of her next birth. She can even influence the amount of time that passes before reincarnation, though it must be a minimum of fourty-nine days. In game terms, life-forging is accomplished by expending Destiny points.
The Torment of the Osirians is ennui, which is sometimes referred to as a boredom of despair. They feel that things can never turely change and that while they fight to try to protect humankind and the earth, they know that whatever evil they overcome, another will follow to take its place and create problems, thus the cycle of time continues on and all they can do is fight to keep things from getting too bad but never able to truly make things right in the world. They realize that anything good that forms or is created carries with it the seeds of its own destruction, thus it is a never ending cycle. Some eventually get to the point where they wonder if their struggle is really doing any good, thus becoming less and less active and eventually retrating into reclusiveness and withdrawing from society.
Osirians tend to have senses that are not much more developed than most mortals, but due to their keen awareness of things and past experineces, they are able to perceive things better than a typical mortal despite their normal sences not being much different. However once the Dawning occurs they develop a special magickal sense called the Aura Sensorium. This allows them to perceive the Reverie and as well as being able to feel active magicks and supernatural energies.
Due to the reoccuring nature of osirian life many of them develop a love for another being that transends life and can return repeatedly from one incarnation to the next and on into eternity. Many osirian's spend a conciderable amount of time searching out this soulmate or true-love, as they are the one other soul in the cosmos that completes and helps to fulfil the live of the osirian. This person can be another osirian (which is often the case), another gentes of Everlasting, or even a mortal. Those who are mortals, if their belief system agrees with the concept of reincarnation will likely be reincarnated, which allows the osirian to sometimes track them down (despite both having different bodies and appearances (and sometimes different sexes) from one incarnation to the next). When this occurs, it is not uncommon for the osirian to make their soulmate aware of the Secret World and thus help them to become a fantast, and sometimes going as far as helping them to undergo the Sublimation. However if either or both are unable to control the location of their next incarnation, it can create some odd situations, as they can sometimes end up being of greatly varying age for a generation or more, or end up both being the same sex, or possibly even missing each other for several incarnations before they are able to come back together again. Another posibility is if this soulmate is another gente, then the one partner often needs to go for extended periods of time without their (osirian) soulmate and deal with the changing age, body, and sometimes sex of their soulmate.
The Bennu: They keep their membership in the Dennu a secret and always masuqerade as members of the other Djed, as it is their mission to keep the other Djed in line and as such act as the secret police of the Ennead. Very little is known of them due to their secretive nature and their reluctance to give up their true allegiance. They are decdicated to and named after the hawk-avatar of the sun god Ra.
The Kephera: The Kephera are named after the Egyptian rising-sun god, symbolized by a scarab bettle. The name also means to "come into being" and it is their lot to look after, protect, and help bring about the Dawning for the young osirians who do not yet know the nature of their own existance (called tulku).
The Nephthysia: These are the keepers of the secrets behind the Sublimation. They tend to be very powerful with extensive magickal skills, also being the guardians of Ureret, the magickal path of the Osirians that is the basis of many other magickal paths and is the most flexible and diverse of any magickal path.
The Tahuti: These beings are the historians, storytellers, bards, scribes, and others who not only collect the whole of human and osirian knowledge, but also keep it secure in the Great Library (a magickal extra-planar collection of knowledge that had once been the library of Alexandria, but which has now been moved to a more secure location beyond the earthly realms).
The Anubi: These are a twisted and reclusive Djed (some believe them to be extinct) that divorced themselves from the cycle of death and life and instead have learned the techniques of mumification and have tied themselves to a permanent physical body.
The Hartome: While the Hartome are members of osirian culture, they are not (or at least most are not) true magicians, as they were elite solders who due to their dedication to Horus in his battle against Set, where given the opportunity to undergo the Sublimation and become tied to the cycle of life and death. Thus they are the warriors of the osirians, and as such are very good when it comes to combat.
The Ma'at: They were once concidered the judges of the osirians, but that function has since been taken over by the Bennu, thus many of the former members of the Ma'at have since moved on to other Djed's such as the Kephera.
The Ptah: Once one of the most powerful and most numerous of the Djed, they were the explorers of both the earth as well as other realms, most have since become part of the Tahuti Djed, but a few rare individuals still exist who still explore other realms of existance.
More details of the outlook and background of Osirians and other information is available in the Everlasting, The Magician's Companion from Visionary Entertainment Studios.
Abominations:
Angels:
Daevas:
Dead Souls:
Demons:
Djinn:
Dragons:
Elves:
Faerie:
Gargoyles:
Ghuls:
Manitou:
Orcs:
Osirians:
Possessed:
Questers:
Reanimates:
Revenants:
Vampires:
Wer: