Amos Kane

Amos is Carter and Sadie's uncle and the Chief Lector.

Background
Little is known about Amos's early life. He presumably grew up with his brother, Julius, and trained as a magician in the First Nome, becoming a member of the House of Life. He is the last member and ex-leader of the Twenty-first Nome, located in Brooklyn, where he lived in Brooklyn House with his pets Khufu and Philip of Macedonia. He was present for Sadie's sixth birthday party and was splattered with icing when the siblings accidentally made the cake explode. Julius says Amos was never his match, so if Julius wasn't dead (or exiled), he would be Chief Lector before Amos, possibly before Desjardins.

The Red Pyramid

 * When Amos begins to suspect that his brother will attempt to release Osiris, Amos becomes concerned and tracks Julius down in England. Apparently knowing that Julius intends to Try and bring back his late wife, Amos begs him to reconsider, expressing concern for his niece and nephew, but Julius ignores him. When the five gods are released from the Rosetta Stone, Amos is possessed by Set. While possessed by Set, Amos attempts to do what he can to tip off others that he is not himself, including using chaos magic, despite the fact that Set forces him to use his own magic reserves, endangering his life. The uninformed Sadie and Carter, however, do not catch on and when Carter has a vision of Set, Amos pretends to investigate and feigns capture.


 * As Carter and Sadie draw closer to Phoenix and defeating Set, Amos rejoins them and escorts them back to Set's base. Despite the fact that it has become increasingly obvious that their uncle is not himself and the fact that Zia Rashid can sense that he is possessed, they take no action until Set reveals himself. Carter and Sadie are able to defeat Set and bring Amos back to Brooklyn, but the experience of being possessed by Set is traumatizing for Amos. When Carter and Sadie visit their father in the Land of the Dead, Julius asks for them to pass along a message for Amos, advising him to remember that the Egyptians thought of the sunrise not just as a new day, but a new world. Shortly later, Amos begins to show signs of recovery and declares that he would travel to the First Nome and visit the healers there.

The Throne of Fire

 * Having returned from the first Nome, Amos starts the book at the Brooklyn House helping out Carter and Sadie. When The House of Life attacks, Amos leads the magicians in training against the attack. At the end, he becomes Chief Lector of the House of Life. However, his claim is disputed among other Nomes, and magicians like Kwai and Sarah Jacobi form a band of rebels, who hate the Kanes (Although it is later shown in The Serpent's Shadow theses two are under the influence of Apophis.

The Serpent's Shadow

 * After learning of the impending threat from Sarah Jacobi and her rebels, Sadie takes a scared Leonid to see Amos. Amos is shown looking over Iskandar's old war map and admitts the war is not going well and is stunned to learn from Leonid that its because Jacobi and Apophis are working together. He is also stunned by Sadie and Carter's plan to destroy Apophis and restore Bes, but supports it, sending Zia Rashid to help. Zia believes this was to give her time away from Ra as being near him was clouding her thoughts and causing her to blackout more and more which Amos had been trying to help her with. Without Zia there, he assigns Bast to watch Ra which she does at Brooklyn House. Carter eventually realizes from various clues that Amos is now following the Path of Set and channeling that god's power. When this fact is learned, the Kanes become worried about him since Set possesed him before and it nearly destroyed him. However Set, indicating that Amos sent him, appears to Carter and reassures him that he is not manipulating or using Amos, saying that Amos summoned him not the other way around. To help with the upcoming battle, Carter sends him Brooklyn House's trainees and Bast. During the battle, Amos hosts Set directly, but is shown to be able to control Set this time while channeling his powers. Carter uses this as a convincing argument that Amos is not evil, but Amos falls after being ganged up upon and is used as a hostage by Jacobi to stop the battle. However, when she threatens Sadie, Walt Stone, hosting Anubis, steps in and kills her and defeats Kwai. When Kwai casts a spell with his own life force to bring down the Hall of Ages, Amos is unable to do anything even with the power of Set, but Sadie manages to stop the collapse by casting Ma'at. With Jacobi and Kwai dead, the rebels switch sides and Amos offers Carter his rightful position as pharoah of the House of Life. Carter accepts and leads both the gods and magicians into battle and he and Sadie destroy Apophis. Like all of the other gods except Anubis, Set leaves Amos again and leaves the Earth with the other gods. Amos later officaly crowns Carter as pharoah, though Carter leaves him in charge while goes to school and lives the life of a normal teenager.

Personality
Amos is kind, easy-going, a powerful magician, and gentle. He is very loving towards his niece and nephew, wants what's best for them and cares deeply for his brother even though they seem very distant due to Julius' banishment. He also welcomed Julius' wife, Ruby, without any antagonism or bad feelings unlike the Fausts.

Appearance
Amos is described as being barrel-shaped with skin the color of roasted coffee. When the Kanes first see him he is wearing a trench coat and a fedora. He wears pinstriped suits, coats and hats; he also tends to braid his hair with gems to match. Carter considers him to have 'style', and adds that Amos reminds him of a jazz musician. Sadie describes him as smelling of 'old timey' spices, like an incense shop. Both Carter and Sadie say he has a twinkle in his eyes, but they're always full of sadness.

Magic
Although only a limited amount of Amos's power is seen, he contains a great amount of magical strength. He was the second most powerful magician at the beginning of the Throne of Fire. After Desjardins, the most powerful magician and Chief Lector, sacrificed himself execrating Apophis, Amos became the most powerful magician in the world.

Hieroglyphic Spells: Like almost every other magician, Amos can cast normal hieroglyphic spells. However, his level of skill is equivalent to that of Desjardins. He also has a good knowledge and understanding of the different glyphs and symbols.


 * Divine Words: He can speak Divine Words such as A'max to summon a fire, hi-nehm to re-create objects, llen En-mar to make the target approach you, and Med-wah to communicate with a foreign magician. Since he is the Chief Lector, it is presumed that next to Sadie, Amos can speak the most number of Divine Words in the world.

Telepathy: Amos' mind is very concentrated and resilient. He managed to bend the mind of a security guard and made him blank. This is again shown when Set possessed him and even then, he controls some of his actions to an extent. He also tries to give hints to Carter and Sadie that he was being manipulated.

Duat Travel: In the Red Pyramid, Amos displays the ability to travel through the Duat from London to Brooklyn, even with Sadie and Carter. After talking with Carter and Sadie and jumping from his mansion's terrace, Amos uses this to reach the ground.

Path of Set
Storm Magic: After hosting Set, the god of storms and disasters, Amos can channel the Path of Set to project lightning and cast heavy gusts of wind. He displays this during the Battle of Brooklyn House and also during the final battle with Apophis. He can also use lightning at a smaller scale to emit static and it can be used to deflect things. This static, coupled with wind, is a very tough kind of defense for any magician to pierce with magic. Amos can create natural wind disasters like tornadoes, or hurricanes but he has to draw more power from the Path of Set.

Set Avatar: Amos has been following the Path of Set since the end of the Throne of Fire to the Serpent's Shadow. During the final battle with Apophis, Amos was able to summon Set's personal combat avatar. This holographic shell has the appearance of Set, in the Red Pyramid. He can use storm magic, even while using the Set avatar, and he can also terrify the opponent. Amos is granted amplified senses but he can't use the Set avatar for a long time, as it is prone to bloodlust and can go out of control.


 * Enhanced Telepathy: When using the Set avatar, Amos' telepathical powers are increased to a point where he can crush his opponent's will. He can use this along with illusions to make his enemies and foes to go paranoid. Even magicians like Kwai, who have hosted Apophis, are affected by the combined power of Amos' telepathy, while using the Set avatar, and illusions.


 * Illusions: By sending fear into an opponent, Amos can force the enemy to see illusions of him in different places and distances. Since this power is similar to telepathy, almost another branch of it, Amos has a high understanding of it and can apply telepathy as well as these illusions to defeat his enemy. This technique with telepathy combined can force the greatest of magicians to fall.

Former Powers and Abilities
Amos used to be the former host of Set. He was twisted against his will and his sanity became at risk after the hosting. Even though Amos despises Set, he admits that he needs his powers to fight Apophis and so uses the Path of Set. However, this is the ability he could only do when being the host of Set:

Storm Cloud Transformation: While Amos regained the abilities of Set through the god's path, he lost his ability to transform into a storm cloud or turn others into them. Once transformed, the cloud rumbles when anger is imminent. This is a disguise transformation like Carter and Sadie's bird morphs.

Relationships
Julius Kane: Although the details of their relationship are scarce, the brothers seem to care very much for one another. Amos attempts to dissuade Julius from going to the British Museum and releasing Osiris for fear of his brother's life. Likewise, Julius was concerned for his brother when he became traumatized by being possessed by Set and offers him wisdom and kind words. When asked about the fight they had over Julius' plan, he dismisses it, saying that they used to fight a lot, indicating that though they were close, they had their disagreements but didn't let that get in the way of their relationship. He also told Carter and Sadie that after Julius was banished from the House of Life and Amos was banned from seeing him, it was difficult for him as he cared a lot about his brother and niece and nephew.

Trivia

 * Upon arriving in New York City, Amos makes a reference to Rick Riordan's other series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians. He states that Manhattan has "other gods" and looks at the Empire State Building. In the Percy Jackson series, the Greek gods lived in Mt. Olympus, on top of the Empire State Building.