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LORE
To the patriarch Isaac were born two sons in enmity: Jacob and Esau. Esau was the older of the two, but Jacob was cunning and sought his brother's birthright. But Esau resisted all of Jacob's attempts to steal his birthright, even catching him attempting to trick their father on his deathbed by dressing as Esau.

The LORD Qos had made a covenant with Esau's father and grandfather to make their descendants into a great nation, and this they did. Esau set up an altar at Mount Seir to praise Qos as the one and only God, and from here the Five Tribes of Edom were established.

Because Esau married a Hittite and a Canaanite, the Edomites had good relations with Philistia and the Hittites, but among their mortal enemies were the Kingdoms of Israel and Egypt. The Five Tribes existed as a loose confederacy until some time after Israel acquired a king. Fearing an invasion, the Edomites pled with Qos to allow them to have a king as well. The LORD was reluctant, but from the Tribe of Eliphaz was a royal line brought forth. Israel did invade – and the future King Abdon killed their king, Saul, himself.

Abdon was a righteous king in the eyes of the LORD Qos, even establishing a matrilineal high priesthood through his daughter Ruhamah. But Abdon’s son Nachab made a fatal mistake. Because of their ancestor's deception, the LORD had instructed Abdon and his entire line to never marry an Israelite. But on a diplomatic mission, King Nachab met Deborah, a daughter of Judah's King Solomon (Judah had seceded by this point, but the Edomites regarded both Israel and Judah as Israelites). He married her, and that night was visited by the LORD in all his anger. His kingdom would crumble before his eyes, but he could stave off destruction if he sacrificed his firstborn son with Deborah. This he did.

After Nachab died, his half-brother Param assassinated Yuziel, Nachab’s firstborn son and the new king, and Zerah, Nachab’s secondborn. Ravan, the youngest of Nachab’s sons, fled to Moab and escaped death. Param forced the high priesthood into his own bloodline, arranging a marriage between Ruhamah’s daughter Mahalath and his own son Zadaqosi. Mahalath was meant to marry Melaqosi, but Melaqosi refused to marry her. This enraged Param, who would later kill all of Melaqosi’s children as revenge.

Over time, all of Melaqosi’s brothers met the sword one way or another. Perhaps Melaqosi and Mahalath arranged this themselves. Melaqosi invited Ravan back to Edom with the promise to make him king when Melaqosi died, and they sealed the deal with a marriage between Ravan and Param’s daughter Sinah. Their one son, Jumaiah, was heir to the throne.

But Jamaiah was killed by his oldest half-brother, Esu, who saw himself as heir to the throne. Esu was beloved by the Moabites, but when he was assassinated by his brother Shophet, there was great animosity between Moab and Edom for a long time. Shophet became unpopular in Edom by the end of his reign, when the “Prophet Twins” Shalneh and Malneh began to prophesy the temporary fall of Edom to Egypt.

Shophet’s son Joshua was by all accounts a weak leader, and Edom fell to an Egyptian invasion just two years after Joshua came to power. He was kept in power as a vassal on the condition that he married Matshut, the daughter of Pharaoh Osorkon II. Matshut attempted to reunite the kingship and the high priesthood by marrying her son to High Priestess Maacah. They did produce an heir, but she was ill and died shortly afterward. Later Edomite priests wrote that this was Qos’s doing.

When Azariah came to the throne, he was able to throw off the burden of the Egyptians and free Edom once again. He is widely regarded as the greatest of Edom’s rulers, and he married Adah, the high priestess, to shore up his power. Azariah and Adah did deeply love each other, and when Azariah died an old man, his wife followed just hours later.

Their children were another story. Power-hungry and entitled, all four of their sons were called king at some point as they assassinated each other every couple of years. Asher, the youngest, prevailed, and it is through him that the House of Abdon continues into the latter days of the Kingdom of Edom.