So I've been thinking a lot lately about Sothis and her progeny, if only to give my head a break from the harrowing Christmas season 2025 has thrown at me. Anyway, ever since the new FE3H game got announced, and which I believe to be a prequel and not a sequel for many a reason I shan't go into much detail with here, I've been thinking about IRL cultures that could've possibly inspired her and the Nabateans.
Her name is the Greek version of the goddess Sophdet (personification of the star Sirius etc) and Sophdet herself is, at times, syncretised with Isis and Demeter, as seen below. Yet Zanado has Ziggurats (as seen in the concept art) and aqueducts (ingame battle scenarios) so what gives!!! Now, if if I had to go for any known civilisations that could possibly gather all of these landmarks, I'd say to Ptolemaic Egypt could be my main choice. A place on earth where Greeks, Egyptians, and Romans mixed and matched. Would this explain the Ziggurats? Not really, however, following this lead, we can drift our attention to the legendary and noteworthy Semiramis.
While I don't think my English is good enough to go on and on about her, and the Wikipedia article already does a wonderful job, I'd stay it's a solid lead. As you could've read, she is mostly relevant, adored and talked about throughout a rather considerable portion of classical history. From Assyria to Egypt and then all the way to Libya.
But! I also believe we shouldn't ignore the Minoans with their snake godess and the many peoples of the sea.
This has taken me to take into major consideration the Phoenicians, Etruscas and even Tartessans into consideration more than the own Nabateans, Egyptians or Greeks themselves.
In conclusion? I'm all over the place. More later. I haven't even yet spoken about how 3 of her sons have Celtic names, alas!
