Kherty, god of the netherworld and ferryman of Duat

Very little is known about Kherty, primarily because he’s not the most social deity and would prefer to keep it that way. Kherty likes hiding hanging out deep in the watery depths of the netherworld where he can’t be bothered. As a minor deity, this seems to be his best option for staying out of shenanigans, but alas, it does seem the shenanigans manage to find him—typically in the form of his brother Sokar making a stupid decision or another.

As a ferryman, his duties involve logistics and transport for the chthonic deities’ offerings — after all, those offerings don’t just teleport to the tables of their gods, someone has to go collect them and bring them to the estates of the chthonic deities. Kherty prefers not transporting any beings and would rather work with supplies only (maybe because objects don’t gossip or cause drama), but when a lot of deceased come through Duat, sometimes he doesn’t have much of a choice.

Though a timid deity, he does end up gaining some spine around the First Intermediate Period. Maybe Usire is just a bad influence - who knows - but Kherty seems engaged in eating hearts, cursing others, and being generally troublesome toward the deceased in the netherworld, enough that they beg Ra through prayer to save them from Kherty and Usire. Perhaps some topside propaganda against the netherworld deities? It wouldn’t be the first time, and certainly won’t be the last.

Additional information about Kherty:

Both he and his elder brother Sokar are chthonic deities that were born underground in the realm of Duat. Despite this, both are nonetheless connected to the skies, though the connection for Kherty is more tenuous and related to his lineage than his divinity. While Sokar only wears a hawk headdress, Kherty has both a hawk and a ram to wear. The hawk headdresses are influenced by the ones that their father, Khenty-irty, used to wear.

Kherty also goes by the name of Khenty-irty (the younger), hence the hawk headdress that he doesn’t wear. He still frequents his cult city, Khem, where he’s worshipped both under his own name (Kherty) and his father’s name (Khenty-irty) out of a desire to preserve his family legacy.

Kherty only transported offerings from the surface for Sokar, for obvious reasons (he doesn’t like Anpu or Wepwawet given the contention between their families). When Usire became the Lord of the Dead, Kherty took a shine to him and started transporting his as well. Moving the offerings into Duat for two of the most famous chthonic deities keeps both him and his barque plenty busy.

Ra, god of the afternoon sun

Few deities have attained as a high a position with the mortals as Ra, and his ego matches his worship. Confident, elitist, and with a nasty temper, you can tell that all those violent eye-goddesses are definitely Ra’s daughters. The rage and power of the sun is known to all, and his grip on control of Kemet ever since the 3rd Dynasty can be tyrannical to some, but Ra has been difficult to shake from his position. Well, until Amun came along, anyway.

Ra understands the value of both power and politics. As a result he has a habit of marrying his daughters (of which most of his children are daughters, given he has only two sons) to deities he wants to control or keep subjugated under his thumb. And that worked great up until he married Mut to Montu, to gain some control down in the area of Waset… until Mut decided she’d rather date that hot Nubian god named Amun, and Ra’s problems formally began.

He hates, hates, hates Amun. There is nothing Ra despises more than the fact that Amun gets the honorific position in their Amun-Ra synchronism. Kingship has always belonged to Ra and his carefully decided descendants, and when the Third Intermediate Period came along and the Priests of Amun decided they ought to be running the south instead of the pharaoh in the north, or that set of Nubian pharaohs empowered by Amun, well… suffice to say Ra is on the verge of an all-out war with Amun, a war that no one can afford to engage in with all the changes happening in the world around them. Who’s going to defend Kemet against the Assyrians if Ra and Amun are busy in-fighting?

Some bonus information about him:

In search of power and immortality like the Sumerian gods, who did not have to deal with ba’s and ka’s, Ra was cursed early in his life to reflect his three names - Khepri, Ra, and Atum (though these are technically the nicknames for each phase of his identity and not the names themselves). In simplified form: as the sun changes positions in the sky, he experiences a mortal life and is reborn at sunrise as Khepri, becomes strong and youthful again as Ra at high noon, then ages into an elderly form as Atum in the evening before becoming reborn again.

He was cursed by the snake god Rerek right before the First Intermediate Period, in which Ra started physically changing as he entered each phase. The story is a whole thing on its own that stretches back to Ra’s jealousy over Rerek’s ability to revive his form directly as an ahk-spirit (or divine soul) without having to unite a ba and ka together. Ra could see that Rerek’s divinity was different and was immensely jealous over it. (Bonus lore: Rerek is the snake that stole the herb of immortality from Gilgameš. You pull that kind of shit and you get kicked out of your homeland by Ninazu.)

Ra’s aging isn’t exactly like a mortal’s in its transition. At 6 AM, the sun rises and he is Khepri, who appears about 15 years old. He slowly ages at a rate of 2.5 years/hour until 12 PM, when he looks about 30 and becomes Ra. He ages at a rate of 2.5 years/hour again until he’s 45 at 6 PM, then continues aging at that same rate. At midnight, when he appears about 60, his rejuvenation triggers and he starts aging backwards at a rate of 7.5 years/hour then eventually reaches the age of Khepri at 6 AM and starts aging forward again at the slower rate.

This means that when Ra encounters Apep in the seventh hour of the night (1 AM) his rejuvenation has already triggered and he’s one hour into reversing his aging back into Ra (which takes, in this compressed time period, three hours). So he’s 52.5 years old, roughly, when he fights Apep as Atum. Because he’s not at his strongest (30-45) he struggles with fighting the serpent alone and needs assistance of other gods—though Atum is still very strong, and by no means helpless.

Aššur, god of the city of Aššur ⛰️

Aššur iconography can be a little elusive. Some depictions alongside Neo-Assyrian kings show what looks like to me like a winged mountain god with a bow and arrow.

I chose osprey details out of pure vibes. Ospreys are native to the area and it makes sense that, if he’s a bird, he’s probably a bird that enjoys high places (large cliff I mean mountain!) and enjoys a good fish out of the river beside his cliff. Osprey markings look nice, too.

Telipinu, storm god of Hatti 🌩️

Telipinu was well known for his ferocious temper. Frequently mortals had to engage in a mugawar to draw him back after he’d departed in a rage. Frankly, Telipinu just wanted to take a sullen nap; wouldn’t anyone be angry if awoken with a bee sting?

Djehuty, god of scribes 📜

One of Djehuty’s most important tasks was protecting mortal scribes. He inspired them to learn and grow in their literacy and was often depicted sitting over them in his baboon form.

Sutekh, god of Naqada ☀️

The ancient city of Naqada (Nubt, Nabayat, choose your vocalization) has always been his home. A place he could go where his most demonized actions would never follow. They know who their protector is and who it always has been.

Baal of Ugarit ⛈️