#goddess of gubla

[elizabeth-halime]

Baalat/Ba'alat = Goddess of the city of Byblos, Baalat is not a proper name, it is a title just as "Baal", in Egypt, was compared with Hathor, her responsibility was to protect the royal family and the people

[bronzegods]

Hathor, goddess of love, sexuality, music, and the sun

Hathor is the middle child in Ra’s brood of sun goddess daughters (and the twin to Sekhmet) and one of the famous wrathful Eye Goddesses, but from the way she behaves, you’d think she was the youngest. Hathor tends to flip between behaving very cutesy and speaking in a high-pitched voice and snarling at and threatening other deities, and because of her powerful nature, those threats are pretty potent. She’s independent, goal-oriented, and ruthless in her pursuit of what she wants. Nobody can get in the way of her desires, no matter who they might be.

She has long disliked the fact that her eldest sister, Tefnut, was the one who gained access to the queenship. Hathor has tried her best to weasel her way into power, but the fact that the royal couples tend to result from married twins has made her efforts difficult. It’s not until Heru is born—alone, without being the twin of a goddess—that Hathor sees her opportunity. When Heru comes of age, Hathor swoops in and easily becomes his royal queen, finally achieving the goal that she had her eye on after hundreds of years of yearning. This causes a lot of drama with Aset, but Hathor doesn’t care what Aset wants or what she approves of. She has Heru wrapped around her finger, and now the Kemet pantheon is in her hands.

But what to do with it? Well, she has some ideas, and they involve capitalizing on her popularity among foreigners. Hathor has long had contacts outside of Kemet stretching into Sinai. Her close relationship with Baalat Gebal in Gubla (Byblos) makes her a powerful trade negotiator and has given Kemet a strong foothold in Retjenu. And as the goddess that oversees the turquoise mines in the Sinai peninsula, she has access to rare and valuable trade materials, allowing her influence to stretch even further north and east. Hathor is a force to be reckoned with, one that Aset grows ever more cautious of as her son slips further and further away into the realm of Hathor’s influence.

Highlights in her life include:

- Getting very, very close to seducing Hor the Older, which was why she felt her right to queenship was snatched out of her hands. When her father and sisters planned to go to war with Hor the Older, Hathor tried a more… alternative way of solving the problem. But when she found out Hor had aspirations for marrying Neith (who had zero interest in that arrangement whatsoever), Hathor lost her temper and switched tactics back to violence.

- She has one son with Heru, Ihy, the god of music and joy. Hathor has struggled to get pregnant again and Heru seems uncomfortable about passing the kingship to a god without some sort of war or sun divine aspect, so Ihy seems out of the running as the next king. (As for the “Sons of Horus,” they are his sons in name only and not related to him or Hathor, but that’s a story for another day.)

- Starting quite the rivalry with her family members. She and Aset do not get along in the slightest, and honestly it’s understandable why. She and Tefnut don’t have a very good relationship either due to her jealousy over Tefnut’s firstborn daughter position. She and Sekhmet developed bad blood when Hathor hit on Sekhmet’s husband Ptah at a family gathering. Her youngest sister Bastet mostly ignores her, and Hathor returns the same.

Commissioned lines from Argenemartwork

[bronzegods]

Aset, goddess of magic and wisdom

A sharp intelligence has always come easy to Queen Aset. She was the first among her siblings to learn to shapeshift, the first to achieve competency in magic, and the first to challenge and rival Djehuty with her cunning. But it seems that despite the effort she puts in, it’s never been enough to earn the respect of the elder gods. All eyes were on on Usire, her husband, to lead Kemet and enable it to prosper. To them, she’s just an afterthought, the Deified Wife, and she’s determined to change that - for herself, for her sister, and for every young goddess who will be born in Kemet in the future.

But it’s not easy to shift this paradigm in a world steeped in centuries of misogyny. With her husband gone, it’s painfully obvious that Kemet refuses to envision a pantheon with a goddess at its head, even though she was the one drafting and executing all the agreements with surrounding foreign pantheons. The truth is, they don’t want to be ruled by a single queen. And that’s just too damn bad, because she’s not letting them crush her aspirations underfoot. A better future for Kemet will arise, whether they like it or not.

Tricking Ra into giving up his secret name was the first step. With Ra being the biggest source of the dismissive sexism leveled at her, controlling him was a key mission. But now she has a new challenge - her own brother, Sutekh, threatens her sovereignty after he kills her husband and makes a claim to the throne. Sutekh rivals her in magical prowess and exceeds her in raw strength, making him a formidable enemy. There are only two ways this can go if she wants to stay queen: either she marries Sutekh, as Ra has demanded, or she kills him.

The second is a far more attractive option.

Highlights in her life include:

Famously tricking Ra into revealing his secret name. The power of his secret name allows her to compel him when he’s in his powerful afternoon sun form, which prevents him from outright smiting her for defying him. She has been unsuccessful at doing the same to Atum, the evening sun, which complicates her plans - she can out-magic him, but his political power still makes him dangerous. Fortunately, Khepri, the morning sun, has proven himself to be little trouble.

Negotiating and executing a treaty with the underworld gods, who are headed by Khenti-Amentiu and his myriad of jackal god sons. Inviting Anpu to participate in Iunu’s royal court has given Kemet unprecedented peace with the Duat gods, a much needed change after a prolonged war between her father and previous king Geb and Khenti-Amentiu.

Securing the loyalty of Baalat of Gubla, in the Retjenu city of Gubla (modern Byblos), which has given Kemet access to communications and trade with pantheons as far east as Mari, Ebla, and the land between the two rivers itself (the Sumerian city-states, notably its biggest city, Ur).

Her relationship with her brother-husband Usire was all right, but she did resent that she put in all the political work and he got all the credit. Usire wasn’t a bad fellow, but he was far more interested in the natural landscape (the Nile inundations and vegetation, unsurprisingly, given his affinities) than playing politics. The two balanced each other out well, and Usire respected her, but he couldn’t quite grasp the frustration she dealt with at being a woman in a man’s world.

She does have some hope that Kemet can change, though. Of all the elder gods, one in particular supports her sovereignty strongly — Min, the god of Koptos. She never expected he of all deities would align with her political goals, but Min has always been full of surprises, and continues to be a valuable confidant and friend.

Commissioned Lineart by Argenemartwork