Sekhmet of Sanagis

It was known that Re was the first of the Great Magi, and during those times, not all six circles of magic had been harnessed, yet. In fact, all five of the others had been understood. Re's theory was that if all the magics were used together, a living being could be created. The sun was the warmth of the body and blood, the moon the strength and draw. The wind was the breath one breathed, the earth the physical flesh and bone. The ethereal plane gave a soul a place to be and a mind to adapt to the world, but where was the soul itself? Where was the life?

It was Nut, Re's granddaughter, whom he left in charge of this discovery. With the other elements, she was able to create a cat-faced body that could breathe, a warm body that was functional in every way of man, a mind that was gentle and loving if it had the soul to let it think, but it did not have life in it. Desparate to find this "life," she turned to wise Thoth, Patron of the Ethereal, and he referred her back to her own grandfather. Re took charge, but he himself spent much time puzzled over the body that "lived" but had no life...

Around this time, there was a lioness in the wilderness who had been born of a great mage and had a human soul. Like Chrishankhah earlier in this story, this lioness had a terrible encounter with a Szasta; unlike Chrishankhah, she did not survive. However, moments before death, she had managed to expose the szasta to sunlight. Instead of being devoured by the beast, her soul was released. It was then that it came upon the lifeless body and found shelter within it. Sekhmet was born.

Now here was the conflict of personas. The body had already been given a mind and a face, but Sekhmet's soul gave it a new one. The result was a conflict of personalities and appearance. The one that had entered it was Sekhmet; the other, the sweet, motherly one that Nut gave it, was Bastet. And by magic I cannot even explain, the face of Sekhmet was different than that of Bastet's. Sekhmet had the guise of a lioness like the one her soul had previously inhabited, and Bastet had the face of a black cat, like the one Nut had sculpted.

And so that is how she became to be. Like many of the great magi, she resided in one of the far reaches of Sanagis, but she kept threads of ethereal passages--portals, if you will--to several parts of the nation. Like many great magi, she had children and mortal cohorts who acted as her eyes, and through spiritual bond, they allowed her to see several different people and places at a time. If there was trouble, Sekhmet could use a telepathic power to channel her energy through the child or cohort and have temporary presense in that place, though others did not always see or detect her.

At the head of these cohorts was always a personal mortal aide, and every great mage was permitted one unless that mage was the current Royal advisor; then the royalty was considered the mortal aide. Now for some time, Sekhmet had Armonis and Khalab, but with them gone, she was no longer an advisor. That said, she also did not have such an aide... Yet.

_{-- Introduction of Chapter 9 for "The Tales of Sanagis: The Queen's Legacy" (Chrishankhah's story, title pending.)}

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*GASP* You mean...She still does traditional art? I started this a LONG time ago and it had been sitting unfinished in my sketchbook for ages, so I finally got around to completing it. (Still wanted to use the date "2006" in the sig, you know?) Sekhmet is NOT a furry. She is a great mage based off an Egyptian goddess.