Seshat Sheikh

**Seshat** (also given as **Sefkhet-Abwy** and **Seshet**) is the Goddess of Writing and Measurements. She is seen as a scribe and record keeper; her name means "female scribe". She is credited with inventing writing. She also is identified as the goddess of accounting, architecture, astronomy, astrology, building, mathematics, and surveying.

## Appearance

Seshat appears as a young adult with long white hair, tied back at either side with red tassels. She wears a red and black dress and a long-style coat, complete with a high collar held closed by a rope tassel. She appears to wear long stockings.

## Personality

Seshat has both the facet of a cool-headed manslayer, as well as a cheerful side that is fond of children. She is a somewhat stern and bold girl. However, once someone gets to know her better, she becomes very talkative and nice. During her lifetime, since she has nearly no relationships in regards to love affairs, she is poor at exchanging conversations in that area. She is also shown to be clearly oblivious in regards to certain things.

Seshat is a very ambitious person, as she declared that she will do anything to fulfill her wish, and is ready to go as far as murdering someone or manipulating others in cold blood. She is extremely selfish and values her life over the lives of others, stating she has no problem sacrificing others in order to save herself. She also has a lot of pride, refusing to surrender no matter how far into a corner she's pushed, as long as the chance for victory remains.

Although she mostly appears to be calm, she also has an eruptive nature and is easily snapped when someone makes fun of her. She can also be pretty stubborn to show no weaknesses.

Seshat has a very thoughtful side and often worries with herself being capable of being good enough in any field, like being a good Goddess. However, she does not let her personal worries bother her in times where her leadership is needed and she does all in her might to help her friends out.

Seshat is very fond of animals, yet she is distanced or even nervous in front of them at first. Her favorite animal is the Leopard.

When Seshat had lost her ribbon, she became very emotional and sad, wanting to find the ribbon very badly. Unlike her usual self, when Ame insulted her for caring so much about a ribbon, she cried innocently, scaring the girl into speaking in her accent and helping in finding the ribbon. Thoth also noted that she felt more womanly as Seshat was meek and quite happy when he tried to buy a replacement ribbon for her and when she hugged him for finding her actual ribbon, but prefers her usual self better. It should be noted that she treasured the ribbon for two key reasons: because her mother gave it to her, and secondly because Thoth told her when they were young that it would look good on her.

## History

As the divine measurer and scribe, Seshat assists the pharaoh in both of these practices. Seshat assisted the pharaoh in the "stretching the cord" ritual. This ritual is related to laying out the foundations of temples and other important structures in order to determine and assure the sacred alignments and the precision of the dimensions. She was also the "mistress of builders", and laid the plans for the construction and expansion of sacred sites such as temples. Her skills were necessary for surveying the land, to re-establish boundary-lines after the annual floods. The priestess who officiated at these functions in her name also oversaw the staff of others who performed similar duties and were trained in mathematics and the related store of knowledge.

She also is responsible for recording the speeches the pharaoh made during the crowning-ceremony and approving the inventory of foreign captives and goods gained in military campaigns.

"Mistress of the House of Books" is another title for Seshat, being the deity whose priests oversaw the library in which scrolls of the most important knowledge were assembled and spells were preserved.

## Powers and Abilities

**Extreme Durability**: Seshat has received punches from Thoth that, literally, sent her at least 50 feet up in the air, and after landing from the punch, she was still able to walk it off like it was nothing.

## Relationships

### Thoth

Thoth and Seshat are childhood friends, sort of. Thoth is very strict towards Seshat, often reminding her to do her job and leaving her to fend for herself most of the time. He often poses deep questions to her about how humanity is the way it is in a bid to find out her thoughts on such issues. However, Seshat has a deep-seated inferiority complex that is specifically directed towards Thoth. This inferiority complex is not only one that takes its roots from Thoth being her intellectual superior, but also stemming from the fact that he receives far more attention from, not only other Gods, but also humans, than she does.

While Seshat is the inventor of writing, Thoth taught writing to man.

### Ame Kumari

Seshat admires Ame's song. She apologizes to Ame, stating that her singing entranced her, as she had never heard music like that before.

## Trivia

* In ancient Egyptian art, she was depicted as a woman with a seven-pointed emblem above her head. It is unclear what this emblem represents. This emblem is the origin of an alternate name for Seshat, **Sefkhet-Abwy**, which means "seven-horned". Usually, she is shown holding a palm stem, bearing notches to denote the recording of the passage of time, especially for keeping track of the allotment of time for the life of the pharaoh. She was also depicted holding other tools and, often, holding the knotted cords that were stretched to survey land and structures. She is frequently shown dressed in a cheetah- or leopard-hide, a symbol of funerary priests. If not shown with the hide over a dress, the pattern of the dress is that of the spotted feline. The pattern on the natural hide was thought to represent the stars, being a symbol of eternity, and to be associated with the night sky.
	+ The **Seshat emblem** is a hieroglyph representing the goddess Seshat in ancient Egypt. As the emblem symbolizes this deity, it sits atop her head. The emblem was a long stem with a seven-petal flower on top and surmounted by a pair of horns; the archaic form had seven petals (the vertical shaft as 8), (as a vertical, with two crossed lines-(4), as a 'star', and one horizontal, giving 7+ the 1-vertical shaft), and surmounted by two enclosing sickle-shaped signs, two falcon-feathers on top.