Keeper of the Mysteries

God of the moon, sacred texts, mathematics, the sciences, and magic. Recorder for the gods, Voice of Ra, master of knowledge, and patron of scribes.

Zehuti was born in the 5th Age and lived in the unquestioning service of the High Ones, where he was titled as the low ranking Angel Zotiel. Unlike the Watchers, who oversaw humanity, or the Archangels who presided over all channelers, Zehuti had no significant powers of his own beyond a skill with untangling an object’s history from a touch. This gift placed him as a steward to Metatron, celestial scribe and keeper of heaven’s treasure. He was known to be a Guardian of the Tree of Life, and his association with the east also suggests he was connected with resurrection.

Little is canonically known about his early life. At some point in his devoted service, Zehuti became disillusioned, likely due to something perceived with his gift. He Fell, and fled, abandoning his life and duties long before the Watchers broke their oaths. During this time he discovered and honed an ability to learn the art of channeling. He travelled the world extensively, and may have had influence on various myths of the time. Given the mythos surrounding the importance of a True Name, it is almost certain he used several monikers during his exile.

The Motherless God

To the Egyptian pantheon in which he eventually rose to prominence, Zehuti finally became known as Thoth. According to one story, Thoth was born from the lips of Ra, suggesting he was integral to the establishment of the new gods but was not originally born among them. As this newly formed civilisation expanded, so too did Thoth’s role within it.

He quickly came to be considered the heart and tongue of Ra as well as the means by which Ra’s will was translated into speech, and as such was said to be the secretary and counsellor of the King of the gods. Alongside the goddess Ma’at, he stood in prominence next to Ra on his nightly voyage across the sky. As Ra’s most trusted adviser, when the god king was away managing his other interests, it was Thoth he appointed vizier in his absence. To facilitate his new responsibilities, Ra gave Thoth the ibis to use as his personal messenger, power over the sun and the moon, and apes that he could use against his enemies.

Among his alternate names were A, Sheps, Lord of Khemennu, Asten, Khenti, Mehi, Hab, and A’an. Usually, he was depicted in human form with the head of an ibis.

Over the course of his life his roles were many. Among his main responsibilities, Thoth recorded the verdict of the Egyptian heart-weighing ceremony, which was used to determine if the deceased were able to continue on to the Afterlife. If the person’s heart (spirit) balanced with Ma’at’s Feather of Truth, they passed. However, if the heart was heavier than the feather then they did not. Despite his role in judgement, those souls who feared they might not pass through the ritual safely were encouraged to call upon Thoth for help. He always provided guidance, for man and god, and furthermore regulated common everyday complaints and created new laws.

Thoth believed that if a problem couldn’t be solved, then a group should gather as an assembly to discuss it. He served as a prominent mediating power, and was a scribe to all the gods, credited with the invention of writing and alphabets. Lauded for his wisdom and scholarly nature, he was also credited with making the calculations for the establishment of the heavens, stars, Earth, and everything in them.

By the apex of his life and career, he was considered the author of all works of science, religion, philosophy and magic. Towards the end of his life, the Greeks further declared him the inventor of astronomy, astrology, the science of numbers, mathematics, geometry, land surveying, medicine, botany, theology, civilised government, the alphabet, reading, writing, and orator. Such was his widespread influence he came to be believed as the true author of every work of every branch of knowledge, both human and divine.

In essence, without Thoth’s words, the Egyptians believed the gods would not exist.

Myths

Thoth played a prominent role in many of the Egyptian myths, being considered the bridge between chaos and order and a source of cosmic justice. Yet he was the center of none of them.

Cosmic Balance

In his role as arbitrator, he oversaw the three epic battles between good and evil. The first battle took place between Ra and Apep, the second between Heru-Bekhutet and Set, and the third between Horus, the son of Osiris, and Set. In each instance, the former god represented good while the latter represented evil. If one god was seriously injured, Thoth would heal them to prevent either from overtaking the other.

The Curse of Nut

When Ra cursed Nut to prevent her from bearing children in any month of the year, it was wise Thoth who came up with the plan to circumvent it. He had recently been playing draughts with the moon, and—as the god of wisdom—had found himself winning more often than not. He proposed a wager: if he won, then the moon would have to give Thoth a portion of her illumination. His winnings amounted to five additional days of light, which were added to the end of the year and thus existed outside the standard calendar. During these five days, Nut was able to give birth to Kheru-ur (Horus the Elder, Face of Heaven), Osiris, Set, Isis, and Nepthys. There is speculation that Thoth was in love with Nut, though if such was the case, this never came to anything.

Resurrection of Osiris

Thoth was also prominent in the story of Osiris, being of great aid to his wife Isis. After Isis gathered together the pieces of Osiris’ dismembered body, he gave her the words to resurrect him so she could be impregnated and bring forth Horus, named for his uncle. When Horus was slain, he gave the formulae to resurrect him as well. 

Bastet’s Return

Thoth was later trusted with retrieving Bastet, after she began her fearsome rampage following an argument with her father. When he tracked her down he told her “fate punishes every crime”, which made her pause long enough to provide Thoth the opportunity to begin persuading her to come back with him. He told her tales of Egypt’s beauty, as well as animal-based fables extolling the virtues of the strong allying themselves with the weak and the value of peace. Eventually, Thoth convinced the volatile goddess to return with him to Egypt.

On their journey home, they were met with great fanfare and celebration in each town they passed through. By the time they had reached Memphis, Bastet’s anger had fully subsided.

It was Thoth who later spoke with Ra, and convinced him to allow his daughter to accompany him abroad, so long as she concealed her identity.

Mansion of Thoth

His home in the afterlife was known as the Mansion of Thoth, and provided a safe place to rest and receive the magic spells needed to help the deceased against the demons that would prevent them reaching paradise. Thoth’s doors were always open to those who asked for help. He was popular and deeply loved among his people for his patient and gentle nature, and had widespread influence and connections around the world, consulting with other notable minds of the time, including Nisaba and Ravana. He never betrayed his knowledge of Ra’s rise to power, or his lives amongst other pantheons (which he never interfered with or acknowledged). The friendship forged in their youth was Thoth’s most enduring relationship, and lasted hundreds of years, until Ra’s death.

Over the course of his life Thoth took on many disciples and students. His passion for balance ensured he did not gatekeep, but was also deeply responsible with what he shared. Among the most curious of those he mentored was Sothis, an agent of the Tārās who was tied strangely to the Wheel itself. In his last years, he spent much time with the bright and inquisitive Hermes, so much so that the Greeks conflated them into the figure of Hermes Trismegistus.

Book of Thoth

With his passion for learning and talent for reading the past, Thoth’s accumulation of knowledge was unrivalled in the Age. He came to have an understanding of the very Wheel, and the nature of rebirth. Desiring to preserve all he knew, he wrote and bound his secrets in writing. Amongst the most revered of his writings were the spells contained in the “Book of the Dead” and “Book of Breathings.”

However Egyptian mythology also whispers covetously of the “Book of Thoth” in which the god is said to have inscribed all of the secrets of the universe. Anyone who read it would become the most powerful sorcerer in the world, but would be cursed by their knowledge.

This book later became known as the fabled Emerald Tablets, mostly closely associated with the myth of Atlantis.

Atlantis

As the Persian threat led by Ahriman grew in the 5th Age, it became clear that Ra’s era was finally ending. In a last bid to safeguard the greatest technologies, sources of magic, and objects of power from across his pantheons, Ra summoned Thoth to guard them, and together they retreated to the hidden realm of Atlantis. Haunted by the devastating wars of his youth, Ra was determined to preserve what he had built by hiding it away.

Thoth retired without complaint to his closest friend’s side, and remained with him until the very end, using the time to pen his greatest work. As the war above worsened, Ra had struck a deal with the Titan Atlas, entrusting him with the city and its hidden secrets should the worst happen. Thoth remained in the secretive Atlantis after Ra’s death.

Atlas’s stewardship lasted many years, until civil war erupted among the Greeks and Poseidon emerged as the uncontested God of the Sea. He marched on Atlantis as a conqueror and in his greed and curiosity triggered the realm’s self-destruction, obliterating most, if not all, of its ancient treasures and advanced technologies.

Though Thoth survived the fall of Atlantis, his presence in the world faded, and little is known of his true ending. It is possible he moved on to new names, identities and deeds. But by then he had seen the rise and fall of civilisations, including the death of most if not all of his contemporaries.

Knowledge, in the end, becomes the heaviest of burdens to bear.

Other Lives

1st Age: Lucien Octavius