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"Once again, we return."
This article contains spoilers for Issue 32 of The Wicked + The Divine. Read at your own risk. |
- "I am Sakhmet. I am war and sex and death. I feel nothing."
- —Sakhmet[src]
Sakhmet is the Egyptian Goddess of the sun, wrath, war, destruction, plagues, sex, healing, protection and kingship, and is one of the gods of the Recurrence and is symbolized by the head of a lioness. She appeared as part of the 2010s Recurrence.
History[]
On 13 January 2010, a pre-godhood Sakhmet went on a school trip to the British Museum. A classmate accused her of crying, which she flatly denied. They both viewed a statue of the Egyptian goddess Sakhmet, and when her classmate observed that she looked sad, she responded that she was made of stone and therefore didn't feel anything. It is implied that her father was abusive and she had some kind of trauma in her past.
Sakhmet's incarnation was in 2013 and she was the second god to emerge.[1] She was approached by Ananke at a bus stop after she had seemingly run away from home, and they had a conversation about the differences between dog and cat people. Sakhmet, who was evidently trying to numb herself with alcohol, said she wanted to be like a cat because they "don't give a fuck". She was already a heavy drinker by this point. Once she became a god, she started performing in London, including performances at Bethnal Green and the O2 that were attended by Laura. She also engaged in a sexual relationship with Lucifer. At some point, the other members of the Pantheon realised that Sakhmet became violent when sober, and Woden assigned the Valkyrie Eir to watch over her.
Synopsis[]
The Faust Act[]
Sakhmet was present at an interview between Amaterasu and Cassandra Igarashi, during which she was also introduced to Laura Wilson. Sakhmet became particularly catlike as she spotted a moving red dot and leaped across the room to chase it, knocking over a sofa in the process. The group then realised that the dot actually belonged to the laser of a gun. The mysterious gunmen attacked them, and at least one of Sakhmet's companions was killed. Lucifer, having lost her temper by this point, killed the assailants and was subsequently arrested.
Following Lucifer's incarceration, Sakhmet attended a meeting at Valhalla, and seemed to support Ananke's decision that preserving the Pantheon took priority over Lucifer's suffering. After Lucifer escaped from prison she helped Baal attack her. Although Lucifer managed to evade them, she was later killed by Ananke.
Commercial Suicide[]
The Pantheon was rocked by tragedy as both Inanna and Tara died under mysterious circumstances. To make matters worse, a journalist named Beth was sniffing around the Pantheon, so Sakhmet offered to eat her. Ananke warned the gods that she believed a demon was influencing Baphomet (who was purportedly Inanna's killer), and expressed concern that there may be war on the horizon. The gods started training in preparation, but Sakhmet elected not to participate.
Under the watchful eye of Eir, Sakhmet was interviewed by a journalist who was extremely curious about her past life, bringing up rumours of homelessness. Sakhmet evaded his questions and left both the interview and Eir, leaping away between the rooftops of houses. After reflecting on past memories, she murdered and ate her father, claiming that while he might have been a "bad dad", he was nevertheless "delicious". Woden and the Valkyries showed up to retrieve her, and Woden chastised Eir for leaving her alone while sober. He tempted Sakhmet back to Valhalla with alcohol, and she passed out drunk in front of the Morrigan's cage
Rising Action[]
Sakhmet was called to a meeting of the gods in which Ananke announced that 'The Destroyer' had returned. Sakhmet joined Ananke, Woden and the Valkyries in pursuit of this being, who turned out to be Persephone. They engaged her in battle, and Sakhmet attempted to eat her, but was knocked away by one of her giant vines. She returned to Valhalla with the others once they realised it had been a diversion. However, Persephone managed to escape to the Underground, along with Baphomet, Morrigan and Minerva. Ananke sent Sakhmet, Baal and Amaterasu after them, where they engaged in battle once more and took Minerva away.
The battle continued when the other gods pursued them to Valhalla. Sakhmet guarded the walls and attacked the Morrigan, but accidentally let Baphomet past when she was distracted by the red flashing light of a fleeing Amaterasu ("Love the red dot!"). The battle was halted when Urdr showed up, and she tried to persuade them to put their differences aside to check on Minerva. Sakhmet was not convinced by this, and clearly intended to continue fighting, but was knocked out by Baal.
Imperial Phase (I)[]
Because Sakhmet was unconscious when Ananke was killed by Persephone, she was unaware of what really happened and believed, like the general public, that she was killed in self-defence. In the months following Ananke's death, she started sleeping with Persephone and generally indulging in her usual hedonistic excess. At a Pantheon meeting, she voted to do nothing about the burgeoning threat of the Great Darkness. She also told Persephone, as they were drinking in a bar together, that the worst thing she could do to her was lie to her or laugh at her. This came to have consequences later on, as Amaterasu let slip during an orgy at her party the true circumstances of Ananke's death. Enraged, Sakhmet attacked Amaterasu, who quickly fled the scene. Sakhmet then brutally murdered everyone else participating in the orgy.
Imperial Phase (II)[]
Now a wanted figure, both by the police and the Pantheon, Sakhmet went to hide out at Persephone's place. She almost attacked Morrigan when she came by to threaten Persephone to stay away from Baphomet. She went on a night-time prowl to the British Museum, where she was pursued by Baal, Minerva and Amaterasu, who had been tipped off by Persephone. Amaterasu tried to talk her down but ended up angering her again when she started talking about family. Reminded of her father, Sakhmet tore out her throat.
She returned to the Underground, where Persephone confessed to revealing her location and murdering Ananke. Baal followed her there and they started fighting. Once he was down, she started fighting Persephone. Just as she had Persephone pinned beneath her, she was killed by Minerva, who exploded her head with a snap of her fingers.
Later Minerva bemoans the fact that the head of Sakhmet is unusable in the Ritual as she blew off half her head, since only fully intact heads can be used in the Ritual.
Appearance[]
Sakhmet is a dark-skinned woman with naturally black hair and brown eyes. She used to wear her hair long and bleached, with a dark undercut, but has since cut it short. She often wears thick eyeliner and tends to prefer skintight clothing, mixing leather into her wardrobe. She also has long, pointed nails, like claws.
Personality[]
Sakhmet's behaviour is often catlike, and can be playful or aggressive. Fittingly, she tends to sleep a lot. She readily admits to having done bad things and enjoyed them, and is the only god who claims to like the role in spite of the shortened life span. She is extremely sexual and has participated in orgies. She is also an alcoholic, a habit which is enabled by the other gods, as she becomes murderous (and even cannibalistic) when sober. Overall, Sakhmet is driven by a desire to not feel anything and always live in the present.
When sober, Sakhmet was heavily seen to be highly unstable, murderous, nihilistic, and unpredictable. As seen where she would immediately alternate between being civil and somewhat cordially dismissal to others when interacting with them only to immediately become murderous, enraged and bloodthirsty when something sets her off. This is seen during her interactions with Amaterasu, where due to the latter's insensitive, air-headed personality, easily sets off Sakhmet that eventually lead to her brutally massacring over 24 people in rage and later killing Amaterasu after she again brought up the subject of family, which immediately ticked her off.
Another aspect to her personality is her absolute dislike at being pitied, mocked or insulted in any way. As seen where she disliked revealing anything regarding her past due to her hatred of "becoming someone's misery porn" and later repeatedly threatened to kill and eat anyone who was even remotely condescending to her. And when Amaterasu revealed that she was the only one left out of the loop regarding Ananke's death at Persephone's hands, Sakhmet immediately fell into an immense homicidal rage due to perceiving everyone as laughing at her obliviousness behind her back.
Sakhmet was also shown to possess another cat-like quirk were she has a fascination with red dots, having seen playfully/delightfully exclaiming its presence and being distracted as she says how much she loves the Red Dot. As seen during the shooting where Sakhmet immediately pounced at Lucifer due to the Red Dot and would follow it around trying to catch it playfully. And due to Amaterasu's sun based powers, Sakhmet has shown a fascination with her due to her transformation into solar energy greatly resembling a laser pointer red dot, a tactic Amaterasu used to try to calm her down, appearing as a giant red sun.
Relationships[]
Father[]
As implied by her, Sakhmet had a abusive relationship with her father, where it was implied that he was the one mainly responsible for his daughter's emotional/psychological issues due to his abusive treatment of her. This eventually lead Ruth (Sakhmet) to run away from home, no longer tolerating living with him and also possibly leading to her alcoholism in order to cope with her trauma.
Later upon being interviewed persistently on her past and being allowed to become sober, Sakhmet was seen to have strolled to her old neighborhood were after a brief recollection of her past and smiling at it, Sakhmet proceeded to break into her old home, violently attack her father, and devour him. Sakhmet was shown to bear absolutely no guilt or any form of emotion at his death at her hands, but simply proceeded to proclaim she doesn't feel anything before attempting to leave to eat more people prior to being calmed down by Woden and proceeded to once more become drunk.
However despite her own statement that she doesn't care about it or feeling anything for her actions, its been shown that Sakhmet does in fact possess complicated feelings about her father and her actions of killing him. She would visit the British National Museum at night and seemingly reminisce about him and later expressed extreme murderous anger at Amaterasu due to her bringing up the topic of fathers and family.
Ananke[]
Sakhmet always obeyed Ananke and acted as one of her enforcers. She did not particularly care about the morality of the actions Ananke asked her to carry out. She first met Ananke at a particularly vulnerable moment in her life.
Lucifer[]
Sakhmet slept with Lucifer, and pictures of their tryst reached public attention. She later fought Lucifer when she escaped from prison.
Persephone[]
Although initially trying to kill her under Ananke's orders, Sahkmet immediately entered into a physical sexual relationship with her upon her officially joining the Pantheon after Ananke's death, and seemingly became close with her due to them both feeling similarly nihilistic and hedonistic in dealing with their respective issues. Although not exactly specified, it's been stated by Laura that they were indeed girlfriends and Sakhmet was shown to share genuine emotional/personal subjects with her, as seen where Sakhmet admitted her actions of killing and eating her father and later would talk to Persephone about several personal things, such as her dislike at being pitied, her empty views on "predator" and "prey" and her revealing what makes her angry when in a relationship.
Sakhmet was also shown to a degree to trust Persephone, as seen where she hid in with her after her massacre and later expressed open anger after The Morrigan's open insults at her, and was seen to be fully prepared to attack her for Persephone and expressed anger after seeing Persephone's compliance to The Morrigan's words.
Powers & Abilities[]
Sakhmet is said (often by herself) to be the strongest fighter in the Pantheon:
- Ailuranthropy: As a Lion Goddess Sakhmet possesses the ability to shapeshift between a lion-human hybrid form and her normal human form at will normally through her anger. Gaining cat-like features, abilities and peculiarities.
- Retractable Claws: Sakhmet possesses extremely sharp claws, which have since changed from simple claw-like nails to metallic talons that appear to be embedded in her fingers and toes.
- Enhancement: As a Goddess of War, Sakhmet has repeatedly shown to possess immense physical abilities and powers far surpassing that of humans and even that of her fellow Gods.
- Superhuman Strength: Sakhmet is shown to possess immense physical strength, and shown to be strong enough to hurl and throw someone, typically her fellow Gods, into the wall or concrete with enough force to create craters.
- Superhuman Agility & Reflexes: Her abilities are very reflective of cats, as she is extremely agile and flexible. She has been shown to leap across rooftops and use her agility to avoid extremely powerful opponents.
- Superhuman Speed: She has been shown to use her speed in conjunction with reflexes within combat, being fast enough to kill Amaterasu without her noticing until too late.
- Fire Generation: As a Goddess of the Sun Sakhmet's powers are also tied to fire, as she once emitted flames from her eyes and mouth.
- Pyrokinesis: It's been implied by Sakhmet that due to her also being a Sun Goddess, she could also create powerful blasts of fire or highly concentrated spontaneous explosions if she desired, having admitted that she could have also killed the Judge using the Miracle.
- Telekinesis: In one instance Sakhmet used a finger snap to mentally open a window.
- Performance: During her performances Sakhmet summons large cat-like entities, travelling through the audience. Due to her use of a microphone, it also appears her performance involves vocals.
Past Recurrences[]
Sakhmet claims to have fought an Assyrian king in single combat in a past life.
Mythology[]
Sakhmet is based off of the Egyptian god of the same name Egyptian Goddess of the sun, wrath, war, destruction, plagues, sex, healing, protection and kingship, (sometimes known as Sekhmet) who was seen as a warrior and protector of pharaohs. She is depicted as a lioness.
Quotes[]
By Sakhmet
Dialogue
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Trivia[]
- Sakhmet's design is based primarily upon Rihanna.[2] She is also heavily influenced by Kieron Gillen's cat.[3]
- Initially, Sakhmet's character was going to be Bast, but this was changed to avoid similarity to The Sandman, which includes a character based on Bast.[2]
Appearances[]
References[]
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