Seeker
| Religion in NetHack |
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In SLASH'EM, SlashTHEM, and Hack'EM, Seeker is the lawful god of the Undead Slayer pantheon.
Origin
Seeker is most likely a misspelling of Seker (also spelled Sokar), an ancient Egyptian deity who appears as a hawk or falcon-headed god of the Memphite necropolis. Seker was known as a patron of the living, and is strongly linked with two other gods: Ptah, the Creator god and chief god of Memphis, and Osiris, the god of the dead. Seker is also depicted as a mummified hawk, and sometimes as a mound from which the head of a hawk appears; in the New Kingdom Book of the Underworld, the Amduat, he is shown standing on the back of a serpent between two spread wings, which suggests a connection with resurrection or perhaps a satisfactory transit of the underworld. Despite this, the region of the underworld associated with Seker was known as a difficult, sandy terrain called the Imhet.
Possibly through his association with Ptah, Seker has a connection with artisans: In the Book of the Dead he is said to fashion silver bowls, and a silver coffin of Sheshonq II was discovered at Tanis, decorated with the iconography of Seker. Seker's cult centre was in Memphis, and festivals in his honor were held there on the 26th day of the fourth month of the akhet (spring) season; devotees would hoe and till the ground and drive cattle, suggesting that Seker could have had agricultural aspects about him as well. Additionally, his followers wore strings of onions around their necks, which were sometimes used in embalming people. Seker is also mentioned in The Journey of Ra, the myth used to explain what happens during the night when Ra travels through the Underworld: he is said to rule the Fifth Kingdom of Night, and is tasked with punishing the souls of evildoers by throwing them into a boiling lake.
