Thoth
| Religion in NetHack |
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In NetHack, Thoth is the neutral god of the Wizard pantheon.
Origin
Thoth is an ancient Egyptian deity who was the god of the Moon, wisdom, knowledge, writing, hieroglyphs, science, magic, art and judgment. His feminine counterpart was Seshat, and his wife was Ma'at. Thoth is often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon, both of which are his sacred animals. Thoth played many vital and prominent roles in Egyptian mythology, such as maintaining the universe and standing alongside Ma'at on each side of Ra's solar barque; in the later history of ancient Egypt, Thoth became heavily associated with the arbitration of godly disputes, the arts of magic, the system of writing, and the judgment of the dead.
As scribe of the gods, Thoth is credited with the invention of writing and Egyptian hieroglyphs, as well as the 365-day calendar. In the central Osiris myth, Thoth gives Isis the words to restore her husband, allowing the pair to conceive Horus; following a battle between Horus and Set, Thoth offers counsel and provides wisdom. In Duat, the ancient Egyptian underworld, Thoth appeared as Aani, an ape god of equilibrium who reported when the scales weighing the deceased's heart against the feather of Ma'at was exactly even.
Variants
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, Thoth is a neutral god of neutral holiness, and his minions consist of parrots, golden nagas, Astral Devas, Surya Devas, and pharaohs. His crowning gift is The Necronomicon, and a hero that is crowned with The Necronomicon already generated will instead receive The Book of Infinite Spells.
Encyclopedia entry
The Egyptian god of the moon and wisdom, Thoth is the patron deity of scribes and of knowledge, including scientific, medical and mathematical writing, and is said to have given mankind the art of hieroglyphic writing. He is important as a mediator and counsellor amongst the gods and is the scribe of the Heliopolis Ennead pantheon. According to mythology, he was born from the head of the god Seth. He may be depicted in human form with the head of an ibis, wholly as an ibis, or as a seated baboon sometimes with its torso covered in feathers. His attributes include a crown which consists of a crescent moon surmounted by a moon disc.
Thoth is generally regarded as a benign deity. He is also scrupulously fair and is responsible not only for entering in the record the souls who pass to afterlife, but of adjudicating in the Hall of the Two Truths. The Pyramid Texts reveal a violent side of his nature by which he decapitates the adversaries of truth and wrenches out their hearts.
