SMITE: Demigods, Deities and Gods Explained is a new column dedicated to introducing prospective players of SMITE to its massive back story of lore. From the Greek to Hindu, each week we’ll look at two characters from a major pantheon and provide a quick recap of their history and in what capacity their digital incarnation will represent on the field of Hi-Rez Studios’ upcoming MOBA.
Lore: The sunny Egyptian landscape fostered a divine worship of the sun’s rays. Providing light, growth and warmth, the deity of the sun was credited with creation. A sun god for his entire reign, Ra was said to travel the sky on two boats, Mandjet, the morning boat, and Mesektet, the evening boat. Ra was often accompanied by other deities from the Ennead during his travels to combat those that would attempt to devour Ra on his journey to rebirth.
Ra was routinely depicted as a god with the head of a hawk. Due to his merger with other sun gods as the dynasties progressed, Ra gave way to such Bradgelinaisms as Atum-Ra, Ra-Horakhty and Amun-Ra. The combinations added many other forms to Ra’s powers, including the ram, beetle, phoenix, bull and more.
Ra didn’t rise to his full power until the age of pharaohs and pyramids. Starting in the fourth dynasty and increasing further in the fifth, the pharaohs were seen as embodiments of the Sun God. During this time Ra’s cult fully matured, making him the most powerful and revered of all the Egyptian gods.
In-Game: Rarely described as a destructive god in lore, Ra wields the power of the sun with wreckless abandon in SMITE. A ranged, magical spellcaster with effective support capabilities, Ra specializes in AoE abilities. The Sun God calls down the sun to destroy his forces in anyway possible, from straight magical damage to disables or debuffs to his adversaries and buffs and heals for his companions. His versatility makes him an easy carry and a must have in team fights. Players selecting Ra must be wary of assassins, as he has few defensive abilities to escape.
Teammates must GET IN THE CIRCLE or be labeled as “fail.”
Further reading:
- Ra on Wikipedia
- Egyptian Mythology on Wikipedia
Head over to SMITE: Demigods, Deities and Gods Explained for access to details for all of the playable characters.
Honestly, Ra was mainly FALCON headed. I was in Egypt touring a lot of the major temples/pyramids/etc (and a few minor ones), and I never saw Ra as a hawk.
Hopefully if Hi-Rez does Thoth he’ll have the head of an ibis instead of a baboon =(
The in-game lore sounds fine though.
yeah :/ hope they don’t screw up on this one, love ra :)