She of the Papyrus Skin

Question: In my meager research on the Egyptian pantheon, I keep running into the goddess Wadjet, who is the protector of lower Egypt and later also upper Egypt. She seems like a big fish, yet she's not on the site. Do you have a reason for not choosing Wadjet? I mean, she even appeared on the pharaoh's crown!

Wadjet is indeed an awesome lady!

Along with her opposite number, the vulture goddess Nekhbet, she was one of the two major tutelary deities of the pharaonic rulers and the kingdoms of Egypt, and you'll see her in her form as the cobra all over Egyptian records and art. She does appear on the crown, along with Nekhbet, as well as on many temples and dedicated religious structures and wall paintings in tombs and living worship spaces alike. She is most definitely an active deity among the Netjer.

However, we don't think either she or Nekhbet are probably Legend 12. They have next to no myths of their exploits; the only stories in which Wadjet takes an active role are ones in which she bites some other deity and poisons them. These are limited to three major stories: the tale of the downfall of Ra, in which Isis convinces Wadjet to bite Ra and poison him so that he must depend upon her healing powers; the tale of the defection and subsequent recovery of Bastet, in which Wadjet bites and poisons her so that she must call upon her father Ra to heal her and bring her home; and the tale of Geb's attempted overthrow of Shu, in which Wadjet on the royal crown bites him for daring to attempt to take power without authorization. (And this third story is always pretty suspect, since it's one of Plutarch's and scholars are pretty sure he sort of made it up in an attempt to match Egyptian mythology up to the story of Cronus' overthrow of his father Ouranos.)

In each story, Wadjet is not really a character as much as a vehicle for poison, and she never has lines, motivations or actions other than a single bite. She could easily be any other snake (in fact, some translations just call her "a cobra" and omit her name), or any relic that reacts with offense when bothered by someone who doesn't own it. She doesn't have a personality or character as evidenced by any myths, and so we would probably consider her Legend 10 or 11 - important, especially in cult practice and symbolism, but not on an equal legendary playing field with people like Isis or Anubis.

But Wadjet's definitely out there, and you should totally use her in your games when the Netjer are in play. In some future when we get to add lower-Legend gods to the site, she will definitely be one of the ones we include!