Webcomic / Ennead

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The once peaceful land of Egypt has been stained with blood under the tyrannical rule of Seth, the God of War. Horus — son of the god Isis, but not yet one himself — rises to challenge the throne and put an end to the chaos and destruction. Although the confrontation between Seth and Horus began with hatred, in time it becomes blurred by obsession and desire...

ENNEAD began as a black-and-white comic in 2016, before before being redrawn and recolored for serialization with Seoul Comics around 2018. ENNEAD is currently ongoing with two seasons available and a third season planned, and is officially available to read in English at Tappytoon.

ENNEAD contains examples of the following tropes:

• Adaptation Expansion: While Season 1 covers the premise of the original myths, ending with Seth's deposition and Horus being crowned as king, Season 2 expands the story into what follows after, focusing on Seth's Redemption Quest as well as the developing relationship between him and Horus.
• Adaptational Heroism: By virtue of the main protagonist being Seth, traditionally the antagonist of the original Osiris myth, who is written as a sympathetic Anti-Villain and Anti-Hero.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Like in the original myth, Seth is a cruel, murderous tyrant who usurped his brother's throne. However, here he had good reasons for killing his brother, and he also has deeply sympathetic traits and truly loves his wife and son.
• Adaptation Species Change: Unlike most traditional depictions, the Egyptian gods are all fully humanoid with the ones that would typically be portrayed with animal heads wearing a thematic headgear instead.
• Adaptational Villainy: Osiris, an unambiguous good guy in the original mythology, is the main antagonist of the series.
• All Myths Are True: Given the presence of an unnamed foreign god, and the Ennead's concerns over war and invasions by outside pantheons, this seems to be in effect, albeit downplayed in the story so far.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: True to myth, some Egyptian gods have fantastical skin colors, such as Osiris with his signature green skin. There's also Shu, Nut, and Tefnut in various tones of blue, and Hathor's servant in purple.
• Ambiguous Situation: It's unclear how much Seth's mistreatment of Anubis during his reign was his own Sanity Slippage and how much was a result of Isis' curse preventing him from ever having a happy family again. Notably, Seth has no trouble expressing love and affection to Horus when he confused him for his son, something Anubis is visibly shaken to learn.
• Animal Eye Spy: Horus can see through the eyes of falcons conjured from his wing feathers, an ability he uses to keep an eye on Seth following the latter's exile. Bastet also has this ability, which she uses to spy on Seth and Horus through the eyes of a kitten.
• Animal Motifs: In lieu of literal animal heads, certain gods wear masked headdresses modeled after their sacred animals, such as falcons for Horus and cats for Bastet. They are also occasionally shown shapeshifting into their associated animals and spying through their eyes.
• Artistic License – Religion:
  • Several gods have domains that differ from the ones they're normally associated with in the source material. Most notably, Nephthys is the God of Peace and Harmony, whereas her mythological counterpart is more closely associated with mourning and funerary rites.
  • Another example is Ra being the progenitor of the Ennead, a role traditionally given to Atum, but this is downplayed in the sense that Atum, like many other Egyptian deities, was frequently conflated with Ra.
• Art Shift: Whenever the story dives into the mythology of the gods, the art shifts from its normal manga-esque style to a traditional Egyptian hieroglyphic style, complete with animal heads for some characters.
• Back from the Dead: Osiris, to the shock of Seth and the rest of the Ennead. Played with in the sense that technically he's still dead, he's just the ruler of the Duat now.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Osiris serves as a major source of conflict for Seth, and while Sekhmet's motives are unclear, they are definitely not benevolent.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: The descendants of Ra are a very dysfunctional lot, with the all the tangled romantic relationships and bitter rivalries from the source myth and then some.
• Blaming the Victim: Isis does this hard, to the point where Sekhmet's nightmares pointing out to Isis that she does this isn't enough to convince her that she's been blaming the wrong person for centuries. It's possible she picked up this trick from Osiris, given he's seen doing a much subtler version of it when he rapes Seth.
• Brother–Sister Incest: Every married character is married to a sibling, with the notable exception of Maat and Thoth.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Downplayed in the sense that there's plenty of equally attractive and skimpily-clad female characters as part of the cast. Not that anyone's complaining.
• Cessation of Existence: At his trial, Seth is threatened with having his soul shattered as punishment, which would permanently destroy his soul and prevent it from moving to Duat.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: Hathor's magic mirror, which she gifts to Horus in an attempt to make him fall in love with her.
• Cock Fight: Horus and the Foreign God fall into this sort of dynamic over Seth in Season 2, as Seth himself points out in disgust.
  Seth: These bastards are acting like males fighting over a female.
• Crapsack World: What Egypt has becomes under Seth's reign, with slaving caravans marauding the land and the frequent slaughter of women and children.
• Creating Life: Of the Creating Life Is Bad variety: a major motivation for Osiris is the fact that despite his power over life and death, he's incapable of actually creating new life. This drove him to perform countless, horrific experiments on mortals in an attempt to find a way to have a child with Seth.
• Creepy Uncle: Sekhmet convinces Seth to attempt to humiliate Horus, his nephew, by raping him. This, of course, doesn't exactly go to plan.
• Curse: It wouldn't be Ancient Egypt without them.
  • Isis used Blood Magic on the night of Osiris' death to cast a powerful curse on both herself and her siblings that would prevent them from obtaining what they most desire for as long she lives; Isis will never have Osiris, Osiris will never have Seth, Seth will never have his family and Nephthys will never die.
  • Anubis is under a curse of unknown origin that prevents him from growing to adulthood and awakening as a god. Horus explains that this curse is actually the manifestation of Seth's desperate wish to always keep Anubis as his child.
  • Seth creates a curse comprised from the souls of thousands of sacrificed mortals, intending to use it as a weapon against Osiris, but this backfires on him when he accidentally inflicts the curse on Anubis instead.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Good god, almost everyone. Seth stands out for being cheated on by his beloved wife, learning that his son is biologically his brother's child, then getting blackmailed, raped, and mentally tortured by said brother, in chronological order.
• Destination Host Unreachable: Osiris was resurrected by Isis shortly after his death, but he remains confined to Duat and cannot physically manifest outside it without taking over a living body.
• Disguised in Drag: To his great annoyance, Seth has to disguise himself in women's clothing and pretend to be Horus' partner while staying at the Temple of Isis, since men are not normally allowed inside.
• Divine Incest: True to the mythology, all gods are members of the same family with marriage between siblings being the norm.
• Dramatic Unmask: Several. In chronological order: Seth the night he attempts to assault Horus, Anubis, the second time he encounters Seth after ascending, and Horus, while imploring Seth to see that Horus cares for him.
• Emergency Transformation: During Seth's trial, the emotional distress of finding out his true parentage causes Anubis' curse to rapidly worsen, bringing him to the brink of death. Osiris saves his life by forcibly ascending him to godhood.
• Endurance Duel: The first contest between Horus and Seth tests who can hold their breath underwater longer.
• Eye Scream: Seth gouges out Horus' eyes in a fit of blind rage after Horus breaks Hathor's mirror.
• Fake Relationship: In Season 2, Horus brings Seth to the Temple of Isis for healing under the pretense that Seth is his "special someone" since men wouldn't normally allowed into the temple otherwise. Seth reluctantly agrees to play along.
• Family Relationship Switcheroo: Seth finds out that his beloved son Anubis is actually the biological son of Osiris, making him his nephew. Neither he nor Anubis cope well with the revelation.
• Foe Romance Subtext: One of the main premises of the series. Seth is technically Horus' mortal enemy, having killed his father and hunted his mother for centuries, but Horus secretly harbours feelings for Seth and would rather serve him instead. As Season 2 progresses, both the "foe" and "subtext" aspects of this go out the window.
• Forgotten First Meeting: Horus reveals that he first met and became captivated by Seth as a child after sneaking into his temple. Seth doesn't remember this because he was drunk at the time and confused him for his son Anubis.
• Formerly Friendly Family: Hard to believe Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nepthys all used to be very happy together once.
• God of the Dead: Both Osiris and Anubis fill this role in distinct ways: Osiris, as the king of Duat, the realm of the dead, and Anubis as the Psychopomp delivering lost souls to it.
• God Turned Mortal: How Seth begins Season 2 after being stripped of his divinity by the Ennead. He has been turned into a demigod without his previous divine powers and has to learn to deal with hunger and fatigue for the first time in centuries, even passing out after several nights on the run without food.
• Godzilla Threshold: Unbeknownst to Horus, Isis had secretly made plans to bring in a foreign army and flood the entirety of Egypt in the event the match between Horus and Seth didn't go their way. Luckily, this doesn't come to pass thanks to the intervention of Maat and Geb.
• Go-Go Enslavement: After escaping from the Temple of Isis in Season 2, Seth is captured by slavers and dressed little more than jewels and a gauzy loincloth when put up for auction, making it very clear what kind of slave they expect him to be.
• Great Big Library of Everything: Thoth's library, which takes the form of a magical tree as sprouting knowledge as fruit.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: It is difficult to peg anyone in the cast as purely good or evil; most of the characters are simply trying to deal with their current situations while dealing badly with the trauma they had inflicted on each other in the past.
• Hellhound: In his first confrontation with Seth post-ascension, Anubis is accompanied by a pack of these in the form of jackals made of human corpses.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: Ra and Sekhmet's end goals - if they even have them - remain shrouded in mystery. The only thing that can be confidently surmised about them is it that they involve revenge against Osiris in some way.
• Humanity Is Infectious: A dramatic example; Horus explains to Seth how a vision revealed to him that as the gods emulate human behavior, such as forming families, their power and status will gradually lessen and eventually bring the age of the gods to an end. Ra knew of this, and it's part of the reason why she tried to prevent Nut from bearing children.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: On the night Anubis' true parentage is exposed, Nephthys is unable to cope with the guilt of betraying Seth and attempts to kill herself, but is unsuccessful thanks to Isis' curse barring her from death.
• Internal Reveal: Seth finally learns about Nephthys' true self trapped in Hathor's mirror in Season 2 Episode 127, nearly 200 episodes after Horus first encounters her in Season 1.
• Like Father, Like Son: Horus shares a number of traits with his father Osiris; they're both calm and collected with bouts of Tranquil Fury and they are both violently in love with Seth.
• Logical Weakness: As God of the Desert Seth has the power to manipulate sand, however water greatly impairs his abilities as sand becomes heavy and unwieldly when wet.
• Loss of Identity: Revealed to be part of the process of ascending to godhood. In order to becoming a full-fledged god, one must leave all connections to their previous life behind, losing their memories in the process, as shown with Anubis in Season 2. Trying to recall memories prior to their awakening is apparently so traumatic to a god's psyche that it can destroy them, and is one of the reasons Horus refuses to become a god himself.
• Love Dodecahedron: Combined with Big, Screwed-Up Family, it's a messy one with long-lasting consequences:
  • Osiris and Isis are married, as are Seth and Nephthys. However, Osiris is infatuated with Seth, who doesn't return his feelings, while Nephthys conceived a child with Osiris because Seth was sterile. Isis still cares for Osiris, even as she hates him for betraying her. Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, is in love with Seth, while Hathor has an unrequited crush on Horus.
• Love Ruins the Realm: The Crapsack World state of Egypt can be traced back to Osiris' obsession with and subsequent rape of Seth, which resulted in the end of his reign and Seth's downward spiral into villainy, leading to centuries of violence and chaos throughout the land.
• Magic Mirror: The mirror that Hathor gifts to Horus which has the power to make the person who gazes into it become romantically and sexually obsessed with whoever they see reflected in it.
• Mind-Control Device: Hathor's mirror overwhelms those who look into it with feelings of lust and alters their memories in the process.
• Mind-Control Eyes: Horus and Nephthys both gain glowing cat-like pupils when under the influence of Hathor's mirror.
• Mistaken for Romance:
  • In Season 1, Isis tries to turn Geb against Thoth by mentioning a rumor that Thoth and Geb's wife Nut had a fling in past. Thoth frantically explains that he only went to Nut for romantic advice because he was still too shy to approach Maat at the time.
  • In Season 2, a couple of humans stumble upon Seth tenderly holding Anubis at the Temple of Isis. When Horus tells them that Anubis is the son of Osiris, they assume they dealing with a love triangle between siblings.
• Mistaken Identity: A flashback reveals that Seth once mistook a young Horus for his son Anubis.
• Monochrome Past: Flashbacks are always depicted in sepia tones.
• Morph Weapon: Seth's weapon made out of cursed sand.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Seth's reaction after realizing he unknowingly severed Anubis' arm while Osiris was using the latter's body, inflicting him with a deadly curse in the process.
  • Horus breaks down with guilt after realizing he raped Seth while under the influence of Hathor's mirror.
  • Also said almost word-for-word by Isis after killing Seth in a dream out of jealousy.
  Isis: What have I done? Did I want this subconsciously? Am I really this horrid?
• The Old Gods: Part of Season 2 involves Seth and Horus learning about the existence of ancient gods that predate the current pantheon in order to find Thoth's Moon Temple (namely, the Hermopolis Ogdoad).
• Only Sane Man: Maat, who keeps a straight face throughout and seems mainly concerned with doing her job without most of the emotional baggage the rest of the cast has. Ra as well, though from a somewhat more dramatic, Blue-and-Orange Morality angle. Horus comes in as Only Sane by Comparison.
• Pet the Dog: Despite the grudge she bears against his parents, Isis doesn't hesitate to protect Anubis from Seth's actions and heal his wounds, and often tries to comfort him to let him know that none of what is happening is his fault.
• Please Kill Me If It Satisfies You: After Osiris' testifies about his death before the Ennead, Seth threatens to kill him again, to which Osiris responds that he'd be okay with that happening if it would help Seth's anger against him dissipate. Not as sincere an offer as it would seem at first glance since Osiris is physically still in Duat and out of Seth's reach.
• Power Incontinence: Comes with the territory of being a god.
  • If a god wishes for something desperately enough, it will come to be, even if in the form of a curse. This is the real reason behind Anubis' inability to grow up; Seth's fear of losing Anubis as his child was so strong that it manifested as a curse that prevented him from physically growing to adulthood for hundreds of years.
  • Later in Season 2, Horus learns from Thoth that his words of comfort to Seth at Hathor's Temple became an actual prophecy. Thoth warns Horus that since he's only a demigod the prophecy can be safely ignored, but that he'll have to be more careful once he awakens as a god in order to preserve the timeline.
• Rape and Revenge: Revealed in an important flashback to be the true motivation behind Seth killing Osiris.
• Rape as Drama: Seth is on the receiving end of this multiple times. Most notably at the hands of Osiris and later Horus in Season 1.
• Really 700 Years Old: As one would expect of immortal deities, the gods all appear to be in their twenties or thirties despite being thousands of years old. Notably, Anubis appears to be physically in his teens despite being at least several centuries old, though in his case his youth is actually the result of a curse.
• Redemption Quest: Part of the sentence imposed upon Seth at the end of Season 1; he must atone by bringing peace to the cursed souls that were crushed during his reign so that order may be restored to the afterlife, or face Cessation of Existence if he fails to do so.
• Scarpia Ultimatum: On the night that Osiris sexually assaults Seth, he reveals he has the fragments of Anubis' soul in his possession. Seth then offers himself willingly to Osiris, frantically begging him to leave Anubis alone.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Isis, when she reveals that she knew the truth all along of what really happened between Seth and Osiris on the night Osiris died, much to Seth's shock and outrage.
  Seth: ... What? You knew?!
• Smart People Play Chess: The mythological prologue tells how Thoth, after being asked for help by Nut, tricked Ra into letting Nut bear children by winning against her in a game of Senet.
• Space Base: Thoth's Moon Temple turns out to be literally inside the moon.
• Trauma Conga Line: Seth's Start of Darkness is the result of a single, very bad night.
  • First he learns his beloved son Anubis is not actually his, but rather the product of an affair between his wife and his brother Osiris. He is then drugged and incapacitated by said brother, who reveals that he's in love with Seth and that he stole away his ability to father children out of jealousy. Osiris then blackmails Seth by holding Anubis' soul hostage, leading to a prolonged and brutal sexual assault that culminates with Seth attempting suicide to free himself. Last but not least, when he tries to find an ally in Isis, he finds that she already knows of Osiris' betrayal and still chooses to curse him for "giving his body" to her husband. It's no wonder the poor man went off the deep end.
• Together in Death: A very dark invocation of this trope: as he is unable to leave himself, Osiris' current goal is to have Seth join him in Duat, willingly or otherwise.
• The Underworld: Duat, the realm of the dead, where Osiris now rules as king.
• Underwater Kiss: Between Horus and Seth; Seth first plants a purely pragmatic one on Horus in Season 1 during their first match to learn the source of Horus' Super Not-Drowning Skills, realizing that Horus has the blessing of Shu, God of Air. They later share another one in Season 2 to share breath while exploring the underwater temple of Hermopolis.
• Undying Loyalty: Horus, despite the fact that he is literally competing with Seth for the throne, is secretly desiring to be loyal to Seth and even purposely skipped out on chances to corner him during their fights. He even expresses a desire to give up the throne to Seth and serve him without question to Sekhmet, who immediately mocks and chides him for it. In the same conversation, Sekhmet even offers to tell Horus what Seth's weakness is, and Horus isn't interested in hearing it.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: In Season 2, Isis has deposed Seth and been reinstated as Queen of Egypt; and yet, she is plagued by persistent nightmares and openly questions why she can't be happy despite finally getting the revenge she's wanted for centuries.
• Villain Has a Point:
  • Sekhmet, despite being a god of 'destruction,' never goes on any sort of rampage. Her MO is to give her target enough rope to hang themselves with, in the form of Technically True But Misleading information and bad ideas.
  • Ra also plays into this explicitly spells out to the gods that most of their problems stem from gods acting like humans instead of beings with very different abilities, responsibilities, and lifespans.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Nearly single male character in the story wears a Shendyt and little else. This is Ancient Egypt after all.
• Wham Episode: The Season 1 finale: Seth's trial ends with him being stripped of his divinity and sentenced to atone by avenging the souls he cursed, under the threat of having his own soul shattered if he fails to do so within a certain amount of time. In the meantime, Osiris manifests before a dying Anubis and forcibly turns him into a god under his command.
• Wham Line: The Osiris reveal
  Isis: The reason why Osiris went mad wasn't because he desired Nephthys, it was because he desired you!
• Whole Episode Flashback: Several of these happen back-to-back in Season 1; the first revealing important information about the night that Osiris died and the reason Seth became the person he is today instead of the benevolent god he was before.
  • A later one deals with Horus childhood and his first encounter with Seth, revealing the reasons for the former's intense loyalty to the latter as well as the source of Anubis' curse.
  • Another in Season 2 deals with Isis learning the truth behind Nephthys' affair with Osiris and how her "true self" ended up in Hathor's mirror.
• Yandere: Osiris is a Rare Male Example; he is sexually and romantically obsessed with Seth to the point of taking away his ability to have a child, blackmailing him with Anubis' soul, and later raping him as part of Seth's plea to keep Anubis alive. Incidentally, Osiris' son Horus has shades of this trope as well, going so far to keep Seth drunk and attempting to kill Anubis, but it's Downplayed in that Horus genuinely does care for Seth's wellbeing.