It's ya boi! After finishing Horus' shiny new ref, I HAD to do Set's. Like, come on. Set is my undisputed favorite of all the gods in the TCotC roster and probably one of my favorite characters in the whole comic.

I showered tons of love and characterization into this ref sheet to show off what a walking disaster this guy is. He is charming, mischievous, fun, way too stubborn and headstrong for his own good, cartoonishly expressive, and in desperate need of therapy. All the showboating/posturing he does is his way of hiding how utterly overworked, overburdened, and deeply hurt the poor guy is -- and he has been hurt BAD by his family and loved ones.

Only a few of his scars actually come from his famous Contendings with Horus -- namely, the one on his lower abdomen and the one on his tail. The rest of his scars actually come from his nightly battles on the Atet, the solar barge that carries the Sun through the sky and into the underworld. Set is Ra's right hand man, so he is responsible for fending off the great serpent, Apep, and stopping him from devouring the Sun each night. Apep is not the only threat that awaits the Atet in the underworld, however -- various other demons assault the barge at different hours of the night! While Set's pretty good at his job, he doesn't always leave the night unscathed.

One fun thing about this ref is that I got to illustrate Set's age. The gods are immortal, of course, but not ageless -- poor Ra is an old, old man, and Set (along with Isis, Nephthys, and Osiris) are essentially middle-aged at the time TCotC kicks off. Because Set is covered in fur, he has more of a graying problem than his humanoid siblings: Set has a couple gray flecks on his muzzle/beard and mane, though the glamour spell on his clothing hides it (and his scars). Whenever he deactivates that spell to show off his scars (which he loves to do), he'll inevitably be teased about it -- which will either fluster him or lead into a ten minute rant about how he's still the "greatest in virility" out of all the gods.

Here's an (important) fun fact not mentioned on the reference: Set and his wife, Nephthys, desperately want to be parents; unfortunately, Set is infertile and will never be able to father children of his own. This makes Nephthys' infidelity even more of a touchy subject, as she supposedly only cheated on him in order to conceive a child. She also gave up the resulting child -- Anubis -- to her sister, as she feared Set would try to harm the infant in his anger. While Nephthys and Set have since repaired their relationship, this is one thing Set has never been able to let go...