| “ | Consider carefully. What we've done so far is only the beginning of the power we could wield together. | ” |
–Isis to Sadie Kane in The Red Pyramid. | ||
Isis is the Egyptian goddess of magic, motherhood, women, marriage, childbirth and family. She was born on the fourth day of the Demon Days. Her parents are Geb and Nut, while her siblings in her first life were Horus, Osiris, Nephthys, and Set. In another life, Isis was reborn as the wife of Osiris and the mother of Horus. Isis was the goddess who took Sadie Kane as a host.
History
Isis was born as a result of the union between Geb and Nut, and eventually married her once-brother, Osiris. In a devious plot for her husband to become king of the gods, she poisoned the current king Ra, but feigned innocence. As he grew close to death, Isis told him she could heal him if she had his secret name. Desperate, he agreed, but Isis also gained control over Ra. After healing Ra, Isis forced him to leave the Earth, allowing Osiris to take his place as king. Isis and Osiris had a son, Horus, after their marriage.
This ultimately resulted in the ancient clash between Osiris and Set, who had been Ra's faithful lieutenant. Osiris was eventually tricked by Set, who attempted to assault and kill Isis. Still pregnant with Horus, Isis was forced to go on the run. She gave birth to Horus while hiding from Set, and Horus eventually sought revenge for his father. Although Horus was successful, he chopped off his mother's head when she attempted to stop him from attacking while still weak; she was healed by Thoth later. It is revealed she stopped him from killing Set.
When Serapis came to the power, he defeated Zeus, Hades and Osiris, but he fell in love with Isis and then forced her to become his wife and Queen. When Serapis was gone, Isis was happy to be free from him.
Mythology
Tyet, the knot of Isis.
The ancient Egyptians called her, "She Who Knows the Names". In order to cast a spell or curse on someone, their secret name has to be known. When a child was born the mother would give a child two names - one the child was known by and one only the mother and Isis knew.
The Kane Chronicles
The Red Pyramid
After being released from the Rosetta Stone, Isis takes Sadie Kane as a host. She keeps her presence hidden from Sadie for some time, but does boost and develop her magical abilities to a degree greater than they should be. Once Sadie becomes aware of Isis's presence, Isis begins to try to convince Sadie to let her take control, but Sadie remains stubborn and refuses. Throughout Sadie's quest to stop Set, Isis offers advice and information and during their final battle with Set, the pair work as one, forming a deep bond while doing so. Despite this, Sadie asks Isis to leave her, although Isis leaves some of her essence in Sadie's amulet. Although, after that, Sadie was tempted to try it on again, some time later.
The Throne of Fire
After Sadie channels Ma'at for the first time, Isis and her mother visit her and guide her. Isis's voice often appears to Sadie, offering her hints or helpful information. Sadie also discovers the key to using her power is through sympathetic magic and finding a common feeling, event or emotion. When Ra is returned to the heavens, Isis is a bit disappointed that her son Horus cannot continue to rule over the gods. Because of Sadie's role in this, she treats her a bit coldly, but is more polite to her than Horus is to Carter.
The Serpent's Shadow
Sadie continues to channel Isis' power and during the battle in the Hall of Ages, welcomes Isis in once again. The two battle the rebel magicians and combine their powers for the execration spell on Apophis' sheut. The combination of Isis, Sadie, Carter and Horus' powers in the spell destroy the sheut and Apophis. Afterwards, like the other gods, Isis leaves the Earth.
Demigods & Magicians
The Staff of Serapis
Isis is mentioned by Sadie and by Serapis. While fighting the god, Sadie surmises that Isis will not show, for fear that Serapis will again force her to become his wife.
Appearance
In The Red Pyramid, Isis was described to be a beautiful woman with Ruby Kane's face, dark hair braided with diamonds, brown eyes, and multicolored wings that faded in and out behind her like the Northern Lights. She wore impeccable cloud-white robes.
Personality
Isis is, as Thoth described her, deceitful and manipulative; she yearns for power and often becomes impatient with Sadie for not allowing her to take control of their shared body. Despite this, Isis also has a motherly and gentle side; although she mainly shows this to Horus and Anubis, she also allows Sadie to see the more protective, sweet and kind aspect of her personality. She is often calm under bad situations.
Abilities
Isis possesses all the standard powers of a god, but also has potent magical abilities, and is an adept at both healing and creating poisons.
- Childbirth: As the Goddess of Childbirth and Motherhood, Isis has absolute authority and divine control over raising children.
- Reproduction Manipulation: She has the capacity to openly manipulate and authorize the process of producing children. Her child was more powerful and attractive than she was.
- Mystiokinesis: As the Goddess of Magic, Isis has absolute control and divine authority over all magic. Examples of other abilities she derived from this province are:
- Divine Words: Isis was believed to be able to speak every known Divine Word, which enabled her to create and control the elements. As an immortal, she was also knowledgeable in spells that were lost long ago.
- Elemental Magic: As shown in The Red Pyramid, Isis had the ability to summon lightning.
- Portal Manipulation: Isis is able to create a door or a portal to transport herself to any location she wished to go. However, she can only accomplish this if she is fully merged with a magical human host, and there was an Egyptian artifact nearby. As a Goddess of Magic, she could open one even during the Demon Days.
- Kite Transformation: While in a host, Isis was capable of transforming into a kite.
- Secret Name Manipulation: As Isis knew the secret names of Ra (the most powerful Egyptian God) and Set, she possessed incredible power, though not necessarily more power than either of them.
- Healing Magic: Isis was able to heal Ra from the snake venom.
- Magical Beam Emission: In a state of pure rage, Sadie Kane was able to unleash a beam of concentrated magic by tapping into Isis' powers, which implies that Isis was able to perform this magic as well when she was armed with a staff.
- Divine Sight: When Sadie became the Eye of Isis for the first time, Isis was able to see into the mortal world and the Duat simultaneously.
- Divine Wisdom: As the Goddess of Wisdom, Isis is probably one of the most competent, cunning and intelligent women in all of Egyptian mythology. She was able to come up with a plan to get Osiris onto the throne and to force Ra into retirement.
Relationships
- Osiris: Isis is fiercely loyal to her husband Osiris, even to the point that she will resort to underhanded methods to help him become the greatest of the gods. Their love seems to be genuine and Isis was devastated when Osiris was destroyed by Set, however temporarily.
- Sadie Kane: Although Isis would often try to convince Sadie to relinquish control to her, Isis has great respect for her former host, admitting that Sadie was wise for a mortal and giving her gifts once Set was defeated.
- Geb: Geb is the God of the Earth and fathered Isis and her siblings with Nut, which resulted in the elder deities being confined to their respective domains, separated from one another by Shu. Despite this separation from his beloved being the outcome of their offspring, Geb declares that the love that he harboured for his children had remained undiminished, even after centuries. Though the true extent of the relationship between father and daughter is unknown, Isis shows a degree of acquiescence when Geb ordered her to behave when she had taken Sadie Kane as her host. This suggests that Geb has enough influence over his daughter to encourage her to show self-restraint, though because Set was also his child, the Earth God could not directly act against the construction of the Red Pyramid.
- Serapis: Serapis was Isis's second husband, but he forced her to marry him and when he disappeared, she was happy to be rid of him.
Trivia
- Isis was referred to as "she who knows the names," and may have known Set's secret name, but was unable to tell Sadie because the secret name can only come from the mouth of the god or from the person closest to him. In Set's case, this is Nephthys.
- The name Isis means "throne" in Ancient Egyptian.
- Isis' original name is Aset; the name 'Isis' was her Greek name.
- Her Greco-Roman equivalent would be Hecate/Trivia, Demeter/Ceres, Hera/Juno, Athena/Minerva.
- Her Norse equivalents are Freya and Gullveig.
- Equivalent to Odin and Freya, she and Thoth are two of the mightiest wielders of magic among the Egyptian Gods.
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