Dark Moon: The Blood Altar

Dark Moon: The Blood Altar is a South Korean manhwa released as a webtoon written and illustrated by HYBE in collaboration with Naver Webtoon and a separate webnovel with an alternative storyline on Wattpad. An English physical version was published by Yen Press' imprint, Ize Press. The Korean release was published by Haksan Publishing.

It ran from January 15, 2022 to August 12, 2023, consisting of 70 chapters.

The characters and storyline are based on the South Korean boy band Enhypen and their music videos. The original story began with their "Drunk-Dazed" music video released on April 26, 2021.

It is the first story in the Dark Moon series, consisting of Dark Moon: The Blood Altar with Enhypen, the prequel Dark Moon: Children of Vamfield and the spin off prequel Dark Moon: The Grey City with the Japanese boy band &Team.

Plot
Welcome to Riverfield, where the most popular boys at two rival schools happen to be vampires and werewolves. When a mysterious new student, Sooha, transfers to Riverfield, the rivals find themselves inexplicably drawn to her. As horrible incidents start to shake the town, the boys’ forgotten pasts slowly start to unravel... and their world turns upside down.

Main characters

 * Sooha
 * The protagonist of Dark Moon: The Blood Altar. She is a human with supernatural strength that often makes people mistake her for a vampire. The discrimination she received due to that, started her deep hatred towards vampires. She transferred to the tenth grade at the Decelis Academy.

The vampires

 * Heli (based on Enhypen's Heeseung)
 * A vampire in the twelfth grade at the Decelis Academy and the captain and center of the Nightball Team. He has the ability of telepathy and is able to converse with others through his mind.


 * Solon (based on Enhypen's Sunghoon)
 * A vampire-werewolf hybrid in the tenth grade at the Decelis Academy and a forward of the Nightball Team. He keeps the fact that he is half werewolf from his vampire brothers.


 * Jakah (based on Enhypen's Jungwon)
 * A vampire in the ninth grade at Decelis Academy and the wing of the Nightball Team. He is the smartest among his brothers and has supernatural speed.


 * Jaan (based on Enhypen's Jay)
 * A vampire in the eleventh grade at the Decelis Academy and the enforcer of the Nightball Team. He has supernatural strength.


 * Shion (based on Enhypen's Sunoo)
 * A vampire in the tenth grade at the Decelis Academy and a back of the Nightball Team. He has the ability of manipulating others' minds, as well as gravity manipulation.


 * Jino (based on Enhypen's Jake)
 * A vampire in the eleventh grade at the Decelis Academy and a back of the Nightball Team. He has pyrokinesis, the ability of manipulating and creating fire.


 * Noa (based on Enhypen's Ni-ki)
 * A vampire in the ninth grade at the Decelis Academy and a forward of the Nightball Team. He can control darkness and cast shadows.

Side characters

 * Chris
 * A human and Sooha's childhood friend. Despite passing away at a young age, Sooha appeared to see him after transferring to the Decelis Academy.

The werewolves

 * Khan (based on &Team's K)
 * Tahel (based on &Team's Taki)
 * Najak (based on &Team's Nicholas)
 * Enzy (based on &Team's EJ)
 * Ruslan (based on &Team's Harua)
 * Camill (based on &Team's Jo)
 * Mahan (based on &Team's Fuma)
 * Luka (based on &Team's Maki)
 * Louis (based on &Team's Yuma)

Soundtracks
Original

All songs are from Enhypen's special album Memorabilia unless otherwise stated. Other
 * Enhypen – "One In A Billion"
 * Enhypen – "Criminal Love"
 * Enhypen – "Fatal Trouble"
 * Enhypen – "Teeth"
 * Enhypen – "Lucifer"
 * Enhypen – "Scream"


 * Enhypen – "Drunk-Dazed"
 * Enhypen – "Fever"
 * Enhypen – "Tamed-Dashed"

Webtoon
Dark Moon: The Blood Altar began publication on January 15, 2022, on the webtoon hosting services Naver and Line Webtoon.

Webnovel
Simultaneously published alongside the Webtoon, HYBE and Naver Webtoons co-planned the Webnovel edition on Wattpad in which the storyline differentiates from the Webtoon version.

Print
Ize Press published an English print edition of the webtoon Dark Moon: The Blood Altar on December 12, 2023.

The Korean version was published by Haksan Publishing (학산문화사) on December 15, 2023, as well as the webnovel on December 1, 2023.

The German version will be published by Manhwa Cult on June 6, 2024. The French version by Hugo Publishing and the Thai release by Amarin are set to be published soon.

Reception
Dark Moon: The Blood Altar is the most successful works among the HYBE Original Story Webtoons by HYBE and Naver. It exceeded 100 Million cumulative page views on Naver and is also highly evaluated in South Korea with a score of 9.78 out of 10. The webtoon ranked in the top five in the platform's chart in seven different language services including German, Spanish, French, Chinese and Indonesian, topping all Sunday series for 10 straight weeks. The Comic Book Resources similarly included the series in their "25 Top Manhwa You Need To Read".

Collaboration

 * A festival with the theme of 'Dark Moon: The Blood Altar' will be held at Lotte World from September 1 to October 22, 2023. Any visitor can enjoy the festival wearing a school uniform with Decelis Academy logo, which is the background in the webtoon, and experience Decelis banquet hall on the third floor of Magic Castle.
 * E-Land’s global SPA brand SPAO launched ‘Dark Moon collection'. This collaborative collection features products such as pajamas, rugby tees, ball caps, and socks inspired by the logo of Decelis Academy, the school the main characters attend. SPAO Dark Moon Collection will first be released at SPAO offline stores on September 22, 2023, and will be available at SPAO online stores starting in October.