Eidolon (pronounced “eye-doe-lon”)[2] is one of the founding members of the Protectorate and the leader of the Houston Protectorate. He is generally considered to be the strongest parahuman and the fifth-strongest being on the planet, the first four being Scion and the Endbringers.[3]
Personality
He's described as a quiet man, with a calm voice, brimming with the strength of his power, often making people around him feel intimidated.
His sole purpose in life is to help as many people as possible and help in the End of the World scenario - an event for which he is preparing his whole cape life, describing it as his legacy.[4] This fits some definitions of suicidal ideation.[citation needed]
Reputation
Eidolon has an overwhelming reputation given that he's generally reckoned to be the fifth most powerful being on the planet.[5] People tend to resent his personality, but his sheer power and past records earned him great respect.[6]
Appearance & Equipment
Eidolon wears a blue-green[7] or possibly green-white[8][9] skintight suit, with a heavy hood and cape built in and sleeves that drape over his hands. The interior of his hood and sleeves are filled with a soft green[7] or possibly blue-green light.[10][11] There was body armour hidden beneath the costume that gave the illusion of muscle.[11]
His face is covered by an opaque, glassy helm similar to Clockblocker's[12][11][13] but glowing blue-green.[11][14][15] His eyes were faintly visible behind the mask.[11][15] The glow from his mask is provided by LEDs.[16]
When not dressed up as Eidolon, he is a middle-aged man, with thick eyebrows, thinning hair and heavy cheeks, big nose and ears. People were often struck by how normal, even slightly ugly he looked without his mask.[17][14][18]
His suit included a camera that recorded footage of his fights for later.[19]
Abilities and Powers
He has the ability to equip himself with a tremendous array of varied powers but is limited to holding a few at the same time. He typically uses three, though he can take more at the cost of potency if required.[20] The powers he chooses take time to build up, but within minutes he can match the strength of veteran users of the same abilities.[21]
Even though his power is one of the strongest, he does not have much control over it.[22] He is limited to holding tighter to or discarding given powers, which are selected by his shard in accordance with what it perceives David needs.[23][24] As a consequence, Eidolon does not have enough awareness of his complete repertoire of powers.
His powers' potency, however, has been slowly weakening over time, which leads him to look for a sense of challenge, in order to seek the untapped well of power he can feel when he is fighting.[25] In the meantime, he's been using Cauldron vials as booster shots.[26] Eidolon speculated that Ignis Fatuus was not as restricted as he was, and perhaps if Glaistig Uaine claimed his power, she would not be as well.[4] Skitter, however, speculated that Ignis Fatuus was enhancing his power using a variant of Scapegoat's power.[27]
He is later able to restore his energy reserves by digging up the power to sense and drain the shards of other parahumans, based on advice given to him by Glaistig Uaine.[4]
While Eidolon can access a huge berth of abilities he does not gain much individual proficiency with his abilities. Thus it is possible for him to do things like concuss himself on forcefields he created. He does not develop the instinctual connection other parahumans have with their powers.
| “ | Eidolon’s some kind of exception, on a lot of levels. His power works by different vectors, the innate limits aren’t there… something broke, and I’m betting the Endbringers are tied to it. Like, this entity is fissioning off into countless fragments that impregnate hosts and somehow a little extra gets tacked on. Or Cauldron’s method of replicating the fragments gets that little extra. | ” |
Glaistig Uaine referred to Eidolon's shard as the "High Priest".[28]
History
Background
David was born with a severe illness and was confined to a wheelchair for most of his life, facing regular seizures.
Before being approached by Doctor Mother he wanted to become more independent, applied to the army and was subsequently turned down, which made him try to commit suicide.[4]
When Eidolon gained his powers, he was one of a rare few who did not forget the vision of the Entity they saw. Doctor Mother speculated that his passenger had not been limited, unlike most powers.[29]
As Eidolon, he was a founding member of the Protectorate. After Hero's death, he became the leader of a smaller team based in Houston.[30]
In 2009 at Madison, Eidolon was a major part in fighting The Simurgh off and was recognized as such.[31]
Battle against Leviathan
During the fight he worked with Myrddin to mitigate the effects of tidal waves created by the Endbringer, along with helping the wounded heroes.[32] After Scion makes the appearance Eidolon helps pin down Leviathan with the manipulation of the water, freezing it into walls around the Endbringer.[33]
New Delhi
During the whole encounter, he's noted as being at the epicenter of the fight along with Legend and Alexandria.
At the beginning of the fight, he works in coordination with Legend to slow down the Endbringer's movement. After Alexandria's (Pretender) arrival he adopts more of a hit-and-run approach with a melee powerset and a time bubble slowing down Behemoth's movement, to help Alexandria's own efforts in hitting the Endbringer hard enough to topple and drive him back. Their coordinated efforts are noted to throw Behemoth off his game and with the help of Clockblocker's frozen strings they are able to deal substantial damage to his body.
He's involved in Weaver's and Phir Se plan of killing the Endbringer. He creates an inviolable forcefield, which contains Phir Se's light to an area surrounding Behemoth. In the final stand in the Temple, he creates a green field around the structure, which keeps it from collapsing.
After Scion's arrival, Eidolon helps keep the Endbringer from retreating, arresting his momentum in the sky with a violet forcefield and he stands witness to the destruction of Behemoth with Scion's golden light.[34]
Post-Timeskip
Tried to help against the Slaughterhouse Nine Hold Apartment Hostage but was turned away by Weaver, who pointed out that while she could be put down if she became evil, Eidolon would be much harder to contain.[35]
Gold Morning
Eidolon participated in the oil-rig battle alongside the rest of the Triumvirate.[36] Glaistig Uaine taught him how to drain other parahumans, bringing him back to his peak strength. Together, they drove Scion across dimensions. Scion, increasingly hard-pressed, used his path-to-victory ability to convince Eidolon to give up.[4] Glaistig Uaine harvested Eidolon's shard[37] keeping him in the fight.
Relation to Endbringers
Eidolon is the suspected creator of the Endbringers, which is likely unintentional due to his lack of active control over his power. It is suspected that the power acted on his subconscious need to engage in fights against enemies on his power-level. This may be due to his psychological issues of inferiority complex from his background. In addition, it is not certain whether he actually created the Endbringers, or if they were created by Eden and his power just gained control over them after her 'death'. This is supported by their appearance in the Eden's interlude chapter, which contains a vision of the future as intended by the Entities.
The hints on the origin of the Endbringers were not present until late in the story, but then several convincing clues appeared:
The first clue is the words uttered by Scion and David's reaction to them: 'You needed worthy opponents'.[38][24]After Eidolon's death Simurgh, Khonsu, Tohu, Bohu, and Leviathan began behaving in an erratic manner.[39]
Secondly, Eidolon, who is repeatedly seen as a religious man, fits the Abrahamic nature of the design of the Endbringers.
Similarly, after the Undersiders and Protectorate approach the Simurgh, Tattletale and Defiant discuss the topic:
“He’s really their creator?” Defiant asked. “Eidolon?”
“…Sixty percent sure."[40]
The final clue is Simurgh's weapon, which after the Gold Morning contained a male fetus "With large ears and a large round nose. Not attractive, as babies went."[41], which matches the general description of Eidolon.
Trivia
- "Eidolon" can mean an unsubstantial image, an ideal, or an idealized figure.
- For many many drafts, Eidolon was simply "Mary Sue", a woman who had an idolization aura on top of Eidolons powers. Wildbow made the change to Eidolon relatively recently in the drafts.
- He does have the ability to use tinker powers but his access to other powers and the long term element inherent in tinker powers vs. something like a blaster power of the same utility factors into their negligible use.[42]
Fanart Gallery
References
- ↑ Seven/Infinity: Eidolon - Detail Generator - Trump, spreadsheet by Wildbow.
- ↑ Worm Audiobook pronounciation guide (confirmed by Wildbow)
- ↑ When the question inevitably got to who was the strongest, the ‘big five' were generally ruled out, in the sense of ‘well, yeah, but besides them‘. Scion got counted as a part of that group because the powers he did have were head and shoulders above just about everyone else's. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.1
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Interlude 27.x Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "I27" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Debating the relative strengths of various capes was common enough, in the schoolyard and elsewhere. If Alexandria and Legend fought, who would win? Would Boston’s Protectorate win against Brockton Bay’s team? What if you removed Boston’s weakest members until the sides were even in number?
When the question inevitably got to who was the strongest, the ‘big five’ were generally ruled out, in the sense of ‘well, yeah, but besides them‘. Scion got counted as a part of that group because the powers he did have were head and shoulders above just about everyone else’s. Eidolon was almost the opposite, because he had every power, though he could only hold on to a handful at a time. Then there were the Endbringers, because they mandated situations like this, where even Scion or Eidolon plus multiple teams of capes weren’t necessarily enough.
Sure, some loyal people might argue that Legend was better than Eidolon, or maybe even some other cape like Dragon or Alexandria. Generally speaking, though? Eidolon was a top dog. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.1 - ↑ There were people who could enter a room, and everyone would stop talking, or the tone of conversation, at the very least, would shift. [...] There were people who had impacted world-scale events who didn’t quite have that presence or clout. [...] There was another class, though. Another type. Eidolon, by all accounts, hadn’t had that underlying character. A lot of people had instinctively disliked him, even.
[...]
But Eidolon? They came away from meetings with Eidolon feeling like they’d never be good enough, not wanting to see him again. In some of the files I’d been given in the big file dump I’d negotiated for, I’d read that a lot of people with sensitive or shaky powers had felt like their powers didn’t like Eidolon. Anecdotal evidence said Scion hadn’t, even.
Thing was, dislike or no, however instinctual or proud or resentful that dislike was, one couldn’t hold onto that after that one video of Eidolon, holding a bridge up during a disaster, too preoccupied to stop a building from falling down nearby… then shore up the bridge, reverse time to save the building and its occupants, shore up the building, and move on, like it was fucking nothing. Didn’t watch Eidolon taking one shot to execute a supervillain the Kings Men had been trying to keep occupied for an hour, not three seconds after appearing on the scene. Most of that had been early in his career. But it counted, he wore the deeds like some wore capes.
Dislike or no, you knew if the man was in the fucking building. - Excerpt from Sundown 17.2 - ↑ 7.0 7.1 Eidolon stood behind one of the large television sets, staring out the window. He wore a blue-green skintight suit that expanded into a voluminous hood, cape and sleeves that draped over his hands. The interior of the hood and sleeves wasn't shadowy, but illuminated with a soft green light. - Extermination 8.1
- ↑ Eidolon – Member of the Triumvirate and head of the Houston branch of the Protectorate. Viewed by many as one of the most powerful capes in the world, can manifest a handful of powers at a time, with virtually no restrictions, automatically gaining whatever abilities he needs to face a given crisis. Wears a green-white costume with a hood, and a glow emanating from both hood and sleeves. - Cast Page
- ↑ A man in a white hood and cape stood there, the tension in his body swiftly stopping. He had no expression, only a green and blue glow beneath his hood, but his body language was clear. Shock, defeat.
A flash of golden light wiped him out of existence. - Excerpt from Teneral e.4 - ↑ Legend's white and blue mask, Eidolon's glowing shroud, and Kazikli Bey's red helmet, each twisted to be feminine, framed by the long hair that wove and wound together to form her body.
[...]
Two of Eidolon's hands with the blue-green glow around them were holding a forcefield up to protect her sister, while a white-gloved one focused on using Legend's lasers to target capes who thought flying up and out of the city was a good idea. - Scarab 25.6 - ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 The opaque pane of his mask was heavily shrouded beneath the heavy hood he wore, a dim blue-green glow emanating from within. He was burned, his costume scorched and shredded in places, but the body armor beneath had more or less held. Shaped to give the illusion that he had more muscle than he did, it seemed. I could see blood running along the cracks at one panel of armor, where he'd apparently sustained a heavy blow. He was mortal, after all. Eidolon could bleed. [...] Eidolon turned away from his observations of Behemoth, and he briefly met my eyes. - Crushed 24.5
- ↑ I used my bugs to feel out the subject. A hood, with the warmth of a faint natural glow from beneath, with the same effect around his hands, with his loose sleeves. I noted that a glass helm like the one Clockblocker wore fit over his face beneath the hood. [...] Eidolon entered the conference room and grabbed the seat just to the right of the one at the far end of the table. He swept his cape to one side before he sat down. - Queen 18.4
- ↑ Eidolon pulled off his mask, brushed at it to clean it of the slime from when he'd been swallowed and then vomited back up.
He stared down at the opaque pane. - Interlude 27.x - ↑ 14.0 14.1 He sat down beside her. He pulled his hood back, letting it fall around his shoulders, then undid the clasp for his mask. He set the glowing mask down on the edge of the roof, beside her cell phone and cigarettes.
He looked so average. Heavy cheeks, thinning hair, a big nose, thick brows. More ugly than attractive, but not so much that he'd draw attention walking down the street. - Interlude 18.z - ↑ 15.0 15.1 He stared at me, the shadows of his eyes only barely visible behind the blue-green expanse of the concave mask he wore. The shadow cast by his hood didn't help. - Sting 26.3
- ↑ Cxaxakluth: His mask is white?
Ridtom: Uhh
Ridtom: I think?
Ridtom: No
Cxaxakluth: no?
Ridtom: Blue-Green glowish
Wildbow: LEDs to illuminate from within.
Wildbow: The inverse of the shadowy face beneath the hood.
Cxaxakluth: thanks bow - conversation on IRC, archived on Spacebattles - ↑ Eidolon was the opposite. He had lowered his hood and removed his glowing mask, revealing a middle-aged man with thick eyebrows, thinning hair and heavy cheeks. He looked more like an average family man who was getting dressed up as Eidolon for a costume party than he looked like Eidolon himself. - Excerpt from Interlude 14.y
- ↑ Eidolon. I couldn't tell if he was unattractive by nature or if it was just mild deformations. He looked so small, so below average. - Scourge 19.5
- ↑ "Make it dramatic enough that they can see from a distance, or stay alive so we can get the logs off the cameras you're wearing."
"I'll try to oblige," Eidolon said, his voice dry. - Interlude 27.x - ↑ “Eidolon can hold onto about three serious powers at a time,” Tecton said. “If he’s packing flying, danger sense and gravity manipulation, that’s it. Sometimes he does four, but two or three of them are usually pretty minor. Enhanced accuracy, whatever.” - Excerpt from Queen 18.7
- ↑ Eidolon – Third member of the Protectorate’s ‘Triumvirate’. Eidolon has the ability to use any power he needs at a given point in time, maintaining a set of two to four powers at a time. Adopting a new power is not immediate, but after minutes, his abilities with that power grow to the point they rival or surpass veteran users of the same abilities. - Cast in Depth
- ↑ Hydrargentium Hg: It’s seems rather clear to me that Eidolon is a highly unimaginative person. Back when Scion showed up, I got the impression that the look of derision he gave Eidolon was not directed at him as a member of the rest of the human race, but as a being with so much power, but without the wherewithal to find a way to stop Leviathan. I’m sure each one of us could come up with 1001 uses of Eidolon’s power to stop people like Leviathan and Siberian. The fact that Eidolon can’t suggests he’s more suited to wearing suits and having pointy hair in a classic Dilbertian workplace than to being a superhero.
Wildbow: That, or his power has a catch. 😉 - Excerpt from Plague 12.4 - ↑ "Eidolon's power… he chooses what powers he gets?"
"He gets the powers he needs," Dispatch said. "He can be receptive to new ones, hold tighter to ones he wants to keep, but that's it." - Excerpt from Crushed 24.4 - ↑ 24.0 24.1 Some people don't believe it's the case, saying that Scion only said it because it was a way to blow Eidolon's mind. Some say it was truth.
But Eidolon's power gives him what he needs. Scion says Eidolon needed worthy opponents. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit - ↑ “I’m losing my powers. Slowly but surely. If this goes much further, mankind may lose this war.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Against the Endbringers, there are really only two individuals who can stop them, drive them away. Scion is one. I’m another. Each of us is worth a hundred other capes, if not more. I’m not boasting when I say this. But my powers are getting weaker every day, little by little. Whatever vast, improbably deep well parahumans tap into to use abilities, I suspect mine is running dry.” - Excerpt from 18.z (Donation Interlude #3; Jessica Yamada, Therapist) - ↑ “You want another booster shot?”
“Probably another Endbringer attack coming up, it’s best if I’m in top form.” - Excerpt from Interlude 14.y - ↑ The flickering. Was that some variant on Scapegoat’s power? More broad? Paging through realities to find the state he wanted to be in? Uninjured, dressed?
There were a lot of ugly possibilities with that one. Could he affect how he was accessing powers? -Excerpt from Scourge 19.6 - ↑ "Can you tell me why you call me the High Priest, before I put my life in your hands?"
[...]
"Some lead by logic, by law, by order and organization. Others lead by the abstract. By faith and the imagination of the public. Yes?"
"You're talking about leading… the passengers, the agents?"
"Naturally so. Plotting, raising the faerie up as objects for worship. They are chosen, cultivated, as the situation demands, to suit the world outside, to best manipulate it. The pantheon in the temple."
"Me. I'm this temple?"
She nodded. "Mmm." - Excerpt from Interlude 27.x - ↑ Venom 29.7
- ↑ Around the time that they were a group, they were simply 'the Protectorate' or 'the guys at the top'. You could say, perhaps, that the loss of Hero splintered the team. They didn't hate each other or resent each other, but it was about time, and served as the catalyst to the group each going to their own individual cities - New York, LA, & Houston. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit
- ↑ In the aftermath, he gets a lion's share of the credit in the Endbringer defeat like Eidolon did with the Simurgh in Madison. - Comment by wildbow on Reddit
- ↑ Excerpt from Extermination 8.3
- ↑ Excerpt from Extermination 8.5
- ↑ Interlude 24.x
- ↑ Sting 26.3
- ↑ Extinction 27.5
- ↑ Venom 29.2
- ↑ Excerpt from interlude 27.y
- ↑ Cockroaches 28.2
- ↑ Cockroaches 28.4
- ↑ Teneral e.5
- ↑ Tinkering takes time and brainpower. Eidolon ~could~ get into it, but his power swaps out often enough that it's not worthwhile, and he could just get a power to do much the same thing. GU has ghosts like Bakuda, but they operate distinctly from one another, and don't really merge specialties. Generally it's going to be the same as Eidolon - she'll have one spirit provide the materials and her bakuda spirit puts it together into something slapdash, and that's what she uses. Anything else is arguably a waste of time, unless she's fabricating specialized materials or gear for her costume or whatever else. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit
| Leader | Doctor Mother † |
|---|---|
| Members | Alexandria † • Balminder ‡ • Contessa ‡ • The Clairvoyant ‡ • The Custodian ‡ • Doormaker † • Eidolon † • Harbinger Clones ‡ (Harbinger I ‡ • Harbinger II ‡ • Harbinger III ‡ • Harbinger IV ‡ • Harbinger V ‡) • Hero † • Legend ‡ • William Manton ‡ • The Number Man ‡ • Pretender † • The Slug † |
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