Scion, also known as Zion, is the avatar of a higher power.
Personality
To better interact and simulate humans,[3] the Warrior Entity created a facsimile of a human mind, which gave him a human mind linked to the alien's true self. He had never experienced any loss or hardship, and was correspondingly immature.[4]
Scion travels from place to place at supersonic speed, helping people. He doesn't seem to rest or take breaks.[5][6] He would follow Kevin Norton's instructions - save orphans in wars, fight the Endbringers, stop fires and natural disasters. He would also act to prevent things which would kill large numbers of people and prevent shards from finding hosts.[7] This included being polite to people it met.[8] He could be overly literal in interpreting Norton's suggestions, but didn't always follow them to the letter.[9] The heroes had no way to contact him, having to simply hope that he would notice when they were in a dire situation and intervene.[10][6]
He would destroy Damaged Shards on sight.[8]
Although his face is expressionless, he somehow communicates emotion to others. When he first appeared, he radiated sadness.[5][9] He seemed to radiate disgust when looking at Eidolon.[11]
Scion used precognition to follow a path that led to reuniting with Eden, not anticipating the possibility that what he would find was her corpse.[12][13]
Appearance
Scion appears as a burnished gold man with long hair[5][14] and a short beard.[9][14] He had no body hair.[5] His eyes were the same featureless gold as the rest of his body.[9] He glowed with a golden light that caused water to wick off his hair and body, and cleaned and dried his clothing. It left a brief trail in the air when he flew.[9]
His expression never changes, but onlookers somehow perceive his emotions anyway (see above), which often leads them to describe him as looking sad.[5][9]
When he first appeared, he was naked. At some point, he donned clothing. At first, a sheet worn over one shoulder and pinned at either side of the waist, then more conventional clothes.[5] In 1999, he donned a white bodysuit[9][14][5] extending to his biceps and toes.[9] He doesn't wear shoes or gloves,[15] but his costume did include a plain white cape.[14] His clothing was often filthy, but would slowly but surely clean itself over time, causing the stains to fade as dirt and particles were pushed out of the fabric.[14][9]
Abilities and Powers
Scion was considered the most powerful individual in the world.[11] His powers were so strong that they put him "head and shoulders" above everyone else, with the exception of the Endbringers.[16] He was even powerful enough to defeat an Endbringer,[6][17] the only hero who could do so except for Eidolon.[18]
After sacrificing most of his shards to grant powers to humans, he retained those powers that he would need to defend Earth should he have to fight. He relies on a limited store of energy to use these powers, meaning some can only be used sparingly.
Stilling
Scion's primary power is the power to negate any kind of wavelength using his golden light. This effect is extremely versatile; it can be used to disintegrate matter, slow or stop motion, and negate the effects of specific powers. Stilling can be fired as beams, orbs, or area bursts, used as a force field, or transmitted by touch.[19] When used offensively, the effect lingers, continuing to eat away at the target after the initial attack. Offensive blasts range greatly in power, from thin beams to continent-destroying blasts.[19][20] Using this power disturbed electronics.[21][22]
Flight
Scion can fly at immense speeds as an application of his general golden light aura.[21] At his fastest, he was able to fly to the other side of the world in less than a minute.[22] He left a short golden trail in the air.[9]
Senses
Scion can sense everything around him through unknown means. He appears to have control over the range of his senses, and can see into other universes if he chooses.[8] He can also use the senses of parahumans, since they carry his shards.[23]
Super-Strength
Scion has superhuman strength, sufficient to lift Behemoth several hundred feet into the air.[24]
Regeneration
Scion's body is only an extension of a vastly larger being. Any damaged tissue is replaced within a fraction of a second by undamaged tissue from the main body. This happens so fast it is almost impossible to tell he was ever injured.[25][26]
Partial Power Immunity
Scion is immune to certain types of powers. His actions cannot be predicted with precognition,[27] his powers cannot be copied, and powers cannot directly interfere with his mind in any way. In addition, his multiple senses make him very difficult to blind or mislead for any period of time.[citation needed]
Scion can "tune" his defenses to defend against specific powers (see Stilling.)
Path to Victory
Scion can learn what actions he must take to achieve a specific goal. Unlike Contessa, he can use this power in any situation, but it drains him and he has to use it sparingly. This ability costs him a lot of lifespan to use.[2]
Worldshifting
Scion can move through alternate universes.[22][28] If necessary, he can also attack objects in other universes.[29]
Visions
Scion can transmit visions of himself and his memories to parahumans via his shards.[30]
History
Background
The Warrior creates an extension of himself in the shape of the host species. He waits for a year before realizing that something has gone wrong. Stepping into the target reality, he sees his shards raining down alongside the shards of his counterpart. He destroys them on sight and then expands his perception across the world and other realities. The Warrior learns that the Thinker is dead and realizes that he cannot complete the cycle. He experiences a deep, profound sadness for the first time.
On May twentieth, 1982,[5] Scion notices a vehicle approaching and how the people begin to communicate with each other and worship him. He sees one of the Thinker's shards taking root in one of the passengers, that the man is dying of a systemic issue in his body, and kills the cells responsible for causing the disease.[8] This also cured the man's sister.[5] Then, he turned away from the crowd and flew away.
He then spent years wandering the world, observing.[9]
Scion was later approached by Kevin Norton. Kevin threw one of his shoes at him before charging at him and beating at his chest. Kevin shouted at him, saying that he didn't deserve his power before demanding to know what he had to be sad about. He then told the Warrior that he didn't deserve to be miserable and then told him to go do something with his power: save orphans from wars, save people from burning buildings, clean up after disasters, and etc. Kevin suggested that it might help him feel less miserable and the Warrior considered his words. He decided that it could be something he could do and then took flight.
For years, Scion followed Kevin's instructions,[8] faster and faster. By the middle of the 1990s, he was traveling from crisis to crisis, flying faster than the speed of sound.[5] He would regularly return to Norton and listen to him, both giving instructions on how to better save people and to his thoughts on life.[9] In 1999,[5] he was given a white bodysuit and was told to keep it clean.[9]
Then, Scion came across a burning town and began to exterminate each source of heat. He lowered himself to get a better shot at the library and came into contact with a woman who asked him his name. It remembered the story that Kevin had told it once and then answered her, telling her that his name was "Zion" though she misheard it as "Scion".[8] This was caught on camera, and was the only time Scion was known to have spoken.[5]
At some point, Scion reacted to a nuclear test in the same way he had been reacting to paramilitary groups in Africa and the Middle East, shooting down a test missile and destroying the launch facility. This quietly convinced nuclear powers that Scion would intervene, effectively ending the Cold War.[7]
After Behemoth first attacked, Norton saw on TV that he had flown right past the monster to come visit him. He told Scion to help the heroes fight the Endbringers.[9][31]
Story Start
Scion appeared at the Battle against Leviathan, driving the creature away.
Post-Echidna
Scion was told to begin killing the Endbringers by Kevin Norton when he realized he had merely been fighting them, not trying to stop them. He destroyed Behemoth, but was unable to defeat the other Endbringers once they adopted new tactics.
Post-Timeskip
Was attacked by Gray Boy, broke free, then started listening to Jack Slash.
| Heavy spoilers for the final chapters | |
Gold MorningJack Slash successfully convinced him to instead seek joy through destruction, leading to the events of the Gold Morning, and the deaths of Eidolon, Grue, and billions of others. He was eventually killed through the combined efforts of thousands of parahumans under the command of Khepri, after being distracted by Oliver of the Travelers and then fatally shot by a Tinker-tech weapon operated by Defiant. |
Quotes
Trivia
- Scion's role in the story was largely unchanged from how his character was originally conceived.[33]
Fanart Gallery
References
- ↑ Capes with the ‘breaker’ classification were generally those who had some ability to ‘break’ the natural laws of the universe as far as those laws applied to them. Shadow Stalker was one. Scion was apparently another. - Excerpt from Sentinel 9.2
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 He maintains a toolkit
[...]
thinker abilities to understand complex ideas/languages, the precog ability that costs him a lot of lifespan to use, and a bunch of other stuff I can't be arsed to name, as I said above. - Wildbow on Spacebattles - ↑ In seeking to understand the host creatures, the entity had coded shards to emulate them. It is those same shards that experience the entity’s first ever emotion. -Excerpt from Interlude 26.x
- ↑ He’s got our general biological makeup. He thinks, he feels, he dreams, he hurts, but it’s all buried so far under mounds and mounds and mounds of power and security, it doesn’t really supplant him. It’s never been exposed to the real world, really, so the human side of him hasn’t matured or developed. - Venom 29.3
- ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 Gestation 1.x
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 We were hoping for Scion. The first cape, the golden skinned man. The guy that could go toe to toe with an Endbringer and win, if things hadn't already gone too far south. [...] The problem with waiting on Scion was that the guy wasn't exactly in touch with the rest of us. There was speculation he had at least one human contact – someone that had given him clothing and a costume, at least – but he never bothered to stop long enough for anyone to pass on any requests, to tell him to go to X place when we gave him Y signal. He rescued people twenty-four-seven, three hundred and sixty five days a year, handling crises only as they came to his attention, which meant that sometimes an Endbringer came and Scion was wholly occupied with saving sinking ships, stopping landslides and putting out housefires. - Extermination 8.4
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Comment by Wildbow (archived on Spacebattles)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 Interlude 26
- ↑ 9.00 9.01 9.02 9.03 9.04 9.05 9.06 9.07 9.08 9.09 9.10 9.11 9.12 9.13 Excerpt from Interlude 18.x Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "18.x" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ We stall, from here on out we prioritize survival over putting this abomination down, and we fucking pray that Scion notices there's an Endbringer around and shows up before this city and everyone in it is a memory. - Extermination 8.3
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Scion paused, turning to look at Eidolon, his eyes moving past Bitch and me like we weren't even there. His eyes settled on the hero, the most powerful individual in the world staring at the man who was arguably the fifth.
His expression was so hard to read. I knew, now, what people had meant, when they said they thought his face was a mask, a facade. Though it was expressionless, though there was nothing I could point to to explain why I felt the way I did, somehow I sensed disgust from him. Like nobility looking at dog shit. - Extermination 8.5 - ↑ He looked for futures where he'd find his counterpart, I thought. This was one of them… just not what he wanted or expected. Probably not even something he thought was possible. - Venom 29.8
- ↑ "The biggest thing," I said, "Was that Scion was wrong. He can see the path to victory, and from the vision we saw, we know that he can make mistakes. He plotted for a future that would be sure to reunite him and his partner… and he got his wish. It was just that his partner was brain-dead, gutted, useless." - Venom 29.9
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 Extermination 8.5
- ↑ Wildbow on Reddit
- ↑ 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. - Extermination 8.1
- ↑ Extermination 8.5
- ↑ Against the Endbringers, there are really only two individuals who can stop them, drive them away. Scion is one. I'm another. - Interlude 18.z
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 Scion equipped himself to be able to fight pretty much any threat. His big weapon is a very versatile 'stilling' ability, which lets him cancel out wavelengths, which can be applied in a variety of ways, defensive or offensive - it lets him counteract, manipulate, and cancel virtually any parahuman or human generated effect. He can cancel out heat, eliminate sound, break Grey Boy's ability, disintegrate molecular bonds, etc. He can do so with beams, thrown orbs/bullets, a light he emanates, and a personal forcefield, among a variety of other mechanisms. - Wildbow on Spacebattles
- ↑ He came out swinging, obliterating two continents on two different worlds before he found us. - Excerpt from Speck 30.5
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 When Scion uses his power it disturbs electronics. Its why when he flies you can't track him unless its with your eyes. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.y
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Extinction 27.4
- ↑ He viewed the scene, as he viewed all of the scenes, through the senses of the fragments that had gone ahead, of fragments that had arrived after he had. They were embedded in hosts, which meant he viewed things through the eyes of the host, and through the abilities the hosts expressed. - Venom 29.2
- ↑ Interlude 24.x
- ↑ Eidolon used his matter creation power. As with the Faerie Queen's monster of steel, this was derived from a single point, an expanding creation of matter. In this case, however, it was an explosion. Carbon unfolded from a single point. Eidolon chose Scion's right ear canal as the center point.
The carbon expanded as a sphere, and there was a glimmer of Scion's reaction as the orb expanded until it was a hundred feet across. A distortion, golden flesh stretching.
Blood?
The sphere dropped towards the ocean like a comically large cannonball, and Scion advanced. Intact, unhurt. - Interlude 27.x - ↑ "Because we aren't hurting him," I spoke my thoughts aloud. We haven't touched him.
"We're hurting him," she said. "Kind of like how people hurt Gavel. He's… he's got a defense, not making him invincible, but making him a living portal. So you hurt him, and faster than you can do anything, he just swaps out the damaged material for material from… this bottomless well." - Venom 29.2 - ↑ "The first way, you've got to be basically immune to powers. Scion is. He's immune to precognition, throws everything out the window when he shows up. I saw it when he fought the Simurgh. She couldn't automatically dodge his stuff, because she either couldn't read his mind or she couldn't see the attacks before they happened. So he hit her, a bunch of times. I saw it." - Migration 17.8
- ↑ 27.x (Interlude, Eidolon)
- ↑ Scion blasted the cliff faces, but his golden light only affected the cliff on this earth. The moment he stopped, more emerged.
He stopped to strike again, this time obliterating the cliff faces on this Earth and the one in the other reality. - Excerpt from 27.x (Interlude, Eidolon) - ↑ Venom 29.2
- ↑ Scion came before the Endbringers. He was the first to make themselves known.
If he hadn’t come before the Endbringers, the world probably wouldn’t be standing. - Comment in Snare 13.9 - ↑ Pinkhair:
Something’s been bothering me for a while. Why did they assume that his answer was ‘Scion,’ a non-Russian word. If he understood the question, why would he be assumed to correctly answer in another language?
Heck, maybe he was claiming to be Psionic(Psion). Or a Dan Brown style fictional descendant of Christ(Sion). With hesitation and pauses, it might have been one or multiple words…
Perhaps a better question is, IS that what the world assumes, or is that not the prevailing theory throughout the world? I can imagine the Russians having a different view.
Probably shouldn’t be thinking about this near 7 am on a work day.
wildbow:
It’s a prevailing theory, helped by the fact that English is a language that reaches across the globe.
Still, it’s funny you mention that… 😉 - conversation on Interlude 1.x - ↑ Yes. Before the vast majority of the characters you know were even conceptualized, Scion was to be the bad guy. - Wildbow on reddit