Endbringers

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{{#if:Crushed 24.4|

“	The Endbringers were something we all understood. A fact of reality, something that touched everyone, struck a chord of fear in cape and civilian alike.	”
{{#if:Crushed 24.4| —Crushed 24.4{{#if:|, {{{3}}}}} }} }}

The Endbringers are monstrous beings that take turn attacking locations around the globe to cause as much damage as they possibly can. Apparently unkillable, the Endbringers retreat to their respective domains to heal after they have sustained sufficient damage, only to attack again months later.

Biology

According to Tattletale’s power, the Endbringers were never human and have no vulnerable organs. Rather, the Endbringers appear to be made out of some type of a crystalline material. In addition, they consist of about 200 layers in the main body and 33 in the limbs, each one approximately twice as hard as the previous one. These layers surround its core, the only part of its body that is actually vital.

An Endbringer's skin is "hard as aluminum alloy, but flexible"; and its strength, toughness, and healing factor increase exponentially. 3% deeper in toward core of arms, legs, claws, tail, or .5% in toward core of head, trunk, neck, tissues are hard as steel. The tensile strength of the material roughly doubles with each layer, every 0.5% of the way towards the center of his body and every 3% of the way toward the center of their extremities; Wildbow has confirmed <ref>Wildbow on reddit</ref><ref>Wildbow on reddit (again)</ref> that "extremities would take 30 trillion atmospheres of pressure to damage." The core of an Endbringer would require around five hundred and sixty novemdecillion<ref>definition of novemdecillion</ref> MPA of pressure; in practice, only parahumans capable of breaking the laws of physics can seriously harm an Endbringer.<ref>Who would Win?:JLA vs. Endbringers</ref>

However, a concentrated attack with enough force to destroy the surface of a planet would be sufficient at killing an Endbringer in one shot.<ref>The whole "planet-busting beam" was a translation error. All it really meant was that it would destroy all life on the surface.

Punch that counters said beam & strikes like that one did is still good enough. - Wildbow Comment on Reddit</ref> While even an attack of that magnitude would not destroy all layers of the Endbringer body, enough energy to obliterate it instantly would be transmitted into the core, resulting in a 'definite kill'. In theory String Theory's Driver weapons pose a significant threat to the Endbringers. As a consequence they carefully plan their appearances as to eliminate any possibility of facing her in combat.<ref name="RC">Not going to happen in any incarnation of the Wormverse, or Behemoth would be built stronger to counteract (Or, as in the case of String Theory, Endbringer cooperation/timing would keep her from ever being able to set up a proper hit). - Wildbow Comment on Reddit</ref> Projectiles affected by Flechette's power would be able to destroy an Endbringer's core.<ref>Nekron-akaMrSkeletal:
I guess that works. I was actually wondering about sting. If Foil had been at the behemoth fight could she have finished behemoth when his core was exposed?

Wildbow:
Yep. - Reply by Wildbow on Reddit</ref>

Due to their density, Endbringers are immune to most teleporters. They count as living matter for the purposes of the Manton Effect.<ref>He can’t be teleported. Too dense for most people who teleport living things. - Discussion on Extermination 8.4</ref><ref>Discussion on Extermination 8.4</ref> Endbringer cores employ space-warping that interferes with some powers.<ref>Wildbow on reddit yet again</ref> When they take damage they leak a thick ichor-like substance, suggesting a non-standard cardiac system. Their nervous system is also foreign enough to prevent body control powers from working.<ref>“Educated guess says your power doesn’t work so hot on him,” she told Regent, as the two of them backed away.

“Fuck, no. If I can do something, my power’s probably gonna backfire like crazy, and I think that bastard’s quick enough that he’s not about to fall flat on his face.”

Tattletale glanced at where Skitter was hurrying to assist one of the wounded. Even knowing Taylor was out of earshot, she was careful to lower her voice, “And I guess your secret weapon isn’t going to work either?”

“Take two or three times as long, probably, if it worked at all,” Regent grumbled. “Fuck, I’m useless.” - Excerpt from Interlude 8.y</ref> They regenerate quickly as well, even in the middle of a battle. The deeper layers regenerate faster because the material from the intact layers expands to fill in any damaged or missing areas.

Known Endbringers

Behemoth

Main article: Behemoth

Behemoth — also known as "Hadhayosh" and "Prathama" — was the first Endbringer to appear, making its first appearance in the Marun Field of Iran on December 13, 1992<ref name="24.x">Interlude 24.x</ref>. It has the ability to manipulate multiple forms of energy (electrical, thermal, kinetic, and etc.) while bypassing the Manton Effect. Because of this, it gained a reputation as the 'hero killer,' possessing a high body count at short range.

Leviathan

Main article: Leviathan

Leviathan — also known as "Jormungand" or "Jörmungandr" — appeared in Oslo, Norway on June 9, 1996.<ref name="spoiler-free">Cast (spoiler-free)</ref> It has macro-hydrokinesis, speed, and a water "afterimage" that follows behind it and moves as fast as Leviathan itself. It was known for causing immense environmental damage, devastating areas such as Newfoundland and Kyushu to the point of uninhabitability.

The Simurgh

Main article: Simurgh

The Simurgh — also known as "Ziz"<ref name="spoiler-free"/> — appeared in Lausanne, Switzerland on December 30, 2002<ref name="24.x" />. It has psionic abilities, precognition, and the ability to draw on Tinker powers around it in order to build its own Tinker devices. The Simurgh is known to adjust the events in places it attacks to set up the survivors to be "walking disasters" that happen days, months, or even years after. Affected areas were quarantined to try and mitigate these effects, such as in the case of Madison, Wisconsin.

Khonsu

Main article: Khonsu

Following the death of Behemoth, the existing Endbringers seemed to change tactics, while new Endbringers appeared, apparently with a different purpose.<ref name="RJ2">The remaining three Endbringers are more distraction than anything else. They were created for a different paradigm and purpose. - Wildbow on Reddit</ref> The first of these was Khonsu, which appeared in Japan on January 20, 2012. It has the ability to create circular fields that trap people inside. People from the outside see the field as increasing the speed of time, but it passes normally to those inside. It also has world-wide teleportation abilities.

Tohu and Bohu

Main article: The Twins

Tohu and Bohu appeared in Bucharest, Romania on October 10, 2012. Bohu manipulates the battlefield, setting up traps for defending parahumans and manipulating the area in a set pattern. Tohu chooses three capes and then copies their powers to defend its "sister" Bohu.

Timeline of Attacks

Date	Endbringer	Location
1992-12-13<ref name="interlude24">Excerpt from Interlude 24.x</ref>	Behemoth	Marun Field, Iran
1993-07-06<ref name="interlude24" />	Behemoth	São Paulo, Brazil
1994-03-26<ref name="interlude24" />	Behemoth	New York, USA
1994-11-01<ref name="interlude24" />	Behemoth	Jakarta, Indonesia
1995-06-18<ref name="interlude24" />	Behemoth	Moscow, Russia
1996-01-03<ref name="interlude24" />	Behemoth	Johannesburg, South Africa
1996-06-09<ref name="interlude24" />	Leviathan	Oslo, Norway
1996-11-06<ref name="interlude24" />	Behemoth	Cologne, Germany
1997-04-23<ref name="interlude24" />	Leviathan	Busan, South Korea
1997-09-30<ref name="interlude24" />	Behemoth	Buenos Aires, Argentina
1998-01-18<ref name="interlude24" />	Leviathan	Sydney, Australia
1998-07-03<ref name="interlude24" />	Behemoth	Jinzhou, China
1998-12-25<ref name="interlude24" />	Leviathan	Madrid, Spain
1999-07-21<ref name="interlude24" />	Behemoth	Ankara, Turkey
1999-11-02<ref name="interlude24" />	Leviathan	Kyushu, Japan
2000-04-10<ref name="interlude24" />	Behemoth	Lyon, France
2000-09-16<ref name="interlude24" />	Leviathan	Naples, Italy
2001-02-25<ref name="interlude24" />	Behemoth	Vanderhoof, Canada
2001-07-06<ref name="interlude24" />	Leviathan	Hyderabad, India
2001-12-06<ref name="interlude24" />	Behemoth	Lagos, Nigeria
2002-04-23<ref name="interlude24" />	Leviathan	Shanghai, China
2002-08-20<ref name="interlude24" />	Behemoth	Bogotá, Colombia
2002-12-30<ref name="interlude24" />	Simurgh	Lausanne, Switzerland
2003-04-01<ref name="interlude24" />	Leviathan	Seattle, USA
2003-08-12<ref name="interlude24" />	Simurgh	London, UK
2003-10-03<ref name="interlude24" />	Behemoth	Lyon, France
data unavailable
2005-05-09<ref>Excerpt from Extermination 8.2</ref>	Leviathan<ref>"To Armsmaster, the Guild and the rest of the PRT, Dragon was a woman from Newfoundland who had moved to Vancouver after Leviathan had attacked.", Excerpt from Interlude 10.5</ref>	Newfoundland, Canada
data unavailable
2009-12-21<ref>Migration 17.1</ref><ref>It was the day before Christmas Eve, Krouse remembered. - Migration 17.7</ref>	Simurgh	Madison, USA
data unavailable
late 2010?<ref>“I fought Behemoth too, few months before. Kind of. Mostly did search and rescue. Difference between that and this is that we’re more like rats when going up against a fucking Endbringer. We’re vermin in comparison to them, but we’re vermin that can take bites out of them. Get enough rats together and they’ll take down a human, no matter how well equipped that human is.” - Excerpt from Extinction 27.3</ref>	Behemoth	???
2011-02-24<ref name="scarab25.6">Excerpt from Scarab 25.6</ref>	Simurgh	Canberra, Australia
2011-05-15<ref name="scarab25.6" />	Leviathan	Brockton Bay, USA
2011-07-26<ref name="scarab25.6" />	Behemoth	New Delhi, India
2011-11-25<ref name="scarab25.6" />	Simurgh	Flight BA178, International waters North Atlantic
2012-01-20<ref name="scarab25.6" />	Khonsu	Indiscriminate
2012-04-02<ref name="scarab25.6" />	Leviathan	Lüderitz, Namibia
2012-06-05<ref name="scarab25.6" />	Simurgh	Manchester, UK
2012-08-15<ref name="scarab25.6" />	Leviathan	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2012-10-10<ref name="scarab25.6" />	Tohu/Bohu	Bucharest, Romania
2012-12-19<ref name="scarab25.6" />	Simurgh	Paris, France
2013-02-05<ref name="scarab25.6" />	Khonsu	Indiscriminate
2013-05-17<ref name="scarab25.6" />	Tohu/Bohu	Los Angeles, USA

History

Background

The first Endbringer, Behemoth, appeared in 1992 in the Marun oil field of Iran, beginning a series of attacks at various locations worldwide, spaced out by several months. The appearance of Behemoth was a major factor towards the creation of the PRT, which labelled the Endbringer as Case 2 in their case files.<ref>Case two was Behemoth, his rise had incited the creation of the PRT.

[...]

The first cases had inspired things, major functions and interests. Committees had been formed and those committees had become something. Even though a whole chunk of the early ones were minor or fabrications in the end, the virus theory included, they’d led to things like a dedicated parahuman science department.</ref> For the Quattuorvirate, the presence of Behemoth, as well as the potential for future capes of his caliber, was also a major motivating factor for the formation of their team and the continued work of Cauldron.<ref>“The point we’re getting around to,” Alexandria spoke, “Is that even if the Doctor can get better results with time and effort, the explosion in the natural parahuman population is inevitably going to produce an individual with powers that outstrip our own.” - Excerpt from Interlude 15</ref>

Over the next several years, the Endbringer attacks continued to escalate. Once Behemoth began to be "too predictable," the second Endbringer, Leviathan, appeared in 1996, in Oslo, Norway.<ref name="I24y 1">“It’s okay to worry,” Tecton said. He gestured towards Weaver. “Weaver said as much. They’ve got a nasty habit of escalating, in the fights themselves and in the grand scheme of things. Behemoth got too predictable, so Leviathan started to show up. We started to coordinate defenses, get the world on board to deal with them, Simurgh comes.”

“And now we killed one, so how do they escalate from there?” Grace asked.

“It’s a concern,” Tecton said, “And it’s one that people all around the world are going to be discussing. Rely on them. Don’t take the full weight of the world onto your shoulders. We fought, you guys made a good show of it,” Tecton said. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.y</ref> Worldwide defense efforts began to coordinate forces against Endbringer attacks; apparently in response to these efforts, in 2002, the third Endbringer, the Simurgh, made her first appearance, appearing docile at first before attacking and revealing herself to be an Endbringer.<ref>"It’s what happened in… what was that place called? Lausanne? Switzerland. She showed up, and nobody wanted to pick a fight with her, and they were curious, so they studied her, and tried to communicate with her. Tons of people gathered. Then she… sang? Screamed? Whatever this is. There was chaos, people didn’t know what was happening, so they weren’t able to evacuate that well. Roads clogged. And then they started flipping out...." - Excerpt from Migration 17.3</ref><ref name="I24y 1" />

Over the next decade, the Endbringers continued their worldwide attacks, creating immense destruction.

Impact

The Endbringers have killed countless people in their attacks and wiped out several notable heroes. They have caused demographic and political shifts and environmental degradation on a scale not seen outside natural disasters. In addition to the physical damage and loss of civilian lives, their attacks have had the effect of killing or otherwise removing parahumans who served as luminaries and leaders willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good, perhaps contributing to more prevalent cynicism and hopelessness in the general population.<ref name="15.5 c1">Fantastic question, and one I’m not sure I can give a fantastic answer to.

Why is that? Well, primarily, there’s the issue of trying to quantify ‘damage’. As stated in Legend’s pre-battle speech (early in arc 8) there’s almost always grievous losses but they aren’t always the same sort of losses.

You have the events that left the world reeling: Lausanne, Hawaii, Kyushu, Newfoundland, Moscow, Sydney. The attacks that left major areas uninhabitable or unrecoverable, with wide-reaching effects on the rest of the country/region/world. In this setting, for example, Japan isn’t a world power and it’s still dependent on international assistance 12 years after Leviathan’s visit to Kyushu.

But even there, where do you say, “Ok, that’s the sum total of the damage done”? The disaster at Kyushu, the number of refugees seeking living space/work and the pressures on the rest of Asia’s pacific border might have led to some more unrest and tension. Some friction, some ‘small’ wars, infighting and intermingling. Refugees and immigrants. Many settle in major cities across America because President Bradley’s Preservation Act gives them a hand in getting on their feet.

Do you factor that last point into the damage as well? Lung comes to Brockton Bay in part because of the booming population of Asian immigrants (which hasn’t yet set down roots). Bakuda was born to a Westerner mother and Immigrant father. Do you count the damage they’ve done? Ditto for Mannequin and the Simurgh.

But that’s only the major hits, the broad strokes of the brush and all the repercussions/spatter that follows from that. Attacks end in other ways, for example. Legend mentions mass loss of life. There’s economic damage that follows from that, disease and explosions in the population of vermin when a quarter million people die in a concentrated area.

There’s the deaths of countless heroes, and how that biases things further towards the general villain population. If the selfless throw their lives away for the greater good and it’s primarily the selfish (or the very powerful) who are left, how does that skew things?

And I should stress that weak points aren’t necessarily just areas which are geographically vulnerable. There’s places where there’s ongoing conflict (like we might point to the middle east over the past decade), places where it takes little effort on the part of the Endbringer to deal maximum devastation (ie. a nuclear power plant, military bases) and spots where a great many resources are invested (be they great minds collected in one place or major projects like Dr. Gramme’s major projects in trying to save the world). Did anyone else catch the mention of the water crisis? Leviathan isn’t always attacking cities, and the world has only so much accessible freshwater.

I digress.

To answer your question in the general sense? Relatively few places have been hit as hard as the major examples listed above. But figure this has been going on for 20ish years. Behemoth shows up in the early 90’s, attacking once a year, roughly (twice in 1994), Leviathan shows up in the mid 90’s (now we’re up to 2-3 Endbringer attacks a year), and Simurgh comes in just after the turn of the century (now 3-4).

I mentioned in a comment during the Endbringer arc, but I said something like ‘Behemoth is the cape-killer and Leviathan levels cities’. Figure each Endbringer has attacked 16 to 20 times so far, account for the bias towards killing capes (Behemoth) vs. wiping out landscapes (Leviathan) and that Brockton Bay is pretty middle-of-the-road for the kind of aftermath you see, and maybe you can make an estimate.

Ballparking it? 8 or 9 Endbringer attacks in America over 20 years. - Comment by Wildbow on Colony 15.5</ref> Conversely, without the Endbringers there would be fewer parahumans than there would otherwise be, or a coordinated Cape community.<ref>Pandemonious Ivy [...] 9) Are there any internationally known capes of the beneficent variety, besides Scion, that aren’t affiliated with a group?

Wildbow: [...] 9) Not really, unless you count, say, a European cape in a geographical region with lots of individual, smaller countries as being ‘internationally known’. It’s a result of the Endbringers, related but not directly linked to the Protectorate. It’s not feasible/economical/efficient to contact a bunch of big-name solo operatives in a time of crisis and arrange to bring them to a specific location, so they either band together/gather others under them and fall in line with the basic preparations that have been set in place, or they fall by the wayside. - Comment by Wildbow on Imago 21.1</ref><ref>Shadow 5.10</ref>

Origins

Eden's simulation of an ideal future included 'superweapons' implied to be Endbringers. In the simulation, she attributed them to The Shepherds, pretending to The Wardens that she would help defend against them, but in reality she was their source.<ref name="I29 2" /> There were twenty such superweapons in total<ref name="I29 1" />, including:

• A fifteen-foot tall lion-headed figure surrounded by crystal, who turned whatever the crystal touched into more crystal.
• A woman with a reptilian lower body, surrounded by clouds of steam which took the form of faces, claws, and other forms.
• A naked man, perched on top of a seemingly frozen ocean wave, with a 'too flexible' body that swayed with the wind.<ref>A figure, fifteen feet tall, pale, with a lion’s head, a mane of crystal. Muscular, brutish, it was perched on a massive floating crystal, with more crystals floating about it. Here and there, the crystals touched ground. They turned what they touched into more crystal, which soon uprooted themselves to join the storm around it.
  
  A woman, even more brutish in appearance, had a reptilian lower body. Steam rolled off her in billowing clouds, taking uncanny forms as it coiled and expanded through the area. Faces, reaching claws and more.
  
  And on the third monitor, flecked by static, was a naked man, beautiful and long-haired, his face touched with a macabre grin. He perched on top of an ocean wave that was frozen in place, his body too flexible, moving with the wind as though he were light enough to be carried away. - Excerpt from Interlude 29</ref>
• Four superweapons at the 'Divide,' one to the north of the Wardens, and four others spread out around the world.<ref name="I29 1">“They’ve released three more of the superweapons,” Partisan said. “But of course, you know this.”
  
  “I do,” the entity responds.
  
  “This makes nine. Four are at the Divide. We’ve got one to the far north, poised to flank us. Four more spread out over the world.”
  
  “Maybe more we don’t know about,” Arsenal speaks.
  
  [...]
  
  The entity responded, feigning emotion, “…There are eleven more.”
  
  It could see the reaction among the gathered heroes of the Wardens. Fear, alarm, a kind of dawning horror. - Excerpt from Interlude 29</ref>

For the most part, these superweapons remained inactive, acting only when they sensed vulnerability.<ref name="I29 2">“Stationed around the world, at the borders of the stronger nations,” the entity informed the Wardens. “Like yours, they’re remaining more or less stationary, only attacking when they see weakness.”

“And you believe it is the Shepherds who are responsible?”

The entity shook its head. “I can’t know. You’ve seen for yourself, the powerful blocks they’ve put in place against powers. But enough clues point to the Shepherds.” - Excerpt from Interlude 29</ref>. The Wardens knew them to be projections, but otherwise information about their nature was unclear.<ref>“We know they’re projections,” Arsenal said, his eyes on the monitors. “Someone or something is projecting them. We cut off the head, the superweapons fall.”

“Yes,” the entity agreed. It didn’t miss the curious glance Arsenal gave it. - Excerpt from Interlude 29</ref> In feigning ignorance about her involvement with the superweapons and promising to help the Wardens with a potential war against the Shepherds, Eden likely intended the Endbringers to be used to incite conflict to further the goals of the Cycle, but after her death, this future did not come to pass.

Had Cauldron ceased to exist soon after killing Eden, the Endbringers would not have existed.<ref>Assuming that Cauldron's operatives maybe killed Eden but then just sat on their hands/died, the Endbringers don't exist, the cauldron vials aren't spread out, and there's less of the really powerful parahumans here and there who're capable of acting decisively. - Wildbow on Spacebattles</ref> The Endbringers began behaving strangely after Eidolon's death; this led Tattletale to speculate that Eidolon may have created them, perhaps inadvertently, or perhaps as an excuse to "flex his abilities to their fullest".<ref>"Let's face the facts, Simurgh. Ziz. Israfel. Ulama. Whatever you want to go by. You started acting funny pretty much right away, after Eidolon bit it. Maybe that's mourning. Maybe you respected him as an enemy, 'cause he was one of only two individuals who could really give you guys a run for your money. Or maybe you had a different relationship."

Tattletale let the words hang in the air.

"Maybe a parent-child relationship? Maybe he created you. [...] loneliness breeds the best masters, and it's awfully lonely at the top," Tattletale said. "Nobody that can really put up a fight, no excuse to flex his abilities to their fullest, nothing that can really give the man any real stature, next to Legend, who had all the face time with the media. No real role to play, compared to Alexandria, who was managing the PRT. Odd man out." - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.4</ref> She claimed to be "60% sure" of this conclusion.<ref>"He's really their creator?" Defiant asked. "Eidolon?"

"…Sixty percent sure. 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." - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.4</ref>

{{#if:Tattletale on the Endbringers <ref>Cockroaches 28.4</ref>|

“	The outer shell, the concept, the execution, they’re tapping into religious metaphors. The devil, the serpent, the angel, buddha, mother earth, the maiden, each connected in turn to fundamental forces. Flame, water, fate, time, earth, the self. Things deep-seated and fundamental to their creator’s belief system, because that’s how the passengers interpret our world. Through us. But deep down? Beyond that surface, beyond the basic programming that drives them to do what they’ve been doing for thirty years? It’s the passenger’s brush strokes.	”
{{#if:Tattletale on the Endbringers <ref>Cockroaches 28.4</ref>| —Tattletale on the Endbringers <ref>Cockroaches 28.4</ref>{{#if:|, {{{3}}}}} }} }}

The four words which Scion says to Eidolon in Interlude 27.y may confirm Tattletale's theory that Eidolon created or, given Eden's plans for her superweapons, merely awakened the Endbringers, but it is unknown whether Scion was telling the truth or just used the words in order to achieve his goal.<ref>“You needed worthy opponents.” - The entirety of Interlude 27.y</ref>

Gallery

• Error creating thumbnail: File missing
  Image by ImSkepticap on Deviantart
• Error creating thumbnail: File missing
  Leviathan by sandara on Deviantart
• Behemoth V Eidolon by sandara on Deviantart
  Behemoth V Eidolon by sandara on Deviantart
• The Simurgh by sandara on Deviantart
  The Simurgh by sandara on Deviantart
• Khonsu by Holocene on spacebattles
  Khonsu by Holocene on spacebattles
• Error creating thumbnail: File missing
  Tohu by DerTodesbote on DeviantArt
• Bohu by DerTodesbote on DeviantArt
  Bohu by DerTodesbote on DeviantArt
• Error creating thumbnail: File missing
  The Twins by Leila Hann on Spacebattles

Trivia

• A popular theory among some of the Worm fandom is that the Endbringers were once parahumans, who either snapped or couldn’t handle their powers, gotten out of control, transformed into gigantic monstrosities. With the full reveal of their origins this theory has been relegated to fanfiction.
  • The epilogue chapter Teneral e.4, however, does introduce a similar concept.

References

<references/>