Eidolon
<infobox> <title source="name"><default>Eidolon</default></title>
<image source="Image"></image> <image source="image"></image> <group><header>Basic Information</header> <label>Civilian Name</label> <label>Aliases</label> <label>Gender</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Death</label> <label>Age</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Post-timeskip</label> <label>Ward start</label> <label>Relations</label> <label>Family</label></group> <group><header>Professional Status</header> <label>Occupation</label> <label>Classification</label> <label>Unique Features</label> <label>Alignment</label>
<label>Status</label><format><label>Location</label> <label>Teams</label> <label>Previous Team(s)</label> <label>Base of Operations</label></group> <group><header>First Appearance</header> <label>Worm Debut</label> <label>Ward Debut</label></group> </infobox>
Eidolon is one of the founding members of the Protectorate and the leader of the Houston Protectorate. He is generally considered to be the fifth-strongest being on the planet, the first four being Scion and the Endbringers.
Personality
He's described as a quiet man, with a calm voice, brimming with 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. <ref name="I27"/>
Appearance
Eidolon wears a blue-green skintight suit with a hood and cape and with sleeves that drape over his hands. The interior of his hood and cape are filled with a green light.
When not dressed up as Eidolon, he is a middle aged man, with thick eyebrows, thinning hair and heavy cheeks, big nose and ears. Legend described him as looking "more like an average family man who was getting dressed up as Eidolon for a costume party than he looked like Eidolon himself." <ref> https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/10/13/interlude-14-5-bonus-interlude/ </ref>
Abilities and Powers
Eidolon has the ability to equip himself with a tremendous array of powers, but is limited to three to four at a time and the powers he chooses take time to build up strength.
His power, however, has been slowly weakening over time, which leads him to look for a sense of challenge, in order to find the untapped well of power he can feel when he's fighting. <ref> https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/interlude-18-donation-bonus-3/ </ref> He is later able to restore his power as he learns how to feed off the shards of other capes, advice given to him by Glaistig Uaine, who, in her own words, describes Eidolon's role as that of 'High Priest' - leading, cultivating and selecting the shards as the situation demands it.
Even though his power is one of the strongest, there are clues pointing to the conclusion that he doesn't have much control over it, limited to holding on and discarding various powers selected by his shard in accordance to what it perceives as what David needs, a thing which Eidolon himself describes as: "My life, always in the hands of greater powers."<ref name="I27">Interlude 27</ref>
History
Background
David was born with a severe illness and was confined to 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.<ref name="I27"/>
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.<ref>Comment by Wildbow on Reddit</ref>
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.<ref>https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-8-extermination/8-3/ </ref> After Scion makes the appearance Eidolon helps pin down Leviathan with the manipulation of the water, freezing it into walls around the Endbringer.<ref>https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/17/extermination-8-5/ </ref>
New Delhi
During the whole encounter he's noted as the one 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 malee powerset and a time bubble slowing down the 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 the 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 the Phir's Se light to an area surrounding the 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.<ref>https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/06/22/interlude-24/</ref>
Golden Morning
Eidolon participated in the oil-rig battle alongside the rest of the Triumvirate.<ref name="27.5">Extinction 27.5</ref> 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.<ref name="I27">Interlude 27</ref> Glaistig Uaine harvested Eidolon's shard.<ref name="29.2">Venom 29.2</ref>
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 are the words uttered by Scion and David's reaction to them: 'You needed worthy opponents'.<ref>https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/interlude-27b/ </ref> After Eidolon's death Simurgh, Khonsu, Tohu, Bohu and Leviathan began behaving in an erratic manner.<ref>Cockroaches 28.2</ref>
Similarly after The Undersiders and Protectorate approach Simurgh, Tattletale and Defiant discuss the topic: “He’s really their creator?” Defiant asked. “Eidolon?” , Tattle responds: “…Sixty percent sure."<ref>Cockroaches 28.4</ref>
The final clue is Simurgh's weapon, which after the Golden Morning contained a male fetus "With large ears and a large round nose. Not attractive, as babies went."<ref>https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/11/16/teneral-e-5/ "Something something" </ref>, which matches the general description of Eidolon.
Trivia
- "Eidolon" can mean an unsubstantial image, an ideal, or an idealized figure.
- It is possible that Eidolon created the Endbringers by tapping into the power that Eden would have used to create them because he "needed worthy opponents".
Fanart Gallery
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Image by pabelandnine.tumblr.com. -
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References
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