Epic

The Epics are a group of magical beings on Earth. They start appearing around the same time as the satellite Calamity. Every Epic has a weakness that invalidates their powers. When Epics gain their powers, they go through a period called the Rending, where they feel an overwhelming urge to destroy. When Epics die, mitochondrial mutation occurs in their bodies. When an Epic uses their powers, it corrupts them and turns them evil unless they can overcome their greatest fear. The source of an Epic's power is their DNA.
== High Epics ==
High Epics are Epics that have a prime invincibility. A prime invincibility is a power that makes conventional assassination methods useless. Some examples are regeneration, impervious skin, precognition, and self-reincarnation. 
=== Known High Epics ===
; Absence
: Absence was an Epic killed by the Reckoners around a year before they killed Steelheart. Their powers and weaknesses are unknown.
; Calamity
: Calamity is the highest of Epics. He has all the powers, and knows each intricately. Calamity also is a gifter, which allows him to gift some of his powers to people, creating Epics.
; Calling War
: The Reckoners attempted to kill Calling War, but failed and barely managed to escape using tensors. Their powers and weaknesses are unknown.
; Clapper
: Classified as High Epic due to his ability to warp air around him in a way which caused anything such as a spear or bullet to not go around him, but through him, without there being actual impact.
; Daystorm
: Daystorm was trapped and killed by the Reckoners. Their powers and weaknesses are unknown.
; Dead Drop
: Dead Drop could create decoys with the same consciousness and powers. When a decoy dies, the main host is unaffected, making Dead Drop a High Epic.
; Earless
: Earless was killed by the Reckoners. Their powers and weaknesses are unknown.
; Firefight
: Firefight is a member of Steelheart's elite three and his bodyguard. He is supposed to be a Fire Epic. David figured out that he is actually an illusion created by the real "Firefight" whose power is later revealed to actually be bringing different realities into the one he is in. i.e., Firefight being a fire-based Epic in a different dimension, and the Firefight in the book bringing a shadow of that alternate reality into his own dimension. Firefight was revealed to be Megan Tarash. She has reincarnation powers. Her weakness is fire, meaning if she is killed by fire, she will not reincarnate.
; Fortuity
: Fortuity has precognition powers. He can sense the future and danger. He also has secondary superhuman reflexes and dexterity. He was a moderately high-ranking Epic. He had a long face and hawkish nose. His weakness is that his danger sense is weakened in the presence of those he is attracted to. He was killed by Megan, who shot him at both sides of Fortuity while he was in the air. 
; Gyro
: Gyro was killed by the Reckoners. Their powers and weaknesses are unknown.
; Hawkham
: Hawkham has force redirection powers, much like Newton's. However, when he redirects bullets, they are ripped apart because of the change in momentum.
; Ides Hatred
: Ides Hatred went to Newcago to challenge Steelheart. They destroyed an entire city block in the battle. Steelheart was victorious. Their powers and weaknesses are unknown.
; Lifeforce
: Lifeforce is an Epic and the ruler of Lux, as well as the antagonist of the book of the same name. His powers are to transfer wounds that he has received to others, making him and his minions essentially immortal. He is also a gifter. 
; Lightning
: Lightning is an Epic in Snowfall's band in Sacramento. He was also a possible planned target of the Reckoners. Powers unknown, though it likely has to do with electricity or enhanced speed.
; Loophole
: Loophole is an Epic in Ildithia. She worked for Prof. Her power is size manipulation, which enabled her to shrink or grow anything she touched at will. Her weakness is sneezing. Although she is commonly thought of as a lesser Epic, David reconsidered her as a High Epic because of the way she shrunk bullets, preventing her from being too injured.
; Mitosis
: Mitosis, or Lawrence Robert, was able to make exact copies of himself. He split into two, each clone able to replicate itself. There is not a known limit of how many copies of himself he could make. If any copies of Mitosis exist, then he can still live. All the clones are connected and if one is killed they all know it. They can't share memories until they recombine. It was thought that the more copies that were made, the dumber they would get. That was proved false. When a copy was killed, the corpses decomposed into goo. The more clones that were created, the weaker their molecular structure holds together. Music from his pre-Calamity rock band, Weaponized Cupcakes, was his weakness and caused his copies to disintegrate. As of now, his power is assumed to be unique by the Reckoners. Mitosis came from Babylon Restored, while Prof and Cody had been in Babilar, a part of Babylon Restored, to find David and learn how Steelheart was killed.
; Newton
: Serves Regalia. Has a secondary power of increased speed. Unknown if she has a primary power, or if increased speed is her only one (which would make it her primary ability). Primary invincibility granted by protective fields which reflect any impact with equal force. As shown, this ability could also be used in a way that increased speed of transport, as when she jumps from building to building, the field bounces her back up, allowing for facilitated transport. Her weakness is being complimented, which disables her ability to reflect any impact.
; Night's Sorrow
: Considered to be as feared as Steelheart and Obliteration. Their powers are unknown.
; Nightwielder
: Nightwielder is a member of Steelheart's elite three. Nightwielder causes perpetual darkness. He is a physically shadowy figure with an incorporeal form. He can move through solid objects and control darkness. He is immune to gunfire or any type of weapon. He can control the mist of darkness he creates and solidify it. UV waves weaken him and make him corporeal. He has Asian features and black shoulder-length hair. The smell of phosphorus is a sign of him using his powers. He rarely speaks during business interactions. 
; Obliteration
: Serves Regalia. Obliteration is a high epic described as wearing a long, black trench coat, spectacles, and having a goatee. Obliteration's primary power is absorbing heat from sunlight or objects (living or inanimate.) He then stores this heat and is able to release it in a powerful burst. An example of him using this power is when he reportedly sat bare chested in the middle of the city of Houston for several days storing energy. He then proceeded to destroy the entire city by releasing all the heat at once in a single burst. A secondary power is enhanced strength. His primary invincibility is danger sense combined with teleportation. Frequently recites scripture, considering himself one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. His weakness is unknown, but he claims to have already surmounted it.
; Prof
: Jonathan Phaedrus, otherwise known as Prof, was revealed to be an Epic in Steelheart. He has two defensive abilities, both of which alone would classify him as High Epic. The first ability is regeneration, which allows rapid healing of any wound. The second defensive ability is forcefields, which can be formed at seemingly any size, and could have size regulated once already formed. The forcefields are impenetrable to anything, and can also be used to fly when stood on. His final ability is an offensive power, which allows him to dissolve and tunnel into solid objects. Prof is a Gifter Epic, and as a result can lend his abilities to Reckoners, which he disguises as technologies which he has created. Also known as Limelight. His weakness is a fear of failure.
; Redleaf
: Redleaf was an Epic in Canada who was killed by the Reckoners when Prof jumped from a helicopter and shot him. His powers and weaknesses are unknown.
; Shadowblight
: Shadowblight was killed by the Reckoners. Their powers and weaknesses are unknown.
; Sourcefield
: Real name was Emiline Bask. Killed by the Reckoners after she was sent to Newcago by Regalia in an attempt to draw Prof to Babylon Restored. Had the ability to control electricity. Surrounded by an aura of electricity which dissolved any bullet that would under other circumstances impact. Her weakness is being exposed to Kool-Aid, being drenched causes her powers to weaken, and swallowing Kool-Aid disables them entirely. 
; Steelheart
: Real name was Paul Jackson. Was a member of Hershel Black's special forces unit. Steelheart is described as having an inhumanly large and strong chest. He was nearly seven feet tall with jet-black hair. He is impervious to bullets and other weapons. He can release yellow-white energy from his hand that vaporizes any object, animate or inanimate, it strikes. When he is angry, he can transform inanimate things around him into steel. This does not affect living things. He has incredible strength, can command the winds, and fly with perfect control. He has a perfect memory. His weakness was that he could only be killed by someone who didn't fear him. 
; Strongtower
: Strongtower shows an ability like one Steelheart has.
== Lesser Epics ==
Any Epic who does not have Prime Invincibility is considered a Lesser Epic, although the term is not used in the books.
=== Known Lesser Epics ===
; Cloudbreaker
: Cloudbreaker is one of Lifeforce's Epics who lives on Lux. She has weather manipulation powers, and keeps Lux habitable despite the high altitude.
; Conflux
: Conflux is a member of Steelheart's elite three. Very little was known about Conflux. He was supposed to run Enforcement. He is a "gifter" or a transference Epic. He can give two of his powers to others. He isn't known to have any immortality powers. One of his powers is that he can create enormous stores of energy from his body. Conflux is used to power Newcago's electricity. His real name is Edmund Sense. He is an old Indian man. He was held captive by Steelheart to use his powers to power the city. He was used as a battery. He was first captured by an Epic named Bastion a month after Conflux's change. He was sold to an Epic named Insulation next. He accidentally killed his wife while trying to power the microwave. His weakness was a fear of dogs, which he surmounted while in captivity.
;Dawnslight
:Dawnslight is an Epic in the city of Babilar who feeds the people by making fruits grow faster. He also caused the spraypaint in the city to glow and radios to run without batteries. In reality, Dawnslight is a permanently bedridden invalid. While very young, and before obtaining his powers, he fell into a life-long coma. He seems to be exempt from Calamity's corruption-inducement.
; Deathpoint
: Deathpoint is a known Epic that was killed by David's father on the Day of Annexation. He had the ability to disintegrate living things by pointing at them, though their bones were always left unharmed. Worn items (like a holstered gun or a swaddling blanket) also appear to be unaffected. He was tall and lean, but solid. He was muscled and toned in a way that could be seen through his clothes. He is also speculated to have a second ability, one that was never shown, but appears to require physical contact and can be assumed to be more powerful than his first, as he attempts to use it on Steelheart despite his first being ineffective.
; Curveball: Donny was a minor Epic with the single power of being able to never run out of bullets while firing a handgun.
; Dynamo
: Dynamo had the power to amplify his and other people's voices, making him his own PA system.
; Faultline
: Faultline had the power to move the earth. She worked for Steelheart, but later rebelled against him, lost, and was murdered. She had two second-tier abilities--moving softer earth and turning earth and stone into sand--which combined into her first-tier ability to create apparent earthquakes with great control. She would soften the ground and then pulling that earth back to form a crack in the earth. She was powerful, but fragile. While her first-tier power classifies her as a first-tier Epic under Tia's system, her lack of a Prime Invincibility excludes her from the list of High Epics.
; Glimmer
: Glimmer is an Epic who had accelerated speed abilities.
; Graviton
: Graviton is an Epic with gravity manipulation powers. He can kill people by creating small pockets of gravity inside of them.
; Helium
: Helium is a minor Epic in Ildithia, possessing levitation powers. She helps makes the room at the top of Sharp Tower rotate, to create a revolving restaurant for Epics to party. She apparently works for Loophole.
; Inshallah
: Inshallah is a linguistic Epic. They have the power to force someone to speak in rhyme. They died in Prof's fight with Tavi.
; Knoxx
: Knoxx is a lesser Epic created by Regalia and Calamity. He was stated to have not had powers for years after Calamity rose up, and seemed to have recently obtained his powers in the book Firefight. He is a minor Transformation Epic, with his known transformations being a pigeon and a large black dog.
; Languish
: Languish has the power to disable the powers of other Epics.
; Liquidyne
: Liquidyne is a lesser Epic who has the ability to melt substances without using heat, including metal, wood, and cloth. After his death, Parik uses Liquidyne's severed hand in an experiment.
; Puños de Fuego
: Puños is said to have enhanced strength and durability. Val killed him by shooting him with a damaged tank before the events of the Steelheart series. It is mentioned that although he has increased durability, he is not a High Epic and can be killed by any powerful means (such as a tank).
; Stormwind
: Stormwind is an Epic in Ildithia. She can make it rain, and her rain causes crops to grow in only ten days.
; Refractionary
: Refractionary is a class C illusionist Epic with class B personal invisibility powers. She is skilled and able to create fairly complex visual manifestations. She is not very powerful and her illusions usually shimmer as if light is reflecting off of them. Her weakness is smoke. Megan shot and killed her when David called her mobile, causing it to vibrate and give away her location.
; Regalia: An Epic with powerful water manipulation abilities, Regalia rules New York. She has the ability to create tendrils from water, manipulate large volumes at once, project an image of herself formed from water, and to remotely view a location through the surface of water. Although extremely powerful, Regalia is not considered a High Epic as her powers do not actively protect her from harm.
; The Thaub
: The Thaub is a linguistic Epic. They have the power speak in any made-up language anyone anywhere has imagined. The Thaub died during Prof's fight with Tavi.
; The Wooden Soul
: An animator epic capable of controlling marionettes with her mind. She presumably lived in Northern India and was killed ten years before the events of Calamity.
; Wingflare
: An epic with extremely strong telekinesis, strong enough to stop bullets midflight. She is responsible for keeping the floating city of Lux afloat.
; Wiper
: The Wiper has the ability to temporarily disrupt other Epic's powers. She has no immortality benefits, and is thus easily killed by David with a bullet.
== Epics of Unknown Status ==
; Amala: Amala was the wife of Dean Knighthawk, and part of the would-be superheroes with Jonathan Phaedrus, Abigail Reed, and Lincoln. Phaedrus was forced to kill her. Her powers and weaknesses are unknown.
; Armsman
: Armsman was an Epic in Omaha. The Reckoners were possibly planning to kill him. It is highly unlikely (but possible) that he was a High Epic. His powers and weaknesses are unknown.
; Backbreaker
: Backbreaker was capable of destroying entire cities, much like Obliteration was.
; Bastion
: Bastion was Conflux's first owner. Their powers and weaknesses are unknown.
; Brainstorm
: Brainstorm had the power to conjure whatever she wished, if it were below a certain size or mass level.
; Creer boys
: Hanjah and the Mad Pen are twins, and known as the Creer boys. They are part of the Coven. They have air pressure control, pain manipulation, and precognition. It is likely, but unconfirmed, that they are High Epics.
; Crossmark
: Crossmark is an Epic in Mexico who can only be hurt when five people are trying to kill her at once. Her powers are unknown.
; Crystallix
: An Epic who can create structures in the air that do not fall.
; Darkness Infinity
: Darkness Infinity had the power to teleport in between shadows. She died in Prof's fight with Tavi.
; Dialas
: Dialas was an Epic in Detroit who angered Steelheart by cutting off some of his food supplies. His powers and weaknesses are unknown.
; Digzone
: Digzone was a transference Epic who could gift his digging power to others. The Diggers were gifted these powers to carve out the understreets.
; Dragdown
: Dragdown became a member of Prof's crew in Ildithia. Their powers and weaknesses are unknown.
; Duskwatch
: Duskwatch is presumed to be an Epic because of his name. His powers and weaknesses are unknown.
; El Brass Bullish Dude
: El Brass Bullish Dude was from inner LA. Their powers and weaknesses are unknown.
; Fabergé
: Fabergé became a member of Prof's crew in Ildithia. Their powers and weaknesses are unknown.
; Feral
: Feral is an Epic with mutation powers, and can cause animals to mutate into horrifying and dangerous beasts.
; German Epic
: An Epic in Germany who could only be hurt by someone who was thirty-seven years old exactly. 
; Inkwell
: Inkwell became a member of Prof's crew in Ildithia. Their powers and weaknesses are unknown.
; Instabam
: An epic killed by the Reckoners with potato-based powers.
; Insulation
: Insulation bought Conflux from Bastion. Their powers and weaknesses are unknown.
; Lifeline
: Lifeline died during Prof's attack with Tavi. Their powers are minor electricity powers and telepathy.
; Lovestruck
: The ex-girlfriend of Lifeforce, as well as an epic who can kill by blowing kisses.
; Murkwood
: Murkwood is an epic who was originally a part of the group that Prof and Regalia were members of. Original name was Lincoln. Their powers and weaknesses are unknown.
; Night's Whisper
: A powerful Epic in the west coast. Their powers and weaknesses are unknown.
; Pink Pinkness
: Pink Pinkness is an Epic who really likes the color pink. She is remarkable because she apparently published her epic name without ever having said it out loud. 
; Powder
: Powder can make unstable objects like gunpowder explode simply by looking at them. He killed Abraham's whole team in Canada.
; Revokation
: Revokation is an Epic, likely from the Great Falls. One of her surgeons moved to Babilar, and helped Dawnslight and Regalia. Her powers and weaknesses are unknown.
; Rick O'Shea
: Rick O'Shea is an Irish Epic who can throw bullets at people. He makes objects unstable by touching them. They then explode when subjected to any significant impact. He is a kinetic energy Epic.
; Rtich
: A Russian epic who could control mercury telekinetically, forming it into shields, stairs, walls and rods. Had other powers that were not mentioned in the books.
; Shiversting
: Shiversting is an Epic of unknown status whose DNA Lifeforce took and used to give himself her powers.
; Snowfall
: Snowfall is the ruler of Sacramento. He likely has snow-related powers. The Epic Lightning is in his group.
; Slingshot
: Can teleport short distances.
; Static
: Likely an Epic; they headed a band of Epics which for a few years included Sourcefield.
; Terms
: Terms is the ruler of a nomadic group called the UTC. She has time-manipulation powers. She is likely a High Epic, though it is unconfirmed.
; Waterlog
: An Epic who was killed by the Reckoners whose DNA was harvested to make the Spyril. Based on the abilities of the Spyril, It can be presumed they were able to summon water to themselves.
== Types of Epic ==
; Illusionists
: Lesser illusionists sometimes have trouble maintaining an exact illusion. Illusionists can't see if they turn themselves completely invisible. Light still needs to strike their irises. A skilled illusionist can make their eyes match the color of their surroundings. A powerful Illusionist can create sounds along with their images. 
: There are two types of illusionists: mental illusionists and photon-manipulators.
* Photon-manipulators create actual changes in the way light behaves, crafting illusions with photons. They are similar to electricity-manipulation Epics. 
* Mental illusionists affect the brains of other people around them. They create hallucinations, not true illusions. They are similar to other mentalists.
; Mentalists
* Hypnotists
* Mind-Control
; Dimensionalists
* Dimensionalist Epics commonly possess the power of Essokinesis, or the ability to manipulate reality. The amount of power given by their Essokinesis differs, sometimes being only able to create realistic illusions, while more powerful Dimensionalists can make their alternate realities real in their own world, an example being Megan creating rock slides after merging a reality where a rock slide happened into her own world. Their powers, while they may seem very similar to Illusionists', actually summon "shadows" from another reality, which then manifest into the Dimensionalist's world. More powerful Dimensionalists can also summon tears in reality. Walking through one of these rifts temporarily transports you to another dimension.
; Transference Epics
* Transference Epics can give others their powers. These Epics are also known as Gifters. Gifter Epics are able to give a portion of their powers to people within a certain range of them and for a limited time. The power they give away is not affected by their weakness. While gifting powers to others, Gifter Epics lose some of the corruption and desire to do evil that is associated with Epics. The more power that an epic is gifting (the more people being gifted to), the greater the reduction in evil intent. Gifters cannot give their powers to another Epic.
; Kinetic Energy Epics
; Fire Epics
* Standard fire Epics can turn to flame, fly, throw fire, and manipulate existing flames. 
; Animator Epics
* Standard animator Epics can control inanimate objects with their mind. It is unknown if the objects in question have to be in human shape.
; Linguistic Epics
* Linguistic Epics can manipulate language, through making others speak in rhymes, or speaking any language, among others. The majority of them are lesser Epics. 
=== Power Duality ===
Power duality is when an Epic has two second-tier abilities that meld into a first-tier one. An example of this would be the Epic Faultline. Faultline actually had two separate abilities regarding shifting earth, but combined both of them to have the power to make the ground loose, push objects into it, and re-solidify the ground.
== Epic Weaknesses ==
An Epic's Weakness can be just about anything. Some epics, upon seeing a specific pattern or symbol, lose their powers for a few moments. Some become weak when they think certain thoughts, stop eating certain foods, or eating the wrong food. Specific numbers can make an Epic weak as well. The weaknesses are tied to the person's history and is actually their greatest fear. If the Epic can overcome that fear, the insanity caused by Calamity's influence is dissipated, allowing them to keep the powers but also their original, untainted personality.
== Notes ==
 
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