Burden (Concept)

## Description

The term "Burden", as used in My Hero: West Conflict, refers to the physical and mental strain of an individual having multiple Quirks. Studied extensively by the villain Keeper, Burden only occurs when an individual surpasses the number of Quirks their body is built to contain. The stronger one's body is, the less Burden they'll experience with multiple Quirks.

## Effects

The effects of Burden depends heavily on the individual. Someone with a naturally frail body will experience far worse effects than someone with a strong body. As said by Keeper, "the Hardware of the human body must be sufficiently strong to run the Software of Quirks". This means that, with a strong enough body, one can in theory withstand multiple Quirks.

Burden has two main side-effects that manifest in most cases.

* **Breakdown of the Body:** As the weight of multiple Quirks presses down on the body, "cracks" will appear. This continues for as long as the individual wields multiple Quirks. These "cracks" signify that the individual's body is literally breaking down, and the end result is an early death of "old age". In the meantime, the individual will suffer from severe pain, sickness, weakened constitution, and a deteriorated ability to use one's Quirks.
* **Breakdown of the Mind:** With the pressure of multiple Quirks also comes with mental strain. As the individual continues to keep hold of their multiple Quirks, their mind will begin to become more fragile, possibly falling into psychosis. This is typically described as the "vestiges" of the original owners of the extra Quirks manifesting within the individual's mind. They can occasionally become aggressive, and even attempt to take control of the individual's body.

## Solutions

Burden has only two solutions, both of which will only stop the accelerated breakdown, but not reverse it.

* **Quirk Singularity:** Originally thought to be a doomsday theory, Quirk Singularity is a rare occurrence that results in the fusing of an individual's Quirk(s), and their body. Upon achieving Quirk Singularity, the individual will manifest a body that has some sort of "evolved" feature that grants them a measure of immunity to Burden. This was the ultimate goal of the villain Keeper, who desired a "perfect body" that could use All In One without limit or recoil.
* **Quirk Melding:** Unlike Singularity, Quirk Melding does not remodel the individual's body. As seen with the villain Keeper, whose original Quirk fused with a weak duplicate of All For One to make All In One, the individual can avoid Burden by taking two Quirks and melding them into a new, singular Quirk. By doing so, the individual no longer has multiple Quirks, and thus, does not suffer from Burden. Sadly, this process is somewhat random, and cannot be activated on purpose.

## Exceptions

The only known exception to Burden was discovered by Keeper thanks to his Quirk, All In One. By giving various copies of Quirks to various individuals, he was able to develop a theory. Since the copied Quirks were always weaker than the original, Keeper thought that perhaps the stress of each copy was also weaker than the original would be. After testing this, he was able to create individuals with high Quirk Tolerance, allowing them to have numerous Quirk copies without any backlash. In this way, Keeper was "compressing Software to allow for easier operation by the Hardware".