Delsin Rowe

> **I'm** gonna be different, okay? I'm not there doing what they do, I'm there to save lives, I'm gonna be like Superman."
>
> ―**Delsin Rowe** says to his brother Reggie Rowe, In Unnamed Chapter

**Delsin "Del" Rowe** (born 1994) is the son of his late unnamed parents, the younger brother of the late Reggie Rowe, the friend of Betty, the former love interest of Abigail Walker, the love interest of Samantha Allen, the future father of Kallie Rowe, and also apart of the Akomish Tribe. He is the hero of Seattle, and the Conduit Hero successor of Cole MacGrath. After living what could be considered a normal life as a graffiti artist and a local delinquent of the Akomish Reservation, Delsin discovered that he is a Conduit after grabbing a Department of Unified Protection (or D.U.P. for short) captive named Hank in order to save his brother Reggie.

This action activates Delsin's respective powers, and he quickly begins to realize that he has the unique ability to absorb any other Conduit's powers after touching them. With his new-found arsenal, he travels with his older brother to Seattle in order to dismantle the D.U.P.'s operations, and acquire its director's power of Concrete so he can heal his fellow Akomish members. Delsin began being a Vigilante for his Akomish Tribe, but after freeing Seattle from the D.U.P's corruption, he was named by the media "**Banner Man**", and self-stylized as "**The Smoker**" or "**Smoketastic Man**", the former hero of Seattle and the hero of Central City. He was also named "**Smokes**" by Abigail Walker.

After saving his fellow Akomish members and the conduits locked in Curdun Cay, he heard of Meta-humans, in Central City, so he went there and learned there is heroes named The Flash and Velocity, metas with super-speed, and the hero group called the Justice League. When Delsin got to Central City, he saw the Flash getting attacked by a meta-human named Cicada, and he fought with Team Flash and joined the team as another member, Then during the final battle between the new Cicada, the team figured out Thawne's plan and after defeating Cicada, they went to Thawne, and Nora and Kallie was erased from existence and the team continued to live their life in 2019.

## History

### New Multivere

#### Early life

Delsin is a 24-year-old Native American from the Akomish Tribe. Believing that he is destined for greatness, Delsin's occupation as a street artist, and his uncontainable penchant for free expression, sets the perfect background for his standoff with the D.U.P. Delsin has a rebellious attitude and favors anti-authoritarian street art. Unfortunately, Delsin's tendency to tag buildings and structures with graffiti constantly irritates and embarrasses his older brother, Reggie Rowe, who is forced to keep arresting him "over and over and over again". It is implied that Delsin and Reggie's parents are deceased.

#### Becoming a Bio-terrorist

After being confronted by his brother, Reggie, over vandalizing the latter's "Congrats, New Sheriff!"\* billboard, the brothers witness the crash of a military truck transporting a trio of Conduits - Henry Daughtry, Abigail Walker, and Eugene Sims. While Abigail and Eugene quickly get away, Delsin attempts to help Hank out of some rubble and, for his troubles, becomes a hostage in the resulting standoff with Reggie.

During the struggle, Delsin accidentally absorbs Hank's powers and falls unconscious. After coming to, he finds the area around him in shambles. Discovering his new-found power, a frightened Delsin manages to reach and save his brother. Although Reggie tells him not to use his new "tricks", Delsin uses them anyway to chase Hank into the nearby burning fish cannery, attempting to save Betty who is trapped in the building.

Armed with nothing but a chain and his underdeveloped smoke powers, Delsin chases Hank into the D.U.P.'s custody. Unfortunately, the D.U.P.'s leader Brooke Augustine uses her Concrete powers to brutally interrogate Delsin, and threatens to move on to the rest of the tribe if Delsin doesn't tell her what he is hiding. Delsin confesses to being a conduit, but Augustine doesn't believe him, as he claims he "caught" the "Conduit Bug" from Hank, which isn't possible. She knocks him out cold and continues interrogating the rest of the tribe.

#### Predicament and arrival in Seattle

> Reggie. I did this. And I gotta fix it.
>
> ―Delsin takes responsibility for the tribe's suffering

When Delsin finally wakes up one week later, he learns from Betty that the rest of the tribe were injured by Augustine's cement daggers, attempting to learn what really happened between Hank and Delsin. He learns from Reggie that the Akomish are all dying, and that the only way to save them is to use Augustine's Concrete power to remove the daggers.

Realizing from his encounter with Hank that he can absorb other Conduit's powers, Delsin convinces his brother to take him to Seattle where Augustine's forces have chased down the other two Conduits, and absorb her powers to undo what she did. Arriving in Seattle, Delsin soon learns that the D.U.P. have effectively taken over the city and their ranks are bolstered by Forced Conduits, lesser conduits who wields a small portion of Augustine's powers, and although he tries he can't absorb the weaker powers.

A couple of days later, the brothers learn of a Conduit serial killer wielding Neon powers and decide to hunt her down; both to stop her killing spree and absorb her powers to help with the final confrontation with Augustine. Investigating the murders, the brothers discover the victims are all drug-dealers, instead of random people, as the media have made the rest of the city believe.

They soon learn that the Conduit is a girl named Abigail Walker, one of the escapees, and she is seeking to avenge her brother's death at the hands of the drug dealers. Delsin chases Abigail down and defeats her, absorbing her neon powers in the process. Delsin convinces Reggie to let Abigail work with them to both dismantle the D.U.P.'s and the dealers' operations.

#### Lantern District

After learning that Augustine is directing the bulk of her force into the Lantern District, Delsin makes his way across the ruined bridge where he confronts her, and she forces him to use his Neon powers to fight her higher ranked thugs. After defeating the thugs, Delsin is captured by Augustine and nearly taken into custody, when he is rescued by an unknown creature who drops him off the Lantern district.

Once there, Delsin is contacted by a fan of his named Eugene, who directs his attention to a D.U.P. convoy carrying civilians suspected of being Conduits. In the process of stopping the convoy, Delsin is knocked out for several hours and soon learns that the suspects have fled into the city where they are being rounded up by angel-like creatures. Reggie disguises himself as a suspected conduit and is swooped up by an angel.

Using the GPS of Reggie's cell phone, Delsin locates the Angel's hideout, even when Eugene desperately warns him not to go there. While exploring the hideout, he learns that, rather than being kidnapped, the victims are being helped out of their restraints and released into the city. Being sucked into a Video game world, Delsin is confronted by "He Who Dwells" and, after a brutal fight, defeats the giant Angel who is revealed to be Eugene, Delsin's "fan" who led him to the convoy.

Delsin absorbs his powers and talks with Reggie about letting Eugene go, pointing out that he was rescuing the people the D.U.P. took and not hurting them. Delsin convinces Eugene to help him defeat both the D.U.P. and the local gangs who are rounding up the local conduits to sell them back to the D.U.P.

#### The Return

Later on, Delsin is surprised to hear his allies question him about a rampage he was on downtown. He soon realizes that it wasn't him, but the other Smoke Conduit, Hank, who escaped from D.U.P. custody. After chasing Hank down again, Delsin convinces him to help him against the D.U.P. Hank informs him that his fellow Conduit allies, Eugene and Abigail, are both in D.U.P. custody in the makeshift D.U.P. base, at an island off the coast of Seattle.

The brothers and Hank infiltrate the island, but Delsin is soon lured into a trap by Hank who is revealed to be the D.U.P.'s ally. Because of Hank, Delsin and Reggie are beaten and nearly captured by Augustine, who attempts to encase them both in concrete while they're dangling off of the edge of the base. Reggie sacrifices himself to prevent Delsin from being captured, prompting a fight between Augustine and an enraged Delsin.

After the fight, Augustine collapses the island and Delsin washes ashore and proceeds to hunt down Hank who is now on the run from both of his former allies. During the chase, Hank explains, and later proves, that the D.U.P. had his daughter hostage, prompting Delsin to reluctantly spare Hank's life on the condition that he never sees him again.

#### Final Fight

Delsin meets up with his allies and together they agree that it's time to put a end to Augustine's plans. Using the information with which Hank provided Delsin, he is able to create a gap in the Channel 6 news station/converted D.U.P. headquarters and together with Eugene and Abigail assaults the building, making their way through the outside of the building and defeating the D.U.P. Soldiers.

Finally, Delsin confronts Augustine in the building's newsroom. There, Delsin states that he knows that Augustine had set up the Conduit's escape to keep the D.U.P. in existence. Augustine then explains her true motives: she has been capturing, but never killing, Conduits to prevent them from being killed by irrational civilians, like they were in the pre-D.U.P. bloodbaths.

To this end, Augustine attempts to convince Delsin to help her regain the public's trust, and help her save more Conduits around the globe. However, Delsin doesn't care about Augustine's excuses, and decides to take her down and expose her. Without fully developing his newest powers, Delsin is almost beaten by Augustine, who has nearly seven years of experience with hers.

Thankfully, Eugene is able to throw several Core Relays into the room, with which Delsin is able to become powerful enough to slowly wear down Augustine's monster form and capture her. As Augustine watches him use her own power against her, Delsin quotes her: "Yeah. I'm told that hurts."

#### Freeing the Conduits from Curdun Cay

With Augustine captured, Delsin is able to expose the D.U.P.'s operations to the world. As Augustine is hauled away by authorities, the crowds, finally free, cheer. Delsin implicitly note the irony of a government figure being "taken down by a gamer, an ex-junkie, and a small town delinquent". Delsin's actions set off a "Second Age", where Conduits and humans *can* coexist. Delsin also comments that the Conduits of Curdun Cay were also free to live as they see fit.

That said, Delsin himself had some unfinished business to attend to, now that he'd gotten the power he needed. He returned home to heal his people of the injuries Augustine inflicted upon them. After curing the tribe, Delsin celebrate his brother's life by giving him a graffiti memorial atop the Fish Cannery. When finished he takes one good look, and almost in tears says, "I love you brother, and I'm sure gonna miss you." With that, he sets his paint can down and walks away.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

* **Conduit Physiology**: Delsin discovers his powers when he absorbs the abilities of Hank, a prisoner on a D.U.P. carrier, taking on Smoke Manipulation. Later, he discovers that he possesses the unique ability to mimic the powers of other Conduits.
	+ **Superhuman Strength**: Like all Major Conduits, Delsin possesses greater physical strength than a normal human. An example sees Delsin effortlessly pulls his brother's arm off of Abigail Walker, to the point where Reggie shows physical pain. He has also displayed being able to send others flying several feet through the air with his kicks, was also able to effortlessly pull off a chainlink door off a cage.
	+ **Superhuman Stamina**: Like other Conduits, Delsin is able to exert himself for far longer periods of time. He is seemingly able to run for an endless period of time, and is able to scale buildings without any hindrances or exhaustion. Despite this, Delsin is still capable of tiring, as it seems using his primary conduit can cause him, and whomever he uses it on to pass out.
		- **Superhuman Agility**: Delsin also possesses incredibly agility and grace, allowing him effortlessly scale buildings, and land on his feet from several stories. He has also shown to be able to easily balance himself on any surface, no matter how narrow, and run across it as though it was a large strip of road.
	+ **Superhuman Durability**: Delsin is far more resilient and enduring than a normal human being, he is able to fall from almost any height and land unharmed. He first discovers this when entering the Fish Canary to find Betty and Hank, commenting that "*that*...should've hurt". He has also been shown to be able to withstand numerous gunshots while showing only slight discomfort.
	+ **Accelerated Healing Factor**: Delsin has shown to be able to rapidly recover from sustained wounds and injuries. Throughout the game Delsin is shown to be able recover from any form of harm he receives, so long as the damage isn't fatal, and he is not harmed again before he has a chance to recover. This is shown twice:
		- After Augustine tortures Delsin to the point of knocking him unconscious, he wakes up a week later to find the concrete shards in his legs gone.
		- When Delsin encounters the looters in the tunnel, they panic when they realize what he is. One of them shoots Delsin twice, but it doesn't take long for him to get back onto his feet.
	+ **Power Absorption**: Delsin has the natural ability to absorb the abilities of other conduits, which he discovers after encountering a crashed conduit transport vehicle. This gives him the potential to be one of the most versatile Conduits ever in existence, due to the fact that he can have multiple powers at any point and can always absorb more.
		- **Telepathic Perception**: Delsin along with his ability to take the powers of others, also has the ability, through touch, to look at another person's past and the emotions they experienced to rapidly gain information of their lives. Although it's not confirmed, it appears that this power can't be used on non-Conduits because he has shown no signs of it when touching any non-Conduits such as his brother. This power is not to be confused with Telepathy, as he is not reading their minds, but receiving information (It is also interesting to note that the memories that Delsin sees always involve, in some way, when the Conduits got their powers).
		- **Smoke Manipulation**: Delsin's initial powers seem to be based on smoke and ember, having taken it from Hank, the Conduit he helped survive. He suddenly gains the capacity to shoot smoke out of his hands, or even turn into smoke and travel quickly around the city through the use of air ducts. He can also deploy smoke grenades, which, after explosion, cover affected enemies in smoke and incapacitate them. Delsin can use the chain on his arm as a whip, seemingly imbuing it with burning ash, similarly to how the Amp was wrought in Cole's electricity. Additionally, he can make use of a **smoke dash** ability for heightened motion and produce lateral propulsion for a short while via **Smoke Thrusters**. His smoke dash can also be used offensively, as he dashes through an enemy and rematerializes behind them, choke-slamming them to the ground in the process. Delsin also replenishes his power by absorbing smoke from chimneys, cars, and DUP tear gas canisters. He can use his special Smoke Karma Bomb ability called Orbital Drop: Delsin dematerializes into three balls of smoke which propel upwards. Upon reaching a specific height, Delsin rematerializes and rapidly falls down, exploding into smoke and embers upon contact with the surface.
		- **Neon Manipulation**: Later on the game, Delsin absorbs from Abigail Walker the ability to control neon. With it, he is shown to have powers similar to his smoke dispersal abilities yet instead dissolves and reforms from gaseous energy based semblance. He can discharge Neon stream lasers from his hands, which also blow up upon contact to deal more damage to enemies than the smoke projectile as well as simulate a light dash, which when used dissolves him into Neon itself and enables him, and brief after images of him, to sprint up or around walls and literally run on air from a starting jump for brief periods of time. Delsin's chain can also be covered in neon and made rigid, allowing it to be used like in sword-like fashion; he can also use neon to charge it directly into enemies, knocking them over, similar to his smoke choke slam. He also has neon grenades which suspend enemies in air for a short amount of time. Aiming while using the Neon power set utilizes a mode similar to Precision, time slows down and it highlights certain weak points around specific enemy body parts. Weak points are Karma specific, shoot an enemy in the head to cause them to be "obliterated" and explode into a puff of red neon and receive evil karma, or shoot them in the shins to restrain the enemy to receive good karma. He also has some kind of propulsion ability honed by a force field situated at the lower legs similar to Cole's Static Thrusters and Delsin's own Smoke Thrusters. He can replenish his Neon reserves by absorbing it from the brightly lit neon signs situated around the city. With Neon power active, Delsin can use his special Neon Karma Bomb called Radiant Sweep: in which he concentrates neon energy into himself and then bursts, shooting beams in all directions, producing a massive explosion.
		- **Video Manipulation**: Delsin then gains the ability of Video by absorbing a Conduit named Eugene Sims. Delsin can drain this power from television monitors to computer screens on satellite dishes. When using Video, Delsin can shoot out a stream of pixelated projectiles in a rapid fire motion similar to Cole's Bolt Stream. Also gaining the ability to transform himself into faint pixels, becoming invisible to enemies for a certain time period. When using melee attacks, Delsin doesn't seem to use his chain. Instead, depending on his karma, he creates a digital sword (good) or claws (evil) to hack and slash. Furthermore, when dashing he can create wings for himself to fly over obstacles and directly up walls. Dashing into satellite dishes will cause him to launch higher up in the air. Delsin can also mark and summon three Bloodthirsty Blades. When the blades are summoned, they then seek out the target that has been marked. With Video power active, Delsin can use his special Video Karma Bomb called Hellfire Swarm: in which he summons both angels and demons, from the game Heaven's Hellfire, to swoop down and carpet bombing enemies. When over, the Karma Bomb will either subdue (good) or obliterate (evil) enemies depending on Delsin's decisions.
		- **Concrete Manipulation**: The last power Delsin gets, which is absorbed from Brooke Augustine, gaining her unique ability to manipulate Concrete. Delsin can drain this power from any down members of the D.U.P. he comes across. What also makes concrete separate itself from the other powers is that while using it, Delsin automatically takes less damage from enemy fire. While using the power he can shoot out a shrapnel of concrete in a burst fire manner. Delsin can also fire off slabs of concrete, very similar to one of Augustine's attacks and those used by the weaponless DUP soldiers. Like Video, Delsin doesn't seem to use the chain either when using concrete. Instead, Delsin smashes his hand on the ground, creating a miniature tremor that knocks enemies back﻿. When dashing Delsin is covered in concrete wearing it like armor, making himself a living boulder. Delsin can also travel around using concrete thrusters, similar to Cole's Static Thrusters, where stones are surrounded under him. Every time the thrusters are used, they initially lift him higher in the air, causing him to glide even farther. Surprisingly, out of all the current power sets (Smoke, Neon, Video and Concrete) Concrete is the only one that doesn't have a Karma Bomb for some odd reason, this may be due to the Karma Bomb requiring another Blast Core Relay which he was unable to obtain. He can also use a miniature boost to push himself into the air which leaves no trace of damage from the launching point, unlike the DUP Knights' ability. When used while climbing a building Delsin will simply Launch himself vertically up it.

### Abilties

* **Basic fighting skills**: Delsin is shown being able to hold himself in a fight without getting injuried to much.
* **Parkour Skills**: Delsin is physically able to climb up any kind of buildings, having the same free running and parkour abilities as Cole. He is described as not being a very experienced climber, but if he sees something he can climb, there's nothing stopping him from trying. Sucker Punch co-founder Chris Zimmerman has gone on record saying that Delsin can parkour two times faster than Cole.
* **Spray Paint Skills**: Delsin has shown to be a competent spray painter. He paints on various walls and surfaces to mark his presence within Seattle and drive out the D.U.P. In the Good Karma ending, he completely paints over the billboard of Reggie that he vandalized at the beginning of the game as a memorial to Reggie, complete with a portrait of the two brothers together.

### Weakness

Delsin's power absorption does come with a few drawbacks:

* Firstly, when he acquires a new power, he is unable to switch to his other powers until he develops his proficiency with said new power.
* After absorbing an ability from another conduit, Delsin is temporarily knocked unconscious due to the amount of stress and strain it puts on Delsin. This is very similar to when Cole absorbs Blast Cores in Infamous 2, as after he fully absorbs one, it knocks him out for a while.
* Delsin cannot switch powers on a whim; he must switch powers by absorbing energy from a different power source. For example, if Delsin currently has Smoke but wants to use Neon, he must absorb Neon to replace it.
	+ For this same reason, he can't use multiple powers at once.

Like Cole, Delsin cannot swim, but apparently only because he does not know how to do so, rather than having to constantly avoid it like the former.

## Trivia (For the Game)

* Delsin is voiced by Troy Baker, who also provides the motion capture for the character.
* He bears a superficial resemblance to an early design for Cole called Talon. He also bears a resemblance to some of Cole's conceptual artwork from *InFamous 2*.
* Shortly after his first appearance, there was wide speculation on whether or not Delsin was Cole's brother or son. These rumors were later ruled out.
* He is the first *inFamous* character to have his age confirmed, as 24. This would make him 17 during the events of *Infamous 2*.
	+ Although Cole's age was stated to be 26 in *InFamous 2*, it was only in the Japanese version, making it non-canon.
* The name "Delsin" is of Native American origin which translates to "He is so". Delsin even stated during a conversation with Eugene that his mother got the name from a Western movie.
* Delsin's nickname "The Smoker Guy" maybe a reference to Jesse Pinkman's nickname "The Smoking Dude" from *Breaking Bad*, which in itself is a reference to "The Smoking Man" from *The X-Files*.
* Delsin's arm tattoo was very popular to the point where a fan got the same tattoo in February of 2015.
* Delsin follows Cole in referencing *Sly Cooper*, as he has a button on his jacket bearing the Sly Cooper logo. Also, the ringtone on Delsin's phone is the "Sly Cooper: Thieves In Time" main theme.
* In a way, Delsin bears a resemblance to Peter Petrelli from the popular TV Show 'Heroes'. Peter is also revealed to be a mimic, and at one point is regarded as the most powerful of all the 'specials.'
* Delsin's Smoke Powers could be considered an offset of Pyrokinesis.
	+ Chris Zimmerman stated in a podcast that it is smoke mixed with fire and ash to give it more impact.
* Delsin comes from the Akomish tribe, a fictional Native American tribe created by Sucker Punch.
* In Second Son's good ending, Delsin says to his brother Reggie as what Zeke had said to Cole: "I love you brother. And I'm sure gonna miss you."
* As shown during the evil ending, Delsin can potentially gain all powers from every Conduit, meaning he can absorb powers without limit, which could theoretically make him the most versatile Conduit in existence.
	+ However he would still be limited to using whatever powers he can adsorb within his vicinity.
* The "Seattle 138" tags on his jacket and beanie is a reference to the Misfits song "We Are 138" according to Sucker Punch's Twitter.
* A loading screen tip indicates that Delsin only uses environmentally friendly paint in his artwork.
* A loading screen tip indicates that Delsin used to climb trees and sheer rocks back at Salmon Bay, so Seattle is just one big jungle gym to him.
* Delsin states that he always wanted to see the Space Needle, meaning that he's never visited Seattle before.
* Delsin's criminal record can be seen at the pause menu when ROWE, DELSIN is selected.
* Regardless of if you defeat Augustine's new D.U.P trooper on the bridge with purely your smoke powers or used the neon sources, Delsin will still act as though he exposed his neon abilities.
* His beanie has been referenced in Ghost of Tsushima as a headband called "Band of the second son"