Spotlight on the Daemonites

The daemonites in this universe are pretty different than those in Wildstorm. Their appearance has more links to Lovecraft than to green lizards. Even though originally their species looked just like humans, generations of race mixing with aliens turned them into monsters.

• Only the oldest daemonites look human [1] [2]. The rest are mostly blue and glowing, except when they aren’t:
• The daemonite lords [3] have pink marks over their blue bodies.
• We’re told red-colored daemonites are warrior class, elite [4]; however, normal units also turn red when they’re firing their weapons [5], and the Black Curate, one of their leaders, also looks red [6]. Furthermore, there’s mention of elite units from thousands of years ago who looked pink, purple and other variations [7].
• The dead city daemonites, cannibals, turned orange after years of eating their own kind [8].
• Human-daemonite hybrids look green, like Voodoo [9].

• Daemonites which possess power from the “blue flame” are capable of turning their bodies into actual flame, like Helspont. [2]
• Helspont counts with the Ebonite Blackguards, black daemonites which seem specialized in infiltration. [2]

The daemonites from this timeline also seem able to shapeshift, as they pull weapons from their bodies. In “Grifter”, Myev enters Max Cash’s body because his blood manages to touch Max, so this seems to support their bodies are very malleable. However, the hybrids in “Voodoo” need a particle generator to change their shape.

Another aspect which is highlighted more than ever before is their shared consciousness; these daemonites communicate telepathically all the time. They also take the secrecy of their invasion more seriously than the daemonites in Wildstorm: these ones spend almost all of their time in their human shells.

“Superman” reveals daemonites possess some kind of tentacle-bugs that crawl inside of their younglings and cause a low-grade cerebral shunt; daemonites use this method to educate themselves. The bugs grow on the young, acting for disciplinary control.

The only other thing we know about their culture is they used robots called Seekers to do the building for them; these automatons were not held together by any power source but by magic.

Their new background is rich and complex:

The daemonites share their old origin, having been harvested by the Kherubim to serve them. The daemonites rebelled and what followed was a war that became the stuff of legend; it was so huge that it created myths of angels and demons all the way to Earth. That’s right, the daemonites inspired the bible. Unlike the old WSU, though, the daemonites won this war, and most Kherubim were wiped away. Afterwards, the daemonites became the new reigning force in their galaxy. These first daemonites looked human-like; as they were created from the Kherubim, it makes sense.

After defeating the Kherubim the daemonites moved to a three-way war between the Thanagarians and Czarnians. The daemonites allied with Thanagar and helped them win against the Czarnians, but it was just a ploy. Mere months after, when the Thanagarians were ready to announce peace, the daemonite gifted them with food tributes to celebrate the victory. But these were disease ridden, and the plague spread all over the planet, killing millions. This threw the planet back into a posture of war, degenerating its civilization… the daemonites had won again.

We never had a clear origin for the original Helspont, even though Grant Morrison suggested he was the manifestation of the daemonite’s people’s will. In the New52 Helspont is simply the son of daemonite overcast “Helspire”; he’s the preeminent overlord of the daemonite empire and “high skyr of the second dominion.” Helspont looked human at first, just as his family, the royal family of the House of Daem. His original name was prince Artus. He was concerned that as their empire grew they were commingling their DNA with too many cultures, weakening the daemonite race. 3600 years ago from the present, he saw his worst fears realized when his own wife died trying to give childbirth. This pushes him to rebel against his mother. She orders her guards, Salsu and Quon, to take Artus outside; he’s cast out, renounced forevermore. But Artus promises to restore the daemonites’ genetic birthright and restore their proper place as conquerors of the universe, even if it takes him thousands of years.

Artus starts amassing an armada for centuries, first through piracy, then outright conquest. He obtains the power of the blue flame, which turns him from Artus into the terrifying Helspont. He even shares the power with his most faithful followers, which turn them unbeatable. Helspont’s powers are off the charts;

• psychic abilities
• telekinesis
• flying
• shooting a beam of fire from his head
• setting things on fire with his mind
• super-hearing
• super-vision
• super-strength
• “the Blue Light of Truth,” a barrier against mind-reading
• casting illusions
• putting a spell on people to control them
• projecting enough energy to power an entire ship
• teleporting
• creating his own atmosphere

However, Helspont doesn’t get a chance to return to his homeworld. While exploring how to travel faster than the speed of light to reach new galaxies to be conquered, some Elite daemonites used the graviton particle. This attracted the parasites known as Gravity Miners to our dimension. These creatures, which the daemonites called “Chrszy-rr”, destroy one third of their galaxy before they’re stopped.

Helspont decides to send his army out as scouts, pilgrims in search of fertile land to replace their lost homeworld. Entire star systems fall beneath his heel. Helspont uses the Chrszy-rr tragedy to justify his conquests and the rising position of the daemonites in the hierarchy of the universe. In his head Helspont is just doing what he promised to do; fighting to save his people.

300 years ago Helspont reaches Earth. His leading genetist, Skugardt, discovers that of all the beings in the universe, only the humans have the ability to manipulate themselves into superhumans. However, by this point Helspont had become so powerful that his own troops decided to imprison him. To do this, they start taking humans and experimenting on fusing them with daemonites to create metahumans soldiers. Although none of these prototype hybrids develops super-powers, this rebellion movement manages to take Helspont out. Only one of the hybrids survives: Warick. He ends up on Earth, while Helspont ends up imprisoned in a ship that is captured by StormWatch to become their Eye of the Storm.

Without him the agents he had left on Earth grow feckless, eventually dividing into several factions. They’re divided because of an ancient prophecy that states a Chosen One will appear and destroy them, although this event can also be read as one of evolution. While the daemonites agree that key to their species’ future lies on Earth, “evolving” through the metagen, the rest of the prophecy is interpreted in different ways. Some refuse to let go of their old ways and think they should wipe out the humans, while other daemonites believe the key lies in bonding with them, creating human-daemonite hybrids.

All the while, Warick feels Helspont will one day escape from his prison, so he begins attempting to create a resistance movement on Earth to prepare it for an invasion. This proves difficult, as his stories are dismissed as the ravings of a madman and he ends up in mental asylums several times. He’s forced to spread the word in secret, building his resistance as more of a cult. That’s the current situation at the start of the New52.

Next: “All-Star Western”, Vol.3 issues 17 – 21, by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti

Sources:
[1] “Grifter”, Vol.3 issue #10.
[2] “Superman Vol.3 Annual”, issue #1.
[3] “Voodoo”, Vol.2 issue #6.
[4] “Grifter”, Vol.3 issue #9.
[5] “Grifter”, Vol.3 issue #5.
[6] “Grifter”, Vol.3 issue #6.
[7] “StormWatch”, Vol.3 issue #8.
[8] “Voodoo”, Vol.2 issue #10.
[9] “Voodoo”, Vol.2 issue #1.