#first heroes

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It's about how no matter how necessary or just, war leaves no winners in its wake, least of all its heroes. It's about the greatest of them all, The First Heroes, and how they all fell apart immediately after the fighting stopped.

It's how they tried to live up to the weight of the expectations of the title that was foisted upon them just for surviving, but collapsed underneath it all the same. How that failure has had knock-on effects for their children, their families, for the new heroes they inspired in the decades since all trying to live up to a beautiful, sugarcoated lie.

It's how Dr. Stan tried so hard to be the leader everybody wanted him to be - that he'd dreamed so long of being - to make the world better for his people only to make it easier in the end for them to be weaponized and exploited and turned into servants for the ruling class and society at large.

How his wife, his rock, the love of his life, died young and left him with a young son he was as unprepared to raise as he was to lead, trying to figure out how to be a dad when he'd already forgotten how to be a person. It's about how he fell into reclusion and ended up neglecting his son as a result, leaving him to suffocate under the weight of his shadow and legacy with only vultures left to guide him.

It's about how Peter fell from grace and lost himself to extremism after seeing the reality of a supernatural war and the new world his triumph created. How Takuma left the world behind to rediscover himself after having become a blade in his own right, forsaking his friends along the way. How Kat ran away from her past entirely and put everything she had into music, never once speaking of the war after the fact, struggling with addiction off-and-on for decades to come.

It's about how Stan tried to keep up the charade as long as he could, tried to keep his friends together, only to find they were uninterested in bonds forged in blood and bore more resentment toward the violence in which they were complicit than they did fondness for each other. How Logan lost everything but Stan and his daughter in the end, including his legs, his wife, his mind, all in service of a country and a populace that forgot about him as soon as the gunfire stopped.

It's about how to the outside world, they all went on to lead amazing, successful lives in all these different fields, how they become heroes and icons to a world that never knew them and never cared to know their pain. Because nobody comes out of war unscathed, and nobody ever truly wins - they just survive. But the survivors are never the lucky ones. In war, the only lucky ones are the dead, the ones who never have to deal with what comes after. With the guilt, the resentment, the pain.

And most of all, it's about how the idolization of this idealized idea of war fundamentally warps the perception of the people and their notion of justice, and heroism, and what it is they and the world should be aspiring to. How the idea of a perfect and just war, even when correct, still leads to a broken society shaped by broken leaders. Because when war is the only answer, suffering is the only result. And it is only when that suffering and naive idealization are acknowledged and set aside that any amount of true healing can really begin.

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Sirus Albion

Sirus Albion is a First Hero, the current King of the Dragons, and the 17th monarch of the Aldarian Empire. Though he is not a descendant of Balthalazar, who founded the empire, his bloodline has held the throne for the longest amount of time at 3500 years and 3 consecutive generations. Of these prior monarchs, at only 777 years old, Sirus is by far the youngest.

He is both famous and infamous for his progressive views on dragon-human relations and his role in the war with D’aagor as a First Hero. He took part in the final battle with the Aldarian Empire’s former champion, and though he did not land the killing blow, the elders of the empire who favored D’aagor and his views have always acted like he did. For this reason, and his relative youth and perceived immaturity, King Sirus does not hold much favor with the elders who serve as his advisors and members of his court.

Nevertheless, in his brief time as king, Sirus has seen his people into an era of peace and prosperity like they haven’t experienced since ancient times. Finally, they are free to live openly, without fear of the humans, and are even allowed in human cities. Similarly, humans - especially world leaders, heroes, and foreign dignitaries - are free to come and go from the capital city of Aldaron, and in the nearly 40 years since the war, the number of halflings has exploded. All of this is attributed to Sirus and his efforts during and immediately following the war, establishing peaceful relations with the major governments of the human world. Because of this, despite the elders’ reservations about his radical ideology, Sirus is generally viewed pretty favorably by his people.

Among the dragons, Sirus is known by the title of ‘The Dawn Dragon’. He is a Fire dragon by nature, and his flames have the dual properties of either being able to burn like standard fire, or to promote the growth of whatever they consume. For example, rather than setting a tree on fire, Sirus could use his flames to accelerate its growth several hundred times over. Similarly, he can promote cell growth and division and help along the healing process in both dragons and humans.

Sirus’ inner court is comprised of his Queen, Nilah, his Royal Sorcerer, Luca, and his Chief Advisor and Former Captain of the Royal Guard, Li’alie. His outer court is comprised of the Current Captain of the Royal Guard, Alyle, the elders of Aldaron, and various lords and governors from across the empire. The outer court led by Master Elheim, who also acts as the chief representative of the elders. Together, these two courts, with Sirus and Nilah at the top, rule over the entirety of the drakan race and set the laws and standards all dragons are expected to follow.

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Saul Newman

Saul Newman, better known by his hero name ‘The Incredible’ Ion, was a First Hero and one of the most popular pro heroes during the Second Wave. At the time of the war, Saul was homeless and living on the streets of Houston, Texas, but he stood up and fought for his community all the same when D’aagor attacked. His barriers, usable both defensively and offensively, protected civilians and tore holes through D’aagor’s soldiers, putting him on the radar of Dr. Stan.

Joining the task force would ultimately change the course of Saul’s life. The friends he made there helped him turn his life around and get him back on his feet, and after seeing what good he could accomplish with his powers during the war, he jumped at the chance to become a professional hero when Dr. Stan first floated the idea. He joined Takuma Miyamoto in the fledgling Hero Association of America, and would go on to become one of their biggest names.

He was heavily involved in the superhuman civil rights movement of the late 80′s and early 90′s, and along with Dr. Stan, was seen as one of the faces of the community. When he and Takuma became professional heroes, they lent a great deal of legitimacy to the hero industry, and together they turned H2A into a household name. While fellow First Hero Damien White would quickly grow disenfranchised with the hero industry, and Takuma would eventually retire after feeling as though he’d hit a wall, Saul, as Ion, remained an active hero for the rest of his life.

When a drakan terrorist attacked Houston in 2005, Ion and several other local heroes were called to the scene, cordoning off the area and engaging the dragon in combat. Of the five heroes that intervened, two - including Saul - died, and the rest were seriously injured. The situation quickly became a debacle, and blame was placed on law enforcement for not intervening or helping out during the battle. They were more than capable of handling the situation, and had they backed the heroes up, things may have turned out very differently. Their inaction would go on to cause many to call for reforms in the way police worked with the hero industry, and was one of the final nails in the coffin for the ‘golden age’ of superheroism and the last event in the transition from the Second to the Third Wave.

Today, Saul, as Ion, is regarded as a legend, and one of the greatest heroes to ever live. He helped define what it was to be a superhero, and saw to it that the hero industry was brought into the mainstream. The world we live in today just wouldn’t have been the same without him.

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Logan Goddard

Logan Goddard is a First Hero and the father of Amanda Reins. British born, after the war, Goddard moved to the US upon falling in love with an American woman, Cathy Reins. While Goddard is a normal person, his wife is a superhuman with the ability to manipulate radio frequencies with her mind. So it came as no surprise to him when his daughter turned out to be a superhuman, as well.

During the war, Goddard worked closest with Dr. Stan out of anybody else in the anti-D’aagor task force. While he was considered to be the chief strategist, Dr. Stan had a better understanding of the abilities of those in the task force than he did and was a genius in his own right, so Goddard has always considered himself to be the ‘co-chief strategist’ of the group, deferring to Dr. Stan as the real brains of the operation.

Though he never saw battle himself, his contributions to the group were invaluable. Along with Dr. Stan, he was considered to be the glue that held their ragtag team of super powered misfits together, and after Slade Andrews, he was looked up to as the head of the team. He did everything in his power to accommodate each member of the group as best as possible, keeping everyone happy and working together, and acted as the group’s liaison with the governments of the world.

After the war, Goddard retired from the military, having been granted the rank of General for his services. He settled down with Cathy Reins and started a family, and invested a good chunk of money in fellow First Hero Peter Marx’s company, Marx Industries, an investment that would go on to make him millions. He would go on to write a best selling book about the task force and the war in general, and later on wrote the biography of his lifelong friend and eventual neighbor, Dr. Stan.

Logan Goddard continues to enjoy his retirement today in upstate New York.

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Slade Andrews

Slade Andrews was a First Hero and the official leader of the international anti-D’aagor task force. Though he was an ordinary person, he was fully capable of going toe-to-toe with superhumans in unarmed combat, and was often described by the rest of the task force as ‘the most dangerous man alive’.

Much of Slade’s history remains highly classified to this day. What is known is that he enlisted in the US Army straight out of school and was trained as a sniper. He climbed the ranks until he received the title of Colonel, but after that, it’s unclear what happened next. Supposedly, he was drafted into some sort of secret special forces group within the military who specialized in dealing with above human threats, but no such group has ever been confirmed to exist.

Nevertheless, Slade knew of the existence of superhumans and magic long before D’aagor attacked. As a result, the idea that dragons also existed didn’t really surprise him. By the time of the war he was considered to be a highly accomplished soldier, and one of America’s greatest assets. He had security clearance above most state officials, and had accomplished enough to have been on the shortlist when the governments of the world considered who should lead their anti-D’aagor task force.

Slade took part in every major battle of the war in some capacity, and was the one to direct the task force where to go next. While Dr. Stan and Logan Goddard handled most of the battle strategies, it was Slade and King Sirus who decided where they were most needed and which losses would be most damaging to D’aagor’s ambitions.

During the final battle in the Antarctic, Slade was killed by D’aagor. Though he wouldn’t make it back alive, he would come out of the war a First Hero all the same. As the man in charge of the team that slayed D’aagor, he became a household name, and an almost mythical figure. Due to his classified past, there have been a lot of rumors and conspiracy theories over the years about who he really was as a person and just what it was he was involved in. But if anybody else in the task force knew, they never said. They’ve only ever referred to him as a friend and a good man.

At the war memorial in Washington DC, Slade’s statue stands in the center of the First Heroes, immortalized forever as the leader of the twelve brave souls who put their lives on the line to save the world.

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Kat Mowry

Kat Mowry is a First Hero and rock icon from Seattle, Washington. She is the frontwoman for the punk band ‘Jaded’, and at 19 years old, was the youngest of the First Heroes when she was scouted by Dr. Stan. She is a superhuman with the ability to generate miniature stars and plasma from her body.

When D’aagor happened, Kat had just formed the initial lineup of what would eventually become Jaded, and was fully intending to make her band her career. But when D’aagor’s right hand attacked her city, she - along with a few other local supers - stood up and fought to defend her home. Of those who fought back though, she was by far the most powerful, and she demonstrated an incredible amount of control over her powers despite never having used them to such an extent before. She was a natural, and this put her on Dr. Stan’s radar.

Young and rebellious, Kat was initially hesitant to join the anti-D’aagor task force when Dr. Stan first approached her. She had no interest in being a soldier or in playing hero, and had only done what she’d done so far out of self-defense. She had no intention of going out and looking for trouble. Even if she was able to fight them off, the power of the dragons terrified her. She also had more than a few gripes with the US Government and with authority in general, and she wasn’t keen on fighting a war on anybody’s behalf but her own.

When she was finally convinced to join in the fight, she was the final official member of the task force. While her cooperation was conditional, it was a huge boon to the team, as her command over her abilities was unparalleled among the supers Dr. Stan had gathered. She played a pivotal role in the Battle of Los Angeles and was involved in the last battle with D’aagor in the Antarctic, though she wasn’t the one to land the final blow in either instance.

After the war, while some of her comrades would go on to become proper heroes, Kat had no interest in such endeavors. Her music was the most important thing to her, and after all was said and done, she reformed her band and went on to become one of the biggest punk rock acts in the country. Her renown as a First Hero helped bring attention to Jaded in its early days, but it wasn’t long before they were standing on their own feet, outside of the shadow cast by the war.

She participated in multiple superhuman and drakan rights marches and demonstrations throughout the late 80′s and early 90′s and used her fame as a platform to advance the civil rights movements however she could. She’s even rumored to have had a hand in helping Dr. Stan write the 28th amendment, though she’s never given a straight answer when directly asked about it.

Jaded was active between 1987 and 1995 and released four albums before breaking up. They briefly reformed in 1999 and released a critically acclaimed fifth album before breaking up for a second time in 2000. The band would come back together for a third time in 2013 however, and they’ve remained active ever since. Though they’ve only released one new album, ‘Hyperviolence’, in 2014, and a single in 2018 which commemorated Dr. Stan and the superhuman and drakan civil rights movements of the 80′s and 90′s, they continue to tour vigorously and promote up and coming bands across the country.

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Alexei Koslov

Alexei Koslov is a First Hero. Hailing from somewhere in rural Russia, Alexei was the representative of the Soviet Union during the war with D’aagor, scouted by Dr. Stan himself. He is a superhuman with the ability to super heat the air and create explosions with his mind anywhere within his line of sight - a power seemingly tailor made for war.

Classified as a sort of psychic, Alexei was never a big fan of the US or of the Soviet Union. He grew up poor and apparently lived a pretty rough life up until the war broke out. When dragons descended on his village, he stood up and fought when the red army wouldn’t, singlehandedly protecting his community. This put him on Dr. Stan’s radar, and he was one of the first superhumans scouted for the international task force that would ultimately take down D’aagor.

He played a key role in some of the major battles of the war, and was considered to be one of the powerhouses of the group. He was instrumental in taking down D’aagor’s right hand, Drakanar, and helped turn the tide of the war in the human race’s favor. He also took part in the final battle with D’aagor in the antarctic, though he was not the one to land the killing blow.

Following the war, Alexei used his status as the hero of Russia to negotiate a deal with the Soviet Union, ultimately allowing for him to return to life in his village. Since then, he has lived a quiet life, and seeks to keep it that way. He quietly faded from the public eye and into legend, and is said to have since started a family and to own a local tavern. Not much more is known about him than that.