Endbringers

"The Endbringers were something we all understood. A fact of reality, something that touched everyone, struck a chord of fear in cape and civilian alike."

- Cell 22.4 The Endbringers are monstrous beings that take turns attacking locations around the globe to cause as much damage as they possibly can. After sustaining sufficient damage, they retreat to their respective domains to heal, only to attack again months later.

Biology
After examining tissue from Behemoth, Leviathan, and the Simurgh under a microscope, Blasto determined the Endbringers are made out of some type of crystalline material. He could not see any individual cells and determined the crystals barely differentiated from one another. However, Blasto did discover more differences in crystals collected from deeper inside the Endbringer than crystals collected from different parts of the Endbringer's body.

All Endbringers have a core, a lens that essentially projects their mass into reality. Endbringer cores employ space-warping that can interfere with some powers such as Chevalier. As long as their core remains intact, an Endbringer can fight at peak capacity and regenerate damage, even in the middle of a battle. After losing around 80% of its body, Behemoth's flesh was seen expanding, swelling, and regenerating. According to Tattletale's power, Endbringer flesh mends from the inside out, with inner layers expanding to fill in wounds and integrate into surrounding structures. However, their regeneration noticeably slows down the further away the damage is from the core. Regenerating Endbringer flesh also needs time to be properly dense and is thus more fragile.

According to Tattletale's power, the Endbringers have irregular biology, were never human, and have no conventional organs. Her power inferred Leviathan's body is layered like an onion, where the main body and limbs respectively have around 200 and 33 layers. Although the exterior skin of Leviathan is as hard as aluminum alloy, each successive layer that extends down to the hyperdurable core body roughly doubles in durability. His core is buried deep in the central part of his chest.

In general, other Endbringers have similar amounts of durability as Leviathan. A conventional attacker would effectively have to dig through a spiral galaxy's equivalent of matter to reach their core.
 * Behemoth has a layered onionlike build, but can compound his natural durability by absorbing and redirecting the energy from a given attack. His core is buried deep at the base of the throat, between the shoulders.
 * Khonsu has a clearly visible layered onionlike build. He also has forcefields set between some layers of his body that only disappear after a strong hit; this reinforcement can help prevent an attack from stripping away too many layers at once. As his layers are clearly visible, it is possible that his core is in the center of his sphere-like body.
 * The builds and core locations for Tohu and Bohu are unknown. Regardless, they likely share the same durability as the typical Endbringer.

In contrast, the Simurgh does not share the same layered onionlike build as the other Endbringers. Much of her body is hollow, a criss-cross latticework of feathers harder than steel that forms her hollow shell. According to Tattletale's power, the Simurgh's human body acts as a decoy and is relatively fragile; her core is probably in some joint of her largest wing. Her largest wing is especially durable, though the build is unknown, and the part without the core does get severed at one point.

Although the durability of an Endbringer is incredible, it is possible to kill one by destroying their core:
 * Scion's Stilling blasts could eventually destroy an Endbringer.
 * A concentrated attack with enough force to destroy the surface of a planet would kill an Endbringer in one shot. While even an attack of that magnitude would not destroy all the layers of a typical Endbringer body, enough force would transmit to the core resulting in a definite kill.
 * Similarly, a proper hit from a String Theory Driver weapon with the kind of power to push the Moon out of orbit could kill an Endbringer. As a result, Endbringers would cooperate and carefully plan their appearances to avoid any setup of a proper hit. However, the Simurgh did get into a situation in Ward where Defiant was able to fire G-Driver blasts at her.
 * Attacks that ignore the laws of physics could penetrate to the core of their bodies. Annihilation attacks such as Flechette's charged shots would be able to destroy their core.
 * In theory, an Endbringer would count as dead if Gray Boy managed to trap a whole Endbringer with multiple time loops. However, Gray Boy is unable to solo an Endbringer because it would stop holding back until he was dead.

Endbringers count as living matter for the purposes of the Manton Effect. Due to their density, they are immune to most capes who teleport living things. However, Endbringers can travel through large enough portals,  though Ligeia could not portal-cut Behemoth. The Simurgh could pass through Doormaker's portal, though the outer edges of the portal started to waver. Both Behemoth and Leviathan leaked a thick ichor-like substance after taking sufficient damage, suggesting a nonstandard cardiac system for these Endbringers. The Endbringer's nervous system is also nonstandard enough to prevent body control powers from working. Scanner was capable of reading the Simurgh's thought patterns, though.

Behemoth
Behemoth — also known as "Hadhayosh" and "Prathama" — was the first Endbringer to appear. He made his first appearance in the Marun Field of Iran on December 13, 1992. He is a dynakinetic capable of manipulating energy in all of its forms; he can also bypass the Manton effect within a radius of around 30 feet. Because of this, he gained a reputation as the 'herokiller', possessing a high body count at short range. The Protectorate recommended that capes should maintain a distance of at least 100 feet from him, as any closer would mean little chance of escape should he wish to close the gap and vaporize, electrocute, or otherwise kill them; even super-speed capes could be out-sped and killed by his lightning. That said, Behemoth seems to lack complete control over his energy manipulation, as demonstrated in the New Delhi fight, when Weaver and several Wards with her were able to create a large metal structure which acted as a lighting rod and re-directed some of his lighting bolts.

Leviathan
Leviathan — also known as "Jormungand" or "Jörmungandr" — first appeared in Oslo, Norway on June 9, 1996. He has macro-hydrokinesis, superspeed, and a water "afterimage" that follows behind him and moves as fast as Leviathan himself. He was known for causing immense environmental damage, devastating areas such as Newfoundland and Kyushu to the point of uninhabitability.

The Simurgh
The Simurgh — also known as "Ziz" — first appeared in Lausanne, Switzerland on December 30, 2002. She has psionic abilities (most infamously manifesting as a "song") and the ability to draw on Tinker powers around her in order to build her own devices. The Simurgh also has near-perfect precognition but lacks the ability to perceive the present; in combat, this strength more than makes up for her weakness. Not only does this precognition make her extremely effective in combat, but it also enables her to target key locations or individuals. When the Simurgh attacks a key target, she is known to adjust the events in places she attacks to set up the survivors to be "walking disasters" that happen days, months, or even years after. Affected areas were quarantined to try and mitigate these effects, such as in the case of Madison, Wisconsin.

Khonsu
After the death of Behemoth, the existing Endbringers changed their tactics. New Endbringers appeared, apparently with a different purpose. The first of these was Khonsu, which appeared in Japan on January 20, 2012. He can create up to three cylindrical fields of accelerated time at a time that can trap people inside. Outside observers see the field speed up time for anything inside; however, for anyone trapped within the field, time appears to flow normally. Khonsu can also teleport on a global scale, allowing him to attack key locations and installations worldwide.

Tohu and Bohu
Tohu and Bohu appeared in Bucharest, Romania on October 10, 2012. Bohu manipulates the battlefield, setting up traps for defending parahumans and manipulating the area in a set pattern. The full extent of these traps is not fully detailed, but it is heavily implied that, should Bohu successfully alter a city, it would be rendered unsuitable for habitation. This has not stopped large groups of parahumans from fighting in altered cities, however, as demonstrated by Jack Slash. Tohu chooses three capes and then copies their powers to defend its "sister" Bohu. For obvious reasons, it tends to copy stronger powers.

Timeline of Attacks
The Endbringers intend to continue operating for roughly 300 years, the estimated length of the cycle. They can only reach this date by conserving their energy and intentionally fighting below strength. They constantly update their strategies from attack to attack, coming back with new approaches, and revealing new abilities that they hadn't shown before.

The Endbingers all attack at at set times, with the time between attacks decreases as the number of Endbringers increases. When Behemoth showed up, attack occurred 1 per 8 months; when Leviathan joined, the attacks became 1 per 5 months; when the Simurgh joined, the attacks became 1 per 3.5 months ; when Behemoth died but Khonsu and The Twins replaced him, the attacks became 1 per 2 months. The Enbringers do not have any particular order at to which specific Endbringer attacks next. The only rules they have are that they don't attack the same location twice in a row, and that the same Endbringer does not attack twice in a row. For one example, Behemoth could attack one time, then Leviathan the next, the Behemoth could go again after him.

Each of the Endbringers was created for a specific purpose to conform to their 300-year timeline. Behemoth was created to "break stasis," Leviathan to take away resources in space and land, forcing communities into conflict as they relocated, and the Simurgh to simulate a future where humanity destroyed itself from in-fighting, as well as to forcibly gather information on the planet's resources to provide better data.

Background
The first Endbringer, Behemoth, appeared in 1992 in the Marun oil field of Iran, beginning a series of attacks at various locations worldwide, roughly once a year. The appearance of Behemoth was a major factor towards the creation of the PRT, which labelled the Endbringer as Case 2 in their case files. For the Triumvirate, the presence of Behemoth, as well as the potential for future capes of his caliber, was also a major motivating factor for the formation of their team and the continued work of Cauldron.

Over the next several years, the Endbringer attacks continued to escalate. Once Behemoth began to be "too predictable," the second Endbringer, Leviathan, appeared in 1996, in Oslo, Norway. Attacks started occurring roughly every five months. Worldwide defense efforts began to coordinate forces against Endbringer attacks; apparently in response to these efforts, in 2002, the third Endbringer, the Simurgh, made her first appearance, appearing docile at first before attacking and revealing herself to be an Endbringer.

The three Endbringers continued their worldwide attacks over the next decade, creating immense destruction. An attack from Leviathan on Newfoundland sunk the entire island, killing the tinker Andrew Richter, whose creation Dragon later joined the Guild ; a separate attack from Leviathan sunk the island of Kyushu, despite resistance from Lung. The benevolent tinker Sphere was turned into future Slaughterhouse Nine member Mannequin by an attack from the Simurgh; another Simurgh attack on Madison, Wisconsin brought the Travelers to Earth Bet, later bringing about the Echidna.

Leviathan Attack on Brockton Bay, 2011
On May 15, 2011, Brockton Bay was the target of an attack by Leviathan; Miss Militia believed the attack to be in response to the recent gang conflicts plaguing the city, while the Travelers suspected Noelle Meinhardt to be the target of the attack, a theory which Tattletale later agreed with. Early-warning programs operated by Armsmaster and Dragon were able to foresee the attack and give local and foreign capes a chance to organize against it. Leviathan still devastated the parahuman resistance, only retreating with the appearance of Scion, and destroyed a large part of the city. The number of casualties was the lowest for an Endbringer attack in years, however, leading Taylor Hebert to later reflect on the attack as a "good day" compared to other attacks.

The Leviathan attack nevertheless had significant and long-lasting consequences for the city; large swaths of it were left without power and resources, while others were destroyed entirely. The local Protectorate team was weakened by the death of Velocity and the retirement of Armsmaster, while the deaths of Aegis and Gallant severely hurt morale among the local Wards and required the arrival of Weld and Flechette to bolster their ranks. New Wave was also hit hard by the deaths of Shielder and Manpower, and the injury of Flashbang. Meanwhile, with the city's major gangs removed from power and the heroes still recovering, the Undersiders and the Travelers were able to claim territory, furthering their employer Coil's plans to take over the city.

Despite these issues, the city was able to recover to a reasonable position within several months. However, its poor state soon after the attack ultimately attracted the attention of the Slaughterhouse Nine, whose presence in the city eventually set the stage for the end of the world.

Behemoth Attack on New Delhi, 2011
The next Endbringer attack occurred on July 26, 2011, when Behemoth attacked New Delhi. The battle was attended by both the local cape groups of the Garama and Thanda, as well as capes from the Protectorate and the Yàngbǎn, as well as the Undersiders and Ambassadors. The Endbringer's goal was likely a "time bomb" operated by local 'cold' cape Phir Sē, composed of light looped repeatedly through portals, accumulating power. Phir Sē eventually deployed this energy weapon, dealing the most damage to an Endbringer ever done, but it only succeeded in removing the Endbringer's outer layers, leaving his 'skeleton' intact. After further fighting, Scion arrived, and having been instructed by Kevin Norton to slay the Endbringers, he killed Behemoth.

In addition to the deaths of numerous civilians, the attack saw the deaths of noted capes such as Regent, Rime, and Accord. Alexandria's body, possessed by Pretender, notably made an appearance at the attack. In addition, the Chicago Wards, after cooperating with Weaver, made the decision to let her onto their team. The largest consequence of the attack on New Delhi, however, was the death of Behemoth. The Endbringers, long seen as a fact of life, were shown in this battle to be killable, prompting questions about the next steps forward regarding the other Endbringers, as well as what they would do to escalate next. As information about the attack spread to the public, it was similarly met with both celebration and skepticism about the defeat, with some expressing concerns that Behemoth was not actually dead, or that the defeat would provoke the remaining Endbringers.

Post-Behemoth Defeat
The first Endbringer attack following the death of Behemoth was an attack from the Simurgh on November 25, 2011, on Flight BA178; unlike prior attacks, the fight lasted only forty minutes, with little lead-up and no casualties besides the passengers of the plane. This attack marked a change in strategy for Leviathan and the Simurgh, both of them beginning to use guerrilla tactics.

The most notable development regarding the Endbringers occurred with the appearance of the fourth Endbringer, Khonsu, on January 20, 2012. In contrast to prior Endbringer attacks, Khonsu teleported to attack multiple locations worldwide for a period of three days, requiring intense negotiations and coordination from Cauldron to drive off. In addition, the proximity of Khonsu's attack to the Simurgh's only two months before suggested not only an altered schedule, but given the precedent, the appearance of a fifth Endbringer. On October 10 later that year, this fear was confirmed with the appearance of the Endbringers Tohu and Bohu, collectively The Twins.

Over the course of the Timeskip, the now-five Endbringers continued their attacks, making use of hit-and-run tactics and other strategies to counter and avoid Scion.

Gold Morning
Following the death of Eidolon, the Endbringers began behaving strangely. The Simurgh and Bohu appeared at the same time on Earth Bet, something never before seen, but both remained motionless. Reviewing footage from Eidolon's last minutes before death, Tattletale concluded that Eidolon's death had caused their unusual behavior and attempted to communicate with the Simurgh, asking her to organize the Endbringers against Scion. After several attempts, Tattletale appeared to have successfully convinced the Endbringer, managing to get the Simurgh, as well as Leviathan, to follow the group and attack on command; in addition to having the Simurgh 'imprint' on Tattletale, soon later Khonsu imprinted on an individual in Teacher's group, whose services were sold to Cauldron. The Simurgh modified Leviathan, incorporating nano-thorn technology into his body.

The Endbringers, sans Khonsu, later held off Scion during the rise of Khepri. The four Endbringers were able to distract Scion as Khepri made her moves, but eventually were incapacitated, with Leviathan killed and the others severely damaged. Following Scion's defeat, the remaining four Endbringers were largely dormant. The Simurgh appeared to be active, however, apparently having used Tinker technology to grow a baby with an unusual resemblance to Eidolon.

Impact
The Endbringers have killed countless people in their attacks and wiped out several notable heroes. They have caused demographic and political shifts and environmental degradation on a scale not seen outside natural disasters. In addition to the physical damage and loss of civilian lives, their attacks have had the effect of killing or otherwise removing parahumans who served as luminaries and leaders willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good, perhaps contributing to more prevalent cynicism and hopelessness in the general population.Fantastic question, and one I’m not sure I can give a fantastic answer to. Why is that? Well, primarily, there’s the issue of trying to quantify ‘damage’. As stated in Legend’s pre-battle speech (early in arc 8) there’s almost always grievous losses but they aren’t always the same sort of losses. You have the events that left the world reeling: Lausanne, Hawaii, Kyushu, Newfoundland, Moscow, Sydney. The attacks that left major areas uninhabitable or unrecoverable, with wide-reaching effects on the rest of the country/region/world. In this setting, for example, Japan isn’t a world power and it’s still dependent on international assistance 12 years after Leviathan’s visit to Kyushu. But even there, where do you say, “Ok, that’s the sum total of the damage done”? The disaster at Kyushu, the number of refugees seeking living space/work and the pressures on the rest of Asia’s pacific border might have led to some more unrest and tension. Some friction, some ‘small’ wars, infighting and intermingling. Refugees and immigrants. Many settle in major cities across America because President Bradley’s Preservation Act gives them a hand in getting on their feet. Do you factor that last point into the damage as well? Lung comes to Brockton Bay in part because of the booming population of Asian immigrants (which hasn’t yet set down roots). Bakuda was born to a Westerner mother and Immigrant father. Do you count the damage they’ve done? Ditto for Mannequin and the Simurgh. But that’s only the major hits, the broad strokes of the brush and all the repercussions/spatter that follows from that. Attacks end in other ways, for example. Legend mentions mass loss of life. There’s economic damage that follows from that, disease and explosions in the population of vermin when a quarter million people die in a concentrated area. There’s the deaths of countless heroes, and how that biases things further towards the general villain population. If the selfless throw their lives away for the greater good and it’s primarily the selfish (or the very powerful) who are left, how does that skew things? And I should stress that weak points aren’t necessarily just areas which are geographically vulnerable. There’s places where there’s ongoing conflict (like we might point to the middle east over the past decade), places where it takes little effort on the part of the Endbringer to deal maximum devastation (ie. a nuclear power plant, military bases) and spots where a great many resources are invested (be they great minds collected in one place or major projects like Dr. Gramme’s major projects in trying to save the world). Did anyone else catch the mention of the water crisis? Leviathan isn’t always attacking cities, and the world has only so much accessible freshwater. I digress. To answer your question in the general sense? Relatively few places have been hit as hard as the major examples listed above. But figure this has been going on for 20ish years. Behemoth shows up in the early 90’s, attacking once a year, roughly (twice in 1994), Leviathan shows up in the mid 90’s (now we’re up to 2-3 Endbringer attacks a year), and Simurgh comes in just after the turn of the century (now 3-4). I mentioned in a comment during the Endbringer arc, but I said something like ‘Behemoth is the cape-killer and Leviathan levels cities’. Figure each Endbringer has attacked 16 to 20 times so far, account for the bias towards killing capes (Behemoth) vs. wiping out landscapes (Leviathan) and that Brockton Bay is pretty middle-of-the-road for the kind of aftermath you see, and maybe you can make an estimate. Ballparking it? 8 or 9 Endbringer attacks in America over 20 years. - Comment by Wildbow on Colony 15.5 Leviathan alone has precipitated a water crisis. Collectively, their impact has been compared to nuclear weapons (which Earth Bet does not seem to possess), especially since the Endbringers usually target cities or other large population centers.

Conversely, without the Endbringers there would be fewer parahumans than there would otherwise be, and much of the coordination in the Cape community is because of the need to repel Endbringer attacks.

Origins
Eden's simulation of an ideal future included 'superweapons' implied to be Endbringers. In the simulation, she attributed them to The Shepherds, pretending to The Wardens that she would help defend against them, but in reality she was their source. There were twenty such superweapons in total, including: For the most part, these superweapons remained inactive, acting only when they sensed vulnerability. . The Wardens knew them to be projections, but otherwise information about their nature was unclear. In feigning ignorance about her involvement with the superweapons and promising to help the Wardens with a potential war against the Shepherds, Eden likely intended the Endbringers to be used to incite conflict to further the goals of the Cycle, but after her death, this future did not come to pass.
 * A fifteen-foot tall lion-headed figure surrounded by crystal, who turned whatever the crystal touched into more crystal.
 * A woman with a reptilian lower body, surrounded by clouds of steam which took the form of faces, claws, and other forms.
 * A naked man, perched on top of a seemingly frozen ocean wave, with a 'too flexible' body that swayed with the wind.
 * Four superweapons at the 'Divide,' one to the north of the Wardens, and four others spread out around the world.

Had Cauldron ceased to exist soon after killing Eden, the Endbringers would not have existed. The Endbringers began behaving strangely after Eidolon's death; this led Tattletale to speculate that Eidolon may have created them, perhaps inadvertently, or perhaps as an excuse to "flex his abilities to their fullest". She claimed to be "60% sure" of this conclusion. "The outer shell, the concept, the execution, they’re tapping into religious metaphors. The devil, the serpent, the angel, buddha, mother earth, the maiden, each connected in turn to fundamental forces. Flame, water, fate, time, earth, the self. Things deep-seated and fundamental to their creator’s belief system, because that’s how the passengers interpret our world. Through us. But deep down? Beyond that surface, beyond the basic programming that drives them to do what they’ve been doing for thirty years? It’s the passenger’s brush strokes."

- Tattletale on the Endbringers

The four words which Scion says to Eidolon in Interlude 27.y may confirm Tattletale's theory that Eidolon created or, given Eden's plans for her superweapons, merely awakened the Endbringers, but it is unknown whether Scion was telling the truth or just used the words in order to achieve his goal.

Trivia

 * Echidna was thought at first to potentially be a nascent Endbringer.
 * A popular theory among some of the Worm fandom is that the Endbringers were once parahumans, who either snapped or couldn’t handle their powers, gotten out of control, transformed into gigantic monstrosities. With the full reveal of their origins this theory has been disconfirmed.
 * The epilogue chapter Teneral e.4, however, does introduce a similar concept.
 * It is speculated in-universe that some tinkers (Bonesaw, Rattenfänger, Jamestowner, Mosaic, Monstrum) and other non-tinker capes like Chrysalis or Nilbog may have the potential to create Endbringers, (or, given what we now know about their origins, beings of comparable power) if they could find some outside means for cooperation or a power boost/second trigger.