Pantheon

Origins
As one of the first human beings to set foot upon the Earth, the woman known as J’Daa was unprepared for what destiny had in store for her. She spent her early years fighting for survival in a hostile and predatory world, and encompassed all the things that humanity would come to represent in the future: unbridled rage and fury, coupled with endless compassion and love.

As J’Daa reached maturity, she travelled to a place known as the Valley of the Almighty in a land that would come to be known as Zimbabwe, where the barriers between our world and the Realms of Heaven were at their weakest. She looked through the barriers, and bore witness to the gods who looked back upon her and saw a worthy vessel for their powers. J'Daa communed with the gods for five days and five nights, and once the ritual was complete, she emerged as something different and wholly unique: the world’s first superhuman. Imbued with the power of the gods, and able to access them one at a time, she took the name Pantheon.

The Gathering of the Host
In the following years, Pantheon travelled the world gathering a group of fellow primeval superhumans that would come to be known as The Host. She was driven by prophetic nightmares of an ancient and powerful being known as The Breaker, who was stirring in the shadows and would soon bear down upon the world with furious anger. She gathered the moon spirit Eclipse and Shenlong the Mighty, last of the powerful Chinese thunder dragons to her side, but even these strange and powerful creatures would not be enough to face the coming darkness.

While resting one night, Pantheon found herself drawn to a primitive human who seemed less primitive than the rest. While they screamed and fought over scraps of food, he scratched around in the dirt, drawing shapes and symbols while muttering sounds under his breath. She realised that this human was connected to the larger powers that she had come to know, and shared with him her great and powerful knowledge.

The primitive human was uplifted, finding language on his tongue and power in his hands. He improved upon his prior work, deftly designing sigils and wards while tapping into the limitless reserves of power that came from the Earth itself. He would become the world's first and most powerful sorcerer, and he took the name Merlin.

The final member of their group was the earth spirit who named herself Gaia, drawn from the ground when she felt the soft touch of Merlin's magic reaching out to her. She brought the power of the earth itself to bear, and joined the Host to combat the rising darkness.

The Coming of the Breaker
Pantheon told the group of The Breaker, an ancient watchman who acted as the immune system for the universe and sensed a sickness in the Earth. He came to Earth with the intention of destroying the planet for the good of the wider universe, but seeing the value of the planet and the creatures who called it home, the Host fought back.

The battle raged across the Earth, but ultimately the Host defeated the Breaker. Pantheon levelled the power of the gods at the creature, while Merlin and Eclipse tore open its armour and exposed its dark heart to the bright light of the moon. Shenlong scattered the being's ashes across the storm, while Gaia healed the Earth of her great and terrible wounds.

Their duty done, the Host gradually drifted apart and Pantheon was content to sit back and observe the movements of the world, watching as humanity grew and matured into the civilisation we have today. She waited in the shadows, smiling as the species became something worthy of protecting.

The Founder Invasion
One thing Pantheon watched with great curiosity was the gradual emergence of a race of powerful superhumans who grew to protect the Earth as the Host had done many millennia before. But she knew better than most that power is a beacon, a signal to the wider universe and an invitation to new and more deadly threats.

One of the greatest of these came in 1947, as an alien race known as The Founders mounted an invasion of Earth, destroying dozens of major cities and killing countless thousands of people in their first onslaught. Humanity fought back with their new superhuman defenders, but the invaders were patient and prepared, and began to outmatch Earth's defences.

So the time came for Pantheon to emerge from the shadows once more. She joined the armies and the superhumans of Earth, taking on the human name Jada Beckett, and proved instrumental in forcing the invaders back.

In the aftermath of the Founder Invasion, Pantheon became a publicly recognised and celebrated hero. She was asked to join the newly-formed Superior Squad but declined, preferring to allow humanity's new heroes to grow in their own way.

The Drawing of the Veil
Pantheon continued operating as a solo superhero for many years following the Founder Invasion, even acting as an advisor to UNION in the early days. Then, in 1965 a terrible tragedy fell upon the world and changed it irrevocably.

An immortal dark sorcerer going by the name Augustus Crowne sought to open the doors separating the mortal realm from the fantastical worlds surrounding it and unleash new magical forces upon the world. Seeing that chaos would ensue and dangerous creatures would wreak havoc on the mortal realm, Pantheon dedicated herself to stopping Crowne from completing his task.

However, Crowne was devious and managed to elude both Pantheon and the Merlinine Council as he gathered a series of powerful magical artifacts to help him achieve his ultimate goal of unleashing a dark magical creature known only as Oblivion on the world and burning reality down to the ground.

Evading capture, Crowne began his ritual at the remote Castle Ødeleggelse in Svarheim, Norway, and began to pull back the veil separating the worlds. The Merlinine Council watched as reality began to warp and crack around the castle, and contacted UNION whose forces, including The Union and Pantheon herself, descended on the ritual and turned the castle into a battleground.

With the additional magical energy now accessible to him, Crowne overpowered the collective heroes and successfully tore the veil open. Sensing Oblivion stirring and realising that they had run out of options, Pantheon made her final decision, hurling herself at Crowne and dragging him through the tear he had just created. The ripple of magical energy that issued from the two powerful beings colliding looped back and pulled the edges of the tear back together, sealing the rift but trapping both Crowne and herself on the other side.

The world mourned the loss of one of its greatest heroes, and the Merlinine Council worked to uphold her legacy, particularly in the face of the new and previously unknown magical energies that had leaked out into the world during Crowne's ritual.

Beyond the Veil
Although lost to the world, Pantheon was far from gone. On the other side of the veil, Crowne was dragged into the darkness by the creatures he had failed, to be tortured and punished for the remainder of eternity. Although he had been a terrible adversary, Pantheon was unwilling to subject anyone to the pain and humiliation these creatures had planned, and plunged into the darkness herself in an effort to rescue him.

She battled the forces beyond the veil for decades, eventually finding and rescuing Crowne from the clutches of Oblivion. However, by the time she found him he was too far gone and begged her to put him out of his misery, and with a merciful hand and a great deal of sorrow she reluctantly did so. In an uncharacteristic moment of vengeance, Pantheon lashed out and destroyed Oblivion for what it had done to Crowne, then fell to her knees and prayed for forgiveness.

Return
Back on Earth, at the dawn of the new millennium a great threat emerged as a scientist and businessman named Victor Geist tracked down and used an object of great cosmic power known as the Eternity Helm. He was granted near-infinite knowledge and understanding of the universe, and began building a machine to convert the entire Earth into pure consciousness and help the human race ascend to a new plane of existence.

Geist was able to fight off the collected ranks of the world's greatest superhumans, and in a desperate move the human sorcerers Hart and Sole enacted a ritual they had been planning for years. They successfully punched a tiny hole in the veil between realms, and pulled Pantheon back out onto Earth, finding her tired and a little worse for wear but still the great hero they had lost so many years ago.

Pantheon joined the fray and turned the tide against Geist, working with unfamiliar heroes including Vanquisher and Steel Saviour to separate him from the Helm. Ultimately the combined forces of the world's superhumans defeated Geist and put a stop to his devastating plans for the Earth, imprisoning him in The Vault, a UNION supermax prison.

In her mystical role as Earth's protector, Pantheon was chosen to secure the Eternity Helm, and using a knife that was a vestige of her time beyond the veil, she was able to hide it away in a different realm where it held no power, ensuring that it could not fall into the wrong hands ever again.

The Ascendancy
In the aftermath of the Eternity Pursuit, Pantheon was offered a chance to join a new team of superhuman defenders, answerable only to themselves and the people they were protecting. After decades of solitude beyond the veil, this time Pantheon saw the value in being a part of something larger than herself, and she became a founding member of The Ascendancy. She assisted in building The Nexus and became a key part of the team in many future missions, able to advise on many mystical situations and act as a powerhouse in combat scenarios.

She also took responsibility for nurturing newly emerged superhumans around the world, having had thousands of years of experience dealing with people with great power. Working closely with the Global Emergence Initiative, Pantheon became an ambassador for the organisation and proudly helped hundreds of young people through the transition into becoming a full-fledged superhuman.

Bedlam
In 2009 the Americas fell victim to a string of devastating terrorist attacks perpetrated by a villain known only as Bedlam. After evading UNION's security services and even the power of The Union, it became clear that this powerful and vicious terrorist could only be dealt with by the most powerful heroes, and so the Ascendancy were called in.

Pantheon was the first member of the team to directly confront Bedlam, only to be taken by surprise when he attacked and swiftly incapacitated her with his vast strength and cunning. Her injuries were severe enough that she was advised to stay out of the ensuing battle, but she insisted on taking part to make sure that civilians and innocents were not harmed in the chaos.

Ultimately Bedlam was incapacitated by agents of HADES, and in the aftermath the Ascendancy found public opinion of them began to turn sour.

Crisis of Confidence
Following the revelations of unethical activities being carried out by HADES on behalf of UNION, Pantheon was one of the first heroes to publicly denounce the organisation for their role in aggressively pursuing superhumans. Although still widely beloved, Pantheon began to feel some effects of the souring public opinion as humanity began to question whether they truly needed superhumans.

This came to the forefront during a battle with the rogue artificial intelligence known as Cortex. Having been programmed with an intimate knowledge of the weaknesses of many superhumans, Cortex was able to manipulate Pantheon into hesitating when moving to protect a group of civilians, resulting in the deaths of two innocent people and three more being injured.

This incident shook Pantheon's confidence greatly, and she too began to question whether superhumans were helpful or harmful to humanity. Her teammates noticed this change and offered her support, gradually improving her confidence once again and building her back up to her old self, allowing her to assist in defeating Cortex.

In the aftermath of the battle, she was front and centre when the assembled heroes confronted UNION Director Marcus Cage about his role in the rise of HADES and the subsequent attacks by Cortex. Cage listened to the heroes and shuttered the division, dissolving all assets and removing HADES from the playing field.

Pantheon went on to act as a liaison between UNION and the Ascendancy to ensure that new initiatives were in the best interests of humanity, her confidence now fully restored.

Personality
Pantheon has always been a force for positivity and optimism in the face of great darkness and cynicism. This was part of the reason she was chosen as the vessel of the gods' power, as they knew she would use it for the betterment of humanity and was unlikely to be corrupted.

She continues to see the good in people, even those who seek to harm her and others, knowing that all it takes for a good person to become bad is a single bad day. Over the course of her long life she has seen the inherent fallible nature of humanity, and chooses to forgive these flaws rather than holding them against the people she wishes to protect.

More than anything she has a strong sense of love and pride in the human race, and will do anything, and sacrifice anything to protect them. She thrives on making people happy, and when she sees any of her actions have a negative effect of any sort, it affects her greatly.

Her personality can change when she uses her abilities, as prolonged use of the powers of any one god can cause aspects of that deity's personality to mingle with her own, however she works hard to mitigate these effects and ensure that she remains the same good person she has always been.

Superhuman Abilities
As a living vessel of the powers of the gods, Pantheon is among the most powerful individuals on Earth, and is able to access the abilities of each god from across a diverse range of cultures and religions.

However, she is only able to access the powers of one god at a time, and once she has used these powers she is unable to call upon them again for a 24-hour period. For the most part this limitation does not cause problems for her, as she is able to access similar powers belonging to a different god from a different pantheon if she needs to.

She has a few favourite powers which she chooses to call upon more than others, including: One drawback to using these powers more frequently is that, as she uses the abilities of an individual god more often, she will find aspects of these gods permeating her own personality. As a result, she strives to seek a balance so she does not become too arrogant, aggressive or vengeful like many of the gods.
 * Speed - In situations when she needs to move quickly, Pantheon frequently finds herself calling on the powers of the messenger god Mercury.
 * Thunder - Pantheon's favoured offensive power is calling down thunder and lightning, so she often switches between the powers of Thor and Jupiter.
 * Healing - As a benevolent hero, Pantheon also finds herself needing to heal wounds using the powers of Aceso and Apollo.

Weapons and Equipment
With the powers of the gods at her fingertips, Pantheon doesn't have much need of traditional weaponry. However, when she rides into battle she finds it helpful to have something with which to channel the powers of the more warlike gods, and so her trusted comrade Merlin forged a powerful weapon for her.
 * Phalanx - A unique and powerful weapon, the Phalanx is a blade of pure light which can alter its shape to become a range of different weapons associated with different gods. When calling on the powers of Thor, the Phalanx will change into a mighty warhammer, while the powers of Minerva require a long bladed spear. It can even transform itself into a shield when she needs protection from her enemies. Over the years Pantheon has become rather adept in using the Phalanx, and can change its shape in a fraction of a second, proving a fearsome warrior on the battlefield.