The Fallen

For April, Stone Soldiers.info is celebrating the A to Z Blog Challenge with daily letter-themed entries. A separate page with a list of all these entries, plus Character Profiles and Book Synopses will appear on the right hand side of the page in coming weeks, detailing the people, places and things of the Stone Soldiers universe.

Book of Stone: The Fallen

(A Stone Soldiers Encyclopedia Entry)

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

-Genesis 6:1-2

Super powers have to come from somewhere. And in Stone Soldiers, that source is a very surprising one: the Nephilim. 

The Fallen are those Angels cast out from Heaven. Formerly divine beings who spent the remainder of their existence living alongside mankind. And taking mortal women as brides. This produced the Nephilim, or as the US Military of Stone Soldiers calls them, the First Born. 

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown

-Genesis 6:4

Not just possessing superhuman strength like that of the legendary Samson, these half-mortal creatures were endowed with supernatural abilities ranging from shapeshifting, to weather control to even the transmutation of other objects. Many hated their mortal origins, and many posed as gods themselves. Some, like the Titans of Black Knight Down, bred amongst themselves, producing creatures mortal, yet immortal. They themselves took human brides as well, passing along their DNA and their supernatural powers to generation after generation. These successive generations are classified as Fellish.

By the 20th Century, Fellish DNA is widely circulated around the world, but in most cases recessive. It is in the Great Melting Pot of America that ancient bloodlines mix with greater frequency, unlocking ancient abilities. 

In 2013, Project Medusa successfully activated dormant Fellish DNA in a young woman named Josie Winters--unlocking her potential psychic abilities--by using a form of gene therapy to mix the DNA of a prehistoric Fellish shapeshifter with one of his descendants (Brothers in Stone). 

Not all paranormal abilities come from Fellish bloodlines. Colonel Mark Kenslir, the Commander of Detachment 1039, is the seventh son of a seventh son, and has been thrice-cursed, granting him a unique blend of abilities. Similarly, the Stone Soldiers themselves are, for the most part, ordinary humans subjected t a supernatural process to turn them to living stone. Other creatures also exist, transformed from human to something else by dark magic. 

America is not the only nation to possess descendants of the Fallen, but a country where cultures and peoples from around the world intermingle does produce far more parahumans--those with extraordinary abilities--than those nations with xenophobic tendencies and a dislike for foreigners.

To date a number of Fallen and Fellish beings have been identified. Elementals, Titans, Demigods, Shapeshifters and Nature Spirits. Many more no doubt exist, clinging to the shadows and plotting their next attempt to wage their never-ending war on humanity.