Hearth

Emergence Era

DETAILS Threat Level: Gamma

Tier: Fourth-to-Third (Third-to-Second Collectively with the Pentad of Guardians)

Hearth is a powerful and versatile sorcerer and mage, capable of casting any number of spells. His spell effects almost always take the appearance of bright, glowing pink energy, and his grey and pink uniform — based on the Nightblossom Reef Academy’s senior student uniform, despite it never having existed — reflects that. Often, his magical powers surround him and his entire area in a cascade of glowing pink cherry blossoms flying in the wind, glowing pink butterflies, oversized glowing pink snowflakes — really, the sky’s the limit. His magical power is largely centered around the healing arts and protective spells, capable of warding people from physical, energy, magical, and even energy attacks. However, there is only so much any ward can absorb or deflect, and when that limit is reached, it shatters. He can bolster the effects of one of his wards if need be, but the process connects him to that ward, meaning that if it shatters, he suffers tremendous feedback, causing him pain and even rendering him unconscious.

As Hearth remains the pacifist he’s been most of his life, he is often disregarded in battle — a crucial error, as Hearth is an expert in warding, healing, and restoring his fellow Pentad members, meaning that right when an enemy is convinced they’ve won a hard fought battle, suddenly they’re back up to full strength and ready for round two.

Halcyon Days Era

DETAILS Threat Level: Gamma

Tier: Third

Hearth’s magical abilities have grown significantly stronger, and his magical knowledge has increased as well. He has learned the magical art of Leywalking, which allows Hearth and those he brings with him to travel great distances in a fraction of the time so long as he can follow the natural ley lines that naturally circle the globe in various patterns. As a large concentration of these ley lines converge and overlap in Empire City itself, this ability is highly versatile. Hearth has also begun to learn many other kinds of spell — whether divination or conjuration or many more — though his pacifism remains his guiding principle. (Though at this point, he typically cites the Hippocratic Oath he took when he became a doctor, especially when people believe his pacifism came from his studies at the order. It seems easier to him than trying to explain that he became a pacifist all the way back in middle school.)

Apocalypse Agenda Era

DETAILS Threat Level: BetaOmnipedia PopupHearth's 'threat rating' of 'Beta' at this time is essentially honorary, reflecting his significant power and sheer range of magical abilities. However, as he is still a dedicated pacifist, DETAILS does not actually classify him as a 'threat.'

Tier: Third

In the wake of the devastation caused by the Apocalypse Agenda, Hearth’s healing magic and his knowledge and skill in using it grew exponentially. He has greatly increased his ability to restore and heal larger groups at a time. He’s also finally had an opportunity to practice some of the techniques he’d researched in his desire to help Antonym, including during the period of time when she was helping negotiate with the Coalition of Nations.

In Nadir Era

DETAILS Threat Level: Gamma

Tier: Fourth

After the Apocalypse Agenda, with their cosmological role apparently fulfilled and Antonym even more badly hurt, the Pentad of Guardians drifted apart, with all four remaining members leaving Empire City. Dorian entered semi-retirement, joining a practice in Viejo Bosque, California. After learning of Ant’s death in a car accident alongside her husband, Hearth reemerged as a member of the heroic community, now working alongside Justice Wing, though he continued to serve alongside his fellow Pentad members whenever possible. His magical abilities have become refined and rededicated to healing the sick and injured, and his facility with them is expert.

Emergence Era

Early Life

Dorian Hwan was born in Conkin’s Barrin, Long Island off Empire City, a second-generation Korean American. To help mollify both sets of their parents and their tightly-knit community, Hwan’s parents christened him Hwan Yong-Jin (桓용진), though his birth certificate read ‘Dorian Yong-Jin Hwan,’ the name he grew up with and still identifies as his own.

While the Hwans lived in a predominantly Korean neighborhood, Conkin’s Barrin was home to a broad Asian American diaspora, which gave Dorian a relatively unique sense of his heritage and ethnic identity, at the cost of friction with his older extended family. (Once he discovered an abiding love for the bootleg VHS tapes of broadcast Japanese anime and tokusatsu offered at the corner stores and small markets near his home, for example, there was no turning back.) However, while Dorian was proud of his Korean heritage, he didn’t really identify himself that way. To his mind, he was Asian American by citizenship and Empirical by loyalty and temperament.

Dorian grew up to be very handsome and personable, but he found it difficult to build close friendships in his home neighborhood. The smattering of Korean he spoke wasn’t convincing to his neighbors or extended family, and his disinterest in sports (belied by his athletic body) and love of reading kept him out of the popular cliques in school. What was more, from an early age Dorian embraced a pacifist lifestyle — violence was for television and movies, not real life, as far as he was concerned. While his high school wasn’t particularly rough, Dorian’s unwillingness to fight made him a target for bullies early on. It wasn’t until he went to the State University of New York at Empire City that he truly began to find close friends.

College and Meeting the Future Pentad

One of his earliest friends was a cheerful but troubled person formerly known as Timothy Lloyd, though (in part with Dorian’s understanding and help) by their freshman year, she had transitioned into a much happier Theresa Lloyd. Teeny, as she became known (in part due to her height) got to know another relative outsider named Keira Holt, and she in turn introduced the pair to a New Jersey-born punk rock/new wave PolySci major named Mandy Hartley and Dorian’s fellow Empirical native Nagini Sanyal. None of the five had ever truly been comfortable around other people, but for whatever reason they bonded almost immediately. By the time second semester rolled around, they’d rented a beat-up brownstone together.

When Paragon emerged to save the world on national television and the age of heroes began, Dorian was as amazed as anyone else, though he didn’t become obsessed with the newfound heroes and villains the way Mandy and Teeny did. Still, if anything it made their time at SUNY-Empire all the more exciting. It seemed like an age of miracles was upon them.

The five continued living in their rental brownstone even after graduation and moving on to graduate school. Dorian matriculated at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, ultimately specializing in Internal Medicine as well as training as a General Practitioner. He also became one of the first medical students to actively pursue parahuman medical research and care.

The Skyquake and Secondary Parahuman Expression

For various reasons, Dorian, Teeny, Nagini, Mandy, and Keira were in the immediate vicinity of the King Kurtzberg Tower on the 27th of January — the night that noted scientist (and reputed crackpot) Doctor Aiden Archer had planned an ambitious (if seemingly ridiculous) experiment in finding the common links between the The Five Methods of Supraexpression, in hopes of unlocking control over all forms of parahuman expression. They had also learned that the notorious original mad scientist Doctor Stanley Giles, better known as Doctor Guile, had gotten involved with the experiment, leading the five to desperately try and stop the experiment before it could begin. Unfortunately, they were too late. Doctor Archer’s experiment proceeded, and the Skyquake shook all of Empire City with waves of alternate and twisted reality.

Unable to stop the Skyquake, the five turned their hands to helping evacuate the innocent civilians who had still been inside the King Kurtzberg Tower. They succeeded, but before they could make their own escape, the first Skyquake aftershock caused time itself to splinter into multiple fractal worlds and timelines. Each of the five were caught in their own personal history. Like all the others, Dorian emerged transformed — in his case, having undergone secondary parahuman expression into the powerful healer and mage called Hearth, to take his place alongside the rest of the newly forged Pentad of Guardians.

Realizing that Doctor Guile had used Archer’s experiments to literally force his daughter through all five methods of supraexpression — turning her into the malevolently seductive Beguile — the Pentad swept into action, defeating Beguile and driving both her and Doctor Guile off, before traveling to the top of the tower and rescuing the survivors of Archer’s experiment – though the experience had transformed them as well, making them the Astounding Alliance.

The Pentad of Guardians

The Pentad of Guardians quickly became mainstays of the Empire City super-scene. Moving to the borough of Catarins, where Jetgirl's mother, industrialist, multibillionaire, and parahuman Theodora Holt was able to give them a warehouse and some basic equipment to start their base. During these few years, the Pentad went almost exclusively by their heroic identities, and ‘Rath’ was no exception – save of course, after he graduated and completed his residency, making him Doctor Dorian Hwan.

As more and more heroes appeared in Empire City, Hearth’s services as a doctor and healer became ever more important — especially since he could treat his heroic friends with discretion as well as medicine and magic alike.

The More Things Stay the Same, The More They Change

Over the next several years, the Empirical heroic community grew by leaps and bounds, and as the most adept arcane healer in the Greater Metropolitan Empirical Area, Hearth and the rest of the Pentad grew to know and even like many of their fellow heroes. Still, they preferred to keep to themselves for the most part (at least in terms of socializing — as far as actually walking the streets of Empire and getting to know the population they served and protected, the Pentad was far ahead of the curve). However, there was little chance that things would remain static during this time, and it was perhaps inevitable that different members of the Pentad would begin to date… almost by definition meaning dating people outside the Pentad. Antonym was the most visible of these, striking up a serious relationship with Colin Church, aka the Cavalier. However, Ant was far from the only one. Topaz began to seriously date a boy from Westchester County during this time. Jetgirl began seeing one of the other women in her graduate Engineering classes. Even the shy Shooting Star had a few brief relationships.

Hearth, in the meantime, developed at least a minor reputation as a ladies man, though he managed to avoid being branded as a cad. While he enjoyed female company, he never really seemed to ‘click’ with any of his potential paramours. He was always up front about this, of course — Hearth had no interest in hurting anyone’s feelings — but as far as actually settling into a serious relationship? His response was typically to shrug and change the subject.

This didn’t mean there weren’t some changes at Pentad headquarters. In particular, Antonym – though she rather loudly dumped Colin Church after he was caught cheating on her with DETAILS Special Agent Lynette Hardesty (who to be fair had no idea Church was involved with anyone, much less one of the Pentad of Guardians, not that the Pentad was particularly charitable towards her for quite some time), she then went on to marry the philosopher Evan Shapiro, much to the barely disguised disdain of the other members of the Pentad. (It is likely worth noting Antonym didn’t seem offended by their disgust — but then, she reacted exactly the same way to the other Pentad members’ significant others). Still, it was just shy of a year after Mandy and Evan Shapiro were married that they welcomed a daughter, Loredana 'Danni' Shapiro, to their family.

If Hearth and the rest of the Pentad hated Evan? They adored Danni, and a new sense of ‘normal’ gradually settled into Pentad Headquarters.

But then, ‘normal’ never really lasts, does it?

Enter the Excelsiors

About this time, just before the Emergence Era came to an end, Justice Wing sent two of its members, Freya and the Lieutenant, to meet with Empire City’s most significant heroes. They told the Empiricals that while things were going well for heroes now… they knew it wouldn’t last. They needed better ways to train young new heroes than taking them on as sidekicks and endangering them. They knew they needed a means by which society could learn to integrate prosahumanity and parahumanity into a single humanity. And they knew that of all the places on Earth where heroes and villains had appeared, Empire City was the one that had the greatest diversity of heroes (and the broadest ‘convergence’ between origins) in the nation, and they’d managed to put it together.

They proposed creating a team — affiliated with Justice Wing but not under their control — and the two teams would both work with each other as needed and support (and fund) the Justice Wing Institute for Parahuman Research in Grantham, Massachusetts. Shooting Star and Antonym represented the Pentad of Guardians at the meeting, and along with the other Empirical heroes agreed. At that moment, Hearth, along with the rest of the Pentad, became one of the founding members of The Excelsiors.

Halcyon Days Era

Ever Higher

Not much is currently known about the adventures of the Excelsiors during the Halcyon Days era, but what is known is the central role the Pentad of Guardians ended up taking among them. Hearth’s rather unique specialities made him one of the key members of the team, both in the field and in the aftermath. He also found he enjoyed working with the other Excelsiors quite a lot, though as with the rest of the Pentad, they chose to continue living at Pentad Headquarters in Catarins instead of at the newly rechristened  Excelsior Court.

Antonym Down

This changed after a battle where (apparently – details are still sketchy) the Excelsiors had to fight actual concepts given form. Antonym ended up needing to take point in the climax of the battle, but her powers were never designed to adapt to that kind of opposition. The practical effect was a victory… but at a terrible cost. Antonym underwent a systematic breakdown of her paraneurological structure, plunging her into a life threatening condition that resembled neuroleptic malignant syndrome, triggered when she exceeded safe thresholds with her powers. This was complicated by the nature of those powers, which were inherent to her body’s neurology. While she could avoid situations where they would trigger very powerfully, it was functionally impossible for her to avoid using them at all, any more than she could choose to stop feeling heat or cold on the surface of her skin. It was believed she could have a full and healthy life, but if she continued to try to be Antonym or use her powers as a hero, she would almost certainly die within days… or even hours.

Hearth threw himself into the search for a cure, be that medical or magical. He worked alongside the Goddess Freya, several other healers from across the spectrum of parahumanity, and even some from across the reaches of space. He slept little and for the first time grew irritable, as he fought to find a way to make his friend whole once more. Colin Church had devised and given Mandy a watch that would monitor her neuroleptic levels, and provided Hearth with logs he could work from. and he doggedly sought the answer.

And then, Mandy, Evan, and Danni Shapiro left — not simply moving out of the Pentad base, but severing all ties with the Excelsiors and with the Pentad of Guardians.

Hearth was devastated, plunging into a depression that lasted months. Only with the help of the remaining former Pentad members was he able to crawl out of his shell and get perspective back. However, he, Topaz, Shooting Star, and Jetgirl decided to shutter and mothball the Pentad base and move into Excelsior Court, defining themselves purely as Excelsiors. Shooting Star believed that Mandy was angry at them for being whole when she’d lost the thing she’d wanted most all her life. Topaz had no idea what to think. Jetgirl blamed Evan. And Hearth?

Hearth blamed himself. He was the Heart and the Healer, right? But when it came time to heal one fifth of his own soul? He’d failed her.

Still, with time and the warmth and love of his teammates, Hearth slowly returned to some semblance of himself. He struggled anew, though, when Mandy Shapiro reappeared in their lives… as a defense attorney, often defending the very people the Excelsiors had captured. It felt like a new repudiation, but there was simply nothing to be done for it.

At least, not until they learned the truth.

While still reeling from the discovery that Evan and Mandy had had a second daughter, now nine years old no less, Hearth was also stunned to learn — to truly understand — that Mandy hadn’t severed contact out of anger, but out of fear. She loved them all so much, especially the Pentad, that she was convinced she couldn’t have any contact with them whatsoever or she would never be able to hold back from using her powers. Her family needed her to live. This new information changed Hearth’s view, and he slowly began to crawl out of the depression that had been plaguing him for years at that point.

Unfortunately, things were about to get worse.

The Apocalypse Agenda

At this time, we do not know much about what the Pentad of Guardians did during the Apocalypse Agenda. It’s said that they were instrumental in the defeat of the mad god Urizen, which had been the cosmic purpose laid before them when they first gained their abilities. Before that could happen, an undisclosed incident caused the utter destruction of the Excelsiors.

Still, while the Agenda was horrifying for every living being on Earth, Hearth had a new burden on his heart – one he wouldn’t discuss with anyone. Shooting Star, Jetgirl, and Topaz all told the others to not press the subject, and those wishes were respected.

One positive thing (at least at first) was that Mandy was somehow able to return to the Pentad’s side, becoming instrumental in their part of the victory. Unfortunately, the result left over forty percent of her body burned. Mandy was permanently disabled, walking with a cane and having a weak arm and leg for the rest of her life. Her monitor watch was also destroyed. As Colin Church had also died and even his son Connor didn’t know how Colin had made the monitor, there was no longer any means to monitor Mandy’s neuroleptic issues. That said, with her disabilities and long-term injury recovery, she wasn’t really in any position to even be tempted to use her abilities at dangerous levels. She was still unwilling to contact her old compatriots more than was absolutely necessary, but at least now Hearth – Dorian – could understand why. 

In Nadir Era

Evvie’s Rehabilitation

Twelve weeks after the final defeat of Urizen, Mandy’s second daughter Evvie, now a fourteen year old junior elite gymnast, competed in the Junior Olympics in Las Bendiciones, California, where she won a gold medal in the vault. Sadly, the Shapiro family’s tragedies continued when an SUV lost control of its brakes and t-boned a bus almost exactly where Evvie was sitting, leaving her with a broken leg and shattered pelvis. It seemed likely that the girl would never compete again.

There was little that would cause Mandy Shapiro to reach out to her former colleagues, but her daughter was absolutely one reason she would, and she didn’t hesitate. At the same time, Mandy insisted that Dorian’s parahumanity had to be kept a secret. He was able to use healing magic that helped, of course, but mostly he worked closely with physical therapists as she healed and underwent rehab. And, where the smart money had been that Evvie might never walk again and obviously would never compete again, by the time Evvie was sixteen and eligible for the Olympics, she was right back in competition as a top contender. Though he had to work in secret, there were few in the know who didn’t ascribe Evvie’s recovery to the dedication of Doctor Dorian Hwan.

Not long after he finished working with Evvie, Dorian went on an extended tour of detached duty with DETAILS. It is not known what he did while he was there. Regardless of what it may have been, when he got back he returned to his semi-retirement from heroics and rededicated himself to his Viejo Bosque medical practice.

Unfortunately, while Dorian was on that tour of victory, he had no way of knowing the Shapiro family had undergone one last tragedy: Mandy and Evan Shapiro were killed instantly when their car slipped on black ice and went over an embankment. It was four months after the fact before any Pentad member, let alone most heroes, learned that their fifth member was dead.

Saving Jetgirl

Ironically, Mandy Shapiro’s death was the catalyst which finally brought the surviving Pentad members back into regular contact. Equally ironically, this tragedy seemed to be one Dorian could withstand — possibly because of his medical training, but no one could say for sure. This time, however, it was his fellow Pentad teammate Keira Holt, aka Jetgirl, who found herself falling apart in the wake of Mandy’s death. However, Hearth and Oghapogue's own Transposition Troopers Turbine Triumph were able to pull Jet out of her own funk and get her back todoing what she did best.

The Present and Beyond

At this point, Dorian re-embraced his role as Hearth completely, even as Jetgirl and Shooting Star returned to theirs. (Topaz had, naturally enough, never stopped being herself). Though they were still living in separate, distant cities, for the first time the Pentad embraced their role as Justice Wing affiliates, using the Waveport network to travel where they were needed. They were aging now, of course — well, Hearth and Jetgirl were, anyway — but being a healing specialist had given Hearth a few tricks.

As of this writing, Hearth and Jetgirl spend quite a bit of time at and working out of Volary-3 in the Northern California mountains, while Topaz works out of the original Volary-1 in Crown City, Illinois and Shooting Star works out of the orbital Volary-2. Thanks to the Waveport, however, when trouble strikes, the Pentad is ready to strike back.

Though, when asked why they’ve gone back to using the name ‘Pentad of Guardians’ at least unofficially, given that there are only four of them… Hearth, Jetgirl, Topaz, and Shooting Star simply tell whoever’s asking that they’ve miscounted, since there are five of them. If they’ve ever been forthcoming about the reason why, it has yet to be revealed.