Ethan "Primal" Swift

Ethan Swift - Primal
Portrayed By	Lucas Till
Gender	Male
Date of Birth	September 15, 1992
Age	17
Zodiac Sign	Virgo
Aliases	Primal
Place of Birth	Cambridge, MA
Current Location	Manhattan
Occupation	Student by day, superhero, well, also mostly by day
Known Relatives	Dr. Edward G Swift and Dr. Amelia Swift (mother and father), Professor Darius E Swift and Dr. Camilla Swift (Paternal grandparents), Dr. Janet Smith-Hutchinson (Maternal grandmother). A veritable alphabet soup of aunts and uncles and older cousins.
Significant Other	Doesn't that require some form of mating ritual and sublimation of sex drive to simulate romantic interest?
Identity	Secret
Known Abilities	Elemental Magic
First Appearance	Education Is Elemental

Guided by a dream teacher and commanding the elemental spirits of nature herself to help him, young Ethan Swift has become Primal, elemental guardian of mankind! (Don't look at me, that's what it says in his journal.)

History

Ethan is one of those people who is just naturally sensitive to magic. Were his powers based on an evolution of the genome, he’d be a mutant but the mystic world just refers to such folk as ‘gifted’. There has never been a time when he can’t remember at least dimly sensing the power of nature and being able to just barely catch a glimpse of the wondrous out of the corners of his eyes. This has led to him being called ‘weird’, ‘drugged out’ and ‘crazy’, ‘a daydreamer’ and ‘mental’ by more than one of his peers or authority figures.

He is none of those things, but he lives in a world where the stones sing in basso tones of being a part of the earth and the wind whispers secrets in his ears. It came as a shock to him when he found out that nobody else perceives the world the way he does and as he grew from a child into a teenager, he learned to keep quiet about the differences between the world in which he lived and the more limited one that most others apparently experienced.

Both of his parents are historians and archeologists and it may have been their exposure to ancient sites, artifacts and tomes that manifested as supernatural awareness in their only son. In any case, Ethan was dragged across half the world by his very well-meaning and loving parents until they were convinced by a psychologist that Ethan would settle down and focus if only he had a stable environment. Thus he’s spent the last five years in a New York boarding school for the most part.

For quite some time, Ethan has been researching magic and how it works in the world and with the help of a mysterious tutor who comes to him in his dreams and whom he only knows as ‘the wizard’, literally the Wise One, he has learned to tap into the primal forces of nature that fuel magic. His dream tutor has convinced him (and it didn’t take much urging) that the only way to continue to hone his abilities and do any good with them is to use them in the service of nature and humanity and try to find a balance between the two, acting as a champion and an example for humankind. These days, that pretty much means tights and a cape. Using the codename Primal, he intends to make his mark as a hero and inspire others.

Timeline

December 2009

December 28, 2009	Ethan meets an elemental spirit of a different stripe. And a half-naked mutant.	Education Is Elemental

Quotes

• "That presumes I have a need for friends."
• "Now do excuse me. I must save the day."

Trivia

• Amazing thing!
• Amazing thing!
• Amazing thing!
• Amazing thing!
• Amazing thing!
• Amazing thing!
• Amazing thing!

Powers

Overview

Ethan can see and interact with the omnipresent spirits of the classic elements, earth, air, Water and fire as well as the living spirits of plant life. In practical terms, this means he can draw upon those spirits to perform various feats of magic. It should be noted that this varies widely from tradition magic techniques of invocation and appeal to various universal and extra-dimensional powers and that most magi and sorcerers don't usually see or interact with these spirits.

Air

Ethan can summon gusts of wind upto 100mph and sustained winds of up to 30mph. The winds are strong enough to bear him aloft and allow him (and perhaps one or two others) to fly at upto 30mph. He can generate fresh air and winds by simply calling the spirits to him.

Earth

Ethan can control up to ten tons or 100 ct.ft. of earth and stone, causing it to form barriers, rise up in crude shapes like hands, ramps, bridges, walls and shields. He cannot create earth or stone where no exists, mainly because earth spirits are defined by their solidity and unwillingness to move far. When used defensively, the barriers of earth can stop pretty much any firearm and most light energy weapons (like AIM and shield blasters). More powerful weapons and abilities and area attacks are more problematic.

Fire

Ethan can command fire spirits to allow him to project bursts and crude shapes of flame that are about as intense as a modern flame-thrower. The fire is intense enough to shatter and melt glass, set cloth and wood ablaze and warp thin sheet metal. It is not hot enough to melt armor or forceful enough to penetrate even a light force field. He can also attempt to take control of existing fire to channel or smother it but elemental fire spirits are not known to cooperate when having fun, making that particular ability unreliable at best. He is also immune to the fire generated by his own spirits (but not from other sources).

Water

Ethan's control over water spirits allows him to move and shape upto 10 tons or 100 cu.ft. of water, whichever comes first. He can summon jets of water that hit with the approximate force of a fire hose at full blast (topping out at about 1000psi) or make a rain effect by having drops of water fall from the sky. Combined with wind from his air effects, this can simulate a hard rain, dowsing flames, making footing and vision difficult, etc. It is worth noting that Ethan can't actually control the weather, perhaps because he can't figure out how to interact with storm and lightning spirits.

Plant

By commanding the spirits of living plants and trees, Ethan is able to cause grass, vines, trees, etc. to animate (though not move from place). The plant life can bind and hinder foe's movement as well as thrash at them with branches or stalks. His limit for the amount of plant life affected is about 10 tons or 100 cu.ft of vegetation, whichever comes first.

Weakness: Unliving Materials

Bone, dead wood, plastic and other synthetics are beyond Ethan's ability to control. They have no spirits that he can see and interact with and thus he can't shape or summon them.

Vulnerability: Iron/Steel

Ethan's elemental spirits are generally repulsed by worked metals but can at least move them around with streams of wind or hands of earth, if needed. Iron and steel are the exception to that rule. Ethan can't affect either in a sustained fashion. He can hit a steel-clad target with bursts of elemental force but can't affect them in any sustained way, (like holding someone in chain mail aloft on a gust of wind). In addition, Ethan can't use his powers if he is encased or chained in iron or steel. Handcuffs aren't enough to scare off his spirits (though they wouldn't be able to break them) but a tow-chain or iron box negates his magic entirely until he is freed.

Gallery