Chapter Text
Hello everyone! Thank you for choosing to read this fanfic. This story is very much going to be a “turn your brain off” experience. There will be serious moments, however this is ultimately for fun. I wanted to establish the basics of how I’m scaling characters in this series. If you’re not as familiar with DC characters that’s completely understandable. They’re wildly inconsistent between different story runs, and sometimes even within their own run. How is a writer supposed to accurately scale them? The answer is quite simple; I won’t! While Shadow Slave has more defined power levels, DC simply doesn’t, so this thing is going based entirely on vibes. It’s an amalgamation of some of my favorite interpretations of these characters.
Take Superman for example. He’s been around since 1938. There have been multiple interpretations of his strength, and that’s not counting all of the side variants. Superman’s power is so inconsistent that even in comics fans break him down into pre-crisis and post-crisis. Pre-crisis Superman was very much the kid playing pretend who would just say “actually I had the power to do this specific thing that I’ve never talked about before, and I’m also never going to use this again.” He could use hypnosis, shapeshift, control your will, and even make tiny clones of himself. Other versions like Superman Prime 1 Million could solo all 7 of the Shadow Slave Gods, the Void, and is almost a match for Crow Crow wielding the Shadow Chair.
So how strong am I planning on making Superman? Well given that he goes toe to toe with the avatar of a God fairly regularly (Darkseid), I’m going to put his physical strength at that of a Sacred being. Remember, these are beings outside of Ranks and Classes. Shadow Slave has beings like this as well, but just because Clark is as physically strong as a Sacred being doesn’t mean he can ignore any threat from a Shadow Slave character. He’s ultimately vulnerable to magic and sorcery, which is a commonly overlooked weakness. He also doesn’t have anything like a domain, or mastery of the Will.
So while I’ve established my mentality on how I’m scaling DC characters, I also want to explain that this fic is more about things I think would be fun or neat. It’s not about characters steamrolling their way through separate pantheons, but rather there will be entire chapters where not a single punch is thrown. This is ultimately a story about humanity, what it means to wield the power of a God, and the personal growth of characters who have been taken out of a world that is hell. How will they change? Who will change the most? Will all change be for the better? I hope to find out with you, because if you think I have any idea what I am doing, you’re sorely mistaken.