Qwa

Qwa (pronounced "CUE-wa") is a character in the City of Heroes MMO. She is an intergalactic exile that arrived on Earth during the Shivan meteor shower that devastated Galaxy City.

Character History

Qwa's story is one of bad luck. Indeed, her very name is the ancient word for "fortune".

On her birth-world D'Monaiz, people are literally created into social castes and are given accelerated education and aging to become adults quickly.

Qwa was designed to become a member of the peace-caste, a being of love and affection. She was supposed to be promised to an important ambassador as the bridge between her world and another. Her very being, mind-and-body, were meant to love the first one she sees. She would be joined to that person both physically and emotionally. She would live with that person for all of her life and, eventually, bear his children.

Unfortunately, due to a mistake by one of the scientists, she was given the energies of a war-caste. War-castes are born killing machines. Their birth pods are launched into enemy territories so they will make their first kill the moment their pods are opened.

When Qwa's pod opened, she saw the ambassador that she was born and bred to be joined with. The peace-caste in her fell in love with him. And then the war-caste in her killed him on the spot.

The incident started an interplanetary war which lasted for years and devastated D'Monaiz. Even though she was considered innocent of any wrongdoing, her people still blamed her for the war. Her people lost any sense of honor and dignity because of it. She was declared an outcast and was banished to a remote outpost under the guardianship of the scientist that made the mistake in the first place.

For the five years until she became an adult she only knew him as "Gant", which was ancient for "failure". Gant taught her how to communicate in Inter-Speak, the common language of interstellar travelers and prepared her to eventually live on her own. After five years time, when she was physically an adult, Gant left her without any notice. She did not hear from him ever again.

Qwa travelled to various worlds doing odd jobs to survive. Any place that ever heard of D'Monaiz, though, would soon know of Qwa and of what she did. After that, life for her got worse. She even learned that her people now consider her very name to be "Bad Luck" or "Trouble". She decided the best way to survive was for her to travel further and further away from known travel routes.

Unfortunately for her, she soon discovered that her birth-world declared to be such a dishonor that they could not allow her to continue to travel freely. To regain their perverted sense of "honor", they ordered her to be captured and taken to a penal colony where she would live a shortened life full of pain and torment. One war-caste named Xaxan had the "privilege" of capturing Qwa, where she was stripped to her underclothes and put in a stasis chamber to be transported.

As fortune would have it, though, Qwa's transport ship crashed into a swarm of Shivan meteors that were making their way to Earth. The ship was destroyed, but Qwa's status chamber survived the impact and protected her when the meteor crashed in the Galaxy City district of Paragon City.

At first she had no idea where she was. The people on this world did not speak Inter-Speak. She was confused by the different beings fighting among themselves. Then she came across the ghost-like being Numina, who used her telepathic power to communicate with her. Then she was captured by the United Nations security force known as the Vanguard and take to their Atlantis detention facility. For a period of time, she was detained, and then mysteriously released. This led to a meeting with Lady Grey, who listened to her story.

Lady Grey then offered Qwa sanctuary on Earth in exchange for serving as an interplanetary consultant for Vanguard. Qwa had some hesitations after what happened to her, but decided this was the best opportunity for her to survive and avoid further attention from other war-castes.

Powers and Abilities

Qwa's primary power is Energy Melee. She inherently possesses an inner energy which gives her strength and she can also channel this energy in her attacks.

Her secondary power is Regeneration. Her inner energy allows her to recover from any injury.

She can also use this energy to fly.

Related Information

Qwa's story was first told in "Tales from Paragon City" #3.

According to creator David 2, Qwa was inspired by several female cosmic beings, including the DC Comics character "Starfire".