Touched by Vorlons: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

A character, initially having no unusual powers, [[Contagious Powers|gains them]] through interactions with [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|powerful aliens]] or [[Alien Space Bats|supernatural beings]]. Alternately, they might have very weak or useless powers amplified to godlike levels.

 

For the other kind of "touched" see [[Mars Needs Women]].

 

== Anime and Manga ==

** Captains and vice-captains have to wear power-limiters on their reiatsu when in the human world least their power start affecting human souls. This is lampshaded by observations on how Ichigo's extremely powerful, uncontrolled reiatsu (when in shinigami form only) has affected humans around him {{spoiler|(with help from the Hougyoku changing the odds to make something that can sometimes happen into something that definitely happens)}} to enable Orihime and Sado to unlock to latent powers they possessed from birth but couldn't access without help and to give several classmates the ability to see ghosts and shinigami when they previously couldn't.

** Aizen uses the Hougyoku to create artificially-boosted arrancar at levels mock-arrancar in the past haven't naturally been able to reach. {{spoiler|He also uses it to, in his personal belief, break the boundary between the shinigami and divine (although Urahara and Ichigo between them suggest he might have mistinterpreted what happened to him). The small print behind the Hougyoku does actually say that it's only capable of manifesting desires that already have the potential to be achieved without the Hougyoku's involvement.}}

* In ''[[Tenjho Tenge]]'', certain characters possess powers known as "Red Feather Powers." In addition to giving certain characters supernatural abilities that put them on a level far above that of normal humans, these powers have an additional effect known as Resonance, which means that people with powers, latent or otherwise, are stimulated by proximity to other people with powers. This results in either causing people with latent abilities to suddenly awaken their powers or enhancing the powers of people who are already awakened. Furthermore, the more people involved in the resonance effect, the greater its range and potency. This aspect leads the [[Big Bad]] of the series to try and use the resonance effect to awaken the supernatural abilities of every person in the entire world.

* In ''[[Tokyo Underground]]'', the main character Rumina gains the ability to manipulate air, after dying, and being brought back to life from a kiss by Ruri, the "Maiden of Life".

* In ''[[Baccano!]]'', a number of eighteenth century alchemists [[Deal with the Devil|summon a demon]] to grant them [[Immortality]]. The demon complies, tossing in the extra of being able to kill other immortals and [[Ghost Memory|steal their memories]], mostly for the the [[Hilarity Ensues|inevitable lulzy results]] of [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|giving twenty quarreling people stuck on a boat a reason and the means to kill each other]]. He is not disappointed.

* Near the end of ''[[Hellsing]]'', it turns out that the Doctor created Millenium's "vampires" by {{spoiler|infusing people with tiny bits of the corpse of Mina Harker, one of Alucard's aka Dracula's past victims, who survived and died as a human but still carried some of his power inside herself. So all of Millenium's vampires were Touched By Alucard.}} Small wonder that none of them really stood a chance against him.

** In retrospect, all Apostle Spawns are created this way, since an Apostle can taint a normal human's life with their demonic powers.

* In Trinity Blood, the Inquisition uses a special chemical to give them a brief moment of Vampire level speed and strength. The anime never states it, but the original books mention that the chemical is injected inside their suits, so the anime most likely never got around to showing this since it wasn't greatly important.

 

== Comic Books ==

* [[X-Men|Apocalypse]] was granted much of his power by celestial technology.

* A number of the supers in [[Empowered]] gained their abilities through "contact" with aliens. Alien STDs interacting with humans = [[Hilarity Ensues]].

 

** Ranma early on commiserates that she's not quite a "non-magical" being any more given the changes that constant exposure to supernatural energies has wrought on her, not the least being her [[Rape as Backstory|rape and]] [[Child by Rape|impregnation]] [[Half-Human Hybrid|by three]] [[Divine Parentage|of the Greek Gods]]

** It is shown that both Demons and Gods have used their method of achieving immortality to recruit mortals of random sentient species to their ranks. Currently, the target is human (and assorted subraces) since there aren't many other sentient species that aren't immortal. {{spoiler|and humans have recently stepped up to produce their own immortals}}

{{quote|'''Varx:''' I don't think we have a choice, Shag, unless you want half of our heroes feeling ''real'' inferior to the other half.}}

 

== Film ==

** Similar but not quite the same: Potential Others could discover their powers by interacting with Others who had already discovered their powers.

** The third book also shows that members of the Inquisition are able to appeal directly to either the Light or the Dark (depending on what kind of Other they are) for a temporary boost in power, if necessary to carry out their duties.

* In Karen Miller's book ''[[Godspeaker Trilogy|Empress]]'', main character Hekat dedicates herself to the (uncapitalized)god and uses her perceived holiness as unquestioned justification for such niceties as murder, rape, more murder, child abuse, mass murder, power-and-land-grabbing, baby murder, the exile of her child and any people who disagree with her, the [[Lolita]]-licious public banging of a fifty year old man when she's twelve or thirteen, and murderous racism.

* In the ''[[Xanth]]'' book ''The Source Of Magic'', the demon Xanth (the titular source) thanks Bink for freeing him - even though Bink [[Honor Before Reason|knew Xanth probably would fly the coop and take all Xanth's magic with him]] - by ensuring that every one of his direct descendants would have a Magician-class talent. (So, in a sense, Bink's ''kids'' were touched).

* Telzey Amberdon, of [[James H. Schmitz]]'s ''[[Federation of the Hub]]'', starts out with latent powers being awakened by aliens who need her to learn to communicate in a hurry. However, the learning process continues for longer than intended, eventually turning her into one of the most powerful telepaths we meet.

* In [[China Mieville]]'s ''[[Iron Council]]'', Judah Low learns [[Sufficiently Analyzed Magic|how golem magic works]] by studying a race of creatures born with this ability, but {{spoiler|is only able to use it himself after being touched by the Stiltspear chief.}}

* In ''[[Journey to the West]]'', any animal within earshot of a practicing Taoist or Buddhist, whether the religious figure intends it or not, ''will'' gain some degree of the same powers as the travelers. {{spoiler|This is what led to the incident with the Scorpion-Woman, as even Buddha and Guanyin didn't want a damn thing to do with her.}}

* In ''Blue Light'' by Walter Mosley, a blue light comes from space and magically enhances anyone it comes into contact with. It makes them the best at what they are doing at the time.

* In ''The Featherbedders'' by Frank Herbert it's a reason why telepathic Slorin only rely on [[Metamorphosis|polymorphing]] to infiltrate societies they are parasiting upon.

{{quote|[[Jedi Mind Trick|A nudge from the Slorin mind-cloud]] helped, of course, but this carried its own perils. The nudged mind sometimes developed powers of its own - with terrifying results.}}

{{quote|Next time you find a blob of something jes' lyin' in a field, you leave it alone, hear? [...] It was you made him so dang strong, pokin' him that way. Slorin aren't all that strong 'less'n you ignite'em, hear?}}

 

== Live Action TV ==

* This happens a few times in the [[Star Trek]] franchise.

** This is how Wesley Crusher is given his final send off from TNG.

*** If you believe the [[Star Trek: Nemesis|movie that didn't exist]] apparently [[Unexplained Recovery|he gets better]] and re-joins Starfleet.

*** This is just a repeat of what happened before, when a pre-Federation ship ended up in the Barrier, causing one of the crewmembers to gain godlike abilities and forcing the captain to self-destruct the ship.

** [[Star Trek]] loves this trope. [[Butt Monkey|Lieutenant Barclay]] (temporarily) gets an IQ in the thousands after an encounter with a Cytherian probe in ''The Nth Degree.''

* The [[Trope Namer]] would be commercial telepath Lyta Alexander of ''[[Babylon 5]]'', who disappeared after the events of the [[Pilot Movie]], only to reappear in season three, vastly empowered by the Vorlons. Before, she was a P5 rating (on a scale of 0, non-telepath, to 12, the Psi Cops), but afterward she's just plain off the scale. She says later that she thinks she was made to be the Vorlons' ace in the hole.

** Technically, ''all'' telepaths might qualify, as it is eventually revealed that telepathy was induced in the younger races by the Vorlons so they could be used as weapons against the Shadows.

** Captain Sheridan was literally touched by a Vorlon; it left a piece of itself inside his head. That piece gave him telepathic resistance and guided him to encounter Lorien, {{spoiler|who's even more powerful, and kept John from dying.}}

** On the opposite side were Bester's "weapons components," rogue telepaths that Earth sold to the Shadows in exchange for powerful technology, whom the Shadows modified to be living computer cores.

*** and the Techno-mages, who {{spoiler|were originally created by the Shadows}}.

* In ''[[Threshold]]'', people exposed to the Alien signal gain superhuman strength, resilience, and the desire to infect others. [[Your Head Asplode|Or they die]].

* In a way, the demons of ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]''. They were [[Was Once a Man|once human]] souls that were twisted in hell (The first one turned by Lucifer himself) and became what could be described as Uber-Ghosts.

 

== Religion ==

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** The fourth edition has the Warlock class which, are usually described as having made a [[Deal with the Devil|deal with a fiend]] or a [[Eldritch Abomination|lovecraftian entity from the stars]], but sometimes are described as this trope, especially if their powers were granted by [[The Fair Folk]]

** [[Eberron]] provides an entire race Touched by Vorlons. The Kalashtar started out as human mystics untill they merged with extraplanar beings known as Quori.

** ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' after Time of Troubles has "Touched mages"—wizards who agreed to perform for the goddes of magic (but ''don't'' need to be Mystra's faithful) a "little" service—help to erase a dead-magic zone, drop a "funny" surprise on local Cult of the Dragon cell and so on. They receive a temporary granted power (which may change mid-quest). When the mission is complete and this power vanishes, the wizard is left with a little, but useful spell-like ability (like Feather Fall or Light at will) and is a bit less vulnerable to one school of spells. Naturally, this also stimulates the faith more often than not.

** ''Book of vile Darkness'' (D&D 3.5) introduced a disease known as Warp Touch, a result of overexposure to raw magic/eldritch energy, which may result in the development of all sorts of [[Red Right Hand]] attributes...unless the 1d100 roll is a critical failure, in which case the victim simply [[Body Horror|melts into a puddle of goo.]]

** Played more straight with Astropaths, a class of Psyker and the main means of interstellar communication in the setting. In order to survive sending messages through [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place|the Warp]] they undergo the Soul Binding, exposing them for a brief second to the mind of the God-Emperor. As a result, their eyes burn out, leaving them blind.

** Aside from the [[Eldritch Abomination|Chaos Gods,]] there's also the [[Physical God|C'tan]], [[Blessed with Suck|Psykers]], and [[Abusive Precursors|the Eldar Gods]]. In general, getting Touched by Vorlons in [[Crapsack World|this]] [[Darker and Edgier|setting]] is never a good thing.

** ''[[Persona]] 4'' plays the trope similarly, with {{spoiler|the goddess Izanami}} granting the power to enter the TV universe and summon Personas to the main character {{spoiler|and two others}}, more or less just to see what they would do with it. More relevant to this trope, {{spoiler|the power is granted via contact-- in this case, Izanami's disguised form as the gas station attendant giving you a friendly handshake.}}

* Jak from ''[[Jak and Daxter]]'' is blessed with Light Eco abilities by the Precursors, god-like figures of his world. While his [[Super-Powered Evil Side|Dark Eco powers]] were a result of being experimented on by [[Evil Overlord|Baron Praxis]], the Precursors help him to gain control of them.

* ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'' has this trope at the core. All six main characters are l'Cie, humans who have been given a task by inscrutable alien beings called Fal'cie and superpowers to help them fulfill it. The downside of this is if they fail, they turn into mindless monsters. The upside? [[Blessed with Suck|If they succeed, they turn into crystals for eternity.]]

 

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In ''[[Black Adventures]]'', [[The Missingno|Missingno.]] bitch-slaps Mary, injuring her eye. Her next appearance reveals that she has obtained some of [[Missing No]].'s powers, which she uses to help her and Joseph get the upper hand against Black.

* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', the [[Filler Strips|filler story]] "Stick Figure Tales of Cotton", Torg and Riff both gained superpowers from a group of aliens ([[It Makes Sense in Context|that were actually the author's hand]]) after going through some parodic superhero origin stories that didn't actually give them any powers.

* In ''[[The Order of the Stick]],'' Vaarsuvius briefly receives power-up from several fiends in exchange for a seemingly minimal price to {{spoiler|stop a vengeful black dragon from killing V's mate and children.}}

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Alien Tropes]]

[[Category:Touched by Vorlons]]