Name

Current Alias

Aliases

Through all the centuries... I've never had anyone track me -- when I didn't want them to. Unfortunately, you won't be alive long enough to share what you've learned...

Hyborian Age[]

Selene was born 17,000 years ago in centralEurope, "after the OceansswallowedAtlantis" and "before the rise of thesons of Aryas". Selene's mother was young when she bore her, but would be dead before Selene spoke her first words. The tribal elders ordered her mother's people to sacrifice themselves to Selene until none remained. They thus gave her sustenance and her name.^[10]

Rome[]

During the times of theRoman Empire, Selene began plotting to sacrifice the entire population of Rome in a ceremony that would grant her godlike power. To further this scheme, she recruitedEliphas, a respected Roman senator, who was unaware that he had been brought to power by people who wished to use him. After his fall from grace, Selene came to him, offering him her eternal love and immortality - if he helped her sacrifice the countless souls of Rome. She instructed her pawn to draw symbols around the city in his own blood for the ritual.

However, Eliphas performed a small act of compassion by telling a slave girl he had previously saved from starvation what was going to happen. Her father informed the authorities, who captured both Eliphas and Selene and sentenced them to be burned at the stake. Selene awoke before it could happen and set the flames back against their would-be executioners. Furious at Eliphas for seemingly betraying her, she took his life-force and transformed him into a vampire-like creature, vowing that he would never see her again.^[18]

Across the Ages[]

In the 12th century, Selene, disguised as a nun, allied herself withBurke,Crule,Apocalypse, andNicodemus to establish theExternals. Together, they conducted a ritual, fulfillingCandra's request by transferring her life essence into a stone.^[17] Centuries ago, Selene acquired a case containing the potent Asgardian Runestaff of Yggdrasil. She foresaw a moment when the alignment of theNine Realms would empower the artifact, requiring the blood of anAsgardian to unlock its full potential.^[19] DuringWorld War II, Selene collaborated withAlexa Lukin to siphon the life force fromPeggy Carter.^[20] Subsequently, Selene found residence among the inhabitants ofNova Roma, a society tracing its roots to theRoman Empire, nestled in the depths of the Brazilian rainforest.^[7]

Modern Times[]

Selene posed as an Incan in the hidden city of Nova Roma and found worshippers as the Dark Priestess. She was discovered by theNew Mutants trying to sacrificeAmara Aquilla, and learned for the first time that other beings with powers existed.Sunspot imprisoned her, but Selene escaped soon thereafter.^[21] Intrigued by seeing the young heroes use their powers, Selene traveled toNew York City. In New York, Selene seducedCain Marko in a bar, hoping to absorb his life force, but was indirectly prevented by theX-Men^[22] who happened uponRachel Summers when sensing her immense power. She attempted to drain her life-force, but was stopped by the X-Men.^[4]

Soon after, Selene became interested in theHellfire Club and tried to join its Inner Circle with help from her worshiperFriedrich von Roehm. Sensing Rachel Summers and Magma nearby, she defeated them and offered them as gifts to the Club. While the adolescents were rescued by the X-Men, Selene was admitted and given the position of Black Queen.^[3][8] However, it was clear thatSebastian Shaw was frightened by the witch despite their association. Selene developed a rivalry with the White QueenEmma Frost.

When Kulan Gath transformed all ofManhattan into aHyborian Age land, Selene was unaffected by the dark sorcerer's spell. It was revealed that she was an old enemy of Gath: the two had feuded long ago during the actual Hyborian Age. Selene's spells causedStorm andCallisto to remember Gath was an enemy, eventually leading to his defeat.^[23]

Rachel Summers plotted to kill Selene and the other members of the Hellfire Club after recovering the memories of thePhoenix Force, whom she believed to be her mother. Having drained the X-Men's life-forces temporarily to battle theBeyonder, the spirit ofWolverine was drawn into her dreams, where he learned her intentions. Rachel confronted Selene in her room at the club, and was about to kill her when Wolverine arrived. He tried to reason with the young X-Man, and when she attempted to carry on, he stabbed her through the heart with his claws, saving Selene.^[24]

Joined by Sebastian Shaw,Harry Leland, and Friedrich von Roehm, Selene sought revenge for Rachel's attack. Encountering the X-Men inCentral Park, the two groups clashed, even though the Hellfire Club were outnumbered by the heroes. Selene proved herself in combat by disintegratingRogue's gloves as she tried to saveColossus from Leland's density-altering power.^[25]

To both teams' surprise, the time-displaced mutant hunterNimrod appeared, declaring that they were all viable targets.^[25] Within moments the robot had vaporized von Roehm and proceeded to attack the others, leading toNightcrawler being shocked and Shaw being launched into the upper atmosphere. Combining their efforts, the Hellfire Club and X-Men were able to defeat Nimrod. Leland used his power to change Shaw's orbit-bound course, while Selene animated power cables to restrain the advanced Sentinel. Even with the Black King smashing into Nimrod at terminal velocity and Wolverine poised to slash apart the exposed internal systems, the mutant hunter was still able to teleport to safety. Having exerted his power to its limit, Harry Leland died. The two groups parted amicably, willing to cooperate in the future.^[26]

Selene was present at a party held in the Club, whereMagneto became White King to the Inner Circle and his students the New Mutants were invited. She tried to intimidate Amara by revealing that she killed Amara’s mother. She also revealed herself as Amara's ancestor. It remains unconfirmed.^[11]

At this time, Selene had great plans concerning Nova Roma. Also, she tried, along with Shaw, Frost, and Magneto, to save Amara, who had been kidnapped by theHigh Evolutionary's spires.^[27]

During theInferno event, she tried with the others to controlMagik's power for their own interests. However, this was prevented by the New Mutants. Magneto and Shaw left their positions.^[28]

Selene remained active in the Club. She had a confrontation with theSkeleton Crew, trying to steal weapons and equipment from the club, indirectly prevented byCaptain America andDiamondback.^[29]

Over time, Selene's ambition grew and she arranged for the assassination of her fellow Lords Cardinal of the Hellfire Club. She created a hunting club of rich, bored mutants called theUpstarts, coordinated by the omnipathGamesmaster to hunt and kill Hellfire Club members for sport.^[30] Selene lost control of the Upstarts, however, as Gamesmaster continued to moderate the game without her approval, and the UpstartTrevor Fitzroy captured and tortured her as part of the Hellfire hunt.^[31]

Selene was critically wounded by Fitzroy's trap and barely escaped.^[32] She spent some time recuperating inParis, where she eventually found and seducedMadelyne Pryor into her employ.^[33] Selene found a way to rejuvenate herself by stalking and killing her fellowExternals, draining their life essences.^[34] She and Sebastian Shaw later formed an uneasy alliance and reclaimed control of the Hellfire Club fromShinobi Shaw, Sebastian's son and one of Selene's former Upstarts.^[35]

After Sebastian lost interest in the Club, Selene tried to reform the Inner Circle with demonic help, bringingMephisto's sonBlackheart in as her new Black King. Her efforts were opposed by theSon of Satan and theFantastic Four.^[36] She also attempted to coerce Roberto Da Costa into the Club as her Black Rook.^[37] Selene lost control of the Club, however, and was condemned to a shadowy existence bound within the borders of the Club mansion. She later battled Storm's team of X-Men as they sought out her ally Donald Pierce.^[38]

Necrosha[]

Eliphas, changing his name to Eli Bard, searched the world for Selene, despite the curse she placed on him. He eventually found her in Nova Roma, but was too scared to approach her. He planned on completing her original plan from a few thousand years ago, by sacrificing thousands ofPurifiers for her. However, he changed his plan when he saw theTechnarchy's abilities to reanimate the dead. He resurrected an Apache tribe he slaughtered many decades ago, includingCaliban, whom he presented to Selene as his gift, to find all the mutants in the world as her army and sacrifice, which Selene gladly accepted.^[18]

To help her collect all the deceased mutants in the world and claim their souls, Selene gathered mutants with deadly abilities, includingWither,Senyaka,Blink,Mortis, and of courseEliphas. They traveled around the world, reanimating long dead friends and foes of the X-Men, before journeying finally toGenosha, where 16 million mutants had been killed byWild Sentinels sent byCassandra Nova.^[39]

Selene sent her reanimated slaves to attack the X-Men onUtopia. While the X-Men were occupied defending themselves from foes and friends long lost, Selene ordered Eliphas to reanimate all the deceased mutants of Genosha; because ofM-Day, however, only a million or less of the 16 million mutants on Genosha had retained their abilities.^[40]

With a million mutant souls ready to be offered to her, she sent herInner Circle to collect the mystical knife needed to make the ritual work. Selene's Inner Circle attacked Utopia and killedOnyxx,Diamond Lil, andMeld. They managed to return with the knife and captureWarpath in the process. As Selene commanded her Inner Circle to prepare the ritual,X-Force arrived at Genosha and tried to stop the ritual, but they were too late to prevent Selene absorbing the reanimated souls of a million mutants and ascending to godhood.^[41]

During her ascension, X-Force attacked her Inner Circle, killing Senyaka and Wither (Eliphas had been killed by Selene earlier). Selene, now a goddess, was then alone against X-Force, and Warpath managed to stab Selene in the heart with the same knife used to perform the ritual. Selene exploded, and it was presumed that she died.^[13]

It was later revealed that Selene's body and soul had been preserved as airborne particles and somehow stored in stasis in a vault located somewhere inNew York City.Lady Deathstrike and theEnchantress gained access to the vault, and through the newly enhanced magic granted to Deathstrike by the sentient virus,Arkea, she was able to fully restore Selene to physical life for the purpose of adding her to the newly-formedSisterhood of Mutants.^[14]

Selene was confronted alongside Madelyne Pryor and Arkea by Storm and Rachel Summers. However, because Selene and Madelyne did not particularly care for her, they took Storm's offer to let them go in exchange for Arkea.^[42]

Power Elite[]

In the aftermath ofHydra's takeover of theUnited States, Selene had publicly become the head of the White House's Task Force of Faith-Based Initiatives, and joined thePower Elite.^[43] She also assistedAlexa Lukin in the resurrection of Alexa's husbandAlexander Lukin; however with the mind of theRed Skull.^[44]

After stealing part ofSharon Carter's soul,^[45]Captain America,Falcon,Winter Soldier,Princess Aja-Adanna, and theDaughters of Liberty assaulted her and her 'christian' group of controlled workers. Selene was ultimately defeated by Sharon Carter inIron Patriot Armor.^[46]

House of X[]

Selene was eventually welcomed to the new mutant island ofKrakoa, created byXavier, Magneto, andMoira X. She entered through the teleportationgateway alongside other villainous and fractious mutants, who had been invited to join the nation in order to heal mutantdom and start over as a whole species together.^[47] With Krakoa needing to feed on the psychic energy of mutants, aggressive protocols were put in place to make sure the island is not exceeding its minimal psychic draw in Selene andEmplate. Xavier tasked them to observe the levels of psychic depletion among the island's mutant population. With Selene and Emplate also feeding on the population similar protocol were put in place for them as well.^[48]

Apocalypse eventually summoned all the Externals through their shared psychic link to the Eternal Caldera ofKrakoa. When Apocalypse arrived, and revealed his plans for them, Selene allied herself with Apocalypse andRictor as they sacrificedCrule,Nicodemus,Saul, andCandra. Selene defended Rictor and Apocalypse againstAbsalom, who was left alive but drained. Selene andGideon, together with a coerced Absalom, then helped Apocalypse to finish the ritual and transform the fallen Externals' bones into a gateway toOtherworld.^[49]

Mastermind invited Selene along to the Technology TALKS. After realizingMonet had been captured and the presentation was failing, Selene found Monet and took down Sara St. John, who was holding her captive. She joined the board of X-Corp soon after. Monet and Selene then worked together to take out X-Corp's competition, Noblesse.^[9]

FollowingMagneto's departure from theQuiet Council, Selene declared her candidacy. She argued that the council had failed to replace the previously departedApocalypse, and that the council would need her experience with immortality, knowledge of magic, and vast powers in the days to come. Her pitch was interrupted byHope Summers, who also declared her candidacy and insisted that the council would have no choice but to give her the vacant seat as theFive were too important and popular to deny representation. To counter Hope's threats, Selene threatened to disrupt theExternal Gate, constructed from her fellow Externals' bones.

The council eventually chose to grant Hope the vacant seat, prompting Selene to make good on her promise and re-animate the External gate as a giant monstrosity, which proceeded to attack the council members.^[50] Selene retreated toCoven Akkaba and awaited the inevitable moment when the Council would come crawling back for her help. Instead,Destiny aided Hope in assassinating Selene. She was immediately resurrected, and in her newborn state of weakness and confusion,Exodus was able to take control of Selene and had her undo the spell before snapping her neck.^[15]

Return to the Quiet Council[]

Freed from the realm of death byMother Righteous, Selene was able to return to life without the aid of theFive. Selene andSebastian Shaw entered into an alliance withOrchis. FollowingSinister'sbetrayal of the Quiet Council, and subsequent exile, several key members of the council were temporarily robbed of their votes. This allowed Shaw, together with the mind-controlledColossus, to vote Selene onto the council.^[16]

Selene's ascension to the council proved controversial, and after attempts to rob her of her vote or remove her failed, Exodus took matters into his own hands and attempted to kill her. He was stopped byStorm, and the discussion soon turned to dissolving the Quiet Council entirely in favour of a new system of government. Selene agreed to vote in favour of this motion, in return for not having to suffer consequences for her attack on Krakoa.^[51]

Fall of X[]

When Orchis made their move at theHellfire Gala, forcing Xavier to evacuate almost all mutants from Earth, Krakoa as a nation fell. With her new partners at Orchis, Selene was poised to benefit, accompanying Shaw to the now abandoned Krakoa, which Shaw wished to exploit to enrich himself.^[52]

Life-Force Absorption: Selene can psionically drain the life forces of other human beings into herself, by physical touch. If she drained a person's entire life force from him or her, the victim dies and the victim's body crumbles into dust. It is unknown how often Selene must drain life force from another human in order to survive. A side-effect of this absorption is that Selene takes on the memories of her victims. Great expenditure of power causes Selene to age, but she can rejuvenate herself by absorbing more life force. Selene will not age as long as she maintains her supply of absorbed life force.^[1] The power also makes her immune to another's power and memory absorption.^[4]

• Psychic Vampire: If Selene drains only part of a victim's life force, she achieves a measure ofpsychic control over her victim's mind. Through unknown means, Selene can cause a human being to become a psychic vampire like herself, but be subordinate to Selene's own will.^[1]
• Physical Enhancement: By using the absorbed life energies that sustain her, Selene can enhance her already superhuman physical strength, speed, stamina, agility, reflexes, and durability to greater levels.^[1]
  • Superhuman Strength: Selene has superhuman strength and can lift 2 tons.^[1]
  • Superhuman Stamina: Selene has superhuman levels of stamina.^[1]
  • Superhuman Durability: Selene can withstand immersion in lava, bullet and knife wounds and claims not to have a heart.^[1]
  • Superhuman Reflexes: Selene has a superhuman reaction time.^[1]
  • Superhuman Speed: Selene can momentarily move at superhuman speeds of around 175 miles/hour, though this requires a heavy expenditure of energy and can cause her to age rapidly and require more life energy immediately.^[54]

Telekinesis: Her telekinetic abilities gives her complete psionic control over inanimate objects.^[3]

• Matter Animation viaLife-Force Transferal: She has complete control over inanimate objects and can restructure them into various shapes or animate them by projecting a portion of her life force into them. This control can be very precise, such as covering subjects in a layer of rock, or massive, such as moving a mountain.^[1]
• Inanimate Disintegration: She can cause inanimate objects in her presence to disintegrate. She cannot, however, rearrange the atomic or molecular structure of matter.^[25]
• Force Field: She can create psionic force fields.
• Concussive Blasts: She can fire blasts of telekinetic energy.

Pyrokinesis: Selene can psionically generate and project intense heat and flame from and around her body or direct it at certain distances. The exact radius remains unknown. She was also able to manipulate flame created from other sources and could magnify their intensity or snuff them. The flames Selene generated could also be illusory in effect; for example, she could focus the power on an object making it appear to be on fire while it was not being damaged by the flames at all. Selene instinctively created a psionic force field about her entire body that protected her from the effects of the heat and flame she created and from other sources as well.^[1]

Telepathy: High Order telepath. She is capable of displaying various psionic feats with the minds of others including reading and communicating with thoughts over vast distances.^[1]

• Psi-Screen: Selene is able to shield herself from psionic intrusion.^[1]
• Mental Bolts: She can project psionic force bolts which have no physical effects but which can affect a victim's mind so as to cause the victim pain or unconsciousness. She was even able to temporarily subdue theGrey Hulk with this power before he could fight it off.^[55]
• Hypnotic Trance: She can induce a momentary hypnotic trance state in people around her. Often used along with her speed to create the illusion of teleportation.^[3]
  • Astral Projection: Her telepathy is strong enough for her to survive in her astral form.^[56]

Immortality: As an External, Selene is immortal. She can regenerate injured or missing cells from even near-fatal injuries.

• Rapid Healing: She has the ability to endure injuries (within unknown limits) without lasting harm or even feeling pain such as knife wounds.
• Self-Resurrection: As an immortal, Selene has shown to be able to resurrect herself from death.
• Mind Link: As an External, she shares a telepathic-link with her fellow Externals that allows them to not only sense each other and where, but can call on each other at will from great distances.^[17][49] She is also able to sense when one rises from their first death and when one is killed by another External.^[57]
• External Life-Force: As an External, she can drain the essence of her fellow Externals and temporarily gain their powers. This can be done by either eating the heart or draining the life force of her brethren. Once she has succeeded, she will gain the powers of the ones she has killed in addition to her own powers. However, the length of time she will be able retain the stolen power is unknown. But it seems to last until the slain External returns, which could take hours or days, and also depend on the individual. As Selene has used her magic and deals to return to life.^[16] It's believed that once the External has successfully taken the essence of all the others, that one will gain a unknown type of godhood.^[58][59]

Sorcery: She possesses considerable magical abilities, having gained a great deal of mystical knowledge over the millennia. She was even considered a potential replacement forSorcerer Supreme by theEye of Agamotto.^[60]

• Summoning: Selene could summon demons and other entities.^[5]
• Artifacts Manipulation: Selene could manipulate magical artifacts.^[5]
• Teleportation: Selene could teleport over vast distances.^[5]
• Energy Projection: Selene can shoot powerful energy blasts.^[5]
• Appearance Alteration: Selene can disguise herself and others.^[5]
• Binding: Selene can restrain others in mystical bonds.^[5]
• Darkforce Manipulation: Selene can turn herself into a shadow figure enabling her to become intangible at will, manipulate and elongate her form in order to ensnare others, and can meld herself with shadow.^[1] She can also control darkness around her.^[61]
• Necromancy: Selene could reanimate theExternal Gate and turn it into a gigantic monster.^[50]

• Mysticism: Selene possesses vast knowledge of sorcery.^[62]
• Skilled Combatant: Selene is a good hand-to-hand combatant despite having no formal training.^[62]
• Multilingual: Selene is fluent in Latin,^[7] as well as English.^[5]

• Selene can only be killed by having her life-force drained or heart eaten from a fellow External, but if the External fails to do the same to the other Externals she'll come back again.^[34][57]
• Spreading the ashes of another sorcerer on her can prevent her from using magic.^[1]

• Selene appears to age as she uses magic, especially when she over-exerts herself.^{[citation needed]}
• As an External and her immortality becoming active upon her first death she does not age, but she has been seen to temporarily age when overexerting her other powers or been injured. Whether this temporary state is an effect of the overexertion/injury or her briefly returning to her true age at the time she met her first death remains unknown.

• Selene was originally introduced as being of Incan descent,^[7] although that has since been retconned.
• The formerHellionFirestar was originally trained by theWhite Queen for the purpose of assassinating Selene.^[63]
• The main character Selene in the Underworld series is based on her.^[64]
• She appears as a protagonist inNew Mutants Forever.
• At over 17,000 years old,^[10] she is one of the oldest known mutants on the planet (more on the first mutantshere).
• The name "Selene" is Greek in origin. Selene was the Greek name of both theMoon (the natural satellite of the Earth) and thegoddess personifying it. The Roman equivalent of Selene was Luna.

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