Creation
Chaon was created by Paul Kupperberg (writer) and Jan Duursema (artist), first appearing in Warlord #57 in the backup feature story as an antagonist of the character, Arion.
Character Evolution
Bronze Age
Chaon is one of the three gods of the Atlantean and Darkworld pantheon in which all three represent order (Gemimn), chaos, and the balance between the two forces (Tynan). Embodying evil, his existence had began long before the creation of Earth and served as a god of evil, madness, and chaos in the universe. He first appeared among his fellow gods as opponents for Arion, whom was going through a trial set forth by his father, Calculha, to train him to take his place among the gods and is promptly defeated by the mage.
Throughout Arion’s tenure as Lord High Mage and even King of Atlantis, Chaon was one of Arion’s chief and most formidable enemies . Eventually, Chaon achieves victory by destroying Atlantis himself though his physical form is destroyed, becoming a lingering essence of evil.
New Earth
Later stories change the nature of Chaon to be among the Lords of Chaos and a demon lord from Darkworld. Additionally, his history is slightly reworked in a retcon that connects the Atlantis from Arion, Lord of Atlantis and Aquaman as well as the general DCU. Instead of destroying all of Atlantis, he only destroyed a large portion of it.
Not long after destroying Atlantis and being defeated by Arion, he eventually lost his powers due to the changes of Darkworld, his source of power. Only possessing his immortality, Chaon eventually becomes a rather shoddy deli shop owner in New York around 45,000 years later and regains his magical powers after Darkworld’s reemergence and Arion’s actions that freezes Atlantean magic within the world. Though he was the former Sorcerer Supreme of Atlantis’ adversary, he became a reluctant ally for the mage in inspiring him to use his regained powers for the benefit of humanity.
Powers and Abilities
During the Silver Age, Chaon was stated to be a universal force part of a balance and once said to be one of the two mightiest beings in the cosmos, though his power is matched by both Tynan and Calculha (the latter whom is later stated to be the more powerful god in later stories). He also stated himself to have destroyed worlds and has enough power to send the Earth into oblivion on his own, held only in check by Tynan and Gemimn. It as also witnessed that Chaon and Gemimn being in close proximity and even touching is enough to throw the universe in upheaval and threaten to destroy it.
As a god from Darkworld, Chaon embodies evil and chaos and as such, is capable of manipulating such forces, is immortal and, unable to be killed conventionally though managing to do so is implied to come with drastic consequences due to his existence being necessary. He also draws power from Darkworld and is a capable of performing magic proficient enough to battle the like of Arion and Calculha. He is capable of feats such as:
- Manipulation of darkness
- Inducing madness and projecting the fears of others
- Casting illusions
- Projecting an controlling dark energy potent enough to destroy Atlantis (or a large portion of it in later retcons).
- Creating inter-dimensional warps at will
- Controlling the time-stream
- Manipulation of dark cosmic forces capable of overwhelming Superman.
Out of all his siblings, Chaon is the most practical spell caster and knowledgeable on the occult due to being a god. He is also a skilled businessman, capable of owning and running a deli shop despite having numerous health code violations.