Trigon was originally born of celestial blasphemy, spreading viral like evil that would corrupt worlds and civilizations into self destruction. In an effort to cleanse his soul of evil, the Three Divine summoned the great Heart of Darkness to feast on his soul. However, Trigon was able to absorb the power of the Heart of Darkness (the collected evils of a hundred galaxies), becoming a supreme power that would destroy countless worlds. He killed his mother and fathers, the Divine, shredding them of their flesh and wearing their skin. Unable to cross the Divine’s barrier, Trigon would summon women from other worlds, consummate with them, and send them back, spreading his evil to destroy countless universes.
New 52
In the New 52 he retains his imposing size but has six eyes and horns made of smoke. While he previously was the father of Raven and six later sons, he is now the father of three sons; Belial Ruskoff and Suge. All of whom are aware of the Phantom Strangers true identity.
Lately Trigon named Raven, his only one daughter, The Queen of the Under Realm provoking the envy of his sons, because he always demonstrates a kind of preference on Raven. He also mentions he has a son from each world he has conquered.
Trigon had his debut in the pages of the Phantom Stranger, where he revealed he was poised to invade Earth in the search for Raven, who had escaped him in Azerath years ago. The Stranger handed him his daughter to stall the invasion that Trigon promised would come, regardless of what the Stranger and his master did and that they would ultimately regret giving him Raven.
Trigons current plans are later elaborated on in the pages of Teen Titans, where he reveals to his sons that needs Earth has his final staging ground before he intends to assault Heaven itself.
The origins of Trigon are later told during the Villains Month event accompanying Forever Evil. Ages ago, in another universe, a trio of beings known as the Divine have been attempting to purge all evil from several universes with the aid of a planet sized object called the Heart of Darkness, which sucks out evil from those it latches onto. They are mystified when they discover a world they previously purged having again descended into evil, with the inhabitants now attacking each other in a murderous rage. Discovering a trio of unknown beings, the Divinity brings them to them to let the Heart of Darkness feed on them. One of the three, considered the leader, reveals he allowed them to bring him to them for him to absorb the Heart while his companions perish. He reveals himself to be Trigon and that he is the reaction the Divinity caused when they purged so much evil. Having absorbed the Heart, containing the evils of universes, Trigon sets out to feed on the evils as the Heart did.
Trigon’s conquests prove unstoppable and world after world, universe after universe falls before his might and corrupting influence, turning each into its own vision of hell for him to feed on. On each world he intended to leave a son to rule after his departure, but only three survive; Belial, Ruskoff and Suge, whom disappoints Trigon with their weakness. His search for brides and conquests continue until he reaches a world where a single warrior stands against him dressed in the Silent Armor, being unable to defeat the warrior named Alazandria, Trigon promises to return one day at the head of an army of his children, each more powerful than her.
Ages pass before one of Trigon’s hunters bring him a woman from Earth, called Arella. Together, they conceive a daugther named Raven. Recognizing the power of Raven as being what he had been looking for, Trigon now intends to invade the Earth in order to create the army of his children, having found the ideal mothers.
Origin
Trigon came into being hundreds upon hundreds of years ago when a group of humans abandoned life on Earth and established a sect of pacifists on the inter-dimensional world of Azarath. Embracing the concept of peace, these humans exorcised the dark passions of their souls from their bodies and cast it beyond the Great Door of Azarath into the nether-realms. This leftover evil energy floated in space for years before finally coalescing into a single physical form. The last inhabitants of an alien world in an extre-dimnsional universe summoned this darkness from the ether and it impregnated a woman from the order. Nine months later Trigon was born.
As an infant, Trigon slaughtered the very cult responsible for his birth including his own mother. In less than a year, he had conquered the entire planet. By the time he was six-years-old, he destroyed his home world and began traveling across the cosmos in search of new planets to conquer. By the time he was thirty, Trigon had conquered his entire dimension and several million worlds.
Over the span of centuries, Trigon sired many children – all of whom he hoped would become extensions of his own great power. In many cases, the children of Trigon rebelled against him and were destroyed. Other times, their human mothers recognized the threat such spawn represented and killed them while they were infants or the nature of the children where discovered by others and subsequently slain. For all of the seeds he had spread across the dimensions, none of his offspring survived beyond infancy to become the heir of Trigon.
Over two decades ago on Earth, a young homeless woman named Angela Roth had fallen in with an occult circle. Though they were rank amateurs in the field of Satanic ritual, they nevertheless attempted to summon the Devil. What they succeeded in conjuring was far worse. Trigon emerged and took Angela Roth as his bride. He left her pregnant with child then abandoned her after burning the other cult members to cinders for their efforts, patiently awaiting the day when he could call his offspring to his side. Trigon manipulated the priests of Azarath to journey to Earth in search of Angela Roth. He knew that the mother of his soon-to-be child would be safe under the care of these pacifists as they would not raise a hand against her, even though they knew what she was. They found Angela and brought her to Azarath where she was renamed Arella so Trigon would not find her.
Not everyone in Azarath was pleased to know that the wife and child of Trigon was to live among them. But Azar and High Magistrate Coman realized that should the child of Trigon be allowed to grow on Earth, her existence would threaten all life on that planet, and indeed, the entire universe as well. Shortly thereafter, Arella gave birth to a daughter who was given the name – Raven.
The Magistrate of Food Production, Juris, felt that Raven’s existence threatened the sanctity on all life on Azarath. To safeguard his people, he elected to break Azarath’s most sacred law – the taking of a human life. Snatching Raven from her nursemaid, he attempted to hurl the child through the Great Door into the Limbo realm separating Azarath from other dimensions. Upon opening the door however, he exposed himself to the power of Trigon who disintegrated him with a blast of energy. Raven however, was left unharmed.
For seventeen years he waited as Raven grew, introducing himself to her on the day that Azar, Raven’s teacher and leader of Azerath died due to old age. Trigon haunted Raven’s dreams granting her visions of his arrival on Earth and the destruction of Azerath, promting Raven to leave Azerath in search of those who would stand against Trigon, resulting in the formation of the New Teen Titans.
Shortly after the formation, Trigon would first set foot upon the Earth. However his stay was short as he complied with the wishes of his daughter and took her with him to his own universe, with intentions of returning later. However the Teen Titans followed him, taking Arella with them to free Raven. In the end the Titans managed to combine Trigons own powers and weapons with their and banished him to an empty dimension, one Arealla followed him into, to prevent his escape.
Much later, after sundering his own dimension for nourishment and power, Trigon escaped his prison. Again he attempted to conquer the Earth, this time possesing his daughter in the process, her own continued exposure to the emotions of others broke down her defences against him, having resulted in visible changes in her appearance over time. This time Trigon was successful, the Earth was his in the blink of an eye and a ruin the next, the heroes of the world sharing the fates of all others and were turned to stone statues. The world was his, his daughter his willing servant and while he rested on Earth, he had his armies burn Azerath to the ground.
The Titans however had been spared as they had been transported to Azerath to witness it’s demise by Lilith Clay. When they returned they were subjected to nightmare visions Raven implanted in them, forcing them to kill shadowy conterparts of themselves. This proved fatal for Raven, who wished to turn the Titans into Trigons servants, as Lilith revealed her to be housing the spirits of Azar and Azerath, took command of the evil Titans and used them to slay Raven, freeing the Titans as a result.
Trigon’s anger at the death of his only child was great, and dropped Titans Tower on its inhabitants. Leaving Trigon to be alone when he wished to merge his dead universe with that of Earth’s, a shallow victory for him. But he was caught unaware of Azar and Azerath, who’s powers and souls merged with Ravens, their pure spirits proving untouchable to Trigon while he was rendered into dust, thus the demon Trigon was destroyed, but it was not the end.
Trigons influence and nature continued to haunt his daughter for years to come, creating many dangerous situations for the Titans eventually resulting in Raven’s utter corruption, promting her to attempt to have her dead siblings reborn. This proved false however as it was revelead that the children had also been consumed by Trigon and that he would have been reborn in their stead if Raven had succeeded.
Trigon would return years later, his daughter having been reborn by the Church of Blood, Trigons mortal followers on Earth. This time he struck the Titans before he left his own realm, simultaniously assaulting every member of the Teen Titans with demonic creatures or other such strikes as flooding Garfield Logans room with lava, assaulting the Teen Titans with an earthborn monstrosity, causing spikes to emerge from the ground in an attempt to impale Roy Harper. Again the now adult Titans banded together to stop him, learning that Trigon was indeed alive and more disturbing…he has more children than Raven. It is later revealed that Trigon has six sons who along with Raven make up the Seven Deadly Sins, each representing a sin, however as the Original Sin of Pride it is suspected that Raven is the more powerful of the siblings. Wrath, Envy and Desire initially attempt to use Raven and Changeling as a portal to bring Trigon to Earth, only for the three to drain him of his remaining powers at the last minute after being filled with greed by Raven, leaving Trigon uttely drained and stranded but slightly pleased at his sons.
Powers and Abilities
Demonic Powers: Trigon possesses demonic powers at an immeasurable scale, as does all demons of the upper classes. The true scope of Trigons powers have been shown to Raven, Booster Gold and Rip Hunter in an alternate timeline where the Titans were not there to oppose him, finding the Earth a blasted ruin where only few heroes remained to resist him, Trigon himself standing on a mountain of skulls while keeping the skeletons of Superman (with a hole in his skull), Flash, Hawkman and Hal Jordan as trophies alongside other items, such as the Helmet of Fate, Wonder Woman’s tiara and many other such items from those who had fallen before his might.
Divine Powers: Trigon himself possess a vast amount of divine powers.
Demonic Physiology: Trigon is very tall, has six eyes, horns, and red skin. He possess powers that are beyond the comprehension of that of lesser demonic beings, and is able to rule over an entire pantheon out of both power and fear.
Superhuman Regeneration: Trigon can regenerate from absolutely nothing, to the point of absolute immortality.
Superhuman Durability/Strength: Trigon has shown to be completely unbothered by the combines attacks of Donna Troy, Starfire, Cyborg, and changeling, finding them mildly annoying. Although he never engages his enemies in a fist fight or perform physically straining tasks as he has no need to do so, his physical strength is as monstrous.
Superhuman Speed, Reflexes, and Agility: Trigon possess superhuman, speed reflexes, and agility, to what limit is unknown.
Flight: Trigon is cable of flying under his own powers, but usually relies on his telekinesis to levitate himself.
Teleportation: Trigon just thinks of a destination and can appear there at will. Trigon can teleport to and from his demonic dimension.
Omniscience/Prescience: Trigon’s mind is unblocked to the entire universe. Trigon has instinctive knowledge of events before they happen, and often knows an enemy’s every move and intention before said enemy even decides them. The upper pair of his eyes, allow him to be aware of nearly everything on the plane he is on.
Telekinesis: Trigon possess extremely powerful telekinetic powers. His telekinetic powers are so strong, that he’s able to manipulate the fundamental forces of the universe, manipulate reality, manipulate and distort the space-time continuum, and manipulate matter at the subatomic level.
Reality Alteration/Magic: Trigon can create, change, destroy, or even alter reality just by thinking about it; Trigon has reshaped entire planets on a whim, and effortlessly turned Earth and all of its inhabitants to stone. He’s also shattered Psimon’s atoms through out the universe, claiming he would suffer for betraying him. Trigon has levitated the Titans Tower, turned it to solid stone, before dropping it on the Titans with a wave of his staff. Trigon has unlimited access to all forms of magic and other mystical and supernatural forces. He can bend, break, and even create natural laws, distort the fabric of reality on a cosmic scale, perform unbelievable miracles, and create things without limit. Trigon is also immune to all opposing magic and can even break through all outside mystic defenses. Trigon has the power and ability to generate and fire a concentrated beam of pure magical mystical energy at an opponent.
Sorcery: Trigon can manipulate mystical energy for a wide variety of effects. He can project powerful blasts of eldritch energy from his upper eyes. He can cast complex illusions that enable him to function in the world of man. He can increase the rate of entropy on living tissue, causing people and animals to age at an accelerated rate.
Mind Control: Trigon can possess anyone he feels necessary for his plots. He has controlled hundreds of people and the most powerful of champions.
Illusion-Casting: Trigon is a master manipulator and can create elaborate illusions to fool others.
Soul Consumption: Trigon has drained the souls of millions of worlds, which he was forced to during his imprisonment where he stated he had been forced to consume his own universe to survive and escape.
Evil/Hatred Empowerment: The Heart of Drakness, causes Trigon to always be hungry for evil, which he feed upon. Trigon becomes stronger in the presence of evil, or any malicious energies; Trigon becomes stronger, faster, more durable, etc. by hatred of others.
Darkness/Darkforce Manipulation: Trigon can create, shape, manipulate, materialize and summon darkness and shadows. He can also can create, control, manipulate, materialize and summon dark energy.
Pyrokinesis: Trigon can control and move the flames, including the shape, heat and even color; Trigon can spew hellfire from his mouth, erupt it from the floor and his body gives off a powerful heat.
Energy Projection: Trigon can fire bursts of devastating force of his hands and six eyes. telekinesis, transmuting elements, contain enemies in a ball of energy.
Power Bestowal: Trigon can give superpowers to others, either be permanently or temporary. He was responsible for giving powerful psychic powers to the man who would become Psimon in exchange for his servitude.
Command: Trigon commands armies of demons he uses to enslave worlds and prey on the survivors. By themselves have simultaneously been able to defeat the Teen Titans and Justice League with incredible ease, however powerful they are, Trigon tolerates no failures and easily slew the demon Goronn who he had. Trigon had planet destroying weapons at his disposal from his own universe, but as he was forced to consume it they would have been consumed with the planets they were housed on.
Shape-Shifting: Trigon can transform and reshape his entire form. Trigon once took a human appearance and seduce Arella, Raven’s mother.
Size Manipulation: Trigon complete control over the size of oneself and others. He can alter his size at will, and when he grows, his physical capabilities are also enhanced. Trigon has altered his size to that of a normal human, the size of a skyscraper, and at least three times the height of Titans Tower, as he pleases; However, this ability appears to be linked to his state of mind.
Immortality: Trigon will never die; His body will never rot, age, or grow old.
Weapons
Power Staff: Trigon wields a mystical staff that can project blasts of super-heated energy and manipulate patterns of force. It is possible that his staff is merely an extension of his own innate abilities. The powers of the staff varied, and have never been clearly defined. He once used the staff to make Kid Flash involuntarily spin at top speed until he drilled himself into the ground.
Weakness
In the past Trigon only true weakness was his own arrogance, that often left him blind to threats and actions of others.
In the New 52 Trigon has been unable to travel between universes under his own power, needing to be born into each universe he wishes to go to, an act that always results in the death of the mother and whoever happens to be around at the birth.
Trigon has been shown to be unable to harm a past wearer of the Silent Armor, now currently worn by Cassandra Sandsmark, though this weakness may have been nullified as Cassandra wasn’t born or trained to wear the armor and constantly struggles with its attempts to take over her mind and body.
Oddities
Despite his often mention as a demon by Raven and others, what Trigon’s relationship with DC’s Hell is unknown, as he has never been depicted as having any contact with them and during the Reign in Hell event, he was never mentioned and his domains were not revealed on any of the maps that appeared during the events. Possibly this has to do with his extra-dimensional origins, where it could be assumed he is the Dominus, or Satan, of his native realms. But it does beg the question what DC’s Dominus or Domina thinks about having him arrive on their Earthly plane, effectively challenging their interests there?
Other Appearances
Trigon appeared in the animated series Teen Titans animated series (2003-2006). Trigon planned to invade our dimension to conquer the planet Earth (in the process enslaving millions of people), he had made an earlier attempt but was imprisoned underground by Azeroth. His appearance follows his comic counterpart closely and he posses many of the same powers, such as size-alteration, eye beams, magic, command of demons, super strength and durability, omniscience and empowered and resurrected Slade to do his bidding, granting him vast pyrokinetical powers and invulnerability while he served.
Later, Raven destroyed Trigon, much in the manner of the conclusion of the Terror of Trigon arc though without the involvement of Azeroth and Azar.
It is not known if he has any connection to Psimon, who would appear in season five.
Teen Titans Go!
Trigon guest stars in episode 2, “Dog hand.” The episode is done like a bad sitcom, complete with audience laughter. Trigon appears frightening at first, but then pours on the smooth, winning over the Titans trust quickly. Raven from the start is moody and withdrawn, leading the Titans to feel bad for the demon/god. Then he gives the Titans the “powers” they always wanted, including a dog-head hand for Cyborg, hence the episode title. In the end, it is revealed his plan is to use the Titans to help him convert Raven to his way of thinking and enslave the world.
He makes several other appearances throughout the show, often trying to get Raven to join his side or simply to take over the world on his own, normally these attempts appear quite absurd, like trying to drive Raven into a jealous rage because he starts spending time with Starfire, or trying to drive her crazy from inside of her own mind which she repays by putting the Titans in his and almost instantly drives him batty.
Though intially described as ‘terrifying’ and often appearing quite fearsome, Raven usually has a less fearsome description of Trigon as ‘such a wiener’. And often enough this seems more than likely as Trigon seems to find endless excuses to try and sway his daughter to his side, and only occasionally rising enough in anger to actually harm her.
Justice League vs Teen Titans
in the 2016 animated movie Trigon serves as the main antagonist. For most of the movie he is resigned to possess various members of the Justice League (Superman, Flash, Wonder Woman, Cyborg and Batman) and summon lesser demons in order to force Raven into summoning him onto Earth.
Raven describes him only reluctantly, basically as being Satan. When Raven was young in Azerath, she was denied knowledge of her father and instead tried to seek out the answers herself, only to end up summoning him to Azerath, as was his intent, which he destroyed almost instantly before taking her to his own realm, an action that plagues Raven with guilt to this day. As with other incarnations of Trigon, this version underestimated the power Raven had and she managed to trap him in a crystal, presuming the crystal was unbreakable, Raven left in pursuit of a more normal life on Earth finding one with the Teen Titans.
With most of the League falling under his control and using them to threaten the lives of the Titans, Trigon managed to force Raven into summoning him at an ancient ritual site in Kandaq. while Superman, Wonder Woman and Flash tried to stop him, the Teen Titans went into Trigons realm in hopes that Raven could force Trigon back into the crystal. Only for it to be shattered by Ra’s Al-Ghul, or a demon bearing his image. Despite the crystal being shattered, Raven eventually manage to drag Trigon back into the largest fragment, leaving him trapped. Initially Raven believes she must now remain in his world to keep an eye on the crystal, but is persuaded to return, and instead mounts the crystal on her own forehead leaving Trigon shouting constantly at her from within.
Whenever or not Ra’s Al-Ghul appearing in Trigons realm was the genuine one, that had perished in an earlier movie, remains unclear as his features change to that of one of Trigons demons after being beheaded by Damian. But he does offer an plausible explanation for the powers of the Lazarus Pit’s, as being a gift from Trigon.
Video Games
Injustice Gods Among Us – Trigon appears during Raven’s super move where he uses eye lasers to attack her target. During the story mode Wonder Woman notes the Raven from the alternate world serving Superman’s Regime is truly loyal to her father and not Superman. Trigon is also fought during Raven’s S.T.A.R. Labs missions where he is trying to get control over her. During Raven’s arcade ending she defeats Superman though the amount of demonic energy she unleashes to do so summons her father who then begins to lay waste to the world.
Trigon also appears during the arcade ending for Scorpion, who has ended up in Trigons realm. Scorpion defeats Trigon and takes control of his army before launching an invasion of the Earth.