- "A shaman is someone who has influence in the world of good and evil spirits. Blackjack is just a hobby."
- —Esrin Fortuna[src]
Esrin Fortuna is an immortal shaman and a friend of John Constantine.
Biography
Early life
Sometime prior to the spring of 2016, Esrin had dealings with John Constantine, who ended up owing her a substantial amount of money.[1]
Assisting Team Arrow
In May 2016, Constantine put Oliver Queen on the track to find Esrin to learn how to combat Damien Darhk's magic. Oliver and Felicity Smoak went to the underground casino in Hub City that Constantine directed them to, and used the passphrase "I'm betting on Fortuna" to get access to the high-roller room, and the game of blackjack that Esrin was playing at, for her to decide if they were worthy to be taught. They didn't know who Esrin was, or what to expect, but when Felicity (who was on a winning streak) offered Esrin (who had lost most of her money and was about to give up) a pile of chips, she saw this as a sign of innate goodness, and revealed her presence to them, taking them to a nexus chamber outside Earth's plane of existence to teach Oliver.
While there, Esrin described how Lian Yu and Star City were both places of nexus, containing nexus chambers like hers, which was why Darhk had chosen Star City for his Genesis project. Oliver recognized her Idol as being similar to Darhk's Khushu Idol, and Esrin explained that it was used not as a source of power but simply to channel the fear and death that formed the true source of his magic. She showed him how this dark magic has an opposite magic of light and hope, and how it could be used to repel dark magic, but if the darkness within was stronger than the light, then trying to resist would only make Darhk's power stronger.
She told Oliver to focus on channeling such "light" energy, and used dark magic against him in a training session. Oliver was able to repel it, only for Esrin to suggest that it might merely be "beginner's luck", after which she used a more powerful blast of dark magic. The dark magic overwhelmed Oliver, forcing him to recall the darkest moments of his life, failing the lesson. Esrin noticed Oliver's failure and claimed that teaching him further would be useless, since the darkness within Oliver overwhelmed the light.[1]
Powers and abilities
Powers
- Magic: As a shaman, Esrin is highly skilled in the various forms of magic and mysticism. She described herself as "someone who has influence in the world of good and evil spirits", and explained the nature of magic to Felicity, saying "Magic is a manipulation of primordial energies, primordial as in prelinguistic", meaning that it could not be taught with words as much as with actual demonstration of it. She is a highly capable teacher as well. While she is able to use the same dark magic as Damien, and has an Idol to channel her power similar to the Khushu Idol, Esrin is also shown to be familiar with its opposite, Light of the Soul. Her control of these powers is very fine, as she is able to limit just how powerful her bursts are on a target.[1]
- Dark energy projection: One form of her dark magic was to project waves of dark energy, physically manifesting as black, ethereal gas that once engulfing the person, it will make the target experience all of the darkness in their lives. Her hands turned black when she projected her dark magic gas.[1]
- Immortality: Esrin has stated that she is immortal. While unknown if she is unkillable or simply ageless, Esrin is very proud of her status, making note of not having a single visible wrinkle.[1]
Abilities
- Occult knowledge: As an immortal shaman, Esrin possesses extensive knowledge of the arcane and supernatural. She is also shown to be well-informed in the activities of the world that involves such matters, including the nature behind Damien Darhk's magic and the location of mystical nexus points in the world.[1] It was she who revealed that Lian Yu and Star City have nexus chambers that have a strong concentration of primordial energy to draw from.
Appearances
Arrow
Season 4
- "Genesis"
- "Monument Point" (mentioned)
Trivia
- Fortuna's accent and idiolect show heavy Spanish influences.