The Age of Quirks easily marks one of the most significant turning points in history in the world of My Hero Academia. Before Quirks started developing around this fictional world, it was much like the realistic world we currently live in now, nothing extraordinary. Just regular school, or work, and regular government and policing. The emergence of these extreme and out of the ordinary powers caused society to change practically overnight. It introduced strange new abilities that led to reshaping humanity’s understanding of biology, society, law and even what it meant to be human.
What initially began with the appearance of the first known Quirk would in time lead to a world which relies on these powers, superhuman abilities becoming the new normal. Due to this, governments, communities and individuals were forced to adapt to the new societal changes, though the presence of Quirks created endless possibilities and incredibly serious and dangerous societal problems. The history this time created reaches far beyond just the history of origin of Quirks themselves, and instead is the story of how humanity transformed in response to them.
The World Before Quirks
The world before Quirks was almost identical to the current reality we humans live in now, no extraordinary abilities, no out of this world lives, just normal, regular humanity. Humans lived without Quirks in the world of My Hero Academia like normal. Their society is very comparable to our own society, we don’t need to adapt to powers like they did. People relied on very normal and modernised technology and ordinary human abilities, there was no superhuman abilities reshaping everyday life. Governments, cities, schools, workplaces and communities already existed, and the technology and scientific understanding developed perfectly fine without Quirks being a part of everyday human life. During this time, no professional heroes were obviously a thing, they were only in fictional books like comic books. There were no Quirk-based occupations back then, no Quirk-related laws or regulations. No schools specialised in Quirk education, and no society built around people possessing superhuman abilities.
As humanity continued down a modern track, the Early Quirk Era began, people all over the world started inheriting superhuman abilities, whether that be with physical abilities, mental abilities or even heteromorphs. It’s obvious humanity struggled to understand and adapt to what was happening. This history is what makes the first recorded Quirk so significant, it pinpoints the start of something that initially starts as messy, confusing and scary, to something where people live in peace and safety. Canon provides relatively little information about the detailed history of humanity before the emergence of Quirks. Though we see and learn very little bits throughout the manga and anime.
The First Quirk
The first recorded Quirk was the Luminescent Baby born in QingQing City, China. This baby remains unnamed, but they began their life with a glowing luminescent body. The initial reaction to this phenomenon was fear, confusion and curiosity. The parents of the baby were uncertain if this was a medical problem, and took the baby to be looked at, though scientists and medical doctors also weren’t sure as to why the baby was glowing. Later this individual took the opportunity and started a life of fame and popularity.
The significance the Luminescent Baby created was not exactly that they possessed an uncanny ability, but instead that their birth became one of the earliest publicly known and recognised signs that humanity and society as a whole was entering a new and unfamiliar era of history. During this time, there was absolutely no established scientific and biological understanding of Quirks, meaning there was no existing terminology or framework for explaining what had happened. The Luminescent Baby’s condition ultimately stood outside the conventional medical understanding. It was extraordinary. Their unique appearance attracted large amounts of public attention, eventually turning the child into a figure of fascination and wonder rather than a medical mystery. Their later fame also suggests how quickly a unique and out of this world ability could become a humungous source of public interest, even before society understood entirely what Quirks even were.
Though realistically this baby was not the first real Quirk holder. You see, presumably before the Luminescent Baby was born, a homeless and ill mother was pregnant with the Shigaraki twins. Not identical, but one was older and the other younger. The older one was Zen, born with a Quirk called All For One, while his younger brother, who he named Yoichi, was weak and he thought was “Quirkless”. Their mother, who died as she was giving birth, had a Quirk called spear-like bones, she had hard mutations on one of her arms, showing early on-set manifestation of Quirks. And since the Shigaraki twins were born presumably before the Luminescent Baby, they were the first Quirk users.
The Spread of Quirks
The emergence of Quirks was not just limited to the Luminescent Baby, or the Shigaraki twins, instead, humanity entirely started inheriting unusual abilities, babies across the entire world were being born with different powers. Eventually, Quirks began to gradually become a phenomenon that societies could no longer regard as isolated cases.
Quirks became more prevalent and powerful through generations mostly through generations of hereditary mixing and genetic inheritance. The more children born, the more those with Quirks would grow up, reproduce and create more children with mixed Quirks, a prime example of hereditary and genetic inheritance is Shoto Todoroki, who has both his mothers ice powers and his fathers fire powers. Quirk possession eventually became the norm rather than the exception. This ultimately led to the world’s population of Quirk holders being 80%, while the remaining 20% of the population remained Quirkless. People could possess completely unique and different physical characteristics and abilities. Some Quirk’s manifested as mutations, like heteromorphs, others manifested major abilities that could dramatically affect the environment, some physical strength. Children could inherit combinations or variations of their parent’s Quirks.
As Quirks became more established within humanity, the abilities being genetically inherited also become increasingly varied. Rather than just easily reproducing the identical powers of their parents, children could inherit aspects of both, or one or the either of their parents’ Quirks, ultimately resulting in powers that are different from either parent. This created an enormous list of possible Quirk combinations, with some particular abilities appearing rather simple while others could potentially possess several different functions. Quirk manifestations could also differ hugely between individuals, even when they possessed similar abilities. Some people developed Quirks that primarily altered their bodies, while others gained abilities instead that granted them the power to manipulate elements, objects, or physical forces. This growing diversity made Quirks an increasingly defining characteristic of humanity.
Early Social Reactions
As Quirks became increasingly common, humanity was pushed to confront a circumstance it had no experience in or understanding of. Some reactions involved fear and uncertainty. People didn’t exactly understand what Quirks were, which was what made this more realistic in the anime world as before their world was like our reality. Unusual abilities were obviously frightening, especially when they appeared in children, as some Quirks may have suddenly activated. Parents and communities had little experience dealing with these Quirks and modern science and technology at the time couldn’t exactly help either.
This uncertainty would have been particularly hard for families, as there was no established expectations or knowledge for when a Quirk might appear or what form it could take. For one family, a child’s first manifestation may be an exciting moment, where as it could be alarming or even a dangerous experience for another. Until people could begin to understand Quirks way more clearly, every new manifestation proposed another unfamiliar situation for parents, doctors, scientists and communities to try and understand. Some Quirk manifestations could even look physically unusual or threatening, this again could mean heteromorphs. A similar outlook to this would be Mezou Shoji’s backstory.
Although, not everyone reacted so negatively. Others were curious and fascinated by this new phenomenon. Extraordinary abilities generated excitement and this is what helped cause the Luminescent Baby’s fame. People began viewing these Meta Abilities as something remarkable rather than purely as medical abnormalities. The Luminescent Baby is a prime example as their condition eventually attracted public attention.
Many questions start to form:
What would people think when their neighbour’s child suddenly developed an unusual ability?
How would parents react when they didn’t know whether a Quirk was dangerous?
How would communities distinguish between harmless and potentially destructive abilities?
These questions are asked quite often by My Hero Academia fans, though there is no direct answer as we have never experienced this ourselves.
The Growth of Quirk Society
As Quirks grew increasingly common, they slowly stopped being viewed as an unusual phenomenon, and instead became a normal part of everyday life. Each new generation was more likely to grow up surrounded by other individuals who had different abilities rather than those born at the very start of Quirk evolution, meaning that society had to adapt to a population that was fundamentally different in a lot of ways compared to earlier generations. Quirks no longer were simple extraordinary abilities possessed by a small number of people, instead they were becoming a defining characteristic of humanity itself.
Eventually Quirks shaped everyday life within the core of society, this includes work, education, transportation, household tasks, and more. Professional heroism emerged, people with very specific hero licenses could use their Quirks for hero work, Quirk education and training facilities were put in place, and even household work was changed, some possessing Quirks making the work easier.
Another part of the growth of Quirks was that this could alter a person’s identity. Someones Quirk could be a very important part of how they understood themselves. Someone might be born with a Quirk so similar to their parents while another person might be born with something completely the opposite of their parents. Quirks weren’t just simply abilities anymore, they became an ordinary characteristic of being human, being normal. Some people, especially those born as heteromorphs, had their lives altered drastically. Some had extra limbs, or animal-like features and unusual body structures. These Quirks altered an individuals body permanently, whether they were born with it or it manifested over time.
Quirks stop being something humanity has to understand, and instead becomes something humanity grows up with. Children have something their ancestors never even dreamed of, and they get to learn how to control and grow with their powers, potentially using said powers to help and save other people down the track.
Conflict and Social Disorder
The growing presence of Quirks didn’t bring just fascination and adaptation. As more people developed powers able of causing physical harm or massive destruction, incidents involving those misusing their powers or uncontrolled activation of Quirks began creating new forms of conflict and social disorder. Society was faced with situations that had previously been impossible to imagine, from accidental injuries caused by children to individuals deliberately using their abilities against others. Without systems established for controlling and responding to these events, Quirks could become a source of fear, conflict and social disorder.
The more people developed increasingly unusual and powerful abilities, some communities would have had legitimate reasons to fear what certain Quirks could do. People started to live in fear a lot more, people were more suspicious, lived in panic and distrust and there was a lot of social tension and fear of individuals with particularly destructive abilities.
Imagine a child whose Quirk activates accidentally, those consequences could include injuries, property destruction, fires, unintentional attacks, people being frightened or displaced. This demonstrates why society eventually needed ways to manage Quirks. Though people did actually deliberately used their abilities against others, things like Quirk-related crime, theft, assault, destruction, and even individuals using their abilities for personal gain. These incidents weren’t always intentional, making the events more difficult and stressful to maintain and control. A person could potentially cause serious harm without ever intentionally meaning to, while another individual might deliberately use their powers for their own personal benefit or to actually hurt others. This created uncertainty over responsibility, as society had to determine how different situations should be understood and addressed.
Humanity had gained extraordinary abilities faster than it had developed systems capable of managing them. This is a main reason why social order was broken down. Humanity had gained impeccable abilities faster than systems were developed to be able to manage them. This growing imbalance contributed to the breakdown of social order and demonstrated that society could no longer respond to Quirk-related incidents using the same exact approach it had before these powers existed.
The growing presence of Quirks didn’t bring just fascination and adaptation. As more people developed powers able of causing physical harm or massive destruction, incidents involving those misusing their powers or uncontrolled activation of Quirks began creating new forms of conflict and social disorder. Society was faced with situations that had previously been impossible to imagine, from accidental injuries caused by children to individuals deliberately using their abilities against others. Without systems established for controlling and responding to these events, Quirks could become a source of fear, conflict and social disorder.
The more people developed increasingly unusual and powerful abilities, some communities would have had legitimate reasons to fear what certain Quirks could do. People started to live in fear a lot more, people were more suspicious, lived in panic and distrust and there was a lot of social tension and fear of individuals with particularly destructive abilities.
Imagine a child whose Quirk activates accidentally, those consequences could include injuries, property destruction, fires, unintentional attacks, people being frightened or displaced. This demonstrates why society eventually needed ways to manage Quirks. Though people did actually deliberately used their abilities against others, things like Quirk-related crime, theft, assault, destruction, and even individuals using their abilities for personal gain.
Humanity had gained extraordinary abilities faster than it had developed systems capable of managing them. This is a main reason why social order was broken down. Quirk Laws and regulations had to be put in place which was difficult to maintain due to the amount of people with Quirks.
The Development of Modern Quirk Society
As humanity finally began to become accustomed to Quirks, they eventually stopped being viewed as an extraordinary phenomenon and became an ordinary part of everyday life. Society began introducing and adapting to its institutions, environments, and expectations and reality around the existence of superhuman abilities. What had once caused confusion, fear, suspicion and panic, was eventually incorporated into education, employment, medicine and science, entertainment and even other areas of everyday life. Quirks were finally something that had become a fundamental part of human society.
Quirkless people, those born without superhuman abilities, were now a minority, with 20% of the worlds population not having these powers when the main story starts. Society started to accommodate people with different Quirks, again like heteromorphs. Things were put in place for those with extra limbs, or animal-like features, although there was a lot of discrimination still for these individuals. Quirks weren’t merely just biological abilities anymore either, they were something individuals could associate with family, identity, occupations, personalities, social statuses, and even individual expressions. This demonstrates just how much Quirks became deeply integrated into humanity.
There was also a development of institutions designed specifically around a Quirk-filled society. Schools adapted to Quirk users, medical professionals specialised in different Quirk-related issues, government departments were developed, public safety and organisations changed, and of course, eventually professional heroes began to rise. Humanity didn’t simply learn how to live with these new powers. It instead eventually built its civilization around them.
Conclusion
The Age of Quirks was a defining period in the history of humanity, changing a world that once had been without superhuman powers into a world where Quirks became completely normal. Their emergence made people’s understanding of what it meant to be human difficult and created situations that society had never needed to deal with before.
At first, there was uncertainty revolving around these new abilities. People had to experience unexpected manifestations, accidents, fear and conflict without beginning to fully understand how to respond. As Quirks became more common, humanity gradually adjusted and began developing new ways to manage a population with such a wide range of abilities. This transformation eventually affected almost every part of society. Quirks became connected to people’s physical characteristics, families, education, work and everyday lives. They weren’t viewed as unusual abilities, but as an ordinary characteristic of the human population.
The world that exists within My Hero Academia is the result of this long process of adaptation. The Age of Quirks established the foundation for modern Quirk society, making the situations that would eventually change the world’s laws, institutions, culture, and relationship with superhuman abilities. It was the beginning of a new era of human history, one in which the extraordinary had become ordinary.
References ~
- Episode 33, Season 2 My Hero Academia Anime
- Chapter 59, Volume 7 My Hero Academia Manga
- Quirk | My Hero Academia Wiki | Fandom
- Luminescent Baby | Quirk Wiki | Fandom
- Luminescent Baby | My Hero Academia Wiki | Fandom
- Yoichi Shigaraki: The Hidden Story of All for One’s Brother and the Birth of One for All | Oreate AI Guides
- All For One/Relationships | My Hero Academia Wiki | Fandom
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