| “ | You think I'm a monster. I'm jello shots at a party. I just remove inhibitions. | ” |
— War, speaking to Sam
in Good God Y'all | ||
War, also known as the Red Horseman, is an extremely powerful entity and one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, embodying conflict and strife amongst humans. War is affiliated with his brothers Famine, Pestilence and Death. He appears to be the third oldest. Due to the times and technology, War travels in a red Mustang which represents his red steed. He manifests by mimicking a human named Roger.
Physical Appearance
War had no physical form until he mimicked the human Roger.
Personality
War is deceitful and highly intelligent. He likes to cause chaos indirectly from the shadows, manipulating humans with their own emotions and letting them take care of the rest. He is also shown to be a very good actor, able to fool everyone into thinking he really was Roger.
War also has a very negative view of humans, seeing them as naturally vicious and not requiring a reason to fight and kill. Much like Famine, War believes only a little push is needed to cause people to murder. He is also somewhat sadistic, as he enjoys watching them kill each other.
He seems to have a good relationship with his siblings, as he describes them as having a lot of fun together.
War seems to be free-roamed, unlike his brothers, who are involved with Lucifer, and is therefore likely not spell-bound or at least, like his brother Death, able to resist the spell to an extent.
Powers and Abilities
As a Horseman, War is an extremely powerful being, possessing a great amount of natural power. However, as a Horseman, he requires his ring to focus his powers.
- Indestructibility – War himself, as a Horseman, cannot be physically destroyed.
- Immortality – War cannot die by anything unless the concept that he represents is removed entirely.
- Illusion Casting - War could create illusions and hallucinations, which drove people to violence.
- Induced Hallucination - War can manipulate reality, and even affect how people smell, hear and see him and others. This power has a radius large enough to affect an entire town.
- Cosmic Awareness - As a horseman, War possesses an incredible amount of knowledge and understanding of the universe and its workings, although his knowledge is vastly inferior to Death's. He can understand concepts, such as War, the Apocalypse and human nature. Through the same trait, War is an expert manipulator, able create mass panic with barely any input from him.
- Teleportation – War can go anywhere he chooses in the universe.
- Electrokinesis - War can make electronic devices go hooey, disabling all forms of electronic communication in a town.
- Super strength - War can exert extreme levels of tremendous physical force as he smashed a bridge in half.
- Super stamina - War requires nothing to keep him going.
- Telepathy - Like his brother Famine, War could read peoples' minds and thoughts. However, unlike his brother, he did not require contact to do this, he just needed to look at them.
- Invisibility - As a Horseman, War is naturally invisible and can only be seen if he wants others to see him.
- Shapeshifting- War can alter his form at will.
Weaknesses
Though literally nothing in existence can kill or destroy War if his attribute still exists, he has some weaknesses. It's unknown how War and angelic beings would fare against each other.
- Ring Removal - Without his ring, his corporeal form loses all its powers, except for teleportation.
- Physical objects - Anything serrated or jagged, or for that matter anything that can be implemented into a weapon, that can be used to pierce can inflict pain upon War's physical form. His physical body can be pierced and penetrated identically to how humans sustain infliction.
- God - While even God can't kill him, God can do absolutely anything else to War.
History
Early history
In 1914 and 1939, War was in Germany presumably for the First World War and Second World War. In recent times, War stayed in the Middle East. He was in Sudan before Lucifer summoned him.War is indirectly summoned/triggered by Lucifer's release from the Cage. Appearing on Earth, he assumes human form. He causes great catastrophe and chaos in a small town.
Good God, Y'all
When War, the Red Horseman touches down, he disables a town bridge, preventing its citizens from leaving. He pollutes a river. He kills Roger, buries him in a ditch, and mimicks his form. During this situation, Rufus calls a wheelchair-bound Bobby Singer for help, stating that demons have infested the entire town. Unable to go himself, Bobby deploys Dean and Sam instead. Upon investigating, Dean and Sam run into Ellen, and she takes them to a safe haven in a small church, where multiple innocent bystanders lay low. Ellen informs them that Jo and Rufus have been captured and that Jo is most likely being possessed by a demon. Sam decides to accompany Ellen in searching for Jo, while Dean stays behind to protect the people.
Soon after leaving the church, Ellen and Sam find a nest of demons, although Sam is drawn back to find that they have a fire going - "demons don't get cold". They prepare to enter but are stopped by Rufus and Jo. They fight each other and Sam gets taken, forcing Ellen to retreat.
Tied and gagged, Sam wakes up to find that Rufus and Jo have black eyes but, to them, so does Sam. Rufus spills Holy Water on Sam but nothing happens, so he forces salt down his mouth but still nothing happens. Back at the church, the survivors prepare for a fight by gathering and setting up ammo and weapons. Dean and Ellen talk about what happened.
Back at the hideout, a man in glasses approaches Sam. Sam soon learns that the man isn't human but War, the Red Horseman. They talk and War turns his ring and screams, alerting Rufus and Jo, who knock Sam out. Back at the church, Dean deduces that the conflict isn't demon-orientated but that War is behind it all. Everyone leaves to go fight each other and Dean and Ellen go to the hideout. Dean fights Rufus, convinces him that War is here and releases Sam. Jo learns the same from Ellen.
War's defeat.
Later, Dean and Sam ambush War as he's walking to his car and grab him. War taunts them, saying they can't kill War. Sam, however, pulls out Ruby's Knife and slices off four of the fingers in War's right hand, including the one with his ring. War and his car vanish and hasn't appeared on the show since. Brady would later describe him as a "withered husk" without his ring, and that even if the the ring were to be returned, War would still not recover.
Appearances
- Season 5
- Good God, Y'all
- The Devil You Know (Mentioned only)