Strongest & Most Powerful Fictional Characters Of All Time (Ranked)

If there is one thing I am certain of in this world other than taxes and death, it would be the fact that people will never come to an agreement about who is the most powerful fictional character of all time. It is a debate that never ends and always spawns more arguments about what it really means to be the most powerful. Is it physical strength or the energy possessed or the influence over sentient life?

I will not open that can of worms because I’ve seen where it leads. Instead, for the purpose of this article, I will give my definition of what a fictional character needs to satisfy to be considered the most powerful being. 

For any fictional character to be considered the most powerful character, the character must stand above everything, including existence and nonexistence, possibility, causality, dualism, and the concepts of life and death, among many others. However, one concept I will try to steer clear of is Omnipotence as omnipotent characters can literally do anything as they are considered the be-all and end-all of characters and most of the time, God.

Attempting to prove a character is omnipotent is impossible because, by definition, omnipotence is boundless and absolute, therefore posing a paradox of whether an omnipotent being can achieve an impossible feat since impossibility is absolute. As you can see, this easily spirals into a philosophical debate.

Therefore, to make everything easier to understand and justify, I will use the term ‘Nigh-Omnipotence’ and its meaning will be the character being the absolute being within the universe they are set in. With that in mind, here is the ranking of the strongest and most powerful fictional characters of all time.

Disclaimer: I am also steering clear of religious entities such as The Biblical God Yahweh due to obvious reasons.

10. The One Above All

Verse: Marvel Multiverse

Also known as Above All Others, The One Above All (often abbreviated as TOAA on forums) is the supreme being and progenitor of all existence, of all universes, of all abstract entities and characters within the Marvel Multiverse. His power is absolute, for he is the creator and supreme god of all that exists. Represented as the almighty, there is nothing that can defeat One Above All, even if it uses all its maximum power.

The One Above All has stated that its only weapon is love, which was additionally remarked by the Watcher. The One Above All is the origin of all that is good and is a being of boundless compassion and light. The One Above All prefers to observe and experience its creation through many eyes, though it has occasionally interacted directly with mortals through distinct guises.

While the One Above All rarely meddles with the affairs of mortals as it desires for them to create their own destinies, it has subtly aided them in times of need and offered an opportunity for them to help themselves and others during dark times. It treasures and cares for all of its creations and while it may be disappointed and feel sympathy towards those who follow a dark path, it will always offer a way for anyone to move out of the darkness.

9. Mother Of Existence

Verse: Spawn Multiverse

Also known as Man of Miracles or The Creator, Mother of Existence is the supreme being and progenitor of all existence, of all universes, of all abstract entities and characters within the Spawn/Image Comics verse. An ageless being of virtually incomprehensible and boundless power, Mother of Existence is the architect behind most of the events in the Spawn universe. Their true form is as the Mother of Existence, though they are neither female nor male, they are able to cast an illusion to make themselves look male if the circumstances require.

Known as Mother to their children, of which there are more than there are numbers, Mother of Existence gave each of their infinite children a world to command as they wished; God and Satan were both given Earth. God and Satan regularly squabbled and clashed to the point where they declared war on one another.

Mankind, being created by God from the energy of Mother of Existence, but offered free will by Satan, became special, and Mother of Existence immediately fell in love with them and chose to act on their behalf, rather than let their children use them as indispensable collateral in their war. Mother of Existence stripped God and Satan of their domains and made them sleep in a forgotten corner of the universe.

8. The Presence

Verse: DC Comics Multiverse

The Presence is the supreme being and progenitor of all existence, of all universes, of all abstract entities and characters within the DC Comics Multiverse. Often illustrated as a fictionalized replication of Yahweh, the God of the Abrahamic religions; he is frequently conveyed with Christian attributes.

However, the religious cosmology of the DC Comics multiverse is intricate, with many pantheons of gods co-existing alongside each other. It incorporates elements from numerous religions, mythologies, and modern concepts such as the Endless (a rather dysfunctional family of seven siblings who each portray an element of life: Dream, Death, Destiny, Despair, Desire, Delirium, and Destruction.)

Although his power is practically unparalleled, he seldom interferes in the affairs of mortals directly and chooses to act through agents and aspects of himself, such as The Spectre. He is also the father of Lucifer Morningstar and Michael Demiurgos. Though the Presence said he was shaped by external forces, it’s a common misinterpretation because he was referring to the writers of the DC Comics.

7. Yog-Sothoth

Verse: Cthulhu Mythos

The Cthulhu Mythos is one of the most intricate and brilliantly fleshed-out worlds of fiction that encompasses the shared elements, characters, settings, and themes found in the works of dark fantasy author, H.P. Lovecraft. A remarkably powerful verse, the Cthulhu Mythos is widely regarded as one of the strongest verses in fiction.

And now enter Yog-Sothoth, a cosmic entity, and Outer God, born of the Nameless Mist, and the progenitor of Cthulhu, Hastur the Unspeakable and the ancestor of the Voormi. Yog-Sothoth is the supreme ruler of all the multiverses, with some describing him to be made of billions of realities and universes because clearly, he is the multiverse itself.

For he is one of the mightiest and wisest there is; none can disobey his will, not even other overdeities. He can take any form he so chooses, although he consistently selects a form incomprehensible to even other outer gods. He often endows favors to those who entertain him, and these favors are often able to transform an ignoble mite into an incredibly powerful overdeity.

6. SCP-3812

Verse: SCP Foundation

SCP-3812 is a reality-altering entity. Due to SCP-3812’s latent impact on reality, it is practically impossible to define SCP-3812 in any meaningful way. All that is known about SCP-3812 is that it was once Sam Howell, a non-anomalous African-American human being, who was assumed to have died in 1996. 

Sometime shortly after its death, SCP-3812 was reported to rise out of its grave and vanish. SCP-3812 was brought to the Foundation’s awareness after its presence resulted in the demolition of an apartment building in Warsaw, Poland. Due to its irregular capabilities, SCP-3812’s appearance varies enormously, making it exceedingly difficult to track.

SCP-3812 demonstrates vast, reality-altering capabilities, although they are associated with severe mental problems; one of which includes an extremely advanced Eigenmann-Veitor schizophrenia complex. It is not known how SCP-3812 obtained its current abilities, but a message acquired by Foundation Overwatch Command on a secure server suggests that it was created by an entity native to a higher “narrative”, who created the lower narrative SCP-3812 inhabited and attempted to make it supersede everything that supersedes it, causing SCP-3812 to enter into a state of constant ascension throughout the countless layers of reality.

5. Kami Tenchi

Verse: Tenchi Muyo!

Kami Tenchi is the supreme being within the Tenchi Muyo! Continuity. He’s a transcendent entity that is unfathomable and absolutely boundless, an existence to the Choushin (who are already transcendent in relation to dimensions, nonexistence, logic, and any scientific theories) as they are beyond the comprehension of ordinary beings.

Kami Tenchi created the Tenchi Muyo! Multiverse and designed its rules and created the Chousins, powerful Gods in their own right, to govern the multiverse. He soon became bored with his reality, as nothing exciting ever happened to him. He decided to be born and reborn as Avatars so that he could enjoy life and all the excitement it brings.

4. Eru Ilúvatar

Verse: The Tolkien Universe

Widely regarded as one of the greatest works of literary fiction, Tolkien’s works are rife with awe-inspiring world-building, characters, and storylines. Its author, J.R.R Tolkien, is regarded as the greatest fiction writer of all time, and it is quite clear to see once you have read his books.

Eru Ilúvatar is the creator of the existence of Tolkien’s universe. Eru Ilúvatar was transcendent, completely outside and beyond the world. Before creation was begun, he already existed and created the Ainur with his thoughts and taught them music

He is also known as the All-Powerful, and he alone could create independent life, or reality, using the “Flame Imperishable”. He has entrusted most of his work on Eä to the Ainur, including the molding of Arda itself. As Eru Ilúvatar and the Valar created the world, one of the Valar, Melkor (later known as Morgoth) led an uprising against Eru Ilúvatar and attempted to destroy Eä and corrupt its inhabitants to his goals using multiple ways.

In the First Age, Eru Ilúvatar created and breathed life into Elves as well as Men. In the Second Age, Eru Ilúvatar buried King Ar-Pharazon and his Army when they landed at Aman in S.A. 3319. He caused Arda to assume a round shape, drowned Numenor, and caused the Undying Lands to be taken outside the spheres of Arda.

Eru Ilúvatar interceded twice in the Third Age: when Gandalf died in the battle with Balrog in The Fellowship of the Ring, it was beyond the power of the Valar to revive him; Eru Ilúvatar himself intervened to send Gandalf back, and when Gollum finally stole back the One Ring from Frodo, it was by his intervention that he made Gollum trip and fall into the flames of Mount Doom.

Eru Ilúvatar is the closest depiction of a true God because there are no other beings in his universe that pre-date him and his power isn’t based on belief, it simply is. It reflects legitimate real-world religious views on the Abrahamic Yahweh God more than the Yahweh of DC Comics.

3. The Amaranth

Verse: The Elder Scrolls Verse

Also known as The Godhead or simply God, The Amaranth is the supreme, foremost being that lies beyond the edges of existence, dreaming of all the Aurbis. Less of a being, and more of an abstract force, the Amaranth is the Final Subgradience, the infinite state of pure freedom and unity, the death of all limitations and constraints attained when two Ruling Kings of the Aurbis enter a state of sensory deprivation, destroying the underlying concepts of Duality and Selfhood which seemingly unbind them and dissolving into a single, unified whole.

The Amaranth of the Current Dream, then, is ANU, whose tortured, broken mind gave birth to a fractured prison of suffering, built upon a lattice of corpses and soaked in the blood of ancestors. It is the quintessential force of order and stability, with all possibility, shape, and definition being born from its intertwining with Padomay, which acts as the primordial chaotic force.

2. The Creator

Verse: Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

The Creator is the supreme being that stands beyond all limitations, including that of one’s meaning and will, as the endless sea of zero. It’s the ultimate state of being a Witch ascends to as it evolves through the infinite layers of the Witch and 3rd Domain, relinquishing restrictions with every step, and attaining freedom as it ascends towards godhood.

The Creator is a hallowed being who can create 1 out of the sea of the void. It can give birth to 1 from 0, give birth to the infinite, and then return it to 0 again in a flash. Freed from all limitations, the voyagers in particular even call him God.

1. Azathoth The Blind Idiot-God

Verse: Cthulhu Mythos

Azathoth is the supreme being in Cthulhu Mythos, creator of all existence, governor of the outer chaos that serves as the dwelling place of the all-powerful Ultimate Gods, and primordial architect of all things, who resides on a black throne at the center of the Abyss, from which he oversees all of time and space, lying in an apparently dormant state while his subjects mindlessly dance around it.

According to the Cthulhu Mythos, all existence is simply his dream, nothing more. If he were to wake, then atoms, plants, animals, humans, Cthulhu, The Ultimate Gods, Nyarlathotep, Shub-Niggurath, and even Yog-Sothoth will completely disappear and be forgotten, just like when you wake up and can’t remember that dream you had.