Hotherus

## Spoilers

Høtherus was an Icelandic scientist. He was born Saxo Valdemar in Reykjavik in 2169. Born with a cleft palate, his parents were arrested for child abuse for failing to have his deformity erased in the womb. While they were in jail he was raised by a man named Hamlet, who renamed him Høtherus. Hamlet abused him until his parents were freed and deemed ready to raise him. Though his facial deformity had been mostly hidden his voice was still affected and his facial nerves degenerated due to the procedure, leaving him very unusual in appearance.

He vowed to enter medical science to improve the techniques that had left him partly paralyzed. He excelled beyond measure and passed his adulthood tests at the age of 11, and in his eight years of apprentice education, he achieved seven four year degrees and international fame. Then he began his work. Among Høtherus's first inventions was the genetic sequencing of a living computer memory core, the phospholipid polarity drive, which he completed at the age of 19. After that he invented the advanced growth field at 22. He then improved net link technology, designed a better analgia field, and designed the first organics.

For a time, he dated Jay Ajayjay, one of the worlds most popular models. Their relationship was said to be unhealthy at best. Their breakup was publicly broadcast as part of the reality show, "Jay's Boudoir." Shortly after, to the horror of his many remaining loyal fans, he began designing weapons. The living nuclear trigger. The rapid mutagenic beam, which could reduce an enemy to a mindless mass of agony. Høtherus considered this the ultimate weapon for a time. Then UNEGA and GAUNE banned his research. They confiscated his works and unfinished patents and illegally developed them further without crediting or paying him.

In seclusion, he created a new wife. It lacked a brain, eyes or teeth. It was only a creature of raw sexual instinct that matched his increasingly surrealist fetishes. When word got out, nobody cared that he had in fact created the first fully artificial human being, they cremated the beast and banned Høtherus from ever touching another genetic sequencer, and confined him to his house. They did not know what mechanics he had in his basement.

Brilliant geneticist Haring Koeller joined him at his home in 2202. Together in secret they created a harem of wife monsters and then a horde of monstrous abominations that terrorized Iceland. One of them devoured Jay Ajayjay live on the net. Høtherus was taken into custody and hidden from the public as his monsters were destroyed by, the Icelandic police and among others, Balder. Koeller went missing around the same time.

In government custody, Høtherus had in fact turned Koeller into "Koeller's Gravy," the core of the wave bomb, his final masterpiece. A mutagenic bomb that turned everyone in its limitless radius into unpredictable monstrosities, zombies, or masses of pained goop. Høtherus was executed shortly after his magnum opus was created.

## Behind the Scenes

Høtherus is the Danish name of Hothr, the blind god who kills Balder in Norse myth. This role in the Valhalla series is taken by Weather.

The Danish name however suggests a Danish reading of the story, that of Saxo Grammaticus (Who Høtherus's real name comes from), who portrayed Høtherus as fighting Balder for the love of Nanna. In the Valhalla series, Høtherus takes his name merely from having fought against Balder, and then only by proxy. All other elements were excised or given to Weather.