Dr. Mahrkus Vohn Houtyn

**Dr. Mahrkus Vohn Houtyn,** is a Aularan virologist, a primary developer of the Pyskel-Phage and a co-founder of the Kahltehk Syndicate.

## Biography

### Early life

The young Mahrkus, then simply the Lord Houtyn, developed a fascination with eugenics while growing up and associated with circles consisting of influential figures in virology such as Dr. Wilhelm Kahlbach, and Dr. Ophylia Hahgmen. Houtyn, Kahlbach and Hahgmen in particular grew interested in Lunar Rose during the 77th millennium. A Rosaceae hailing from the world of TZ-08, the Lunar Rose was central to the religion of the xenos that lived on the world, according to Izahk Röhr's 64th millennium work, the *Natural History Codices*. Kahlbach and Hahgmen hypothesized that a mutagenic virus produced by the Roses was responsible for granting its consumers the superhuman powers Röhr detailed, and the two set off to recover the Rose. The recovered Roses indeed contained a virus, which the hypothesized virus was indeed discovered in.

Houtyn, Hahgmen and Kahlbach shared the ideals of using the Precursor Strain for the eugenics movement and create a generation of educated superhumans that would pioneer a new age. Unfortunately for the circle, Precursor was virtually useless in its natural state, as the number of people who could benefit from infection were almost non-existent. The strain would require a great deal of modification to ensure candidates for the program would not be killed. None in the circle, even with their connections to Kahltehk Industries, had such funding available, and consequently Kahlbach proposed they establish the Kahltehk Bio-technical subdivision that could raise funding. Mahrkus agreed to the proposal along with a reluctant Hahgmen.

Alongside pharmaceuticals, these three executives agreed to separate Precursor into a eugenics and a bioweapons project so profits would come from catering to The Aularan Lükhyt Military. This plan became known as the "Pyskel-Phage Project".

In competition for results, Houtyn, Hahgmen and Kahlbach went their separate ways and founded their own laboratories. By the mid-77th millennium Houtyn was working with his 3 sons, Al'xahnder, Yahnnick, and Ehrwyn, at a newly finished orbiting laboratory constructed out of an Archeotech void-forge. However, Yahnnick, and Ehrwyn's expertise would be in genetics and not virology, bringing fear to the four that should Mahrkus die prematurely the Houtyn influence over their new empire would cease to be. Mahrkus was left to work with Al'xahnder on their own while his other sons toyed with biological cloning for their own purposes.

### Death and legacy

In the later years of the 78th millennium, Mahrkus fell victim to an accident orchestrated by Kahlbach and died from Precursor Strain infection. And for the next 10 millennium, as the 3 brothers hid in self imposed cryo-stasis the Orbiting Base made no breakthroughs on their inherited mutant strains, while the Kahlbach and Hahgmen iterations of the "Pyskel-Phage" developed the ability to reanimate the dead to a devastating effect in the early 79th millennium.

Yahnnick's clone son, Cahsperion, upon his birth in the late 89th millennium, under the watchful gaze of caretakers began research on his fathers iteration of the Precursor again in the 89th millennium as a child prodigy. However, he himself quickly disappeared from public life after exposure to his own breed of the Pyskel-Phage, soon after hiding within his ancestors laboratory he uncovered the cry-pods that held the 3 sons of Dr. Vohn Houtyn. Cahsperion awakened the 3 from their self imposed exile as Cahsperion was in no position to continue his family's genetic research.

The three brothers would be awakened to an Empire that had forgotten them, and because of this deterioration in the family's power and prestige, the idea that the family had been cursed was formed. And in their rage the three brothers reawakened the laboratory, and vowed against the Kahltehk Syndicate.