Tágma Thanátou

> "*Welcome, T.H.A.N.E., to the **Tágma Thanátou,** our tailor-made purification squad. Here, you will learn to become a predator like the rest of us, or be consumed like the profligates in the camps. Aw, get that stupid expression off your face. Once your **Conversion** is complete, you won't mind being among the apex of the food chain. Hell, you might even **enjoy** it. **Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.***"
> ― Lupus Mortis
>
>

The **Tágma Thanátou** were the paramilitary death squads of the Bloon Regime that enacted brutal mass killings across Bloon-controlled territory, notably Terra Bloonus. They were first used to butcher the Bottolmen population which the Regime had conquered, eventually bringing the former to total extinction, before swiftly moving to slaughter Empath Bloons, prisoners of war, and other people labeled "undesirable" by the parent organization. They were also used as hit-squads to assassinate high-priority enemy combatants.

## Formation

### Operatio: Praetorridus Lagenam (Operation: Burning Bottle)

The Tágma Thanátou first surfaced after the Bloons achieved global domination of the planet soon to be named Terra Bloonus. Their objective was to slaughter Bottolmen deemed "undesirable" for labor through horrific mass executions. Eventually, the Regime ended up deeming every Bottolman as the targets, and the Tágma Thanátou subsequently wiped them all out forever. The killing operation was named Operatio: Praetorridus Lagenam, Latin for "Operation: Burning Bottle."

### Operatio: Confortentur Eugenics (Operation: Strength Through Eugenics)

Next was Operatio: Confortentur Eugenics (Latin for Operation: Strength Through Eugenics), in which the Thanátou would round up Empath Bloons who could not be fully Converted (Bloonian jargon for "brainwashed into a mass killer") and exterminate them via mass shootings or other means. The operation was eventually merged with the grand plan of the Bloon Regime, the infamous ***Explicatus Ultima, the Final Solution.***

### Explicatus Ultima (Final Solution)

Once the E.M.P.E.R.O.R. and his Bloon Regime were finally ready to reach across the universe and exterminate their greatest enemy and antithesis, the Monkey Empire, they enacted the ***Explicatus Ultima,*** their master plan for the annihilation of all inferior races. As the Bloon Regime's forces approached the Monkey World, the Thanátou and the Vigilum followed their trails, and were responsible for ferrying Monkey prisoners of war towards Terra Bloonus, many journeys which would be the last for the unfortunate victims. Those deemed worthy for labor were placed in the concentration camps on Terra Bloonus, while the ones marked for death were shipped to the death camps. Many would often be shot on the spot, gassed to death within the transports, or otherwise murdered by Thanátou officers during the journey. Others would kill them much more slowly, through torture or rape, or otherwise something related to abject pain and suffering on the way to the camps, and by the time they arrived the victims in question would either be dead or begging for death. Later on as their attack on Monkey World progressed, the Vigilum and the Thanátou would also construct camps on Monkey World soil in Bloon-conquered territories, where they would enact further executions until the camps in question were liberated by Alpha Team, the Monkey Empire's elite special forces group.

#### Operatio: Saepti Ferarum Occisio (Operation: Zoo Killing)

After the liberation of Boston from the Thanátou and the Bloon Regime's forces, the Regime put a hit on the Alpha Team members (e.g. Quincy, Gwendolin), marking them for death. For the remainder of the conflict between the Monkey Empire and the Bloon Regime, Tágma Thanátou assassin groups would hunt down the members of Alpha Team in an attempt to eliminate them. They ultimately failed in their objective, as by 184 ABO the target team and the Empire had launched a counterattack on Terra Bloonus, repeatedly fending off the attacks while blowing up the major headquarters and members of Bloon Regime parties, thus beginning to dismantle the Thanátou.

### Collapse

The Monkey Empire and its' allied parties swept through Terra Bloonus, smashing through their defenses and forces one by one. Alpha Team defeated the Bloon Kult and most other members of the High Command, further depriving the Thanátou's source of leadership. Eventually, Alpha Team had reached the TOTiverse MEMOIR, where Lord T.H.A.N.O.S. resided, and destroyed the latter in a huge battle, followed by the defeat of the Ultimate Inflator Bloonarius X, and finally the death of E.M.P.E.R.O.R. Himself. With the last pivotal foundation of the Regime hierarchy destroyed, the Thanátou utterly collapsed along with the rest of the Regime. The 7th Monkey-Bloon War ended in a decisive victory for the Monkey Empire, and the remainders of the Thanátou went on the run. The hunters became the hunted as Thanátou members were chased down by Alpha Team and other Monkey Empire special forces parties in order to get them to stand trial for their unspeakable war crimes. At that day, the Thanátou as an organization disappeared from the galaxy forever, as do all tyrants eventually.

## Organizational Structure

The Thanátou work with the Bloonian secret police, the Secretum Vigilum, to ferry the victims into camps or remote locations, and murder them all in many atrocious ways. The Thanátou are supervised and led by a *Lanius,* an individual selected by a High Command member or the Emperor Himself to organize and oversee the killing operations.

## NPC Variants (BTD7PotA)

NPC members of the Tágma Thanátou will spawn on Terra Bloonus, and are immutably hostile to the player and his/her associates. They can often be found in and around Bloonian internment and death camps, as well as remote forests herding captured civilian Monkeys to their deaths.

### Tágma Thanátou *Sub-Lanius*

The strongest unnamed Tágma Thanátou NPC. *Sub-Lanii* are direct right-hand Bloons of the *Lanius,* the head of the organization.

### *Lanius* Caedemicus

*Lanius* Caedemicus (Caedemicus is derived from the Latin word *Caedem,* for "Massacre") is the current *Lanius* of the Tágma Thanátou during BTD7PotA. He's considered the Boss Bloon of all the Thanátou NPCs.