| “ | And Othala over there, she’s still head over heels for you. It’ll kill her when you betray her. You’re not saying all this to fuck with me. You’re fucking with her. |
” |
—Tattletale and Victor, Colony 15.3 | ||
Othala was a teenage[2] member of the Empire Eighty-Eight.
Appearance[]
Othala wore a skintight red bodysuit[2] with an icon based on the Odal rune in the center in black. She also wore an eyepatch with the same icon in white on it, although her hair usually covered it so that it wasn't obvious.[11]
Abilities and Powers[]
Othala had the ability to grant any one of several temporary superpowers to people she touched. However, she couldn't grant any of these powers to herself, and she could only grant one power at a time per person.[12]
Among the powers she could grant were pyrokinesis[13], invincibility,[14] regeneration,[12] flight,[15][16] super-speed, and augmented strength.[16] The invincibility she granted allowed the target to stand unmoved in the face of a punch from Leviathan, an Endbringer.[14] The regeneration required conscious effort from the user to activate,[17][18] and it was slower on some body parts than others.[19]
Othala's power was limited to one person at a time. The duration it lasted after she let go depended on the power, ranging from ~30 seconds to 2 minutes, with powers that "bend reality more" tending to "burn out" faster, in terms of duration.[20][17]
History[]
Background[]
Was at a meeting with her extended family when they were attacked. Panicking, she triggered and gained her powers.[8]
Married to Victor after her cousin - his original fiance - died.[5]
Story Start[]
Fought New Wave alongside Krieg, Victor, and Alabaster.[21]
Participated in the Battle against Leviathan.[14]
Post-Leviathan[]
With the dissolution of the Empire, Othala joined Hookwolf's Chosen. She granted Stormtiger regeneration for a half-hour each night after his knees were shot out, although they were slow to heal.[19]
Attended the Truce meeting when deciding what to do with the city's new guests.[13]
She took part in the Chosen's attack on the Slaughterhouse 9's base. The team retreated when the 9's building became shrouded in darkness.[22]
Post-Slaughterhouse Nine[]
She was ambushed with the rest of her team by the Undersiders.
Gold Morning[]
She was killed in the final battle of Gold Morning alongside a number of capes including Trickster and Ash Beast.[15]
Chapter Appearances[]
References[]
- ↑ “Easily possible. But there’s two other possibilities. It could be that I’m not lying to myself. Let’s not forget that. Another possibility is that it really is just me lying to myself, but that lie will become truth over time. People all over this city feign confidence, and that becomes something concrete. You can become the mask you wear on a day-to-day basis.”
Something about that bothered me. I spoke for the first time since Tattletale had declared her intentions. “Seems kind of hollow.”
“Because it’s not a fairytale romance? It’s not. But I’ll tell you I enjoy her company, I trust her, I respect her, and I’m even attracted to her. We’ve got a foundation, bug girl. There’s nothing forcing us to stay together anymore. Empire Eighty-Eight is gone. We’re a pair because we want to be. Right, O?”
“Right,” Othala’s voice was quiet. She’d pulled herself up onto her hands and knees. She glared up at Imp, then looked down. - Excerpt from Colony 15.3 - ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Othala – A teenaged white supremacist supervillain, she wears a red bodysuit with a rune prominently displayed on her chest. Frequently pairs with Victor, using her power to grant others temporary superpowers with a touch. - Cast (spoiler free)
- ↑ Rune – The youngest member of Empire Eighty-Eight at present, a teenage girl, Rune can touch an object to attune to it, after which point she has the ability to telekinetically manipulate it. These objects can weigh several tons each. Rune wears a robe in black and red. - Cast (in depth)
- ↑ A man I didn’t recognize or know, older, put his hands on young Victor’s shoulders. Two girls roughly his age approached, one of them with a smudge of blood around one nostril, a bloody handprint on her shoulder. Too old to be Rune. Wrong face shape to be Othala.
Maybe the younger girl was Othala. Maybe she came in later. - Infrared 19.2 - ↑ 5.0 5.1 “Not quite, huh? It wasn’t your dad. You were on your own, a lost soul recruited by a big, proud family. Proved yourself, and you were told you’d earn a proper place in Kaiser’s Empire if you married in, so to speak. Not an arranged marriage in the strictest sense, but the idea was that you’d date one of the lieutenant’s girls and marry eventually. Except it wasn’t her you were supposed to date. Her sister?”
“Cousin,” Victor spat the word, “I’m getting tired of hearing you fumble your way to answers. It was her cousin.”
“There we go. Something happened to the cousin. So you two got paired together instead. And you two work so well together, it’s a kind of kismet. Only there’s a little heartbreak on both sides.” - Excerpt from Colony 15.3 - ↑ I couldn’t think of two capes who were in a committed relationship where there wasn’t some degree of fucked-up-ness. Night and Fog were, if I’d understood Tattletale right, essentially functional sociopaths. They’d acted out the role of a married couple with none of the affection or fondness. Victor and Othala were screwed up in a different way, burdened by a shared event in their past. Brandish and Flashbang? If their kids were any indication… yeah. Fucked up. - Colony 15.4
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Rune is a tertiary member of Othala's family - the which is part of a group that's informally known as 'the clan', or the Herren Clan. Second cousin to Othala, really.
[...]
The Herren Clan wants to be a serious organization, but isn't quite there. Every person they can commit to a more serious group like Kaiser, though, gives them more legitimacy and support, and pushes them toward being a stronger organization.
This creates a sort of friction within the group that has some people trying to be organized, and others pushing for more reckless violence and conflict in hopes of getting more triggers or just being seen as 'good soldiers.' Lots of talk of 'old ways', with meetings called 'moots', among other things. Other supremacist groups can join the clan through marriage, but breaking in seriously is hard, requiring years of membership, marriage to solidify the deal, having children and getting them involved, and proving one's own worth. This makes it hard for undercovers to break in. Given the number of warring minor factions, the effect drives a lot of recruitment - one family might well want to reach out to guys further south or west to bulk up their own forces and better push their own agendas. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles - ↑ 8.0 8.1 The question is essentially, 'What part of the Trump's trigger event determines the nuances of the resulting power?'
[...]
Othala's power grants powers. It does so by means of a striker venue (touch) and it's a positive relationship. She was being supported by a variety of powers when she triggered due to a pointed and immediate, in-her-face physical threat. The clan was attacked, possibly during a moot, a big meeting of multiple branches of the family/organization. Someone came after her, and despite everything, all the power around her, fighting off the other enemies, this guy wasn't stopped. He had a weapon or grabbed her and scared her. Good enough for a second generation trigger. I imagine that after that point, during the usual 'trigger visions' blackout, that someone (an unpowered Victor?) knocked out the assailant. - Othala's Trigger event - ↑ Two/Seven: Othala - Detail Generator - Trump, spreadsheet by Wildbow.
- ↑ There -can- be very few people with healing abilities. Bonesaw, Scapegoat, Panacea. Others with niches (neurology only, or cardiac systems only), others still with limited capacity (Othala with the ability to grant regeneration).
That’s setting-relevant and a reality when healing is actually something monumentally complex. - Comment by Wildbow on Cell 22.4 - ↑ The color scheme extended to Othala, who wore something decidedly more traditional as superhero costumes went. Her bodysuit was skintight and tomato red, with a single icon in the center. Like the swastika, it featured a circle with a black border and white center, and a rune in black. It wasn’t a swastika, though, but a diamond with two legs extending from the bottom point, each turning up at the bottom. She’d taken to wearing an eyepatch with the same icon on it in white. Her hair covered enough of that side of her face that it wasn’t obvious.
She couldn’t heal herself, of course. She granted powers to others. There would be no other reason for her to be kneeling in the water, bleeding from a hundred papercut-thin lacerations. - Excerpt from Colony 15.3 - ↑ 12.0 12.1 He tended to pair up with Othala, the girl who could grant powers, meaning Victor also had super speed, super strength or invincibility. If he was wounded, she could give him regeneration instead.
But her power demanded that she touch whoever she was using it on, and it limited her to granting one power at a time. If he had invincibility, it meant he didn’t have super strength, pyrokinesis or any of that. - Colony 15.2 - ↑ 13.0 13.1 Plague 12.2
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Someone stepped up to grab him mid-lunge – some woman I didn’t recognize, who Othala was touching. She was granting this woman some form of invincibility that let her take a hit and not get knocked away by Leviathan. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.3
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Speck 30.5
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Othala – Can grant powers with a touch, drawing them from a limited, rather basic subset, including enhanced speed, strength, invincibility and flight. Othala wears a red bodysuit with a rune at the chest. - Cast (in depth)
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 He touched my hand, held it between his own. I could feel something thrumming through me, willing me to take hold of it.
It took me a minute to figure out how. The exposed bone of my forehead itched, then sang in an exquisite agony as it mended. My skin was next. My seized up muscles were last. My power was last to mend, and I regained my control, though the diminished effect continued. - Excerpt from Snare 13.9 - ↑ “So the healing?”
“Othala. I was so worried she’d escape my darkness before I finished giving you guys regeneration. I couldn’t just use her power on each of you, because it was only lasting a few seconds after I touched you.” - Excerpt from Snare 13.10 - ↑ 19.0 19.1 - Excerpt from Interlude 11e
- ↑ One person at a time. The duration depends on the power, ranging from ~30 seconds to 2 minutes. Powers that bend reality more tend to burn out faster in terms of duration and all that. - Private email conversation with Wildbow, archived on Spacebattles
- ↑ Buzz 7.9
- ↑ Snare 13.9
[]
| Leader | Allfather † • Kaiser † |
|---|---|
| Leiutenants | Hookwolf ‡ • Krieg ‡ • Purity ‡ |
| Members | Alabaster † • Cricket ‡ • Crusader ‡ • Fenja † • Fog ‡ • Heith Anders † • Iron Rain † • Menja ‡ • Night ‡ • Othala ‡ • Rune ‡ • Stormtiger ‡ • Victor ‡ |
| Associates | Aster Anders † • Theo Anders ‡ |
| Leader | Hookwolf ‡ • Menja |
|---|---|
| Members | Cricket • Muspelheim • Niflheim • Othala • Rune • Stormtiger • Victor |