Litarsas
Litarsas was a member of the Royal Companions, the guards who served under Queen Lydia on Catrigan Nova. However, after being infected with Cyber-nanotechnology from Lydia's "gauntlet" - the hand and forearm of an advanced Cyberman of the Cyber Legions - Litarsas was gradually upgraded into a Cyber-Leader, and led a small army of Cybermen in an attempt to upgrade all of Catrigan Nova and begin expanding the Cyber-race across the universe after their near-extinction at the end of the Cyber Wars of the 250th Millennium.
Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
Early stages of conversion[[edit] | [edit source]]
Many years after the destruction of the Tiberian Spiral galaxy at the end of the Cyber Wars of the 250th Millennium, (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters) after Seeker Sylen returned to Catrigan Nova with "the gauntlet" following several months of searching across the galaxy, Litarsas and a second Royal Companion presented the gauntlet to Queen Lydia in the Nova Palace. Lydia, curious as to how true the legends surrounding the gauntlet's abilities were, chose to test it on the armour on Litarsas' stomach; the gauntlet fused Litarsas' stomach armour with his body, and transformed said armour from gold to metal multi-layered plating. Although the process seemed to cause Litarsas extreme pain, he claimed afterwards that he felt completely fine, and medical scans confirmed that all of Litarsas' minor bodily weaknesses, such as his slightly higher blood cholesterol, had been corrected by the gauntlet. Unbeknownst to Litarsas, or anybody else in the Nova Palace, Litarsas had actually undergone a delayed form of cyber-conversion.
Within less than a week, Litarsas' conversion continued and granted him extreme strength. He became capable of running at nearly double the speed of Catrigan Nova's fastest athlete, could survive prolonged periods without food or water, could stay awake for days, and could lift more than three times his own body weight. Eventually, Litarsas' conversion led to him developing a blue power cell on his chest unit, identical to those of the advanced Cybermen of the Cyber Legions; this was titled the "Lamp of the Royal Champions". In addition, Litarsas suggested that the armour for the Royal Companions should no longer be comprised of gold, and he soon became the first person in Catrigan Nova's history to earn the title of Champion Commander. Through Litsaras, Queen Lydia became the first monarch in Catrigan Nova's history to focus on militaristic goals above the riches afforded by the planet's vast sources of gold.
The upgrade accelerates[[edit] | [edit source]]
Later, when he was summoned to Queen Lydia's bedroom to capture the Twelfth Doctor, who had broken into the Nova Palace in his long hunt for the gauntlet, at least one of Litarsas' arms had also been transformed from flesh to metal, allowing him and his two Royal Champions to easily apprehend the Doctor and take him to the palace dungeons; by this point, Litarsas also appeared to express almost no emotion of any kind.
As more of the Royal Companions were converted into Royal Champions, Litarsas oversaw the Champions' development of Cyber-ships and weaponry that the Champion Commander assured Queen Lydia was necessary to deter people from potentially stealing Catrigan Nova's gold. However, at the same time, Litarsas also advocated the planet's gold to be sold at such a high rate that the price of gold began falling in three quadrants, despite the Champion Commander's claims that such sales were necessary to finance the development of Catrigan Nova's new ships and weaponry.
Eventually, Litarsas' conversion accelerated to the point that almost his entire body had been upgraded; the only part of him that had yet to be converted was most of his head, although the Champion Commander had conspicuously developed a Cyber-helmet separate from his body, which he held while observing a Making Ceremony performed by Queen Lydia.
Rebirth and death as the Cyber-Leader[[edit] | [edit source]]
After accidentally partially converting her daughter, Mida, Queen Lydia chose to ally with the Doctor in order to stop Litarsas and the converted Royal Champions, who had begun plans for a Cyber-Fleet with new weapons, from upgrading Catrigan Nova any further. As part of the plan, Queen Lydia requested the aid of any of the original Royal Companions, as well as the Champions who had not yet volunteered for conversion, who were totally loyal to her, and not Litarsas. The next morning, after the Doctor reversed Mydia's partial conversion in the dungeons, the Royal Champions loyal to Litarsas, who at this point had completed their conversions into full Cybermen, were falsely informed that Queen Lydia had been captured by a gang of rebels and an alien (actually just the Doctor and Seeker Sylen), and had travelled to Catrigan Nova's whirlpools; Litarsas, now fully upgraded into a Cyber-Leader, travelled to the whirlpools with the other Cybermen, as they still required Queen Lydia alive in order to prevent the people of Catrigan Nova rebelling while the Cybermen "conscripted" the civilians into becoming Cybermen.
At the whirlpools, Litarsas led the Cybermen as they confronted the Doctor, Lydia and Sylen, where Litarsas recognised the Doctor as an enemy of the Cybermen. However, after the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to disable the water suppressors, Sylen ordered her troops to fire at the Cybermen; just as Litarsas ordered the Cybermen to kill the Doctor, the weapons fire from Sylen's troops' ships knocked the Cybermen into the rapid whirlpools, where the vast quantities of gold tore their bodies apart. Despite this, Litarsas resisted the whirlpools and attempted to kill Queen Lydia instead, although Lydia was able to use Litarsas' own weight against him by rolling backwards, sending Litarsas flying directly into a whirlpool. Litarsas made one final attempt at survival before Lydia forced him into the whirlpool completely, finally killing him. (PROSE: The Mondas Touch)
Personality[[edit] | [edit source]]
As a Royal Companion, Litarsas was highly loyal to Queen Lydia. He also had a sense of humour, as after being infected by Cyber-nanotechnology by Queen Lydia's gauntlet, he joked, in response to a medic stating that he used to have slightly higher blood cholesterol, that he "[did] like [his] pork pies". However, as his cyber-conversion continued, Litarsas' actions began to benefit the Cybermen that were gradually being created by Lydia's gauntlet, at the expense of Catrigan Nova's monarchy and economy, such as by advocating sales of vast quantities of the planet's gold, and by focusing heavily on the development of military weapons and spaceships. By the time he captured the Twelfth Doctor after the latter broke into Queen Lydia's bedroom, Litarsas had become emotionless, due to his conversion accelerating further, and by the time he had completed his upgrade into a Cyber-Leader, Litarsas was effectively identical to the other Cybermen, save for his higher rank. (PROSE: The Mondas Touch)
