Vike Collier

Early Life

Vike Collier was born and raised in Londinium as a descendant of the prominent Collier family, whose reputation and influence long predated the Blackouts. Although much of London was destroyed during the collapse, surviving descendants of the Colliers eventually reclaimed their ancestral land and heritage during the liberation of Londinium.

The family subsequently formed a strong relationship with Mannix Cutler and the emerging Authority of Man. Owing to their contributions to the Authority and Londinium’s development, the Colliers were afforded considerable autonomy and maintained a position of influence within the newly established regime.

From childhood, Vike displayed an obsessive curiosity towards the world around him, developing a particular fascination with Anima. He was rarely seen without a notebook, continually recording observations, theories and questions regardless of their apparent significance. Where others were primarily concerned with the dangers presented by Anima, Vike wanted to understand its behaviour, its relationship with living organisms and the mechanisms through which it could be controlled.

Despite his fascination with the substance itself, Vike developed a deep disdain for those naturally bonded with it. His early resentment towards the tainted was partly ideological, but was equally rooted in jealousy. The tainted possessed an intrinsic connection to the substance that fascinated him, while Vike could only ever observe it from the outside.

His obsession eventually led him beyond the walls of Londinium, where Vike successfully captured a Hoarder. Rather than killing the creature, he restrained it in an isolated location and began conducting a series of clandestine experiments.

Vike’s research became increasingly invasive. He carved sections of flesh from the Hoarder’s body to observe its response to injury and the interaction between Anima and living cells, eventually going as far as amputating one of its hands at the wrist. Through these experiments, Vike began developing an understanding of how Hoarders interacted with Anima and, most importantly, how their bodies were capable of accumulating and storing enormous quantities of it.

Every observation was meticulously recorded in his notebook.

Vike continued his experiments without the knowledge of his family until Kenrick Collier discovered his son’s notebook. Reading through its contents, Kenrick realised that Vike had been secretly travelling outside Londinium and experimenting upon a captured Hoarder.

Kenrick did not confront him.

Instead, when Vike next left Londinium, Kenrick quietly followed.

Unaware of his father’s presence, Vike returned to the imprisoned Hoarder and continued his research as normal. While Vike was distracted by the creature and his notes, a rogue Mantid — an Anima-infused mantis approximately three feet in height — approached him.

Kenrick spotted the creature before his son did.

He revealed himself and opened fire, preventing the Mantid from reaching Vike. The creature instead charged Kenrick, hooking one of its spiked forelegs beneath him. Kenrick repeatedly fired into the Mantid at close range and succeeded in killing it, but during the struggle one of its spikes pierced his femoral artery.

As Kenrick began rapidly losing blood, the captive Hoarder became attracted to the Anima escaping from the Mantid’s corpse and began lurching towards it. Vike took his father’s gun and shot the Hoarder before attempting to return Kenrick to Londinium.

Vike dragged his father back towards the city, but Kenrick’s injuries proved fatal.

His death was an indirect consequence of Vike’s secret experiments. Kenrick had only travelled beyond Londinium’s walls because he had discovered what his son was doing, and had ultimately sacrificed his own life to protect Vike from a danger he had failed to notice.

At his father’s funeral, Vike was approached by Mannix Cutler, who asked what had happened outside Londinium.

Vike concealed the truth.

He claimed that he and Kenrick had received reports of Mantids beyond the walls and had travelled outside Londinium to investigate. According to Vike’s account, he had successfully killed the creature himself but had been unable to save his father.

Mannix accepted the explanation. Owing to his long-standing relationship with the Collier family, he regarded Kenrick’s death as the consequence of going beyond his means to protect Londinium and, by extension, the Authority of Man.

Wanting to repay the Collier family’s continued contribution while paying his respects to Kenrick, Mannix asked the young Vike what interested him and what he would pursue if provided with the necessary resources.

Vike answered Anima.

He explained that he was fascinated by the substance and wanted to understand how mankind could safely coexist with and utilise it without repeating the mistakes of the pre-Blackout generations. Although Vike expressed a distrust of the tainted compatible with the Authority’s own developing ideology, he did not share the belief that Anima itself should necessarily be rejected.

Vike still carried his notebook.

He showed Mannix portions of his research, revealing an understanding of Anima considerably beyond what Mannix expected from someone of his age while deliberately concealing the circumstances through which much of that knowledge had been obtained.

Intrigued, Mannix asked Vike whether, given the choice, he would prefer a world containing both Anima and the tainted, or a world in which neither existed.

Vike described the tainted as an unfortunate offspring of a gift that had been given to mankind.

The answer further piqued Mannix’s interest. Vike did not view Anima as inherently responsible for mankind’s downfall; he viewed humanity’s inability to properly understand and control it as the greater failure.

Mannix consequently offered Vike an opportunity. If he could develop a stable system capable of safely containing Anima without repeating the failures of pre-Blackout technology, Mannix would establish a dedicated division around his research and provide him with the resources necessary to continue it.

Vike accepted.

His subsequent experiments produced an unexpected conclusion. Despite numerous attempts to create an artificial containment system, Vike discovered that the only reliable means of safely storing significant quantities of Anima was a Hoarder itself.

Drawing upon the research he had begun with his original captive, Vike conceptualised a device built around a living Hoarder. The creature would be physically imprisoned within the machinery and used as a biological containment system, allowing Anima to flow into and out of its body while exploiting its natural ability to accumulate and retain the substance.

The concept fulfilled Mannix’s challenge.

Vike was subsequently granted his own research team and access to Authority resources, transforming what had begun as unsanctioned experiments beyond Londinium’s walls into officially supported scientific research.

Over the following years, Vike’s understanding of Anima and the technologies developed from his research became increasingly valuable to the Authority. His work contributed to the organisation’s technological capabilities and provided methods of interacting with Anima that few surviving societies were capable of reproducing.

As the importance of his research grew, so too did Vike’s position within the organisation. His laboratory expanded, his access to resources increased, and his responsibilities gradually extended beyond Anima research into the wider technological development of the Authority of Man.

His work would eventually earn him promotion to Director of Technology and Research, securing his position as the fifth member of the Authority’s governing Twelve.

Despite his rise through the Authority and his loyalty to its continued survival, Vike’s fundamental motivation remained largely unchanged from the child who ventured beyond Londinium’s walls carrying a notebook.