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He was gone from this world well before he died in battle. The Teeth reclaimed the power, and the legacy has largely remained within the group since, each successor inherting powers of the ones before. The voices and consciousnesses only work with rightful heirs, members of their group who challenge the leader and beat him in a fair match.

Accord to the Undersiders, Interlude 20.y

Butcher is the chosen name for the possessive entity which acts as a leader of the Teeth. This entity is a quirk that exists because of the nature of the shards as pieces of the entities.[1]

Personality[]

Each successive Butcher has one more voice in their head constantly bombarding them with advice and tips and numerous other things all in an attempt to get them to do what they want.[2] This leads to a lifestyle based primarily on appeasing the screaming voices within their mind.

Abilities and Powers[]

Butcher I had increased strength and durability, a ranged agony-infliction aura potent enough to induce cardiac arrest, and the ability to transfer a watered-down version of his powers and a share of his consciousness to his killer, making them the next Butcher.[3]

While no two powers from independent shards are the same, if Butcher does get multiple copies of the same power, such as from a bud of a shard, they will stack. [4]

A succession of fourteen different parahumans have added their own abilities and minds to Butcher. In addition to granting more powers, the Butchers' minds will drive a successor insane if they are not a member of the Teeth who challenged the previous Butcher and beat them in a fair match. Butcher III, for example, was a hero who was driven mad by the personalities from the two previous iterations.[3][5] Presumably the effect has only increased with the addition of more voices and personalities.

The Butcher might be more susceptible to emotion affecting powers such as Cherish because of the number of accrued consciousnesses they have.[6]

If the Simurgh (or presumably any other Endbringer) were to kill the Butcher, they would not become the next Butcher. Instead, the nearest available parahuman would become the next host, even if they had no part in the Butcher's death.[7] This implies that only parahumans can become the next Butcher, and not regular people. Note that the idea of Scion (i.e., the Warrior-hub of the shard network[8]) permanently neutralizing the Butcher by killing the Butcher appears to be wishful thinking: specific details are scant but might be different from the scenario where the Simurgh kills the Butcher.[9]

Butcher XV is likely to have access to the following powers:

  • The ability to cause excruciating pain at range and increased durability (I).[3][10]
  • Superhuman strength (I, III, VI, IX, XI, XIII).[10]
  • The ability to see hearts, veins and arteries even through walls (II).[10]
  • Short-range danger sense against physical attacks (III).[10]
  • The ability to cause festering wounds (IV).[10]
  • Short-ranged explosive teleport,[10] that can't move user into open water[11](VI).
  • The ability to reshape unrefined matter into objects (VIII).[10]
  • The ability to cause mindless rage at short range.[10]
  • Immunity to pain (XII).[10]
  • The ability to always hit with a ranged attack as long as the target is within range (XIV).[3][10]
  • The ability to manipulate/sense emotions at range (XV).[12]

Butchers[]

Number Name Gender Original power Notes
I Butcher Male Super-human strength and durability. Ability to inflict pain at a distance. The pain is so intense as to induce cardiac arrest.
II Unknown Male Can see cardiovascular systems through walls. First Butcher to inherit powers.
III Unknown Male Danger-sense against attacks and super-strength. As a hero, he killed Butcher Two. The two voices of the previous Butchers in his head eventually drove him mad, triggering him to engage in a suicidal attack against the Teeth.
IV Unknown Unknown Inflicts wounds that fester.
V Unknown Unknown Unknown
VI Unknown Unknown Explosive teleportation and superhuman strength. Explosion is at the arrival site.
VII Unknown Unknown Unknown
VIII Unknown Male Reforms matter. Can shape unrefined matter into objects.
IX Unknown Unknown Super strength. Can induce mindless rage.
X Unknown Unknown Unknown
XI Unknown Unknown Superhuman strength.
XII Unknown Unknown Feels no pain and has extremely durable skin.
XIII Unknown Unknown Super strength. Killed in a drawn-out fight in New York by Quarrel's arrows.[13]
XIV Quarrel[13] Female Her attacks bend space to create perfect accuracy, never missing a target within range. A tall, elegant, woman, with a long neck and long limbs. Her costume has an Asian feel to it, and is trimmed with razor-sharp blades. Her costume is also busy, displaying elements of samurai, headhunter, and bloodletter, but not necessarily elements that portray her as "Butcher." Among her weapons is a massive bow, requiring her inherited super-strength to draw. Killed herself because of the suicidal despair created by Cherish in a fight against the Undersiders.
XV Cherish Female Can manipulate/sense emotions at range. Current Butcher. After Cherish became the new Butcher, Tattletale hired workers to move Cherish's pod from the waters near Brockton Bay to a more remote location. Tattletale speculates that Butcher 15 will only get a chance to kill fish, and joked that maybe Leviathan will pass by and kill himself.

History[]

Background[]

The original Butcher may have triggered from being held at death's door for a long time.[14] In some circumstance he ended up running the original iteration of The Teeth in Brockton Bay.[3][15]

The Teeth originally operated in Brockton Bay,[16] where they participated in a turf war with Empire Eighty-Eight at some point, killing Heith Anders.[17] They eventually participated in a bidding war to hire the services of the Slaughterhouse Nine, instructing them to kill some members of the Protectorate. After completing the task, the Nine turned on them, nearly wiping them out.[18]

Story Start[]

However, they settled elsewhere and bounced back,[19] with operations in Boston and New York, although none of their original members remain.[16]

Post-Echidna[]

The Teeth return to Brockton Bay after the battle of Echidna to oust the Undersiders and claim territory,[16] first targeting Parian.[19] The Undersiders try to negotiate with both the Fallen and the Teeth, although these quickly fail.[20] After an extensive battle in which Butcher is killed by a remnant of Cherish's power,[21] the Teeth are marginalized.[22] Tattletale still considered them a potential threat afterward.[23]

Gold Morning[]

Butcher XV may have died as collateral damage from Scion's blast hitting the Eastern coast of the United States.[24] However, Cherish after become the Butcher was dragged far away from Brockton Bay's harbor into a deeper area of the ocean.[25][11] Indeed, no nearby capes (or Scion) are recorded as inheriting the Butcher's powers, so she could have survived. On the other hand, she is not mentioned later during the events of Gold Morning, despite having a useful power.

Chapter Appearances[]

Worm Chapter Appearances
Chrysalis
1. Chrysalis 20.1 Absent
2. Chrysalis 20.2 Absent
3. Chrysalis 20.3 Absent
4. Chrysalis 20.4 Absent
5. Chrysalis 20.5 Absent
x. Interlude 20.x Absent
y. Interlude 20.y Debut
Imago
1. Imago 21.1 Mentioned
2. Imago 21.2 Absent
3. Imago 21.3 Absent
4. Imago 21.4 Absent
5. Imago 21.5 Absent
6. Imago 21.6 Death
7. Imago 21.7 Absent
x. Interlude 21.x Absent
y. Interlude 21.y Mentioned
Cell
1. Cell 22.1 Absent
2. Cell 22.2 Absent
3. Cell 22.3 Absent
4. Cell 22.4 Mentioned
5. Cell 22.5 Absent
6. Cell 22.6 Absent
x. Interlude 22.x Absent
y. Interlude 22.y Absent
Cockroaches
1. Cockroaches 28.1 Absent
2. Cockroaches 28.2 Absent
3. Cockroaches 28.3 Absent
4. Cockroaches 28.4 Absent
5. Cockroaches 28.5 Absent
6. Cockroaches 28.6 Mentioned
x. Interlude 28 Absent

Fanart Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • There is speculation of a link to Cauldron, given that one vial is mentioned whose tested results included "a power that allows one to take over a nearby parahuman’s mind, body and powers automatically on death".[26] However, given that even in a hypothetical world without the existence of Cauldron there still exists a "Butcher Queen", this theory is likely incorrect, if the "Butcher Queen" is meant to be an alternate version of the Butcher.[27]
  • The ability to transfer a share of consciousness to their killer can possibly be classified as a Transfiguration Brute,[14] more specifically a Resurrection Brute.

References[]

  1. Lunatic Blue:
    I have a question, what does the Butcher mean for shards/entities? Is it an aberration?

    Wildbow:
    keep in mind that the shards are pieces of the entities, they have residual effects & processes from being part of a larger organism, so where stuff isn't skewed intentionally, sometimes you just get quirks running through. - Wildbow on Discord, archived on Spacebattles
  2. Butchers don't want to die. It's a dark hell to be in, to be nothing more than a dim voice in someone's head, trying to scream louder than the other 12 or 13 or 14 voices to nudge them to a course of action you want. So Butchers try to stay alive and use the powers they have, rather than stack powers. Bonus points if they can stay alive and leverage their power to live well and more bonus points if they can keep the violent, angry voices in their head appeased. - Reddit comment by Wildbow.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 “The first Butcher had super strength, durability, and the ability to inflict enough pain at a distance that his enemies went into cardiac arrest. His other powers only became evident later. He was killed by a subordinate, and the man who would later be known as Butcher Two inherited a fraction of his powers and a share of his consciousness.”

    “Butcher Three inherited it too, along with a share of Two’s powers and consciousness,” Tattletale said. “He was a hero, though.”

    Accord rankled at the fact that she’d spoken out of turn. Her voice rang in his ears, as though each syllable were the echoing toll of a bell, growing louder with each iteration. Out of turn, out of sync, out of place.

    He bit his tongue. “Yes. And the two voices in the hero’s head worked together to drive him mad. He was gone from this world well before he died in battle. The Teeth reclaimed the power, and the legacy has largely remained within the group since, each successor inherting{sic} powers of the ones before. The voices and consciousnesses only work with rightful heirs, members of their group who challenge the leader and beat him in a fair match.”

    “Which one is this?” Regent asked.

    “Fourteen,” Tattletale said.

    “This one’s number fourteen?” Regent asked. “Which means she’s got thirteen sets of powers?”

    [...]

    Tattletale answered, “Only a small share of each power. Don’t forget she’s got thirteen voices in her head, giving her advice and helping her work stuff out, and all the powers she brought to the table, besides. Her attacks don’t miss. She imbues them with an effect which means they bend space so they strike her target, Bullets turn in midair, swords curve, all means she’s pretty much guaranteed to hit you if her attack reaches far enough.” - Excerpt from Interlude 20.y
  4. razorsmile:
    Butcher is scary. If she gets multiple copies of the same power (say, if more than one of her predecessors had superstrength), does it stack?

    Wildbow
    There are no copies of the same power, barring a circumstance where it’s powers recurring within a second/third generation cape. Even then, debatable.

    But they’d stack in a case where such came to pass. - Wildbow's comment on Interlude 20.y
  5. If you’re not legitimate, they fuck with your head instead, drive you mad, taunt you, play mind games. - Wildbow's comment on Interlude 20.y
  6. “Yes. Exceedingly,” Tattletale said. She cocked her head a little to one side. It was something I’d seen her do before, as if she was a bird, trying to see things from a different angle. “What are you thinking?”

    I shook my head. “Nothing. But… some of the best powers we’ve gone up against have had pretty fatal weaknesses. When we went up against Butcher, her having fourteen consciousnesses to draw on might not have helped a ton when she was trying to deal with Cherish’s ability. We used Echidna’s ability to absorb dead matter and grow to trap her in Coil’s base. Bought ourselves time.” - Cockroaches 28.6
  7. dvdjspr: I'm more interested in what exactly would happen if Ziz killed Butcher. Would she still inherit their minds? Would a Simurgh with 15 human minds be more dangerous, or less?

    Wildbow: The Simurgh would not inherit their minds. Butcher's powers would likely go to the nearest available parahuman. Given the Simurgh, probably the most inconvenient parahuman. - Conversation with Wildbow on Reddit
  8. “I’m sorry,” their March says, meaning it. She thinks of losing a cluster-mate. She imagines It would make the remaining years before the end so empty.

    But her experience with that world was when it was alive. When most were connected to the Warrior-hub. - Heavens 12.all
  9. Doctor Mod: Oh yes! Hell have Zion himself do the deed. He's immune to powers.

    Wildbow: Sure. Let's count on Scion's resistance to powers counteracting the Butcher Effect. Nothing can go wrong there. Nothing at all. - Conversation with Wildbow on Sufficient Velocity
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 10.8 10.9 Butcher didn’t react as bugs bit and stung, and capsaicin-laden bugs found her eyes and nose. Her skin was too tough, and she didn’t feel pain, thanks to Butcher twelve’s powers. She was composed as she lifted a gun that would normally have been mounted on the back of a truck. Without putting it down, she held it with one hand and donned her mask.

    She turned our way, as though it wasn’t even a question. A sensory power.

    Butcher two, the ability to see people’s veins, arteries and hearts through walls.

    [...]

    She teleported past the worst of Vex’s forcefield barrier. Flame billowed around her in a muted explosion as she appeared.

    Butcher six’s explosive teleporting. It’s weaker than it was when six had it, shorter range, and the intensity of the explosion isn’t nearly what it once was.

    [...]

    Wounded but intact, the dog turned and snapped at her.

    She was gone a heartbeat before the teeth snapped together.

    Butcher three’s danger sense. Didn’t do him much good. Driven mad, died in a suicidal attack against the Teeth. Window of opportunity is lower, application limited to more physical danger.

    [...]

    She reappeared in a cloud of rolling flame, reversed her grip on her gatling gun and swung it like a club, knocking Bentley clean off his feet.

    Super strength, courtesy of one, three, six, nine, eleven and thirteen. Cumulative effects. A little bit of super strength from multiple sources added up.

    [...]

    Bentley had recovered and charged her. She responded by hitting him with a wave of pain, putting him off his guard so she could strike him aside.

    Butcher one. Inflicted agony at range.

    [...]

    Butcher had a grip on Regent, threw him into Biter with enough strength to take the two of them out of the fight.

    Possibly enough strength to kill one, if Lizardtail’s power wasn’t able to outpace the internal damage done.

    Induces mindless rage. Power from Butcher Nine. Very low range.

    Inflicts wounds that fester. Power from Butcher Four. Less effect than Four had. Far shorter duration.

    [...]

    Butcher had time to string her bow before she had to teleport out of the way, appearing on top of a building with a vantage point of the battlefield. She knelt, touching the rooftop, and reformed the stone into arrows.

    That power was Butcher Eight’s, except he’d had more reach, was faster.

    [...]

    Butcher drew her bow again.

    She didn’t miss. She did something to warp space or adjust the very fabric of reality, so her shots always struck the intended target. - Exerpt from Imago 21.6
  11. 11.0 11.1 “Not so risky when you’ve done a read on the situation. I had all the notes on Butcher Fourteen. She couldn’t teleport free, not into open water. She still can’t, and I had a crew use a remote control device to lash a cable to Butcher Fifteen’s pod. They’ve dropped her into a deeper area of the ocean, and the only thing she’ll be likely to kill are fish. If we’re lucky, maybe Leviathan will float that way and off himself.” - Excerpt from Interlude 21.y
  12. Cherish – An amoral emotion detector and emotion manipulator who uses her powers to find targets for her group, the Slaughterhouse Nine. Twenty, she sports a stripe of violet in her dark hair. - Cast (spoiler free)
  13. 13.0 13.1 Less than a year ago, Butcher had been known as Quarrel, and as Tattletale told it, Quarrel had used a much smaller version of that same bow to kill Butcher Thirteen in a drawn-out fight in New York. - Exerpt from Imago 21.6
  14. 14.0 14.1 Transfiguration brutes offer transformation and revival abilities.
    They arise from situations where death is sought or held at bay. - BRUTE, document by Wildbow
  15. - Excerpt from Interlude 20.y
  16. 16.0 16.1 16.2
    • Butcher XIV, Quarrel – The fourteenth in her line, Butcher was once Quarrel, before challenging the leader.  Since the original Butcher was killed by a subordinate, both the accrued powers (only a fraction) and consciousnesses of the previous Butchers have been passed on to the one who kills them, the combined voices driving the subject mad if they do not follow the proper procedure of challenging the leader.  As such, Quarrel gained a share of thirteen sets of powers on top of her own – the ability to make any attack strike its target, provided they are in range.  Is a tall Asian woman with a costume described as stylized samurai armor, festooned with barbed blades, and a string of skulls at one shoulder.  Uses enhanced strength to carry a gatling gun that would normally require a turret mount. - Cast (In Depth)
  17. “Heith.”

    Justin sighed. Heith was Fenja and Menja’s cousin and guardian, Kaiser’s first wife, killed in a turf war with the Teeth, back in the old days of Brockton Bay. She has powers after all.

    Somehow, all of this would be easier if he could believe that Theo was illegitimate. - Excerpt from 18.y (Donation Interlude 2; Crusader)
  18. “Years ago. Allfather still ruled Empire Eighty-Eight then. They held a big meeting between all of the factions. We stopped by. Great fun. I don’t think they accomplished a thing that day. We provoked a bidding war instead. Group called the Teeth wound up hiring us to kill some members of the Protectorate team. We did it, and then we wiped out the Teeth before leaving the city.”

    The Slaughterhouse Nine must have been new, then. People today would know better. Hopefully. - Excerpt from Interlude 11b (Anniversary Bonus)
  19. 19.0 19.1 The Teeth had tried to take a bite out of Parian’s territory. They had a history in the bay, and like the Ambassadors they had been nearly wiped out, only it was nearly a decade ago. They’d settled elsewhere while they bounced back, with a turnover rate high enough that none of the original members persisted. There was only the name, and an ethos of violence, anarchy, and profit at any cost, not unlike the ABB. Parian seemed to be making a point of not asking for our help, and I wasn’t intending to offer it until she did. - Excerpt from Chrysalis 20.1
  20. Skitter turned her attention to the other leader. “Butcher?”

    “No,” the woman replied, standing from the table.

    “I didn’t think so. Do you have any other business you’d like to bring up, while we’re all here?”

    “You die,” Butcher said. “You can’t kill me. I will win.”

    With that, her longest statement yet, she turned and walked away.

    “Not good enemies to have,” Accord commented. It was just his group and the Undersiders now. - Excerpt from Interlude 20.y
  21. “Success,” I said.

    The entire group, even the straight-backed Ambassadors, seemed to react with relief.

    “Guess my sister has one more kill under her belt,” Regent commented. “Fourteen voices in Cherish’s head to keep her company as she spends the next few centuries alone at the bottom of the bay.” - Excerpt from Imago 21.6
  22. I had let two days pass since my conversation with Miss Militia. Dealt with the Teeth. They weren’t all gone. Hemorrhagia had slipped away, as had Reaver, and there were rank and file troops. Parian still had some cleaning up to do, at the very least, but the Teeth weren’t the presence they had been. - Excerpt from Imago 21.6
  23. I moved on to boards of a different color. The red bulletin boards and whiteboards with red writing: Brockton Bay. Potential threats: the Teeth, Red Handed, Heartbreaker, Lost Garden, Adepts, the Orchard, The Fallen. - Excerpt from Imago 21.7
  24. She touched something on her desk, and the various panels behind each booth changed. They were video screens, three times as tall as they were wide, and each showed the same clip of Scion’s rampage.

    “United Kingdom, first target struck. Obliteration,” the Doctor said. “Eastern coast of Canada and the United States, damaged, but casualties were a third of what they were in the initial strike.” - Extinction 27.2
  25. dragonlibrarian: Does Cherish live through Golden Morning? One of the only two people I've ever gotten to read Wildbow's works with me asked me that today, and I honestly had no idea. Is she ever mentioned again after she becomes the newest Butcher, or does the information on her fate stop there? Any WoG on this one?

    Wildbow: Cherish was dragged away from the harbor and let to sink to a point that was pretty deep in, in partial hopes that she would be far enough away from any living beings that the Butcher wouldn't jump to a new host. - Conversation with Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles
  26. “The powers are poor,” the Doctor said. “Foreign, yes, but poor. When we tested these, we got a defensive power utilizing warped space and a power that allows one to take over a nearby parahuman’s mind, body and powers automatically on death. The one I hold should have attack or mover capabilities, if not both.” - Exerpt from Venom 29.7
  27. Assuming that Cauldron's operatives maybe killed Eden but then just sat on their hands/died, the Endbringers don't exist, the cauldron vials aren't spread out, and there's less of the really powerful parahumans here and there who're capable of acting decisively.

    [...]

    A coalition of villains occupy Brockton Bay, including Marquis, the Butcher Queen and the Little Doctor, while outside parties want a piece of that pie. - Wildbow on Spacebattles

Site Navigation[]

The Teeth
Leader Butcher XIV 
Members AnimosHemorrhagia • Reaver • SpreeVex
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