Thanatos (presumably named after the Greek god of Death) was a side-project based on the Tyrant Project (specifically on the
T-103 Tyrant). It was developed in secret by a disillusioned Umbrella scientist named
Dr. Greg Mueller who was based out of the Umbrella University.
He used all of the internal combat and performance data that Umbrella had returned on the
T-103 in order to create a stronger and more responsive monster. However, unlike the
T-103 Dr. Mueller wanted his Tyrant to be a pure killing machine and conspicuousness was not a requirement - all out power was his aim. He picked out a human specimen, exposed it to a strain of the
t-Virus and then continually made surgical enhancements to the body whilst it was undergoing mutation. Like all Tyrants, it was developed whilst submerged in a tube and left in a deactivated state.
Like earlier Tyrants such as the
T-002 or
T-001, it had an enlarged exposed heart - which was later discovered to be a large animal heart implanted onto the body to help it drive its mutated body. While it did have a small apparatus protecting the base of the heart, the majority of the organ was left exposed. The regular human heart remained in situ, providing other essential functions. The rest of the body was relatively unchanged cosmetically apart from the hands which resembled large claws with darkened (almost completely black) skin. The creatures overall height was around 12ft tall also, over twice as large as an average human.
The result was one of the most strongest Tyrants ever created - it was so strong that even in its initial state after activation it was incredibly quick and shrugged off all arms fire.
Thanatos was left inactive at the University until Umbrella had requested a blood sample to be taken from it for examination purposes. They dispatched a U.B.C.S. team (Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service) to retrieve it. When they got there, their actions activated it and it flew into a berserker rage, easily picking them off; it appeared to be invincible.
Whilst targeting the U.B.C.S. team, their squad leader
Nikolai Zinoviev managed to take the blood sample from behind and made his escape. On his way out, he murdered Dr. Mueller (as per Umbrella's instructions). The Thanatos then encountered a group of survivors who had fled to the area from Raccoon City and engaged them.
Proving to be impossible to defeat, the survivors decided to use the environment to their advantage; some exposed live wiring caused the Thanatos to be incapacitated. While it was down, the survivors removed a component from its back and attempted to flee.
When Thanatos regained composure, it resumed the chase up until the entire building came down on it (C4 was planted earlier by Nikolai at key structural points around the University). The Tyrant was critically injured and had its left arm completely crushed to smithereens.
In response to the severe damage, it began to mutate into its Super Tyrant form which was known as Thanatos R. In this form, it grew larger and its right arm grew to extremely large proportions due to the loss off the left one. Straps of
Lighter skin also appeared to cross its body (perhaps some kind of extra protection).
It resumed the assault on the survivors up until it was hoist with its own petard - it was defeated when injected with an anti
t-Virus substance that was synthesised using it's own blood as a key component (the component they removed from its back earlier). The creature then fell once again, seemingly killed for good.
Interestingly, while it never wears a
Power Limiter or coat of any kind the Thanatos is not completely naked - it wears a small pair of black underpants which must be made out of the toughest, most stretchy fabric known to man.
