Vir Cotto
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Vir Cotto is a character from the fictional Babylon 5 universe, played on screen by Stephen Furst. He is a Centauri male who was from a family of minor nobility.
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History
Vir Cotto was born into a family of minor nobility. He was considered the family joke, or "black sheep."
First Years at Babylon 5
Vir was initially assigned to Babylon 5 as an assistant to Ambassador Londo Mollari - another Centauri of noble descent. The Ambassador's position was at first considered a joke to the Centauri government. As a result, the assistant's position was not considered a particularly important or prestigious position. At the time, Vir was an embarrassment to his family, and his family arranged for him to be assigned to this position as a means of getting him as far away from them as possible.
Over the next few years, Vir proved himself to be an able assistant to Ambassador Mollari. During this time he developed a friendship with Lennier - the fact that they both served as assistants to Ambassadors gave them a common bond. As the prestige of the Ambassador's position began to rise, the Centauri tried to have Vir replaced with another assistant. However Mollari insisted Vir remain, and threatened to resign himself if Vir was not allowed to stay.
Representative to Minbar
Eventually, Mollari pushed for Vir to be assigned to the Centauri liaison's office to Minbar. Officially, Mollari arranged to have this happen in order to help Vir further develop in his career. Privately, he admitted to Delenn that he didn't want Vir around with the events - namely the Shadow War - that were soon to come.
Vir soon left for his assignment on Minbar. He put most of his observations of the Minbari into a report. When he returned to Babylon 5 for a visit, he presented the report to Londo to see what Londo thought of the report. Londo proceeded to edit the report - rewording it to make the Minbari society seem stagnant and decadent - in order to stroke the egos of his superiors on the homeworld. During this visit he was attacked and seriously injured by G'Kar when G'Kar took a telepathic drug that enabled him to assault Mollari telepathically. When Vir recovered, he went back to Minbar to attend a ceremony.
Shortly afterwards, Vir returned for a second visit to Babylon 5. During this second visit, President Clark of the Earth Alliance declared Martial Law. At the same time, the third wife of the late Centauri Emperor Turhan Lady Morella arrived to visit the station. Morella was a seer whom Londo hoped would give him a visit. When Captain John Sheridan of Babylon 5 read the order, Londo and Vir were escorting Morella through the Zocalo. Soon after the order was read, Nightwatch officers began breaking up crowds. However their aggressive attitude towards people in the Zocalo boiled over into a full scale riot when a Nightwatch officer picked a fight with a man. While trying to get Morella back to safety, Vir was hit on the head by a flying bottle.
Soon after the riot, Lady Morella was helping treat Vir's injury. When Mollari offered her a cloth, he touched her hand and she had a vision of his future. Later she revealed what she had learned. Part of this was that Mollari would someday be Emperor. She then turned to Vir and told him that he also would be Emperor. Vir began laughing, assuming that she was joking. She informed him that she never joked when it came to prophecy. When Londo said that he and Vir could not both Emperor, she told him that one of them would be Emperor after the other had died.
When the Centauri reoccupied the Narn homeworld, Vir felt tremendous guilt over what his people had done to the Narn. Eventually, he began using his position on Minbar to get Narns away from their home and get them proper care. He did this by setting up a false bureaucrat - "Abrahamo Lincolni" - who had sufficient authority to issue documents to Narns to allow them to travel.
A marriage was soon arranged between Vir and Lyndisty - who was the daughter of a prominent Centauri family. Initially the two seemed quite compatible. The brother of one of the Narn that Vir helped get away attacked him, and he kept Lyndisty from harm. The Narn was killed by Captain Sheridan, but right before he died the Narn yelled "Shon-Kar" - a Narn blood oath. This led to the discovery that Vir was helping Narns. It was soon discovered that the Narn and his family were after Lyndisty because she had participated in genocidal activities on the Narn homeworld.
When it was discovered that Vir had been helping Narns, Vir was punished by being removed from the liaison officer's post and reassigned to Mollari. At the same time, the marriage between himself and Lyndisty was put on hold.
The Shadow War
During the War, Vir once again acted as Mollari's assistant.
When Mollari decided to have Lord Refa eliminated, he devised an elaborate ruse, meeting with G'Kar to convince him to return to Narn and giving him a holographic information storage device. Mollari required Vir to tell G'Kar that the device contained information about G'Kar's former assistant, a Na'Toth--which Vir believed. When Lord Refa took Vir prisoner and had him telepathically scanned, Refa's discovery of that belief convinced him that the supposed information on the device was the reason for G'Kar's return home.
Lord Refa and several guards intercepted G'Kar and his party upon their arrival in the caves under the capital city, whereupon G'Kar activated the holographic device and the Narn learned that Refa had arranged for the bombing of their homeworld and thus the deaths of up to 6 million Narn. G'Kar put a data crystal on Refa's person containing plans helpful to the Narn resistance and the Narn beat Refa to death. When Refa's body was found, it appeared that Refa had been intending to double-cross the Centauri and was thereafter betrayed by the Narn.
Near the end of the Shadow War, Mollari came to the conclusion that Emperor Cartagia was insane. When Mollari learned that Cartagia had allowed the Shadows to establish a base on Centauri Prime, and that the Vorlons were destroying worlds housing such bases, Mollari decided to kill the Emperor. Mollari had Vir come to Centauri Prime to assist him. At about the same time, G'Kar was captured by the Centauri. G'Kar agreed to help Mollari in exchange for Mollari freeing the Narn from Centauri domination.
An elaborate scheme was cooked up in which Cartagia was convinced to travel to the Narn homeworld, and that they would execute G'Kar there. On Narn, during the execution ceremony, G'Kar broke free of his restraints and provided a distraction to the Emperor's guards. Mollari prepared to inject the Emperor with a chemical that would stop his hearts, but the Emperor knocked the device from his hands. Vir picked up the device, and stabbed the Emperor in between his hearts. This caused the Emperor to die within a matter of moments. Vir felt a large amount of guilt over this act, but later came to accept that it had to be done to save the Centauri people.
Mollari was named Prime Minister by the royal court. He and Vir quickly returned to Centauri Prime to force the Shadows to leave. When the Shadows refused to leave the Centauri homeworld, Mollari detonated a number of explosives that destroyed nearly all the Shadow influence on the world. Mollari had Mr. Morden executed. When he realized that there was still someone - namely him - who had been touched by the Shadows, and that the Vorlons were going to destroy Centauri Prime just to kill him, Mollari begged Vir to kill him to save their people. At the last moment, Sheridan and his forces destroyed enough of the Vorlon fleet that they called in their remaining forces, and the Vorlons left without destroying Centauri Prime.
Aftermath of the Shadow War
Following the Shadow War, Vir returned to Babylon 5. For the next two years he continued to act as Mollari's assistant, and as a representative of the Centauri to Babylon 5 when Mollari was back on Centauri Prime. Eventually, it became obvious that the Regent's health was failing, and that he would die in the coming year. The Centauri government decided when that happened that Mollari would be the next Emperor.
After the destruction of Za'ha'dum, the Drakh arrived on Centauri Prime. They took control of the Regent via one of their keepers, and began to manipulate the government. In the first year of the Interstellar Alliance, the Drakh used the Centauri fleet to stage attacks on the rest of the Alliance. The Drakh used devices made by the Shadows that could control entire ships without the need for a crew, which allowed these ships to be used to attack other vessels without the knowledge of anyone else. When it was finally discovered that Centauri ships were behind the attacks, the Drakh had made it appear that the Centauri had turned against the Alliance. Several members of the Alliance bombed the Centauri homeworld in retaliation for what they considered to be unprovoked assaults. The Regent died during the attack when his Keeper was removed. Mollari took his place as Emperor, and named Vir ambassador to Babylon 5. The Drakh took control of Mollari through a Keeper, and ensured his cooperation by planting fusion bombs all over the planet.
Over the next 16 years, Vir Cotto was able to assemble a resistance movement called "The Legions of Fire." Vir moved slowly at first. He sabotaged the efforts of Prime Minister Durla, who was being influnced by the Drakh through his dreams. At times he was assisted by two Technomages.
Eventually the Keeper the Drakh made the Emperor give Sheridan and Delenn for their son's 16th birthday attached itself to David on his birthday. David left for Centauri Prime soon afterwards. His parents followed, and were in turn captured by the Centauri, as the Drakh had planned. At about the same time, the fleet that Durla had been building was ready and awaiting word to attack the homeworlds of the members of the Alliance. Vir realized that matters were coming to a head, and returned home to take care of this crisis.
When he got home, Londo was able to give Vir a covert message that said the Tower of Power had to be destroyed. Vir's people destroyed the tower, which revealed the Drakh presence not only to the Centauri, but to the Alliance as well. Vir gave a holographic address to the Centauri people in which he told them that the Drakh had manipulated them. Durla tried to activate the fleet himself, but was killed by his wife before he could send the activation codes to the fleet.
The Drakh made a show of leaving Centauri Prime. Shiv'kala instructed Londo to kill Vir, Sheridan, and Delenn. Londo refused, and told Shiv'kala to leave his world. Even though the Drakh had fusion bombs, Londo thought they were bluffing. He badly miscalculated when the Drakh blew up a third of the bombs, which caused a planet-wide nuclear holocaust. The Techomages were able to remove the remaining bombs.
Emperor Vir Cotto
With the death of Emperor Mollari at the hands of G'Kar, Vir killed Mollari's keeper. After being approached by several Drakhs, he managed to escape from the throne room by jumping out the throne room window on to a waiting shuttle. From there Vir went to the Minbari homeworld.
The remaining heads of the Centauri houses met him there. He was able to persuade the nobles into recognizing his claim as Emperor. He ordered the military forces to begin a campaign against the Drakh.
After the Drakh left Centauri Prime, Emperor Cotto set about the reconstruction of the Centauri homeworld, which had been damaged by Drakh bombs. He was given Interstellar Alliance assistance in this.
When Sheridan found that he was dying, he invited Vir Cotto to Minbar to have one last meal with him. When it came time to toast colleagues who had died, Vir lifted his glass to Londo Mollari.
Current Status
After Sheridan's death, and the destruction of Babylon 5, Emperor Cotto returned to Centauri Prime. Former Babylon 5 security chief Zack Allen accompanied him, and served as his assistant. Emperor Cotto continues to rule the Centauri with wisdom and justice.
Quote
- I'd like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I want to look up at your lifeless eyes and wave like this. Can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?
— Vir offering his own answer to Morden's favourite question, "What do you want?"