Vry Lötter

Vry Lötter was born on December 6, 2010, near Cape Town, South Africa, to an Afrikaans mother, Marta Lötter, and an Afrikaner father known only as Grappie. Marta, determined to make a life for herself and her child, moved to Darling, a small town about 65 kilometers from both Cape Town and Vredenburg. Vry’s father came from a wealthier background and had been “slumming it” when he met Marta. He quickly left upon learning of her pregnancy, providing only a small monthly stipend through a shell corporation. This stipend, while appreciated, served as a constant reminder of his absence.

Vry grew up in a low-income, single-parent household, learning early on to be self-reliant. His mother worked long hours to keep them afloat, and from a young age, Vry spent much of his time alone. He struggled with structured schooling, finding it difficult to focus in class and frequently clashing with authority. By his teenage years, it became clear that traditional education wasn’t a good fit. Recognizing his intelligence and determination, Marta allowed him to pursue self-homeschooling with access to the local library.

Vry found solace in the library’s shelves, devouring books on technology, coding, and stories of innovation. His world expanded when he struck up a friendship with Pieter Klum, the German expat owner of a dusty internet café in Darling. In exchange for cleaning up the place, Vry gained free internet access, where he taught himself everything from basic computer repairs to advanced programming. Pieter, seeing potential in the scrawny teenager, taught him simple repairs, which Vry quickly mastered. This newfound access to the online world allowed him to pick up odd jobs and build a reputation as the local kid who could fix anything tech-related.

In late 2024, whispers of a massive new construction project called Xland, led by Elon Musk, began to spread near Vredenburg. Vry, intrigued by Musk’s vision and hoping to find employment, convinced his mother to let him travel to the project site. Armed with a moped and a few borrowed tools, he began making the long trip to Vredenburg, staying away from home for weeks at a time and sleeping in makeshift accommodations around the project’s perimeter.

At 13, Vry found ways to make himself useful at Xland, helping with small tasks like organizing tools, fixing minor equipment issues, and troubleshooting network connections when the need arose. As he proved his worth to contractors and workers, he became a familiar face around the site. Eventually, he moved into the small, makeshift tent community of workers who lived on the property’s edge.

He split his time between being as useful as possible and investigating various areas of Xland. It seemed to him that most of the early efforts focused on three main areas: self-sufficiency, infrastructure, and a backup mission control for Starlink. Vry kept his ears open, often sacrificing sleep to learn more about these endeavors.

By 2026, Vry had spent nearly a year and a half at Xland, growing tougher and more resourceful. His scrawny frame masked a sharp mind, one that saw patterns and solutions where others saw problems. When the Great Collapse hit, causing global economic chaos, the Western Cape Coastal Plain remained relatively stable. Vry, like many others, clung to Xland as a place of refuge. It wasn’t immune to hardship, but Musk’s preparations kept the lights on and the community intact.

In May 2026, as Musk, Grimes, and their daughter Exa settled permanently on-site, Vry found himself at the center of the project's transition. Musk gathered the workers to explain the full scope of the collapse and outlined his vision for rebuilding civilization through Xland. Those who stayed would work for room and board, with access to food and water. Vry saw this as his chance not only to secure a place in the new order but also to get closer to Musk, a man he had long admired from afar.

Musk’s management style favored meritocracy over politics, allowing Vry to rise quickly through the ranks at Xland. His knack for thinking outside the box and his life-honed ability to adapt to chaos proved invaluable in the post-collapse world. By 2031, at just 20 years old, he was leading one of the Starlink subsections, reporting directly to the man who, in turn, reported to Musk.

Two years later, in 2033, Vry was pulled from his position to join Musk's "Odd Tasks" task force—a specialized think tank focused on identifying emerging threats and finding ways to improve the overall system. With access to extensive resources, and information, his only oversight came from the rest of the task force and Musk himself, to whom he now reported directly.