Dr. Harding

Dr. Harding was a highly talented genius who developed many types of machines and creatures. Born on earth, he was adopted by Dr. Kincaid who found him in a park. Seeing his vast potential, the leaders of earth attempted to use him to try and find a way to save earth's population. Dr. Harding is credited with the creation of Atherton, as well as most of the creatures inhabiting it and earth. It is said that this gave Dr. Harding a bit of a god complex, near the original completion of Atherton. Upon Atherton being completed, he abandoned earth and the human population there, wiping his own mind. Eventually, the polluted earth was almost completely overrun by Dr. Harding's creations.

Dr. Harding had a fear of flying animals, such as birds and the Nubian he developed, but was unable to bring himself to destroy his creations, instead hiding them inside Atherton.

In the Atherton: Rivers of Fire, Lord Phineus is revealed to be Dr. Harding, with his memory wiped. Dr. Harding also reveals that he created Edgar, as a synthetic human, with no mother, just as Atherton was created. After Emerik kidnaps Edgar, Dr. Harding rescues Edgar and kills Emerik. As the water level rises, Dr. Harding brings out an emergency boat he once crafted, and gives it the Edgar. As Edgar escapes, Dr. Harding lies in the water, and dreams of when he was a child, and also alone in a boat, as he drowns.

In Atherton: The Dark Planet: Edgar finds a prerecorded message from Dr. Harding on the Raven. When Edgar reaches Station 7 and finds the silo, he finds out that Dr. Harding grew up there. Legends of Dr. Harding are spread around the silo, and Dr, Harding left behind many traces of his stay there. Among them is a weapon given to Grace, the nurse, to help protect the children from being abused, and statues of the Centurion Gossamer. The statues of Gossamer start small enough to fit into a person's hand, but eventually progress in size, to about twice the size of a Spiker.