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Souther (サウザー, Sauzā), known by the title of Holy Emperor (聖帝, Seitei), is the main antagonist of the Souther arc in Hokuto no Ken and the only one of the six grand masters of Nanto Seiken to have never been defeated before Kenshiro. Successor of Nanto Hō-ō Ken (南斗鳳凰拳, "Fist of the Phoenix of the South Star"), the most powerful of the 108 styles of Nanto Seiken, he bears the destiny of the Star of Leadership (将星, Shōsei), also called the Polar Star (極星, Kyokusei) or the Star of the Southern Cross (南十字星, Minami Jūji Sei): since the Nanto constellation is governed by this star, no other successor of Nanto Seiken can defeat him. A brutal and utterly ruthless figure in appearance, Souther is in reality one of the most tragic characters in the series, a man who killed the compassion within himself after an unbearable loss, and built his empire on a pain he cannot name.
Nanto Hō-ō Ken is the most powerful branch of Nanto Seiken and the only one, along with Hokuto Shinken, to follow the rule of Isshi Sōden (one master, one successor). A purely offensive style with no defensive stance, it combines devastating aerial strikes with phenomenal speed, capable of carving cross-shaped marks into an opponent's flesh in mid-flight. The school's signature technique, the only stance it adopts when facing an opponent deemed worthy, is the Tenshō Jūji Hō (天翔十字鳳, "Celestial Ascending Cross Phoenix"), an aerial attack that dives down upon the opponent like a phoenix from the heights.
What makes Souther truly formidable beyond this power is his anatomical secret. He was born with dextrocardia with situs inversus totalis, an extremely rare congenital anomaly that reverses the position of all his internal organs. His heart is on the right side, and all of his pressure points are a mirror image of their usual placement. The techniques of Hokuto Shinken, which strike precise pressure points, are therefore ineffective against him: this is what earns him his nickname of Armor of the Emperor (聖帝の鎧, Seitei no Yoroi) and what inflicts on Kenshiro one of his rare defeats during their first confrontation.
Souther's past is revealed progressively and constitutes the key to understanding all of his behavior. An orphan taken in as a child by Ōgai (王凱), his master and adoptive father, Souther grew up in complete devotion to the man who raised him. But Nanto Hō-ō Ken, like Hokuto Shinken, requires that the disciple kill his own master to attain the full power of the style. Ōgai therefore orchestrated his own death without Souther's knowledge: during the final trial of his training, Souther had to fight blindfolded against an unknown opponent, whom he defeated only to discover, upon removing the man's mask, that it was his own master. This act, involuntarily killing the man he loved more than anything in order to fulfill his destiny, broke something inside him.
His reaction to this trauma was to condemn and entirely reject love and compassion, holding them responsible for his pain. He built his identity as Holy Emperor as armor against all emotion, ordering the enslavement of children to erect his Mausoleum of the Holy Cross (聖十字陵, Sei Jūji Ryō), a funerary monument for his master but also an expression of his refusal to let Ōgai's death remain without a monument commensurate with his loss.
Souther's antagonism is embodied in his relationship with Shû, successor of Nanto Hakurō Ken and leader of the resistance. Souther was in fact present during the Nanto Jūnin Kumite where Shû had sacrificed his eyes to save the young Kenshiro, a gesture of absolute compassion that Souther has regarded with contempt ever since. It was actually Souther himself who had ordered the execution of the child Kenshiro at the time, in accordance with Nanto law. When he finally captures Shû, after Kenshiro's escape orchestrated by Shiva at the cost of his life, Souther forces him to carry the capstone of his pyramid, his legs severed to prevent him from fighting, before executing him at the summit. This staging is deliberately symbolic: Souther destroys what Shû represents, hope and self-sacrifice for others, by forcing him to unwillingly contribute to the construction of this monument. Souther is furthermore responsible for the chaos tearing apart the Nanto Rokusei Ken: he is the one who manipulates Yuda into betraying his own and joining the empire of Raoh, thus fragmenting his own Nanto rivals.
During their second fight, Kenshiro discovered Souther's anatomical secret thanks to Toki, and adapted his strikes accordingly. He first used the secret technique Tenha Kassatsu (天破活殺), which transmits tōki through the fingertips to strike vital points at a distance and through the body, thus shattering the Armor of the Emperor. However, Kenshiro chose to finish him off with the Hokuto Ujō Mōshō Ha (北斗有情猛翔破), an uppercut derived from the Hokuto Ujōken (北斗有情拳) developed by Toki, which causes the opponent to die without pain by granting the compassion of a peaceful end. In his final moments, Souther managed to embrace the mummified body of Ōgai at the sanctuary he had built in his honor, and died finding again the warmth of an embrace that had been denied to him by his very destiny. The suffering that had governed his entire life dissolved in this final image, at once a tragic resolution and a release. The fight concludes in chapter 97 of the manga, titled Ai Fukaku Yueni Otsu (愛深きゆえに堕つ, "Defeated by a love too deep").
Souther appears in the film Shin Kyūseishu Densetsu Hokuto no Ken : Raō Den Junai no Shō (2006) in a reworked version of his arc, with no reference to Ōgai or the Mausoleum as the master's tomb; in this adaptation, he refuses Kenshiro's pity and pierces his own heart. The spin-off Ten no Haō briefly features him before the events of the main manga, during the period when he trains alongside a young Raoh under the watchful eyes of their respective masters. Even more original, the one-shot Hokuto no Ken Ichigo Aji : Souther Gedōden - NANTO of MEET (北斗の拳イチゴ味 サウザー外道伝 NANTO OF MEET, 2014) makes him the main protagonist for the first time, in a parodic tone. Souther is voiced by Banjō Ginga in the original television series and by Akio Ōtsuka in Shin Kyūseishu Densetsu.
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