History Characters / HouseOfAshes

[[folder:Eric Edmund King]]

* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:During The Assault, he is rather painfully eaten by several of the vampires. If he is not killed by a vampiriezed Clarice.]]

* TheHero: Arguably even more than [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Jason]], as Salim is the most sympathetic out of the main characters, and [[spoiler: ends up killing the most vampires with his BladeOnAStick weapon. He also is the one to discover their weakness to sunlight, and can even kill The Ancient One to save Nick’s life. He even is one of the characters(along with Nick and Jason) to have PlotArmor that prevents him from dying until the last few chapters. His knowledge of the vampires also ends up being the subject of several major plot points]].

* BladeOnAStick: He is an able hand with a throwing spear and can skewer a Gautian captive. [[spoiler:If he's the Ancient One, he hasn't lost his touch, and can skewer Rachel, Jason, Nick, Salim, or any combination of them]].

* BladeOnAStick: After losing his assault rifle, his weapon of choice is a three foot L-shaped steel beam: a salvaged bit of bumper from a crashed truck. [[spoiler: Fortuitously, a metal stake turns out to be much more effective against the vampires than bullets are.]]

%%No citation* BerserkButton: DO NOT USE GOD’S NAME IN VAIN AROUND HIM.

%%No citation* CharacterDevelopment: Starts as an enemy of the Americans, but can warm up to them and even help them survive.

* ProtectiveCharm: He has a gold crucifix given to him by the fatally wounded [[spoiler:Joey]]. He later has the option of using it on the Ancient One, which stops it in its tracks. In a subversion, [[spoiler: it does stop the Ancient One but not because it is magic, but because the Ancient One was curious about it]].

* ICallItVera: He brought a Vickers machine gun, which he dubbed "Bessie," along for the expedition, presumably for use against bandits. According to the story, he used it to fight off vampires before getting overwhelmed. The gun remains where it was, and Rachel can use it to fight off monsters decades later.

* ImmuneToBullets: Modern assault rifles are only about as effective against them as pepper spray is against humans. An old fashioned Vickers heavy machinegun, though, is at minimum able to knock them out.

* ItCanThink: He retains his warrior skills. He's just as capable with a spear as he was during Naram-Sin's reign. He is also possessed of human curiosity and will look at Nick's gold crucifix. [[spoiler:This stalls him long enough to make the battle go in the protagonist's favor.]]
* LightningBruiser: The Ancient One is tirelessly fast and tireless in comparison to humans.

* NoSell: [[spoiler:For some reason, his undead form is not affected by UV Light the same way the creatures are, although it does blind him. Joey's vampire form combusts in seconds when exposed to the light, and even the ZombieInfectee Rachael can be seen to be partially smoking when Eric uses the lamp to burn the parasite out of her, but the Ancient One can withstand the light for seconds without even smouldering under it, with the only effect it has being that he's BlindedByTheLight. This greatly enhances his threat level as he's immune to the best defence the protagonists have against the vampires, in addition to his greater intelligence, combat skills and the Vampire's shared toughness to shrug off or endure multiple bullets to the torso, creating an EliteMook the heroes have to struggle against despite their greater weaponry. It's implied that his immunity is possibly the result of a human host having spent thousand of years being transformed into a vampire, allowing the parasite to enhance the body's natural capabilities like resistance to UV radiation, though he's never exposed to natural sunlight, so it's unclear if he would be similarly resistant to that as he is to the artificial UV light]].
* TheUnfought: [[spoiler: If Nick approaches the main cocoon cluster to rig it to explode, The Ancient One is killed by Salim InTheBack when he's giving Nick a NeckLift.]]

* ActionGirl: Trained military and consistently fights off both the monsters and Iraqi military opposition. One notable scene allows her to use a Vickers machine gun and shoot off half a dozen of the vampires.

* BattleCouple: Shall she survive until the end, she can become one with [[spoiler:Eric or Nick, an Air Force officer and a Marine]].

[[center:[[WMG:''Characters/TheDarkPicturesAnthology'' characters index\\

Season 1: ''Characters/ManOfMedan'' | ''Characters/LittleHope'' | '''''House of Ashes''''' | ''Characters/TheDevilInMe'']]]]

* ImmuneToBullets: As the group discover, bullets only piss them off. A sufficiently ''large'' gun can slow them down for a moment, but they are effectively invulnerable against bullets.

* ExperiencedProtagonist: A skilled Marine and of the toughest characters in the game as he easily carries Joey and lifts heavy objects in the temple. He’s also a capable combatant as he can kill several vampires and even the Ancient One, despite the latter holding him by the throat.

* SecondLove: To Rachel, who got into relationship with him after her marriage with Eric fell apart. [[spoiler:Whether he remains this until the end depends on the player ''and'' if he and Rachel both survive until the end]].

* TheUnfought: [[spoiler: If Nick approaches the main cocoon cluster to rig it to explode, Kurum is killed by Salim InTheBack when he's giving Nick a NeckLift.]]

* AmbiguouslyEvil: [[spoiler: He seems to have lied about Lady Bradshaw in his journal entries, claiming that he was forced to kill her after she turned into a vampire and killed Van Huyten. This is contradicted by the fact that Bradshaw's corpse shows no sign of infection as both her front teeth are intact. It seems that Mary killed Van Huyten and Randolph covered it up.]]