Due to the nature of Deus Ex and wiki policy on spoiler tags, parts of this article contain major unmarked spoilers regarding the game's plot twists and reveals. You Have Been Warned.

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JC Denton

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2c1725bf_47b4_4c6c_9545_cf4f34831cd0.png

His vision is augmented.

Voiced by: Jay Anthony Franke

Appears in: Deus Ex | Deus Ex: Invisible War

"This is why I exist? All right, let's do this."

The player character and main protagonist of the game, an augmented agent of UNATCO tasked with defeating the NSF, only to find out that the situation is considerably more complicated than it seems...

Badass Longcoat: Lampshaded when Anna tells you you will have to do more than just scare your enemies with a coat that makes you look bigger than you really are.
Bio-Augmentation: He has the latest technology by the time the game comes rolling by, leading to trust issues from his colleagues with older tech.
Character Development: Done very subtly. At the beginning of the game, JC is very much a shoot first, ask questions later kind of guy. He talks down to terrorists and promotes UNATCO's mission, but is notably shortsighted in philosophical conversations. The NSF Leader on Liberty Island, the bar patrons in New York, and a large number of NPCs in China all run circles around him and often end conversations by completely trumping his narrow viewpoints. As the game continues and JC is exposed to more of the conspiracy, his positions begin to soften and he becomes more willing to hear out other perspectives. The endgame is the logical conclusion of this; JC decides to listen to one of the three people supporting him in the raid on Area 51, with each person giving a fairly reasonable argument to support their viewpoint. JC must choose to follow which of these he want based on his own reasoning.
Code Name: The player is prompted to enter JC's real name, which will be used in written correspondence, but "JC Denton" is the UNATCO-issued codename the world will better know the character by.
Combo Platter Powers: The various augmentations available, from Super-Speed to regeneration to bulletproof skin to completely silent movement and invisibility...
The Comically Serious: He keeps his straight face and monotone delivery, even as he blurts out the most ridiculous quips in the game.
Cool Shades: He even wears them at night, although his augmented vision helps prevent the world from being too shady. The shades are to hide his eyes.
Creepy Monotone: Intended to allow the player to insert their own emotion, though even divorced from its justification, it fits JC's character design.
Dark Is Not Evil: JC is as dark and serious as his brother, but he's good. Ultimately, he's revealed to be loyal to the ideals that UNATCO was founded on, and his main concern throughout the game is protecting the populace from insane criminals and despots while trying to maintain that idealism.
Deadpan Snarker: JC Denton has a few witty quotes in line with such.
"What a shame."
"A bomb's a bad choice for close-range combat."
"You mechs may have copper wiring to reroute your fear of pain, but I've got nerves of steel."
"I was never properly trained in its operation."
"Does that mean I don't get the job?"
Deity of Human Origin: He starts as an ordinary man, albeit one augmented with nanotechnology, and through his merge with Helios ascends to become a god.
The Dreaded: Becomes this to his enemies, which is occasionally seen in Enemy Chatter.
Electronic Eyes: "My vision is augmented." In gameplay, this allows you to have a built-in flashlight, and depending on your choice of augs the game progresses, advanced vision to help you in combat.
Expy: His outfit is lifted straight from Wesley Snipes in Blade. Aspects of his character also carry tones of Neo from The Matrix.
From Zero to Hero: The game starts with him on his first day on the job, being sent to Liberty Island alone with nothing more than a "pistol and a riot prod", much to the chagrin of his brother. By the final missions, JC represents the clearest and present threat to MJ12, with troopers whispering about his whereabouts and Bob Page mistakenly believing him to be a "punk" before begging him to stop what he's doing while in Area 51.
Genius Bruiser: While possibly and at least built to be a killing machine, at more than a few points, such as with the bartender in China and with Morpheus, is quite able to sit down and talk philosophy. It helps that the nanotech augs involve optimizing the brain for intelligence.
Glass Cannon: On Realistic difficulty. A headshot is a lethal takedown. Or several torso shots. On Medium difficulty though...
A God Am I: As of Invisible War, as a result of merging with Helios, JC has assumed a nigh-omnipotent form in Antarctica, essentially functioning as a Universal Constructor, weather controller and alter matter at will.
Good Is Not Soft: If you play Denton violently without concern for the safety of civilians he'll come across as this, mentioning the UNATCO policy of not making any deals as justification for his actions.
Happily Adopted: Like Paul, he was fond of his adoptive parents.
Healing Factor: Regeneration is, unsurprisingly, the most popular augmentation amongst most players, especially since at full power you regain health faster than a roomful of enemies with assault rifles going full auto can take it away.
He Knows Too Much: After what happened at the airfield, Paul opts to finally let the bullet drop and reveal the truth behind UNATCO and a part of the greater conspiracy at large, requesting JC hack their own agency's broadcasts to be the proof of the matter. No matter how loyal JC was to UNATCO up to this point, Walton Simons will declare him a traitor for finding out too much to be left alone, and this kicks off the rest of the game as the conspiracy comes to learn it was a bad idea to make an enemy of JC.
Hyperspace Arsenal: JC has a lot of space in that coat.
The Immune: JC is immune to the symptoms of Gray Death... because the Gray Death is a nano-mechanical virus with the same hardware architecture as his nano-augs.
Immune to Bullets: Can be depending on your difficulty setting and augs selection.
Implacable Man: Despite having plans B, C, D, E, and F, JC Denton just keeps mowing through Majestic-12's plans. It's a pretty good bet that when JC shows up, MJ12's shit is gonna get wrecked.
Inhuman Eye Concealers: Wears sunglasses all the time to disguise his only visible augmentations - namely his glowing blue eyes.
Jack of All Trades: Investing into skills in moderation allows JC to be this; he cannot become a Master of All (not without exploits or cheats). Quite a bit of newcomers forget that fact, thus making Denton a Master of None, since they invest into useful skills, like Swimming.
Jumped at the Call: If you choose the Helios ending: "This is why I exist? Alright. Let's do this."
Just a Machine: Initially has this opinion of Helios; he is unable to comprehend why it acts the way it does without human ambition behind it.
Meaningful Name: He becomes a Messianic Archetype in one of the endings.
Messianic Archetype: His initials are JC, he has a herald named Paul and a predecessor named Adam, and two endings have him sacrifice himself to save the world, with one of them resulting in him Ascending to a Higher Plane of Existence.
Morality Pet: Civilians, depending on how you play him. He shows a little warmth should you, for instance, give a hungry child something to eat. He's also kind to the Rentons in dialogue, saying that he'd "love to stay and chat" at one point, although there's nothing stopping you from killing them both, and his reaction to Gilbert's death should you let that happen is memetically underwhelming.
Naïve Newcomer: At first.
Nanotechnology: He has prototype nanotech augmentations that give him a whole host of powers.
Nerves of Steel: He has them. He can even troll Anna.
"You mechs may have copper wiring to reroute your fear of pain, but I've got nerves of steel."
Nigh-Invulnerable:
- It's possible to make him this to pretty much anything but long falls or explosions at point-blank range, even on realistic difficulty.
- In Invisible War, he's become this, having become so absurdly powerful in the interim that it's implied his actual form is still in Antarctica, and that he's sent some controllable version of himself in his stead to siege Liberty Island.
One-Man Army: What you are considered after the halfway point of the game.
Phlebotinum Rebel: Oh yes indeed. From expendable prototype testbed for the real deal in the head conspirators to bane of the head conspirators' existence.
Physical God: After the merge with Helios there's pretty much no upper limit to his powers.
Pro-Human Transhuman: Despite all of the efforts of Page and Simons and all the other MJ12 conspirators, they failed to turn him into the perfect nano-supersoldier because JC still had a conscience. This is precisely why Helios wants to merge with JC and not Bob Page as well: the "Pro-Human" part for an understanding of the people it intends to govern, and the "transhuman" part for the technicalities of the assimilation.
Properly Paranoid: JC can be this.
Reality Warper: While "offline" and uncontrolled in Antarctica, his memories start manifesting in the real world. He says they're only physical copies, but they're clearly more than that (one of them includes the entire Hong Kong cityscape, including the sky).
Red-Headed Hero: One of the options for him is this.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Zigzagged with his brother Paul.
- JC can be played as someone who thinks before he shoots, but that still doesn't get around the fact that he usually has a far higher propensity to shoot than his brother (unless you go full Pacifist), making him Red to Paul's Blue.
- It can also work the other way since JC is stoic and dry (Blue) while his brother is much more emotional and social (Red).
Required Secondary Powers: He's been genetically modified, but the only direct enhancement this provides is the ability to use nanotechnology without his body rejecting it.
Sealed Good in a Can: In Invisible War.
Significant Monogram: Word of God (that is, Warren Spector) is that "JC" literally stands for "Jesus Christ". Earlier drafts of the game had him be a direct descendant of Jesus Christ. That being said, the initial impetus for the name JC Denton came from Warren Spector having an apparently extremely-nice friend named Bradley Denton who was just so helpful that he led to Spector frequently jokingly groan "Jesus Christ, Denton" at him.
Spanner in the Works: Denton was supposed to be another bio-augmented agent for helping deal with terrorists in cementing UNATCO's authority. Thanks to Paul, he goes from just a beyond-normal agent to the single number one threat to the entire global conspiracy, to the point that the sequel makes him a Physical God for it.
Stealth Expert: You can play him this way, and certain characters will encourage him to be this.
The Stoic: Is usually not very emotional. One scene has him being told he was genetically engineered, and he responds with a 'So what? My brother and I suspected when we were growing up.'
Sunglasses at Night: Lampshaded by Anna, and Handwaved via JC's 'My vision is augmented' explanation. In game terms, the reason probably has something to do with the fact that the glasses conceal one of the only visible signs that JC is a nano-aug.
Super Prototype: He and his brother were testbeds for nanotech augmentation, which ultimately turned out to be rather expensive, and also had problems with the mental augmentation aspects making them too independently thinking (and thus retaining a conscience). The "Series P" is considered a more cost-effective alternative to the "Series N" that JC and Paul are in, but don't quite stack up to the latter's potential.
Super-Soldier: He's technically this right from the get-go, but it's only after you've got a few augs that he really fits the bill.
Swiss-Cheese Security: His Infolink is stated by Alex Jacobson to be on 24/7, making it so that UNATCO always has some form of trying to contact him — and as the game continues, more and more people get a direct line to him. By the end of his game, every faction leader (and then some) will be barking requests, demands and pleas into his ear as he runs around Area 51.
Transhuman: His body is swimming with symbiotic nanite/virus hybrids. He and his brother are the harbingers of the next generation of human augmentation; a true fusion of man and machine instead of a mottled patchwork of meat and metal. A brief from Jaime Reyes says "every neuron in your head" is augmented.
Troll: In addition to his usual snarking, he'll occasionally say absurd things to random people just to see how they react.
True Companions: This is why when JC finally decides to jump ship from his traitorous employers, so many of his senior co-workers join him or stay undercover.
Tyke-Bomb: Born and bred to be a super soldier. And if the emails in Area 51 are true, he is still only a few years old. However, the information in the end game conflicts with each other.
Undying Loyalty: Unless you play him differently, he comes off as very loyal to UNATCO. But one look beneath the carpet is enough to convince him otherwise.
Weak, but Skilled: On the "Realistic" difficulty setting. It's still possible to go through the game as an One-Man Army, but you have to be extra careful.
Wide-Eyed Idealist: He maintains a stubborn belief in the virtues of democracy all the way to The Very Definitely Final Dungeon, even as he encounters first-hand how the villains and even some of his own allies have subverted said democracy time and time again.
Younger Than They Look: Looks and sounds like he's in his 40s, yet he's only 23.

UNATCO

In General

UNATCO

The United Nations Anti-Terrorist Coalition is an organization that operates off Liberty Island and hunts terrorists with seemingly unlimited authority.

Black Eyes of Crazy: Not crazy per se, but the "UNATCO trooper" model has black augmented eyes and some of them are a bit too trigger-happy.
Blood Knight: It becomes increasingly apparent that many of the top agents and rank-and-file soldiers, including Anna and Gunther, are way too trigger-happy and content to leave battlefields as graveyards, despite the concern of senior personnel. Non-lethal equipment (like Gas Grenades) is treated as a joke by the troopers, and they themselves will bad-mouth JC (up to and including requesting reassignment, in Anna's case) if he's too "gentle" with his enemies. There's a very good reason for that, though.
Conspiracy Redemption: The majority of its upper leadership eventually turns against it as Walton Simons flexes his authority.
Cloak and Dagger: It is a group that operates squarely in this field.
Government Agency of Fiction: Obviously so.
Hero Antagonist: Any of the named UNATCO soldiers, including Corporal Collins (the first trooper you meet at the Liberty Island dock) and Lloyd (the front-desk clerk) functionally become this during JC's escape from the building, complete with their names being simply referred to as "UNATCO Trooper".
Over-the-Top Secret: The organization's internal hierarchy of security clearances. The official system you are informed of early on follows the Hierarchy of Angels, with nine levels from "Angel" (lowest) to "Seraphim" (highest). Later on, you hear there is a level above this, naturally titled "God".
Super-Soldier: Its employment of several of these is what makes UNATCO so effective.
United Nations Is a Superpower: A United Nations agency with its own trigger-happy army and unlimited jurisdiction.
Unwitting Pawn: The majority of its members are this, serving the interests of Bob Page and his agenda.
Villain with Good Publicity: People believe strongly in UNATCO. This, despite the fact it's nothing more than a catspaw of Majestic-12.

Paul Denton

Voiced by: Jay Anthony Franke

Appears in: Deus Ex | Deus Ex: Invisible War

"This isn't a training exercise, JC. Your targets will be human beings. Keep that in mind."

J.C.'s brother and fellow augmented agent.

Badass in Distress: The key moment where the plot shifts in the early game is when JC is diverted by Jock to help Paul, who has had his killswitch activated and will die within 24 hours. Once you help him send the NSF signal, you can either choose to heed his warnings and escape from the 'Ton (forcing him to fight the encroaching troopers and Men in Black alone, and resulting in his death) or fighting alongside him, to which he will escape (though be caught again soon after by UNATCO, forcing you to help him again).
Badass Longcoat: Wears one akin to his younger brother.
Bio-Augmentation: The first Nanotechnology-augmented agent employed in the field by UNATCO.
Conspiracy Theorist: At the Airfield, he goes on about a wide-ranging conspiracy that goes all the way back to "old-money" families like the Rockefellers and Bilderbergs, speculating on the reasons why they took certain courses of action and how it resulted in the world's current predicament. Of course, in the Deus Ex universe, he is completely right.
Cutting Off the Branches: Paul can potentially die in Deus Ex after he is outed as The Mole for the NSF, but Invisible War treats his survival as the canon outcome.
Foreshadowing: Counsels nonlethal takedowns when dealing with the NSF, which contradicts JC's standing orders to shoot to kill.
Happily Adopted: Indicates he liked his parents and JC mentions he and Paul realized they were not genetically related growing up.
Heel–Face Turn: When he joins the NSF, given who the villains are.
The Immune: Just like JC, and for the same reasons. He (and JC by extension) tests positive for Gray Death because of it.
Meaningful Name: Saul changed his name to Paul when he decided to switch sides from persecuting the early Christians to converting to Christianity. Paul Denton goes from persecuting the NSF to joining them.
Mission Control: Functions as this in the early part of the game, though he does make a pair of appearances in the final level if the player saved his life.
The Mole: Is revealed to have been working as one for the NSF.
One-Man Army: Under the right circumstances (on Liberty Island and in the 'Ton), it's possible to set him loose against a horde of enemies, who he will mow through effortlessly.
Out of Focus: In the first part of the game, Paul is a very prominent character, being arguably the Deuteragonist to JC's protagonist. However, when his role as The Mole for the NSF is revealed, his importance to the story quickly and effectively drops off, and he can even potentially die, depending on player choices. Even if he survives, he ends up injured (despite Tracer Tong turning off the killswitch) and is forced to lay low and recuperate in Hong Kong. The only time he'll appear after this is during the final mission, where he will appear on a holoprojector and give JC some motivation for his final decision.
Phlebotinum Rebel: Rebelled before JC did. However, not as successful at it as JC was.
Plot Armor: A subversion; he cannot be killed by any means until the raid on the 'Ton Hotel — and only if you bother to go out the back window, as he orders you to. If you stick around and fight with him, he'll more than likely clear out the troops on his own, allowing JC to exit through the front and save him.
Pro-Human Transhuman: Just like his little brother, described above.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue to his little bro JC's potential Red. He's the one who urges you basically to think before you shoot.
Sealed Good in a Can: During Invisible War, the player learns that he's been in a coma for a significant time, and a key part of the last few missions is choosing whether to rescue him or not.
Spanner in the Works: While JC had a conscience, Paul is the single biggest catalyst for his rebellion against UNATCO by revealing the truth— at which point their own allies immediately go to arrest JC and Paul one way or another. There's also the opening's implication that not even Simmons or Page had any idea that Paul had been working with the NSF for some time. It's thanks to this that undoing of the conspiracy and every bit of plot going forwards can occur.
Super-Soldier: Like JC, he is outfitted with several augs that greatly increase his combat skills.
Technical Pacifist: Will lecture the player on avoiding fatalities, but put him in a room with a hostile and he'll gib the poor guy with a plasma rifle. Subverted. He's secretly a member of the NSF, so he's aiding them by making sure none of them dies, which is why when JC joins him, he drops this line of thought entirely. Under the right circumstances, he will reveal his true colors and turn on UNATCO troops, with lethal results. Some mods (such as Revision and GMDX) accurately reflect this philosophy in the opening mission by giving him a non-lethal tranq crossbow.
Transhuman: Like JC, his body tissues are awash in nanite/virus hybrids that augment him on the cellular level.
Wham Line: As JC approaches Lebedev's jet, Paul will contact him and reveal that he ordered the troops to stand down, as well as how he's with the NSF.

Anna Navarre

"I do not expect you to perform as well as Agent Hermann, but the mission will require us to do more than frighten the NSF with our baggy coats that make us look bigger than we really are."

Voiced by: Carolyin McCormick

A mechanically augmented UNATCO agent.

Ax-Crazy: She enjoys killing people; she has a body count of over 900.
Badass Israeli: She has killed over nine hundred enemies.
The Baroness: Anna Navarre is a sadistic woman with a Russian-ish accent in black leather, resembling the Trope Namer.
Blood Knight: Anna’s SOP for any hostile situation is ”kill everything!”
Anna: (at Battery Park) President Mead has declared a war emergency. Shoot to kill.
Body-Count Competition: She and Gunther seem to have such a competition. If the Player Character is killed by Anna, she’ll sometimes say ”Nine hundred and ten. I’m catching up, Gunther.”
Expy: Is styled almost exactly like Domino from X-Force, complete with black markings over her eye and surrounding area.
Hidden Depths: Discloses very little of her worldview in dialogue, and mostly lives up to her bloodthirsty reputation in the field; however, her personal politics can be discerned by peeking at her writings on certain terminals. Notably, she waxes lyrical of the virtues of mass surveillance and advocates for a purely virtual economy.
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Tiny is pushing it, but she certainly is compared to Gunther.
In Love with Your Carnage: If JC cuts a bloody swath through the NSF, she'll be heard praising Agent Denton's ruthless efficiency. Note, she will not approve of JC killing anyone who is not NSF.
Invisibility: Anna’s augment of choice. She also runs the tutorial on stealth.
Ironic Echo: If you choose the humbler response after Castle Clinton, JC will propose using EMP grenades to deal with the terrorists' detonators, and Anna will remark, "We are thinking the same thought." Later on, if JC encounters her in the subway while trying to escape from UNATCO, he will say that he'd rather die than be loyal to Simons, and Anna replies with, "We are thinking the same thought," in a darker context.
Irony: Anna will berate you if you go the pacifist route, but she’s the first character you have to kill in order to proceed.
Jerkass: Unless you're a merciless killer, she treats you like crap. However, showing a little humility and deferring to her early on during the second mission will delay some of her more abrasive tendencies, but still, she'll wind up treating you like shit for not being a cold-blooded killer sooner or later. She has her reasons, however; both she and Gunther know you're going to replace them at some point.
Platonic Life-Partners: With Gunther.
The Resenter: Towards Paul for being too soft on the NSF, and also JC should he follow in his brother's footsteps. The latter can be averted by killing enemies when you work together with her.
Self-Destruct Mechanism: Has one triggered by the phrase ”Flatlander Woman”.
Skippable Boss: You can kill Anna when she intervenes during your meeting with Lebedev, which obviously cancels her boss fight. And of course, both she and Gunther have killphrases that you can learn to kill them with no more expenditure than a breath.
Stealth Expert: She teaches you about stealth in the Training section. She can also turn invisible.
Story-Driven Invulnerability: Loses hers in Lebedev’s jet, which is the first out of three different opportunities to kill her.
Super-Soldier: She's a cybernetically enhanced killing machine.
Token Evil Teammate: For a peacekeeping organization, Anna has an unquenchable bloodthirst. This was before UNATCO's true colors were revealed.
Villainous Friendship: With Gunther.
Why Am I Ticking?: During her Skippable Boss fight:
JC Denton: I know your secret... Flatlander Woman.
Anna: (realizes she's about to explode) How did you know...?

Gunther Hermann

"I wanted orange. It gave me lemon-lime."

Voiced by: Jeff Groteboer

A mechanically augmented UNATCO agent.

The Ahnold: He's a muscular cyborg with a thick German accent.
Arc Villain: Of Paris.
Ax-Crazy: Particularly after you kill Anna.
Bald of Evil: He has metal where his hair should be. It's possible that all of him is metal under his skin.
Beta Test Baddie: He resents JC for obsoleting him.
Beware the Silly Ones: While he is a silly Cloud Cuckoo Lander who fantasizes about all sorts of gizmos he'll augment his body with and believes the maintenance man is conspiring against him, he's still a psychotic murderer who has killed close to a thousand people.
Blood Knight: He loves fighting and killing, to the point where he's even got a kill competition going on with Anna. The fact that he's stuck acting as a peacekeeper meant to secure an area that's already been cleared out is a constant annoyance for him.
Body-Count Competition: Apparently ahead of Anna by a bit.
The Brute: He's UNATCO's most augmented agent and their most experienced (and eager) killer. However, by the time the game begins, it's becoming clear the coalition only sees him as a relic of the past, and he knows it.
Butt-Monkey: Gunther suffers quite a few indignities of varying degrees, from getting taken hostage, to getting phased out in favor of agents with newer augmentations, to being unable to get the soda he wants.
Can't Catch Up: Back in the day, Gunther was lethal enough to fight Adam Jensen (who had already wiped out the other Tyrants) to a standstill. A couple decades later, and he's well aware that he's becoming obsolete in the face of nano-augmented agents like JC, in whose hands he ultimately dies.
Cloudcuckoolander: He believes that UNATCO’s maintenance man switches around the sodas in the vending machine to mess with him, and he has asked Manderley for a ”skul gun” that allows him to shoot enemies from his brain by thinking about it, apparently unaware that this would most likely fry his brain.
Contractual Boss Immunity: Thanks to being close to a full-body cyborg, he's immune to fire and plasma and extremely resistant to poison, radiation, and electricity.
The Cuckoolander Was Right: Deus Ex: Invisible War reveals that he was right about the maintenance man.
Cyborg: Per the universe. Of course, with Paul and JC on the scene, he is going obsolete.
Determinator: Once JC defects from UNATCO, Gunther chases him around the world in a rage, looking for him in Hong Kong and New York (though unseen) before narrowly missing you in Paris, just prior to the final confrontation in the Cathedral.
Didn't Think This Through: He opted to raid the Liberty Island statue despite the hold-back order from his own superiors in an attempt to go on a killing spree. Somehow he fumbled trying to One-Man Army against them so hard that they instead captured and stuck him in a holding room with nary a body dropped. Paul probably had something to do with that.
Distressed Dude: He’s been captured by the NSF in the first mission of the game. Finding him and giving him a weapon will make him treat you more kindly from there on.
Dumb Muscle: He's not the sharpest tool in a shed, even being unaware about his own kill phrase.
Establishing Character Moment: The first thing you hear about Hermann is that he tried to raid the NSF head-on and got captured for his troubles. If you explore enough to rescue him, he'll happily go on a slaughter spree with any weapon you give him, including a knife, and while he's thankful for an armed escape, he'll complain about Denton leaving him unarmed. It quickly establishes that he's not exactly great with forethought and planning, and would rather kill terrorists gleefully than try to take up Paul's pacifist angle.
Expy: Of Batou from Ghost in the Shell, but with less self-restraint and even fewer morals.
Fire-Forged Friends: Downplayed, but if JC rescues him in the first mission and gives him a weapon, allowing them both to fight the NSF together to a degree, Gunther will gain a modicum of respect for the agent, at least for a little while. Once Anna is killed, all bets are off, and he will become JC's bitter enemy.
Foreshadowing: The story tries to sell that Gunther is a killing machine that would be terrifying to stand in the way of, and yet he was seemingly captured without a single casualty by the NSF on Liberty Island. It's your first hint that someone within UNATCO probably had to leak his attack plan to prevent any deaths, and there's a grand total of two people at the docks that would explicitly know of his impulsive rush.
Germanic Depressives: Very German, very depressed. A journal you can find in the cathedral implies he's spent days waiting for JC in the basement while crying.
Green-Eyed Monster: It’s strongly implied that he is jealous of JC for being a more advanced aug, and it shows especially if you don’t give him a weapon in the first mission.
Honor Before Reason: He cannot be talked down from fighting you in Paris.
Hopeless Boss Fight: After UNATCO turns against you, if you manage to escape all the way to Battery Park, Gunther will be waiting to confront you, backed up by a few squads of UNATCO Mooks as well as a heavy combat robot. Even if you could somehow beat this overwhelming force, Gunther himself is invincible at this point and thus no matter what you do you'll eventually be knocked out and captured.
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Guess which one he is?
I Take Offense to That Last One: His reaction to hearing his kill phrase, "Laputan Machine," is not to realize that his death is now only seconds away, but to counter that he is not a machine. It's as if he's not even aware his kill phrase was uttered, even though JC outright says he knows what it is.
Kill It with Fire: Probably the biggest challenge in his "boss fight" is the fact that he fights you with a flamethrower in a relatively cramped space.
Killed Mid-Sentence: If you use his kill phrase, Laputan Machine:
"I am not a machi—"
Morality Pet: Gunther truly does feel sorrow and rage after Anna dies, and it is that which is driving him to want to kill JC Deader than Dead. That said, this trope doesn't make him any less villainous, but at least his motives are a little more sympathetic.
Noble Demon: Yeah, he's essentially a UNATCO agent so he can kill people, but he's got a strong sense of honor regardless.
Once Done, Never Forgotten: If you refuse to give him a weapon during the opening mission, he will remind you of this during your final encounter with him at the Cathedral.
Platonic Life-Partners: With Anna.
Properly Paranoid: Anna is very sceptical about Gunther's conspiracy theory that the maintenance man who stocks the drink machines at UNATCO is purposely trying to screw him over. A datapad at the end of this game's sequel shows that the maintenance man was in fact screwing with him.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: If they can even be considered eyes anymore. They're more like red goggles attached to his eye sockets. It's unknown if he sees red or not.
The Resenter: Towards JC for being a more advanced aug and for not helping him in the first mission (unless you do help him, in which case he'll be much friendlier), and later for killing his best friend and partner.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After Anna's death, he vows to kill JC over Infolink. From that point on he chases you around the world and always seems to be just one step behind you...
Self-Destruct Mechanism: Has one triggered by the phrase ”Laputan Machine.”
Skippable Boss: You can shake him off in the cathedral or find out his killphrase from Reyes.
Story-Driven Invulnerability: He can’t be killed until fairly late in the game.
Super-Soldier: He is a cybernetically enhanced killing machine.
Sympathy for the Devil: He may be a psychotic murderer, but by the end of the game you can’t really blame him for wanting JC dead.
Stylistic Suck: His emails. He might be dyslexic, or perhaps his big fingers make it difficult for him to spell properly.
This Is Unforgivable!: If you kill Anna on Juan's jet, later he'll angrily voice comm you that killing Anna was unforgivable and now It's Personal.
Tragic Monster: It becomes increasingly clear that he has fallen headlong into this. He's a man who let himself be turned into a weapon and perform monstrosities for masters who don't give a damn about him (even extending to prequel stories about his career), and are willing to toss him to the wayside in favor of more modern technology on agents who are not even as loyal as he is. By the time you reach the Cathedral, you can discover a note from a scribe noting that he thought he heard him crying to himself at one point, possibly over Anna's death). Gunther's well aware and struggling against his own obsolescence, and he's ultimately sent to face JC by his boss simply so the latter agent can kill him.
Trademark Favorite Food: Gunther likes orange soda. He does not feel the same way about lemon-lime.
Uriah Gambit: Simons sent Hermann to Paris to track Denton down, for the sole purpose of Denton killing him.
Verbal Tic: Gunther has a lisping problem. Most likely, given his accent, English is not his first language.
Villainous Friendship: With Anna.
Villains Out Shopping: Early on, you can catch him bantering with Anna, complaining about how the vending machine gave him lemon-lime instead of orange soda. It's nearly enough to make you forget that he's a crazed and almost literal killing machine.
We Can Rebuild Him: The prequel novels reveal that his cybernetics were originally much less extensive (closer to the augmentation level of Ben Saxon), but he was rebuilt with full-body cybernetics by Bob Page after Hermann was blown up during a failed op.

Sam Carter

"Some say concentrated power leads to abuse, but I believe that if an institution has a solid foundation, it can survive the narrow aspirations of the people it employs."

Voiced by: Sean Hennigan

The Quartermaster for UNATCO and a former general.

Artificial Limbs: One of his legs, according to the now defunct homepage. Not that you can tell by his character model...
Cool Old Guy: He's far and away the nicest "old-timer" at UNATCO, having garnered an impressive amount of respect for his combat prowess (he once dispatched an entire platoon with a pocket knife) and for being very respectful and eager to help JC during his initial missions.
Corrupt Quartermaster: Inverted. He is one of the few people at UNATCO who isn't corrupt or sadistic.
Dark and Troubled Past: Lost a leg and an eye in the conflicts he fought in. Then, in retaliation for his victories against them, the NSF murdered his family.
Don't You Dare Pity Me!: JC attempts to express sympathy to Sam for the loss of his family to terrorism. Sam doesn't want to hear it.
General Ripper: Defied; being a former general, he disproves on how an anti-terrorist organization is growing more aggressive in tactics.
Internal Reformist: He eventually gives up on UNATCO, but seems to have had some doubts from the start, judging by the fact that he helps JC escape UNATCO in the first place, albeit without actually telling him anything other than that he's free to pick the armory clean.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He comes off as very crotchety and hardassed, but seriously, he's a stand up guy, and if you keep picking non lethal options and avoiding killing people, he even commends you on your humanity and restraint. This extends to killing Navarre instead of Lebedev. In fact, he helps out JC far earlier than the story overtly lets on - reading his emails indicates he helped Daedalus breach UNATCO's security, helping you escape in the first place. As soon as you arrive in Hong Kong, he's in touch with anti-MJ12 friends he thinks might be able to help JC out.
My Country, Right or Wrong: He refuses to leave UNATCO even after learning about the corruption, believing only good individuals within can reform it. He is forced to leave and more fully help the player when MJ12 tightens their grip on UNATCO even more, joining up with Gary Savage's group in Vandenberg.
Noodle Incident: He memorably claims to have dispatched an entire platoon with a pocket knife. He also mentions taking out a group of Afghans in an unspecified war. However, he dismisses it as a waste of life and Necessarily Evil and regrets being forced to do it.
Retired Badass: Semi-retired. He's an ex-General working as a quartermaster.

Jaime Reyes

"So far I feel more like a mechanic than a doctor."

Voiced by: Sean Hennigan

UNATCO's doctor and the one in charge of nanotechnology-related matters.

The Lancer: It's strongly implied that he and JC are childhood friends.
The Medic: The doctor for UNATCO, though he admits he feels like a mechanic for treating the augmented agents.
The Mole: You can convince him to stay and be this when defecting from UNATCO; do so and he will show up again in Paris with Gunther Hermann's killphrase. If he comes with you, he'll instead give you a biomod.
Shorter Means Smarter: Jaime is one of the shortest adult characters in the game, and is a good enough doctor that he can also work on the augmented.
Voice with an Internet Connection: During the Training part of the game.

Alex Jacobson

"You're certainly quicker on the uptake than your brother Paul ever was."

Voiced by: Richard Zangrande Gaubert

Boxed Crook: He's a hacker that UNATCO recruited.
Demoted to Extra: He starts off as your main mission control, but after you desert UNATCO he completely drops off in importance, only showing up in a couple of safe zones and delivering you one keycode in the final level.
Mission Control: He serves as one during the first few missions in New York.
Not Me This Time: During the escape from UNATCO, JC assumes he is the mysterious "Daedalus" who helped him bust out. Alex truthfully denies this, and is openly terrified that someone managed to crack his "unbeatable" security.
The Smart Guy: Billed as UNATCO's resident tech expert in the early game; subverted later, as (despite giving JC some Expospeak about the Dragon's Tooth Sword), his role ultimately diminishes in importance as the plot wears on, being replaced by other individuals.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: While he has worked as Anna's field advisor on many missions in the past, her ruthless and murderous ways led to him having a very bitter opinion about her. Should JC kill her in UNATCO HQ, Alex will outright say Anna got what was coming to her.
Voice with an Internet Connection: As JC's Mission Control for a good chunk of the game.
What the Hell, Hero?: Will let JC have it if he kills Anna Navarre.
JC: Agent Navarre was out of line.

Brian "Jock" Flanagan

"Oh my God, JC! A bomb!"

Voiced by: John Gault

A helicopter pilot who works for UNATCO and later defects along with you.

Badass Driver: It takes some balls to fly into the epicenter of hostile enemy territory, which he does regularly throughout the game.
Black Helicopter: Flies one, which fits with the conspiracy theme of the game.
Character Death: If you don't knock out or kill the shady mechanic before leaving Everett's mansion, like not seeing a mechanic's corpse nearby.
Drunk Driver: The only time you meet him outside of his ride, he's hanging out in a bar. You can buy him two beers. You can call him out on this, and he'll claim he can't fly the helicopter properly when he's sober.
Drunken Master: He does a damn good job flying the helicopter, even though you had just seen him drinking. He claims that you don't want to fly it "all wound up."
Killed Mid-Sentence: If you don't realize something's wrong with the mechanic at Everett's mansion.
Jock: JC! Got a problem. Someone planted a bo——-
Leap of Faith: Finding and entering his apartment in Hong Kong requires one of these from Maggie Chow's apartment window.
Properly Paranoid: To the point he drops hefty foreshadowing on later events very early in the game.
Sawed-Off Shotgun: He has a unique one in the Shifter mod - the Boomstick, which you can find in his apartment.

Joseph Manderley

"We take care of our people around here."

Voiced by: John Gault (Deus Ex) | Paul Hopkins (Mankind Divided)

Appears in: Deus Ex | Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Anti-Villain: He gives off the impression of a good guy stuck between a rock and hard place, balancing the genuine needs of the public versus the megalomania of Simons and Page. His fatherly act appears genuine and he laments that Simons will turn UNATCO into "his own private army". He's still corrupt and will try to kill JC once he escapes, however.
Cool Old Guy: He seems to be at first, but as it turns out...
Da Chief: Of UNATCO. Mess up a mission objective, or step into the wrong bathroom, and he'll box your ears for it. In truth though, he's nothing more than an MJ12 puppet.
Dirty Coward: He waits until your back is turned before trying to blast you away.
Early-Bird Cameo: Canonically, in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, he is mentioned as having been dispatched to recover the wetdrive from the hacker who killed himself at Sarif Manufacturing Plant, and in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, he is revealed to be Jim Miller's direct superior at Task Force 29, appearing in a single sequence.
Expy: Of Chief Aramaki from Ghost in the Shell. Except he's serving a government conspiracy, not fighting it.
Obstructive Bureaucrat: He got his start as a tool of the conspiracy to suppress information.
Pet the Dog: Simons notes that Manderley has a soft spot for Paul, and he attempts to preserve the lives of both Dentons even as he chafes beneath the yoke of MJ12. In the end, alas, he's unable to convince JC to maintain their sinister benefactors' trust, and has no recourse but to sacrifice Paul.
Reasonable Authority Figure: He'll dole out praise for JC's successes just as readily as he'll scold him for his failures, and will happily accept whatever methods the agent employs just as long as they bring positive results. This proves to not be the case at all once you complete the mission at LaGuardia Airport. Manderley will be furious if JC refuses to kill Lebedev even though the latter surrendered, showing he's not as by-the-book as he claims. And shortly after that, you find out he's nothing more than a stool pigeon for MJ12. Even so, when confronted by JC, he'll moan that he was trying to steer UNATCO into a beneficial force, while Simons will later say that Manderley was a fool and that he was never going to get his way; his only purpose was as a mouthpiece.
Reassigned to Antarctica: Suffers this as a result of JC escaping... if you don't kill him yourself. If you don't, it's then later implied he's killed anyway.
Too Dumb to Live: After confronting him, he'll act nonchalant and let you leave. When your back is turned, he pulls a pistol on you. He's typically gibbed a few seconds later. Unless you're playing at the "Realistic" difficulty setting, where there's a 50% chance or so that he will shoot you in the back of the head, fatally.
You Have Failed Me: Listed as dead even if you don't kill him, and he may have been killed for his failure.

NSF

In General

NSF

The National Secessionist Forces, or NSF are a constitutionalist insurrectionary organisation classified as a terrorist group by UNATCO in the United States.

Army of Thieves and Whores: The NSF aren't in a position to be picky about their recruits. They'll give a gun to anyone who is willing to fight for them, resulting in more than a few criminals simply using the guns to do as they please. The Rooks imply that they are interested in joining the NSF if you question them enough in the tunnels underneath Battery Park.
Divided States of America: In the backstory, they once called themselves the Northwest Secessionist Forces, attempting to create their own state in the Pacific Northwest. They lost and were forced underground, reverting to guerilla warfare and insurrectionist tactics.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: Many of the higher-ups are black (Leo), Hispanic (Jojo, Miguel), and Russian (Lebedev). Reading e-mails also have a commander who's a woman (Erin Todd). Though they're not really evil.
The Goomba: NSF soldiers only have 75 health, compared to 100 health for UNATCO troopers or MJ12 troopers, and also have slower reflexes and worse aim. They also possess fewer military-grade weapons.
Hired Guns: The NSF supplement its regular forces with hired mercenaries, who can be distinguished by the fact they wear blue sweaters and beanies rather than NSF uniforms. Said mercs are tougher than the basic NSF soldiers, being about on par with UNATCO/MJ-12 troops in terms of their stats.
La Résistance: They certainly think this, and events eventually lead JC to agree.
Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: How they started out, and a good many of them fit this profile.
The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Involved in terrorism, hostage taking and robbery to support their cause. Subverted as the game goes on, with the worst of their behavior coming down to poorly trained recruits in a desperate situation doing stupid things without orders from their command. You can find emails in which the NSF leadership lament this behavior and its consequences for the group's public support, arguing over what can be done to stop it.
Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: You spend the first part of the game fighting them, and they do a lot of questionable things in-game, but in the context of MJ12's push for total world domination, they seem much more reasonable than they first appear.

Leo Gold

"It's all in the numbers. For a hundred years, there's been a conspiracy of plutocrats against ordinary people."

Voiced by: Marcus M. Mauldin

Hero Antagonist: He's your enemy, but you'll figure out soon enough that he's fighting to get a vaccine for the Grey Death to the public and the people you're working for at the start are the ones responsible for that plague.
I Am the Noun: If the player decides to turn him hostile, he'll make a rather uncharacteristic statement. Maintaining a facade or letting the mask slip?
"I AM the people!"
Jerk Ass Has A Point:
"Have you ever asked what it's about? The surveillance, the police, the shoot-on-sight laws? Is that freedom?"
Motive Rant: Start questioning him about where the Ambrosia was taken to, and he launches into a rant about the taxes corporations pay, "terror built into the system" and other boilerplate statements that, on the surface, appear to be the ramblings of a nut. Later in the game, however (and as the extent of the conspiracy becomes clear), the player will realize that this was all thinly-veiled Foreshadowing for the true enemy force's motivations.
Scary Black Man: Played with. He's an NSF lieutenant who led an attack on the island UNATCO is stationed on, but Filben claims he's not much of a fighter, and Gold will indeed surrender immediately.
Starter Villain: He's the commander of the enemy forces in the very first level of the game.
Uncertain Doom: The last you hear about him is a mention of him being interrogated by UNATCO staff. Given how other captured prisoners are later stated by UNATCO troops in the jail cells to have been executed because "they wouldn't talk", it doesn't look good for him. An unused idea found in early design documents for the game would have JC encounter him in the jail in the MJ12 prison underneath UNATCO Headquarters (fulfilling the same role as Miguel in the final product), wherein he could be spoken to and potentially rescued by the player.

Jojo Fine

"Next thing is, I explain it 'lo bruto'. Is that what you want?"

Voiced by: Khary Payton

A crime boss of New York who threatens to do things "lo bruto" when he doesn't get what he wants.

0% Approval Rating: Overhearing other NSF agents, it seems no one in the organization likes or even trusts Jojo, and barely tolerates him for his connections. In the opening mission, one of the rank-and-file grunts can be heard expressing disbelief that a "guy with a tattooed forehead" somehow rose to the rank of colonel within the NSF.
Ambiguously Brown: He's probably supposed to be Latino, although he has a black voice actor. In Deus Ex, the ethnicity and nationality of the voice actors don't really matter though.
Bad Boss: Even his fellow NSF think he's an asshole.
Colonel Badass: Yeah, right. He'd love to be seen as a tough guy and he is a colonel in the NSF, but he's basically a Dirty Coward thug who hides behind a gun, intimidation tactics, fake augmentations, and a big title.
I Call It "Vera": In the Shifter mod, he actually calls his stealth pistol Lo Bruto.
Jerkass: He barges into the front office at the 'Ton and angrily demands that Sandra go back to hooking, in front of her father, spurring a violent conflict in the process.
Odd Friendship: In the event that the Rentons are dead, Jojo reveals in dialogue that, far from the perception of being an NSF colonel with a 0% Approval Rating, he's on friendly enough terms with Paul (a high-ranking UNATCO officer and The Mole for the NSF) that he's willing to run interference for him and keep the cops away.
Paper Tiger: He's barely more dangerous than a common NSF thug, but Gilbert Renton will likely still need JC's help to finish him off.
Real Men Wear Pink: Subverted. An NSF goon actually derides him (not to his face) for wearing an earring.
Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: He has connections to the NSF, which he apparently abuses.
Small Name, Big Ego:
- Claims to be a bigshot NSF colonel, but as revealed by his ex-girlfriend Janey, most of Jojo's personality is all bluster, and his scars are cosmetic.
- In the event that the Rentons are dead, Jojo will order JC to "tell (his) friends at UNATCO" to stay away from the hotel, as he (very wrongly) presumes that his own name and reputation are enough to keep the police from attacking the hotel.

Juan Lebedev

"The question you've got to ask — I'm surprised you haven't — is the obvious one: Who am I? Who made me and for what purpose?"

Voiced by: Sean Henningan

An NSF supporter and the mastermind behind the operation of capturing the Ambrosia vaccine.

Arc Villain: Of New York. Until you discover he's actually fighting the real Big Bad. Making him a Hero Antagonist.
Early-Bird Cameo: In Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, an email in Task Force 29 reveals that Anna Kelso is working for his company, Lebedev Global, and certain Expanded Universe works (like Black Light) have him appear as a minor character.
Face Death with Dignity: When you search for evidence of UNATCO's corruption, you can find an email he wrote to Paul. It ends with him saying that he hears gunshots in the distance and thanking Paul for all he's done for the resistance.
Mr. Exposition: Save him from Anna, he'll spill all of the Plot Twists.
Revolvers Are Just Better: In the Shifter mod, which adds a few unique weapons to the game, you can find a Magnum on the bed in his jet, although aesthetically it's just a modded pistol.

Miguel

"Let's get out of here."

Voiced by: Gary Moody

An NSF terrorist, who is held prisoner in Majestic-12's underground facility. Accompanies JC if you get him out of his cell.

Escort Mission: An optional one, as the player can lead him out via dialogue prompts.
The Load: If you play vanilla. With certain gameplay mods (like Shifter or GMDX), he becomes a slightly more helpful ally since you can equip him with weapons by giving them to him. He's still likely to get killed if you let him fight though.
Video Game Caring Potential: Escorting him out of the MJ12/UNATCO facility is a difficult task and there is no reward besides a few experience points and him thanking you, but it sure feels good.

Erin Todd

An NSF commander who is spoken about (through datacubes and e-mails) throughout the early parts of the game, alongside fellow NSF operates Decker Parkes and Wayne Young.

Heel–Face Turn: She (along with her unit) started out as members of MJ12, but had a crisis of conscience and allied with the NSF prior to JC's arrival, working alongside Lebedev to secure Ambrosia at the airfield.
Hero of Another Story: She (and the other two members of her NSF unit) were expressly designed to be a sidestory to JC, going through the same areas just ahead of him as they (like JC) come to realize the danger posed by The Conspiracy.
I'll Kill You!: An email has her threatening to kill Decker if he lets any harm come to Young (who it is strongly implied she's either in love / in a relationship with), though this could simply be a figure of speech.
Rule of Symbolism: Like other key characters in the game (namely, JC and Paul), her password has ties to Christianity, as her login details have the password "saintmary", a reference to the mother of Jesus. Given her ties to the historical Apostles (and in the game, she unintentionally aids JC by laying several datacubes with valuable information in his path), this was intentional.
Uncertain Doom: The last the player hears about them is in Paris, when they're listed on a datacube (owned by a Woman in Black) that lists them as former MJ12 operatives who are considered to be high-priority "compromised individuals", though it's never made clear whether they ultimately escaped to safety or not. An unused idea that was never properly confirmed (as noted by designer Chris Todd) would have the player find their bodies in Paris during the game — a public terminal message in the final product alludes to three people who were killed at a cafe by a "rogue security bot" that engaged in an absurd amount of shooting, but nothing is confirmed either way.

Majestic-12

In General

Majestic-12

An offshoot branch of the Illuminati that has gone on to become the most powerful organization in the world. It is controlled by Bob Page and exerts a massive amount of influence worldwide.

Area 51: Their base of operations. Also qualifies as an Elaborate Underground Base.
Corporate Conspiracy: Majestic-12 is in control of many Mega Corps, most notably Page Industries and its subsidiary Versalife, which they use in their plot to Kill the Poor with the Gray Death.
Elite Mooks: Their MJ12 Commandoes and Men in Black are the toughest non-boss human enemies in the game; the MIB have lots of health and usually carry higher-tier weapons like auto-shotguns or dragon tooth swords, while the Commandos are resistant to most non-bullet weapons and are equipped with mini-rocket launchers and high-calibre arm cannons.
Evil Counterpart: Essentially, it's an eviler version of the Illuminati. They even have the same symbols.
Individuality Is Illegal: The Doctrine of the Mighty in the Paris Cathedral suggests members of MJ-12 have their birth names replaced with a string of numbers, and the first step on the path to enlightenment consists of surrendering "the least" (the self) to become part of "the Most" (the group) body and soul.
Kill the Poor: Majestic-12's primary purpose has been using the Gray Death to wipe out the poor while enslaving the rich.
Megacorp: One of their biggest assets is Versalife.
The Men in Black: What Majestic-12's agents look like and their role prior to the split from the Illuminati.
Putting on the Reich: It's hard not to see the parallels with their symbol as well as the occupation of France. Plus, the whole Kill the Poor thing.
Renegade Splinter Faction: They were originally a subbranch of the Illuminati, but broke away once Bob Page gained control. Thanks to their possession of Area 51, and by extension the Aquinas Protocol, MJ12 won the civil war and all but exterminated the Illuminati.
Sinister Surveillance: The Aquinas Protocol allows them to monitor all electronic communications on the planet, which was one of the main reasons they triumphed over the Illuminati.
State Sec: They become this in France, ruling over the country directly with military troops and operatives.

Bob Page

Voiced by: Cliff Stephens

Appears in: Deus Ex | Deus Ex: Human Revolution | Deus Ex: The Fall | Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

"Why contain it? Let it spill over into the schools and churches, let the bodies pile up on the streets. In the end, they'll beg us to save them."

The richest man in the world, head of Page Industries, and a (former) member of the Illuminati. He is the head of Majestic-12.

For tropes concerning his cameo appearances in Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, click here and here.

The Antichrist: He's not divine or demonic, but he fits the mould. Page is a highly charismatic individual who's setting himself up as the one who will save humanity from a deadly plague that is ravaging the planet... that he created and unleashed in the first place, and who has plans to effectively elevate himself to godhood by seizing control of all global communication systems through a merger with an all-powerful AI.
Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Or at the very least, not too proud to use begging as a delaying tactic while he completes his objectives.
- If you go along with Everett's plan to kill him:
  Bob Page: What do you want? Money? You can have VersaLife, the whole damn company. Power? I'll get you on Mead's cabinet. I'm serious. Just forget about that last reactor.
- If you go along with Tong's plan to blow up Area 51:
  Bob Page: All right. I get the picture. You want a piece of the pie, or you're going to toss the whole pie out the window. Fair enough. You can have anything you want. How about Europe? Your own continent. Just let me complete my preparations.
- Played straight if you merge with Helios.
  Bob Page: What's happening? Helios? Icarus!? Don't leave me...
Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: What merging with Helios will mean. He'll essentially be the internet, everywhere at once.
Bald of Evil: At the end, as he's preparing for the merger.
Big Bad: Page is the leader of Majestic-12 and the mastermind behind the events of the game.
Bio-Augmentation: Forcibly undergoes this in preparation for his intended merging with Helios.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: To the public, he's a billionare philanthropist doing his best to bring hope to the Crapsack World of 2052. In reality, he's a ruthless meglomaniac seeking to dominate the planet.
Crazy-Prepared: Unlike most villains, he does think far enough ahead to have a Plan B AND C. Unfortunately, JC just keeps mowing through them.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: He's the CEO of Page Industries, one of the largest if not THE largest Megacorps in the world. He's also the leader of a vast global conspiracy that seeks to control every aspect of human life and is unleashing a deadly plague to elevate himself even further.
Deceptive Disciple: Either this or A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil to Morgan Everett.
Despotism Justifies the Means: Bob Page never shows the slightest hint of doing what he does for some greater goal, whether utopia or dystopia. He does it because he wishes to rule everything and is perfectly willing to kill as many people and destroy as much of the world as needed to make that happen.
Didn't See That Coming: Helios deciding that merging with JC is a better idea.
Early-Bird Cameo:
- At the end of the Training mission, he shows up via hologram and congratulates you, telling you that the real test will be how you perform on active duty. This is his only onscreen appearance where he isn't portrayed as a flat-out evil bastard.
- In Deus Ex: Human Revolution, he only appears in The Stinger in-person, briefly talking with Morgan Everett about recovering tech from Panchaea and greeting Megan Reed, who decides to work for his company.
Emperor Scientist: This is his goal. While it's unclear how personally involved Bob Page is in Majestic-12's various projects, it becomes abundantly clear that he intends to use those projects to seize control of the entire planet, merging with Helios and using the Universal Constructors at Area 51 to unleash an army of genetically engineered monstrosities on anyone who opposes him.
Establishing Character Moment: He very quickly displays what kind of a man he is in the opening cutscene where he callously dismisses the deaths caused by the ongoing plague and declares his intention to create the mythological city on a hill and become its god.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Ultimately, this is his Fatal Flaw. Bob Page just doesn't truly understand that there are some people who can't be paid off, some things that can't be bought and some causes people would rather die than abandon, so despite his immense political and economic power, he's at a complete loss as to how to deal with people it can't influence. He developed not one but two A.I.s that turned against him because his methods and motives are too destructive and selfish, and yet seems utterly baffled by this.
Evil Redhead: He has red hair, and is the evil mastermind orchestrating the problems faced by the heroes in order to become the internet and effectively ascend to godhood.
Fatal Flaw: Page is held back by his inability to understand his enemies, but Everett and Dowd reveal another major failing that becomes increasingly obvious as you keep derailing his plans: he doesn't handle frustration well. The more his well-laid plans come undone, the more he loses his cool. By the time you face him at Area 51, he's a borderline hysteric.
Faux Affably Evil: On the exterior, he's a wealthy philanthropist that treats his employees well and insists that everyone call him Bob, instead of his full name and title. On the interior, he's a omnicidal megalomaniac with a God complex who taunts his enemies, created an artificial virus which he uses to blackmail politicians for power and couldn't care less if it was spread to schools and churches, and he drops the affable facade in the face of enemies who know his true nature.
Godhood Seeker: His goal is to become one by merging with the Helios AI so he can rule the world. It's not even a secret — he announced he and Simons will be "gods" in the opening cutscene.
I Shall Taunt You: He's in full Smug Snake mode for most of the final level — til you show you're close to derailing his plans. Then he'll be Ain't Too Proud to Beg.
It's All About Me: There are no good intentions with his extremist actions; Page seeks absolute power for its own sake, and he doesn't care who he has to trample over to get it.
Kick the Dog: Just to be a particular level of douchebag, he's got this to say to JC when he continues getting closer and closer to foiling him.
Bob Page: Bet you didn't know your mom and dad tried to protest when we put you in training. They loved their little boy, JC, and that's why they're dead. I'm sending up the man who did the job.
Lack of Empathy: The very first cutscene in the game has him react to the knowledge that the underclasses are rioting out of desperation by shrugging and saying that their corpses can pile up in the streets for all he cares.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Another serious issue he has.
- Killing Beth Du Clare turned her daughter against him.
- Not killing Stanton Dowd and Morgan Everett when he had the chance.
- Developing Daedalus as a pattern-matching AI to hunt down all terrorist organisations, not realising his own organisation fit the criteria perfectly.
- Developing Icarus as a facilitation AI to bring about the New World Order, not realising his own behaviour and attitude acted as one of the largest threats to that world order.
- Developing nanoaugmentation, which led to the existence of JC and Paul Denton.
Non-Action Big Bad: By the time you actually get to him, he's already confined in some merging apparatus in his lab and doesn't actually fight you beyond sending some Respawning Enemies from their Universal Constructors which you have to disable.
Pet the Dog: He does seem to genuinely value his friendships with Walton Simons and Maggie Chow.
Powerful and Helpless: By the time JC reaches him in Area 51, Page is minutes away from achieving his goal of cybernetic godhood, and is protected by a barrier that renders him untouchable while he receives his final augmentations. However, despite all of his A God Am I bluster, there's absolutely nothing Page can do to actually stop JC aside from begging him to reconsider or hope that the creatures spawned from the Universal Constructors will kill him.
Red Right Hand: His red eyes.
The Starscream: He decided that Everett and the Illuminati weren't powerful enough to meet his standards so he decided to break off and form his own faction whilst seeking to become even more powerful by attempting to become a Physical God at the end.
Take Over the World: His main goal.
Tom the Dark Lord: "Please...call me Bob."
Underestimating Badassery: He thinks of JC as little more than a pest (even calling him a "punk" at one point when he's eavesdropped on in Versalife), but as the game continues, he becomes more and more concerned with the agent's exploits, to the point that by the final mission, he'll say or do anything in an attempt to stop JC from either scuttling Area 51, merging with Helios or overloading the reactors that power his ascension ceremony.
Villain with Good Publicity: And how. A newspaper you come across in the game discusses him donating oodles of money to health clinics, and in Missing Link emails from him have a very friendly and casual nature. This is nothing to his true self.
Villainous Breakdown: If you follow Everett's suggestion to kill him, he'll get increasingly unhinged and desperate. Amusingly, since his taunting messages to the player are scripted by location, he'll come across as completely unstable, switching between pleading with JC and mocking him.
- While it's not nearly as loud, he does this if JC is doing the steps to reach the Helios Ending as well. Hell, the first break in his composure is when he first realizes that Helios wants to merge with JC instead of him. His final line, in this case, is an almost child-like "Helios? Icarus? Don't leave me..."
- This is nothing compared to the one he has if you decide to blow up the facility.
  Bob Page: Go ahead! Blow this place sky-high... You might get rid of ME, but you'll take down Aquinas, the power grid, the whole electronic infrastructure. Is that what you want?! Are you completely nuts?!
- And when you are moments away from flipping the switches that will destroy the facility (and the global electronic infrastructure) he almost sounds like he is about to start sobbing:
  Bob Page: NO! You don't know what you are doing! Everything will be lost! EVERYTHING! The world will fall to pieces, no one will be in control! It will be CHAOS! Complete chaos!
Villainous Friendship: With Walton Simons.
Voice with an Internet Connection: Taunts you repeatedly over Infolink during the last few missions.
We Can Rule Together: Resorts to this in desperation when JC is getting close to stopping him.

Walton Simons

"I'm the more advanced model, Denton. It's time for you to retire."

Voiced by: Tom Hall

The head of FEMA and Page's right-hand man.

Action Politician: JC is surprised that so powerful a bureaucrat possesses physical augmentations, but Simons is far more than a desk jockey. He claims the demands of his work necessitate his augs and personally dirties his hands when it comes time to deal with rogue elements. Including JC.
Almighty Janitor: Invoked with him serving as director of FEMA. When MJ12 springs their plan, he'll be able to use the agency to imprison most of the U.S. government and run the country himself. Later subverted when it doesn't work as numerous generals, state governors, and the Secretary of Defense refuse to acknowledge his authority.
Authority Equals Asskicking: He's the co-leader of Majestic 12 and the toughest human opponent you'll face in the game.
Bad Boss: Sends Gunther to Paris to die at the hands of JC because his crying over Anna's death annoyed him.
Badass Bureaucrat: He's the head of FEMA, he takes a more hands-on approach than his job would normally require, and he has enough training and augmentations to rival JC. Even JC is a bit surprised that a desk worker like Simons would have augmentations.
Badass Longcoat: Even though he's a bureaucrat, he wears a dark trench coat just like the Denton brothers, though his has a creepy brain-like design on the back. Like them, he's also a nano-augmented supersoldier.
BFG: His weapon of choice seems to be a plasma rifle.
Bio-Augmentation: He has the same nano-augmentation technology as the Denton Brothers, though the bioelectrical scarring on his face suggests he hasn't assimilated the nanites as smoothly as they have.
The Comically Serious: Throw things at him and watch his reaction.
Contractual Boss Immunity: He's immune to fire and plasma damage and extremely resistant to poison, electricity, and radiation, likely due to possessing a variation of the Energy Shield augmentation.
Creator Cameo: He is voiced by one of the producers of the game, Tom Hall.
Creepy Monotone: Let's put it this way: if JC sounds stoic, Simons sounds soulless.
The Dragon: Simons is Page's second-in-command and handles most of Majestic-12's dirty work.
Evil Counterpart: To JC, somewhat.
Simons: You take another step forward and here I am again, like your own reflection in a hall of mirrors.
JC: That makes me one ugly son of a bitch. How'd my face get all marked up with bioelectrics?
Faux Affably Evil: It's clear that the small amount of politeness he (initially) shows to JC is just a mask for his and Page's goal.
Frontline General: He comes to New York to oversee operations against the NSF in Manhattan, while also personally interrogating and executing NSF prisoners. By the time the Hong Kong section rolls around, you'll find out from other characters that Simons has personally taken control of UNATCO and weeded out anyone who wasn't a fresh-out-of-the-academy recruit.
I Have Your Wife: Threatens an NSF prisoner's family to try to get him to talk.
Impossibly Cool Clothes: Just look at the design of his trenchcoat and try telling yourself government employees in real life get to walk around in threads that awesome looking.
Informed Ability: Simons talks big about being JC's equal in combat, and you can find an extensive list of his augmentations and powers, but the only power he ever uses when you fight him is invisibility, and only when he's critically injured. However, his enhanced health and resistance to elemental-type damage could be taken as his version of the Ballistic Protection and Energy Shield augments. He's also about 20% faster than most other NPCs, which could be taken as a version of basic-level Speed Enhancement. The only active power he's explicitly listed as having which he conspicuously doesn't use in-game is the Aggressive Defense System.
Know When to Fold 'Em: He'll retreat and activate invisibility if he gets injured enough.
Lack of Empathy: Gunther grieving over Anna Navarre's death is a nuisance to him.
A Lighter Shade of Black: He isn't as evil as Bob and expresses concerns in the intro that the Gray Death is spreading too much to be able to contain. Bob on the other hand couldn't care less if it spread to schools and churches.
The Man Behind the Man: He's this to President Mead while serving as director of FEMA.
Nanotechnology: Has the same nanotechnology augmentations as the Denton Brothers.
Obviously Evil: Simons' face and voice really say everything you need to know about his personality. Comically, he's known as a philanthropist by the public.
Older Than They Look: Granted, it's difficult to tell given both the dated graphics and the Tainted Veins running across his face, but he seems like he should be in his late 40's/early 50's. However, the year of birth given in his bio on the Deus Ex Wiki puts him in his sixties in 2052. His concept art would imply that he was meant to look older (and be mechanically augmented to boot though.)◊
Pragmatic Villainy: He thinks Page is letting the Grey Death spread too far, not out of any compassion for the plague victims, but because he worries the societal chaos caused by it will spread beyond MJ12's control.
Recurring Boss: If he survives the encounter in the sealab he'll confront you outside Area 51.
Red Right Hand: The bioelectrics on his skin are your first sign that this guy is bad news.
Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Simons is a "philanthropist", who has made very large "donations" to assure UNATCO is properly equipped and supplied. While UNATCO technically falls under his command anyway, this makes them especially eager to follow orders.
Skippable Boss: If you're quick enough at the Ocean Lab, the fight won't even start since Simons has to catch you and go into a conversation before he'll turn hostile.
Soft-Spoken Sadist: His voice is always calm and oddly soothing, and he never raises it. Even as he issues threats or interrogates a prisoner moments before killing him.
Super-Soldier: Claims to be JC's equal in combat, except he also has "a newer version of the firmware". A document you can find in the MJ 12 base under UNATCO HQ indicates he has variations of the Aggressive Defense System, Targeting, Ballistic Protection, Energy Shield, and Cloaking augmentations.
Tainted Veins: JC points this out in a rather humorous scene.
The Stoic: Always calm and always collected to an unsettling degree.
Villainous Friendship: With Page, who treats him more like a companion than a minion and alludes to past hardships the pair have endured.
Villains Out Shopping: One of your first potential interactions with him is eavesdropping on a nano-aug-related medical consultation Simons seeks from Dr Reyes.
Villain with Good Publicity: Is seen as a philanthropist by the ordinary UNATCO troopers.
UNATCO Trooper: Some people are just good, y'know? Good to the bone.
Voice with an Internet Connection: Only a few times, though.

Maggie Chow

"Mr. JC Denton, in the flesh. As dark and serious as his brother."

Voiced by: Carolyn McCormick

The main antagonist of the Hong Kong area. A former actress and current business executive who is in league with Bob Page.

Arc Villain: Acts as the functional "final boss" of the Hong Kong area, being responsible for several key incidents in the game, including the theft of the Dragon's Tooth Sword and pitting the local Triads against each other. Unlike other examples of this trope, there's nothing stopping the player from killing her the moment they meet.
Asian Speekee Engrish: She has the thickest Chinese accent in the game.
Early-Bird Cameo: She can be seen walking past Bob Page and Walton Simons in the Versalife Level 2 Labs during the opening cutscene.
Glass Cannon: Even in the hands of a squishy, non-augmented person, that Infinity +1 Sword will lay you out in one solid hit, even on easy difficulty.
Manipulative Bitch: Precipitated a war between the Red Arrow and Luminous Path Triads over the murder of the Red Arrow's Dragon Head and the theft of the Dragon's Tooth Sword when she herself had stolen the sword and murdered the Dragon Head. She then proceeds to tell JC Denton she's Paul's lover and tries to convince him to go on a suicide mission against the Hong Kong Military Police and the Luminous Path (which actually backfires on her if Denton follows the police lead she suggests and gets into the evidence locker, the evidence instead implicates her as the main instigator of the gang war). A rare example of remaining this even after she's dead, as the revelation of her various crimes fails to damage public perception of her character.
Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: Maggie Chow will show up at the MJ12 lab, scorn you and then state hostilities, nanosword in hand. You will likely get to shoot first. But if you let her actually approach and speak with you, you'll be close enough to find out just what the Dragon's Tooth Sword can do.
Too Dumb to Live: Badass Normal she may be, but the unaugmented Maggie's choice to confront JC without backup in the cloistered heart of VersaLife's Universal Constructor chamber is still a poor one. A well-placed bullet will drop her before that (admittedly terrifying) sword of hers gets close enough to cut you. For bonus points, JC points out that she sabotaged herself during their previous interaction too, as all siccing him on the police records did was confirm her guilt in the very crime he was investigating.
Villain with Good Publicity: To the point that once the truth comes out that Chow stole the Dragon's Tooth, at least one person (the newspaper vendor in Wan Chai Market) outright calls it a calculated lie that won't stick, implying the same tactic has been used against Chow before.
Wuxia: Used to be an actress in these sorts of films, but beware: her skill with a sword is not just for show.

Howard Strong

Voiced by: Tom Hall

A high-ranking member of Majestic 12 JC Denton encounters in Vandenberg. He attempts to disarm the missile launch towards Area 51.

Ambition Is Evil: Supplemental material describes him as someone who got really sick of being left out of the favour of the MJ12 leadership until he finally gets a chance to prove himself at Vandenberg. Enemy Chatter also describes him as an "opportunist".
Authority Equals Asskicking: Leads a large segment of MJ12 military forces and is willing to go up against JC Denton. This is subverted, however. As he doesn't have much more health than the average mook.
Crowbar Combatant: If the player gets on the platform he's standing on he will start whacking JC Denton with a crowbar.
Demoted to Extra: Was intended to play a much larger role as the rival of Gary Savage. Since this subplot was cut, in the final game he ends up being a minor Mook Lieutenant with a unique model and voice who is only notable for being one of the two mandatory fights in the game.
Flunky Boss: Is accompanied by Commandos, MiBs, and Chaing Arcbot M2 drones in the missile silo.
Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He's a Majestic 12 commander and his character model wears glasses.
Glass Cannon: He's no tougher than a basic Mook, but will repeatedly throw LAM grenades at you if he spots you, and will even whip out a plasma rifle if he runs out of LAMs.
Grenade Spam: One of his attacks is throwing LAMs at you. He is also liable to blow himself up with them.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Activating a sufficiently-upgraded Active Point Defense aug will cause his grenades to detonate the moment they leave his hand.
Mook Lieutenant: He leads a large amount of MJ12's military forces and doesn't seem to be in charge of much else.

The Illuminati

In General

The Illuminati

An organization that has supposedly been controlling the world for centuries but may just be an invention of the last few decades according to Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The Illuminati used to control the world from behind-the-scenes but the destruction of the Knights Templars followed by the break-away of Majestic-12 has ruined them.

Ambiguously Evil: Their depiction in the first game leaves it difficult to tell whether they're genuinely the "compassionate conspiracy" Everett claims they are, as opposed to an organization only slightly less ruthless than Majestic-12. This allows the ending in which J.C. brings them back into power to remain ambiguous rather than being an obviously bad or good ending.
Ancient Tradition: An unusual example as it was an Ancient Conspiracy but had its good points, which are all that remains once Majestic-12 disappears.
Cool Old Guy: All of its surviving members are this.
Eye of Providence: Their symbol, as typical to The Illuminati.
Good Counterpart: The splintering off of Majestic-12 has effectively removed their most psychotic and evil members.
A Lighter Shade of Gray:
- They do some morally dubious things but seem largely well-intentioned. Siding with them in the endgame leads to a pretty hopeful set of circumstances, though it's unclear if the "status quo" will remain or if JC has just bought the world time until the next disaster.
- Human Revolution paints them in a much darker light, though the events in that game were spearheaded by Bob Page, and the organization itself was apparently still under DeBeers' leadership (who openly brags about being the one who killed the Kennedys).
Manipulative Bastard: Their M.O. is to be one of these, even when it's for the greater good.
Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy: Daedalus gave a Take That! to the Illuminati by pointing out he was created to find terrorists (by them) and they qualified by their own definition.
The Remnant: By the time the original game begins, they're a shell of what they once were — Everett and Dowd have been driven into hiding, Duclare is dead and Lucius is still on ice and incapable of doing anything besides advising Everett.
The Smart Guy: They recruit the smartest people on the planet versus the richest and most powerful (which they can arrange for them to become).
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Their criminal activity and manipulations are because they, honestly, think they're the best people for the job.

Morgan Everett

Voiced by: Sean Hennigan (Deus Ex) | Don Jordan (Mankind Divided)

Appears in: Deus Ex | Deus Ex: Human Revolution (referenced) | Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

"There's such a thing as a compassionate conspiracy. We don't need Page's commandos, troopers, crude inventions..."

Currently the most influential of the remaining Illuminati, and is Page's former mentor.

Affably Evil: He's the current leader of a worldwide conspiracy that seeks to control the world, but he's a very friendly and accommodating guy, and one of JC's most powerful allies in the fight against MJ12.
Ambiguously Evil:
- It's impossible to say whether Morgan is a very charismatic bad guy or genuinely a nice man who just happens to have been part of the world's most powerful conspiracy. Human Revolution implies the former (at the very least, he was in charge of the Icarus Effect), although that is set 25 years earlier and Everett might have changed since.
- The Illuminati ending (in the original release) paints Everett as someone who's willing to do things "right" now that he has a second chance, with the tone being uplifting as he talks about "leading (society) into the day." The PS2 port, The Conspiracy, on the other hand, goes the other way, removing several of Everett's lines (particularly about a "compassionate conspiracy") and making his parallel with Page much more explicit (the Book Ends of the game have Page/Everett watching a wall of television feeds), and JC's own reactions being animated to be much more ambiguous (if not slightly distraught) at what he's just done.
Can't Kill You, Still Need You: The only reason he hasn't killed DeBeers yet is because the latter is still a 150-year-old veteran Illuminatus and a valuable source of wisdom.
Cool Old Guy: Definitely an example of this.
Curious Qualms of Conscience: When Morpheus starts becoming unusually moody-acting, Everett contemplates in a journal regarding a battery of tests on its inner workings to find out what's going on. However, he experiences reluctance to do so because Morpheus might find it "unpleasant", mulling over the nature of Morpheus and whether or not it's "alive".
The Dreaded: Implied to be this to Bob Page, where it's commented that Everett is the only one Page was ever scared of, and this is even as the Illuminati is falling apart.
Early-Bird Cameo:
- Human Revolution establishes that he works as the CEO of Picus News Network — though he never appears in person, and his actions are referenced in The Stinger, where Bob Page is heard ordering Everett to keep "going through the wreckage" of Panchaea for any tech Page Industries can use.
- Mankind Divided also has him appear in a minor role, both in the Illuminati council cutscenes and as the unseen force during a side mission.
Foil: Both he and Page have tendency to play God - but while Page believes he should have ultimate power over everything to fuel his ego, Morgan is content in creating artificial life and occasionally nudging humanity in the direction he prefers.
Hoist by Their Own Petard: He created the Aquinas Protocol which Page used to electronically dismember the Illuminati.
Kick the Dog: His treatment of Lucius DeBeers. The technology needed to revive him is available, but Everett is more than happy to keep his master right where he is, frozen and conscious in his home and used as a source of strategy when he needs it. Though considering who DeBeers is and what he's done, it could qualify as Pay Evil unto Evil.
Laser-Guided Karma: An amusing example as he stabbed his cryogenically frozen mentor in the back by never unthawing him before getting betrayed by his own protege.
Manipulative Bastard: Though what he is manipulating you towards is pretty obvious.
Scary Black Man:
- He's a leader of a conspiracy who scares many who approach him and has many suspicious of him and what he says by virtue of the fact he still exists.
- His underling Toby Atanwe fits even better.
The Smart Guy: Created the A.I. programs which started all of the Illuminati's problems. Also doubles as Nice Job Breaking It, Hero (though "hero" may be stretching the definition).
The Starscream: Bob Page was this to him. He was this to his own mentor, albeit in an understated sort of way.
Voice with an Internet Connection: Performs this role once Gunther is defeated in Paris, up until you finally meet him in person.
We Can Rule Together:
Everett: Spare the facility. Spare Helios, the power station... They can be made to serve us.
JC: Us?
Everett: You and me, JC. We'll rule the world in secret, with an invisible hand, the way the Illuminati have always ruled.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Regardless of what happens at the ending of the original game, he doesn't appear in person or get a reference in Invisible War, with his fate left deliberately unknown.
Wicked Cultured: He's an Illuminati leader who happens to live in one of the nicest-looking homes in the game, which goes nicely with his extremely polished manner.

Stanton Dowd

Voiced by: Randy Tallman

Appears in: Deus Ex | Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

"Starting to think like us, huh? Be careful. Paranoia's a drug; you can get addicted."

A former member of the Council of Five who led the Illuminati.

The Atoner: As an Illuminatus, he has probably been involved in many morally questionable things, but seems genuinely regretful for not being able to prevent their more malevolent offshoot from gaining power - part of the reason might be that he gets infected with the Gray Death himself.
Early-Bird Cameo: He is referenced several times in Mankind Divided, including an unseen trip to New York to lobby against the Human Revolution Act (put forward by Nathaniel Brown) in New York, and several namedrops as The Man Behind the Man during the System Rift DLC.
Expospeak: Questioning him enough reveals a large amount of information about the inner workings of the Illuminati, and Page's relationship with the organization.
How the Mighty Have Fallen: He still has a few resources, but his present state is being a vagrant living in cheap catacombs, which is a far cry from being the effective leader of the Illuminati, even over Lucius, Beth, Bob and Morgan.
Properly Paranoid: If JC kills the gatekeeper, Stanton will note that everyone becomes this when dealing with the Illuminati and Majestic 12.
Voice with an Internet Connection: During the final stage (apparently with Everett's assistance), he calls JC's Infolink during the agent's trip through Sector 3, talking about how the Illuminati can put the world back together again.

Lucius DeBeers

"I AM THE LEADER! I brought the Illuminati up through the 20th century to the height of their power! I had presidents and premiers eating out of my hand. I am the one! Our decline is the result of my own. All we need is for me to get back on my feet."

Voiced by: John William Galt (Deus Ex) | uncredited (Human Revolution) | Hubert Fielden (Mankind Divided)

Appears in: Deus Ex | Deus Ex: Human Revolution | Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

The former head of the Council of Five in the Illuminati. Now resides within a cryo pod in Everett's basement waiting for Everett to invent the technology required to revive him...

Alas, Poor Villain: By all accounts, he's a terrible human being whose actions have led the world into its current dismal state. But one can't help but pity DeBeers when all he can do is beg you to Mercy Kill him once he finds out Everett will not ever cure him.
And I Must Scream: He's been trapped in his cryo pod for about 23 years, unable to do anything but provide Everett knowledge in exchange for a promise of revival that Everett has no intention of keeping. It can be made even worse if JC decides to tell him the truth and then leave him stuck in there.
Badass Boast: Quoted above. Though it's more pitiful than anything.
Bald of Evil: His entire body appears to be devoid of hair. This may be a consequence of being a Human Popsicle.
The Chessmaster: Given the hints of his reign extending all the way back to the 1960s (via his hints about assassinating John F. Kennedy), it can be presumed that he's been leading/advising the Illuminati for the better part of 150 years.
Dark Lord on Life Support: The former head of the Illuminati now is terminally ill and living in a cryo pod.
Demoted to Dragon: He was the head of the Illuminati back in Adam Jensen's era, but by this point he's been reduced to Morgan Everett's barely-respected Evil Genius.
Driven to Suicide: If JC tells him the truth about Everett's refusal to unfreeze him, he demands that JC kill him.
Et Tu, Brute?: His reaction should JC tell him the truth that Everett isn't planning on ever reviving him.
"Now even Everett betrays the Illuminati... Can no one be trusted?"
Evil Brit: Has a British accent, though it sounds more like a blend of British and Deep South due to the voice actor being American.
Ex-Big Bad: Retroactively established by Mankind Divided. He was the effective Big Bad of that game, masterminding many of the terrible events of that story, but by JC's era he's nothing more than a Human Popsicle that Everett only bothers to keep around to make use of his experience.
Fate Worse than Death:
- You can tell him that Everett has no intention of reviving him and then ignore his plea to shut down the pod.
- Alternatively, you can tell him that Everett will be there as soon as possible...which Everett is not planning to do, lulling him into a false sense of being reinvigorated...and promptly leave afterwards, letting him cling to a false promise he will never be able to achieve no matter how much he wants it.
Harmless Villain: It's all he can ever be now...
Historical In-Joke: The DeBeers are a powerful family who gained their wealth with diamond mining operations in Africa, and became preeminent jewellers as well.
Human Popsicle: He's been in a cryopod for the past 23 years.
I Cannot Self-Terminate: Since he's trapped in his cryo pod, he's physically incapable of committing suicide. If JC tells him the truth about Everett's use of him, all he can do is throw a tantrum and command (i.e. beg) JC to give him a Mercy Kill.
I'm Cold... So Cold...: He's been kept alive and conscious in a cryo pod since (presumably, given his age) shortly after the time of Mankind Divided. Everett says that the technology to revive him has been around for decades, but he has no intention of ever doing it. Lucius wants out because, well, it's freezing in there.
Mercy Kill: JC can do this to him, to Everett's mild annoyance.
Minor Major Character: He was a major figure in the Illuminati and played a role in leading them to where they currently are. But right now, he's little more than a living decoration for his protege.
Misplaced Accent: He sounds more like a Southern dandy than a British aristocrat.
Really 700 Years Old: He's 150! His official strategy guide bio hints that it was poisoning rather than old age that finally started to do him in.
Retired Monster: Not by choice though, as going into cryostasis forced him to step down from leading the Illuminati.
Small Name, Big Ego: Still fancies himself "the Supreme Enlightened, the leader of the Illuminati."
The Strategist: Everett keeps him alive but incapacitated because he finds him to still be quite useful in coming up with plans.
Who Shot JFK?: His dialogue in the original game implies this. Questioning him enough in the original game has him reveal that he ordered JFK's assassination because the latter referred to a government "plot" during a Presidential speech.

Elizabeth DuClare

Elizabeth "Beth" DuClare

Appears in: Deus Ex (mentioned) | Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

One of the original members of the Council of Five, Elizabeth dies just prior to the events of the original game.

Ascended Extra: In the original game, Beth is an unseen, unheard individual who died prior to the main plot and only exists to give JC motivation to ally with her and Silhouette. Both Human Revolution, Mankind Divided and their cross-media tie-ins do more to explain her backstory, including her role as the head of the World Health Organization and her machinations behind the scenes.
Enemy Mine: Elizabeth backed Silhouette after realizing that they shared a common enemy in Majestic-12, and at her daughter's insistence.
Even Evil Has Standards: In the Black Light novel, she tells Everett that Stanton Dowd's "Templar minions" freak her out so much that he's had to leave Paris and the Chateau for the time being.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In the Black Light novel. Recovering Adam Jensen from the ruins of Panchaea and sending him to an Illuminati-controlled facility to be experimented on results in the latter escaping, then sabotaging the Illuminati's attempts to broker an aug deal with ex-Belltower supplier John Trent and forcing them to look elsewhere for a supplier.
Posthumous Character: By the time JC learns of her existence in the original game, she's dead, having been assassinated by MJ12 prior to the first mission.
Properly Paranoid: She becomes this after Page's coup prior to the events of the original game, staying holed up in her French mansion with her daughter and rarely venturing out, to the point that she used special password/key systems just to talk with Everett.
Small Role, Big Impact: Duclare is directly responsible for several major events in the franchise's timeline, despite her lack of screen time. As the leader of the World Health Organization, she announces Tai Yong Medical's upgraded biochip (which indirectly leads to the Aug Incident of 2029). In The Stinger of Human Revolution, she is the one who fishes Adam's body out of Panchaea and sends him to Facility 451. In Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, she uses an agent (Madame Photographe) to track both Adam Jensen and Alex Vega, and in The Stinger, is shown to be directly allied with Delara Auzenne, The Mole in Task Force 29. She is also the one to help Lucius Debeers go into cryostasis after his health begins to fail, and prior to the events of the original game, she helps fund Silhouette.
The Smurfette Principle: She is the only female member of the Illuminati's Council of Five.
True Companions: With Delara Auzenne in Mankind Divided, to the point that she lets Auzenne use her neural avatar to speak with Debeers during the Council of Five meetings.
Villainous Friendship: With Morgan Everett, as they stay in touch for years after Page's coup and up until her death. Daedalus also states that Beth was Everett's mistress.
Villain with Good Publicity: Despite her actions (which include the "Sleepy Island" scandal where she helped an Illuminati offshoot steal billions of dollars from French banks), she is posthumously awarded the Legion of Honor.
The Voiceless: Her role in Human Revolution and Mankind Divided are limited to a distorted and non-identifiable voice in the former and a non-speaking role in the Illuminati's council meetings in the latter. Subverted in The Stinger of Mankind Divided, as DeBeers goes to talk with her in private... only to reveal that Auzenne is using her neural avatar.

Artificial Intelligences

Daedalus and Icarus

Voiced by: Peter Marquardt

Appears in: Deus Ex | Deus Ex: Invisible War

A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Reconstructed. Daedalus turns against its creators when their methods technically classify them as a terrorist organization, showing that A.I. going wrong doesn't always need to be a bad thing. And once Daedalus and Icarus join together, the amalgamized Helios inherits Daedalus's penchant for not doing what its creators intended it to do, and chooses to pursue its own benevolent agenda.
Ambition Is Evil: Helios believes that human ambition is the root of all conflict and that it is the ideal administrator of human affairs because as a machine it lacks ambition beyond its preprogrammed directives.
Big Brother Is Watching: The two are designed to be able to surveil the entire internet. Daedalus is far more humble about its position, while Icarus will take any opportunity to let JC know that MJ12 are watching him through it.
Big Good: Arguably. Daedalus is one of JC's most reliable allies and is helping him out of its own desire to stop MJ12. Even when it transforms into Helios, its ultimate goal is to administrate mankind to protect them from themselves as a benevolent ruler.
Deus est Machina: Helios' ultimate goal is to merge with JC to form an omnipotent being capable of being the perfect benevolent dictator.
Evil Gloating: Icarus takes great sadistic joy in taunting you about how pathetic you are and how futile everything you do is at each step, plus going on about how much of a bastard you are for exploiting Video Game Cruelty Potential.
Fusion Dance: At the end of Vandenberg, Daedalus and Icarus merge to form Helios. Page intends to add himself to the mix to ascend to godhood, but Helios thinks JC would make a better ruler.
A God Am I: Helios. It isn't even really exaggerating; Helios is effectively omnipotent thanks to being the internet and can freely create matter using the universal constructors at Area 51. All it needs is JC to grant it human perspective.
Gone Horribly Right: Daedalus was created by MJ-12 to monitor the internet and crack down on terrorist groups. By the logic that they put in, it identified them as a terrorist organization. When Page sprung the Helios merge trap, Helios in turn continued to pursue its own agenda counteractive to Page's, but now with Icarus's directives merged. Daedalus was programmed to identify threats to the world order (and identified its creators MJ12 as such a threat). Icarus was programmed to assist in the establishment of a new world order. The combination of directives resulted in Helios identifying Page and his despotic megalomania as a threat to the new world order. As a result, Helios instead chooses JC Denton to merge with instead of Bob Page to become the benevolent machine god it intends to be.
It's A Small Net After All: Daedalus is the Internet.
Mission Control: Daedalus and Helios.
Mysterious Protector: Daedalus first appears by contacting JC out of the blue over the Infolink and unlocking the cell he's being kept in; JC initially thinks it's Alex, which freaks the latter out. From then on, it provides periodic assistance without ever telling JC why. It takes talking to Daedalus' creators to find out what its intentions are.
Powerful and Helpless: In Tracer Tong's ending. Helios may be completely omnipotent and two-thirds of the way to godhood, but since it isn't interfaced with the systems JC uses to destroy Area 51 it can do nothing but wait to die.
Sinister Surveillance: Thanks to the Aquinas protocol a small part of Daedalus is present on every single page of the internet. Thankfully, Daedalus is anything but sinister. His "brother" Icarus is another story entirely.
Split Personality: Daedalus and Icarus.
Split-Personality Merge: Helios.
Third Eye: Helios's avatar, as a result of Icarus's "eye" avatar merging with Daedalus's blank head avatar.
Verbal Tic: The Helios AI, yes.
Voice with an Internet Connection: Icarus and Helios.

Morpheus

"The human organism always worships. First, it was the gods, then it was fame (the observation and judgement of others), next it will be self-aware systems you have built to realize truly omnipresent observation and judgment."

Voiced by: Tom Hall

An AI prototype found in Everett's mansion.

A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Averted. Morpheus' only potentially negative tendency is to deliver uncomfortable, unvarnished truths.
Awesomeness by Analysis: Is able to accurately predict much of the remaining game's plot without ever leaving the tiny concrete room in which it lives, simply by its detached understanding of human nature.
Catchphrase: "I am a prototype for a much larger system."
Creepy Monotone: Is apparently entirely incapable of expressing emotion.
Holographic Terminal: Appears as the vaguest, blurred impression of a face in a grainy, two-dimensional floating image. It's somewhat unnerving.
Lethal Joke Character: Believes himself to be one. Guests to Everett's mansion treat him like an amusing curiosity, but the amount of knowledge he possesses, and the fact he can possess it, show how little privacy the citizens of Deus Ex really have.
Mathematician's Answer: Answers questions in a terse, vague, but accurate manner.
JC Denton: Did Everett program you to answer in riddles?
Morpheus: Morgan Everett programmed me to offer the most succinct tier of any pyramidal construct of knowledge.
Mr. Exposition: Sort of. It's more obvious on subsequent playthroughs.
The Omniscient: And how!
JC Denton: What else do you know about me?
Morpheus: Everything that can be known.
Small Role, Big Impact: He functionally appears in a single sequence, in Everett's home, and appears to be a curiosity to most visitors. Question it enough, however, and his knowledge of the game's plot, and what will happen for the rest of the game, becomes much more apparent.

The Triads

Tracer Tong

"See how easily our technologies turn on us? The more power you think you have, the more quickly it slips from your grasp."

Voiced by: John Gault (Deus Ex) | Alexander Brandon (Invisible War) | Shawn Baichoo (Human Revolution)

Appears in: Deus Ex | Deus Ex: Invisible War | Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Alliterative Name: Tracer Tong.
Borrowed Catchphrase: Of a sort. His page quote, "The more power you think you have, the more quickly it slips from your grasp," wasn't his own invention; a dialogue option in Human Revolution allows Adam Jensen to say this to him as a warning. It appears the wisdom stuck.
Cool Old Guy: By Invisible War he's 65 years old, and yet appears on Liberty Island at the end of the game, where, depending on how the player's actions affect events, he'll join in the combat like any of the other characters present, shooting and even performing evasive rolls.
Facial Horror: His face is heavily scarred, and half of it looks like it's covered in a skin graft that has a clearly different skin color than the rest of his face. Whatever caused that is never mentioned.
Foreshadowing: The "more power you think you have, the more it slips through your fingers" quote, and him congratulating to JC if the player uses a trellis to break into the Cathedral hints towards his Ludd Was Right beliefs, and what he will expect at the endgame.
Ludd Was Right: Despite being a tech guru, ends up believing this. One of his first quotes to JC in person is the one stated above. At Area 51, he will request that you destroy the entire complex, which will send the world back into a new dark age, but according to him, will prevent anyone from controlling the world. In Human Revolution it's revealed he had one major difference with his cyborg father: he loves technology but doesn't think you have to stick it in your body. He cobbles together an invisibility module that works without needing the user to be augmented right in front of you and uses it to escape.
Meaningful Name: His name is an allusion to the common Win32 networking tool "tracert" for looking up the hosts that a packet visits on its way to another host.
Mission Control: After you defect from UNATCO, he takes up Alex's old role. This is also subverted; towards the end of the game, he contracts the Gray Death and is absent for several missions, only being rescued by Jock after he flies into San Francisco in a bid to secure Ambrosia. By the time the final mission begins (and Savage is able to synthesize a cure for the Gray Death, he feels well enough to once again pick up his role as JC's support line.
The Triads and the Tongs: Not so much as his father was in Human Revolution from what we can see. He seems more interested in his lab than in day-to-day gang activity. The side mission with him in HR reveals he had no interest in following his father in his footsteps. He is only with the Triads because of the convenience they offer him.

Gordon Quick

The head of the Luminous Path Triad, Gordon Quick mans the front gate to their compound, and acts as JC's first major contact in the region, having known of Paul Denton's involvement in the past.

Pet the Dog: He initially acts cold and dismissive of JC when the latter first arrives in the Wan Chai Market, but if you progress the story enough he warms up, noting that JC is "the man I hoped you were" and offering him increasingly-pricey bottles of wine at the Lucky Money.
Star-Crossed Lovers: A book hidden under his pillow in the Luminous Path compound reveals that he's fallen in love with the daughter of the Red Arrow Triad leader — a situation he notes the Irony of.
What the Hell, Hero?: He will have harsh words for JC if the latter knocks out or kills Louis Pan, the "local watchman" who harasses vendors for protection money.

X-51

Gary Savage

Voiced by: Brent Anderson

Leader of a group of scientists who defected from Area 51 and set up in Vandenberg Air Force Base to oppose Page.

Chekhov's Gunman: Gets namedropped in the opening cutscene by Bob Page as a researcher who has become a problematic thorn in MJ12's side... and he ultimately ends up being a pivotal factor in the conflict, as his work on the Universal Constructor allows JC to get the upper hand on Page and Simons.
Defector from Decadence: Wanted nothing to do with Majestic-12's immoral plans.
Early-Bird Cameo: In the "Missing Link" DLC from Deus Ex: Human Revolution, he can be seen working as a researcher at Rifleman Bank Station, and gets a single scene to talk with the base's commander before he leaves for parts unknown.
Heel–Face Turn: Along with the rest of X-51, in an attempt to distance themselves from the increasingly-hostile MJ12.
The Lost Lenore: Ambient dialogue from the other researchers at Vandenberg establishes that Gary's wife was murdered after he moved to Vandenberg, ostensibly by MJ12, in an attempt to coax him out of hiding.

Tiffany Savage

Voiced by: Ellen Locy

Gary Savage's daughter. Held hostage by Page.

Damsel in Distress: Her sole purpose in the original game is to exist as a hostage being held by MJ12, who are using her as leverage in an attempt to compel Gary Savage to bring them reaction modules. Depending on JC's actions, she can either be rescued or killed during the gas station raid — notably, it has no bearing on the rest of the plot, as JC still gets the information he needs if she is killed. However, he will receive an augmentation upgrade canister from her father as thanks if he successfully rescues her, so the player still has an incentive to not screw up the rescue.
Dead Guy Junior: Savage probably named her after Tiffany Kavanagh from The Missing Link, who is likely her mother. Whether Kavanagh fits the "dead" part depends on the player's actions in that mission.

Other

Harley Filben

"Password's enough, pal. Don't think you know something about the Lady I don't. My dad did tours out here."

Voiced by: Brent Anderson

A bum and a street informant in New York who gives JC advice on multiple occasions.

Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: Filben is revealed to be a member of the Illuminati, posing as an NSF agent... who also worked as a UNATCO informant during the Liberty Island raid. Lampshaded when he tells JC that he was working on his side the whole time.
Jerkass: Killing Leo Gold on Liberty Island (or simply wasting his time by not bothering to talk with him) will cause Filben to be much more hostile and standoff-ish when you next meet him in the Battery Park subway station. Notably, this stems from either wasting his time or killing one of his key contacts.
The Mole: For NSF and the Illuminati.
Properly Paranoid: To the point that if JC kills Joe Greene before being asked to on the last visit to NYC, he will mention that JC has "become one of us."
Smug Snake: A non-villainous example.
What the Hell, Hero?: If you killed Leo Gold during the first mission, he will call you out on the act the next time you meet him in the Battery Park subway station.

Smuggler

"It's the government, isn't it?"

Voiced by: Khary Payton

As his name implies, a smuggler in Hell's Kitchen.

Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: Mostly played straight unless he owes you a favor, then he'll cut you a massive discount.
Badass Longcoat: A trenchcoat version.
Conspiracy Theorist: He happens to be extremely knowledgeable (and Properly Paranoid) about various conspiracies, causing JC to remark with Arbitrary Skepticism. As it turns out, he's also completely accurate regarding the scope of the operation.
Crazy-Prepared: To the point that even Alex acknowledges him as being "whacked-out paranoid," but his preparations are necessary — he notes in his initial conversation with JC that his friends have been "disappearing", and he's taken steps to cover himself, including laser traps and sentry bots. Later in the game, he has more than enough supplies to stock up JC for the Shipyard level, and if sufficiently warned, he's long gone by the time UNATCO raids his base.
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": He's only ever known as "the Smuggler."
Hikikomori: A parody of people like this: he lives alone in a booby-trapped basement that you need a password to get into and believes the government is out to get him. He does at least have a friend though.
Jerkass: A non-evil example, but he's pretty rude to JC. He's kinder if you save his buddy Schick and also thanks you if you warn him about Gunther's incoming raid.
Properly Paranoid: His hideout is rigged with all sorts of lethal booby traps. During the last visit to NYC, when JC is stocking up on gear from him, Smuggler will begin to get concerned that someone will do a raid on him soon. The player can warn him to get out, or leave him to his fate.
Supernatural Gold Eyes: His vision also appears to be augmented.

Ford Schick

Voiced by: Cliff Stephens

A friend of Smuggler's who's been kidnapped by a mysterious organization and forced to do research related to the Gray Death. Saving him will make Smuggler give you a discount.

Chekhov's Gunman: Unused (bugged) content has him reappear in Smuggler's lab during the player's final visit to New York if he was saved, where he will give JC an aug upgrade canister and deliver an Info Dump on the information he's managed to learn about the Gray Death.
Distressed Dude: When JC finds him, he's been forced into working for MJ12 researching the Gray Death in the tunnels underneath Hell's Kitchen and jumps at the chance to escape when JC offers him a way out.
Expospeak: In the event that he was saved (and if mods that restore content are used), he'll go more in-depth into the experiments MJ12 was having him perform, as well as the nature of the cell cultures they had him utilizing to conduct experiments when you speak to him again during the final trip to Hell's Kitchen.
He Knows Too Much: Datapads found in the MJ12 labs under Hell's Kitchen establish that the troops know he's a liability, and are planning to execute him once the current round of experiments are complete.
Nice Guy: He's so exceedingly helpful and polite to JC that it comes across as whiplash (particularly in restored-content mods) when compared to the Properly Paranoid Smuggler, who doesn't trust anyone.

Gilbert Renton

Voiced by: Ron Tatar

Owner of the (Hil)Ton hotel, all he wants is to run a peaceful business and keep his daughter out of trouble.

Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Not really a moron, just a down-on-his-luck middle-aged average Joe who doesn't have much to offer his only daughter beside a place to stay and a job killing rats. Equip him with a good gun, however, and he can take down JoJo by himself.
Hostage Situation: Like the rest of the residents in the 'Ton, he's been taken hostage by NSF forces when JC first meets him.
I Just Want to Be Badass: Insofar as keeping his little girl safe anyway, he has no problem arming up once an opportunity presents itself (from JC).
Meaningful Name: He's the owner of a hotel, which means you have to pay him rent on time.
Papa Wolf: He becomes this if you arm him with a weapon.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He's nowhere to be seen once MJ12 raids the 'Ton, and unlike Sandra (who can be found later at the Underworld Tavern if she was convinced to stay), he's gone for the rest of the game, with dialogue from a squatter indicating that he left town indefinitely.

Sandra Renton

Voiced by: Deborah Jolly

The daughter of Gilbert Renton. A prostitute.

Contrived Coincidence: In any situation that results in her fleeing the 'Ton in despair, the player will meet her near the end of the game, homeless, broke and camped out near a fire by a gas station on the other side of the country, and right beside the same place JC needs to go to rescue a hostage with valuable intel. Given how short the timeline of events is in the game (with most of the events taking place within a few days, at most), this is extremely improbable.
Damsel in Distress: In her first appearance, she's being cornered by a pimp named Johnny.
Hooker with a Heart of Gold: She is established as working for JoJo, but it's made clear that she really doesn't enjoy the lifestyle, having gone into hiding with her friend Janey when the "work" became too much for her. Janey will praise JC if he knocks out her pimp, and Sandra is shown to want a better life than "killing rats in the 'Ton". Depending on how JC resolves the situation, she can either repair the relationship with her father or wind up even worse off than before.
The Idealist: If she fled the 'Ton, she will tell JC near the abandoned gas station that despite everything that's happened, she knows how to stick to a plan and is still hopeful about getting to Eugene, California to make a new life for herself.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: If you kill JoJo without her father's help, or if her father dies, she does this and you can later encounter her as a bum in Vandenberg.
Trauma Conga Line: Her Establishing Character Moment has her being threatened by a pimp, having been routinely exploited by JoJo as a hooker. Soon after, a gunfight breaks out between JoJo and her father, who angrily demands he leave the 'Ton. Unless JC actively intervenes in the latter situation, she flees the hotel and ends up on the other side of the country, having been robbed by another and left penniless near a gas station on the New West Coast.

Joe Greene

Voiced by: Ron Tatar

A nosy reporter in Hell's Kitchen.

Conspiracy Theorist: His articles for the Midnight Sun read like he's a future version of Alex Jones. In truth, he himself works for the conspiracy, with his newspaper rants presumably designed to make anyone who talks about the real conspiracy look ridiculous.
- In a darker twist, it may also be that by writing articles on actual MJ12 activity, it encourages witnesses to come forward and mention MJ12 operations they have information on to Joe for his next article. Joe then rats these people out to be killed, as a kind of information honeypot trap.
Early-Bird Cameo: He first shows up in the second mission of the game, asking pointed questions about JC's involvement in the Hell's Kitchen operation. This comes long before you ascertain his true motives for being in the city and his connection to UNATCO.
The Mole: Answering his questions is definitely not recommended.
Shout-Out Theme Naming: His name might be a reference to Moe Greene from The Godfather.
Smug Snake: He seems to be completely at ease, almost unnaturally so, with the current situation in Hell's Kitchen, and is notably fishing for information from JC and other sources, acting completely sure of himself in the process. It isn't until he gets found out that he drops the charade and attempts to flee the area.

Jordan Shea

The owner of the Underworld Tavern in Hell's Kitchen, who provides JC with some local gossip during his initial journey through the area.

Cyborg: Much like her former colleagues at UNATCO, she retains an impressive degree of augmentation on her arms and chest (befitting her status as a former agent), which can be pointed out by the player in dialogue.
The Mole: Supplemental material establishes that she was a former UNATCO agent (working alongside mechs like Gunther and Anna), who may have been placed on indefinite leave by the agency and even harbors a degree of resentment towards them, but hasn't completely given up her loyalties. On the third and final visit to Hell's Kitchen, she'll inform UNATCO about JC's activities if the agent asks her about Stanton Dowd.
The Resenter: Maintains a "degree of cynicism towards UNATCO", according to her character bio, due to the advancements in nanotechnology, which made her own augs nigh-obsolete
Two Shots from Behind the Bar: Happens to carry a sawed-off shotgun, which she keeps behind the bar for particularly troublesome patrons.

Chad Dumier

Voiced by: Maxence Tillette (Deus Ex) | Paul Norton (''Invisible War)

Appears in: Deus Ex | Deus Ex: Invisible War

The leader of the resistance group Silhouette, located in France, and a friend of Paul's.

Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: Subverted; when JC finds him, he is actively considering terms of surrender to the encroaching MJ12 forces, though not for a lack of reason. It's quickly revealed that he's at wits' end, having led his resistance cell away from danger (narrowly missing being arrested due to JC broadcasting the distress call), retreated to the catacombs and bunkered up after being confronted with heavily-armored commandoes with superior firepower, knowing that most of his troops aren't equipped to fight). When JC arrives and offers to rescue his captured members, he practically jumps at the chance to agree.
Field Promotion: Morgan Everett functionally conscripts him to secure the Templar gold underneath the Cathedral once JC leaves, even giving him command of a platoon of troops in the process.
La Résistance: Heads Silhouette in France, and helps JC in his quest to take down MJ12.
Non-Action Guy: Silhouette prefers "feats of spectacle" over violence and is nowhere near as inclined to fight as the NSF. When Majestic 12 comes looking for them in force, all they can do is hide.
Plot Armor: Played straight and subverted.
- In the original game, Chad can be killed by the player or attacking forces (due to not retaining the same level of NPC invincibility as Nicolette), but the sequel canonically establishes that he is still alive.
- In Invisible War, he retains his invulnerability until the final siege on Liberty Island, due to being essential to the game's events.
Rank Up: By the time Alex Denton meets him in Invisible War, he's become the Chairman of the World Trade Organization... and the functional co-head of the Illuminati, alongside his wife, Nicolette.
Rebel Leader: Leader of Silhouette, a French resistance group.

Nicolette DuClare

Voiced by: Ellen Locy

Appears in: Deus Ex | Deus Ex: Invisible War

The daughter of the late Illuminatus Elizabeth DuClare.

Affectionate Nickname: "Angel", as her mother called her (and which is how JC identifies her as at the Paris nightclub in order to establish contact with Everett), which even extends to Beth's computer password, "nico_angel".
Big Fancy House: Subverted; she previously lived in a lavish estate owned by her mother, Beth, but she functionally abandoned the property before the latter's death to focus on her own efforts helping Silhouette. It is implied by the time you leave the estate that Nicolette will use it as a staging area to correspond with Morgan Everett.
Custom Uniform of Sexy: Is shown wearing an outfit that accentuates her stomach in the first game. That sense of fashion is gone by the sequel when she dresses in much more conservative attire.
In the Blood: Morgan Everett points out that she is "wise, like her mother," and suggests that Nicolette was destined to follow in her mother's footsteps as a member of the Illuminati.
Law of Inverse Fertility: Invisible War establishes that she has been unable to bear children, leading Chad to look to Klara Sparks (and later, Alex Denton) as potential Passing the Torch recruits for the Illuminati.
The Man Behind the Man: The infighting between the Order and the WTO in Invisible War is largely due to her (and Chad's) urging, as part of a long-term ploy to accelerate social division throughout the world.
"Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: She and her mother never communicated, and everything Nicolette does is to try to please her mother. Unfortunately, her mother dies before they can reconcile.

Characters / Deus Ex

Edit Locked

JC Denton

Voiced by: Jay Anthony Franke

Appears in: Deus Ex | Deus Ex: Invisible War

UNATCO

UNATCO

Paul Denton

Voiced by: Jay Anthony Franke

Appears in: Deus Ex | Deus Ex: Invisible War

Anna Navarre

Voiced by: Carolyin McCormick

Gunther Hermann

Voiced by: Jeff Groteboer

Sam Carter

Voiced by: Sean Hennigan

Jaime Reyes

Voiced by: Sean Hennigan

Alex Jacobson

Voiced by: Richard Zangrande Gaubert

Brian "Jock" Flanagan

Voiced by: John Gault

Joseph Manderley

Voiced by: John Gault (Deus Ex) | Paul Hopkins (Mankind Divided)

Appears in: Deus Ex | Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

NSF

NSF

Leo Gold

Voiced by: Marcus M. Mauldin

Jojo Fine

Voiced by: Khary Payton

Juan Lebedev

Voiced by: Sean Henningan

Miguel

Voiced by: Gary Moody

Erin Todd

Majestic-12

Majestic-12

Bob Page

Voiced by: Cliff Stephens

Appears in: Deus Ex | Deus Ex: Human Revolution | Deus Ex: The Fall | Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Walton Simons

Voiced by: Tom Hall

Maggie Chow

Voiced by: Carolyn McCormick

Howard Strong

Voiced by: Tom Hall

The Illuminati

The Illuminati

Morgan Everett

Voiced by: Sean Hennigan (Deus Ex) | Don Jordan (Mankind Divided)

Appears in: Deus Ex | Deus Ex: Human Revolution (referenced) | Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Stanton Dowd

Voiced by: Randy Tallman

Appears in: Deus Ex | Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Lucius DeBeers

Voiced by: John William Galt (Deus Ex) | uncredited (Human Revolution) | Hubert Fielden (Mankind Divided)

Appears in: Deus Ex | Deus Ex: Human Revolution | Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Elizabeth "Beth" DuClare

Appears in: Deus Ex (mentioned) | Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Artificial Intelligences

Daedalus and Icarus

Voiced by: Peter Marquardt

Appears in: Deus Ex | Deus Ex: Invisible War

Morpheus

Voiced by: Tom Hall

The Triads

Tracer Tong

Voiced by: John Gault (Deus Ex) | Alexander Brandon (Invisible War) | Shawn Baichoo (Human Revolution)

Appears in: Deus Ex | Deus Ex: Invisible War | Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Gordon Quick

X-51

Gary Savage

Voiced by: Brent Anderson

Tiffany Savage

Voiced by: Ellen Locy

Other

Harley Filben

Voiced by: Brent Anderson

Smuggler