Characters / DUSK

While DUSK has a small cast list, due to being a Retraux FPS with direct inspiration from Doom and Quake. They have decent amount of character worth making a page out of.

The Protagonist

Dusk Dude

^{Click here to see Dusk Dude in the ending screen.} 

A treasure hunter enticed to Dusk by rumors of treasure beneath the abandoned city. He is impaled on meat hooks, and once he gets out, Dusk Dude quickly finds himself in the middle of a cult that really wants him dead.

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• Accidental Hero: He is responsible for the fall of cult, stopping their evil, but he’s just a treasure hunter who came to town to get his hands on the riches and stops the cult out of self-defense. Word of God implies that he does have grievances against the cult, though.
• Action Hero: Just like the FPS's Dusk emulates, Dusk Dude is a complete badass that shoots his way through the cult.
• Anti-Hero: Will slaughter his way through hundreds of (admittedly evil) cultist just to get his mitts on the town’s treasure.
• Badass Longcoat: Comes with a large hat as well, reminiscent of Caleb from Blood.
• Badass Normal: He blasts every mad cultist, every abomination, and every otherworldy demon the cult throws at him with just a relatively normal arsenal. Dusk Dude can run very fast, tank explosions, and do flips in midair. Bumped up to Empowered Badass Normal after Nyarlathotep makes him his new champion.
• Big "NO!": His only spoken line of dialogue, if you flush yourself down the toilet.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Can pick up crates, barrels and sawblades and throw them fast enough to gib.
• Cigar Chomper: He loves his cigars so much that smoking them restores his health (albeit slowly).
• Cool Old Guy: Dude single-handedly butchers a cult full of deranged people and horrific monsters.
• Cool Sword: Receives one at the beginning of Episode 3, and uses it for much of the episode's first level. Depending on how much health or morale he has, he can do a stab attack that deals heavy damage or can block projectiles and reflect them, respectively!
• Crusading Widower: Word of God on the steam forums revealed the cult had sacrificed his wife and child while he was away.
• Dark and Troubled Past:
  • Implied in Homecoming (E3M7). He recognizes one of the houses. When you walk inside, you hear someone or something screaming, and using the paintings print this out:
  Dusk Dude: It hurts to remember...
  • Word of God in the steam forum reveals that he used to live in DUSK and his family was sacrificed by the cult while he was away.
• Deadpan Snarker: Manages to be one, despite his speech only shown briefly on screen when interacting with some items.
  Dusk Dude, after killing everyone at the entrance of Dusk: This place is doomed.
• Determinator: The very first level starts with him pulling himself off meat hooks, and proceeding to beat a small group of cultists with just a pair of sickles. This gets pushed into Implacable Man territory by the end of the game.
• Dual Wielding: His main melee weapons are a pair of sickles, while his pistols and shotguns can be upgraded to this when the player finds copies of the weapons.
• Establishing Character Moment: Gets hung on meat hooks only to pull himself off and use them to slaughter the chainsaw wielding hillbillies who were going to slaughter him. Yeah, pretty firmly established badass.
• Everyone Has Standards: As the Cult Leader notes, he may not be able to break his body, but Dusk Dude's mind is vulnerable. After fighting through the Escher Labs and against Mama in the comic, he vomits and stops for 2 panels.
  Cult Leader: I've done it. I've hurt you.
• Expy: His wide-brimmed hat, coat, and use of a common farm tool as a melee weapon (sickles in this case) give him a resemblance to Caleb. He also (albeit against his will) ends up serving under an Eldritch Abomination (who himself is voiced by Caleb's voice actor), with glowing green eyes similar to Caleb's glowing red eyes.
• Guns Akimbo: He can dual wield pistols and shotguns, alongside his dual sickles.
• Hidden Depths: His Dark and Troubled Past shows he not just a faceless badass type like older FPS protagonists.
• It's Personal: Word of God revealed his family was sacrificed by the cult.
• The Lost Lenore: Implied to have one, considering the quote below Dark and Troubled Past is said while looking at a picture of him and who-is-implied to be his wife.
• Made of Iron: Takes quite a bit of punishment both in the game and the comic, and the entire Morale system is effectively armor by grabbing cash and treasure that makes him more confident to survive whatever damage he sustains.
• Manly Facial Hair: His got quite the large bushy beard and being a protagonist of a Boomer Shooter game, he definitely fits the bill.
• The Nameless: Only referred to as Dusk Dude in promotional material.
• Nominal Hero: He didn’t come to Dusk to stop the cult, he came for the treasure.
• Oh, Crap!: Has a massive one when Nyarlathotep corrupts him and seals him underneath Dusk.
• Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: Dusk Dude looks much more middle aged and grizzled in comparison to the relatively more youthful looking Jakob.
• One-Man Army: Single-handedly carves a bloody path through the cult with extreme prejudice.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: While initially said to be a treasure hunter coming to Dusk for the riches, it’s revealed by Word of God in the steam forum that he’s actually slaughtering his way through the cult to avenge his wife and child, who were sacrificed by them.
• Sealed Badass in a Can: He is sealed underneath the town of Dusk after Nyarlathotep grants him his power and turns Dusk Dude into his new champion.
• Sinister Scythe: He starts out with a pair of sickles at the beginning of every episode. If you choose intruder mode, he starts out with only the sickles at the beginning of every level.
• Smoking Is Cool: So cool, in fact, it gives him health!
• Stress Vomit: Throws up after fighting Mama in the comic.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: When he suffers Stress Vomit in the comic, we get a good panel of it.
• Would Hit a Girl: Shoots down female cult members the same way as their male cohorts.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: Becomes Jakob's replacement as Nyarlathotep's champion at the end of the game. Not like he wanted it.

Enemies

The Cult, Military, Demons and Posessed

The nice, kind and courteous people and creatures who welcome you to the town of Dusk (and beyond).

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• A Day in the Limelight: Episode 3's secret level, the Ratacombs, only use rats for the entire level, including the boss.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Everyone in town wants Dusk Dude dead, so you don’t feel bad for slaughtering them to the last.
• Animalistic Abomination: Cart Dogs are very disturbing enemies. They appear to be a limbless dog tied into a wooden cart.
• Armies Are Evil: In the case of soldiers? Definitely.
• Asshole Victim: Everyone in the town lacks anything resembling redeeming qualities, so nobody should feel a thing as Dusk Dude slaughters his way through them.
• Ax-Crazy: One of the few games where every enemy in its roster can be considered this. These people and beings have been slaughtering people by the thousands for decades.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: The cult leader describes them as a family. Disregarding their obvious madness, they will kill each other with little remorse, and will kill Jakob once he's "Unworthy".
• Body Horror: Most creatures have shades of this, but the Cowgirls probably have it the hardest, being human women transformed into macabre cyborgs by the military's eldritch experiments — Their legs are creaking stilts from the knee downwards, their left arm has been replaced by a riveter, and their namesake "hats" are metal helmets that appear to have been grafted to their skulls. Their presence is telegraphed by constant, tortured groaning. An earlier design with less armor/clothing was even worse, featuring mutilated breasts and genitalia.
• Boss in Mook's Clothing: Some of the more powerful mooks fall into this, such as the Cowgirls.
• The Cameo: In FAITH: The Unholy Trinity a pixelated version of The Horror attacks John when he leaves Gary's cabin. Judging by the letter that Gary was supposed to send to Jakob, it's supposedly the aforementioned "pet" Jakob sent over.
• Chainsaw Good: The Leathernecks use chainsaws that can take quite a bit of Dusk Dude’s health.
• Dark Action Girl: The Cowgirls are horrific female scarecrows that shoot rivets at Dusk Dude.
• Degraded Boss: The Duke Brothers and Mama are swiftly reused after their boss fights as Grand Wizards and Cowgirls respectively. The most egregious example is Chomper's Sons, who appear immediately after Chomper and only for the ending of that same level.
• Demonic Possession: Most, if not all, of the human enemies are possessed by Nyarlathotep. It's implied that most of them did it for power.
• Early-Bird Cameo: A soldier and Welder is found dead in the first episode. They become reoccurring enemies in E1M8 and Episode 2 respectively.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The Cult loves the Intoxicator so much they made him a family.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Apparently even the scientists didn’t like their creations, with graffiti asking themselves what they created.
• Evil Laugh: The scientists let out a chuckle when they spot you.
• Expy: Certain enemies are clearly based on other characters.
  • The first cultists you meet are the Leathernecks and it doesn't take a genius to know whom they are based on. They're even introduced in the level called "Head Cheese".
  • The Possessed Soldiers clearly bring to mind the HECU from Half-Life.
  • In the same vein, the Scientists wear clothes similar to the Black Mesa Scientists.
  • The Black Phillips are named after and based on the black goat of the same name, in the Robert Eggers movie The VVitch.
  • The Duke Brothers are based on the infamous Barons of Hell duo called the Bruiser Brothers.
• Glacier Waif: The Fork Maidens look like mummified husks that would break away in the wind, but are some of the strongest enemies you encounter in Episode 1, able to tank multiple Super Shotgun and Riveter shots before gibbing.
• Glass Cannon: Possessed Soldiers fire off three-round bursts which are damaging and fast-moving projectiles, but the soldiers have also the second smallest health pool of all enemies, with only the rats being weaker.
• Hellish Horse: The Experiments are flaming headed horses that spit fire balls.
• Hell Is That Noise: Thanks to great sound design, some of the noises these enemies make will haunt your nightmares.
• Hillbilly Horrors: The Foothills episode has this in spades, from mages in robes that look like Klansmen to sack-wearing and chainsaw-wielding psychos in flannel red.
• Humanoid Abomination: Even the enemies that allegedly are human fall into this category, but The Horrors take the cake.
• Jump Scare: Pretty much how every single Wendigo makes itself known.
• The Klan: Some of the members certainly bare a resemblance to the KKK, and they even have the title of Grand Wizards, which is a high position in the Klan.
• King Mook: A few common enemies get used as minor bosses, often with a bit of scaling up: The Duke Brothers (Mages, later recycled as Elite Mooks), Big John (Possessed Soldier with a different head texture), the Twins (Cowgirls with a shared life meter), One As Many (a giant Rat accompanied by a swarm of regular Rats), and Littleneck (a tiny Leatherneck).
• Mad Scientist: The Scientist enemies are deranged cultist who make horrific monstrosities.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Some of the creatures fall into this; the Wendigos and Black Phillips were "created" by the Cult, and they can be seen caged in the Escher Labs. Ultimately, they're all empowered by Nyarlathotep.
• Nightmare Face: The Horrors. Look for yourself.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Possibly. They look like Klansmen and have enemies with the title of Grand Wizard, which is a high ranking position in the KKK.
• Sackhead Slasher: The Leathernecks give off vibes of Part 2 Jason and Leatherface.
• Scare Chord: Wendigos cause scare chord to be played when becoming visible.
• Scary Scarecrows: The Scarecrows are as psychotic as the rest of enemies in the game, with the added bonus of a double barreled shotgun!
• Sentry Gun: Automated turret is one of the enemy types.
• Set a Mook to Kill a Mook:
  • Mooks can fight each other, and like Dusk's inspirations, it's important to abuse this as much as possible.
  • This is actively enforced, with an item called the Crystal of Madness which can be thrown to the ground to incite enemies to attack anything in their immediate vicinity, including themselves.
  • There's also a scripted fight between the Soldiers and Cultists at the end of E1M8. According to the comic, this was where the soldiers were first possessed. Signifying that despite their possession, certain military personnel deep down still oppose the cultists.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: Scarecrows wield double barreled shotguns that pack a punch.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Mages spout out the titles of two classic shooters^note And considering how on the nose the series is with it's inspirations, it's definitely not a coincidence like:
  Blood...
  Heretic...
  • The midboss at the end of the third episode's secret level is named One as Many, a reversal of another rat-themed character from Planescape: Torment.
• Sickening "Crunch!": The Horrors make this when they crumple to the ground in their death animation, limbs closing up like a dead spider.
• Team Pet: Intoxigator and his family are loved by the Cult, as they made a Wife and Son for him. A drawing of the Wife can be found right before you fight his Son.
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Graffiti can be found in the Experiments' boss room:
  "What did we create?"
• Unique Enemy: Chomper and his Sons, who only appear in a single level.
• Wendigo: These flesh eating creatures are part of the enemy roster.

Spoiler Characters

The Cult Leader

Jakob

Voiced by: Andrew Hulshult

"This... Is only the beginning."

The fanatic leader of the cult that has destroyed Dusk, Jakob awaits Dusk Dude as his final test.

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• Affably Evil: Jakob comes off as this as he grows to respect Dusk Dude.
• Ax-Crazy: A vicious cult leader who has been feeding thousands to an infernal machine for decades.
• Creator Cameo: His face is based off of Dave Oshry, the CEO of publisher New Blood Interactive. He's also voiced by Andrew Hulshult, the game's composer.
• The Cameo: It's revealed in Chapter III of FAITH: The Unholy Trinity that Jakob and Gary Miller are close friends, with Jakob sending one of The Horrors as a pet for Gary and even having a picture together.
• The Chosen One: Was deemed worthy by Nyarlathotep to lead the cult. At least until Dusk Dude mortally wounds him, and his own Acolytes kill him for being "Unworthy".
• The Dragon: Serves as one to Nyarlathotep. Until he's replaced by Dusk Dude.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: It gets personal when Dusk Dude kills Intoxigator. He also created, for Intoxigator, a son and wife.
  Jakob:' "My pet. Oh. You'll pay for that."
• Evil Laugh: Probably accounts for 50% of his dialogue, and usually right before or right as you trigger a trap.
• Evil Sounds Deep: His is the voice that you hear throughout the entire game, almost sounding demonic in nature with how deep it is.
• Facial Horror: He appears to have removed his eyelids, and has a mark carved into the middle of his forehead (close-ups in the comic indicate that it's the symbol of the cult).
• The Heavy: While Nyarlathotep is the true master of the cult, his existence isn't revealed until the very end of the game. Jakob leads the cult in his name and his telepathic messages are a constant presence throughout the game.
• Mirror Match: When he fights Dusk Dude, he bunny hops like a seasoned FPS veteran, and uses a Shotgun, Riveter, Mortar, and an Assault Rifle like the player.
• The Nameless: At least, until the end of the game, where he is named as Jakob.
• Oh, Crap!: After you mortally wound him.
  Jakob: No! You can't betray me! MY DISCIPLES!
• Trap Master: According to the Comic, all of the traps, ambushes, and mazes you encounter in the game? It's all set up by him.
• Villainous Breakdown: Loses his cool as his disciples turn on and kill him.
• Villainous Friendship: As it turns out, he's on good terms with other demonic cult leaders. More specifically, Gary Miller.
• Worthy Opponent: As you go further through the game, his view of Dusk Dude turns into this.
  Jakob: You shall be my final test.

The Mastermind

Nyarlathotep

The only time you see him in game.

Voiced by: Stephan Weyte

"Pray, that you never meet me in my thousand other forms."

The god of Dusk's cult. Nyarlathotep is encountered as the final boss.

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• Ax-Crazy: A gleefully sadistic bastard who enjoys sending humans to be grounded up in the infernal machine.
• Badass Boast: Overlaps with Blasphemous Boast as the first thing he says to you.
  Nyarlathotep: Who did you expect at the end of all this? God? The Devil, perhaps? No... It's just... Me.
• Bad Boss: He’s the one who causes Jakob’s disciples to turn on and kill him for being "unworthy" compared to Dusk Dude.
• The Bad Guy Wins: At the end, he corrupts Dusk Dude and is not even injured by the boss fight. Your only consolation is that you decimated his cult, but it's likely it will regrow.
• Big Bad: He is the true mastermind behind the cult, with Jakob merely being his servant.
• The Corrupter: He is the being responsible for turning the town of Dusk into a cultist death trap, and even corrupts Dusk Dude at the end to turn him into his new Dragon.
• Demonic Possession: In exchange for power, the Cult allowed him into Dusk.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Nyarlathotep is referenced in very cryptic terms throughout the game, but we only get his name at the very end, during his boss battle.
• Eldritch Abomination: Named after the most human-like and evil Outer God in the Cthulhu Mythos.
• Evil Is Hammy: Courtesy of Stephen Weyte.
• Evil Laugh: As expected of being voiced by the same man who voiced Caleb, he delivers a very hammy one after taking over Dusk Dude.
• Faux Affably Evil: Is quite complimentary to Dusk Dude, though only because he sees another pawn he can condemn to a Fate Worse than Death.
• Final Boss: The last battle of DUSK, thought he can’t be killed.
• Greater-Scope Villain: He is the one behind Jakob and the cult’s actions, though you don’t know until the end of the game.
• Just Toying with Them: When he falls to his last hit point, Nyarlathotep abruptly turns invulnerable again and stops the fight with a shout of "Enough!" As it turns out, the whole fight was just the abomination testing Dusk Dude to see if he was worthy.
• Karma Houdini: On account of The Bad Guy Wins. He isn’t defeated by Dusk Dude and turns him into another one of his pawns, ensuring he can rebuild another cult to sacrifice more to his machine.
• Large Ham: Overlaps with Evil Is Hammy. Nyarlathotep has a very loud and bombastic voice, and even his quieter moments have a heavy theatrical vibe to them. Then again he is portrayed by Stephen Weyte, so it's to be expected.
• The Man Behind the Man: He becomes a final boss at the very end of the game, to the point of being a Bigger Bad instead.
• Sickly Green Glow: Shared with the crystals of madness and the Blood Magic of his cult. Nyarlathotep constantly crackles with vivid green lightning, and his body is covered in glowing green sores (shifting to red when he's vulnerable to damage). When he empowers the Dusk Dude to be his herald, he does so by overwhelming the Dude with green lighting, which gives the treasure hunter green Glowing Eyes of Doom.
• Villain Respect: Had this for Jakob, and has this for Dusk Dude after his Boss Fight.
  Nyarlathotep: He WAS worthy, you know.
  Nyarlathotep, after the final boss: Enough! You are indeed worthy. And so now... My power... Is yours!
• Walking Spoiler: As the final boss, who only appears at the end of the game, and delivers the game's Downer Ending, it's only natural.
• Weakened by the Light: The only way you can damage Nyarlathotep is creating rays of light. Dusk Dude does this by shooting at the cave's walls.
• Wowing Cthulhu: Dusk Dude might not be able to kill him, but after his fight against the cult leader and putting one up against him, Nyarlathotep is outright impressed with the treasure hunter, making him his next right hand man.

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