House of Ashes / Characters

The Dark Pictures Anthology characters index
Season 1: Man of Medan | Little Hope | House of Ashes | The Devil in Me

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Protagonists

Rachel King

Voiced by: Ashley Tisdale

Action Girl: Trained military and consistently fights off both the monsters and Iraqi military opposition. One notable scene allows her to use a Browning machine gun and kill a half a dozen of the vampires.
Affectionate Nickname: Eric calls her “Rach”.
Amicable Exes: Though they start off bitter, she and Eric can become this through player choices even if they don’t get back together.
And Then John Was a Zombie: She's the only protagonist who can turn into a vampire, either being killed and infected by the Ancient One or succumbing to her parasite infection towards the end of the game by refusing to kill herself or be cocooned in a stasis pod.
Battle Couple: Should she survive until the end, she can become one with Eric or Nick, an Air Force officer and a Marine.
Beauty Is Never Tarnished: She gets covered in blood and grime and can even vomit up a parasite, but it never makes her ugly.
Bilingual Dialogue: Rachel speaks fluent Arabic and uses it when speaking to Iraqis.
Blood Is the New Black: She spends the second half of the game completely covered head-to-toe in blood after having landed into a blood pit.
Boom, Headshot!: A potential fate for her if she’s infected and Jason puts her down.
Cool Shades: Wears these at the beginning of the game.
Deadpan Snarker: She's tough and no-nonsense, but some of her interactions with the crude Merwin and insecure Eric shows she can have some good comebacks.
Decoy Protagonist: It all comes down to the player's choices, but although Ashley Tisdale is the face of the game, Rachel is one of the easier protagonists to kill and likely will be one of the first casualties for any player. Even if she does survive the game, her role diminishes in size and importance by the end compared to Jason or Salim.
Determinator: From surviving an ambush, getting trapped underground, surviving a fall, and being chased by vampires, there’s no stopping her.
Disney Death: After falling from either Eric cutting the rope or Eric getting killed and impaled, Rachel always survives her fall and lands in a pit of blood.
Driven to Suicide: If she’s infected, due to the ongoing pain of said infection and the thoughts of turning into a vampire and endangering her comrades, Rachel can kill herself by stabbing a White Phosphorous.
Experienced Protagonist: She was a cadet at the United States Military Academy and later became the commander of Camp Slayer before Eric took over. Even the wiki states her as an excellent leader thanks to her strict, pragmatic, brave, and astute nature.
Fate Worse than Death: If Rachel is infected and agrees to be cocooned in a stasis pod, and none of the other protagonists live to give her location to the government agents, she won’t be found and it’s implied that she’ll be stuck in the pod forever.
Final Girl: Can be an invoked by the player should they choose to spare Rachel and ill off the four men. Averted by the game itself, however, with Rachel being among the two easiest characters to kill, the second killable protagonist, and being relatively sidelined in the last act. The player really has to go out of their way to save her, let alone for Rachel to be the sole survivor.
Hero Killer: If Salim kills Eric early in the game, Nick is alive, Jason is dead, and Salim is defensive when Rachel confronts him about Eric’s death, she will kill Salim.
Heroic Sacrifice: In the Curator’s Cut, Rachel can cut herself loose to prevent Eric from getting shot by Dar or falling into the chasm.
Heroic Suicide: If she’s infected, Rachel can kill herself to avoid turning into a vampire and killing her comrades.
Ice Queen: She usually maintains a frosty demeanor, which earned her the nickname "The Queen Bitch" from her team. She can potentially be proud or annoyed by it.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: A potential fate for her if she’s killed by the Ancient One.
Ink-Suit Actor: As per tradition of the past Dark Picture games, Rachel's design is based off her actress Ashley Tisdale.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Rachel can be commanding, abrasive, ungrateful, and snippy, but is also potentially capable of showing sympathy, understanding, and compassion when it counts. Her interactions with Eric, Nick, and an infected Clarice are the biggest highlights.
The Lost Lenore: She can be this to either Eric or Nick if she doesn't survive.
Love Interest: Is this to Eric, and Nick.
Meaningful Name: Rachel means "lamb"; she is the easiest protagonist to get killed, thus making her a Sacrificial Lamb.
Official Couple: Can be this with Eric, or Nick.
Pint-Sized Powerhouse: She's the shortest of the main characters, but is no less capable of handling herself. Her potentially using the machine gun mentioned above and the final standing against the vampires further exemplies this.
Prim and Proper Bun: Subverted. Her hair is tied in a bun, but she's an Action Girl.
The Smurfette Principle: She's the only playable female character.
Soft Water: Rachel miraculously survives her fall by landing into a pit of blood.
Suicide by Sunlight: A variation on this is a potential fate for her if she’s infected and commits suicide by stabbing a White Phosphorus.
Sympathetic Adulterer: It's up to the player how sympathetic she is, but she did canonically start her affair out of loneliness, not to mention guilt since she caused the accident that made Eric lose his leg and dream job.
Working with the Ex: The unit she joins is led by her estranged husband, Eric.

Eric Edward King

Voiced by: Alex Gravenstein

Amicable Exes: Though they start off bitter, he and Rachel can be this even if they don’t get back together.
Artificial Limbs: Has a prosthetic leg after losing his old one to a car accident he and Rachel were in.
Awesomeness by Analysis: Eric carefully thinks his situations through and learns what he can in order to deal with the vampires. This causes him to realize his UV wand is a great weapon against the vampires whether they are the vampires themselves, humans host to the vampire parasites, or Rachel's gestation stage.
Authority Equals Asskicking: As the commanding officer of the American unit, Eric can handle himself pretty well.
Badass Bookworm: He's a lieutenant colonel who relies more on cerebral and rational decisions, able to perform autopsies, and is a capable combatant.
Battle Couple: Possibly, with Rachel (via player choices).
Betrayal by Inaction: If Eric and Nick have a low relationship, he’ll betray the latter by ignoring his radio signal, letting Nick die in the process.
Boom, Headshot! A potential fate for him if Salim shoots him.
Colonel Badass: Fitting as he’s a lieutenant colonel and can be pretty good in a fight.
Cool Shades: Arrives in the story wearing a pair of aviator shades. He loses them when everyone falls into temple near the beginning of the story.
The Coroner: After discovering the corpse of a dead vampire, he tries to figure out its biology by performing on autopsy on it.
Cowardly Lion: A lot of his decisions can involve him turning tail, hiding, or abandoning any of the characters. But if he doesn't, he proves he can fight fiercely.
Crazy Jealous Guy: Eric can be jealous and possessive of Rachel shall he learn of her affair with Nick. In the event where he does, he can deliberately cause Nick’s death by ignoring his radio call.
Demoted to Extra: It's clear the devs didn't expect players to keep him alive past the first encounter with the Ancient One, as he becomes far less prominent in the story afterwards should he survive.
Dying Declaration of Love: Possibly would’ve given this to Rachel after getting shot by Dar, but fell and impaled himself before he could.
Experienced Protagonist: Like Rachel, he was a cadet at the United States Military Academy. He created a thermal satellite system called Caelus which is used to locate military equipment. He’s also skilled in military tactics, autonomy, and leadership. Brooks even describes him as the U.S Air Force’s “in-house genius.”
Eye Scream: Can get his eyes gouged out by a vampire towards the end of the game.
The Grovel: One way to play him is to have him continually beg Rachel to come back to him, regardless of how coldly she may insist their marriage is over.
Handicapped Badass: Sports a prosthetic leg, but is no less capable than any other of the protagonists.
I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: If he and Nick have a low relationship and he discovers Nick and Rachel’s affair, Eric can “punish” Rachel for cheating on him by ignoring Nick’s radio signal and letting him die.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: A potential fate for him if he falls into the chasm, either by getting shot by Dar or by losing his grip while trying to hold onto Rachel.
Lantern Jaw of Justice: Eric is a U.S. lieutenant colonel with a prominent dimpled chin.
The Leader: The commanding officer of the American unit who gets the final say on the squad's decisions (such as whether or not to call in air support). He can be either a decent or pathetic example of this, including how everyone else takes to his orders.
The Lost Lenore: Can possibly be this to Rachel shall they get back together during the game but he dies.
Love Interest: Is one to Rachel as he’s her husband, albeit estranged.
Love Makes You Evil: Eric can take a villainous turn if he discovers Rachel’s adultery. Not only can he become hostile toward her, but he can also get her second love (who’s also his own teammate) killed.
Love Will Lead You Back: Despite their estrangement, Eric wants him and Rachel to rekindle their relationship, whether she agrees, stays single, or continues her affair with Nick is up to the player.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Pretty much any time Eric is given the option to save someone else vs. save himself... he should save himself. The characters won't require Eric's help in order to make it, while Eric will almost always die if he decides to risk his life for them.
Not Good with Rejection: If Eric discovers Nick and Rachel’s affair and has a low relationship with the former, he can later ignore Nick’s radio signal, causing his death.
Obstructive Bureaucrat: Because of his position in CENTCOM, the main cast see him as nothing but an annoying pencil pusher. Depending on the player's choices, how callous he can be is determinant.
Official Couple: Can be this with Rachel.
Preemptive Apology: Gives one to Rachel before potentially cutting her loose to save his own life.
Rank Up: He was ranked up as Commanding Officer by CENTCOM.
Ring on a Necklace: When Rachel asks where his wedding ring is, he reveals to have it on a necklace, "close to [his] heart."
Reused Character Design: Like most of the characters other than Rachel and Salim, his model has turned up in prior Supermassive games, namely as Detective Calvary in Hidden Agenda and the police officer/Marshal Worel in Little Hope.
Team Killer: Can get Nick, one of his teammates, killed if they have a low relationship.
Torso with a View: If he falls into the chasm and impales himself on a stalagmite. Can also happen if he’s killed by a vampire in the game’s final chapter.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Him mistaking the archaeologist camp for a chemical weapons storage facility causes his unit to be ambushed by the Iraqis, which leads to both sides getting trapped in the temple.
Working with the Ex: The unit he leads is accompanied by his estranged wife, Rachel.
You Are in Command Now: CENTCOM does this to Eric by making him the commanding officer of the American unit.

Jason Kolchek

Voiced by: Paul Zinno

Bash Brothers: Has this dynamic with Nick, and can possibly have it with Salim as well in the climax.
The Big Guy: Not in size, but one of the most consistently action-oriented characters of the bunch, having no shortage of fight sequences, and heavily focused on the survival aspects.
Celibate Hero: He’s the only protagonist with no love interests.
Character Development: Jason begins the game with the trait "Intolerant", describing the Iraqi people as "feral" and quick to suggest violence against them. Over the course of the story, his time spent fighting alongside Salim begins to change him for the better. It's possible for his traits to be updated with "Tolerant", with him ending up viewing Salim as a brother-in-arms.
Dark and Troubled Past: He and Nick share this as they killed an innocent woman who they believed was a suicide bomber.
Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: He was shiftless and aimless, and joined the Marines because he had nothing better to do. He does think, however, he was better for it.
Experienced Protagonist: He’s a skilled, quick-thinking Marine who Miller describes as “the best of the best.”
Eye Scream: Can get his eyes gouged out by a vampire towards the end of the game.
Final Boy: Ultimately player choice will determine his fate but like Salim, Jason will always last until the very last moments of the story. Jason is also pretty much certain to undergo Character Development by the end and so he'll fit the likable build of a final boy.
Good Ol' Boy: Southern Christian soldier with strong Eagleland tendencies and racial biases.
I Regret Nothing: Whenever he's pressed back on the checkpoint incident prior to the game from Nick and Salim, Jason's attitude is to deflect any blame and instead say it was unavoidable. However, he can either bear down on this or potentially say he regrets his decisions.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: One possible death for Jason, delivered via the Ancient One's spear, if he attempts to save Salim and the player fails a QTE during their joint-escape.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The audience is introduced to Jason as being a racist, hot-headed asshole who steadfastly thinks of Iraqis as nothing but the enemy. As the game goes on, depending on choices, Jason can end up as the most heroic and selfless character of the bunch who is confronted with and grows post his racial biases. This culminates with Jason potentially declaring Salim, an Iraqi soldier, "one of us" and risking his life to save Salim from the monsters when the entire rest of the squad says to leave Salim for dead.
My Greatest Failure: A shared one with Nick, where Jason ordered a woman to stop on suspicions she had a bomb in a bag, and she refused. Nick shot her dead, but it was the wrong call, as the woman was carrying groceries. Despite his cold comments towards Nick to drop it and move on, his determinant dialogue about it with Salim and the former shows that he's clearly harboring massive guilt.
Noble Bigot: Repeatedly makes racist comments about the Iraqi people, but also among the most heroic and selfless characters in the game even before his character arc fully finishes. By the end of the game, it's strongly implied that Jason either has dropped or is on the road to dropping the "bigot" part of this trope.
Plot Armor: Due to his character arc with Salim showcasing the game's most prevalent theme of putting aside differences to work together, he cannot die until the final two chapters.
Religious Bruiser: The toughest of the group and the most religious.
Reused Character Design: His character model is the same as playable prologue character Joe from Man of Medan, as well as more minor characters Billy from The Inpatient and Sergeant Riggs from Hidden Agenda.
Sir Swears-a-Lot: Not that any character shies away from swearing, but he does it the most.
Smoking Is Not Cool: Chastises Nick when the latter tries to light a cigarette at one point.
Jason: Those things will kill ya, Sergeant.
Nick: Yeah, like smoking is the biggest threat to my life right now.
The Stoner: He was. He claims that during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, he was so baked he didn't know about it for a week later.
Tempting Fate: Can touch one of the decaying vampire corpses in the endgame just because. Fate bites back too; if the player misses the ensuing QTE, it's implied Jason is infected with a sickness he has little-to-no-hope of surviving.
Troubled Sympathetic Bigot: It's possible to play Jason this way. He has little love for the Iraqi people, wears a hat with 9/11 markings and repeatedly makes racist remarks (something Nick outright calls him on), but you can keep him from attacking people without reason and he can become Fire-Forged Friends with Salim. And either way, he is clearly troubled by having shot an innocent woman while under the impression that she was a suicide bomber.

Nicolas "Nick" Kay

Voiced by: Moe Jeudy-Lamour

Affectionate Nickname: Jason calls him “Nicky”.
Battle Couple: Possibly, with Rachel (via player choices).
Cowardly Lion: Easily the most frightened out of the group due to his past trauma, but can still be a worthy opponent.
Dark and Troubled Past: He and Jason share this as they killed an innocent woman who they believed was a suicide bomber.
Devoured by the Horde: A potential fate for him if he alerts the vampires while setting the explosives at the motherlode.
Experienced Protagonist: A skilled Marine and one of the toughest characters in the game as he easily carries Joey and lifts heavy objects in the temple. He’s also a capable combatant as he can kill several vampires and even the Ancient One, despite the latter holding him by the throat.
Eye Scream: Can get his eyes gouged out by a vampire towards the end of the game.
Hand Gagging: Salim does this to Nick so he can’t alert the vampires to their presence.
- Nick can also accidentally kill Merwin this way when in a panic to stop Merwin's groans of agony from giving their positions away to the vampires. If a player completes all three QTE events, Nick will suffocate Merwin.
Love Interest: A possible one to Rachel.
My Greatest Failure: During a past raid that went awry, Nick had to shoot a woman on orders, thinking she had a bomb in her bag: turns out it was only groceries, and Nick had been wracked with guilt over the murder of an innocent woman ever since.
Neck Snap: A potential fate for him if he’s killed by the Ancient One.
Official Couple: Can be this with Rachel.
Only Sane Man: He’s the only one willing to work with the Iraqis at the beginning.
Plot Armor: As Nick is the only one who has the bombs needed to set off the explosion in the creatures' hive, he cannot die until the last few chapters.
Protective Charm: He has a gold crucifix given to him by the fatally wounded Joey. He later has the option of using it on the Ancient One. In a subversion, it does keep the Ancient One from attacking, but not because it is magic, but because the Ancient One was curious about it.
Reused Character Design: His character model is the same as the base used for both Brad and Alex, the brothers in Man of Medan.
Second Love: To Rachel, who got into a relationship with him after her marriage with Eric fell apart. Whether he remains this until the end depends on the player and if he and Rachel both survive until the end.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: Prior to the story, he shot an innocent Iraqi woman at a checkpoint under orders from Jason, believing her to be a suicide bomber. This action haunts Nick throughout the game and how much it affects him is determinant for the player. The game's events themselves don't help with his psyche, either.
Sleeping with the Boss's Wife: Is in a relationship with Rachel, who's married to (albeit separated from) Eric, who's the commanding officer on their mission.
Sleeves Are for Wimps: One of the physically toughest fighters in the main cast who wears short sleeves for his default outfit, showcasing his big biceps.

Salim Othman

Voiced by: Nick Tarabay

Action Dad: He's a skilled soldier as well as the father of a teenage boy named Zain.
Action Survivor: He's a trained soldier, but unlike the Americans, he doesn't have access to their newer guns, and is outnumbered by the American protagonists, several of whom are hostile to him because he and his unit attacked and trapped them underground with the vampires. This is represented by Salim losing his rifle early on and creating an Improvised Weapon out of a piece of a broken truck that falls underground, as well as generally having to survive based on his wits and choices in comparison to everybody else relying on their firepower.
Bilingual Dialogue: He speaks both English and Arabic. Given that he’s Iraqi, and his actor is Lebanese, it fits.
Boom, Headshot!: A potential fate for him if he’s killed by Rachel.
Breakout Character: Many fans consider Salim to be the best character of the game and of the entire anthology.
Deadpan Snarker: The biggest example of the main characters. He uses a lot of cheeky sarcasm towards his comrades and enemies, but especially towards to Jason.
Jason: [after evading the monsters] They don't seem to be following.
Salim: Would you like to wait for them or...?
Determinator: Salim makes it clear that he’ll go through whatever hell comes his way in order to reunite with his son for his birthday. "Stubbornness" is even listed as one of his defining beginning traits.
Enemy Mine: He initially does one with Nick to kill one of the vampires. And later, with everyone else.
Salim: Your friend said "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". This is not always true, but if we want to live, we must fight as one. The sword and the shield.
Jason: Bit too wordy my liking... But I'm in.
Experienced Protagonist: Served many years in the Iraqi Ground Forces before eventually becoming a lieutenant. He also had a good education despite Iraq’s poor condition at the time.
Family Man: He's a single dad with a son who he’d do anything for.
Fate Worse than Death: Even if Salim survives the game, if air support was called, he’ll be captured by the American government and will spend the rest of his life in their custody. Lampshaded by the Curator as, in his words, Salim escaped with his life, but at the cost of his freedom.
Final Boy: It comes down to the player's choices, but Salim, alongside Jason, is arguably the hardest character of the game to kill and is highly likely to survive the game. Additionally, he's portrayed as the most sympathetic and likeable character of the game by a wide margin, especially early on, another common trait for final boys and girls.
Fire-Forged Friends: Over the course of the game, Salim and Jason can go from enemies on opposite sides of a war to unlikely friends. They spend much of the later chapters together, and one of the major Bearings of the game centers on this bond.
Hand Gagging: Does this to Nick so the latter doesn’t alert the vampires.
The Hero: Arguably even more than Jason, as Salim is the most sympathetic out of the main characters, and ends up killing the most vampires with his spear. He also is the one to discover their weakness to sunlight, and can even kill The Ancient One to save Nick’s life. He even is one of the characters(along with Nick and Jason) to have Plot Armor that prevents him from dying until the last few chapters. His knowledge of the vampires also ends up being the subject of several major plot points.
Hero Killer: If Jason shot the shepherd during the raid and Nick doesn’t tell Salim to find cover, Salim will kill Eric.
Improvised Weapon: After losing his assault rifle, his weapon of choice is a three foot L-shaped steel beam: a salvaged bit of bumper from a crashed truck. Fortuitously, a metal stake turns out to be much more effective against the vampires than bullets are.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Once Salim figures out the vampires' weakness and attains his makeshift spear, his primary method of killing them is impaling their hearts. This ends up being highly useful.
Ironic Name: His surname means “safe” but given his situation, and that he can possibly die, he’s anything but.
Meaningful Name: Salim means "Safe, Secure" while Othman means "Wise". This neatly summarizes his role in the story, as a reasonable and level-headed man who is one of the easiest protagonists to save.
Papa Wolf: His primary goal is to survive in order to return home to his son.
Dar: If you really cared about that boy of yours, you'd be willing to fight.
Salim: You're sending us to our deaths! I'm not risking it. My son needs a father.
Plot Armor: Salim has the most knowledge of the vampires and kills the most out of all the main cast. His character arc with Jason also showcases the game's most prevalent theme of putting aside differences to work together, so he cannot die until the last two chapters.
Punch-Clock Villain: He's just a rank-and-file enemy soldier who wants the mission done so he can spend time with Zain. When Jason asks why he'd fight for Saddam, Salim answers he had no choice.
Wild Card: Unlike the other protagonists, who are American units, Salim is an Iraqi soldier.

American Unit

Nathan Merwin

Voiced by: Alex Mallari Jr.

All Men Are Perverts: About 75% of his dialogue before the mission starts are vulgar Your Mom jokes.
Boom, Headshot!: Dar can kill him this way if Merwin survives his encounters with the vampires.
Butt-Monkey: Merwin really gets the short end of the stick after the earthquake. First, he gets hung and injured by coils of barbed wire, is painfully dragged across the sand caverns, can die of blood loss and suffocation, and can later die multiple times by the vampires.
Cruel and Unusual Death: Almost all of his determinant deaths are this. He can die of blood loss, suffocation, decapitation, crushing, and mauling by the vampires. Just about the kindest death he gets is when Dar gives him a Boom, Headshot!, which is mercifully quick in comparison.
Death by Irony: With the focus on crosses, blood and the brief glimpses of the monsters shown in the prologue, an attentive player can likely guess they're being stalked by vampires, meaning they can tell they're safe in the light. When they fall through the farm's surface, Merwin ends up badly shredded by barbed wire and held aloft in a beam of sunlight, but this actually protects him from the vampires despite his predicament. When Nick and Jason cut him down, they pull him into the darkness to get away from their unseen pursuers, which leaves him vulnerable to being grabbed by them, thanks to his bloody wounds and being unable to flee on his own.
Doomed by Canon: Of the named characters outside the principal quintet, his fate can be avoided the longest due to the player’s choices, but he's not getting out of the cavern alive in the end.
Fate Worse than Death: Being pulled through a much-too-small hole then devoured by the creatures.
Forgotten Fallen Friend: Nick and Jason never mourn him anytime he dies and forget about him quickly.
Heroic Sacrifice: Knowing he’ll just slow them down, Merwin pleads with Nick and Jason to leave him to the vampires so he can buy them time to escape. Whether this happens or not is up to the player.
Mercy Kill: An accidental variant can happen to him. When he falls through the ground unto the underground passageways he gets tanged up in the barbed wire of the fences on the farm above, badly hurting himself and gashing numerous wounds into him. When Nick and Jason eventually cut him down, he needs morphine to deal with the pain, but they're almost immediately attacked by the unseen vampires from the darkness, who grab Clarice and force Nick and Jason to drag him away to they aren't taken too. In order to keep him silent from their unseen attackers, Nick covers his mouth to prevent him screaming in pain. If the player completes all the prompts, this will eventually suffocate him as Nick is too panicked to think clearly and realize what he's doing, but if Merwin survives, he'll volunteer to remain behind anyway due to his injuries and will be taken alive by the vampires, whereas if he expires beforehand his corpse will still be taken, but he won't be around to experience it.
Reused Character Design: An easter egg, at this point. Merwin shares the same character model as Victor Milgram from The Inpatient, Detective Karl Carter from Hidden Agenda, Danny from Man of Medan, and the passer-by/Judge Thomas Wyman from Little Hope.
Tempting Fate: Moments after Joey tells Clarice about the Marine superstition that looking back at the chopper after disembarking curses the whole team, Merwin tricks Joey into looking back at the chopper after they’ve disembarked. Minutes later, the team’s mission goes to hell in the worst possible way…
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: See Tempting Fate above.
Walking Spoiler: It’s almost impossible to talk about him without revealing his multiple deaths.

Clarice Stokes

Voiced by: Clare McConnell

Boom, Headshot!: How Clarice dies if Jason pragmatically mercy kills her.
Boyish Short Hair: She sports a very short pixie cut.
Damsel in Distress: She gets taken by one of the vampires, and she unfortunately cannot be saved.
Decoy Protagonist: Downplayed. Clarice is an NPC, however she is the second character to be introduced after Jason, giving the impression she might be one of the playable characters^note; an idea reinforced by the fact that the past games always had Two Girls to a Team, and she and Rachel are the only female characters (tellingly, early leakers of the game during production assumed that she was a playable character, presumably for this very reason). However, Clarice gets taken by one of the creatures and infected, and her death cannot be avoided.
Disney Villain Death: Clarice can potentially suffer a fatal fall into the chasm if the rope's support gives way. She can also be booted into a pit by a joint attack between Rachel and Eric.
Doomed by Canon: She's grabbed by the vampires in a cutscene when Nick and Jason are preoccupied with cutting Merwin down, and when she turns up again with Rachel, she's already been infected by a vampire parasite, which is killing her. No matter what choices anyone makes, Clarice will die and cannot be saved; the only question is if she takes other characters down with her or not.
Hero Killer: If Clarice turns into a vampire, she can kill every protagonist depending on the circumstances.
Heroic Sacrifice: She can choose to invoke one if Rachel is honest with her about her infection, Clarice will say that she probably shouldn't come with Rachel. This is actually a pragmatic choice, as it means she'll be unable to turn and kill Eric after she's killed during the assault in the temple.
Never Bareheaded: She always wears a cap, even when she's indoors.
Planet of Hats: She discusses this with Rachel. Clarice is a physicist, but she doesn't wear "nerd clothes" or look anything like a physicist. And she's happy with that.
Resist the Beast: Should Rachel successfully convince Clarice to regroup with the other survivors and persuade them not to Mercy Kill her, Clarice will ultimately succumb to her infection at the worst possible time while warning her fellow soldiers to get away.
Reused Character Design: Her character model is the same as Taylor/Tanya/Tabitha/Tillie from Little Hope and the Pin-Up Girl from Man of Medan.
Techno Wizard: She's a skilled technician who greatly aids the American unit on their mission. Or at least, she was supposed to: an ancient Sumerian temple has no modern technology.
Zombie Infectee: When Rachel meets up with Clarice, she's horribly infected and it shows, with pale skin and Tainted Veins.

José "Joey" Gomez

Voiced by: Sammy Azero

And Then John Was a Zombie: After bleeding out from his gunshot wounds, he reanimates as a vampire after he’s infected post-mortem, attacking Nick and Jason and potentially killing one of them before they manage to put him down for good.
Back for the Dead: His parasite-ridden body returns to attack Nick and Jason before he gets killed.
Desk Jockey: Actively prefers this kind of work.
Disney Villain Death: After being lit on fire by the UV wand, he falls into a deep chasm. He's never seen again and presumed dead.
Doomed by Canon: He's mortally injured by the Iraqi soldiers ambushing them at the farm and bleeds out in Nick's arms regardless of the choices made.
Horned Humanoid: His infection causes him to sprout a pair of horns on his head.
Man on Fire: If Eric has conducted his autopsy and learned about the power of the UV wand, he will wield it against Joey, which causes him to combust before falling into a chasm.
Multiple Gunshot Death: After he reanimates and attacks Nick and Jason, one of his possible deaths involves him being perforated with assault rifle fire from multiple directions before falling dead into the chasm.
Nice Guy: In his brief screen-time, he's shown to be one of the few marines who's genuinely friendly to Rachel: they can even sit down companionably for a minute and have a heart-to-heart about her failing marriage, depending on the player's choices.
Reused Character Design: As ubiquitous as Merwin's at this point! He shares his model with David from The Inpatient, Finn from Hidden Agenda, Charlie from Man of Medan, and Daniel/Dennis/David from Little Hope.
Walking Spoiler: His involvement in the story is very hard to give without them.
Was Once a Man: Before he is shown fully onscreen, some tell-tale signs point to the vampire stalking the group in the temple being Joey. Two major ones being that it whistles the same tune Joey does during two of the military operation scenes, and, if Merwin is still alive at the time he doesn't kill Merwin despite his helpless, wounded state. The last vestiges of humanity left in him perhaps recognizing his old Your Mama joke sparring partner.

Iraqi Unit

Dar Basri

Voiced by: Nabeel El Khafif

Asshole Victim: He threatens Salim with execution, tries to kill the Americans even though the war is over, and can potentially kill Eric and/or Merwin for no other reason than that they are Americans. He dies in the assault rather painfully, and even Salim only slightly mourns his passing.
Big Bad Wannabe: He's a threat to the protagonists, but has nothing on the monsters in the temple.
Bilingual Dialogue: Subverted. Unlike Salim, he does not speak English.
The Captain: Per his rank, he’s captain of the Iraqi Ground Forces.
Contrived Coincidence: Somehow he does not encounter a single vampire during his first six hours underground. This gives him an excuse to ambush the Americans when he sees them calling for help on the radio.
Devoured by the Horde: If the group doesn't have Clarice with them, he will be eaten by a group of vampires.
Enemy Mine: If Salim is alive, then once the vampires do show up, Dar is sensible enough to stop fighting the Americans and side with his fellow humans against the monsters.
Fate Worse than Death: During The Assault, he is rather painfully eaten by several of the vampires. If he is not killed by a vampirized Clarice.
Happily Married: Dar's wallet has a picture of his beautiful wife, and they look quite happy together. Salim can comment that he never knew Dar was married.
Hero Killer: Can kill Eric, one of the game’s protagonists. He will also kill Merwin if Merwin survives to send the radio signal.
Jerkass: He can repeatedly insult Zain, Salim's son, to the point where Salim and Dar come to blows. Unlike Jason or Salim, Dar gets no Character Development.
Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Averted. Though he does miss A LOT while shooting at the Americans, he can fatally shoot Eric at two different points.
Leeroy Jenkins: He wants to launch an ambush attack against a group of American soldiers he knows will be in the area, even though the war has already clearly been lost for weeks. This achieves nothing of strategic value and ultimately ends up getting him and his men killed. While stuck in the monster-infested ancient ruins Salim even laments Dar's decision to attack the Americans rather than just let things be.
Salim: This is suicide.
Dar: No, Lieutenant. This is glory.
Make Sure He's Dead: Averted. He doesn’t bother to check if Eric and Rachel are actually dead. However, this costs him later as they can survive and confront him again. Played straight if he shoots Eric and sees his corpse impaled on a stalagmite. As for Rachel, judging by her screams and the deep chasm she falls into, he only assumes she died.
The Neidermeyer: As these tropes illustrates, he's The Captain that shouldn't be in command.
Salim: This is not right.
Dar: Get it together, Salim! We fight fire with fire!
Salim: Not like this! Not here. We'll all die if we fight here.
Dar: Our homeland is being conquered right in front of our eyes. Why'd you join if you're too scared to pull the trigger?
Reused Character Design: He uses the same facial model (albeit with a subtle Race Lift) as John/James/Joseph from Little Hope.
Troll: On more than one occasion he's shown sabotaging the Americans' equipment when they're otherwise occupied and then observing their plight from afar, instead of attacking them directly.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Him ordering his unit to attack the Americans leads to the firefight that ultimately causes the cave-in.

1946 Archeological Expedition

Lady Agnes Bradshaw

A wealthy British noblewoman and the financier of the expedition.

Ambiguously Evil: It is revealed that she knew about the vampires all along; however, she was framed by Randolph for the murder of Van Huyten.
And Then John Was a Zombie: Subverted. Randolph claims this, but her corpse is uninfected and the teeth are still intact.
Attack on the Heart: Randolph kills her with an iron tent peg this way.
Be Careful What You Wish For: Her obsession with learning everything possible about the vampires led to her getting turned into one. According to Randolph, at least.
Secret-Keeper: She claimed to know the location of Alexander the Great's resting place, and that even an ancient Sumerian temple is a worthy excavation site for its historical knowledge. She knew from the beginning about the vampires and wanted to learn about their power and possible immortality.

Aline Journeau

Arthur's assistant and a former member of the French Resistance.

Apocalyptic Log: The player will find her log scattered around the dig site, whereas Randolph's log is found elsewhere.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Her exact fate is unknown, but there were no survivors, so she somehow died during the expedition.

Arthur Pulman

A dig foreman who hired laborers for the expedition and helped build the elevator.

What Happened to the Mouse?: His exact fate is unknown, however, it's known he was killed during the expedition.

Ellis Van Huyten

A Dutch antiquarian and Lady Bradshaw's advisor, who had a bad reputation among the archaeological community.

Be Careful What You Wish For: He wanted to know everything about the vampire creatures. A transformed Mary Hodgson drained his blood and showed him what they could do.
For Science!: His motivation for sabotaging the dynamite meant to seal the temple.

Randolph Hodgson

An earnest explorer whom Lady Bradshaw hires just before his honeymoon to find Alexander the Great's tomb.

Ambiguously Evil: He seems to have lied about Lady Bradshaw in his journal entries, claiming that he was forced to kill her after she turned into a vampire and killed Van Huyten. This is contradicted by the fact that Bradshaw's corpse shows no sign of infection as both her front teeth are intact. It seems that Mary killed Van Huyten and Randolph covered it up. In Randolph's defence, Lady Bradshaw has gotten his wife (and a lot of the archeological crew) killed and trapped them all in the temple, so he takes justice for Mary.
Apocalyptic Log: The team in the present day finds his logs scattered about the site.
Happily Married: He was about to go on his honeymoon. Also, he was able to soothe his wife when she was infected with his voice. The only thing he carried with him into the alien ship was a portrait of her in his pocket watch.

Mary Hodgson

A classical pianist and Randolph's new bride.

Chekhov's Skill: She was able to ascertain the creatures communicate through sound, and was transcribing it through musical notation, due to her skill on a piano. Salim discusses this once her sheet music is found.
Happily Married: She decided to go on her husband's dig for their honeymoon.
Zombie Infectee: She is infected and presumably kills Van Huyten.

Sherman Crow

A British soldier and World War II veteran, and old friend of Randolph's who worked as the expedition’s head of security.

Chekhov's Gun: The trope is name-dropped as an achievement if Rachel uses Bessie to fight off the vampires in the temple. The gun is set up when Eric and Rachel find it earlier, but it's optional and can be missed.
I Call It "Vera": He brought a M1917 Browning machine gun, which he dubbed "Bessie," along for the expedition, presumably for use against bandits. According to the story, he used it to fight off vampires before getting overwhelmed. The gun remains where it was, and Rachel can use it to fight off monsters decades later.
What Happened to the Mouse?: His exact fate is unknown, however, he did die during the expedition.

Akkad

King Naram-Sin

Voiced by: Sami Karim

Historical Domain Character: Naram-Sin is a real king of the Akkadian Empire, and reigned from 2254 to 2218 BC. There is also reference to the "Curse of Akkad", a historiographic epic poem in which Akkad plundered a temple and was cursed: The poem itself was written after Naram-Sin's lifetime and may simply be allegory for the Gautian conquest of Sumer, but the game treats it as real.
Killed Offscreen: Kurum comes across his body in his throne room surrounded by the remains of his royal guards when he escapes from the prisons underneath, a solar eclipse having allowed the vampires to appear above ground and swarm the temple en masse.

Balathu

Voiced by: Zaydun Khalaf

Authority Equals Asskicking: He's the leader of the Akkadian army and is shown to be a skilled combatant.
Decoy Protagonist: He and Kurum are the protagonists in the prologue, where they ultimately die at the hands of the monsters. However, whoever died last will later be resurrected as an undead monster opposing the modern-day heroes.
Weapon Specialization: He is an able hand with a throwing spear and can skewer a Gautian captive. If he's the Ancient One, he hasn't lost his touch, and can skewer Rachel, Jason, Nick, Salim, or any combination of them.

Kurum

Voiced by: Waleed Hammad

Battle Trophy: His necklace of skulls. He also describes the skulls as the history of Gautia.
Decoy Protagonist: He and Balathu are the protagonists in the prologue, where they ultimately die at the hands of the monsters. However, whoever died second will later be resurrected as an undead monster opposing the modern-day heroes.
Pushed at the Monster: The prologue has only a handful of opportunities to raise or lower the Relationship Values between Balathu and Kurum, but if Balathu does turn the relationship sour Kurum will pull this instead of fighting together, slashing Balathu across the chest and leaving him for their pursuer hoping it provides him a little more time to escape. He's Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves in short order.

Others

Vampires

The main threat of the game. Gigantic, bloodthirsty monsters who inhabit the temple below the sands.

Attack on the Heart: The most surefire way put them down is a solid object rammed through the heart.
Bat Out of Hell: Essentially they're giant, evil bat monsters.
Immune to Bullets: Modern assault rifles are only about as effective against them as pepper spray is against humans. An old fashioned Browning M1917 machinegun, though, is at minimum able to knock them out.
Made of Iron: Not only are they Immune to Bullets, but they can survive even having a heavy truck dropped on them. This seems to be down to a combination of them having very tough armored skin, as well as them being undead and thus having a less vulnerable circulatory/nervous/organ system.
Super-Hearing: The creatures posses no eyes, relying on a superb sense of hearing to track down their prey.
Tragic Monster: They were once a spacefaring alien civilization. Now thanks to the parasites, they're little more than feral monsters.
Weakened by the Light: Sunlight and UV light burn them to ash.

The Ancient One (Spoiler Identity)

The apparent leader of the vampires. He is either Balathu or Kurum from the prologue.

And I Must Scream: In the present day, the survivor that didn't become the Ancient One can be found partially coated in slime, a sort of byproduct of the alien cocoons. This slime seems to render him impervious to time, causing his head and about half of his body to look as it did 4000 years after the fact. However, the slime didn't cover all of his body, so the other half is a rotted out skeleton. He is of course aware of this, as shown when his pupils contract to Salim bringing a lighter in front of his face and he does the best impression of a scream he can with half a head.
Authority Equals Asskicking: In the present day, the Ancient One is the closest thing the vampires have to a leader, and despite a millennia of undeath, he’s still lethal enough in combat to take on the entire group at once on the surface and can potentially kill several of them in a head on fight.
Final Boss: The Ancient One can fight a final battle with the protagonists on the surface if Nick doesn't destroy the main vampire hive.
The Heavy: The closest thing the vampires have to a leader in the 21st century.
Hero Killer: He can kill any or all of the protagonists.
Holy Burns Evil: Subverted. the Ancient One is not physically stopped by a crucifix, but it does pique his curiosity and he will look at it. This is the proper option, as it gives more time for rest of the party to react. Shooting him, in contrast, just pisses him off and causes him to attack immediately.
It Can Think: He retains his warrior skills. He's just as capable with a spear as he was during Naram-Sin's reign. He is also possessed of human curiosity and will look at Nick's gold crucifix.
Lightning Bruiser: The Ancient One is fast and tireless in comparison to humans.
Man on Fire: If Nick does not approach the main cocoon cluster, The Ancient One will chase the party to the surface, in which he's fought in hand-to-hand. He is killed when one of the characters forces a flare down his throat, cooking him from the inside.
No-Sell: For some reason, his undead form is not affected by UV Light the same way the creatures are. Joey's vampire form combusts in seconds when exposed to the light, and even the Zombie Infectee Rachael can be seen partially smoking when Eric uses the lamp to burn the parasite out of her, but the Ancient One can withstand the light for seconds without even smoldering under it, with the only effect it has being that he's Blinded by the Light. This greatly enhances his threat level as he's immune to the best defense the protagonists have against the vampires, in addition to his greater intelligence, combat skills and the Vampire's shared toughness to shrug off or endure multiple bullets to the torso, creating an Elite Mook the heroes have to struggle against despite their greater weaponry. It's implied that his immunity is possibly the result of a human host having spent thousand of years being transformed into a vampire, allowing the parasite to enhance the body's natural capabilities like resistance to UV radiation, though he's never exposed to natural sunlight, so it's unclear if he would be similarly resistant to that as he is to the artificial UV light.
Walking Spoiler: His existence and identity are big spoilers from the opening.

Characters / House of Ashes

Protagonists

American Unit

Iraqi Unit

1946 Archeological Expedition

Akkad

Others

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Characters / House of Ashes

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Protagonists

American Unit

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1946 Archeological Expedition

Akkad

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