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The Brotherhood of Phoenician Sailors

     Overall Tropes 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/phoenicians.png
Knowledge is power, and the Phoenicians sell to the highest bidder. With such fluid allegiance, they survive. But when the arcane secret or treasure proves too powerful, the Purple People take special care to keep it from the other factions. Across the world, occult energies gather, and secrets ripen, opening like eager petals. Always the Phoenicians are there.
The Buzzing

Originally a minor faction loyal to the Illuminati, borne out of the Templars and concerned mainly with trade, the Phoenicians became an independent faction during the Punic Wars; having built Carthage as the seat of a new trading empire, their former allies among the Illuminati viewed their presence in North Africa as a threat and took action. Retreating to the sea, the Phoenicians created a roaming fleet and spent the next few centuries forming trade routes across the world's oceans, before finally consolidating their armada into a single floating capital city named New Carthage. Thanks to their independence from the Secret War and their tenuous relationship with the factions and the Council, they've gained a reputation as pirates and mercenaries; however, they are tolerated even by the Templars, thanks to their gift for discovering rare occult artefacts and sharing them with the other factions - for a price, of course.


  • Artifact Collection Agency: The Phoenicians have made it their business to seek out and collect as many artefacts as possible, most often to sell to other factions. However, if they decide that an item is too powerful for the others to get their hands on, they simply hoard it for their own mysterious purposes: the Spear of Destiny is one such item hidden away, at least according to Tanis. During "The Christmas Conspiracy," the Phoenicians are revealed to own half of Saint Nicholas' corpse, which in itself is actually the source of the poison Aqua Tofana; over the course of the mission, they end up clashing with the player in their attempts to obtain the other half of Saint Nicholas' corpse and the wellspring of healing manna it represents.
  • Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: "The Christmas Conspiracy" reveals that the legendary poisoner Giulia Tofana was a Phoenician operative. For good measure, the poison for which she was famous remained a key export of the Phoenicians even after her execution; in fact, Aqua Tofana was the very poison used when the Phoenicians were tasked with assassinating Mozart.
  • Cain and Abel: As has been mentioned under the Templar entry, the founders of the Phoenicians and the Templars were actually brothers; in spite of their familial bond, the two of them ultimately suffered a disastrous falling-out - apparently over a woman - though who the woman in question was remains a mystery, only explicitly named as the Whore of Babylon. But probably it was Lilith, a.k.a. Ishtar, among many other names.

  • City on the Water: New Carthage, their great flotilla-turned-metropolis. Nothing has been seen of it so far by the player, and precious few outside the faction have seen it either due to the Phoenicians' security measures.
  • Color Motif: The Phoenicians are known by the colour purple: their emblem is purple, their sails were purple, their soldiers' uniforms are purple, and they're even called "the Purple Men" at times. This stems back to their earliest days as traders, thanks to purple dye's trade value.
  • Faceless Mooks: Their soldiers, all of whom have kept their helmets on unless they're really commanding officers or agents.
    • Gas Mask Mook: Because they're required to work in aquatic environments, their soldiers usually wear scuba-like masks, complete with uniforms that look somewhat like wetsuits.
  • Foil: To the Templars. In addition to their origins as once part of the same society, force is the go-to method of both societies rather than subterfuge, they are big on hoarding magical artifacts and both are fans of old-world Theme Naming. The difference is the Phoenicians have no cause, they are Only in It for the Money. It irks the Templars on a fundamental level to see a society so like themselves but who will whore out everything they are and have for a Swiss Bank transfer.
  • Flaunting Your Fleets: Averted. New Carthage doesn't like to show off, and the Phoenicians make it a point to ensure that anyone who happens to learn of their fleet "mysteriously" disappears.
  • Group-Identifying Feature: Every single Phoenician agent with visible skin has a tattoo. Even the Tokyo agent, who works undercover, has one, though theirs is also undercover. Ricky Pagan saw it while dating her, but dumped her immediately as a probable Phoenician. She accused him of dumping her because of the anatomy he discovered at the same time. The Kingsmouth agent, though they are also undercover, makes no attempt to hide it.
  • Hidden Elf Village: New Carthage; quite apart from being in constant motion, sorcerers among the ranks of the Phoenicians ensure that nobody can find it but them.
  • Knowledge Broker: A popular business of theirs is peddling occult secrets - or at least those they don't stand to benefit from concealing.
  • Only in It for the Money: Perhaps the most mercenary of all the factions, lacking the pragmatism of the Illuminati and the occasional principles of the Kingdom, they care only about cold hard profits at the end of the day - frequently to their detriment. Occasions abound with them getting horribly massacred in their attempt to claim a new artefact, such as the Anima Capacitor in Atlantic Island Park, or the other half of Saint Nick's corpse in "The Christmas Conspiracy." Worse still, their mercenary attitudes result in them cutting deals with the vampire army, the Atenists, the Morninglight, and perhaps worst of all, Lilith herself.
  • Poison Is Evil: While they don't use it often, the Phoenicians are in possession of the infamous Aqua Tofana, which in itself turns out to be a corrupted form of the healing manna their half of St Nicholas' corpse produces - making it essentially a mystical poison made from evil. For good measure, their most prominent usage of Tofana only worsens the Phoenicians' already-loathsome reputations: more specifically, poisoning Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on behalf of Lilith.
  • Proud Merchant Race: What they used to be known as, with Old Carthage being the hub of an sizeable trading empire - before the Illuminati-aligned powers flattened it. They still operate in this regard, but these days, their primary commodity is occult secrets and treasures - several of which they prefer to hoard rather than sell.
  • Ruthless Modern Pirates: When they're not acting as merchants, the Phoenicians are usually encountered as these.
  • Stupid Evil: As the lore entries observe, while factions like the Big Three are putting their age-old conflicts on hold so they can prevent the Filth from destroying the world, the Phoenicians are still carrying on with hoarding artifacts and trying to backstab the other - even when it's possible that they might just have something potentially world-saving to offer the others. Worse still, they're not only assisting Lilith and the vampires but according to "From Carthage To Cairo," they're still allied with the Atenists even while the equally mercenary Kingdom have taken steps to distance themselves from the cult. And perhaps worst of all, the events of Issue #9 reveal that they helped track down and deliver the Filth-device used to kick-start the Tokyo Incident.
    • Worse still, they're also becoming increasingly blunt: where other secret societies might prefer to rely on more subtle methods in getting rid of troublemakers, the Phoenicians are starting to prefer throwing as many soldiers at them as possible - even when it might cause more problems in the process. In "The Christmas Conspiracy," they decide to eliminate an opera star who might have become privy to information on the Phoenicians' latest find; all well and good, up until they decide to conduct the assassination on-stage during a performance of The Magic Flute - in front of dozens of witnesses, and in a theatre sitting well within Templar jurisdiction.

     The Kingsmouth Agent 

     Tanis 
We are not "in this together." You and me will never be friends, and the day will come when I will have this gun pointed at your head and I will pull the trigger. Lucky for you, that day is not quite here yet.

Voiced by: Kari Wahlgren

A Phoenician agent based in Egypt, most often found lurking at the back of Zhara's cafe. Tanis is usually busy attempting to secure priceless artefacts for her superiors, and in the case of at least one deal gone bad, she's willing to collaborate with you in order to set things right.


  • Animal Motifs: Snakes, in Tanis' case: according to her official Funcom bio, she was bitten by a snake as a child; as an adult, she uses snakes as familiars; she has a snake tattoo on her left arm; the top she wears is emblazoned with a cobra encircling a skull; last but not least, she's often been compared to a snake in her venomous attitude and her ability to slither out of a crisis.
  • Arms Dealer: One of her known lines of work lies in acquiring and selling supernatural weaponry, and as a Phoenician, she clearly belongs to the unscrupulous International Arms Merchant type. Of course, acquiring the stuff is where things start going very badly for Tanis: the Atenists get their hands on her latest shipment, Said cancels his contract with her, and her superiors are not at all happy with the mounting list of problems she's caused.
  • Boisterous Weakling: Tanis has one hell of an attitude and is probably as dangerous as she thinks she is. The problem is, when the player meets her, she's in way over head, getting not-so-veiled threats from her superiors about a failure she can't fix without you. The quote up above sums it up perfectly; it sounds threatening, but she's saying it to the player-character. You'd think a Phoenician with power over snakes would be in the loop about exactly how much use a bullet would be on one of Gaia's Chosen.
  • Bullying a Dragon: As the above entry mentions, she's getting into a habit of provoking or threatening characters who are clearly out of her league in terms of sheer power. Among other things, she seems to think that she can take down a character known to possess a growing repertoire of destructive magic and Resurrective Immortality... with a handgun! Later, she actually tries to threaten Said in an attempt to force him to agree with her terms; unfortunately for her, Said is a) undead, b) apparently invulnerable to mundane weaponry, and c) not at all impressed.
  • Didn't Think This Through: Her attempt to force Said into complying with the Phoenicians' contract, apparently limited to putting a gun to the immortal mummy's head and hoping for the best. It's clear that she's acting out of sheer desperation, as is demonstrated by the frantic stream of offers she makes immediately afterward, but it's still really stupid... especially considering that she's working with/for Berihun, who managed a much more successful attempt at threatening Said.
  • Enemy Mine: Though she claims not to subscribe to "my-enemy's-enemy bullshit," once it becomes clear that she can't stymie the cultists on her own, she and the player character reluctantly join forces in order to stop the Atenist's plans in "An Uneasy Alliance."
  • Familiar: Her pet snakes. When they're not coiled around her arms, they act as her eyes and ears throughout the Scorched Desert; in one mission, you are required to follow one of them to some vital evidence.
  • Hand Cannon: Her weapon, a Desert Eagle. Sadly, not enough to change Said's mind.
  • Ineffectual Death Threats: Prone to these, partly because she's armed with only a mundane hangun and some minor magical talents, but mostly because she's usually found trying to threaten people who are effectively immortal.
  • Jerkass: Haughty, rude, bad-tempered, and resentful; she's also one of the few quest-giving NPCs that openly reject conversation with you. However, other characters of a similar nature usually have the excuse of being warped by supernatural influences (like Nathaniel Winter) or just being unsociable loners at heart (like Iorgu); Tanis is just an aggressive, mean-spirited grouch.
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Commonly associated with snakes, and possesses an attitude just as venomous. Of course, Tanis herself doesn't believe in this trope: even after being bitten by one as a child, she actually begged for it to be spared by her parents.
  • Smug Snake: Jokes about her favourite animal aside, Tanis' effectiveness as an agent is undermined time and again by her arrogance and overconfidence in her abilities. As her missions demonstrate, it's led her to make serious errors in judgement and gotten her into serious trouble with her superiors in the process.
  • Tattooed Crook: On top of being a black-market arms dealer and a spy, she sports a snake tattoo on her left arm.
  • Villainous Breakdown: "From Carthage To Cairo" sees her loose all composure when Said refuses to continue business with the Phoenicians, resulting in a triple-layered breakdown. First, she pulls a gun on him in a desperate and futile attempt to frighten him into agreeing to her terms; then, when Said calls her bluff, she resorts to making as many offers as possible in the hopes of keeping him in business with her masters, sounding more and more frantic with every word; finally, Said walks out on her altogether, leaving Tanis standing alone in the alley, despondent and broken.

     Lidiya 
When have we ever not delivered? My guys are the best, and you know that. Say whatever you want about the Phoenicians, we never back out of a deal, we never double-cross anyone, and we always deliver. Always.

Voiced by: Joanna Rubiner

An ex-KGB agent turned Phoenician field operative, first encountered at work Carpathian Fangs, collecting magical artefacts from the abandoned Soviet bases in the region. Encountered only on a hostile basis, she serves as an opponent to the player character through several different zones across the game. Other than once being loyal to the KGB, her past is largely a mystery, though it's clear that she was in a relationship with Dragan Dzaovitch prior to joining the Phoenicians.


  • Affectionate Nickname: "Liddy," a leftover from the days when she and Dragan were still on a friendly basis.
  • Anti-Magic: Makes use of an anti-Anima device in later boss battles.
  • Badass Normal: No magical powers, no supernatural heritage, and no exotic technology with exception of her anti-Anima device, a gun and a handful of grenades. That doesn't stop her from being a very capable boss, duelling you almost to a standstill twice in a row, beating Dragan to the punch in a quickdraw, and surviving an helicopter explosion unharmed.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: Drops several in "Selected Memories." Dragan implies that she's prone to these in mid-coitus.
  • Dating Catwoman: Originally a genuinely intimate relationship founded on mutual trust between fellow covert operatives, Lidiya and Dragan's relationship has taken a turn in this direction; there's still sexual tension in their encounter in "Selected Memories," maybe a even a little affection... but there's also a good deal of hostility.
  • Former Regime Personnel: Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the KGB, Lidiya found new use for her skills as an agent in service to New Carthage. Ironically, she's first encountered in the aftermath of a raid on an abandoned Red Hand base - having been apparently ordered to steal from her former employers.
  • Groin Attack: Manages to get the better of Dragan in the intro to "Selected Memories" by putting a gun to his crotch and threatening to shoot. For his part, he doesn't seem too upset; apparently, Liddy has a habit of aiming for his balls.
  • Mexican Standoff: Ends up with one of these with Dragan in "Selected Memories." Originally just the Orochi agent putting a gun to her head, Lidiya manages to expand this to a proper standoff by snatching a gun of her own off the table at lightning speed and threatening to blow his balls off.
  • Mysterious Past: Little is known about her life prior to joining the Phoenicians, with even her previous occupation as a KGB agent and her ceased relationship with Dragan being shrouded in mystery.
  • Noodle Incident: In keeping with her mysterious background, any reference to her previous exploits usually end up like these, such as "that time in Khartoum."
  • Oh, Crap!: Experiences a rather subdued version of one of these in "The Girl Is Gone," when she finds herself face to face with her current customer, Lilith herself. Though she does her best to stay calm and professional, it's clear from the tone of her voice that she's only just managing to her keep her panic at bay.
    • Suffers a much less subdued version in "Venice Sinking" upon meeting you for the second time. After a stunned pause and a horrified gape, she recovers just long enough to activate the traps, before turning tail and running for her life.
  • Recurring Boss: As of the Issue #10, she's fought you no less than three times - the first and third time on a one-on-one basis, the second time through her soldiers and a variety of security systems.
  • Sell-Out: Dragan accuses her of being this, abandoning her principles in exchange for financial rewards earned in service to the notoriously amoral Phoenicians.
    • Shut Up, Kirk!: Lidiya shoots this accusation down by observing that Dragan, as an Orochi agent, has no right to criticize her - especially considering what the Prometheus Initiative's been up to recently. Interestingly enough, it seems that Dragan ends up agreeing with her; Issue #7 sees him defy Orochi orders and help you to rescue Emma from their research facility.
    Like you have the moral high ground here? Did you even ask yourself what your people were up to out here? And the girl? Don't tell me there's any possible justification for that. Fuck you, though, because I don't have whatever it is you think I have. And if I did... I'd take the bullet before I gave you the satisfaction.
  • Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Prone to this. At the end of "The Girl Is Gone," players destroy her helicopter, but she somehow manages to escape the explosion unharmed. She later pops up in Venice, where she's in charge of a team sent to keep an eye on Arturo Castiglione and leads you on a merry chase through the sewers while her squadron pepper you with gunfire, before making yet another escape via speedboat. During "The Christmas Conspiracy," she shows up at the head of yet another team of soldiers, this time trying to acquire Saint Nicholas' corpse; after a boss fight over the mission objectives, she's driven into yet another humiliating retreat.

     The Tokyo Initiate 

See Kaoru

The Council of Venice

     Overall Tropes 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/council_of_venice.jpg
Initiate the riddle: How can something be so mighty and so helpless? All those opinions. All those agendas. The red tape forms a web that chokes all action. When a decision is actually made, it is respected, but those become more and more rare. Cue the farce and parody and slapstick show. The beating of gavels. The verbal sparring. Semantics devour truth. Initiate the dark days.
The Buzzing

A governing body originally established in order to prevent the Secret War between factions from becoming too disastrous and to ensure that the Secret World remained invisible to Muggles. Named for the city it has been headquartered in since the 13th century, the Council ostensibly holds just as much military power as the Big Three, along with the political power to ensure that they abide by the law. However, thanks to political squabbles and the growing importance of bureaucracy over activity, it is currently viewed as impotent and clueless by many Secret Worlders, including some of their own agents. In spite of this, the Council continues its attempts to govern the many factions even today: beyond the many debates, inquests and acquisitions made in their attempts to control the burgeoning crisis, teams of highly-trained agents are still encountered in virtually every single troubled region the player visits over the course of the game. However, the most they do is provide supplies and protection to travellers: actually doing anything to stop the ongoing crises is beyond their charter.


  • Badass Army: Ineffectual though the Council may be in actually accomplishing anything constructive, their soldiers are very effective, hence the "safe zones" created by Council operatives in the field.
  • Badass Decay: In-universe. Once upon a time, the Council of Venice really did have the clout and the clarity to stop supernatural disasters in their tracks, utilizing the resources of all the factions loyal to it and directing them with all the political might it commanded in those days. These days, the Council has been so weakened by its reliance on the political game, it can barely afford to keep agents in the field, and the chances of their reports getting through the layers of red tape in time to make any sort of difference is slim at best.
  • Big Good: Originally, the Council was this to the Secret World, governing the factions for the sake of stability in the world at large, and keeping the mundane world safe from harm via the Masquerade. As has been mentioned, those days are long past, but the Council's still trying its best to keep to its original mission. The results are mixed, at best.
  • Color Motif: White, symbolizing the Council's position of lawfulness and purity. In addition, when light of the colors blue, red and green is combined, it creates white light, symbolising their neutrality among the factions.
  • Elaborate Underground Base: The Sunken Library; a vast subterranean complex hidden in the catacombs of Venice, it contains not only the eponymous magical library, but also a meeting place for representatives of many different factions, a virtual reality training ground for Council Agents and prospective visitors to Tokyo, the luxurious offices of Council reps such as Arturo Castiglione, and secret passages leading everywhere from the sewers of Venice to the Tomb of Saint Nicholas.
  • Expy: Of the United Nations, right down to the blue beret-clad soldiers.
  • Fictional United Nations: Having originally been formed through an alliance of the top five most powerful factions of its era, the Council brings in delegates from just about every secret society willing to negotiate. In keeping with the UN influence, it was established in order to prevent supernatural wars, namely via reducing the conflicts to a "gentleman's war", ensuring that the factions didn't unearth anything nasty, and preventing Muggles from getting caught up in the conflict. Unfortunately, also in keeping with the UN influence, the Council is frequently hamstrung by corruption, political infighting, and its own overcomplicated bureaucracy.
  • Great Big Library of Everything: The Council controls one of these in the form of the Sunken Library; disrepair and rising damp aside, it's one of the biggest repositories of knowledge in the Secret World, containing information both mundane and magical in nature. According to Arturo, it contains not only scholarly tomes and grimoires, but also scrolls and even stone tablets, all of them drawn from a wide variety of different cultures, authors and intended purposes; this point is expounded upon in "The Christmas Conspiracy" when you're allowed inspect the library's contents more directly.
  • Head-in-the-Sand Management: The upper echelons of the Council are notorious for operating by this style of leadership, usually because they've become so devoted to the political side of their organization that they reject the practical altogether, resorting to measures that might actually cause the supernatural disasters they're supposed to prevent.
  • Heroes Prefer Swords: While they're hardly adverse to assault rifles and handguns, Council soldiers prefer to use sabres in close combat, as "Black Sun, Red Sand" demonstrates.
  • King of Beasts: The Council's official logo is the Lion of St. Mark crossed with a sword, symbolizing both the Council's home in Venice and its (apparent) position of supremacy among the factions of the Secret World. This particular Animal Motif isn't limited to the logo, being used to refer to situations concerning the Council or its authority, such as the mission "A Lion In The Streets" or Arturo's remark that the Council stands "under the aegis of the lion's wings."
  • Lawful Stupid: Often exhibits this as this as a consequence of their ongoing slide into impotency and "bureaucratic Alzheimer's." For example, in the event that the Council does manage to get wind of a supernatural disaster in the making, a common response is to vote on what to do about it, compromise as much as possible, form a committee to evaluate that situation... and in the end, bureaucratic confusion and a good deal of corruption usually results in the over-extended political debate continuing on through the very disaster the Council members were going to stop. It's because of this inability to act that the Council has ended up becoming one of the many parties indirectly responsible for the Tokyo Incident - as Arturo Castiglione insists.
  • Light Is Not Good: Orderly, lawful, and frequently dressed in white... but also inefficient, impotent, and increasingly corrupt as well.
  • Masquerade: Officially charged with keeping the Secret World a secret from Muggles, either by suppressing information or by ensuring that supernatural violence stays well away from civilian areas. As Arturo points out, this isn't done just to preserve the faction's mission or political power, but to prevent the social upheaval that would occur if the normal world were to discover the truth.
    Understand, we are not cover-up artists. We are not the enemies of enlightenment. Enlightenment is as vital to society as water is to life. But so too is water corrosive. Too much, and it drowns life. Too much, and it rends the earth, destroys entire cities. We are the levy. We are the dam. We are the membrane. We hold back the tidal wave of enlightenment that would wash our world away.
  • No-Respect Guy: Somehow, the Council of Venice has ended up as this to virtually every faction in the Secret World at large, especially the Illuminati. At best, it's usually referred to in condescending terms; at worst, it's openly scorned as a mass of bumbling, out-of-touch incompetents constantly lost in a tangle of red tape. Even Issue #8's appointment with Arturo Castiligione is derisively compared to a visit to an embarrassing relative - and Arturo's one of the few council officials that Geary has some degree of respect for, if only for his resume. Arturo himself notes the frustrating irony of the fact that the Council's formation was the only reason why these particular critics were able to survive long enough to criticize in the first place.
  • Not So Above It All: In keeping with its self-image as a just and impartial governing body, the Council likes to avoid the usual array of "necessary cruelties," mad science fiascoes and conflict profiteering utilized by the other secret societies... right up until the Halloween 2015 mission, when it's revealed that they ruthlessly exploited the events of The Park to recruit Lorraine while she was still mourning for Callum, forcibly bonded her to one of the Bees, and subjected her near-constant Mind Rape as a result of the Bee's attempts to protest its imprisonment. For good measure, Lorraine was already borderline-suicidal when the Council got a hold of her: by the time they were done with her, she wanted nothing more than to kill herself... but thanks to the Bee, she couldn't.
  • Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering: What it's currently known as. Though it's always made use of speechifying and debate in governance, the Council once knew how to balance it with practicality and decisiveness; unfortunately, there's very little of either at present. Having long since been overtaken by stagnation, corruption and red tape, bickering is the majority of what the council does these days, with hot air and empty rhetoric having taken the place of anything remotely productive.
  • Shoot the Dog: Their one major act of outright villainy crosses a lot of lines in the name of advancing the Council's interests. To whit, they cornered Lorraine in her time of mourning, press-ganged her into their service, implanted her with a Bee against her will, and essentially condemned her to an unwanted eternity of Mind Rape and despair. As if to add insult to injury, nobody in the Council's employ has yet taken responsibility for any of the horrible things that were done to her. Plus, despite all the effort they went to just to acquire Lorraine as an agent, the Council is still lagging behind the other factions.
  • Vast Bureaucracy: One of the many things currently running the Council into the ground, working in tandem with political stagnation. In the event that the Council does finally decide to do something, the hopelessly overcomplicated bureaucracy at work behind the scenes ensures that it won't be done quickly, and the constant backlog of forms and reports ensures that support is only intermittently available to agents in the field.
  • Virtual Training Simulation: The Sunken Library is equipped with a highly sophisticated virtual reality suite commonly used for training Council operatives; known only as "The Room," it can replicate environments and enemies alike in perfect detail. In "The Venetian Agenda," earning the Council's permission to access Tokyo requires an extended period of training by this method. For reasons unknown, Anansi Technology have their own version of "The Room" set up in Orochi Tower; it's not known if the technology was directly copied from the Library's model or if they developed the tech in the first place.

     Amparo Osorio 
I believe with all my heart that the Council is needed and that it is possibly the only hope for the future - for a future. That's why it's so frustrating when we get mired down in pointless rhetoric and conflict again, and again and again.

Voiced by: Roxana Ortega

Field agent heading an official Council delegation sent to investigate the crisis in Egypt. Unfortunately, Amparo has her hands full: not only is the region beset by a series of near-biblical disasters, but her delegation is frequently attacked by Aten Worshippers, her reports are being ignored by the Council, and her requests for assistance go unanswered. Worse still, her attempts to dig deeper on her own have resulted in even more attention from the Atenists. Out of options and suspecting that her superiors have been compromised, she can only maintain her position in al-Merayah and send you in to investigate.


  • Apathetic Citizens: A common complaint of hers concerning the residents of al-Merayah.
    People vanish, taken from their homes in the middle of the night. Made into... I don't know what they are, slaves of Aten? Mindless tools of the sun cult. Hijo de puta! And nobody dares to talk! Even when the streets are getting emptier by the day.
  • Afro Asskicker: Immediately recognizable by the sizeable afro she wears.
  • Badass Bureaucrat: She's a Council field agent. The ability to kick ass and file reports is pretty much a requirement of the job, and Amparo demonstrates it by not only bravely leading her undersized team of operatives in a brawl with a mob of Atenist maniacs, but also going on to fill out a report afterwards in the hope that some information might just get through the red tape.
  • Badass Longcoat: Her wardrobe includes a stylish longcoat - in Council white, of course.
  • Beleaguered Bureaucrat: Underprepared, outmanned, outgunned, and essentially ignored by her superiors despite all the reports she's filed, Amparo's doing her best to maintain control of the mission, but it's quickly slipping through her fingers. To add to the ridiculousness of the situation, in "A Lion In The Streets," the Council eventually responds by assigning additional personnel to the mission... and by "additional," they meant one. After all the reports Amparo sent on how dangerous the area's become, they reply by sending in one single, solitary official - who promptly gets kidnapped.
  • By-the-Book Cop: Though she mightn't support the Council's politics, she does support its rules; as such. Even with the situation collapsing in on itself and her temper fraying thinner and thinner, Amparo has yet to turn Cowboy Cop, abiding by correct procedures, filing all the necessary paperwork, and waiting patiently for the Council to respond.
  • Comes Great Responsibility: Amparo encourages this perspective in regards to magic, having grown up with relatives with magical powers and seen the good they did for their communities; as an experienced agent, she's also seen the destruction magic can wreak in the wrong hands - another reason why she believes in the Council as one of the few agencies capable of teaching responsible use of magic.
  • Gratuitous Spanish: Frequently peppers her dialogue with Spanish terms and phrases for the sake of emphasis. Of course, given the stress of the situation, it's somewhat inevitable that "Hijo de puta" crops up.
  • Knight in Sour Armour: As the quote demonstrates, Amparo might harbour a great deal of frustrations over the Council's ongoing state of political and bureaucratic incompetence, but she honestly believes that it's the best hope for a future - for any kind of future at all.
  • Mirroring Factions: A noted critic of the feuds between the secret societies, Amparo attempts to dissuade players from buying into the enmity by pointing out just how similar the factions are.
  • Only Sane Man: Amparo seems to have ended up as this to the entire Council operation in Egypt; her superiors are corrupt, incompetent, or just unable to help; the locals either want to kill her, do her job for her, or ignore her; plus, her best ally in the area is you. Yep, sanity is in decidedly short supply.

     Carmen Preda 
There's no superstition in my homeland, only a reality: we grow up knowing to fear the night... now the night fears me.

Voiced by: Nika Futterman

An ex-Templar turned Council agent assigned to investigate the vampire army gathering in Transylvania. As a native of the area, Carmen knows much of the local history and folklore (through the two are frequently interchangeable). Unfortunately, though she's more than capable of dealing with lone vampires and ghouls, there may be too many undead to tackle alone...


  • Action Girl
  • Cool Shades: Mentions that she wears oversized sunglasses while working in Venice, due to her coworkers' discomfort with the enormous scar running along one eye.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Sports a long scar running diagonally through her left eye. While off-duty in Venice, she covers it with a large pair of sunglasses.
  • Handicapped Badass: Carmen is blind in one eye, courtesy of a hunt gone wrong; she's still capable of aiming a thrown machete with pinpoint accuracy.
  • Horseback Heroism: Instantly distinguished by the horse she's saddling up for a ride, and undoubtedly heroic.
  • Machete Mayhem: Her weapon is the machete. As seen in her character model, she has two strapped to her back for Dual Wielding or throwing.
  • Sympathy for the Devil: Carmen expresses sympathy for the werewolves that the vampires have driven into battle, noting how the proud beasts of legend have been reduced to thralls, constantly abused by their vampire masters. However, she also advises you not to make the mistake of sparing them out of pity.

     The Russian Agent 
Tell you what: if when this is all over, you and I live to die another day, I will tell you my name. A good incentive, da?

First encountered in Issue #7, the Russian Agent has apparently been assigned to investigate the Orochi Group's activities in Transylvania. Though unwilling to share her name with the player, she is however willing to help you uncover the fate of the missing children. The final mission of the Issue reveals that she's actually Lilith masquerading as a Council operative in order to fool you into tracking down Emma.


  • Accent Relapse: Having spoken in a very broad and somewhat clichéd Russian accent throughout the issue, the agent abruptly drops it altogether during the outro to "The Sound Of Children," reverting to Received Pronunciation as she stabs you in the back.
  • Evil All Along: Not just a fake operative and a villain, but one of the most powerful villains in the entire setting.
  • Faux Action Girl: Though many faction operatives seem justifiably devoted to standing guard instead of directly helping you, the Russian Agent takes this to new heights by accompanying you on missions throughout Issue #7 and doing absolutely nothing to help. Despite being a trained Council agent, she sits back while you work through every single puzzle in the Hatchet Falls base, leaves you to kill, suffer and and snowmobile your way across the Carpathians while she picks over the data you just unlocked, and spends most of your mission to the Nursery refusing to aid you in combat - even going so far as to remark "Darling, could you deal with that?" whenever a monster appears. And she manages to accidentally lock you in a room with a gang of Filth infectees - including the Mini-Boss Dr Schreber - and still doesn't seem interested in helping. The reason for this quickly becomes apparent once the "Agent" reveals herself to be Lilith; among other things, she's actively trying to get you killed or permanently crippled just so you won't be able to follow her once you've led her to Emma.
  • Ironic Echo: Not long after your first meeting, she promises you that "the best is yet to come," in a rather flirtatious way - befitting her image as a Bond-girl Shout-Out. Later, after stabbing you in the back with a tranquilizer, she repeats the line again - almost as sweetly, but far more ominously.
  • MacGuffin Delivery Service: Lilith's persona of the Russian Agent and her fake partnership with you were all arranged just so she could get her hands on Emma without all the difficulty and tedium of having to track down the girl herself.
  • Mama Bear: A mother herself, the Russian Agent is clearly horrified upon discovering the Orochi experiments conducted on children; as such, she has no trouble blowing Orochi soldiers sky high during her attempts to rescue the Nursery's test subjects. As with much of the Russian's persona, this is just a cover to ensure that you wouldn't suspect her until too late. However, there's a rare grain of truth in this one: Lilith is a mother...
  • The Mole: Not only is she not a Council agent, she's also an Orochi executive and one of the major villains of the setting; her alliance with you and her assistance in sabotaging Orochi operations in Transylvania are all for the sake of finding Emma.
  • Mysterious Woman: Shows up almost out of nowhere, with barely any explanation and scarcely any discussion of herself beyond a few vague hints. Furthermore, your faction contacts have no idea what to make of her, expressing utter bewilderment at the Council's unexpected involvement in the case and wondering how the Council managed to have them Locked Out of the Loop; even Bong Cha seems a little surprised by this turn of events. Of course, the reason why Sonnac, Geary and Bong Cha didn't hear of Council involvement is very simple: the Russian isn't really a Council agent at all.
  • No Name Given: Though she does promise to tell you when all of this is over. She does keep her promise at the end. Unfortunately, it's Lilith.
  • Sensual Slavs: Instantly distinguished by being flirtatious, attractive, and - of course - Russian. Except, of course, she isn't Russian at all.
  • Speaks in Shout-Outs: Befitting the issue's frequent references to James Bond and other spy movies, the Russian agent tends to deliver a good deal of flirtatiously-delivered dialogue reminiscent of a clichéd Bond girl, complete with puns, one-liners, and open references to Bond films.
  • Spy Catsuit: In another shout-out to the Tuxedo and Martini genre, the Russian Agent wears one of these into battle, with a furry hood being the only concession to the freezing temperatures of the Carpathians. However, in a subversion of standard fair, it's Council white instead of black. Lilith abandons it the moment she no longer needs the Russian's identity.
  • Stealth Hi/Bye: First appears this way, though the fact that the base had been powered down no doubt helped her sneak up on you.
  • Using You All Along: Lilith's "partnership" with you was just a convenient means of removing the barriers between her and Emma.
  • The Vamp: All the charm, teasing, flirtation and sexual tension are just her way of getting you to drop your guard when the time comes to plant a needle in your back.
  • A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Double whammy - an Orochi executive disguised as a Council agent, and a Humanoid Abomination disguised as a Bond girl.

    Arturo Castiglione 
I wish you could have seen the Council as it was. The shining promise of it... What you see now are the ruins of a grand idea. But even ruins can inspire greatness in others. And so, we hold up the pillars.

Voiced by: Stuart Organ

Council Liaison to the Secret Societies, officially charged with granting agents certification to enter Tokyo - provided they pass the necessary tests first. Later revealed to be the mentor to Sarah of the Tokyo Incident Team, and secretly delaying players from Tokyo at the behest of the Phoenicians.


  • Beleaguered Bureaucrat: It's obvious from his very first scene that he has far too much on his plate already, and the helpings are only getting harder to digest with every sitting. In short order, he has to keep the Council democracy from going in suicidal directions, deal with the matter of your certification, appease the Phoenicians and continue his attempts to track down Sarah; no easy task.
  • Berserk Button: Compromise in the face of imminent disaster.
  • Big, Screwed-Up Family: In dialogue, Arturo often compares the Council and the secret societies to a dysfunctional family: the Templars are the responsible sibling, moral and upright enough to uphold the family, but so obsessed with responsibility that it's developed a martyr complex, and so obsessed with the act of doing good that it's lost interest in the intent or the consequences behind the act. The Illuminati are the clever sibling, brilliant enough to save the family, but more interested in collecting toys than helping others and too proud of its intellect to bother with anyone else anyway. The Dragon are the oddball sibling, possessed of strange and unique insights that could help the family, but too preoccupied with its own uniqueness value to be of any help to anyone. The Phoenicians are the Black Sheep, no longer welcome in the family and no longer even spoke of. And of course, the Council are the parents, constantly disrespected by the siblings but desperately attempting to keep order among them nonetheless.
  • Blackmail: Currently a victim of it, hence why he's agreed to prevent the players from reaching Tokyo.
  • Cool Old Guy: Depressive attitude aside, Arturo is an amiable, well-respected figure in Council politics, drawing praise even from faction heads that mock him for representing the Council. For good measure, even when being forced to prevent you from reaching Tokyo, he manages to do so in a productive way: rather than just wasting time by hurling paperwork at you, he provides you with a virtual reality training session that actually provides valuable experience, hoping that the enforced delay will "sharpen the knives" you will eventually wield against the Phoenicians.
  • Despair Event Horizon: It's revealed in "Venice Sinking" that he's been drifting closer and closer to the brink for a very long time, thanks to the Council's growing impotence and corruption, his inability to fix it, and the burgeoning global crises at work throughout the Secret World. The Tokyo Incident almost pushes him over the edge, and Sarah's disappearance all but shoves him over the edge. The Phoenicians' blackmail doesn't help much either. By the time the player arrives in Venice, he's lost all hope for the future, and he spends a good deal of your second visit attempting to reveal his corruption to the player in the hopes that you'll kill him for it. Thankfully, the realization that Sarah is still alive is enough to drive him out of his depression.
  • Despair Speech: A good deal of his dialogue options are really some variation of this. For example, when asked about himself, he instead provides a long-winded speech about ageing that not-so-subtly hints that he has come to despise himself; when asked about Tokyo, he notes how it currently stands as a monument to his failure to act when he had the chance; when asked about one of the factions, he'll talk about how they could save the world, but won't.
  • Driven to Suicide: By the time "Venice Sinking" rolls around, Arturo's loss of faith in the Council and the loss of his protégé have him contemplating suicide. However, rather than just putting a gun to his head, he instead decides to reveal his corruption to you in the most roundabout way possible, hoping that you'll just kill him rather than arrest him.
  • Famous Ancestor: The Bees mention that he is actually part of Casanova's bloodline, which might account for his "wild nights" away from work.
  • Gratuitous Latin: Arturo will occasionally embellish his conversations with a Latin quote fitting the occasion.
  • History Repeats: Talks about the "last time" when dealing with at tie-breaking vote on the Council.
  • Jade-Colored Glasses: Much like Konrad Engel of the Templars, Arturo's idealism has long since dwindled away to nothingness. Of course, whereas Konrad's cynicism has left him a bitter, sharp-tongued alcoholic, Arturo's descent into cynicism has just left him weary and defeated. He still believes that the Council exists for a reason... it's just that it's lost sight of that reason a long time ago, and none of the factions will ever look away from their petty power struggles long enough to help.
  • Like a Daughter to Me: Having already accepted Sarah as his student and protégé, he openly admits to seeing her as the daughter he never had in the outro to "Venice Sinking"; it's her disappearance that results in Arturo crossing the Despair Event Horizon.
  • The Mole: He's secretly working for the Phoenicians, though only because they've been blackmailing him, and has reluctantly agreed to delay your journey to Tokyo until they finish their work there. Of course, in the aftermath of "Venice Sinking," he breaks off his reluctant partnership when he realizes that Sarah is still alive and the player is in a position to rescue her.
  • My Greatest Failure: The Tokyo Incident, which Arturo firmly believes is the very worst failing of the Council's mission and his own abilities to date. Their combined failure to stop or even predict the attack not only resulted in an entire city being effectively overtaken by the Filth, but it also caused the disappearance and possible death of his apprentice, Sarah.
  • Not Afraid of You Anymore: After spending the last Issue as a virtual slave to his Phoenician blackmailers, Arturo finally manages to shake off his fear and despair upon discovering that Sarah is still alive in Kaidan; for good measure, after opening the way to Tokyo for you, he gets one last phone call from the Phoenicians - allowing him to No-Sell their threats once and for all.
    No. I will hold them back no longer. They are coming for you. They are ready: the time you imposed has sharpened the knives that will be at your throat. You have no more power over me. In vinculis etiam audax. (hangs up)
  • Obstructive Bureaucrat: Invoked; fully aware of the Council's reputation for gratuitous red tape, he goes out of his way to assure you that the certification to enter Tokyo is not bureaucracy, but an essential part of your training. And later played straight when it's revealed that he really is doing his best to obstruct you on behalf of the Phoenicians. Your training and certification were all part of his efforts to delay you up until his blackmailers finished their business in Tokyo, though he secretly hoped that you'd be improved by the Room.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In most of his scenes, Arturo remains depressive and weary throughout, only varying his emotions into extremes of rage or suspicion - as is the case with his introduction. However, in the outro to "Venice Sinking" he's actually heard laughing for the first time - an indication that his fortunes have finally changed for the better, and the Phoenicians no longer have any hold over him.
  • Properly Paranoid: He advises you not to trust anyone at all. In any other story, this might seem a little extreme for the apparent Big Good faction of the game, but as he points out, his suspicious demeanour is very justified given the state of affairs the Council and its allies are embroiled in. Plus, the Phoenicians have bugged his office and have an entire taskforce keeping an eye on him.
    • And Arturo would know that treachery can arise anywhere, because he's slowing down the players at the Phoenicians' request, although he's not happy about it.
  • Really Gets Around: When not working, Arturo apparently enjoys "wild nights" and "conquest," at least according to the Bees. Kirsten Geary confirms this, cheekily noting that Arturo has managed to get several treaties "signed in lipstick" for this very reason.
  • Sharp-Dressed Man: As one of the Council's highest-ranking officials, Arturo naturally dresses in a very expensive-looking white suit.
  • Shell-Shocked Veteran: Hinted at when he talks about what happened "the last time," sounding distinctively traumatized when he mentions "the bodies... the ones that were still alive" and "that horrible singing."
  • Suicide by Cop: In the outro to "Venice Sinking," he admits that the entire mission and your discovery of his corruption was all part of an attempt to goad you into killing him.
  • Work Hard, Play Hard: The Bees note that, despite his apparently unshakeable air of seriousness, Arturo is something of a party animal and a womaniser in his spare time.

     The Kingsmouth Recruiter 
Voiced by: Andrew Kishino

A mysterious Council operative assigned to Solomon Island, apparently for the sake of finding potential recruits. He's apparently the agent who discovered Lorraine Maillard and forcibly recruited her into the service of the Council.


  • Ambiguously Evil: His appearance at the beginning and end of The Park raises a lot of very troubling questions concerning his morality. Is he just a Punch-Clock Villain recruiter, or did he literally set Lorraine up for an encounter with the Bogeyman?
  • Ambiguous Situation: Suffice to say that most of what he does is shrouded in mystery. Was he actually working as a ticket collector, or was this just Lorraine's imagination? Did he have some influence over Lorraine entering the derelict, Bogeyman-haunted park, or did he just exploit the aftermath? Did he actually bring the Bee into the interrogation room, or was this just how Lorraine came to see the event in her dreams.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Comes across as soothing and professional in his scenes... and yet he has no trouble with press-ganging a troubled and likely suicidal woman into becoming a Council agent, and that's assuming that he didn't actually know he would be condemning Lorraine to a fate worse than death.
  • Book Ends: Begins and ends the game by offering Lorraine reassurance over losing something and encouraging her to think of the last place she saw it. The first time he's asking her about Callum's teddybear; the second time he's asking her about Callum.
  • Karma Houdini: Implied, given that he exploited the death of Callum to force Lorraine into joining the Council of Venice, condemning her to an eternity of suffering... and as far as we know, he doesn't appeared to have suffered any repercussions for it.
  • Master of Disguise: Seamlessly transitions from impersonating a ticket collector to impersonating a detective, all for the sake of recruiting Lorraine.
  • Mutant Draft Board: Ends up recruiting Lorraine as a Council agent for her latent psychic abilities, and Lorraine later makes it apparent that she didn't have a choice in the matter.
  • Opportunistic Bastard: The most sympathetic interpretation of his behaviour. In other words, he milked Lorraine's time of mourning and probable arrest for all it was worth, just to force her into the service of the Council.
  • The Spook: Even in the present, when so many of The Park's mysteries have been revealed, almost all of the ones relating to the recruiter remain unanswered. His name is unknown, the extent of the role he played in the game is unspecified, and it's not even certain if the Council higher-ups knew what he was up to.

Morninglight

     Overall Tropes 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_morninglight_logo.jpg
The philosophy of the movement is change - necessary change - mental and metaphysical change for the better. Mankind stagnates in the quagmire of modern civilisation, the literature boldly proclaims, but humanity is ready for its next level of existence. Morninglight presentations, lessons, and products dramatically accelerate the parishioners' spiritual journey up the ladder to infinitude. To progress to the next age of humanity, something drastic must happen.
The Buzzing

A new and powerful religious group preaching happiness through releasing inner potential and reaching "the next level of existence." Posters and pamphlets are seen all over the world, alongside members urging others to join and attain the new enlightenment. For those who haven't actually joined, little is known about the Morninglight except for the statements released by their leader, Phillip Marquard. However, there are rumours of rigged personality tests, weird restrictions and tithes placed upon new members, and other mysterious practices; their presence in Kingsmouth and Transylvania hints at even darker goings-on. Issue #10 reveals that they are directly responsible for the Tokyo Disaster, and dedicated to the worship and emulation of the Dreamers.


  • Apocalypse Cult: Lilith created the Morninglight as a heavily-neutered version of Deus Sol Invictus, intending that they believe in the power of the Dreamers while remaining her unquestioning servants. Unfortunately, the Dreamers effectively de-neutered them by converting Phillip Marquard to their cause. As a result, the Morninglight is now entirely dedicated to releasing the Dreamers from captivity and joining them as fellow Eldritch Abominations, the former goal guaranteed to kickstart an apocalypse.
  • Arc Words/Catchphrase: "We are all made of stars," often bandied around by Morninglight self-help pamphlets... though it takes a rather dark turn in the lore entry when one member repeats it to new recruits as she slowly eviscerates them. However, the phrase has often been used outside the organization, usually as a good indicator that something very bad is going on behind the scenes: lore for the Facility in Transylvania mentions that many of the Red Hand's phantom cosmonauts died screaming "we are all made of stars!" Meanwhile, in Tokyo, the Fear Nothing Foundation also makes use of the phrase, a good indication that they're an offshoot of the Morninglight. And during Issue #7, the phrase receives its most disturbing usage yet when a number of Filth entities are heard saying it in the finale, with a little twist.
    Anima: What do you want with me? I'm so small. You eat stars.
    Filth: You are all made of stars.
  • Brainwashing: Morninglight recruits are subjected to a very rigorous indoctrination upon being fully initiated into the cult. The full details of this process are currently unknown, but judging by Alina's testimony, it's not very pleasant. As a front for the Morninglight, the Fear Nothing Foundation also makes use of a very extensive brainwashing process designed to destroy any sense of individuality in its membership and remake them into loyal servants and avid imitators of the Dreamers.
    Alina Florea: It takes Morninglight to be this much of an asshole. Always mind games, until you're ready to ask for the abuse - and say "thank you so much" after.
  • Church of Happyology: The Morninglight qualify in just about every respect. Among other things, they're supposedly a self-help group, but behind the scenes they're actually a fanatical religious movement; their tenets are based on a scam or they were up until the Dreamers took over the cult; they worship their leader as a messiah; they're notoriously protective of their public image; and last but not least, they take a very dim view of defectors. And if that wasn't obvious enough, they refer to defectors and other enemies with knowledge of the Morninglight as "obstructive persons", a term basically exclusive to Scientology.
  • Cult: Though they'd object to being derided as such. Among other things, its inner tenets require total loyalty to the group's inner circle, it allows its members no rights and no personal freedoms and no individuality in some cases, and forbids any release of the secrets to the outside world. And at least one branch of the group has committed mass-suicide after having the Tokyo subway bombed.
  • Foil: To the Dragon. Both are cult-like organizations made-up of mostly splinter cells who only work together because they share the same philosophies and see their agents as means to an end. Both groups address themselves as "agents of change". While the Dragon adapt to free will to remain in control, the Morninglight actively breaks down individuality. The Dragon frequently works with anima, the Morninglight are heavy Filth users. To top this all off, while The Dragon are agents of Gaia seen as terrorists, and the Morninglight are attempting to destroy it but are a cultural phenomenon.
  • Light Is Not Good: On top of being a self-help group renowned worldwide for its benevolence, the Morninglight's rhetoric places a great deal of emphasis on the sun and its power, often remarking on how their paths will be illuminated by "the shining sun" and how their sacrifices will bring them closer to "the rising sun and the new dawn." And of course, their catchphrase portrays them as living suns in the making. However, for all their apparent altruism, the Morninglight are still an abusive cult with no regard for individual freedoms. And that devotion to light? It's because they're the latest in a long line of sun cults that have taken to worshipping the Dreamers; they venerate light because the Dreamers want to consume it, stars and all. Worse still, higher members of the cult like to emulate their masters by visualizing the process of eating the light at the end of the universe. This horrifying belief is taken to its ultimate conclusion in Kaidan, where the Morninglight have set up a massive underground temple of immaculate white marble and dazzling overhead lights... and a floor soaked with Filth. Complete with a preacher screaming about the "Bright Darkness."
  • Meaningful Name: Long before the slogans of "walk with us into the sunrise" and "we are all made of stars" emerge, Morninglight associates itself with the sun from its name onwards. And in much the same way that the Cult of the Aten and Deus Sol Invictus did in the past, they worship the Filth and the Dreamers. Further expanded upon in Issue #11, when the lore on Lilith reveals that the name isn't an accident: she created the Morninglight by reviving the long-extinct doctrine of Deus Sol Invictus and giving it a modern spin.
  • Mystery Cult: Enigmatic and extremely secretive, the Morninglight ensure that their innermost workings are carefully hidden from all but the fully-initiated members of the cult, most commonly by releasing only vaguest and most inspirational-sounding details to the public. As a result, even in a setting populated by spies, knowledge brokers and informants, they've emerged as one of the most enigmatic groups in the Secret World. Even the Bees are unable to gather much information on the cult, being disrupted by some malign influence protecting their deeper secrets.
  • Order Reborn: Villainous example. Towards the end of Issue #11, it's revealed that the Morninglight is little more than the ancient Roman cult of Deus Sol Invictus re-established in the modern age under the cover of a self-help group. Granted, Lilith only resurrected them for the sake of her own esoteric schemes, and didn't expect that they'd end up serving the Dreamers so directly.
  • Path of Inspiration: The Morninglight like to disguise their true purpose and activities in the trappings of a self-help group, and their representatives can often been heard preaching the enlightenment and happiness they can grant new recruits. Also, the cult's representatives have a penchant for mentioning how unhappy they were prior to joining up, and how contented they are now.
  • Stepford Smiler: Most of the members you encounter in more civilized areas come across as this in one form or another, appearing disturbingly bland and soulless for all their affability. Marquard apparently exemplifies this, for according to his biography, he's "never not smiled."
    • The members encountered in the field are quite different, often coming across as deeply unpleasant or deeply disturbed. Most of them don't even bother to disguise it.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Initially they served Lilith, having been formed specifically in order to serve as her minions. However, the Dreamers put an end to this by corrupting Phillip Marquard. Now they're all willing servants of the Dreamers.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: Because they're so adept at preventing their secrets from being revealed to those outside the cult, Morninglight is still perceived as a legitimate self-help group responsible for improving the lives of thousands of people; even denizens of the Secret World can be heard vocally supporting them, a sharp contrast to the open suspicion shown towards the Orochi Group. Their regional branches around the world enjoy similar reputations, with the Fear Nothing Foundation in Tokyo being seen as a perfectly safe place for parents to send their kids for counselling. Even the Jingu Clan didn't sense anything suspicious about the Foundation.

     Frederick Beaumont / Loki 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/freddy_beaumont.jpg
I've been spreading the virus for a long, long time, and now... now, the infection is complete. What is it they say? "Dark Days Are Coming"? But no, no... they're right here!

Voiced by: Tim Bentick

Leader of the Morninglight commune on Solomon Island, and rumoured to be a close associate of Phillip Marquard himself. Beyond this, Beaumont remains something of a mystery; he doesn't stay with the Morninglight camp north of Kingsmouth, and he refuses to hold audience with anyone. Lore entries and early missions suggest that he is looking for something powerful hidden in the depths of the Island, but little is known beyond that. He's really the Norse trickster god Loki, and planning to harness the energies of the Gaia Engine under the Blue Mountain.


  • Abusive Parents: According to the lore for Krampusnacht, Hel's distinctive appearance is due to Loki submerging her in freezing water until half of her body rotted. However, to his daughter's bewilderment, he followed this up by taking her ashore and giving her a potion that revived and warmed the living half of her body - and when asked why he'd punished her, he explained that he had "blessed" her by granting her insight and power over the dead.
  • Arc Villain: The Big Bad of the Solomon Island arc.
  • Badass Long Robe: Appropriately for one of cult's leaders, Beaumont dresses in ceremonial robes throughout his appearances in "Dawning of an Endless Night," including his boss battle at the end of the arc.
  • Beard of Evil: Sports a wicked-looking goatee
  • Cool Sword: In possession of one very cool magical sword which is actually the artifact that brought the Fog to Solomon Island after Joe Slater took it from the Draug island. Further investigation reveals that it's actually none other than the sword Excalibur, taken from Britain by the Vikings to defeat Mayan cultists on Solomon Island; it's also implied to be technology recovered from the Third Age, which might explain its curiously futuristic appearance. Beaumont spends most of "Dawning of an Endless Night" trying to unlock its true power, and it's not until his second appearance that he succeeds. However, he doesn't just want it for use in combat; he wants to use it to get control of the Gaia Engine under the Blue Ridge Mine.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: On top of kicking Cassie to the curb and exploiting the rest of the cult for the sake of his own rise to power, Huginn and Muninn suggest Beaumont's been leaving people to die since at least a thousand years ago. Eventually, this backfires on him when Cassie steals Excalibur and leaves him to die instead.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Acerbic, sharp-tongued and effortlessly snide, Beaumont always finds time for the odd sarcastic remark. If he doesn't, it's a good indication that he's just had his ass handed to him.
  • Enemy Summoner: During his boss battle, he tries to slow you down by summoning Guardians to attack you.
  • Evil Sorcerer: Cassie refers to him by this very name, and true to form, he does have quite a few magic tricks up his sleeve. His possession of the sword only expands on his repertoire.
  • The Exile: Along with being exiled from Kingsmouth by the Illuminati back in the sixteenth century, he implies that, while still known as Loki, he was exiled from the domains of Odin.
  • Final Boss: Of the Solomon Island Arc.
  • Jerkass: Very, very rude and condescending, even to his followers.
  • Immortality: Lore entries indicate that he was in Kingsmouth in 1712, and Kirsten Geary suggests that he's cropped up even earlier than that. His own comments imply that he was once a Norse Physical God, and in "Strangers In A Strange Land," Huginn and Muninn pretty much confirm it.
  • Last of His Kind:
    • Claims that his people are long-extinct. Said people being the Norse Gods. He's not all that broken up about it, given that they exiled him in the first place.
    • Interestingly enough, subsequent missions indicate that Beaumont might not be entirely correct: not only are Odin's ravens still kicking about, but Hel - Beaumont's own daughter - is very much alive, though apparently dormant except at Christmastime.
  • MacGuffin Delivery Service: After going to all the trouble of finding the key to the Blue Ridge Mine deep shaft and making your way to the Gaia Engine hidden at the bottom, you quickly discover that Beaumont took advantage of this by following you in. For good measure, he teasingly thanks you, remarking that he couldn't have gotten in without you.
  • Me's a Crowd: During the boss battle, he has the ability to create illusory Filth-spreading duplicates of himself.
  • Multiple-Choice Past: When a drugged Che Hannson is interrogated by the Morninglight over Beaumont's apparent agelessness he gives a different answer each time, from a being god to drinking from the Fountain of Youth.
  • Necromancer: Cassie indicates that he has a measure of control over the dead, hence the reason why he hasn't been bothered by the zombies or the Draug since he arrived on the island.
  • "No More Holding Back" Speech: Beaumont provides a rare villainous example during the confrontation in the archives, observing that he's finally done keeping secrets and ready to cut loose after centuries spent in exile.
  • Put on a Bus: After being kicked unconscious by Cassie, he's reportedly arrested by the Illuminati and committed to a secure ward of Arkham State Hospital; at present, it's unclear if the players will ever encounter him again.
  • Smug Snake: He may be a master planner and a powerful magician, but he's also egotistical, overconfident, and gets very petulant when things don't go his way. Plus, he has a nasty habit of pissing off characters with more power than he realizes. And in the end, he pays for it on no less than three different levels: the player catches him off-guard and kicks his ass, Beaumont only escaping with his life intact thanks to the intervention of the Dreamers; Cassie steals Excalibur from him, kicking him unconscious in the process; finally, the Illuminati lock him up in Arkham - reducing the once-legendary Norse god to the status of a simple madman.
  • Starter Villain: The very first villain the players encounter, he serves as a preview to the other villainous characters and factions of the game, many of whom are drawn to similar sources of eldritch power. For good measure, he's pretty small fry compared to the likes of the Orochi Group and the Morninglight's inner circle, and downright microscopic compared to the Dreamers.
  • Trickster God: Claims that sagas have been written about his long cons. This boast is absolutely true.
  • Wakeup Call Boss: The entire final confrontation with him is one big test to see if you've fully grasped the game's mechanics and know how to survive a real boss fight. Haven't gotten the hang of ranged combat? His doppelgangers and their expanding AOE blasts will wreck you. Haven't gotten good at melee combat and tanking? The Beasts of Corruption he summons will educate you. Haven't learned the importance of self-healing? His health pool is big enough that you won't outlast him without plenty of self-healing. Haven't learned when to just lay down massive damage? At roughly his final 10% of health, he'll throw everything he can at you, forcing you to race to see if you can kill him before he kills you. On top of that, he'll also self-heal.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Suffered after his defeat when Cassie gets her hands on the Sword. It's not dignified, consisting mainly of breathless panic, petulant whimpering, and a lot of desperate bravado silenced by a single kick to the face.
  • You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With: Spoken almost word for word during the aforementioned Villainous Breakdown.
    Beaumont: You have no fucking idea what you're messing with!
    Cassie: Funny. I was gonna tell you the same thing.

     Cassandra King 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cassandra_king.png
When I'm ready for you... you'll know where to find me. I promise.

Voiced by: Catherine Taber

A bleached-blonde woman with a southern accent, she first shows up as Beaumont's sidekick and groupie - or, as Che puts it, "Our Resident Mary Magdalene." At the end of the Solomon Island arc, she steals Excalibur from Beaumont and leaves him for dead; she hasn't been seen since.


  • Cool Sword: Now in possession of Excalibur, having stolen it from Beaumont. She hasn't tried to use it just yet, but that hasn't stopped her from being sought out by just about every organization aware of the sword's existence.
  • Dark Mistress: To Beaumont. Up until he dumps her.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Proves herself more than equal to Beaumont's snide wit in this respect.
  • The Dog Bites Back: During her second scene, Beaumont dumps her. At the very end of the Solomon Island storyline, she shows up to steal Excalibur from the weakened Beaumont before running off - pausing only to give him a good kick in the face for good measure.
    • Marked to Die: It's later revealed that she's been put on a Morninglight database of "Obstructive Persons" that need to be terminated. As of yet, the cult hasn't caught up with her.
  • Enigmatic Minion: As of yet, nobody's certain exactly what Cassie wants out of her relationship with Beaumont, exactly what she hopes to achieve by serving the Morninglight, or even what she's planning to do with Excalibur. Even after all of Beaumont's secrets are unveiled to the player - or at least most of them - Cassie's true nature and goals remain a mystery.
  • Really Gets Around: Flirts with the player no matter their gender.
  • Hidden Depths: As well as being a lot more intelligent and ambitious than her initial behavior would suggest, Cassie also demonstrates knowledge of magic in her first mission. And at the end of the Kingsmouth story arc, her comments imply that she's something even more alien than Beaumont... and likely to become even more powerful than he could imagine.
  • Hot Witch: Doesn't look the 'witch' part, but she reveals that she has some magical knowledge in the ending to "The Pickup," when she paralyzes you with a spell and runs off. The spell's mouseover text says that it's 'a curse from the Wicked Witch of the South'.
  • It's Not You, It's Me: Spoken word for word when she betrays Beaumont.
    I just hope you understand, Beaumont: it's not you... it's me.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: One might be tempted to think that she's just another hanger-on among Beaumont's entourage... up until she starts manipulating the player for her own ends. And then demonstrating enough magical knowledge to knock you out while she runs off with the item you were about to retrieve. The end of the Solomon Island arc amplifies this: not only does she steal Beaumont's sword, but it's hinted that she's much more powerful and alien than her former master - and about to become even greater.
  • Pay Evil unto Evil: At the end of the Solomon Island Arc, she not only steals Excalibur from Beaumont, she literally kicks him in the face before leaving for dead. Nasty and definitely gratuitous, but nobody's denying that the bastard had it coming.
  • Put on a Bus: After stealing Excalibur from Beaumont, Cassie reportedly goes on the run and hasn't been seen since - though she promises to return later.
  • The Runaway: Kirsten Geary reports that Cassie ran away from her parents two years ago, and ended up falling in with the Morninglight not long after that.
  • Supermodel Strut: She walks with a deliberate shake to her hip, which is often the focus of Male Gaze camera shots. Justified as she is a cult member who uses her feminine wiles to recruit people.
  • The Tease: An integral part of her character; not only is it her modus operandi for convincing men to join the cult, but one mission features her discovering one of Danny's remote-control spyplanes... and allowing it to take some photos of her, and then returning it (through you) with a note promising a few very interesting shots. Examination of the photos shows her striking some very suggestive poses, but no actual nudity.
    • This mission was dropped in the transition from The Secret World to Secret World Legends - probably because it was still one of the most visually risqué parts of the game.
  • The Vamp: According to one of Beaumont's rants, her official function is to charm people into joining the Morninglight, usually by sexual means. When not recruiting for the cult, however, she's very good into sweet-talking other characters into helping her and also at knocking them unconscious with magic if they don't play along.
    Cassie: Let me do what I'm good at.
    Beaumont: What? Getting the boys to sign over their lives for a snog? I'll tell you what you can do: we're spreading an idea, but that idea won't take hold without carriers; you keep spreading those long legs of yours to recruit more foot-soldiers.
  • You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With: Variant. "Do you have any idea who I am... or who I am about to become?"

     Che Garcia Hansson 
You’ve seen the flyers, you’ve seen our commercials, you’ve probably even talked to some of our good people. Can’t escape the light, my friend. It’s all-fucking-encompassing. Like air. We’re like air. Breathe it.

Voiced by: Armin Shimerman

A disreputable hippie acting as the de-facto leader of the Morninglight camp outside Kingsmouth (at least in Beaumont's absence). Issue #10 reveals that prior to his mission to Solomon Island, he was in Tokyo, helping Naonomi to mould John into a potential suicide-bomber.


  • Because You Were Nice to Me: Towards Beaumont. He refuses to give solid answers about Beaumont when questioned by the Morninglight because while he was given a second chance at life by the Morninglight, it was Beaumont who actually found, saved and put his life back together for him as part of the Morninglight. To the point where after the Morninglight have slated him for termination, he is still looking to find Beaumont as his personal savior.
  • Captain Obvious/Don't Explain the Joke: When Cassie starts getting flirtatious, Che feels the need to elaborate, much to her annoyance.
    Cassie: ... I might be... flexible. Very, very... flexible.
    Che: She's talkin' about sexual positions. That's what that little pause was; it's her idea of subtlety.
    Cassie: Fuck. Off.
  • The Corrupter: Actually his role in the Morninglight, he's what they call an Enabler. Employed by the Fear Nothing Foundation to shape John into a loyal cult member - and later, a suicide bomber. For good measure, Che's methods ensured that John didn't even know he was being indoctrinated until he arrived in the AV suite at the Dream Palace, and by then, it was too late. Dawn of the Morninglight reveals that Che didn't know exactly what he was being asked to do, either.
  • Fantastic Drug: On top of all the mundane drugs he indulges in, Che will occasionally make use of a unique designer drug - but only on very specific occasions. The "drug" is actually a live spider, and according to John, it's an alternative to viagra, presumably because the venom induces a Raging Stiffie on top of all the other unpleasant symptoms. It worked well enough at the Dream Palace, though Che apparently looked dangerously close to suffering a heart attack.
  • Faux Affably Evil: From time to time, Che submerges his unpleasant attitude long enough to make himself look like a typical friendly hippie - just long enough to get what he wants. Case in point, pretending to be John's friend while secretly indoctrinating him into the worship of the Dreamers.
    • Turns out as of Issue #16 he honestly liked John and didn't realize what exactly he was prepping him for.
  • The Hedonist: Despite claiming to be reformed from his life of crime and addiction, it's pretty obvious that Che has something of an attraction to vice; he certainly doesn't seem to have any qualms about getting stoned while his underlings risk life and limb outside the protective wards of the camp. He's even more of a party animal when in urban zones, as John discovered during their night on the town: according to Issue #10, Che spent most of the time between brawls getting progressively shitfaced, culminating in a visit to the Dream Palace in the company of two prostitutes. Because John was too entranced by his visions of the Dreamers to concentrate on sex, Che gleefully bonked both girls at once.
  • Hidden Depths: Not in a positive meaning, mind you. At first he comes of as "just" a huge Jerkass and party animal, leading small camp of a vaguely occult organization, without signs of real understanding of said occult. Later we learn what Morninglight is really up to, and in Issue#10 we see him using an Agartha portal - which means that he's got a Bee or is a very powerful mage. And as of Issue #16 he actually cared about John. And was legitmatly pissed off when he found out just how much Morninglight used him and John.
  • Hookers and Blow: A logical conclusion to his wilder evenings. Particularly his visit to Kaidan: as well as screwing hookers two at a time in the Dream Palace, he also indulged in mountainous quantities of drugs - a good deal of which was shared with John as part of the corruption gig.
  • Hypocrite: In one scene, he informs one of his less-than-coordinated Mooks that "Rome wasn't built in a day, but it sure as hell wasn't built by deadbeat procrastinators lazin' around on their asses smokin' weed." Not only is Che never seen working in any of his scenes, but during this particular mission opening, he's got a joint in his hand.
    • In conversation, Che will gloat on and on and on about how the Morninglight is so much better than the other three societies. More than half of the criticisms he levels at the societies and you in particular can easily be applied to him and the other members of the Morninglight.
  • Jerkass: An unrepentant dickhead from beginning and end, Che is abusive, foul-tempered, coarse, thoroughly unpleasant and borderline sociopathic; in fact, the only situation where he's likely to be vaguely friendly is if he's required to for the sake of his job or if he's talking to one of his superiors. Issue #10 reveals that while staying in Tokyo, Che's attitude got him in trouble wherever he went: on top of getting kicked out of half the bars in Kaidan, he also went on to pick fights with Akashi of the Jingu Clan, the Oni bouncers at Inbeda's bathhouse, gun-toting members of the Korinto-Kai, and last but not least, with Ricky Pagan. For good measure, he also spent most of his time between beatdowns screaming abuse at passers-by.
  • Lack of Empathy: On top of being an asshole to just about everyone in the vicinity unless specifically ordered not to, Che has absolutely no sympathy for the "cowards" and "traitors" who panicked and ran from the hippie camp when the Fog rolled in, likely dying in the process. As he puts it, "good riddance."
  • Looks Like Jesus: Cassie jokingly refers to him as "Jesus," and to be fair, he does look the part thanks to his flowing locks and scraggly beard.
  • Mean Boss: For someone so vocal about how equal and perfect a society the Morninglight is, he treats his subordinates like shit. At one point, he sends one of his fellow cultists alone through Wendigo-infested forests with no weapons and no training, after treating the Mook like a complete idiot in every way. Of course, said mook gets immediately mauled by a Wendigo. In sharp contrast, when Cassie wants to make a pickup, he has you escort her. The only thing stopping him from graduating to a full-blown Bad Boss is the simple fact that he hasn't had anyone killed or tortured yet.
  • New-Age Retro Hippie: For a member of a modern self-help group, Che looks as though he's just shambled out of the 1960s and speaks the part too. Unlike the typical peace-loving hippie, however, he's also violent, sleazy, conniving, mean-spirited and depraved. He also helped the FNF mould John into a suicide bomber, making him indirectly responsible for the Tokyo Disaster. He's even referred to as a "demon hippie" during Issue #10 - by John himself, no less.
  • Pet the Dog: He had no idea what John was being groomed for and is legitimately pissed at the Morninglight for turning him into a suicide bomber.
  • Reformed Criminal: Subverted. Che claims that prior to being recruited, he was a drug addict and a criminal, practically on the verge of death before Beaumont tracked him down and ushered him into the Morninglight; though he insists that he's a better person for joining the cult, it's fairly obvious that he's just graduated to a more respectable class of scum.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: A minor figure during the Solomon Island arc, Che doesn't appear to have much of a role beyond managing the hippie camp. Then it turns out that, prior to the start of the game, he actually helped Naonomi Tanaka to mould John into a suicide bomber for the Fear Nothing Foundation and the Morninglight cause as a whole. This in itself is a pretty minor role, given that all Che had to do was to take John on a drunken bender around Tokyo, gradually building his confidence with various encounters before taking him to the AV room at the Dream Palace and subjecting him to a hallucinogenic encounter with the Dreamers. However, this tiny role ended up unleashing the Filth on Tokyo, transforming John into the Black Signal, prompting attempts at similar bombings in Egypt during Issue #6, forcing Lilith into damage-control mode and into conflict with you in Issue #7, and practically ensuring the course of the entire Tokyo arc. For good measure, it's not clear if Che is aware of just what he began.
  • Smug Snake: Proud of his status as a Morninglight leader and openly contemptuous of anyone who doesn't serve the cult with every word and deed, every word from Che's mouth drips with smugness and disdain. He might think himself clever and even important especially given that he technically caused the Tokyo Incident, but it's clear that he's on the lowest rung of the Morninglight leadership ladder, and the only real tricks up his sleeve are the magical techniques that allowed him to protect the camp.

    The Egypt Agent 

See Berihun.

     Alina Florea 
Nothing the Morninglight touches has a beautiful death. That was my mistake. I believed their shit...

Voiced By: Lisa Hogg

A Morninglight follower and former medical student, Alina was one of a group of fellow cultists and potential recruits taken on a spiritual retreat to the Carpathian Mountains by Adrian Zorlescu. However, the Transylvania Morninglight are in dire straits at present, and Alina is no exception, having ended up crashing her car in the Shadowy Forest. Not knowing the area, unable to complete her work for the Morninglight and faltering in her beliefs anyway, she has decided to simply wait for death. Of course, in the meantime, she has a lot to say about the cult...


  • Better to Die than Be Killed: Knowing that dying on Morninglight terms would probably entail Filth-infection, she's decided that virtually any other sort of death the forest can dish out would be preferable; as such, she's determined to wait until she either starves to death, or until one of the werewolves roaming the forest takes an interest in her.
  • Broken Bird: Alina's psychological trauma at the hands of Adrian and the Morninlight has left her cold, cynical, and utterly indifferent to the dangers of the forest around her - mainly because she's hoping that one of said dangers will ultimately kill her.
  • Bungled Suicide: She'd have gladly shot herself, but the only gun she's got is empty.
  • Crisis of Faith: By the time you've arrived, Alina's faith in the Morninglight has collapsed altogether, leaving only bitterness and disillusionment. On the upside, her disgust with her former "friends" allows you a subtle peek into the inner workings of the cult.
  • The Cynic: Though she was already prone to nihilistic thoughts and suicidal urges long before getting stranded in the forest, the loss of her faith has just about destroyed every last shred of optimism in Alina's soul.
  • Death Seeker: Her default state. That said, Alina has a few preferences regarding her death: among other things, she doesn't want the Morninglight to do the deed; she also wants to avoid horror movie clichés, and to leave a good-looking corpse.
    You can't let me go out like this, like in some stupid slasher movie. It's so fake! I don't want to go to my death faking it. I don't want to go to my death with bad hair!
  • Driven to Suicide: In a word, yes. In fact, the only reason why she's bothering to wait for something monstrous to wander up and kill her is because she doesn't have any means of killing herself quickly: her only gun is fresh out of bullets.
  • I Love the Dead: Alina is fascinated and aroused by death, and goes into great detail as to how she enjoys the sight of corpses on stainless steel gurneys under bright white light and the feel of their cold flesh.
  • Marked to Die: For her lapse in faith and failure to deliver a package, Alina has been declared an "Obstructive Person." The mission of the same name features you hacking into the Morninglight database and marking her as deceased, so she can at least meet death on her own terms.
  • Nightmare Fetishist: As well as being an unrepentant necrophiliac, she's clearly fascinated by the notion of death, having fantasized about her death since she was twelve. However, these morbid interests do not extend to the Filth, which clearly frightens Alina more than any of the other dangers in the Shadowy Forest.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: A very mild case; because of her fascination with the dead and aversion to the living, the Morninglight were able to gain her allegiance by offering to help her make "the whole world a morgue." Thanks to her disillusionment with the Morninglight, she doesn't appear to have much interest in this particular goal any more.
  • The Stoner: In order to calm herself in preparation for the inevitable end, she's been smoking her way through what little marijuana she has on her.

     Rada Nastase 
There are no clear skies anymore, no more wondering questions, just the grey and the blood and the dread. Would you tell me something good can ever happen again? I don't even care if it's a lie.

Voiced by: Miranda Raison

A rich young socialite inducted into the Morninglight by her own parents, Rada is another member of Adrian Zorlescu's entourage; however, unlike Alina, she actually made it as far as their lodge in the Carpathian Mountains. Unfortunately, the army of vampires gathering nearby have targeted the lodge and the surrounding cabins as a handy source of food, leaving her effectively trapped in the lodge with the increasingly abusive Zorlescu.


  • Abusive Parents: Implied, given that her mother and father essentially press-ganged her into a cult.
  • Beneath the Mask: Rada tries her best to seem like the perfect Morninglight poster-child during "Cabin Fever," presenting a bubbly and sociable exterior for her unexpected guest, even trying to seem like a devout member of the group by observing how their visit to the Carpathians would bring them closer to salvation. However, it doesn't take long for the performance to break down, Rada first admitting that "these people aren't my friends," then that her parents forced her to join, then that she believes she's going to die soon - and eventually, she's in tears.
  • Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: "The others went back to their cabins. I haven't seen any of them, for so long it feels like days. But that's just me. I lose count of how things come and go, the days, the others... the midnight visitors... all the things we've done..."
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Non-comedic example. Rada tends to ramble aimlessly about her dreams and memories without much in the way of connectivity, and often seems only marginally aware that the lodge is effectively under siege. Of course, she's pretty open about in admitting that she loses track of reality very easily. The drugs, booze and mounting stress don't do much for her coherency either.
  • Cult Drug Enforcement: "Rada, medicate yourself..."
  • Dark and Troubled Past: In one of the few moments when Adrian isn't breathing down her neck, Rada admits that at some point in the past, she was hospitalized, possibly even committed. When she got out, her parents immediately forced her to join the Morninglight.
  • Hates Being Alone: According to the Morninglight file on her, her worst fear is "being alone with her own thoughts," which might explain why she hasn't tried to leave Adrian's presence despite the worsening abuse.
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: By the opening to "The Castle," the stress of the situation has left Rada chugging wine straight from the bottle. Also, at Adrian's insistence, she's also downing pills - to be washed down with the wine, of course.
  • Lady in Red: Wears an extravagant red dress. Contrary to the character type however, Rada isn't seductive or even especially promiscuous (requests to dance aside).
  • The Ophelia: Beautiful though she may be, the ongoing crisis has driven Rada dangerously close to insanity.
  • Plagued by Nightmares: According to her dialogue tree, Rada suffers from periodic nightmares of being adrift in a cold and dark ocean, slowly sinking beneath the waves and being dimly aware of something waiting in the darkness below her.
  • Polar Madness: Being trapped in a snowbound lodge surrounded by vampires with only Adrian for company has left poor Rada on the brink of psychological collapse.
  • Socialite: Prior to the accident, anyway. When you pay them a visit, Adrian goes to the trouble of enforcing this trait by waving a knife under Rada's nose: ultimately, her attempts at carrying on with this role fall apart when she ends up bursting into to tears mid-sentence.
  • Sole Survivor: With the vampires having cleared out all the other cabins in their search for fresh blood, Rada and Adrian are the only remaining Morninglight personnel in the area. Not that Rada's noticed.
  • Stepford Smiler: Arguably the weakest example found in the game. In "Cabin Fever" she attempts to put on a cheerful face for her visitors and entertain them without admitting anything, but her insecurities start bleeding through halfway into the conversation, and by the end of it, she's in tears. In the following mission, Adrian tries to sedate her into silence, but that only damages her façade past recovery.

     Adrian Zorlescu 
Rada, medicate yourself.

Voiced by: Neil Newbon

Leader of the Morninglight pilgrimage to the Carpathians, Adrian now resides in the mountain hunting lodge alongside Rada. Strongly implied to have been smuggling rare magical artefacts out of Transylvania on behalf of the cult, he has no qualms about using his fellow travellers as pawns in his attempts to secure his cargo - though the hungry vampires gathering outside the lodge ensure that Zorlescu has no way of acquiring it.


  • Blade Enthusiast: Adrian has a thing for knives and razors, often making good use of them while threatening Rada; Alina indicates that he also likes carving his initials into his victims - and believes that she'll end up being subjected to this treatment if he ever finds her.
  • Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: A very dark play on the trope. According to "Obstructive Persons," Adrian has been assigned to look after Rada in order to stop her from becoming a threat to the cult's security - rather than a threat to herself, as is often the case with Minders. Worse still, Adrian's way of keeping Rada under control involves threats, physical violence, drugs, and booze.
  • Creepy Monotone: His voice remains flat and utterly emotionless, even while menacing Rada with a knife.
  • Dirty Coward: Adrian's more comfortable with bullying the more compliant members of his entourage than tackling someone who might actually fight back; true to form, the moment you break out the fireballs, he backs off.
  • Domestic Abuse: As Rada's caregiver and apparent boyfriend, Adrian has zero problems with using violence or the threat of violence to keep her under his control. Alina indicates that he does this to just about all his friends and "loved ones," implying that she was subjected to this treatment as well - and that it would have been extended to Aurelie and Celine if they'd tried to resist.
  • If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: During the opening to "Cabin Fever," Adrian starts waving a knife under Rada's nose in an attempt to motivate her into keeping quiet, only for the player to threaten him with a conjured fireball.
  • Jerkass: Violent and abusive from beginning to end, Adrian might just be one of the most unlikeable characters in the Morninglight character roster.
  • Kick the Dog: During the mission "Six Feet Under," Adrian has left a note for a fellow cultist, providing instructions on what do with all the artefacts he was trying to smuggle out of the country; according to this note, the cultist was instructed to punish Rada for any mistakes made in handling the cargo - with the postscript reading "maybe do that anyway, my little gift to you."
  • Lack of Empathy: Much like Che Garcia Hansson, Adrian is notably dismissive towards the suffering of others; however, where Che will sneeringly mock the members of his entourage that panicked and fled to their deaths, Adrian just seems utterly indifferent to everyone and everything. Bonus points for speaking with utterly flat affect.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Charm, drugs, threats... if it motivates his entourage, he'll use it.
  • Polar Madness: Witnesses describe Adrian as a psychopath and a bully, but at least able to keep his darker nature hidden; after being trapped in the lodge for weeks on end, he's much more open to revealing his true unpleasantness.
  • Sole Survivor: He and Rada are the only remaining surviving cultists left in the area following the vampire army's harvest of the nearby cabins.
  • Villain Team-Up/Enemy Civil War: Until recently, Adrian and the other cultists stationed in Transylvania were counted as Mara's allies, planting them firmly under the vampire army's protection. However, by the time the player arrives in the Carpathian Mountains, the alliance has broken down and the vampires have started preying on the cabins they once protected. This is because Mara is a loyal servant of Lilith - and Lilith is now fully aware that the Morninglight have betrayed her.

     The Fear Nothing Foundation 
The commercials are so bright. The message is so positive. To cut away all fear. The teenagers came in. They did not come out. Fear is human. They cut away all the human bits.
The Buzzing

A proxy branch of the Morninglight based in Kaidan district, Tokyo, the FNF conceals its true activities under the cover of a local self-help club; encouraging prospective recruits to give up their fear and embrace their true potential, the Foundation has drawn in a sizeable number of converts to the Morninglight cause, most of them teenagers. However, by the time you arrive in Tokyo, most of the FNF have committed mass-suicide in the wake of the Tokyo Incident, the remainder being assassinated by the Rabbit Killer. Furthermore, Issue #9 reveals that they are responsible for causing the disaster in the first place.


  • Animal Motifs: Flies, mentioned in passing. Some members write that they're compelled to eat flies, paralleling how bees bestow power on Gaia's chosen. As flies are also associated with the Filth, this implies that the Fear Nothing Foundation's chosen are essentially precursors to their age's champions.
  • Apocalyptic Log: Visiting their headquarters allows the player to uncover several apocalyptic logs written by members of the Foundation. Primarily consisting of a journal written by one of the counsellors, a diary belonging to an American girl newly recruited by the group, and a series of letters from one of the local recruits to his parents all three sources chart the indoctrination process enacted upon the FNF's members during the days leading up to the Tokyo Incident. As the process grows more invasive and unpleasant, Sabrina's diary entries and Kinji's letters become progressively more fearful and uncertain, until both seem on the verge of a full-blown nervous breakdown; late in his journal, the counsellor briefly gets in on the fun when Sachiko returns from the dead and begins assaulting the other counsellors. Ultimately, the notes end with the fully-indoctrinated authors committing suicide, along with the rest of the cult.
    • The underground Clubhouse also has a ton of these scattered throughout its corridors, most of them written by the members trapped inside the facility when the Tokyo Bomb went off. Because most of these young recruits hadn't been subjected to indoctrination (yet), the logs are more lucid, and most of them chart the increasingly desperate attempts of the trapped membership to survive the ongoing crisis: on top of having to endure limited supplies, constant stress and being abandoned by their superiors, they also have to contend with the Black Signal occasionally taking control of the PA systems and tormenting them with information on how their friends and relatives died - driving one particularly unfortunate member to stab himself to death with a corkscrew. Doubly unfortunately, there's a Filth infection inside the building. In the end, the apocalyptic logs down here can be divide into two types: those who've resigned themselves to death, leaving tearful messages to their friends and loved ones before finally dying of starvation or succumbing to the Filth; and those who've found an escape route and decided to head for the surface in spite of the danger outside, resolving to die in the open air.
  • Bright Is Not Good: The FNF is quickly distinguished by its use of bright, friendly colours throughout its media and facilities: its logo is a vivid yellow sun; pamphlets advertising it are coloured in a garish mixture of blue, orange and gold; the sign outside their downtown recruitment centre is bright gold and emblazoned with cute and colourfully-dressed manga characters; and of course, the building's interior is decorated in a variety of extremely vivid hues, including scarlet, emerald green and canary yellow. Also, while still human, John wore a bright yellow FNF jacket. Of course, this palate of friendly colours is just a façade to prevent outside observers from realizing that the FNF was really a death cult following the orders of the Morninglight leadership. It also serves to make their abandoned recruiting centre all the creepier when you finally visit it.
  • Crapsaccharine World: Behind closed doors, most of their private centres can easily be classified as this, especially given their emphasis on bright colours, friendship among members, restorative therapy, and free bingo cola... at least until the brainwashing is employed.
  • Cut Phone Lines: Variation; new recruits are cut off from the outside world by depriving them of access to any form of communication, including phones or the Internet.
  • Elaborate Underground Base Issue #10 reveals that the Fear Nothing Foundation have a secret clubhouse hidden under Kaidan, open only to the intellectual cream of their potential recruits. Though it seems to consist only of a cafeteria, a gaming arcade, a gym and a swimming pool, further exploration reveals that the "clubhouse" has another area accessible only to the fully-initiated recruits: a stadium-sized temple dedicated to the Dreamers, where members of both the FNF and the Morninglight can worship as one. There's also a whole level of administrative offices beneath this particular floor: it's in this area that the FNF and the Morninglight planned the bombing of Tokyo, and later, where the Rabbit Killer slaughters the remaining Morninglight staff.
  • Fantastic Nirvana: Played for horror; the FNF is secretly teaching its youngest members to ascend to "the level above human". In meditation, they are encouraged to imagine "eating the light at the end of the universe", while counsellors cut them off from their parents and encourage total uniformity... until eventually, members begin witnessing visions the Dreamers in meditation. However, it's not until the end that the fully-brainwashed members ascend to their new level of existence via a mass suicide, while the only survivor is sent to conduct a suicide bombing on the Tokyo subways. More disturbingly, this method actually appears to have worked, as the abandoned downtown FNF offices are infested with unique spectral entities known as "the level above human," far more powerful and more dangerous than any mere ghost.
  • Goodbye, Cruel World!: The Foundation members at the recruiting centre all leave a variety of notes to mark their mass suicide: Kinji provides final letter for his parents, addressing them as "breeders of this vessel" and observing how happier is that he's shed all sense of self; Sabrina looks forward to being free of everything, noting that she's going to be holding hands with Kinji as they die; Counsellor Hiroki celebrates passing the test of "Lot's wife," and recounts his own advice on shaving: "The razor goes up, never down." As a whole, the entire group leaves behind a lengthy message to anyone who happens to visit the building, encouraging them to join the dead cultists in mass-suicide. However, the simplest and most disturbing of the suicide notes is found in the boardroom alongside the corpses.
    The earth is a garden. The time is ripe. The eaters are coming. It is time to go.
  • Groin Attack: Having already cut themselves off from their families and renounced all familial ties, the counsellors of the Fear Nothing Foundation went a step further by castrating themselves to attain freedom from "the cycle of procreation."
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Sending Sachiko to the Third Floor didn't go so well for the Fear Nothing Foundation. Sadly, though her ghost did succeed in killing numerous staff members at work there, the overwhelming majority of FNF counsellors "escaped" into mass suicide.
  • Individuality Is Illegal: The Fear Nothing Foundation's philosophy declares that individuality is one of the many chains holding people back - along with the less obvious trappings of human identity, like fear and familial ties. As such, all members of the FNF are expected to give up their individuality and conform to a single unified standard. On top of wearing identical uniforms and participating in group meditation classes designed to enforce a collective, students are expected to do practically everything the same way: even something as simple as shaving has to conform to the standard - the razor goes up, never down - and anyone who deviates from the norm is shamed, driving them even further into groupthink.
  • I Never Got Any Letters: If Kinji's increasingly desperate letters are any evidence, another popular method of cutting off the Foundation's recruits from the outside world is by secretly declining to send their outgoing mail and withholding any incoming messages. Towards the end, Kinji freely admits that he doesn't expect his letters to be answered, and that he's only writing in a desperate attempt to hang on to his sanity.
  • Ironic Echo: "The razor goes up. Never down."
  • Mind Rape: What the Fear Nothing Foundation does to its students over the course of their education, resulting in a slow Brainwashing process where the victim is fully aware of their agonizing breakdown but incapable of stopping it. Beginning with the simple techniques used in order to make the recruits conform to the FNF's designs, the process then moves on to physical methods, like making them drink mixtures of persimmon juice, cayenne pepper and maple syrup - or, more disturbingly, forcing them to endure the occasional enema. The group's unique approach to meditation also contributes to the breakdown, especially when recruits find themselves face to face with the Dreamers. Finally, whatever happens on the Third Floor seals the deal in a suitably nightmarish fashion.
  • My Death Is Just the Beginning: The overwhelming majority of the suicides among the FNF membership did so to celebrate the bombing of Tokyo - or as they called it, "The Great Message" - and believed that their deaths would allow them to cast off their bodies and join the Dreamers as incorporeal entities.
  • No Party Like a Donner Party: One of the apocalyptic logs found in the Clubhouse reports that some of the trapped FNF members have been resorting to cannibalism in a desperate attempt to survive. By this stage, the author's so hungry that s/he can't even blame the perpetrators.
  • Only Smart People May Pass: The FNF clubhouse is intended to be accessible only by the cleverest of potential recruits, most of whom were drawn in from the student population of Orochi schools. The key to finding the entrance lies in cryptic riddles and obscure directions hidden within their literature, most of which invariably lead to another puzzle, which in turn leads to another; only the recruits intelligent enough to find the answers and persistent enough to follow the chain to the end are allowed to enter the clubhouse. This actually backfires on the clubhouse leaders when they try to lock the new recruits inside the Filth-contaminated Clubhouse... only for their intellectual elite to track down an escape route.
  • Perpetual Smiler: According to Kinji and Sabrina, the FNF counsellors are always smiling, even on the rare occasions where their students break down and start screaming at them. Towards the end, the other members of the Foundation at the recruitment centre go the same way, presumably including Kinji and Sabrina.
    • Broken Smile: According to the Bees, the FNF smile counts as this; as they put it, "Every child that goes up to the 3rd floor comes back smiling like broken glass."
  • Room101: The Third Floor of the recruitment centre. Though commonly used for punishing ill-behaved new recruits, the exact punishments are still unknown; even the victims are unable or unwilling to explain what happened to them. However, it's implied that some kind of brainwashing process is at work up there, because Kinji wrote his final letter as a fully-indoctrinated cultist shortly after being taken to the Third Floor. One troubled young recruit, Sachiko, didn't return from the Third Floor: redirected into the Fear Nothing Foundation's experiments on how to "reach all young minds," she died over the course of the testing. However, Sachiko got the last laugh by returning as a vengeful ghost, and still haunts the facility to this day.
  • Sanity Slippage: Experienced by most of the new recruits over the course of their indoctrination, as evidenced by Sabrina's diary and Kinji's letters. In one late message, Kinji admits to spending half an hour crying and banging his head against a wall, all because one of the counsellors gently rebuked him for shaving the wrong way, while Sabrina being reduced to blind panic as she slowly realizes what the Foundation is really planning. In the end, the slippage concludes with complete indoctrination, followed by a mass suicide.
  • Sinister Silhouettes: An odd twist on the trope; one of the lore entries on the Fear Nothing Foundation makes references to shadows "burnt into the floor" and encourages you to look up. It turns out that the boardroom level of the recruitment centre has a glass floor, and looking up reveals the silhouetted corpses of the FNF membership splayed out across it.
  • Suicide Attack: On the orders of Philip Marquard, the FNF trained and equipped a suicide bomber for an attack on Orochi Tower, intending to kill Lilith in the resulting explosion of Filth. However, though the bomber in question detonated his explosive a little too early, it still worked after a fashion: the Filth was unleashed on Tokyo, and the newly-created Black Signal went on to finish his original task by putting Lilith out of commission.
  • You're Not My Father: An extremely dark and disturbing play on the trope; according to Foundation dogma, familial ties are one of the many things holding the human race back, being closely associated with individuality and fear (the fear of disappointing a parent, for example). As such, a key part of the cult's indoctrination process is to ensure that their recruits cut themselves off from their families and deny that their parents had any real connection to them. In one case, Kinji is encouraged to believe that his mother and father have abandoned him at the Foundation - though in reality, his mail just isn't being sent home; this, combined with the conditioning used throughout the rest of the process, is clearly devastating to him. Indeed, it works so well that Kinji's final letter is addressed to the "breeders of this vessel," and thanks them for not writing back, observing how evil it is for parents to view children as their products.

    Priest of the Blinding Light 
May Saint Toad, the Boiling Meme, and all of the Lucids protect us!

Voiced by: André Sogliuzzo

Presiding over the Morninglight/FNF congregation at the clubhouse, the Priest of the Blinding Light is known only to those recruits judged worthy of entering the group's inner circle - and the player, of course. With a set of mannerisms reminiscent of a televangelist and a gospel unique to the Morninglight, he serves as a major boss battle for the players, as well as a unique introduction to the Morninglight's secret beliefs.


  • Action Bomb/Taking You with Me: When the player gets him to 1 hit point, he kills himself in a Filth explosion that can easily encompass the entire temple and kill you if you can't manage to hide behind a pillar in time. For good measure, this explosion also summons a colossal Filth monster into the temple to serve as a second boss once you get back from the cafeteria.
  • Animate Dead: When not pelting you with gunfire and grenades, the Priest spends his boss battle running around the temple, resurrecting the dead worshippers as Filth-infectees.
  • Badass Long Robe: The Priest charges into battle still clad in his ceremonial robes and goes on to provide you with the toughest battle in the entire Clubhouse.
  • Badass Preacher: A militant preacher of the Morninglight and a fanatical worshipper of the Dreamers, the Priest eagerly assaults you with pistols and grenades the moment you arrive in the temple, pausing only to resurrect his deceased congregation as Filth-infectees.
  • Bald of Evil: Much like the Atenist preachers in Egypt, the Priest's head is shaved bare.
  • Evil Is Hammy: With a broad southern accent and a voice that could probably shout down a hurricane, the Priest is gloriously hammy from start to finish. Just look at his introductory speech:
    Beware Saint Toad's cracked chimes! The old aeons dream of the looong, winging flight through the void! Beware Saint Toad's cuh-racked chaaaaahmes! Saint Toad, commend mah soooouuul to the Immaculate Slaaahme! Hearken! Hearken! Listen to the Boiling Meme, for he, he is the messenger of the Lucid Drea-mers! The Boiling Meme beams of the stars that scream! The Lucids approach! Eat lest ye be eaten! For the dark teems with eaters! The city does not suffer: the people are liberated! The light burns so darkly. Light is dark and dark is light! Submit! Submit to the bright darkness!
  • Flunky Boss: Though initially a Duel Boss, he can quickly turn into this if you allow him to resurrect the members of his congregation.
  • Guns Akimbo: The Priest's primary means of attack are his dual-wielded pistols, which are quite effective weapons even without the input of the revived Filth infectees.
  • Purple Is Powerful: Instantly distinguished by his purple robe.
  • The Man Behind the Monsters: Out of all the Clubhouse's current inhabitants, the Priest is one of the few still retaining a human form, and the only character in the area who has any control over the wandering infectees. For good measure, his Filth-related powers strongly suggest that the infection that's overtaken the rest of the facility came from him.
  • Sinister Minister: Hard to see him as anything other than this, especially given that he's almost certainly responsible for the Filth infection that's overtaken the rest of the Clubhouse. Plus, he's also a pretty blatant indication that the Morninglight are secretly worshipping the Dreamers.

    Naonomi Tanaka 
Ware the faceless shadows: do not heed their whispers. To the starving, they will offer poison as sustenance. To the defenceless, they will offer slavery as protection. To the dying, they will offer suffering as solace. Do not heed their whispers...

Voiced by: Leigh-Allyn Baker

The daughter of Masao Tanaka, Naonomi has fallen in with the wrong crowd as an apparent act of rebellion against her father, ultimately joining the Fear Nothing Foundation and ascending into the upper ranks of the Morninglight as a result. She was directly responsible for grooming cultists like Yuichi and John into suicide bombers for the attack on Orochi Tower; though the former balked at the prospect of mass murder, she succeeded in the latter case. Following the Tokyo disaster, Naonomi has gone into hiding along with all the other surviving FNF members. She is shot dead by the Rabbit Killer shortly after the players finally uncover her safehouse.


  • Antagonistic Offspring: Having already joined a cult just to rebel against her father, Naonomi has since gone on to cause the Filth outbreak that Masao is currently trying to mop up. For good measure, if Naonomi has been through the indoctrination processes inherent to the FNF and the Morninglight, there's a distinct chance that she's denounced her parentage outright; true to form, when the two of you finally meet in "One Kill Ahead," it's clear that Masao's current status couldn't be further from her mind.
  • The Anticipator: Having been warned of the Bees by Phillip Marquard himself, Naonomi isn't surprised when you finally arrive at her safehouse; she's also fully aware of the Rabbit Killer's ongoing vendetta against the Morninglight, and fully expects a fatal visit from the assassin at some point in the very near future. True to form, the White Rabbit shows up almost as soon as you turn to leave.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: After a fashion. Though her attempt to kill Lilith went awry thanks to John's panic attack and allowed their target a chance to sic the Rabbit Killer on the FNF leadership, it nonetheless succeeded in unleashing the Filth on Tokyo and allowing John to become the Black Signal. Furthermore, at the end of Issue #11, John is able to complete his mission by removing Lilith as a threat, and is now free to spread "The Great Message" just as Naonomi and the other FNF leaders intended, allowing her some vindication in death.
  • Chekhov M.I.A.: The moment that the player discovers that Masao Tanaka's rebellious daughter has gone missing, it's pretty much inevitable that she'll turn up again and reveal the world-shattering reason behind her disappearance. True to form, she reappears towards the end of Issue #10 when the player successfully tracks down her safehouse.
  • The Corrupter: Tasked with grooming newly-recruited cultists for specific roles, a good deal of her duties involve slowly wearing away at the morality of her charges until they accept their ethically-murky duties, usually in the hopes of impressing her. While grooming John, she also made use of Che Garcia Hanson's services to further corrupt their chosen Messenger.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Of sorts, Naonomi's Morninglight profile can be found during a mission in Transylvania, allowing you to pick up a few facts about her before the mission to Tokyo.
  • Face Death with Dignity: Having realized that she's the latest target of the White Rabbit's killing spree, Naonomi has had time to come to terms with her impending death and refuses to panic as it draws closer; instead, she simply sits down, finishes her glass of wine, and waits for the end.
  • False Friend: Like most members of the FNF, Naonomi helped usher socially-awkward recruits into the cult by posing as their friend; unlike most, however, she went to the next step by posing as a boyfriend to potential "Messengers."
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: A warped, manipulative fanatic, her character model appears be pockmarked with numerous facial scars; this is presumably a result of injuries sustained during the Tokyo Disaster, as her character model shows no sign of scarring in John's memories.
  • The Handler: To the potential "Messengers," most prominently, John.
  • Honey Trap: In charge of grooming FNF cultists into "Messengers," one of her favourite methods of gaining receptive students is to seduce lonely young men, essentially earning their loyalty by making them fall in love with her. Though Yuichi was initially receptive to this particular approach, he panicked when the mission to bomb the Orochi Tower was announced and fled the FNF without a second thought; however, Naonomi found much more success with John, who she not only seduced and converted into a willing servant of the Dreamers, but also talked into becoming a suicide bomber.
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: By the time you finally catch up with her, Naonomi is helping herself to a very large glass of wine - and judging by her somewhat unsteady walk, it's not the first one she's helped herself to in the last hour. Of course, with the entire city infested with the Filth and a supernaturally-empowered assassin closing in on her, drunkenness is understandable.
  • Manipulative Bastard]: Naonomi has a particular gift for emotional manipulation, hence the reason why the FNF leadership employed her to mould socially-awkward recruits into loyal operatives of the cult. To put her abilities in this field into perspective, her most prominent victims still care a great deal about her, even after it's become apparent that their relationship with her was a lie: Yuichi actually asks if you can make sure she's alive and safe, while John assures her that the mission she selected him for is almost complete.
  • Seeking the Missing, Finding the Dead: Zig-zagged. Naonomi is still alive when you finally meet her; however, it's made abundantly clear that her time's running out thanks to the Rabbit Killer's ongoing contract against the FNF, and true to form, the assassin arrives in the safehouse almost as soon as you turn to leave.
  • Sound-Only Death: During her assassination, Naonomi is sitting just around the corner from the hallway the player character is wandering down; as a result, when the Rabbit Killer opens fire, we only see her pointing her gun around the corner and firing two silenced shots, Naonomi's death punctuated by the sound of her wineglass shattering.
  • Stood Up: "Love And Origami" is an entire mission devoted to uncovering the events of a young woman being stood up by her boyfriend - the young woman later revealed as Naonomi, and the "boyfriend" being Yuichi. Of course, given that Naonomi was only posing as a girlfriend to the current Messenger, this abortive meeting proved to be the impetus for John being chosen as the FNF suicide bomber; in turn, this result in the Filth being unleashed on Tokyo and John being transformed into the Black Signal.
  • Throw 'Em to the Wolves: Once you've finished listening to Naonomi's drunken confession of every heinous she's done in the past few months, your exit from the safehouse is temporarily interrupted by the arrival of the Rabbit Killer. After a tense standoff, you decide that the unrepentant cultist schemer simply isn't worth defending; so, you offer a bow to the White Rabbit and leave without another word, allowing the assassin to complete her mission undisturbed.
  • Turn Out Like His Father: According to the Morninglight profile accessed in "Obstructive Persons," this is Naonomi's worst nightmare, which might explain why she went so far as to join a cult in her attempts to rebel against Masao.

    Philip Marquard 
The leader of the Morninglight, revered by his followers as a saviour and the mastermind of the ongoing spiritual revolution. Prior to the start of the game, he was one of Lilith's servants, his leadership and the formation of the Morninglight having been part of her plan to seize control of the Dreamers. However, unknown to her, the Dreamers were able to convert Marquard to their side through promises of power, prompting him to seize control of the cult and direct it against his former benefactor - even attempting to assassinate Lilith via a suicide bomber. Directly responsible for the Tokyo Incident and the city's current state of Filth-infection, Marquad now leads the Morninglight in unadulterated worship of the Dreamers.
  • Admiring the Abomination: As shown in his personal data log, he has a great deal of scientific curiosity and wonder at the various monsters he researches.
  • The Beautiful Elite: Evil variant; in the lore entry, Marquard is described as being handsome, charismatic and seemingly perfect. For good measure, this photogenic attractiveness also extends to his wife and children.
  • Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Bees imply that his seemingly-perfect family has something deeply unpleasant going on behind the scenes, claiming that "the photo album pages are stuck together with blood and worse," though they are prevented from elaborating or scanning deeper by signal disruption. Because they aren't human - they're avatars of the Dreamers made to satisfy his wish for a family.
  • Bullying a Dragon: The entire Tokyo bombing was an attempt by him to kill Lilith; though it did succeed in reducing Tokyo to a post-apocalyptic ghost town, it proved shockingly ineffective at eliminating their intended target, resulting in the Rabbit Killer assassinating most of the surviving FNF leadership on Lilith's orders. Towards the end of Issue #11, Lilith makes it clear that she's gearing up for a major campaign of vengeance against Marquard - and the only thing that saves him and the Morninglight from their target's wrath is the combined efforts of the Black Signal and the Host.
  • Collector of the Strange: Of monsters, especially those native to South Africa.
  • Creepy Basement: Reportedly possesses one of these, heavily implied to be some kind of Torture Cellar.
  • The Dragon: Initially the dragon for Lilith, Marquard led the Morninglight on her behalf and directed them according to her orders - up until the Tokyo Incident. These days, he serves as a dragon to the Dreamers.
  • Dragon with an Agenda: After communing with the Dreamers, Marquard continued posing as Lilith's puppet for a while so he could go on siphoning resources from the Orochi Group, up until his betrayal
  • Dark Messiah: Worshipped as a saviour by the Morninglght, Phillip Marquard is regarded with fanatical reverence by cultists throughout the game; Betty kisses his photograph before going to sleep every night, Che compares him to both Jesus and the Buddha, and Naonomi actually refers to him as "the messiah." And of course, he also serves as the mortal representative of the thoroughly godlike Dreamers.
  • The Ghost: Despite the role he's played in the story, Marquard didn't appear in-game until Issue #16; the most we've seen of him is an ominous-looking shadow cast on the floor during Issue #10's exploration of John's memories. Subverted in Issue #16, where we see a portrait of him.
  • Mysterious Past: For such a public figure, very little is known about his past and any biography released by the Morninglight should be taken with a sizeable pinch of salt. Lore for "The Bomb" and "The Cargo" implies that Marquard discovered a Filth reservoir hidden deep in the Congo, and while he wasn't actually infected, he got close enough to hear the voices of the Dreamers echoing from the well. Not long after this, he met Lilith.
  • Perpetual Smiler: According to his biography, he has never not smiled.
  • Poke in the Third Eye: When the Bees attempt to delve into his secrets during the Morninglight entry, they find Marquard inexplicably protected by some magical influence that disrupts their signal and even tears their particle wings.
  • Puppet King: Having created the Morninglight and elevated Marquard from obscurity to lead it, Lilith intended him to follow her orders without question and direct the cult according to her commands; to be fair, it worked exactly as planned... right up until the Dreamers talked Marquard into seizing power.
  • Scary Black Man: A Sinister Minister who also happens to be a well-trimmed black man.
  • Sinister Silhouettes: The most we've seen of him is a single ominous-looking pre-Season 2 shadow cast on the floor during John's secret meeting with him in "Nightmares In The Dream Palace."
  • The Starscream: He tried to have Lilith assassinated and then seized control of the Morninglight in the name of the Dreamers.
  • Stepford Smiler: A handsome, highly-regarded figure with a permanent smile, a perfect family, and a position of absolute authority over one of the most powerful cults in human history. Behind the smiling exterior, he's not only a former disciple of Lilith, but also a fervent worshipper of the Dreamers. As revealed in Issue #16, he is also cripplingly lonely, to the point where the Dreamers brought his loyalty simply by wishing a family for him into being.
  • Touched by Vorlons: Having heard the whispers of "The Voice in the Well" and communed with the Dreamers, Marquard is now receiving direct guidance from his new masters, though he doesn't appear to have acquired any unique powers beyond the loyalty of his Dreamer-spawn family just yet.
  • Undying Loyalty: To the Dreamers, for satisfying his dearest wish of having the perfect family and various other rewards.

    Riley 
A fellow foundling and Bee in New Dawn, Riley gives the player a quick orientation when they arrive at the Morninglight compound in South Africa.
  • Defector from Decadence: His dialogue reveals that he defected from the Templars to join the Morninglight, and took out a couple of agents on the way out.
  • A God Am I: He describes the Bees as "gods in the fucking cocoon." So he resents the big three for trying to control them.
  • Human Weapon: How he feels the Big Three, and the Templars specifically, treat the Bees. Which is part of the reason for his defection
  • Locked Out of the Loop: Despite being a Bee and a former Templar that doesn't seem to have served him well in the Morninglight, seeing as he's still a Foundling. He also doesn't play any part, antagonistic or otherwise, when you try to break into Marquard's mansion.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Supernatural Powers!: Didn't appreciate being restrained by the Templars so soon after getting his powers. Which is why he defected to the Morninglight.
  • Touched by Vorlons: As a Bee, he's gifted with all the same powers and abilities as the player.
  • Visionary Villain: How he sees Marquard, and by extension, himself.
    “We are going to be opened up to such…such vistas. I’m ready.”

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