History Characters / TheSecretWorldOtherRealms

* ParasitesAreEvil: A wide variety of fungal monstrosities devoted to serving the Dreamers as loyally as any run-of-the-mill Filth infectee. Among these include examples of the parasitoid fungus Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis; they work [[PupeteerParasite much as they do in real life]] -- except the results can be applied to humans. In this case, the parasite isn't just evil, it's a flat-out Lovecraftian horror.

* SexyWalk: Her default walk animation, apparently.

* HornyDevils: Succubi are one of the many breeds of Hellspawn encountered in the game, and in keeping with the trope, most of them tend to be involved with sex and temptation to some extent or another. According to the lore, they used to be handmaidens and majordomos to the Host before they abandoned Hell; as a result, most of them envy humanity very deeply, and their attempts to seduce and corrupt human beings are largely motivated by a desire to drag them down to their humiliating level of existence. Even the ones who bear some affection for humans are often driven to degrade or destroy those they love -- or those they [[BelievingTheirOwnLies believe]] they love, at any rate.

* HornyDevils: As a Succubus, this is a given, and Saccharissa lives up to this role by remaining both consistently flirtatious and consistently disturbing in her overtures. However, as she's also one of Wicker's revolutionaries, she's also pretty benign compared to Recursia and the other Succubi who've remained loyal to Eblis.

* UltimateEvil: Nobody is entirely certain what they really look like... and that's assuming that the Dreamers even ''have'' stable shapes or bodies of their own. The Bees hint that they may be vaguely [[TentacledTerror cephalopod in appearance]] and possess mouths like black holes, but that's about it.

* BadassMustache: Instantly distinguished by his glorious handlebar moustache.

->''You've always known it was here, this strangeness familiar - the subterranean realm, the pathways to all space and time, and the doors, the doors, the doors! Things you may designate godlike or demonic roam the transdimensional corridors and cities. Hulking automatons patrol the way. Technology and magic interlock like a two-headed calf. The craft is beyond the scope of your species. Yet the clever secret worlder can learn to ride the anywhere paths to reach far away places. The anima-touched may enter.''

The Hollow Earth, a place where colossal trees grow eternally, the apparent source of Anima, nerve centre of Gaia, home of the Bees, and a convenient way to get from Seoul to New York in the space of a few minutes. Accessible only to those touched by the Bees, Agartha supports the players throughout the game, allowing transportation, resurrection, and even their powers - given in order to help them combat the threats that face Gaia.

* AlienGeometries: Agartha is seemingly infinite in terms of space, and if not, nobody's been able to specify just how big the Hollow Earth is, just how much of it's contained within the planet itself and how much of it's contained in another dimension. In any case, the trees are so tall that their upper and lowermost reaches appear to simply vanish into Agartha's golden light, and the ground is essentially invisible - assuming that it exists at all. According to the Stationmaster, the oldest and lowest branches lead backwards in time and cluster together so weirdly that the growth forms a Matryoshka of clustered timelines.

* EldritchLocation: Consisting of a space that apparently goes on forever, dotted with gigantic biomechanical tree trunks that stretch infinitely upwards and downwards with highway-sized branches that support a portal network that can lead virtually anywhere and everywhere - including Hell and even one-off visions of the past. The Stationmaster even suggests that the lower regions of the trees are now protruding into the past, and you can actually meet ''yourself'' if you're not careful. Even without the presence of the Bees and the Immaculate Machine, Agartha is an extraordinarily weird place.
* FertileBlood / FertileFeet: As the lifeblood of the world, wellsprings of Anima often support extensive plantlife, and the portals to Agartha are no exception: assuming the portal hasn't actually formed in the side of a tree - as is the case in the Shadowy Forest and Kaidan - it'll have attracted a miniature garden of long grass, flowers, vines, roots, and the occasional tree. Even in locations that logically shouldn't be able to support such flora, like Akhenaten's desert-based city, the frozen Carpathian Mountains, or just a sterile patch of Brooklyn concrete, the plantlife refuses to decline.

* PortalCrossroadWorld: Thanks to its vast array of portals scattered across its seemingly infinite branches, Agartha provides easy transportation not only across the Earth, but to other worlds altogether. Portals to Hell at different stages of development and visions of the distant past aren't entirely uncommon in the Hollow Earth, to say nothing of the branches that lead backwards through Agartha's history; in fact, the only place that the portals ''don't'' lead to is the Dreaming Prison - and probably for good reason, too.

* TheWorldTree: All the "trunks" of Agartha are part of a single vast biomechanical tree that supports the entire Hollow Earth - and likely the rest of the planet as well. For good measure, both the Norsemen and their gods referred to the Hollow Earth as Yggdrasil, another famous World Tree.

--> Voiced By: Tim Watson

* HumongousMecha: Twelve feet tall at the very least and built like a colossus, the Custodians are right at home in Agartha - one of the few mechanical environments large enough to hold them.

A techno-organic HiveMind of tiny insectoid probes native to Agartha, and one of the few entities capable of leaving the Hollow Earth on a regular basis. Servants of Gaia, they have set out to provide the Immaculate Machine with a defence force by bonding with various humans across the world - including the player character: the Bee currently bonded with the player is responsible for giving you magical powers, saving you in the event of your untimely death, and providing you with knowledge gathered by the hive over the millennia - specifically in the form of the Lore entries known as "the Buzzing."

* DeusEstMachina: Not only do they serve a "Machine-Goddess" who created Agartha, they aren't slouches in this department, either - being effectively the angels to the aforementioned goddess.

* MechanicalLifeforms: They're almost indistinguishable from real bees, but their descriptions indicate that they're mechanical in nature. It's possible that they're at least partly organic in nature, given that they can actually produce honey just like a real bee - though, according to the Stationmaster, it has an aftertaste rather like machine oil.

* TheNicknamer: They have a habit of calling people - especially you - "sweetlings."

* PokeInTheThirdEye: From time to time, the Bees will attempt to delve further into the secrets behind a particular faction, and find themselves not only blocked but actually ''hurt'' by the enemy's supernatural defences - as is the case with the Morninglight.

--> Voiced By: Lauren Mote

* ChildMage[=/=]PsychicChildren
* CreepyChild: At times.

* GlowingEyesOfDoom: When fully powered up.
* IconicItem: Her teddy bear and shoulder bag.

* LivingMacGuffin: For the Orochi Group [[spoiler: and Lilith in particular]]. Late in Issue #7, it's revealed that the Breach in the Carpathian Mountains was only opened through the forced application of her powers.
** In Issue #12, [[spoiler: it is implied that she has a talent for manipulating the Gaia Engines, explaining why Lilith wanted Emma and her claims that the girl could cleanse Tokyo. Additionally,, both The Buzzing and John imply that she is just the latest in a long line of Gaia's countermeasures against the Dreamer[=/=]Filth incursion]].

* MoralityPet: She's apparently become one of these to at least two Orochi employees - the first being her surrogate father, Winston, the second being Dragan.

* PutOnABus: [[spoiler: In the climax of "Mortal Sins," Emma is snatched up by a tendril of Filth while investigating the Breach, and though the player follows, no trace of her is found.]]
** [[spoiler: Happens again in Issue #7: having temporarily defeated Lilith and escaped the Filth, she stays just long enough to explain a few things to you before abruptly vanishing.]]
* Toys/TeddyBear: One of her signature possessions, only left behind [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness as an indication that things have gone very wrong]]; apparently, he's also capable of communication - at least as far as Dragan's concerned.

* CirclesOfHell: Apparently has a great many of them, give that the Hell Dimensions are the inspiration not only for the Judaeo-Christian Hell, but also many other unpleasant afterlives throughout human culture - including Japanese mythology, judging by the presence of the Oni.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: The Hell Dimensions arc ends with Eblis dead and the revolutionaries victorious. However, the war has claimed the lives of countless millions of demon tribes, some to the point of extinction; the cities of Hell lie in ruins, and Wicker is still no closer to making the fallen dimensions into a paradise - if that objective is even possible anymore. In the end, Wicker resolves to give up his dream of an InfernalParadise, and instead find a new world where the surviving demon tribes can live in peace.]]

* DeathWorld: Quite apart from the fact that they're ''Hell,'' the dimensions are particularly inhospitable to human life; on top of the volcanic landscape, flesh-stripping sandstorms and hostile natives, the air itself will eventually be lethal to mortal visitors - to the point that Wicker has to notify you that the shortness of breath you're feeling is actually a result of your blood slowly turning to metal. He himself only adapted to the environment through a complicated series of occult rituals that rendered him distinctly non-human.

* HellGate: Most of the demonic forces conduct their invasion through various portals in America, Egypt and Transylvania - most of them instantly recognizable due to the burnt plantlife, semi-demolished buildings, demonic technology embedded in the scenery, and infernal fissures tearing the ground open.

* HornyDevils: Succubi are one of the many breeds of Hellspawn encountered in the game, and in keeping with the trope, most of them tend to be involved with sex and temptation to some extent or another. According to the lore, they used to be handmaidens and majordomos to the Host before they abandoned Hell; as a result, most of them envy humanity very deeply, and their attempts to seduce and corrupt human beings are largely motivated by a desire to drag them down to their humiliating level of existence. Even the ones who bear some affection for humans are often driven to degrade or destroy those they love - or those they [[BelievingTheirOwnLies believe]] they love, at any rate.
* TheLegionsOfHell: The majority of the natives. For good measure, most of demons encountered are those employed either for the invasion of Earth or for the civil war, making them literal legions - especially in the case of the Hellsoldiers and the Rift Martyrs.

* {{Oni}}: One of the many species of demon encountered, usually as members of the Nine Houses - or, if you're in Tokyo, as members of the House-In-Exile.

* ScavengerWorld: Because most of the Hell Dimensions' technological arsenal was destroyed when they lost access to Anima, Eblis has had to build his kingdom from what little could be salvaged from the ruins; even though the results are impressive enough to grant the demon armies a significant edge against most enemies - even those empowered by the Bees - it's still barely a fraction of what these ancient marvels were capable of back in the Second Age.
* VampiricDraining: Deprived of Anima ever since the end of the Second Age, the inhabitants of the Hell Dimensions have been hunting down alternate sources of it for millennia in order to sustain both themselves and their world. Because stealing it from Earth is only possible on very rare occasions, a popular means of obtaining Anima is through [[DealWithTheDevil Faustian Bargains]] with greedy demonologists - or by intercepting the souls of the dying, if the presence of "the Wicked Dead" is any evidence.

--> Voiced By: Mark Healy

A legendary Oxford-educated demonologist who disappeared twenty years prior to the events of the game, Wicker nonetheless left a long trail of clues that both Daniel Bach and the player end up following - all the way into Hell, via the portal in the Overlook Motel. Once there, it's revealed that Wicker is actually leading a revolution on behalf of the demons, apparently out of a desire to restore the Hell Dimensions to their former glory.

* AntiHero[=/=]AntiVillain: It's hard to tell which, given that he's committed several murders just so he'd be able to send himself to Hell and plunged the Dimension into a civil war all for the sake of restoring demonkind to the height of civilization. Even following the end of the arc, it's still a bit ambiguous, and he could swing in either direction [[spoiler:...especially considering that he never really specified ''where'' he would find a new world for the demons.]]

* DarkIsNotEvil: Despite being a partly-demonic being who willingly sent himself to Hell at the cost of several lives, Wicker is one of the more benevolent figures in the game - and even moreso thanks to the loss of his soul.

* HeroicBSOD / VillainousBSOD: In the aftermath of "Sympathy for the Devil," Wicker is deeply depressed at how badly the struggle with Eblis has gone, sounding especially anguished when he notes that, even after all his preaching and his demonstrations of how Hell can be made great again, so many demons still choose to support the invasion - if only because claiming Earth as a refuge seems more achievable than making a Heaven of Hell.

* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: A firm believer in this. At the end of "Into The Inferno," he claims that he was only capable of committing the murders used to propel him to Hell because he possessed a human soul, observing that "psychopathy is a uniquely human trait." He actually ups the ante in "Sympathy For The Devil," suggesting that- through demon-summoning - humans corrupted the demons and not the other way around; he even goes so far as to portray the usual interaction in a DealWithTheDevil as desperate scavenger demons prostituting themselves to greedy hedge-mages. That said, Wicker is willing to see the merits of humanity, if only because he sees demonkind as what the human race ''could'' have been, if Earth had been the world abandoned as a failure and not Hell.

* ThePromisedLand: Having already spent years searching for Hell as ''his'' Promised Land, he then spends years trying to make it into a Promised Land for the demons. [[spoiler: Then, in the outro to "Paradise Now," Wicker realizes that the rebuilding efforts have been made impossible thanks to the war with Eblis, and instead resolves to find ''another'' Promised Land altogether - one where demons will never have to endure the tyranny of angels or the corruption of humanity.]]

* WizardDuel: Holds one with Eblis in the climax of "Sympathy For The Devil." Astonishingly, the two of them are almost evenly matched, and have to resort to fighting through proxies to break the stalemate - the players on Wicker's behalf, a small gang of Oni assassins on behalf of Eblis.

--> Voiced By: Creator/CatherineTaber

--> Voiced By: Nicholas Boulton

Ruler of the Hell Dimensions and Wicker's nemesis, Eblis is the nearest equivalent to the devil present in the game. Coordinating the demonic invasion of Earth through the beachheads in Solomon Island, Egypt and Transylvania, he is single-mindedly dedicated to claiming Gaia as his new kingdom, having long since grown tired of ruling an Anima-starved wasteland. With a burgeoning revolution on his hands, however, he has had to divide his forces and eradicate any threats to his power - in particular, Theodore Wicker and anyone allied with him.

* AnimeAnatomy: Doesn't appear to possess genitals.
* AntiMagic: One of his favourite tactics in the final boss battle is to temporarily depower one of the players, disabling all abilities and reducing their HPToOne for as long as Eblis remains focussed on them. The only way to break Eblis' concentration is by attacking him - requiring the player to rely on the rest of the team throughout the boss battle.

* FallenAngel: Specifically noted; quite apart from the fact that Eblis is essentially Lucifer, the Bees also mention that he was once one of the Host, and actually helped to construct Hell eons before it was cut off from Earth and fell into disrepair. For good measure, his last appearance prompts Sonnac to sheepishly admit that angels are rarely on the side of the angels - though few go so far as to foment total war between Earth and the Hell Dimensions.
* FantasticRacism / PunyHumans: Very dismissive of human beings, and ''very'' vocal about it.

* PowerGivesYouWings: Much like the other members of the Host encountered during the game, Eblis possesses wings of PureEnergy that deploy whenever he feels like travelling quickly - or when he's unleashing his most powerful attacks, such as during the final battles of "Sympathy For The Devil" and "Paradise Now."

First accessed in the opening cutscene of the game (appropriately enough, via a dream) and periodically revisited throughout the main story and DLC, the Prison is the world in which the players first encounter the Dreamers in person. It manifests primarily as a world of icebergs, black sand islands and many cuboid Gaia Engines floating in the middle of an ocean of Filth, beneath a bleak night-time sky of floating asteroids and desolate planets. As the apparent source of the Filth, portals to the Dreaming Prison often manifest in areas where the Filth has been allowed to accumulate in large enough quantities - Tokyo being the first encountered in the game. And though it appears to have successfully contained the Dreamers for the moment, there are hints that the prison isn't as stable as first suspected...

--> Voiced By: Enn Reitel

The creators of the [[TheVirus Filth]], the Dreamers are a mysterious group of beings who are constantly trying to enter our reality for reasons unknown - though probably not for anything benign if the Lore entries are any evidence. They're called "dreamers" because, in a sense, the Filth is their dream, their desire to conquer and control all life made manifest as a physical entity - and because of their literal ability to create {{Eldritch Location}}s that are actually called Dreams. Though apparently imprisoned beyond the boundaries of our universe, they've been attempting to devise means of breaking out for millennia; the disaster in Tokyo is just the latest example of their efforts to escape...

* AintTooProudToBeg: During the finale of "Mortal Sins," they're so desperate to escape their prison that they resort to openly begging with you, even if you made it clear that you're not interested in pledging yourself to them.

* TheCorrupter: Throughout history, the Dreamers have seduced various individuals by many different methods, either offering to help them fulfil their ambitions in life, or tempting them with supernatural gifts and promises of power. Akhenaten accepted their help in leaving his mark on Egypt; Halina Ilyushin joined them in return for achieving her childhood dream of travelling through space; finally, most obviously of all, the players are offered the opportunity to seize all the power their faction has denied them - in exchange for disabling one set of defences on their prison.
** Their followers continue this trend of corruption, with beings like John tempting unsuspecting mortals towards similarly corrupting deals, offering anything from artistic success to spiritual transcendence.

* CreepyMonotone[=/=]DissonantSerenity: The Dreamer encountered within the Red Sargassum Dream speaks in an eerily calm and oddly soothing monotone despite the fact that it's providing a commentary to [[spoiler: a hideous replica of Kingsmouth floating over a sea of Filth, populated by corrupted replicas of the townsfolk.]] This, combined with its VoiceOfTheLegion, has the effect of making this particular mission '''really fucking creepy'''.

* DealWithTheDevil: During their first "face-to-face" meeting with you, the Dreamers lavish you with offers to unlock your true potential and grant you everything you've ever wanted in life - offers that you are free to accept or decline. Furthermore, they also provide proof of their apparent generosity by displaying a huge gallery of individuals who've accepted bargains from them in the past and profited immensely, choosing to be rewarded with wealth, political power, artistic vision or even linguistic abilities. The Dreamers offer you the chance to reach even further they did, and claim ''true'' power.
** Later in the game, you actually meet several individuals who accepted such bargains, and they seem fairly content. Admittedly, most of them end up trying to kill you, if only for getting in the way of their ambitions.
* EldritchAbomination: Often described by the Buzzing with labels such as "a multitude of eyes and mouths glaring and gnashing beyond the outer dark," "hungry mouths made of event horizons," and "those who slumber in the spaces between," it's hard to imagine the Dreamers as anything other than Lovecraftian gods. [[spoiler: For good measure, the only thing capable of stopping them is a complete universal reset - and this is known because the Third Age ended in the wake of a single Dreamer being roused from its sleep.]]
* FauxAffablyEvil: The Dreamers encountered during the main storyline are polite and welcoming, encouraging you to aspire to greatness and modestly offering their help. But refuse the gift they offer or get in the way of their plans in Egypt, and they'll turn ''very'' nasty, bombarding you with insults and threats of betrayal, madness and destruction. The Dreamers you encounter in the Red Sargassum Dream are similarly faux-affable, [[spoiler: and perfectly frank about how they want to "free Kingsmouth from civil trappings" ie: turn the inhabitants into Filth-infected monsters and allow their deranged souls to wander the Dream forever. They even claim that living forever in a nightmare is actually good thing, at one point offering you the position of mayor - or god, if you prefer. They even go so far as to suggest that you bring your friends along on your next visit...]]

* IronicNurseryRhyme: The Dreamer within the Red Sargassum Dream provides some creepy variations on "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" during your visit in Issue #5 - complete with an especially chilling verse of "merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, ''soon we'll all be free."''

--> [[AC: We can enter your mind, and we can wreak havoc. We can leave you an empty shell, or we can instil you with fear and anger, like those you have seen and fought in the world above. A mere thought from us, and you would vanish from this place and enter another: you would [[GoMadFromTheRevelation see sights that would destroy you, inside and out]]. We would leave only enough of you to mourn the loss of your soul!]]

* SealedEvilInACan: Imprisoned in state of dormancy outside our world, most of their activities throughout the game involve their followers trying to release them. [[spoiler: At the end of the main game, the Player has the option of either breaking down one set of restraints or reinforcing it.]] Apparently, the main line of defence against their invasion are the Gaia Engines, which Emma Smith describes as "music boxes" lulling the Dreamers to sleep - with dire consequences if enough stop playing. [[spoiler: They're also a ResetButton for the planet, capable of directing the reality-warping dreams of the Sleeping Ones into rebuilding the world. Sadly, this function might just be on its last legs.]]
** LeakingCanOfEvil: Imprisoned as they are, they can still direct the Filth into our reality - especially in the event that a Gaia Engine is damaged or destroyed.
* TimeAbyss: The Dreamers have been trying to emerge from their prisons for millennia, and have likely been in existence for much longer than that - perhaps having originated in another universe countless eons past.

* TheUnfought: To date, no Dreamers have ever given you the option of actually fighting them, and to be brutally honest, it's not likely that you would survive if they did.
- Somewhat subverted with the Unutterable Lurker which ultimately serves as an avatar for the Dreamers in our reality. It is the closest that the Dreamers can get to manifesting their true form in a way human mind can comprehend.

** Outside the main storyline, the Dreamers and their allies continue making offerings of shared power: the Dreamers presiding over the Red Sargasso Dream in "The Vanishing Of Tyler Freeborn" inform you that the dream-version of [[spoiler: Kingsmouth]] is open to anyone who wants to enter, and suggests that you might make a good mayor of the town - or perhaps a monarch if the dream gets any bigger... or even a god. During the visit to Tokyo, John continues the Dreamers' marketing campaign by demonstrating that [[spoiler: humans really can be transformed into demi-gods through the power of the Dreamers while still retaining their sentience, and with his help, you too can become "a voracious abstract."]]

->''Information is a super-weird substance, sometimes floating as oil, sometimes vapour, invisible waves, pollution, roiling black storms, a viral rhyme. It is the harbinger of change - the sizzling, celestial syphilis. The flesh mutates. The mind boils to bilious madness. All lucid thoughts to slay. All sweetlings are fair game to the drip. ''

The Dreamer's primary weapon in their attempts to escape their prison and break into our reality; essentially their desire to awaken and conquer transmuted into a physical substance, it commonly manifests as a viscous black fluid studded with writhing tentacles, though it can appear in many different strains. Exposure to the Filth, directly or indirectly, commonly results in hideous mutations and a swift descent into insanity, ultimately concluding with the victim being reduced to a servant of the Dreamers and forced to continue the spread of the infection. Having leaked in from the Dreaming Prison and diversified into hundreds of monstrous forms, it has nonetheless been kept under control through the efforts of the secret societies and resistance groups such as the Marya. However, following the Tokyo bombing, the Filth has experienced a sudden upsurge in activity around the world, with several previously-dormant sources becoming dangerously active, and new sources emerging alongside them - all threatening the awakening of the Dreamers.

* AnimalisticAbomination: Along with the animals infected by the Filth, several advanced entities take on animalistic forms, such as the Dimensional Arachnids, the doglike Guardians, and the Birds of the Zero Point Pathogen. [[spoiler: According to Lilith, these particular entities are just the Dreamers' extremely hazy dreams of reality made flesh: one of the reasons why they look so hideous is because they don't have a clear vision of earthly life - so they can only make rough facsimiles of birds, dogs, spiders and the like.]]

* CreepilyLongArms: Filth shades often sport unearthly long arms that frequently lengthen into tentacles - the better to drag passers-by to their deaths. The Shade Stalkers are also distinguished by their stilt-like limbs, though this has the effect of making them look like giant spiders.

* DeathOfPersonality: Ultimately, the mental effects of the Filth conclude with the victim's personality being effectively destroyed by the infection, leaving them permanently under the control of the Dreamers. Those who don't endure this are either gibbering lunatics - or willing converts to monstrosity.
* DugTooDeep: Throughout the history of the Secret World, vast underground reservoirs of the Filth have been unearthed by people doing this, often with disastrous consequences - as is the case with the Blue Ridge Mine and the excavation of the Ankh. Not so much in the case of the Ankh's construction process: ''that'' was intentional.
* EliteMooks: The Filth Evolved of Tokyo; having received a purer dose of the Filth than most victims and having had more time to develop than their lesser counterparts, the Evolved are much more dangerous than the ordinary infectees among the Filthy swarm - and almost as numerous, unlike monsters like the Shades and the Stalkers. The Evolved are capable of more impressive feats than lesser infectees, too, manifesting claws, blades, clubs and snaring tentacles... and when they die, they don't just let out the bog-standard spray of Filth, but ''melt'' into a huge puddle of it, forcing the player to back off or risk a taste of the Filth.
* EvilCounterpart: To the Bees, and by extension, Anima. Lore entries make it clear that the Filth is similar in nature to them, but where the Anima grants vitality and the Bees transmit information, the Filth distorts its victims' bodies and destroys their minds - "crucifies sentience," as the Bees put it.
* EvilMakesYouMonstrous: Those of a sociopathic or sadistic bent find themselves more open to the metamorphosis of the Filth than others; they change far more rapidly and with less mental trauma, forming a symbiosis with the Filth and quickly developing into an advanced form of infectee known as the Bestial Filth. Though they aren't common, they're easily recognized by the hulking, animalistic build and four-legged gait. [[spoiler: One of the most prominent examples found in the game is Dr Schreber of the Nursery; already a cold-hearted psychopath with no regard for the suffering of children, his brush with the Filth gradually transformed him into a monster - and judging by his final notes, it did so with his blessing.]]

* FogOfDoom: [[spoiler: On top of being at the beck and call of the Draug, it's later revealed that the Fog surrounding Solomon Island is actually an airborne strain of the Filth. Given that the Fog temporarily covered the entire island following its arrival, it's likely that every single resident has been infected and likely to be fully corrupted at some point in the near future. Furthermore, the Fog itself actually contains a portal to the Red Sargassum Dream, and entering it is apparently fatal for anyone except those touched by the Bees - as Tyler Freeborn discovered.]]

* GiantSpider: Some of the more advanced Filth entities take on spider-like forms, such as the dimensional arachnids encountered in the Ankh - though it's interesting to note that they have humanoid torsos and heads where other spiders would have mouthparts, making them essentially spider-centaurs. The Shade Stalkers, like Billy's Muse, also look eerily arachnid, though they only have four legs - the result of a human Filth infection reaching its final conclusion, ie: [[spoiler: a crude mock-up of one of the Dreamers]].

* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Occasionally experienced by the infectees. Not that they'll actually die - unfortunately.

* OminousObsidianOoze: It can take on many forms across the setting, but the most common variant is a tarry black slime studded with writhing tentacles. Forming huge puddles, oily creepers and vast bubble-studded swamps of the stuff, one touch is enough to kick off infection, resulting in paranoia, delusions, violent insanity, hideous mutations, and subservience to the will of the Dreamers - for the Filth itself is their dream of escaping from captivity made manifest as a disease. Infectees are covered in an oily layer of Filth that only draws further attention to the tentacles and Glowing Eyes of Doom they sport, and later-stage infectees are made of it - transcending humanity to become monstrous entities of pure Filth. Fortunately, the player characters are immune to the mutations and brain-warping effects, so it can only kill them - temporarily. Everyone else... not so much.
* ThePlague: By large, the Filth itself doesn't appear in pandemic proportions, except of course in Tokyo. However, according to Dr Klein (who admittedly [[UnreliableNarrator isn't a very reliable source]]) the Filth spread alongside the most infamous outbreaks of the Black Death, even suggesting that the Bubonic Plague itself was just another strain of Filth infection - albeit a comparatively limited one.

* SanitySlippage: Often experienced by infectees not long after their nightmares begin; catatonia, hallucinations, paranoid delusions, violent episodes and shockingly irrational behaviour are just some of the mental symptoms that can arise. In the later stages of infection, sufferers tend to lapse into aphasia, losing a good deal of awareness and self-control in the process; most of them spend their days wandering aimlessly unless forced into a specific course of action by the new masters, or if someone attacks them directly. In the end, the victim's mind is completely subverted and reduced to a pawn of the Dreamers.
** Even the more accepting victims find themselves prone to this, though to a different extent: those who deliberately expose themselves to the Filth or adapt to its effects more readily - like Dr Klein or [[spoiler: Dr Schreber]] - often exhibit [[CloudCuckoolander delusional eccentricity]], megalomaniacal behaviour, a pronounced LackOfEmpathy, and a flair for the grandiose.

* ToxicPhlebotinum: All attempts to harness the Filth - whether for [[PathOfInspiration religious purposes]], [[ForScience for science]], [[CorruptCorporateExecutive for profit]], or for [[JackUpWithPhlebotinum personal enjoyment]] - have ended ''very badly'' for this reason. Granted, its inherent toxicity doesn't appear to have actually stopped anyone from trying to make use of it for one reason or another. Just ask the Orochi Group.
* TheVirus: The Filth makes [[VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy Phazon]] seem like penicillin. Technically, it's not even a real substance - it's an idea that's become real and started seeping into reality, an EvilCounterpart to the Bees in memetic form; quite apart from transforming its infectees into tar-skinned betentacled monstrosities, it also destroys their minds and enslaves them to the will of the Dreamers. The only known cure is sustained doses of Anima, and that has only worked ''once.''

* WordSaladHorror: Inherent to the dialogue of most infectees, a result of their minds beginning to dissolve, often delivered in a solid stream of barely-coherent babbling - occasionally broken by the rare and equally unnerving moment of lucidity.

->''There are fragments of older tales embedded in the seagull screams - mariners' tales of things birthed in dead bodies and dark water. Putrid souls, stippled with eel holes, these unquiet dead, these hungry dead, with their milk-cataract stare. A few seagulls even remember the name. Draug-draug-draug-draug!''

** CuteIsEvil: Flavour text indicates that the Puppies only stick around until they've "grown enough to feast upon the coprses of your friends and family."

* BizarreAlienReproduction: Given that they aren't Filth-infectees in the truest sense of the word, the Draug rely on a much stranger form of propagation than simple exposure. Essentially, it begins by having Draug mages reanimate the corpses of the their victims; from there, the Broodwitches inseminate them with their tentacles, transforming them into Incubators; these walking eggs wander onto the beach, looking for a suitable place to nest, before planting themselves in the sand and becoming brood pods. Eventually, these brood pods will hatch, producing newborn Draug. This is one of the many purposes of the attack on Solomon Island, for apart from the zombies that can be produced from destroying townships like Kingsmouth, the Draug can also make use of the countless mass graves and hidden tombs scattered across the island to swell their ranks, hence the reason why some groups of zombies are found digging holes in the ground. Of course, this isn't the ''only'' reason...
** However, though straightforward reproduction-through-exposure doesn't often occur in the case of the Draug, it ''does'' happen: some unlucky humans exposed to the Draug's home environment tend to experience similar infections to the original Viking progenitors, ultimately transforming into Draug themselves [[spoiler: as is the case with Joe Slater]].
* BodyHorror: On top of the grotesque blend of undead bodies and piscine biology, the Draug have a habit of impregnating zombies and mutating them into lumbering Incubators, which wander for a bit before sitting down and forming brood pods. Those weird fleshy triangular shapes all along the shore of Solomon Island ''used to be people.''
** The rare few individuals who end up getting mutated into Draug experience this. [[spoiler: Poor, poor Joe Slater.]]

* CombatTentacles: Broodwitches have two large tentacles sprouting from the centre of their chests, and generally use them to attack enemies... when they're not being used to impregnate zombies - making them also examples of ExoticEquipment.

* GiganticAdultsTinyBabies: Adult Draug Lords tend to stand at ten feet tall at the very least; larger specimens, like the Primordial Dwellers, can grow to more than twice that height. Draug Lord ''puppies'' on the other hand, are barely three feet tall - roughly waist height with the players.

* HiveCasteSystem: In contrast to the chaotic hordes spawned by exposure to normal Filth, the Draug have taken on a rigid hierarchy of castes. The lowest levels are occupied by the zombies they've animated, which are commonly just there to help create more zombies or to be converted into Incubators; this is swiftly followed by the Incubators themselves, and from there, onto real Draug. The next caste, the Warriors, naturally help protect the brood pods, herd the zombies, and combat possible threats to their clan - either through brute strength or magic. Bolstering their ranks are the Seawitches and the Seacallers, the mages of their kind - and among the few who retain a twisted sort of individuality. Above them are the Broodwitches, who play a vital role in fertilizing the zombies. The Broodsources command the Broodwitches and generate the enyzmes used for creating new Draug. Draug Warmongers are the lieutenants and bruisers of the clan, often commanding waves of attackers and usually doing the most damage in the process. Finally, at the head of each clan are the Draug Lords, directing the invasion and the movements of the clan as a whole... and directing the Lords of each clan is, of course, the Ur-Draug.
* ItCanThink: In spite of their monstrous behaviour, the Draug are capable of complex thought - at one point actually stealing Orochi force-field emitters and setting them up around their brood pods for defence.

* PowerFloats / FlyingSeafoodSpecial: Draug Lords have a habit of levitating into battle. Amusingly enough, their puppies levitate up to six feet in the air as an IdleAnimation.

* WasOnceAMan: The oldest of the Draug, having been drawn from the ranks of Filth-corrupted Vikings. Particularly tragic in the case of the Varangian, who once wielded Excalibur during the Darkness Wars, came to the aid of the players against the Mayan summoners, even led the final charge against the Hound of the Nameless Days... only to be eventually distorted into one of the Warmongers guarding the ''Polaris.''
** Also, some of the newest additions to the horde fall under this heading, though they are rare in comparison to the pod-born majority: [[spoiler: Joe Slater is the only living example of a Draug convert encountered in the game.]]

Initially a comparatively mundane breed of fungus, upon being exposed to the Filth's "putrescent radiation," a dramatic mutation occurred: appearing in vast semi-mobile colonies, the Fungal Filth multiplies and flourishes across the globe, growing in countless different environments and living off a variety of fuels - ranging from electricity to human flesh. First encountered in the shadowy forests of Transylvania, a shipment of the Fungus from the Congo has recently arrived in Tokyo, worsening an already-apocalyptic disaster...

* ParasitesAreEvil: A wide variety of fungal monstrosities devoted to serving the Dreamers as loyally as any run-of-the-mill Filth infectee. Among these include examples of the parasitoid fungus Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis; they work [[PupeteerParasite much as they do in real life]] - except the results can be applied to humans. In this case, the parasite isn't just evil, it's a flat-out Lovecraftian horror.

--> Voiced By: Creator/AndreSogliuzzo

* AffablyEvil: He's a pretty friendly, light-hearted kind of guy who just so happens to be a living Filth infection [[spoiler: and the bomber who unleashed the Filth on Tokyo's subway.]] Of course, he's not so friendly if you don't happen to be a player character, spending half his time trolling Kaidan's populace for his own amusement - though he apparently makes an exception for a very small circle of people: [[spoiler: Naonomi Tanaka, Kaoru, and Harumi.]]
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler: As a result of being at the very epicentre of the detonating Filth bomb, John was transformed into an entity far more advanced than any normal Filth infectee, even transcending physical existence to become "a voracious abstract."]] During the climax of Issue #11, [[spoiler: Lilith reveals that John is actually becoming part of the Dreamers' collective, providing his masters with more information about the world they hope to invade - and even suggesting that he's actually a proto-Dreamer of sorts.]]

** Implied in Kaoru's case. [[spoiler: Despite knowing all about John's transformation and providing you with access to his backstory in the form of the A/C suite, he takes no retribution against her - apparently because she was kind to him during his visit to the Dream Palace.]]

--> [[AC: Werewolves, vampires and communist gnomes? Is this even likely, Chuck? Maybe you're just some slob who got stung in the throat by a bee while sleeping and slipped into a coma. Wake up, Chuck. Your family is waiting. Your]] ''[[AC: bills]]'' [[AC: are waiting.]]

* ConfidenceBuildingScheme: [[spoiler: The mission "A Nightmare In The Dream Palace" examines his past, and reveals that he used to be a ShrinkingViolet by the name of John Copley. He joined the Fear Nothing Foundation in the hope of finding friends, and the cult accordingly made him feel as welcome as possible in order to exploit him better - even setting him up with a "girlfriend" in the form of Naonomi Tanaka. When Che Garcia Hansen arrived in Tokyo on business, John was tasked with escorting him around Kaidan District, totally unaware that Che was actually encouraging him to come out of his shell and indulge in the increasingly debauched nightlife until - under the influence of drugs - he witnessed the Dreamers. All of this and more was arranged just so John could be moulded into a suicide-bomber in the cult's Filth-attack. However, John didn't die when he detonated the Filth-bomb, instead transcending physical reality and becoming the Black Signal, an altogether more confident and nightmarish entity.]]

* TheDisembodied: By all appearances, the Black Signal does not possess a physical body - [[spoiler: and hasn't done so since he was first exposed to the Filth of Ground Zero.]] He's usually content to remain an incorporeal intelligence haunting the electrical systems of Tokyo, but in the event that his technopathic powers won't get the job done, he's more than capable of possessing multiple Filth entities to fight on his behalf.

* EarlyBirdCameo: The mission "Immersion" from the [[DownloadableContent Sidestories: Further Analysis mission pack]], in which he shows up as a bombardment of text messages in the Sunken Library's simulator - long before Tokyo is chronologically accessed.

* ElectronicSpeechImpediment: In keeping with his tech-oriented nature, he has a tendency to repeat the last word in a sentence several times - wether in speech or in text. Also, he has a habit of beginning his text messages with an eerie "sssssssssss" reminiscent of radio static.
* EnemyMine: [[spoiler: When he discovers you came to Kaidan despite facing Lilith back in Issue #7, he decides to help you by unlocking the gateway to the Orochi Tower, apparently out of respect for your bravery.]]
** [[spoiler: Issue #11 reveals that he was intending you to kill Lilith for him, however, and the alliance quickly turns sour once the player decides to hear Lilith out instead - prompting John to attack both of you with all the forces at his command.]]
* EvilCounterpart: To the Buzzing. He even contacts the player through lore pieces - assuming he's not in the mood to start hijacking local tech.

* FaceYourFears: A rather odd variation. [[spoiler: John has been terrified of Lilith from the moment Marquard introduced her to him, and has been avoiding her at all costs since his ascension - even though the success of his mission depends on him killing her. However, upon realizing that you've pursued her to Tokyo despite the injuries you sustained in your last encounter, John is inspired to complete his mission, even going so far as to overcome his fears and attack Lilith with all the bodies at his disposal when the player hesitates.]]

* FriendlessBackground: [[spoiler: His memories reveal that he started out as a lonely young man with a self-confessed case of NoSocialSkills, along with a dead mother and absentee father. Quite naturally, the Fear Nothing Foundation exploited this, offering him acceptance and friendship in exchange for his loyalty - ultimately indoctrinating him into the perfect suicide bomber.]]
* FriendlyEnemy: From the moment you meet him, John seems determined to cast himself as your new best friend, and for the most part, he does seem genuinely affable in spite of his grotesque nature. Even when you insist on defying the Filth, he holds back on retaliating - up until you hammer his BerserkButton one too many times. [[spoiler: The aftermath of "Nightmares In The Dream Palace" sees him become even more friendly with you when he decides to help open the gateway to Orochi Tower.]] And though it's eventually revealed [[spoiler: to be all part of an assassination attempt on Lilith, he seems genuinely sincere when he credits you with teaching him bravery; more to the point, when the two of you meet again in Issue #12, he actually sounds disappointed at having to fight you again - not that it stops him, of course.]] Of course, to everyone else in Kaidan, the Black Signal offers nothing but hostility...
* FromNobodyToNightmare: [[spoiler: Went from a neurotic outsider recruited by the Fear Nothing Foundation, to the bomber who unleashed the Filth upon Tokyo - and from there, to a powerful incorporeal entity haunting the electrical systems of Kaidan.]]

* HopeCrusher: Most of his [[BreakingSpeech soul-destroying lectures]] are specifically targeted at his victims' hopes and dreams, often designed to make the listeners feel mundane and powerless - or just drive them to suicide. John's attack on Ricky Pagan is a prime example of this: during this, the Black Signal not only rubs the fact that the other Pagans are likely dead in his face, but forces Ricky to become Ryuchi Sagawa once again, proclaiming that Amaterasu and the power of Rockabilly were just meaningless fantasies that led the rest of the gang to their deaths. In "Nightmares In The Dream Palace," he even tries a similar approach with ''you.''
* IHaveManyNames: Along with his official title of The Black Signal, John also calls himself the Pirate Signal, the Brain Pathogen Grammar, the Word Virus, the Symbiotic Signal, the Dreamer's Dream, the Truth Pathogen, the Knock-Knock Joke, the Smoking Mirror, the Cymothoa Exigua Tongue, and the Empty Fortune Cookie - titles all provided in the introduction to his lore entries.
* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: [[spoiler: "Nightmares In The Dream Palace" is based almost entirely around ''you'' getting to do this, courtesy of John. In the first half of the mission, the player is able to access John's memories via the imprint he left on the Dream Palace's A/V room and following the young cultist through the events that transformed him into the Black Signal - most prominently Che Garcia Hansen's wild night on the town [[note]]in which the gameplay becomes more and more disorienting as John gets progressively drunker[[/note]] and John's nightmares of Lilith [[note]]in which you have to do battle with three giant incarnations of Lilith herself while they bombard you with laser vision and flying skulls[[/note]] in the days leading up to the bombing. And then the Black Signal catches up and turns the experience on ''you,'' sending you on a replay of the three major bosses of the game.]]
* KickTheDog: According to the journals found in the Clubhouse, John went out of his way to torment the trapped FNF kids by explaining how their families and friends were suffering in the wake of the bombing; eventually, one of the kids broke down and attempted to force John's voice out of his ears by fatally stabbing himself in the head with a corkscrew - prompting raucous laughter from John.

--> [[AC: You're all windows and no doors, Chuck. Not a problem - I've got a brick, and a million unanswered questions. Oops... spoilers.]]

* PokeInTheThirdEye: [[spoiler: Performs this on you in the climax of Issue #10, via a mind-rape... only for him to come face to face with one of your memories of Lilith, forcing him to retreat in a panic - apparently believing that the memory itself might be able to deliver a PokeInTheThirdEye to ''him.'']]

* SuicideAttack: [[spoiler: While still human, John was selected by Phillip Marquard himself for a suicide bombing of Orochi Tower - an act referred to as "The Great Message." It was during this mission that John was stopped by a security guard and, terrified of Lilith's retaliation, prematurely detonated his device, beginning the Filth infestation of Tokyo and becoming the Black Signal in the process.]]

* {{Troll}}: When not chatting with the player or messing about with Kaidan's technology, John has a habit of emotionally tormenting people for little more than his own amusement. His first scene involves him sabotaging the emergency address by showing Kaidan audiences ''exactly'' what will happen to them if they surrender, and gleefully heckling Tanaka's attempts to calm the people. Even on occasions when the intended victim manages to [[ShutUpHannibal shake off the Signal's influence]], John doesn't appear to mind - if anything, it actually prompts him to burst out laughing. Evidently, getting his target to break down just ''once'' is amusement enough.

* VillainHasAPoint: Over the course of his lore entries, the Black Signal spends a lot of time trying to undermine your faith in Gaia, the Bees, and just about every single allied faction he cares to comment on, usually while portraying them as corrupt, uncaring, untrustworthy. It's pretty clear that John's only doing this in the hopes of corrupting you into a servant of the Dreamers, but that doesn't stop him from being absolutely right about the factions: the Jingu Clan are indeed responsible for the deaths of countless innocents [[spoiler: particularly due to Gozen's unwillingness to look past the threat of the Oni and investigate the FNF]]; the Korinto-Kai, for all their affability, are still an organized crime group [[spoiler: who played a direct role in the Tokyo Disaster by allowing the Filth bomb into the city and letting the Morninglight detonate it]]; and as for the Big Three, they are definitely keeping secrets from you - especially about what happens to Bee-imbued agents who don't join a faction.

* TheVoice: A variant; as the EvilCounterpart to the Buzzing, he most commonly communicates with the player via text-based Lore. From time to time, he also presents himself as the more traditional voice, usually emanating from televisions and radios across Kaidan. In keeping with this trope, he never presents himself physically - it's not clear if he even possesses a physical body.

-> '''Hiya, Chuck. I'm testing a theory here - [[TongueTwister consumer consumption can cause coincidental catastrophes commencing concurrently]].'''

* EnergyWeapon
* EvilCounterpart: It is stated in the lore that it is a Filth mockery of the Guardians of Gaia.
* HypnoRay
* MechanicalMonster

* TVHeadRobot

[[/folder]]

* NotSoDifferent: Encourages this perspective in regards to humanity and demonkind, reasoning that the human race would have ended up exactly the same as them had ''Earth'' been the world cut off from Anima and not Hell.

--> Voiced By: Andre Sogliuzzo

* {{Satan}}

* FrickinLaserBeams

* BadDreams: One of the earliest signs of infection is a sudden upsurge in nightmares, as observed during "Contagion."