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Characters / The Secret World Protagonists

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A character subpage for The Secret World. For the main page, go here.

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    The Player Character 
The custom-designed protagonist of the game, you apparently led a fairly normal life prior to the start of the game; however, a chance encounter with one of the Bees changed everything. After several days of getting your newfound magical powers under control, you find yourself promptly recruited by one of the three societies, being offered either a purpose in life, money, and power or a chance at true order and clarity. As a result, you find yourself plunged into the very darkest depths of the Secret World...
  • Badass in a Nice Suit: A popular clothing choice for Illuminati Decks, though many can be purchased from in-game stores: these include the Original Gangster, the Industrial Revolution, the Spy Tux (white and black), and the Style and Gilt.
  • Badass Longcoat: Apart from the examples available from clothing stores in the game, certain decks are naturally equipped with these: the Templar Magus, Paladin, Puritan and Witchhunter; the Dragon Warlord and Pandemonist; and the Illuminati Grifter, Necromancer and Thaumaturgist. The in-game online store has several notable outfits that fit this trope as well: the Quantum Patrol outfit, the Firestarter outfit, the Industrial Revolution outfit, the female version of the Original Gangster outfit.
  • Big Damn Heroes: From time to time, you end up playing this role; for example, during the mission to Egypt, you rescue a beleaguered squad of Council Agents by driving off their attackers with bolts of lightning.
  • Blood Magic: While the Blood Magic school can be used to attack enemies with spikes of hardened blood or set their fluid to a boiling point, there are actually quite a number of healing abilities in the tree. When your setting's version of White Magic is also Blood Magic, you know you're in a rough place.
  • Chunky Salsa Rule: According to Beaumont, grinding you down into a fine dust is one of the only ways to keep the Bees from resurrecting you, a process that can't be managed at short notice even with the power of Excalibur. Ronnel, K.G. and Lilith seem intimately familiar with the process, though they acknowledge that it takes a lot of effort.
  • The Chosen Many: The PC is one of a number of mages created by the Bees to Save the World.
  • Cool Mask: The male version of the Keepers of the Nile sports a very impressive golden mask.
  • Determinator: Repeated deaths and potential cold-blooded torture are inconveniences to the PC at best, outright trivialities at worst.
  • Dressed to Plunder: The Sea Smuggler outfit; for good measure, the in-store image of this outfit is clearly modelled on Jack Sparrow and Angelica.
  • The Dreaded: By the time of Dawn of the Morninglight, it is vaguely implied that your enemies know exactly who you are and are taking you much more seriously. The Phoenicians are all but confirmed to have taken a particular interest in you. Lidiya opts to beat a hasty retreat the second time she meets up with you.
  • Elemental Powers: A given with the elemental school of magic.
  • Entropy and Chaos Magic: Basically changing probability in your favor as wells as direct magic damage.
  • Familiar / Loyal Animal Companion: You can either buy these from the in-game website or earn them as rewards for completing certain events; these creatures include the seemingly mundane (a dog, a cat, a crow or an owl), supernatural variations on the same theme (ghostly kittens and ancient Egyptian hounds), and the truly bizarre (A miniature Custodian, a baby werewolf, a diminutive Jinn, an Ak'ab hatchling, and a Draug Lord Puppy).
  • Fantastic Recruitment Drive: How you ended up working for your chosen faction after your powers manifested; the Templars and the Illuminati are kind enough to give you legitimate invitation (and a veiled threat in the Illuminati's case); the Dragon just press gang you.
  • Gas Mask Mook: Illuminati players become these as they ascend the ranks.
    • You're also required to wear a CDC air filter for "The Vanishing of Tyler Freeborn"- which involves journeying into the Fog.
    • The Down By Law outfit also features one of these, explicitly modelled on a skull.
  • Goggles Do Nothing: For some reason, Illuminati Necromancers wear goggles; nobody ever explains what these goggles are for or why they're never fastened over the wearer's eyes.
    • Nor does anyone know why the Crypto Turbulence outfit sports glasses either, but at least they're generally fastened down.
  • Gold Makes Everything Shiny: Style and Gilt; apart from the shirt, almost every single inch of this outfit appears to be made of woven gold, right down to the bow-tie.
  • Guile Hero: At times; one notable instance involves you deliberately drawing a pack of wolves towards Emilia, forcing Octavian to come to the rescue- and admit that there is something about the world worth saving.
  • Guns Akimbo: Pistols are used in this way.
  • Handshake Refusal: From time to time, you will refuse handshakes from certain people, resulting in some awkwardness. In some cases, it's out of simply not liking the other character, in others it's out of genuine and much-justified suspicion- especially in the case of "Ellis."
  • Hell-Bent for Leather: The Meat Is Murder outfit, both versions of which sport leather gloves, leather skirts, leather aprons, and leather pig masks.
  • Hero with Bad Publicity: At the end of Issue 11, when your character is framed on worldwide news as one of the Tokyo bombers.
  • Heroic Mime
  • High-Class Glass: Style and Gilt comes equipped with a monocle, appropriately framed with gold and attached via a golden chain.
  • Human Weapon: Multiple characters within game refer to the player character as a "Living Weapon".
  • Implacable Man: Thanks to being effectively unkillable, (along with a veritable boatload of persistence) various characters discover that it is next to impossible to actually stop you. Lilith simply maims you instead, and even then knows it will only be temporary.
  • Incorruptible Pure Pureness: If the player rejects the Dreamers and takes the Light Side "ending."
  • Institutional Apparel: The Deathrow outfit; a bright orange jumpsuit, complete with handcuffs and ankle-bracelets.
  • In-Universe Nickname: The common nickname for the player characters (The Bees) is actually what the CDC (and other organisations) uses to refer to us, according to Marianne Chen. Another nickname is the Infused.
  • It's Up to You: Justified; though there are plenty of magical adepts on whatever faction you side with, you're one of the few that have access to both Agartha and near-immortality. Also justified in the case of Boone and Wolf leaving most of the work to you; they're much more experienced, but neither of them have been touched by the Bees, leaving them mortal and vulnerable to the effects of the Filth.
  • Magic Knight: Given the classless nature of the game, it's possible to become one of these, especially if you choose to use a melee school of combat alongside blood magic or elementalism.
  • Mundane Utility: In the introduction, once you've gained a measure of control over your powers, you play around with them by juggling fireballs from hand to hand.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the Illuminati ending for Egypt, the player ends up ruining the Illuminati's potential alliance with the Orochi Group. The higher ups are not pleased, and were fully intent on having them assassinated if Geary hadn't vouched for them.
  • Nightmare Fetishist: A few people actually accuse you of being this over the course of the game. The most prominent of them are Sam Krieg (who drunkenly speculates that you love evil) and Kristen Geary (who claims that your psychological profile has you diagnosed with "Autassassinophilia," a sexual fetish for danger).
  • Occult Detective: Whatever faction the player picks, their primary mission will be investigating and combating supernatural phenomenon. The Investigation Missions in particular force the PC to actually play detective to complete them.
  • One-Man Army: The PC evolves into this over the course of the storyline. You'll easily be slaying hundreds upon hundreds of supernatural horrors and slicing your way through enemy agents like they were cake by the time you reach the more advanced areas of the game. It doesn't matter if it's werewolves, vampires, super-soldiers, ghosts, spirits, tainted gods, eldritch horrors, some combination thereof, etc. You kill them all.
  • Plague Doctor: One outfit available from the store is explicitly based on this design, right down to the name.
  • Poor Communication Kills: In the Morninglight arc, your handler is more pissed that you ran off to infiltrate the South African compound without telling them more than they seem to think it was actually a bad idea.
  • Power Gives You Wings: The aftermath of Issue 11 has the player develop this.
  • Power Incontinence: For the first few days after being bonded to the Bee, your magical powers are almost completely uncontrollable; you accidentally set your clothes on fire just by reaching for them, you blast furniture from one end of your apartment to the next, and you even end up firing Eye Beams into the ceiling while uncontrollably levitating. However, by the fifth day, you've managed to get things under control.
  • Scarf of Asskicking: A must for the Illuminati Necromancer.
  • Skull for a Head: The Illuminati Mercenary wears a skull mask.
  • Swallowed A Bee: How you got your powers.
  • Token Good Teammate: Illuminati players end up as these, especially if they take missions helping out innocent people caught in the crossfire of the rising darkness - Geary makes many comments chewing them out for being a charity case, and for being morally compromised by others.
  • Touched by Vorlons
  • Undying Warrior: The player characters belong to an entire group of this; having been bonded with the Bees, you are blessed not only with incredible magical powers, but Resurrective Immortality and near-agelessness. However, you're given this power so you can serve as human white blood cells for Gaia, hunting down threats to the world and obliterating them - sometimes in huge armies of fellow players.
  • Vetinari Job Security: At the end of the Illuminati Story, Kristen Geary comments that if you keep on doing what you do, you'll become totally indispensable.
  • Waistcoat of Style: One comes with the Industrial Revolution outfit, and it is also available separately in a variety of colours.
  • You Remind Me of X: Variant 2, at the end of the Templar Story Richard Sonnac says that "You have the same look in your eyes as the Force-Marshal"

The Tokyo Incident Team

    Rose White 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rose_white.png

Is it daunting to be a 21-year-old in a 21-century-old organization? Nope. Not at all.

Voiced by: Catherine Taber

The Templar protagonist of The Secret World's trailers and promotional material, Rose is a typically dedicated agent of her chosen faction; right at home under the atmosphere of dedication and tradition, Rose's interests range from bloodline research to modifying shotgun barrels. In the game, she is first seen venturing into Filth-infested Tokyo alongside Alex and Mei Ling; it is not known what happened to her afterward - though she later appears in the Filth infestation of Manhattan, fighting alongside the players.


  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In her profile, her likes are as follows: "Long walks in the dark, spilling the blood of evil, fuzzy sweaters..."
  • Cute Bruiser
  • Creepy Crows: One of her dislikes, most likely linked to her hate of the Revenant.
  • It's Personal: Her crusade against the Revenant is linked to a personal tragedy, though no details have been given.
  • Light 'em Up: Wields a relic capable of projecting a shield of light.
  • Shotguns Are Just Better: Seems to be her general perspective, given she ends her trailer by putting away her magical talisman and blasting the Revenant in the face with a combat shotgun.

    Alex McCall  
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alex_mccall.png

Why are we here? Is there a greater purpose? Who the hell cares?

Voiced by: Mark Healy

Representing the Illuminati in the trailers, Alex might not look the part of a dedicated follower of the Eye and the Pyramid, but what he lacks in personal grooming he more than makes up for in his mastery of chaos magic. Like most of his fellow agents, he parties hard and fights even harder, always eager to climb a little further in ranking and achieve greater power. In the player's flashback to the Tokyo Incident, he reluctantly teams up with Rose and Mei Ling to attack the Filth; during the events of the Manhattan raid, he does so again to suppress yet another Filth incursion.


    Mei Ling 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mei_ling.png

Before the Dragon came knocking, my idea of chaos was a messy apartment.

Voiced by: Laura Aikman

The representative of the Dragon in promotional materials, Mei Ling has left behind her formerly ordered life and embraced the chaotic lifestyle of a Dragon operative with considerable enthusiasm; ironically, she's the only one of the trio who even look back on her life before discovering the Secret World. Capable of impressive elemental magic and equally impressive swordplay, Mei Ling is ironically one of the more unassuming members of the team, spending her downtime in her apartment and enjoying homemade milkshakes. As with the other three, little is known what happened to her following the Tokyo Incident, although she reappears to fight another Filth incursion with the other Tokyo Incident team members.


    Sarah 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sarah_the_secret_world.jpg

The Fourth member of the Tokyo Incident Team, she is the protégé of Arturo Castiglione from the Council of Venice. Players take her place for the game's tutorial. The players meet her again when they first arrive in Tokyo. She has gone through some...changes.


  • And I Must Scream: The tutorial you play through? It's all playing out in Sarah's head over and over.
  • Blank White Eyes: Whenever she starts reliving the events of the Tokyo Incident Team, she gains these.
  • The Bus Came Back: The beginning of Issue 9 reveals that she's managed to survive down in the Subway while being forced to psychically relive her last mission over and over.
  • Madness Mantra: The above quote is what she has to repeat to herself just to remember her identity!
  • Mind over Matter: Telekinesis is one of the abilities she has developed since looking into the breach and passing out.]]
  • Psychic Dreams for Everyone: How the tutorial is presented to the players. However, they also force Sarah to relive the experience over and over.
  • Shotguns Are Just Better: Despite what her art to the side would suggest, Sarah mostly uses her shotgun and some magic during the Tokyo flashback and when she reappears in Issue 9.
  • Suddenly Voiced: In Issue 9.
  • The Voiceless: Never speaks throughout the tutorial, much like the players.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Last seen at the end of the tutorial, passed out in front of a similar breach to the Dreaming Prison in the Tokyo Subway System.

    Zuberi 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zuberi.png

Voiced by: Dave Fennoy

A powerful Haitian shaman seen aiding the team in Tokyo. Unlike the other members of the Tokyo Incident team, he does not seem to have any official affiliation with the Societies, seeming to work as a neutral party or perhaps serving Gaia directly. His practices of witchcraft and voodoo hurt, help, and open and shut portals in our world and beyond.



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