Characters / Thief: The Dark Project

A list of characters as they appear in Thief: The Dark Project. Garrett, other recurring characters and recurring faction descriptions can be found here., or at the respective character pages for Thief II: The Metal Age, Thief: Deadly Shadows and Thief (2014).

The Nobility

Lord Bafford

• The Caligula: Implied by the cutscenes where he makes his sole direct appearance, and by some of the readables.
• The Mafia: Has semi-voluntary ties to Ramirez and his underlings.
• Only One Name: Revealed to be his family name in Deadly Shadows, since he has a sister named Olivia Bafford.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Virtually every reference to him that you come across in the series has a comedic tone.
• Recurring Character: He's mentioned throughout all three games on various occasions, usually in readables and correspondence. You never get to see him in person, though.
• Small Name, Big Ego: He has a small mock-throne room deep inside his manor house, complete with throne and a rare, exquisite jeweled sceptre. Said piece of loot is why Garrett pays him a visit in the first proper mission of the series. While he's stealing the sceptre, he makes a snarky comment about Bafford's vanity.
• The Unseen: We never meet him in-game and outside of an image in a cutscene, we don't even get a glimpse of him.

Lady Valerius

From a wealthy family, she holds ownership of the Old Quarter Opera House.

• Last-Name Basis: The name's implied to be a family name, not her given name.
• Mean Boss: She comes up with a scheme to get rid of Raoul as the chief manager of the opera house and replace him with her lover and lackey, Ian Cribs. After this, Raoul becomes homeless and slowly grows insane. Valerius also has a few lower-ranking employees fired, including Garrett's future homeless informant Giry, who worked as a ticket seller before she had him sacked.
• Prima Donna Director: Much is made in the various readables that she's an obsessive micromanager of the opera house's operations, with new director Cribs being her henpecked lackey.
• Rich Bitch: She's wealthy and well-off, but still envies Raoul and makes sure he loses everything and becomes a pennyless beggar.
• Shout-Out: She's another one of several references to The Phantom of the Opera, specifically Christine Daaé's adoptive mother who rarely appears in adaptations.
• The Unseen: We never get to see her at the opera house.

Ian Cribs

The new director at the Old Quarter Opera House.

• Foreshadowing: In a simultaneous amusing and tragic coincidence, as much as Garrett scoffs at "Reginald and Conandra Forest Princess", a story of doomed romance between a Hammerite Novice and a Pagan Dryad, something quite similar ends up happening by the end of the Metal Age between him and Viktoria. Garrett in the same game even dresses up as a Hammerite Novice in one of the missions to sneak into the local Hammerite Temple.
• The Mistress: A rarer male example. He's the lover of Lady Valerius, and she did him some favours in the opera house's management, including getting rid of Raoul and other staff members.
• Shout-Out: The latest play he's created "Reginald and Conandra Forest Princess", which seems to be a loose but blatant Romeo and Juliet analogue. However, Cribs is not exactly Shakespeare: Garrett scoffs at the cheesiness of the passage he read from the play's manuscript, after the player finishes looking at the readable. (This proves something of an amusing bit of foreshadowing, given some of the events of the second game.)
• Suckiness Is Painful: The reactions of theatre-goers to his works aren't encouraging, and some people have already expressed suspicions that he's being kept in his position purely because of his secret relationship with Lady Valerius.
• The Unseen: Like Lady Valerius, we never get to actually see him at the opera house. Justified when we learn from a note that he's at home, apparently recovering from a furuncle.

Opera guests

Voiced by: Emil Pagliarulo, Karen Wolff

• Idle Rich: They're wealthy enough civilian NPCs that Garrett can expect virtually every single one of them to have a well-filled purse of valuables on their belts.
• Never Hurt an Innocent: As civilian characters, you're forbidden to kill them on higher difficulty levels. Knocking them out with a blackjack or a gas arrow is the player's best option.
• Upper-Class Twit: Their lines invoke this, though not necessarily in a negative way.

Raoul

Voiced by: Stephen Russell

Formerly the manager of the Old Quarter's opera house, he has become homeless and mad after Lady Valerius and her group of schemers in the theatre's management put him out of work and confiscated his property.

• Cloudcuckoolander: A rather tragic example, since he has gone mad from all the injustices inflicted upon him in the recent past, joining the ranks of the Crazy Homeless People as a result.
• Impoverished Patrician: The former opera house manager, no less...
• Plucky Comic Relief: He can sure sing and slyly comment on the corruption among the opera house's management.
• Riches to Rags: He's gone from a well-off and respected member of the opera house's management to a mad and poor homeless guy living in a shack in the caves beneath the opera house.
• Shout-Out: His name is among several The Phantom of the Opera references in the "Song of the Caverns" mission. In the Real Life musical, the character of Raoul is one of Christine Daaé's suitors. Also, game!Raoul living as an outcast in caverns beneath the opera house is a clear reference to the musical's main character.
• Talkative Loon: Probably the ultimate and funniest example in the whole series.

Hired Guards and Mercenaries

Dumb Guard/Benny

Voiced by: Stephen Russell

Member of an infamous recurring duo of guards, one smart and cunning, the other... less so.

• The Alcoholic: Frequently seen drunk or only semi-sober. Even his normal voice has a slurred quality to it.
• Book Dumb: Of the lovable uneducated kind.
• Buddy Cop Show: With his BFF, the Smart Guard.
• Complaining About Complaining: A favourite pastime of his, especially on occasions when he's seen guarding alone. He likes to mumble complaints quite a bit, as well as often voicing his annoyance in front of his pal, Smart Guard.
• Establishing Character Moment: The by now memetic "bearpits conversation". It's the very first debate he has with Smart Guard in the series, triggered and overheard by the player after exploring merely the first couple of meters in the first proper mission of The Dark Project. The Dumb Guard is the first person you hear in the conversation.
• The Fool: Quite a bit, especially in the eyes of his pal, Smart Guard.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Despite their contrasting personalities, he and Smart Guard are Vitriolic Best Buds.
• Large Ham: Even lampshaded by a barmaid in The Metal Age, when he goes off on a drunk Small Name, Big Ego tirade in front of her.
• Manchild: Frequently displayed. Reaches childlike levels of naivete when a prostitute tries to flirt with him, but is eventually turned off when she realises what a numbskull he is.
• Mascot Mook: Along with Smart Guard, thanks to the nature of their characters.
• New Job as the Plot Demands: Played for Laughs. He and Smart Guard are seen as often in the ranks of private security guards as they are seen among the ranks of the City Watch.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Probably the most famous example in the whole series.
• Recurring Character: Throughout the whole series, along with Smart Guard, to the point that their funny conversations became the series' comedic Show Within a Show.

Smart Guard

Voiced by: Dan Thron

Member of an infamous recurring duo of guards, one smart and cunning, the other... less so.

• Buddy Cop Show: With his BFF, the Dumb Guard.
• Commander Contrarian: To Dumb Guard. He tends to patronize him for all sorts of bizarre, naive or hare-brained assumptions he makes.
• Deadpan Snarker: Almost a Snark Knight at times.
• Establishing Character Moment: The by now memetic "bearpits conversation". It's the very first debate he has with Dumb Guard in the series, triggered and overheard by the player after walking forward the first couple of meters in the first proper mission of The Dark Project. The Smart Guard is the second person you hear in the conversation.
• Hidden Depths: That's why he's the Smart Guard.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Despite their contrasting personalities, he and Dumb Guard are Vitriolic Best Buds.
• Mascot Mook: Along with Dumb Guard, thanks to the nature of their characters.
• New Job as the Plot Demands: Played for Laughs. He and Dumb Guard are seen as often in the ranks of private security guards as they are seen among the ranks of the City Watch.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Less obviously than Dumb Guard, but he tends to be a bit of a Miles Gloriosus at times.
• Recurring Character: Throughout the whole series, along with Dumb Guard, to the point that their funny conversations became the series' comedic Show Within a Show.
• Small Name, Big Ego: He is certainly smarter and more cunning than his pal, but he's no mental athlete either.
• Straight Man: To Dumb Guard.
• The Smart Guy: Naturally. The street-wise, cynical, snarky friend of the almost childishly naive Dumb Guard.
• Surrounded by Idiots: How he sometimes feels about Dumb Guard's stupid questions

Thieves and the Criminal Underworld

Cutty

Voiced by: Dan Thron

Garrett's former associate. Recently imprisoned in Cragscleft Prison, some time before the start of the storyline of The Dark Project.

• Because You Were Nice to Me: Cutty wasn't expecting to be rescued, and he knew he would not survive his sentence in Cragscleft. But the fact that Garrett tried to save him meant enough to him that he gave him some vital information about a particularly big score.
• Convenient Terminal Illness: When Garrett finds him and finally enters his cell, he's in really bad shape. He has acquired a lung condition from his imprisonment in the damp, cold cells of Cragscleft, and is barely holding on to life.
• Disposable Vagrant: He's not so much a side character as he is a talking "biological plot point initiation unit".
• Incurable Cough of Death: To the point that the Hammerite guards can be overhead complaining about it. Garret will know he's in the right cell block when he can overhear Cutty hacking his lungs up.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: He lives long enough to tell Garrett the info he wants to hear, but dies shortly afterward.

Issyt "The Beggar"

Garrett's and Cutty's associate in the thieving world. Imprisoned in Cragscleft Prison long before the events of The Dark Project.

• Disposable Vagrant
• Hand of Glory: Garrett lent him his lucky Hand of Glory and Garrett wants it back.
• Posthumous Character: When you find his cell in Cragscleft, he's been dead for quite some time.

Felix

Distant acquaintance of Garrett and Cutty. Leader of a small local guild/group of thieves that specialize in robbing old tombs of the nobility on the outskirts of The City. Garrett follows the trail of Felix and his associates after no rumours came out about the group's return from a trip to find and seize "The Horn of Quintus", a priceless old musical artifact.

• Adventurer Archaeologist: Well, a leader of a small gang of thieves that don't mind venturing into old tombs deep underground in order to loot treasures.
• Posthumous Character: You find his body in the Bonehoard, along with his diary Amusingly enough, he died not too far from the entrance area of the ancient tombs. Becomes a minor case of Fridge Horror as you press on forward through the mission with Garrett, realising how far Felix and his associates were from the Horn of Quintus that they were looking for.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Much like Cutty, he's more of an incidental character in the "retrieve the Horn of Quintus" arc in the first third of the game. He and his group are hardly ever mentioned again during the rest of the game.

Bernard Farkus

The elderly shopkeeper of the secret thieving gear shop "Farkus' Functionals", whom Garrett visits in the intro to a mission in The Dark Project.

• Arms Dealer: His shop sells various tools, cheaper weaponry and other related hardware. However, he also does under-the-counter sales of equipment and gadgets to professional burglars like Garrett.
• Continuity Nod: He gets one in Deadly Shadows, visible in Fort Ironwood. It's his tombstone.
• Cool Old Guy: He's a cheerful old entrepreneur secretly selling thieving gear in his little shop, besides regular weapons (which serve as a cover for his business).
• Killed Off for Real
• We Hardly Knew Ye: He literally dies in the first SECOND of the "Assassins" mission.
• Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: Garrett seems to be a frequent customer of his, so old Farkus' shop is probably where he usually bought them.

Ramirez

Voiced by: Dan Thron

During the events of The Dark Project, Ramirez is one of the wealthiest and most influential "city wardens" (i.e. crime bosses) in The City. He repeatedly tried to lure Garrett into the fold of thieves and criminals that work for him, but Garrett, who hates the wardens, always refused. After Garrett robbed from Bafford, Ramirez's pal, Ramirez decided to kill two birds with one stone and use Garrett's intrusion into Bafford's Manor as an excuse to assassinate him. Fortunately for Garrett, Ramirez's assassins miss him, arrow-sniping poor old Farkus instead. Naturally, Garrett then decides to take revenge on Ramirez for taking his bullying of independent thieves too far.

• Big Fancy Castle: His impressive abode, standing on an equally impressive and expansive estate.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's a power warden and rightfully feared, but he keeps a few tamed burricks on his estate as pets and considers them his babies.
• Carry a Big Stick: His in-game character is armed with a mace.
• Continuity Nod: He gets one in Deadly Shadows, visible in Fort Ironwood. It's his tombstone. It has a brief mention that "he loved his burricks".
• Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster!: And he has reason to believe it, given how filthy rich he is.
• The Don: During the early phase of the first game, he is one of undisputed rulers of The City's underground crime. Even nobles like lord Bafford have to cooperate with him, whether voluntarily or not.
• The Syndicate: Unlike the leaders of thieves' guilds, Ramirez is a general crime boss to whom hiring professional thieves is just one source of his major incomes.

Reuben & Donal

The two main bosses of the Downwind Thieves' Guild. At odds with each other after undergoing a row over a precious vase that the guild managed to steal recently. Garrett decides to use the infighting within the guild to his own advantage and secretly nab the vase from whichever of the bosses is currently keeping it.

• Feuding Families: Well, two feuding factions within the Downwinders, at any rate. One lead by Donal and one by Reuben, plus a few undecided neutrals caught inbetween. Counts, because the Downwinders consider themselves to be like a big extended family or community of professional thieves.
• Outlaw Town: The Downwind Thieves' Guild is a subterranean version of this, complete with living quarters, storage rooms and even an illegal gambling den for paying above-ground customers. The whole complex makes heavy use of the local sewers and is accessed via several secret entrances from an inconspicuous local tavern. It also has secret doors leading to the mansions of Reuben and Donal, the two main leaders of the guild.
• Spell My Name With An S: It's Donal, not Donald.
• Thieves' Guild: The leaders of the Downwind Thieves' Guild, aka The Downwinders.
• The Unseen: Outside of a mission briefing cutscene (in which the two of them are seen arguing), they don't appear in person and have no speaking roles.

Thom

Reuben's "number one man".

• Number Two: To Reuben.
• Only One Name
• Phantasy Spelling: That's not a nickname, it's his real name.

Giry

Garrett's homeless informant, squatting in cave tunnels beneath the local opera house.

• All Webbed Up: When Garrett finds him in the flooded cave tunnels under the opera house, he has been dead for quite some time, cocooned in spider webs.
• Disposable Vagrant: Dies after being killed by giant spiders, before Garrett gets to meet with him.
• The Informant: To Garrett, concerning the treasure heist of the Talisman of Water in the caverns under the opera house.
• Red Herring: The mission briefing implies you might meet him on your way to find one of the Talismans in the cave below the opera house. Turns out he had already met his fate...
• Shout-Out: His name is among several The Phantom of the Opera references in the "Song of the Caverns" mission. Peculiarly, it's a Gender Bender Shout-Out to the character of Madame Giry.
• Soul-Sucking Retail Job: he was formerly a ticket seller at the opera house, before getting fired by Lady Valerius.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: No lines and only appears as a webbed-up corpse in the caverns beneath the opera house.

The Keepers

Artemus

Voiced by: Nate Wells

The Age of Darkness will be the child of two fathers... and their names are Ignorance and Fear.

— from the journal of Keeper Artemus

One of the Keeper Elders. Along with Garrett, the main recurring character of the series. Fittingly, he's also the second one to be introduced, mere seconds after the introduction of Garrett. Artemus brought Garrett into the Keeper order as a young boy and oversaw his education and stealth training until Garrett rebelled and left the order sometime after reaching adulthood. Despite their somewhat strained relationship, Artemus remains one of the few Keepers that Garrett is willing to trust and talk to even after having left the order.

• Big Good: As close as it gets to this trope, in terms of the setting's multitudes of flawed heroic characters. Even in a major crisis, he still tries to stay as calm and collected as possible, all the while helping or advising Garrett.
• Cool Old Guy: Though in his 50s or 60s and slowly greying, he remains an experienced scholar and one of the few people whose stealth abilities are on par with Garrett's (even among the ranks of the Keepers). During the first cutscene in The Dark Project, he's at least two decades younger than in all later scenes, since the cutscene takes place during Garrett's childhood when him and Artemus meet for the first time.
• Gentleman Snarker: You never hear him laugh, but he does scoff with mild amusement in a few scenes throughout the series.
• Gentleman and a Scholar: One of his most distinctive personal traits, making him stand out even among other Keepers, where this trope is fairly commonplace.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Despite their occasional familial bickering, Artemus is one of the few Keepers that Garrett fully respects as a friend and associate.
• Mr. Exposition: One of his primary roles in the series, if he makes an appearance between missions (whether physically or in cutscenes). Taken to a logical extreme in The Dark Project's tutorial mission, which he narrates, gradually explaining the various stealth skills and equipment to Garrett, then a young Keeper apprentice.
• No Name Given: Played straight in the first two games. His name was eventually revealed in Deadly Shadows, in which he also plays a far more substantial role than in the two preceding installments.
• Non-Action Guy: Almost ridiculously adept at Stealth Hi/Bye, but he's no warrior and genuinely avoids committing violence.
• Old Master: To Garrett, being his mentor and teacher of Keeper knowledge and skills.
• Parental Substitute: The Alfred Pennyworth to Garrett's Batman. The first game establishes the early years of their intergenerational friendship.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Wise, professional, self-sacrificing and well-meaning. During the epilogue cutscene of The Dark Project, he tries to convince Garrett in a friendly manner that he needs the help of the Keepers just as much as they need and will need his.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Most of his meetings with Garrett begin and end this way. It gets hilariously lampshaded several times in Deadly Shadows.
• The Stoic: Even among the ranks of the Keepers, he is one of the best examples of this trope. While he has his moments of voicing concern or slight amusement, his style of speech sounds almost always matter-of-fact, delivered with deadpan seriousness.

Keeper instructors

Voiced by: Josh Randall

A pair of two Keeper characters, unique to the first game's tutorial mission. They act as Garrett's training instructors during the tutorial mission in the first game.

• Non-Action Guy
• In the Hood:
  Instructor: Very good. I did not hear you traverse the room...
• Stern Teacher
• The Stoic

Hammerites (The Order of the Hammer)

Brother Murus

Voiced by: Randy Smith

A friendly ghost of a long-dead Hammerite monk that Garrett meets in an extremely scary mission in The Dark Project.

• Barred from the Afterlife: His soul and the souls of his Hammerite brothers, Renault and Martello, cannot find peace until they get a proper burial. Garrett has to help him with that, and in return, Murus will be more than glad to help Garrett get out of his pickle.
• Creator Cameo: Voiced by Randy Smith, who designed and built the scary level Murus appears in.
• Dead Person Conversation: Though Garrett doesn't directly address him or tell him anything, he listens to Murus' explanations and follows his requests and instructions. This includes reading aloud out of a prayer book at one point (with Garrett sounding rather bored).
• Friendly Ghost: In stark contrast to the Hammerite Haunts and Apparitions he shares his lonely vigil with, Murus is quite a cheerful fellow.. although he isn't above strong-arming Garrett into helping free him. After being trapped in the Cathedral for an indefinite-but-lengthy period of time, it's hard to blame him.
• Ghost Amnesia: Played with. His initial conversation has him blithely welcoming Garrett as the Cathedral's newest initiate, heedless of the facts that all of his brothers are now shrieking undead and the Cathedral has long-since ceased to function. His subsequent conversations, however, make it clear that he's basically playing along so he doesn't need to attack Garrett, and is well-aware of his circumstances.
• Good Shepherd: Despite being long dead, with his soul being cursed to exist in an extremely haunted place for many decades, he is a genuinely good-hearted and very cheerful fellow, even caring a lot for his deceased but unburied Hammerite brothers. He's one of the friendliest and most unambiguously good Hammerites you'll meet in the series.
• Haunted Fetter: To free his soul and the souls of his Hammerite brothers, you have to collect his former personal belongings and a few sacramental items and give all three a proper burial.
• Magical Guide: A genuinely helpful example.
• Meaningful Name: His name is the Latin word for "Wall," and the prayer you read to put his soul to rest is called The Wallbuilder's Prayer. Presumably he had a hand in building the wall that contained the undead outbreak.
• Nice Guy: Trust us, every single time you stumble upon him, the insanely scary mission where you meet him gets a lot less tense and overwhelming.
• Only Sane Man: Well, more like "Only Sane and Good-natured Creature". In the scariest mission of The Dark Project, liberally infested with all kinds of horrific and intimidating undead monsters and just oozing a wholly malevolent atmosphere throughout, he is the sole NPC that offers a ray of hope and friendly advice to Garrett and aids him in his escape.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Always smiling and in a good mood and doing goofy animations when Garrett startles him. Randy Smith's adoption of a nearly grandfatherly-like voice during dubbing only adds to Murus' Manchild-like eccentricity.
• The Pollyanna: He is very cheerful and polite throughout his conversations with Garrett, despite his soul having to suffer alone in spiritual limbo for so many years.

Brother Renault

Voiced by: Dan Thron

• Astrologer: Curiously, he's both a proper astronomer and something of an astrologer, since he lives in a society where a more advanced understanding of science is only just developing, and the series' fantasy setting itself allows for some weird natural phenomena. Renault worked studying the movement of heavenly bodies in the observatory in St. Jenel's tower. He discovered that the Lunar Pool he had installed in the observatory had the ability to bless hammers when moonlight was focused upon it through the telescope. This helped him discover a new way of making hammers into holy symbols. (Garrett realises this tidbit of information can prove useful to him during a sidequest of the mission.)
• Dead Person Conversation: One-sided on Renault's part. If dropped into his grave before Martello, his thankful voice is heard, thanking Garrett and telling him of the secret room in the winter tunnels.
• Due to the Dead: Murus asks Garrett to help him give a proper burial for Martello's body in the cloister graveyard.
• Posthumous Character: Entirely, though he does speak once from beyond the grave.

Brother Martello

Voiced by: Dan Thron

• Dead Person Conversation: One-sided on Martello's part. If dropped into his grave before Renault, his voice is heard, thanking Garrett and telling him of the secret room in the winter tunnels.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Possibly. His body is found locked in the wine cellar, suggesting his response to the zombie outbreak might have been to simply barricade himself in the basement and drink himself to death.
• Due to the Dead: Murus asks Garrett to help him give a proper burial to Martello's body in the cloister graveyard.
• Posthumous Character: Entirely, though he does speak once from beyond the grave if buried first.
• Punny Name: Italian for "hammer", which is fitting, given that he's a Hammerite.

Other Characters

The Hand Brotherhood

Voiced by: Ian Vogel and Fred Galpern

From unknown origins they came. They live isolated beyond the city. The extent of their arcane power is unknown. We must be very cautious in dealing with them. Close observation must continue.

— Keeper Xavier, Treatise on Mages

An order of Middle Eastern-esque mages from an unnamed faraway land. Some of them have settled down on the outskirts of The City, in a purpose-built fortified complex called The Mage Towers. They were introduced in Thief Gold and only feature in two missions.

• Adventurer Archaeologist: Implied in Thief Gold, at any rate. You come across a small group of them while searching the ruins of The Lost City for the Talisman of Fire. Turns out they came there for the same reason...
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Their robes are colour-coded according to what elemental art they practice. Hence, you have Earth Mages◊, Air Mages◊, Fire Mages◊ and Water Mages◊.
• A Day in the Limelight: The "Mage Towers" mission in Thief Gold, one of the three new missions added to The Dark Project in that Updated Re-release.
• Elemental Powers: Their whole shtick. They dabble in this kind of magic and study its properties and potential uses in great detail.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: They're part "Arabian Nights" Days iconography and part Real Life medieval Persian and/or Middle Eastern mystics and scholars.
• The Order: Of the Proud Scholar Race variety.
• Power Echoes: The voice of every single mage includes an odd, echoey reverb. It's implied that this might have something to do with how their bodies (vocal cords?) or minds are altered by their elemental powers.
• Squishy Wizard: Ones casting elemental magical projectiles.
• Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: Their main method of study.

Viktoria

Voiced by: Terri Brosius

A mysterious young woman with connections to a certain faction. Is eventually revealed to be part of the faction's highest leadership.

• Beware the Nice Ones: She is highly polite and to-the-point in serious discussions, but whenever she shows her anger or powers, be afraid. She is legitimately terrifying and seriously powerful.
• Bit Character: Until she became an Ascended Extra in The Metal Age
• Brainy Brunette: While she shows signs of being rather hot-headed in her decision making, she's very intelligent and cunning, leading a certain organisation's agents in the City.
• Dark Action Girl: Represents an antagonistic version in The Dark Project and a more morally grey and borderline heroic version in The Metal Age.
• Dark Mistress: Maybe. It's never made clear.
• The Dragon: To Constantine.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Her guise while working undercover in The City during The Dark Project.
• Expy: Think of her as Irene Adler, if Adler had nature-based superpowers. Some of her demeanour is also reminiscent of Rachael from Blade Runner.
• Femme Fatale: Somewhat present (but downplayed) in her characterization in The Dark Project. Justified, because she's acting as an undercover agent of her faction and its leader.
• Full-Frontal Assault: She removes her clothes right before ripping out Garrett's eye.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: She's working for the main bad guy in The Dark Project.
• Leitmotif: Accompanied with a rather soothing (but slightly odd) repeating riff when Garrett mentions her for the first time.
• Mysterious Woman: Counts overall, but especially while she is using her fake identity during The Dark Project.
• Only One Name: Like all the Pagan faction characters in the series.
• The Reveal: Both metaphorically and literally when she and her boss reveal their true identities to Garrett in The Dark Project.
• Sinister Silhouettes: The way she's portrayed in cutscenes that show her whole body, especially during moments when she's using her powers.
• Slasher Smile: For a brief moment in The Dark Project, shortly before the reveal of her true identity, a close-up of her otherwise pretty face shows the most disturbing smile you can think of.
• Spell My Name With An S: Occasionally spelt by some characters with a "c". Most of her appearances have her name spelt with a "k".
• What Happened to the Mouse?: She disappears from the narrative of The Dark Project after the reveal of her true identity and only comes back as a major character in The Metal Age.

Spoiler Characters

Constantine/The Trickster

"Did you think those ancient phrases were mere words, Manfool? LOOK AT ME! I am The Woodsie Lord, The Trickster of legend! If you be thirsty, fleshthing, drink of me! If you be hungry, then feed for I am the Honeymaker, and the Jacksberry!"

Voiced by: Joffrey Spaulding

Hammer, anvil, forge and fire, chase away The Hoofed Liar. Roof and doorway, block and beam, chase The Trickster from our dreams.

—Hammerite Proverb

Considered by his followers to be an Old God, a being of worship for the Pagans on one hand, and on the other hand considered the Satanic Archetype of the world by the Order of the Hammer, as the principle Arch-Enemy deity that does battle with the Master Builder for the fate of the world. Or maybe he's simply an extremely powerful sorcerer or being presenting himself as a deity. Whatever he really is, in the present he takes the form of Constantine, an eccentric old nobleman, who tasks his follower Viktoria with hiring a certain master thief for a particularly complicated and difficult task, along with a sizable reward, should he survive the job...

---

• Affably Evil: Those unnerving smiles of his. Even while he is in his human disguise...
• Alien Geometries: His mansion, once you slip past the mundane facade, is a madhouse of warped perspective and scale. It's a wonder Garret doesn't realize something is terribly wrong about Constantine just from the state of his house.
• Bad Boss: Towards Garrett. Lets his true colors show after the master thief painstakingly retrieves The Eye. Considering he's paid many of the city's contractors and builders very handsome sums in raw gold ore to construct his mansion, showing his wealth is in its abundance, he never even paid Garrett a penny, has one of his eyes ripped out and worse, left him for dead. It is implied he did this to Garrett for being able to accomplish a feat that he could not. It's also subtly implied through character design that he transformed the hapless guards of his mansion into the army of psychotic ape-men he uses to terrorize the city, or they were already Ape Beasts but magically disguised as humans.
• Bald of Evil: While in his human form, posing as art collector Constantine. Though he has a bit of silvery hair left, growing on some of the hind parts of his head.
• Big Bad: Of The Dark Project. Came from the ranks of the Pagans.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: He leaves Garret tied up in Viktoria's vines, alive and unguarded, then has the gall to be shocked when he destroys his plans later. This after knowing full well what Garrett was capable of accomplishing for him.
• Breaking Lecture: Once he reveals his true identity to Garrett, he gives him an exalted rant about his foolishness and how he never saw his grand conspiracy coming. As if that wasn't enough, the appearance he has while using the Constantine persona is not unlike the appearance of Anthony Hopkins when he played Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs.
• Composite Character: He is basically a combination of Pan from Greek mythology and the Christian Satan. He looks like a combination of both (indeed, the common idea of Satan as looking like a Horned Humanoid is actually based on Pan) and has the nature/chaos parts of Pan and the evil parts of Satan (as well as being the enemy of The Hammerites). Additionally, both Pan and Satan are associated with trickery.
• Death by Irony: A trickster-god who is destroyed through the cunning trickery of the last man he played a cruel and lethal trick on. More specifically, he's killed when his last victim swaps out the Artifact of Doom he spent half the game hunting down for him with a fake, provided by the Trickster's Builder worshiping Hammerite enemies, so that the ritual he'd been waiting decades to do literally blows up in his face.
• Drunk with Power: He wants to rule the world and hardly cares for those who'd stand in his way.
• Evil Is Petty: It is implied by one of the Keepers that the Trickster betrayed Garrett and tried to sacrifice him because he is resentful a lowly mortal like him was able to retrieve the Eye, where even the mighty Trickster couldn't.
• Evil Gloating: Brief instances of it towards Garrett, after he reveals his true identity and plans.
• Evil Luddite: Linked directly to his Evil Plan.
• Evil Plan: To wipe out all urban and technological civilization and replace it with a return to the primordial, untamed chaoticness of wild nature. To do this, he needs the Eye, which Garret delivers to him.
• Evil Sorcerer: And a very powerful one at that. Ironically, though he is the first main villain Garrett faces in the series, he is arguably still the most powerful of the three Big Bads.
• Foreshadowing:
  • A stylized and extremely creepy silhouette of The Trickster briefly appears in a lot of the cutscenes of the first game, prior to Constantine's reveal of his true identity. This includes even bits of the game's intro cutscene, particularly its infamous Deranged Animation finale.
  • Several things in the very first conversation Constantine has with Garrett hint at things to come, such as the strange green ichor that seems to seep from the drink he offers Garrett, his probing question about (and undisguised antipathy towards) The Hammerites and Garrett’s possible loyalty to them, and his casual observation that Garrett may be needing his new sword later. This is disregarding the blatant Alien Geometries of Constantine's manor.
• A God Am I: Never said out aloud by him, but there's little doubt he and his followers consider him this.
• God of Chaos: Embodies the chaotic aspects of nature.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Had he just kept his word and paid Garrett the agreed-upon sum for retrieving the Eye, he would have won. Instead, just to be a dick, he betrays Garrett and rips out his eye, leading directly to Garrett sabotaging his plans at the last possible second.
• Humanoid Abomination: If it is his true form, he looks like a rather monstrous version of a satyr.
• I Have Many Names: The Pagans call him by a wide range of various epithets and honorifics. The Woodsie Lord, the Honeymaker, and the Jacksberry are the most common among them.
• Kick the Dog: He allows Viktoria to pluck out Garrett's eye, leaves him for dead, and doesn't pay Garrett a cent of what he owes him. This is after the game makes it very explicitly clear that The Trickster most certainly does have the money to just pay Garrett off.
• Louis Cypher: Actually completely averted. There is nothing in the etymology of the alias he chose for himself (i.e. Constantine) that would suggest that he's an Obviously Evil figure.
• Nature Spirit: Maybe. His true origins and capabilities are left fairly open-ended.
• Near-Villain Victory: The only reason he doesn't pull off his civilization-destroying ritual is because Garrett swaps the Eye out with a fake at the last second.
• Order Versus Chaos: Definitely on the Chaos side of things. Sadly, he takes it too far and his adversaries (including the Keepers) decide that he must be stopped at all cost, in order to preserve the Balance Between Good and Evil in the world.
• Outside-Context Problem: Part of the reason why it is so believable Garrett never suspects his true nature (in addition to Garrett's naturally skeptical nature, his desire for the tidy sum Constantine promises him, and maybe the slightest bit of arrogance on Garrett's part) is that, well, would you really ever come to suspect your mysterious employer is really Satan?
• Pluralses: Being affiliated with the Pagans, he speaks like this while not hiding his true form and identity.
• Reality Warper: He can use his magic to reshape buildings and terrain at will.
• The Reveal: The cutscene in which he reveals his true persona to Garrett is arguably one of the most disturbing plot twists in the history of video games.
• The Bad Guy Wins: If you fail to swap The Eye with a fake one during the final level, thus averting his Near-Villain Victory.
• Satanic Archetype: The Hammerites, being a Crystal Dragon Jesus medieval church that opposes the Pagans, consider the Trickster to be the embodiment of evil, chaos and corruption, making him the Thiefverse's equivalent of Satan. Furthermore, many of the nature spirits in the Thiefverse take inspiration from Classical Mythology, with the creepiness ramped up — in this case, the Trickster's physical form is that of a satyr, which happened to be a source of inspiration for depictions of the Devil during the Late Middle Ages.
• Shapeshifting Trickster: And definitely not of the nice kind.
• Shrouded in Myth: It's left rather ambiguous whether he really is the god worshipped by the Pagans or just a very powerful and cunning sorcerer. There are certain hints that he might have had something to do with the destruction of Karath Din, the Lost City. In the third game, the newly encountered Kurshok are revealed to be victims of his revenge, which cost them the collapse of their once advanced civilization. Given the similarities with the fate of the Lost City, there might be a connection between the two events. However, it remains an unsolved question, leaving the Trickster the most mysterious of all the series' villains.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: In the last level of the game, once he spots you — which renders the mission unwinnable anyway — he will use a variety of powerful attacks against you, including launching fireballs, insect swarms, webs, summoning monsters^note with the NewDark fan patch only... and just in case that weren't enough, your health will begin unavoidably dropping at an increasingly faster rate. All to rub it in that you'd have no chance whatsoever against him, if it weren't for your uncanny stealth abilities.
• Title Drop: The term "The Dark Project" appears in a text describing his plan, written down on a scroll found by Garrett.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: One of his many powers. It's how he hides his true appearance.
• Wicked Cultured: His behaviour and general cover while he is posing as the wealthy and eccentric art and artefact collector Constantine. During his first meeting with Garrett, he even refers to himself almost verbatim as a Man of Wealth and Taste.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Reveals his true form to Garrett and leaves him for dead once Garrett brings him the artefact he was supposed to retrieve for him, as part of their contract. However, he displays a bit of Bond Villain Stupidity in underestimating Garrett's abilities (and good luck) with getting out of even such a life-threatening situation and surviving.

The Eye

Comes a man to rescue me? Poor man...

Voiced by: Dan Thron

Welcome, thief. Now that you have obtained your prize, can you escape with your skin?

• Affably Evil: Its mannerisms, as seen in its chatter towards Garrett (and pretty much any other human that stumbles upon it).
• Artifact of Doom: At least in The Dark Project, being Sealed Evil in a Can and responsible for the ruin behind the Wall. It eventually helps Garrett fulfill a more benevolent role in Deadly Shadows.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: The Eye itself isn't really a typical For the Evulz character, and doesn't even seem to be willing to serve the various villains that would want to get ahold of it and misuse its power (Constantine, for instance, reacts to the false Eye screwing up his ritual with "It betrays me!" as though that had always been a possible outcome). If anything, The Eye primarily follows its own pragmatic interests, including self-preservation and messing with peoples' minds, and even muses that it thought humankind would take longer to abuse power than it did in Deadly Shadows.
• The Bus Came Back: Makes a return appearance late in Deadly Shadows, when Garrett steals it again, this time from the Wieldstrom Museum.
• Deadpan Snarker: Probably the only character in the series that manages to outsnark Garrett at times, usually by way of taunts directed at him. Amusingly subverted by the fact that Garrett doesn't give into The Eye's taunts and jabs, deliberately ignoring them.
• Put on a Bus: Not seen or referenced in The Metal Age.
• Troll: As we learn from an overheard conversation in Deadly Shadows, it likes to speak up to unsuspecting guards at the Wieldstrom Museum, just to have fun by startling them. A piece of parchment in The Dark Project also makes reference to the Eye repeatedly teleporting itself over the Cathedral's altar whenever the Hammerites weren't looking, something which disturbed them greatly. Garrett isn't spared of The Eye's practical jokes either when he agrees to a contract to go find it and retrieve it in The Dark Project.
• Walking Spoiler
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: A savvy player may have the idea to exit out the front door of the cathedral after swiping the Eye, which would bypass 90% of the level. If attempted, the Eye basically says "HA HA HA—No." and seals the front door, purely to make Garrett’s (and the player's) life harder.