History Characters / EscapeFromTarkov

* TheMafiya: Mentions his 1990's banditry ventures quite a few times. Him running a legal [[Main/Bland-Name Product Lexos]] dealership seems to be also a reference to their larger SUVs being a favorite choice of brutish middle aged men with questionable connections.
* ShoutOut: His large build, [[Main/TheMafiya choice of clothes]] and attitude are an obvious reference to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Baretsky Stas Baretsky]]'s public persona.

* ShoutOut: His large build, [[Main/TheMafiya choice of clothes]] and attitude are an obvious reference to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Baretsky Stas Baretsky's public persona.

* MoreDakka: Wields the PKM, PKP, or RPK-16 light machine guns. Notably, the PKM or PKP can only be acquired by looting his corpse.

* PrivateMilitaryContractors: A Russian-based PMC, most likely based on the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagner_Group Wagner Group]].

* MoreDakka: Sometimes he carries an AKS-74U as his primary weapon. Typically he fires it full auto [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard with very high accuracy]], arguably making him much more dangerous with this weapon than his trademark hammer.

!! The Cult

[[folder:Cultists]]
A mysterious group whose presence is felt in the form of strange ritualistic circles and markings in several obscure locations around the Norvinsk region. Their beliefs and member count are currently unknown, but what is clear is their very hostile intentions that is equally matched by their patrons' horrifying lust for murder and blood.

As of December 2020 patch 0.12.9, the Cultists have made their way into the game proper, often appearing at night hanging around their ritual sites or stalking players for the thrill of the kill.

* BackStab: Their preferred method of attack is to creep up to an unsuspecting player and then suddenly rush towards them just to get a quick jab at the player before retreating and repeating the process.
* DesperationAttack: As stated above, while knife stabbing is their main form of attack, they will not hesitate to pull out a gun and return fire should their position be compromised by the players.
* DeviousDaggers: They have a preference for using ornately carved daggers to gut their victims from behind.
* HumanSacrifice: Several locations in Tarkov reveals evidence of the cult's presence by the fact that they love leaving bodies with pig heads stuffed over that of the corpse's. Not to mention the satanic circles and ritual markings present.
* MysteryCult: The players have a set of missions attempting to uncover their motives, although Peacekeeper has a theory that they might be of the ApocalypseCult variety going by the fact that HumanSacrifice is involved.
* NothingIsScarier: Long before their inclusion into the game, all physical evidence of their existence is enough to invoke NightmareFuel to what they are like in person. Hearing sudden movement but being unable to quickly spot the intruder will put any experienced player to a state of paranoia.
* PoisonedWeapons: Unique to their faction, they use daggers dipped in some kind of poison that will slowly debilitate players, unless they have an antidote on hand. Their knives can be looted from them by the [=PMCs=] with the ability for players to replicate the poisonous attributes to the weapon.
* RoomFullOfCrazy: "Marked Rooms" appear all over Tarkov, with strange demonic-looking writings, glyphs and ritual circles; all implied to be [[CouldntFindAPen written in the blood]] of the corpses that usually lie nearby. They also usually contain rare loot such as guns, storage containers and valuable trinkets for some reason.

[[folder:Lightkeeper]]
A mysterious figure closely linked to the Cult. Lightkeeper is based in the Lighthouse map, in the eponymous structure on a small island accessible by a single exposed bridge. In patch 12.12, anyone attempting to cross the bridge would be shot and killed by an unseen sniper. As of patch 12.13, Lightkeeper seems to have temporarily abandoned his hideout and the island is now accessible - although the Lighthouse itself is still protected by an impenetrable field of anti-personnel mines.

During the in-game events leading up the the 12.13 patch, Lightkeeper threatened the other traders in the Norvinsk reagion into shutting down their operations (except for Fence), and then successfully extorted the PMC player base to the tune of over a trillion Roubles for their return to business. Communications during the events suggest that the other traders take any threat Lightkeeper makes extremely seriously, and also imply that Lightkeeper was "not happy" with the lack of enthusiasm with which players responded to his demands for payment.

Lightkeeper is intended to join the roster of traders in a future update, as the first trader to be accessible only within a raid rather than from their stash.

* DropTheHammer: Uses a sledgehammer as his primary mode of attack. It can straight-up OneHitKill unsuspecting players, and even if the unfortunate victim survives the hit, they're not walking away without some broken limbs.

* GoodSamaritan: When patrolling the forests, he tries to help injured or otherwise desperate =[PMC]= operators or civillians that he finds.

* CloudCuckoolander: Comes across as a bit out of touch with reality. He's equally at home asking the player to hunt down and kill bandits as he is asking them to venture out into a war zone to bring him a [[DissonantSerenity certain types of food he particularly likes the taste of.]]

* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: Both the surviving BEAR and USEC operators have reasons to hate the company, and possibly also hold evidence of the corporation's crimes. This means that that justice may still be served if they manage to escape the region.

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Seems to have a whole board of these. The bosses of TerraGroup were some of the first to flee Tarkov, knowing they would otherwise face heavy jail time once their unethical medical experiments and market manipulation got out.

* HiddenAgendaVillain: It's left very ambiguous what their background actually is. Given they appear in the Terragroup Labs and have expensive military equipment, it may be that they are funded by the company to kill surviving PMCs and destroy evidence of the corporation's mideeds. They also sometimes appear at the military base, another high-security location with connections to Terragroup operations.

* ColdSniper: He has the tendency to sneak about the saw mill and take accurate shots at any players encroaching on his territory, usually with his Draganov SVD sniper rifle.

* DangerousDeserter: Based on their tactics, dress and Glukhar's tattoos, they are clearly military-trained, but it is unknown if they are actually deserters or just ex-Russian Military.