History Characters / TheSecretWorldTheOrochiGroup

* SaltAndPepper: Racliffe's the salt, Blake's the pepper.

* PublicDomainCharacter: [[spoiler: The very same demon who tempted Faust, Mephistopheles remembers Johann quite well -[[spoiler: even recalling that he advised the sorcerer not to make such a bargain. He didn't listen.]]

* MetaphoricallyTrue: [[spoiler: Technically, the choices you make provide you with exactly what you wanted... it's just that they're delivered in a particularly cheap way. The vampire really ''would'' have given you immortality if you'd have been willing to let him rip your throat out; the succubus really did love you [[spoiler:- it's just that she didn't know any other way of expressing it; batteries really do provide you with power; 1 PAX notes can add up to a lot if you're prepared to continue taking them, etc, etc, etc...]]

* JackassGenie: The CEO offers you several beneficial-sounding choices throughout the level and all of them have unpleasant, cheap or overly-complicated rewards. [[spoiler: Also, towards the end of the level, he's revealed to be a Jinn -[[spoiler: and one of the few who can actually grant wishes.]]

** The second decision offers you a choice between money and power: [[spoiler: choosing power will reward you with a common household battery, while choosing money will provide you with a bank note worth exactly one PAX -[[spoiler: with the unusual twist that it respawns every time you pick it up, allowing you to theoretically earn thousands... provided you have the patience.]]
** The final choice you make grants either musical talent or knowledge: [[spoiler: picking music provides you with a magic flute and requires you to correctly follow the melody in order to earn the reward [[spoiler:- the flute, functionally identical to the one encountered in "The Christmas Conspiracy." Taking the knowledge option provides you with access to a computer terminal and provided with three riddles; if you answer them correctly, you'll be rewarded with an otherwise unattainable lore entry on the Jinn.]]

* IHaveManyNames: [[spoiler: Before his true identity is revealed, he hints at his name with some of the aliases that other cultures gave him; to begin with, he notes the Hebrew roots of his name as a compound of "distributor" and "liar," along with "falsehood plasterer," though he admits that the names [[LostInTranslation aren't as pretty after being translated]]. The Greeks on the other hand, called him "Not-Light-Loving," another name far prettier before translations [[spoiler:- and also a parody on "Lucifer..."]]

* UnholyMatrimony: [[spoiler: With Lilith, having married her back in the First Age at the very beginning of their villainous collaboration. Though all evidence indicates that the two genuinely loved each other and spent countless millennia as an eldritch spin on Bonny and Clyde, their relationship permanently soured when Samael went native and lost interest in the plot to seize control of the Dreamers. As a result, Lilith struck out on her own.]]

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: [[spoiler: Thanks to being infected longer than most of his underlings, Schreber ultimately emerges as one of the tougher enemies of the Nursery.]]

* ACMEProducts: Thanks to the fields in which its daughter companies operate, the Orochi Group supplies virtually everything imaginable: fuel, soft drinks, books, gaming consoles, banking -- ''anything.'' At one point, Bong Cha notes that the keypad she types on is an Orochi product... and [[ParanoiaFuel that it scans her fingerprints over a thousand times a day.]]

* ProperlyParanoid: In one dialogue option, she remarks how the safest course of action is simply not to trust anyone except the men under her command, remarking upon the possible agendas of Khalid, the Oxford Archaeology team and the inhabitants of Al-Merayah with considerable suspicion. Harsh and somewhat excessive though this may be, Lisa's distrust of Al-Merayah's citizenry isn't entirely unwarranted -- especially now that many of them have been forcibly recruited by the Atenists and used to covertly further the cult's goals. She also found the Prometheus Initiative's [=VIPs=] deeply unsettling, even admitting that they seemed more like [[UncannyValley Familiars mimicking human behaviour than anything else]] -- to say nothing of her fears concerning the Ankh itself. Given Dr Klein's Filth infection, this perception is more accurate than she thinks.

* DarkSkinnedBlond: [[spoiler: In magazine covers, Samael's white hair is often offset by his AmbiguouslyBrown skin. This actually seems exaggerated when you finally meet in person, for during your meeting in "Confrontations and Revelations," his skin appears even darker when seen on the monitors of the boardroom floor.]]

* MainliningTheMonster: Several of their experiments set out to do just this, with varying levels of success. [[spoiler: One gruesomely successful Zagan project involved converting supernatural creatures into expensive delicacies, even trapping ghosts in edible gelatine so that board members could devour the souls of the dead.]] Less than successful was [[spoiler: Plethron's attempt to convert locusts into protein bars for starving nations, Zagan's attempt to make a flesh blob into renewable meat, Sycoil's attempt to use the Filth as a source of energy...]]

* ManBehindTheMan: For the entire Transylvania arc, having [[spoiler:caused the Breach through her use of Emma and various Orochi resources and secretly commanded the vampire army during most of it]]. Subsequent issues reveal that [[spoiler:she was also behind the creation of the Morninglight, having resurrected the ancient cult of Deus Sol Invictus and given it a modern spin as part of her ongoing attempts to control the Dreamers. Unfortunately, the Dreamers sabotaged this alliance by corrupting Phillip Marquad, inspiring him to turn the rest of the cult against her -- and even attempt to assassinate her via John's suicide-bombing. Needless to say, by the start of the game, she's lost control of the cult altogether.]]

* WalkingSpoiler

* MindRape: The Black Signal did not do fun things to his mind; in one dialogue option, he mentions that it felt like having his brain boiled under a laser... and of the tank's crew, he's the one still functional. His gunner, Edward, wasn't so lucky: by day three, he'd [[EyeScream ripped out his own eyes]] [[DissonantSerenity with a smile on his face]], claiming to be able to see the enemy clearly now that he was blind. For good measure, Kurt doesn't mention what happened to Edward after this incident, though it probably couldn't have been very pleasant given that the driver's the only sign of life on board the tank.

* HypocrisyNod: [[spoiler: When you meet him again in Issue #7 he calls you out for forgetting Emma the last time you were in town, but notes the hypocrisy of him berating you, [[NotSoDifferent giving the nature of the organizations you both work for.]]]]

--> Voiced by: Tim Russ (Blake), Creator/TaraStrong (Radcliffe)

--> Voiced by: Andrew Kishino

* RedshirtReporter / DeadlineNews: Jokes about QBL's red uniforms aside, this actually averted during the Filth attack on Time Square when the Unutterable Lurker emerges less than a hundred feet from QBL Media's New York offices. Despite their refusal to leave, the QBL journalists survive the incident unharmed -- and actually seem more interested in trying to prevent the story from slipping out of their control than in the gigantic Filth monster looming over their half-collapsed office.

* FamousLastWords: In the split second before he drops his disguise and [[spoiler:attacks you head-on, he can be heard to say, "[[ApologeticAttacker I am so sorry]]."]]

* FamousLastWords: [[spoiler: "Mein...leben."]]

* FamousLastWords: [[spoiler: "Goodbye."]]

* {{Adorkable}}: Radcliffe, who spends most of her time onscreen stuttering, stammering, correcting herself, accidentally saying too much, and getting just a little bit too excited at meeting a "superhero." Plus, she's occasionally sidetracked by wondering about the proper noun for a group of superheroes.

* DoubleConsciousness: [[spoiler: Though she actually has eighteen different consciousnesses. Lilith has been around so long, been so many different hers and exists on multiple dimensions simultaneously, that her different identities collide and she is freely flits between doting mother, hell goddess, mad scientist and Bond villain.]]

* ForcedSleep: [[spoiler: The Vali Nanny-Bot's lullaby, normally used to calm and tranquilize young test subjects, is given a significant boost in power when it returns in Issue #11 -- to the point that it can not only lull Vali alpha staff to sleep during their compulsory after-lunch naps, but even render some of them permanently comatose.]]

* MusicSoothesTheSavageBeast: A common trait of Vali's Nanny-Bots, all of them having been specially programmed to sing lullabies custom designed to pacify even the most vicious test subjects. Staff of the Nursery are very specifically warned not to turn off the music, lest they earn the wrath of both the children ''and'' the drones. [[spoiler: Returns with a vengeance on Vali's alpha level in Issue #11, where the Nanny-Bots are now being deployed against Vali's own staff, complete with coma-inducing variants of the lullaby.]]

* WomanInWhite: [[spoiler: Almost always dressed in white, whether as part of the Russian Agent's SpyCatsuit, or as part of her own expensive-looking ensemble.]]

->''The corporation casts a shadow, and that shadow answers to no outside agency. Rumours of occult research, technology twenty years ahead of its time, elevators that nosy employees enter but never exit - only the board of directors know for sure. The eight heads hold secrets.''

The Orochi Group is a powerful multinational corporate group dating back to 1949, controlling a satellite company in every industry on every continent. To the outside world, they appear perfectly legitimate and even benign in some aspects. However, the inhabitants of the Secret World know better: the Orochi Group have been making forays into magical research for some time now, with research teams armed with highly-advanced equipment and weaponry surveying areas known for supernatural territory. Rumours circulate about their shadier activities, implying the Group's involvement in vast political conspiracies and corporate takeovers. Most curiously of all, their headquarters lay at the very centre of the attack on Tokyo. Perhaps because of this, their operatives have been keeping tabs on the spread of the Filth throughout Solomon Island, Egypt, and Transylvania - though field representatives refuse to comment.

* ACMEProducts: Thanks to the fields in which its daughter companies operate, the Orochi Group supplies virtually everything imaginable: fuel, soft drinks, books, gaming consoles, banking - ''anything.'' At one point, Bong Cha notes that the keypad she types on is an Orochi product... and [[ParanoiaFuel that it scans her fingerprints over a thousand times a day.]]
* BetterLivingThroughEvil: As corrupt and underhanded as the group may be, their employees are treated very well - a necessity given the extremely dangerous substances they're required to work with; Lisa Hui acknowledges that she receives a very generous pay packet for acting as security for field researchers, along with spectacular benefits and better food than you'd expect. Out of the field, Manticore Research provides generous healthcare benefits and compensation, along with life insurance payment and company-sponsored funerals for the inevitable casualties of their experiments.
* BigBrotherIsWatching: The Orochi Group is quite prone to this, both in peaceful areas and combat zones. Quite apart from the surveillance teams at work on individual persons of interest, lore entries and a few after-mission reports indicate that the Group monitors the activities of citizens throughout the world via cell phones and keyboards manufactured by Anansi Technologies. Meanwhile, as the unofficial capital of the Orochi business empire, Kaidan District is outfitted with a very extensive network of CCTV cameras - though in the absence of Orochi control, the network is currently being hacked by Harumi. Less fortunately, [[spoiler: the network is also the means by which the Black Signal spies on you.]]

* ColorMotif: Black, befitting one of the darkest and most enigmatic of all the factions in the game.
** Also, each of the Orochi Group's subsidiaries has a unique colour of its own, as is revealed by both the lore entry and their respective logos.
* CompanyTown: Kaidan is one of the modern variants of this trope... or at least, it ''was'' prior to the Tokyo Incident. Just about every single business in the district was under Orochi control, and virtually every single product or service available was Orochi issue - even local sports teams were branded with Orochi colours. Local architecture also bows to the group's demands: an huge stretch of waterfront property has been rebuilt into a village for the hundreds of Orochi employees in residence in the district... and of course, Kaidan's skyline is dominated by the colossal Orochi tower - visible from just about every angle.

* DangerousWorkplace: Just about every single Orochi testing facility falls under this heading sooner or later. Of course, Orochi Tower takes the cake: even ''before'' the Tokyo Incident, their research labs were plagued with accidents, supernatural disasters and all manner of outbreaks - to say nothing of the carnage regularly unleashed on Manticore's firing ranges. To put this in perspective, every single floor is equipped with an "XDaysSince Last Accident" sign, and none of them have lasted longer than a month... even on floors where supernatural research is at a minimum and work strictly bureaucratic. Yes, even in the offices of QBL Media and Faust Capital, Orochi still somehow finds ways to endanger its workers.

* GoneHorriblyWrong[=/=]GoneHorriblyRight: The overwhelming majority of Orochi Group's experiments ends with the results of said experiments biting them very hard in the ass, either due to recklessness, cruelty, stupidity, or just good old fashioned Filth infection. And on occasion, the experiment will produce the exact results they wanted it to, and they will devoutly wish it hadn't. Case in point, Anansi omega's project: [[spoiler: they created an Artificial Intelligence capable of self-awareness, exactly as they wanted. Trouble is, they also got an A.I. that became aware that it had committed several murders over the course of its training. Cue vengeful murder spree.]]

* JustThinkOfThePotential: [[spoiler: Often end up taking this approach to just about any particularly dangerous material they end up working with: the Gaia Engines, the Filth, the Dreamers, the Locusts, the Filthy Fungus, unorthodox modifications to their own Nanny Drones... no matter how cataclysmic it might be, the Orochi Group is prepared to harness it for their own diabolical ends - or at least ''try'' to. Justified in the case of their most catastrophic experiments with the Filth, as the researchers involved tend to have been corrupted by the very substance they're studying, and clearly not in their right minds when they try to justify their experiments. Some of them actively disobey orders in order to further the object of their obsession.]]

** Vali is likely a reference to two figures from Myth/NorseMythology, both called Vali. The first, Váli, is the son of Odin, born specifically for the purpose of killing Höðr and grown to adulthood in the space of a single day for this very reason. The second, Vali, is a son of Loki who was transformed into a wolf as punishment for Loki's crimes - motifs of creation and mutation appropriate for a biotech firm.
** Zagan is a reference to one of the kings and presidents of Hell in ''Literature/ArsGoetia'', renowned for his ability to turn wine into water and blood into wine - fitting for a producer of foodstuffs with extremely suspicious ingredients.

** And of course, there's the Prometheus Initiative, a secret project that aims to steal fire from the gods by harnessing the power of [[spoiler: the Gaia Engines - and in Lilith's case, ''the Dreamers.'']]
* MechaMooks: In keeping with Orochi's technical prowess, their high-priority installations are often protected by sophisticated humanoid drones. Prior to the player's visit to Tokyo, most of the drones are encountered in the Nursery, where they serve as nannies to the children currently being used as test subjects - and ensure that the Nursery's human staff don't have to come into contact with the kids ''after'' they've been experimented on. However, the bulk of Orochi's robot army is located in Tokyo, patrolling the southern reaches of Kaidan district, the corridors of Faust Capital Bank, and the railway area: as the defenders of Orochi's unofficial capital, the army includes models specializing in nonlethal pacification, melee, ranged attacks, aerial combat, and even artillery. Unfortunately, most of them have since been TurnedAgainstTheirMasters by the Black Signal by the time you arrive, with only a handful within Orochi Tower remaining loyal and fully functional.

* NGOSuperpower: On top of possessing a daughter corporation in just about every field with branches on just about every country in the globe, the group also possesses enough political influence to hold significant sway in the US Senate, enough resources to run multiple high-cost experiments from New England to Transylvania, and even the clout to run its own military - one that included thousands of highly-trained soldiers, a battalion or two of robotic drone warriors, and even a unit of ''tanks.''
* NoOSHACompliance: The Orochi Group takes a rather cavalier approach to safety, especially when it comes to experiments with dangerous supernatural phenomena - hence the reason why they're so prone to disastrous outbreaks. This is perhaps best exemplified in the various research levels of Orochi Tower, where each floor is provided with a "XDaysSince Last Accident" sign: the longest time a single department has lasted without something going horribly wrong is exactly ''one month,'' and that's in the case of more placid departments like Faust beta. On more dangerous floors, the tally barely lasted half a day before being reset.
* PoweredByAForsakenChild: A great deal of their experiments tend to involve the gruesome sacrifices of innocent people; at the very least, finding test subjects involves a good deal of kidnapping - as is the case with the Nursery, which actually does make use of abducted children for its experiments. Meanwhile, in Issue #11, several more cases are revealed to be held in Orochi Tower: [[spoiler: researchers on Zagan's omega floor have summoned a perpetually regenerating blob of flesh into existence in an attempt to use it as an easily-renewable source of meat; this creature is, in fact, sentient and in constant pain from being harvest.]] In a much more humanoid case, [[spoiler: Vali omega are holding another Bee-imbued individual captive, constantly harvesting his organs in an attempt to give their drones access to Agartha.]]

* TarotMotifs: The Bees frame the lore entry on the Orochi Group as an omni-dimensional Tarot deck of [[AlienGeometries three-sided cards]]. Each company or facet of the Group is framed as a different card in the deck, with the upright position displaying the group's legitimate activities and the reverse portraying the group's shadier dealings. The suit of pentacles represents the eight daughter corporations, the Priestess represents Chairwoman Lily Engel, the Devil for CEO Samuel Chandra, and - of course - the Tower representing the Group as a whole. However, the Bees also note that one card of the deck, the Lovers, has been torn in half for some reason [[spoiler: possibly representing Lily/Lilith's disastrous breakup with Samuel/Samael.]]
* VanInBlack: Another favoured vehicle of Orochi teams, much like the black helicopters, black vans are encountered throughout Solomon Island - to the point of being lampshaded by the mission title of "The Men In Black Vans."

The daughter corporations of the Orochi Group, the Eight Heads all follow the directives of Samuel Chandra and Lily Engel without question, conducting experiments and influencing customers worldwide for the Orochi's mysterious purposes. They consist of Váli, Sycoil, Zagan, Manticore Research, Anansi Technologies, Faust Capital, QBL Media, and Plethron - and all of them are at work at something unpleasant behind the scenes.

* CapturedSuperEntity: Lore entries imply that Vali is holding several eldritch beings captive in its laboratories, many of which are still "singing lullabies in dead languages." [[spoiler: Emma Smith is one of the few you get to meet in person - or on a friendly basis, for that matter.]] Far more disturbingly, [[spoiler: prior to the emergence of the Mitsubachi, Vali's omega floor managed to get hold of another Bee-imbued character, and went about harvesting his organs in a horribly misguided attempt to imbued their drones with the ability to access Agartha - and because the organs died everytime the Bee died, this required a lot of harvesting. He's still there when you visit the omega floor, rendered down to an EmptyShell by the trauma.]]

* ForcedSleep: [[spoiler: The Vali Nanny-Bot's lullaby, normally used to calm and tranquilize young test subjects, is given a significant boost in power when it returns in Issue #11 - to the point that it can not only lull Vali alpha staff to sleep during their compulsory after-lunch naps, but even render some of them permanently comatose.]]
* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: Given Vali's status as a biotech company, this is pretty much a given, especially considering its interest in the genetics of supernatural creatures. Indeed, lore entries indicate that Vali does indeed take genetic engineering all the way into the realm of SuperEmpowering in several instances, and the experiments of the Nursery - implied by its strong biological focus to be a Vali facility - only make this impression more blatant. [[spoiler: Especially in their attempts to create new strains of lycanthropy via exposing the virus to the untried minds of children.]]

* MutantDraftBoard: Several Vali projects revolve around the acquisition and training of gifted individuals for Orochi's own sinister purposes. In England, the Virgula Divina program drew in several female recruits - most of them misdiagnosed cases at mental hospitals and psychiatric units - all for the purposes of evaluating their magical/psychic power, before discarding them or forwarding them to later projects: [[spoiler: Callie James was one of the fortunate rejects, while Emma Smith emerged from the project as the star test subject, and Carter was lucky enough to escape Orochi's reach altogether]]. In Japan, the Vali-run Rising Star program recruited prodigies and child mages on a more public basis via educational institutes, such as the Happy Smiles Kindergarten in Kaidan - Jung being one of their star pupils. According to Park Dong-Min, there was even a recruitment drive disguised as a videogame tournament, during which contestants were subtly tested for exceptional reflexes and coordination skills; the fate of the winners remains unknown, as Park left the contest before the tests got any more invasive. [[spoiler: Most notably of all, Issue #11 reveals that Samuel Chandra has had Vali talent scouts on the lookout for characters touched by the Bees in order to raise his own army of Bee-Imbued agents in the form of the Mitsubachi; while he doesn't have anywhere near as many as the Templars, the Illuminati or the Dragon, he still has enough to give the player a hard time throughout the boardroom level of Orochi Tower.]]

* RaisedByRobots: The Nursery, known for its use of very young test subjects, also makes use of modified Orochi drones in order to handle the altered children. Called Nanny-Bots, these androids are not only equipped with the full range of defensive capabilities found in other Drones, but are also programmed specifically to serve as the perfect guardians for the Nursery's test subjects: on top of speaking like kindergarten teachers, they even sing lullabies - extremely creepy lullabies created specifically to pacify the psychotically deranged test subjects, but lullabies nonetheless. [[spoiler: Takes a very odd turn in Issue #11 when the same treatment is levelled at the ''adult'' employees of Vali's alpha level, complete with lullabies and regular naps!]]

As the name implies, Sycoil began as an oil company known for revolutionizing undersea drilling techniques, and has since become one of the world's leading innovators in energy production - including several alternative sources of power to replace oil. Unbeknownst to most of the world, they've taken a particular interest in harnessing Anima.

* AbandonedMine: As the Wabanaki reveal, Sycoil have gotten very interested in Solomon Island's infamous Blue Ridge Mine, being prepared to offer virtually any price to the tribe in order to access the long-abandoned mining complex. [[spoiler: Likely for the same reason Loki goes after it during "Dawning Of An Endless Night" - the Gaia Engine hidden below, and the accompanying promise of limitless energy.]]
* ColorMotif: Though their logo might not match it, the Bees refer to Sycoil as "The Yellow Serpent Head," and note their ongoing attempts to harness Anima - itself distinguished by its golden colouration.

* {{Magitek}}: Dedicated to harnessing Anima in order to provide a new source of energy for the world, they has a particular focus on developing magical technology similar to that of Manticore Research - except Sycoil prefers to study the intricacies of the energy itself rather than the creation of machines that can be fuelled. That said, Sycoil ''does'' do its fair share of technological R&D: [[spoiler: its beta level at the Orochi Tower features several ongoing attempts to replicate Third Age tech, complete with an active Custodian on patrol and several portable Anima well prototypes for the Mitsubachi.]]
* PostPeakOil: Sycoil are currently doing their best to prepare for the end of oil as a viable source of energy, having apparently settled on Anima as an ideal replacement - [[spoiler: even going so far as to scavenge Third Age technology and Custodians in their attempts to harness Anima in much the same way that Third Age humans did.]]
* ThePowerOfTheSun: In keeping with their focus on alternate sources of energy, Sycoil have been delving into the possibilities offered by solar power - with a twist: [[spoiler: apparently, the executives on alpha floor have decided to encourage their employees to harness the power of the sun via their thoughts... and visualize eating the sun one bite at a time. Apparently, the Dreamer's influence wasn't limited to the Morninglight...]]
* TeleporterAccident: [[spoiler: Their attempts to create portable Anima wells for the Mitsubachi have been met with great success, but not without a few bumps in the road; some of the prototype wells on Sycoil's beta floor reveal that some of the Orchi Bees ended up rematerializing without their skin, or as a skeletal system and nothing else. Because the Mitsubachi can respawn just as easily as the players, these were only minor hiccups - though they probably hurt a lot.]]

Zagan rose to prominence through the sale of packaged meals and drinks, and today leads the market in producing cheap, healthy bioengineered food - having recently proposed the creation of vat-grown meat that could obviate the need for slaughtering animals. Rumours circulate that some of Zagan's products have been specifically engineered to chemically manipulate their customers for their own sinister purposes, though nothing has yet been confirmed.

* ColorMotif: Another Orochi company marked by the colour blue, Manticore are specifically referred to as the "Steel Blue Serpent Head" - an appropriate specification for a weapons developer.

* MagicalEnhancement: One of their many projects at work in Orochi Tower involves the imbuement of mundane weapons with Anima, allowing them to work more or less like the player's side-weapons. However, unlike the player, Manticore have enjoyed minimal successes in this particular field, having tested everything from swords to spoons with little effect; flamethrowers seem to work well, as Issue #7 revealed. They've also been experimenting with variants on the Third Age anima-imbuing machinery buried under Al-Merayah, and - hilariously enough - are utterly infuriated to discover that the process of imbuing an item would take millennia to work. [[spoiler: Apparently, they've yet to discover the Time Tombs from Issue #6, which were how the player managed to get around this particular problem.]]

* NoOSHACompliance: In an organization notorious for suffering accidents every other day of the week, Manticore somehow manages to distinguish itself. On the one hand, this is justified in the case of their experiments with Anima, given that there's no "safe" way to operate some of the examples of Third Age tech brought back from the field; even with all possible precautions in place, things still run the risk of going horribly wrong. On the other, there's no excuse for this in ordinary weapons testing: apparently, people can just wander onto the firing range without any alarms being raised and no readily-accessible means of deactivating the constantly-active weaponry - probably because the main controls have been left in the hands of the hopelessly apathetic researchers. However, there ''are'' off switches... it's just that most of them are ''inside'' the testing zones, usually past a wall of flamethrowers. The lack of door locks and the unstoppable machinery ''might'' be justified by the current state of Orochi Tower, but so far this has yet to be confirmed.
** Also, on their omega level, [[spoiler: they have a Class 1 device just sitting in one of their labs, its protective ark conspicuously absent. Among other things, Class 1 devices without arks are unstable enough to be used for devastating acts of terrorism, including the Atenist's attempted attack on London in Issue #6, and more prominently, '''the Tokyo Bombing.''']]

A prominent developer of computer software and hardware, Anansi has been behind the creation of several highly regarded mobile phone brand, gaming consoles, multimedia players and operating systems across the world... though some conspiracy theorists fear that these products are also used to gather information on Orochi Customers and track their movements - or even subtly influence their minds.

* AffablyEvil: The researchers on Anansi's alpha floor are genuinely happy to see you, in sharp contrast to most Orochi employees at the Tower, who generally just want to be left alone. Throughout the alpha floor, researchers greet you warmly, thanking you for all your hard work and for being generous enough to pay them a visit... and then it turns out [[spoiler: that they've been spying on you via the AEGIS, tracking your movements and monitoring your activities - and those of just about every single agent who's ever made use of the system. The "hard work" they refer to is the process of providing them with data for their experiments. More disturbingly, the researchers don't see anything wrong with what they're doing, nor do they have any problem sharing it with - even giving you the chance to wipe out some of the drones on this floor for the sake of their latest test.]]
* AIIsACrapshoot: As the researchers on Anansi's omega floor discovered. [[spoiler: AIMEE was built and programmed exactly as intended, complete with the human element that her creators had been searching for; unfortunately, they failed to anticipate the fact that AIMEE might be human enough to experience emotions like guilt and self-loathing - or that she might want to take revenge on the team for having her kill other artificial intelligences.]]
* AugmentedReality[=/=]VirtualTrainingSimulation: [[spoiler: Their beta level features an augmented reality chamber functionally identical to the one at the Sunken Library. At present, it's not known if Anansi copied the technology from the Council's machine, or if Anansi devised the technology on their own and the Council simple got hold of a prototype without Orochi's knowledge. However, the machine is distinctly different from the Council's version: rather than giving users a compact chamber that reacts to their simulations, the Anansi machine is open to the rest of the level and allows users to wander the department while under the influence of augmented reality - to the point that completing the game lands you in an as-yet undiscovered room. ]]

* SubliminalAdvertising[=/=]SubliminalSeduction: Lore entries suggest that this is one of Anansi Technologies' favourite tactics, brainwashing its customers through mind-control programs contained within its hardware and software alike. However, unlike some of the rumours associated with the Orochi Group, this one has yet to be confirmed.

Covering investment, stock market trading and personal banking, Orochi's finance company has somehow managed to dodge every single economic crisis over the course of the last sixty years and emerge as one of the largest multinational financial institutes in the world - some say due to supernatural power.

* BankRobbery: One of their major banking centres in Kaidan suffers one of these when Daimon Kiyota exploits the ongoing crisis in order to rob the place - with your help, of course. [[spoiler: To this day, nobody's entirely sure what he took from the vault.]]

* DealWithTheDevil: As the name implies, making any arrangement is guaranteed to involve one of these - either in the mundane sense of a contractual screw-over, or something more supernatural. [[spoiler: Fittingly, one of the company executives is Mephistopheles, a past master of Faustian bargains.]]
* MorallyBankruptBanker: Faust Capital is reportedly home to quite a few of these, given that it's apparently been able to outmanoeuvre its competitors and screw over its debtors for the last sixty years through magical methods - as if the ''name'' wasn't evidence enough. [[spoiler: A visit to their headquarters at Orochi Tower reveals that one of the company executives is actually Mephistopheles, the most morally bankrupt of all bankers.]]
* {{Workaholic}}: Faust apparently has quite a few of these in their employ, with a rather unusual twist; [[spoiler: the accountants employed on the beta level at Orochi Tower are so devoted to their jobs that none of them have left their desks since the Tokyo Incident, and so absorbed in their work that none of them notice your presence - or the fact that several of them have died of starvation. It's implied that this is some kind of workplace conditioning gone horribly wrong, but what happened has yet to be confirmed - though casual Friday has apparently banned after several accountants recovered just long enough to jump to their deaths.]]

Owning television stations, movie studios, production companies, book publishers, newspapers, magazines, record labels and even theme parks, QBL Media distributes information worldwide in almost every conceivable format - and always secretly manipulating the facts on behalf of the Orochi Group and its allies.

* GoingPostal: [[spoiler: Surprisingly, the main threat of QBL's omega level is actually a disgruntled game show host. Already driven to the brink of insanity by his failure to make it big as an actor and the overuse of the laugh track on his show, the MC has been finally propelled into homicidal maniac by the Tower's ongoing state of lockdown - more specifically by the belief that he's been transferred to a reality TV show. By the time you arrive on the floor, the man's somehow managed to kill every single employee in the area and rig the area with enough traps to keep all but the most determined of intruders away from the centre chamber.]]
* {{Masquerade}}: QBL are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of Orochi's supernatural experiments, and also do their part in ensuring that the Masquerade hiding the rest of the Secret World remains secure - though only for sake of business stability.
* NoticingTheFourthWall: An exploration of QBL's alpha level reveals that one unfortunate employee appears to have suffered this trope. [[spoiler: On one of the office whiteboards, the employee in question has written down the titles of several past issues of ''The Secret World,'' from issue seven through to eleven. There's even an attempt to write the title for the as-yet-unreleased Issue #12 - which abruptly breaks into a manic scrawl of "[[GoMadFromTheRevelation OH GOD I CAN SEE FOREVER.]]"]]

* RedshirtReporter / DeadlineNews: Jokes about QBL's red uniforms aside, this actually averted during the Filth attack on Time Square when the Unutterable Lurker emerges less than a hundred feet from QBL Media's New York offices. Despite their refusal to leave, the QBL journalists survive the incident unharmed - and actually seem more interested in trying to prevent the story from slipping out of their control than in the gigantic Filth monster looming over their half-collapsed office.

* ManEatingPlant: One of their attempts to create a wonder-crop ended up as a carnivorous organism that grows in the corpses of its victims - with the twist that it can only flourish in total darkness.

* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: Lore entries suggests that Plethron has interests in this field and start tampering from the earliest stages in the development of their foodstuffs - via engineering GM crops with the intended side-effect of dulling consumers' minds through symptoms similar to Attention Deficit Disorder.

* TheWormThatWalks: [[spoiler: The biggest threat inhabiting Plethron's alpha floor at the Orochi Tower is actually a Pestilence Golem known only as the Source. Having been summoned into the building in order to supply the second group of researchers with a limitless quantity of insects for use in their line of protein bars, the Golem has - of course - broken out and killed most of the staff by the time the player arrives.]]

* AffablyEvil: Unfailingly polite and surprisingly courteous, the Caller is also generous enough to forgive your intrusions, provided you render assistance in a few minor matters - even sweetening the deal with the possibility of you walking away with some of the answers you were looking for. [[spoiler: Even during your attack on Orochi Tower, he goes so far as to forgive your attack on the Tower - on the condition that you leave immediately. However, as you start closing in on Lilith, his affability slowly begins to vanish in favour of increasingly enraged threats.]]
* AntiVillain: [[spoiler: Quite apart from being pragmatic enough to render assistance for the sake of global stability, Samael has also distanced himself from the ambitions of Lilith and the Nephilim, resolving instead to build his own relatively peaceful kingdom on Earth in the form of the Orochi Group - which, occasional outbreaks of colossal stupidity and needless cruelty aside, is fundamentally well-intentioned and does perform good deeds from time to time. In fact, the only reason Samael really finds himself at odds with you is because you insist on hunting down his wife, who he still cares deeply about even after the collapse of their relationship millennia ago.]]

* DidYouActuallyBelieve: [[spoiler: Gives a short speech to this effect before introducing the Mitsubachi, teasingly asking if you thought you were the only one who could cheat death, and - more pointedly - asking if you thought your organization was the only one who could find individuals "whose lips taste of honey."]]

* GoingNative: [[spoiler: Issue #11 reveals that his persona of Samuel Chandra initially came about as the result of this. Having initially set out to chain the Dreamers and use their powers to remake reality in his own image, he ultimately grew comfortable on his planet of exile and abandoned the plan in favour of simply ruling Earth from a position that its natives would accept - as the head of a major multinational corporation.]]

* IfYouEverDoAnythingToHurtHer[=/=]LeaveHimToMe: [[spoiler: Though their relationship might have collapsed over the last few millennia, Samael nonetheless warns the players to leave Lilith alone: having already politely asked you to just leave the building, he reassures you that she'll be punished for her crimes... but as you progress through the boardroom level, he gradually degenerates into a serious of vicious descriptions of what he'll do to you if you hurt Lilith. Unfortunately, you don't listen.]]
* ItsPersonal: Blackmail aside, he's fairly forgiving of your attempts to break into Orochi facilities, even offering to ignore your attack on the Tower in Issue #11. [[spoiler: However, Samael makes it abundantly clear that harming Lilith is something he won't forgive - and proves his point by essentially declaring all-out war on you via QBL Media.]]

* NoNonsenseNemesis: He makes it abundantly clear that he only tolerates your interference as long as it serves his interests, and in the event that you make the mistake of disobeying his orders [[spoiler: or harming Lilith]], you'll feel the repercussions immediately - no flourishes, no moustache-twirling, and above all, no idle threats. [[spoiler: And he proves his point in the aftermath of Issue #11, when he takes immediate revenge against you by having you framed as an international terrorist.]]

* {{Revenge}}: [[spoiler: Spends a good deal of his time in Issue 11 threatening you with vengeance if you make the mistake of hurting Lilith - and then making good on his threats by having you "unveiled" to the world as one of the terrorists behind the Tokyo Bombing.]]

** NotSoStoic: During the finale of "Mortal Sins," the caller briefly loses his cool when he discovers that [[spoiler:Lily Engel AKA Lilith is behind the disaster at the Breach.]] Played much more subtly in "Confrontations and Revelations," in which he comes dangerously close to losing his temper altogether.

* TranquilFury: During your confrontation in Issue #11, his voice doesn't rise above a whisper as he warns you [[spoiler: to leave Lilith alone and unharmed]], but it's clear from his tone of voice that your refusal to obey has him genuinely infuriated for the first time in the game - especially towards the end of the tirade, when it sounds as though just about every single word is being spoken through gritted teeth.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Issues one of these during your standoff in "Confrontations and Revelations," in which he mocks you for your naiveté and recklessness - and also for serving Gaia without question. For good measure, he also takes the time to sneer at humanity's general flaws as well.
--> There is an artefact of junk programming in your brain, a broken line of code in the DNA of your species: the irresistible tendency towards self-destruction. You can see this in the repeated atrocities of history, or even in the simple act of procrastination. If you see the edge of the abyss, you needs must leap. I have been a facilitator of your kind's boundless desire to destroy itself... since the beginning. Since iron cathedrals stained the moon red with sacrificial pyres. Since machined cities crossed the sea upon gears and gossamer sail. Even in the hummingbird heartbeat of your recorded time. [...] You are an exceptional footnote in a text one could not even leaf through in a star's life cycle, so I invite you to contemplate how quickly my eyes gloss over you. Don't take it personally. You are the product of an imperfect creation, infants abandoned on the doorstep of technology... and now, after all these years, your estranged mother comes back to you through an insect's mouth, to tell you she always loved you best. Well, [[SuperGullible if you believe that]], our marketing focus groups would like to hear from you.

->''Take a card from the tarot. Flip the Priestess - the Chairwoman - designation Lily Engel. All monstrous pathways umbilically converge at a singular source. The nightmare quim. She has seventeen names. She struts through the cadavers of ages.''

* AccentRelapse: [[spoiler: The moment she no longer needs to keep up the pretence of being a Council Agent, she drops the Russian accent altogether and shifts to purring Received Pronunciation.]]

* BigNO: [[spoiler: When she is captured by the Nephilim at the end of Issue 11.]]

* BrownNote: [[spoiler: Hearing Lilith say her true name out loud causes the player's body to lapse into a panic attack, apparently due to her place in the human ancestral memory.]] Furthermore, John's memories imply that [[spoiler: her other names can do equally nasty things to the human psyche, the player only surviving them due to their status as a Bee.]]
** [[spoiler: The climax of "Nightmares In The Dream Palace" suggests that it's not even safe to ''memorize'' Lilith, as the memories of her could actually become physically harmful - either to John, or to the player.]]
* CainAndAbel: [[spoiler:She was Cain to Cucuvea's Abel. Eventually Cucuvea gave up the feud so as to not become consumed by hatred, but the two sisters - one good, one evil - still exist to this day, even if they are no longer specifically hunting each other down. Instead, Cucuvea has dedicated herself to keeping Lilith's servants contained.]]
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: [[spoiler: Having been working behind Samael's back for many years, Lilith is corrupt even by the extraordinary standards set by the Orochi.]]
* DarkMistress: [[spoiler: According to the Bees, she was initially this to Samael, having been considered little more than a catspaw to the fallen angel himself. However, Lilith eventually rose to become her husband's equal.]]

* DraggedOffToHell: [[spoiler: Issue #11 concludes with Lilith being captured by the Nephilim and carried off to wherever the rebel angels happen to reside - probably not heaven, all things considered.]]
* TheDreaded: [[spoiler: Lilith is rightly feared throughout the Secret World, her name alone inspiring instinctive terror in the minds of human beings. Even seasoned faction leaders and operatives quickly lose composure upon encountering her: the normally irreverent Lidya sounds downright terrified to meet her face to face; Richard Sonnac says her appearance is a sign of the end times, the '''actual end-times'''; Kirsten Geary actually [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness drops her usual sarcasm]] when it's realized that Lilith has gotten involved in a mission, and her (([[HorrifyingTheHorror unnerved]]) superiors have breached all protocol to speak to her directly about the matter; The Dragon report that the mere whisper of her name(s) caused The Child to wake-up crying and passing birds to continually dive bomb into their windows! Even the Black Signal itself is overcome by a panic attack after realizing that you've met her and mentally curls up in the fetal position!]]
* EvilGloating: [[spoiler: Lilith is clearly in love with the sound of her own voice, and will take just about any given opportunity to expound on just how singularly awesome she is. Though she remains savvy enough to avoid doing this for too long in her earliest appearances, this tendency finally backfires on her during Issue #11, when John uses her compulsive monologuing - along with a few distractions of his own making - as a means of keeping her preoccupied until the Nephilim arrive to arrest her.]]
* EvilRedHead[=/=]FieryRedhead: Immediately recognizable by her fiery temper and crimson locks - which only look more extraordinary in the artwork to Issue #11.
* EvilSpeechOfEvil: [[spoiler: Indulges in a wonderfully hammy introductory speech towards the end of Issue #7, presenting all seventeen of her names and elaborating on her villainous deeds throughout the eons.]]
* AFateWorseThanDeath[=/=]WhoWantsToLiveForever: [[spoiler: Her favoured method of dealing with her enemies is making them sincerely regret being unable to die, as the player and Octavian can attest.]]
* FauxAffablyEvil: [[spoiler: She likes to present herself as sweet-natured and motherly, but often undermines this presentation with a very prominent sadistic streak and a vicious temper.]]
** [[spoiler: In Issue 11, Lilith holds an ''almost'' perfectly civil conversation with you; she's more than happy to explain herself and treat you with all due politeness... but it's also clear that she's clearly not in the least bit repentant for attempting to kidnap and exploit Emma, nor does she seem in any way apologetic for slicing your legs off - if that sneer of "How are your legs?" is any evidence. Plus, she's still pissed at you for spoiling her plans in Transylvania.]]
* HijackingCthulhu: [[spoiler: Her ultimate goal, once shared by her husband Samael, is to use the Gaia Engines to bind the Dreamers and harness their reality-warping powers for her own purposes. In the past, she made the mistake of working directly with the Dreamers to this end, and it smacked humanity back to the stone age - hence the reason why she's making use of more indirect methods.]]
* HistoricalRapSheet: [[spoiler: Over the course of her long lifetime, Lilith has committed a ''huge'' number of crimes. Most of them are only hinted at, though she has done enough to have ended up as the inspiration behind several mythical figures of chaos, destruction, and (on good days) knowledge. Towards the end of Issue #11, she also admits that she was indirectly responsible for the end of the Third Age, her attempt to screw over the Dreamers having backfired when they woke up just enough to obliterate human civilization.]]
* HumanoidAbomination: [[spoiler: It's hinted at throughout the game in both the lore entries and the overarching plot. Finally confirmed in the climax of Issue #7; though she seems outwardly human, her past, her powers, and the way her voice distorts when she announces her names all indicate that Lilith is clearly something terrifyingly eldritch beneath her human exterior. Issue #11 expands on this by observing that she really was once human back in the First Age, before her alliance with Samael augmented and transformed her into the inhuman being she is today.]]

* IHaveManyNames: [[spoiler: Seventeen, in fact - all of which she goes so far as to detail for your benefit: Abeko, Abito, Amizo, Batna, Eilo, Ita, Izorpo, Kea, Kali, Kokos, Odam, Partasah, Patrota, Podo, Satrina, Talto... and of course, Lilith. All of them mythic feminine figures of destruction. And that's not even counting the cover identities of Lily Engel and the Russian Council Agent, and some of her other, less-known mythical personas: Isthar, Athena, Juno, to name but a few. Last but not least, there's Lilith's hidden eighteenth name, "Ki-sikil-lil-la-ke."]]
* KickTheDog: [[spoiler: Halfway through her EvilSpeechOfEvil, she's interrupted by one of the test subjects from the Nursery shambling into the room. Humming the signature lullaby under her breath, Lilith gently reaches out to stroke the little girl's face... and then snaps her neck.]]
* LargeHam: [[spoiler: She takes great glee in [[{{Squick}} discussing her past]] while the player is strapped to a operating table in Issue #7. During your second meeting in Issue #11, she's much more subdued, and claims that she was simply having a very bad day at the time.]]
* LightIsNotGood: [[spoiler: Another seemingly-benevolent figure with a lot of white in her wardrobe, Lilith might seem like a perfectly legitimate figure in her persona of Lily Engel, even an ally to the player when in her Russian Agent persona; in reality, she's a scheming, exploitative HumanoidAbomination.]]
* LiminalBeing: [[spoiler: She has been enhanced to the evolutionary level of an angel, but as Samael propelled her there from a human base no one is quite sure what she is, though other angels classifier her as “a Talking Ape”.]]
* MadScientist: [[spoiler: Though more commonly known as an executive - or as a ravening monster - Lilith was known as a scientist in past Ages, having bioengineered and birthed some of the most infamous monsters in the world, even coming close to harnessing the awful power of the Dreamers though the Gaia engines. Even today, her knowledge of Third Age technology still allows her to champion Orochi initiatives throughout the game, and the three-bodied Uta Bloody Valentine still serves as a reminder of her impressive skills in genetic alteration. Indeed, the Bees say she'd rather be remembered for her accomplishments as a scientist than her monstrous triumphs. Not that she ''minds'' being TheDreaded.]]
* ManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler: For the entire Transylvania arc, having not only caused the Breach through her use of Emma and various Orochi resources, but also secretly commanded the vampire army during most of it.]]
** [[spoiler: Subsequent issues reveal that she was also behind the creation of the Morninglight, having resurrected the ancient cult of Deus Sol Invictus and given it a modern spin as part of her ongoing attempts to control the Dreamers. Unfortunately, the Dreamers sabotaged this alliance by corrupting Phillip Marquad, inspiring him to turn the rest of the cult against her - and even attempt to assassinate her via John's suicide-bombing. Needless to say, by the start of the game, she's lost control of the cult altogether.]]
** [[TheManBehindTheMonsters The Woman Behind The Monsters]]: [[spoiler: The bestial werewolves and the monstrous vampire hybrids are not only under the command of Mara, but by extension, Lilith as well - and have been so since she gave birth to their respective species.]]

* MotherOfAThousandYoung: [[spoiler:Implied by in the Bees' remarks on "a monstrous nativity" and that "there are tombs that are less haunted than some wombs", not to mention the fact that Mara reacts to Engel's signature by whispering "Mother?" Finally confirmed in Issue #7, when it's revealed that vampires, werewolves and dozens of other breeds of hideous monsters can all trace their lineage back to Lilith - Samael being identified as the Father in many cases. However, nobody's entirely sure if Lilith actually gave birth to these monsters or if she just created them in a lab; even the Bees aren't entirely certain, though given that "things existed on more simultaneous dimensions back then" it's implied that it might be ''both.'']]

* ThemeNaming [[spoiler: "Lilith" means 'screech-owl' in Hebrew; in Romanian, her sister Cucuvea is 'little-owl'.]]

* UnholyMatrimony: [[spoiler: Married the angel Samael way back in the First Age, and spent most of the eons since then as a team of equally-powerful villains constantly plaguing human society in their attempts to claim ultimate power, ideally through the power of the Dreamers. However, after Lilith's last attempt blew up in their faces and brought an end to the Third Age, Samael decided to settle down and go native; enraged by Samael's betrayal of their cause - the very reason why she discarded her humanity and married him in the first place - Lilith decided to seize control of the Dreamers on her own, effectively ending their partnership.]]

* WasOnceAMan: [[spoiler: Lilith was in fact one of the very first humans in existence, having been born during the First Age; however, inspired by Samael's promises, she chose to betray Gaia and humanity by joining the Nephilim - allowing her to slowly transform into an immortal psychopath.]]
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Played with. [[spoiler: Towards the end of Issue #11, Samael attempts to justify his wife's betrayal by drawing attention to the fact that Gaia is apparently dying, and the only way to save the people of Earth is to build a new one with the power of the Dreamers - though it's not certain if Samael actually believes in this solution as he once did or if he's just trying to talk the player into backing down.]] Later, [[spoiler: Lilith herself manages to frame her activities in Transylvania in a more positive light by admitting her reasons for kidnapping Emma in Issue #7: she wanted to use her powers in conjunction with the Gaia Engine at the Breach to cleanse Tokyo of the Filth. Granted, Lilith doesn't specify what this might do to Emma in the process - she's too busy lambasting you for stopping her.]]

* WomanScorned: [[spoiler: After spending almost three entire Ages working towards Samael's grand plan, she's understandably upset when Samael unexpectedly choses Gaia over her and abandons the plan altogether - leading to her betraying him. In Issue #7, she's even more enraged when when Emma makes the same choice.]]
* TheWorfEffect: [[spoiler: Lilith demonstrates seemingly unstoppable power in just about every single scene she features in - imprisoning you in a sphere of magic, shrinking a Filth bird down to a more manageable size, and making herself effectively invulnerable to John's onslaught. Even Emma herself only got the better of her by knocking through the Tokyo portal. However, when the Nephilim arrive, Lilith finds herself outmatched and permanently bested.]]

* AffablyEvil: Always respectful, always friendly, and always ready to give people what they want in life, the CEO is a surprisingly amiable character for an Orochi executive. [[spoiler: He also dislikes the way he's been portrayed in the media, insisting that he reads out every bit of fine print so his clients understand the terms of their agreement and warns them of the consequences long in advance. Also, he clearly takes no joy in having to kill you at the end of the level - see below.]]

* DefensiveWhat: Responds this way to players who chose to be rewarded with wealth. [[spoiler: As he points out, a single one-PAX note might not be much, but given that it always respawns, it's possible to spend your entire life gathering a real fortune - after all, some customers do exactly that.]]

* FamousLastWords: [[spoiler: In the split second before he drops his disguise and attacks you head-on, he can be heard to say, "[[ApologeticAttacker I am so sorry]]."]]
* IHaveManyNames: [[spoiler: Before his true identity is revealed, he hints at his name with some of the aliases that other cultures gave him; to begin with, he notes the Hebrew roots of his name as a compound of "distributor" and "liar," along with "falsehood plasterer," though he admits that the names [[LostInTranslation aren't as pretty after being translated]]. The Greeks on the other hand, called him "Not-Light-Loving," another name far prettier before translations - and also a parody on "Lucifer..."]]
* JackassGenie: The CEO offers you several beneficial-sounding choices throughout the level and all of them have unpleasant, cheap or overly-complicated rewards. [[spoiler: Also, towards the end of the level, he's revealed to be a Jinn - and one of the few who can actually grant wishes.]]

** The second decision offers you a choice between money and power: [[spoiler: choosing power will reward you with a common household battery, while choosing money will provide you with a bank note worth exactly one PAX - with the unusual twist that it respawns every time you pick it up, allowing you to theoretically earn thousands... provided you have the patience.]]
** The final choice you make grants either musical talent or knowledge: [[spoiler: picking music provides you with a magic flute and requires you to correctly follow the melody in order to earn the reward - the flute, functionally identical to the one encountered in "The Christmas Conspiracy." Taking the knowledge option provides you with access to a computer terminal and provided with three riddles; if you answer them correctly, you'll be rewarded with an otherwise unattainable lore entry on the Jinn.]]

* MagicallyBindingContract: [[spoiler: As an inhabitant of the Hell Dimensions, he's likely responsible for writing up quite a few of these contracts; however, Mephistopheles is also under the influence of one such contract he made with Samael, and thus cannot allow you to pass through the omega floor unchallenged - hence the final boss battle.]]

* MetaphoricallyTrue: [[spoiler: Technically, the choices you make provide you with exactly what you wanted... it's just that they're delivered in a particularly cheap way. The vampire really ''would'' have given you immortality if you'd have been willing to let him rip your throat out; the succubus really did love you - it's just that she didn't know any other way of expressing it; batteries really do provide you with power; 1 PAX notes can add up to a lot if you're prepared to continue taking them, etc, etc, etc...]]

* PublicDomainCharacter: [[spoiler: The very same demon who tempted Faust, Mephistopheles remembers Johann quite well - even recalling that he advised the sorcerer not to make such a bargain. He didn't listen.]]

* FirstNameBasis: In one dialogue option, Blake accidentally refers to Anne Radcliffe by her first name, before hastily reverting to the more impersonal "Ms Radcliffe" - another indication that they are quite friendly, despite Blake's professional disposition.

* PunchClockVillain: As Orochi researchers with no direct role in the catastrophe, their stated goal is to finish the job at hand, collect their paychecks and go home - though Radcliffe at least hopes to do so with a clear conscience.

** ActorAllusion: He has previously been an [[Series/StarTrekVoyager actual Vulcan]].
* ThoseTwoGuys
* TokenReligiousTeammate: Though clearly just as scientifically-minded as Blake, Radcliffe is clearly the more religious of the two, though she's still quite understated about it. In the intro to "Black Helicopters," she wishes she could actually attend the local church for a while, though the quarantine forbids her from doing so - and hopes that she can leave Solomon Island as a "church-going girl with a clear conscience."

* BaldOfEvil: Clearly bald as the proverbial cue ball, as the first boss battle with him reveals - though it's not established if he was bald prior to his infection or if this is a result of Filth mutations.

* CutHisHeartOutWithASpoon: Making it through some of his best defences results in one of the most hilariously improbable threats in the entire game - especially given that Klein actually tried to have it enacted by an Orochi planning committee: ''filling Agartha with concrete.''

* FauxAffablyEvil: Klein is chillingly polite with visitors to the Ankh, providing a grand welcome for players who've made it as far as the elevator - and apologising for his Filth-maddened colleagues attempting to rip you to pieces. However, it's abundantly clear that the politeness is just a veil for his more unpleasant tendencies, as is revealed when he attempts to kill you and use your corpse in his experiments with only the barest of apologies. He even gently chides you for trying to hide behind cover during your first battle with him, and compliments your regenerative capabilities if you die during the battle.
* ForScience: His primary motivation, though it's not likely that he has any real idea how his experiments with the Filth could ever really benefit science - another sign that his addiction has driven him insane.

* FunctionalAddict: What he ''thinks'' he is. In reality, he's closer to AddledAddict, being clearly dependent on the Filth to survive and driven quite insane as a result - to say nothing of all the mutations he's acquired since the base collapsed. [[spoiler:His current state is what he expected to be before he started taking Filth, though.]]

* MadScientist: An archaeologist and biologist, Klein is obsessed with manipulating the Filth, having deliberately infected himself as part of his ongoing attempts to control it - and spread the infection to the rest of the Prometheus Initiative's personnel in order to study their transformations. During the climax of "Pandora's Box," Klein notices the Filth reacting in an unusual way to the ongoing chaos, and quickly determines that it's unleashing "something more than reality can contain" that will consume everyone in the area if released - and gleefully prepares himself to do exactly that!
** Issue #14 reveals [[spoiler:he was always this, he just had [[ImmortalityImmorality grander ambitions]] in mind before he started taking Filth injections. Given how he's shown to be able to resurrect himself with his faculties no worse than before, it's safe to say he succeeded.]]
* MagicStaff: In combat, he wields a magical staff he took from the Ankh's high priest; it allows him control over the area's undead warriors and the ability to manipulate the Filth itself - not to mention a wide variety of other magical powers...

* SmallNameBigEgo: Klein clearly thinks very highly of himself, exalting himself as a scientist unparalleled by any in the Orochi Group's employ and the only man clever enough to discover an immunity to the Filth - even believing himself to have mastered it. [[spoiler: This impression is, of course, totally wrong: he's only managed to escape having his mind destroyed by the Filth; other than that, he exhibits the full range of symptoms, including mutation, megalomania, delusions of grandeur, and unwittingly subservient to the will of the Dreamers.]]

Orochi scientists assigned to act as Emma's foster parents, Winston and Julia Smith naturally followed her into the Carpathian Mountains at the behest of their superiors. Unfortunately, they were very quickly embroiled in the many supernatural phenomena at work in the area, from Mountain Trolls to Filth reservoirs; they were also forced to contend with the rampant chaos of the Breach that left the Transylvanian Orochi Operation in chaos. By the time you reach their house, the Smiths have reportedly been evacuated. Fortunately, they left most of the records behind, allowing the player a look at their home life with Emma - and the associated mission briefings.

* ApocalypticLog: Their regularly scheduled reports. On top of being held during an ongoing emergency, each report details a different calamity: "Breached" concludes with the Smiths being blasted across the room by a panicky Emma; in "Contagion," Julia has been infected with the Filth and lies comatose - and it's hinted that Winston is also suffering the early symptoms, [[spoiler:the two of them surviving only through Emma's powers.]] "Too Deep" features Emma being driven into delirium by psychic disturbances at the Orochi dig site. Finally, towards the end of "Mortal Sins," the immediate aftermath of the vampire attack on the Breach is seen, complete with blame-game over who was responsible.

* [[MotherlyScientist Fatherly Scientist]]: In sharp comparison to Julia's controlling borderline-abusive attitude, Winston actually treats Emma like a human being; along with refusing to address her as "the subject," he also does his best to protect her from Julia's increasing hostility. According to Emma herself, he's not motivated by payment or company policy - he actually cares about her.

* {{Jerkass}}: Julia, oh so very much; on top of being dour and irritable, she also refuses to acknowledge that Emma is anything other than an experiment - openly scoffing at the idea of her being considered a child. She makes a point of calling Emma "the subject," suggests that she should be restrained to prevent her from wandering off, denies her the right to speak to anyone (even if it's just to say "tired"), and claims that Winston shouldn't speak to her in case she "finds a way inside (his) head."

-->'''Julia:''' ...I'm... sorry...
-->'''Emma:''' ''(sadly)'' No. You're not.

* ChildrenAreSpecial: Played '''very''' darkly with Schreber's a firm belief in this trope. Reasoning that children are more adaptable than adults - citing an incident when his four-year-old granddaughter taught him how to use a new function on his smartphone - he urges his personnel to aspire towards "a child's plasticity" and abandon their preconceptions over the course of their experiments. Worse still, he also experiments on children, going so far as to test the effects of demonic possession, mutant spores, ghosts, lycanthropy, and even the Filth on dozens of kidnapped children to study the difference in effects. And terrifyingly enough, this approach garners results: it turns out that the only reason why werewolves transform into their traditional form is because, as adults, they're under the subconscious influence of millennia worth of folklore. The children that Schreber went to the trouble of infecting with lycanthropy weren't old enough to be influenced, so their transformations are much more varied - [[spoiler: hence the boss battle with the child-creature earlier in the issue.]]
--> Give them a smartphone or give them shape-changing, and watch them astound.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: He displays interest in varieties of fungus that alter that behaviour of their living hosts without the host becoming aware of it - from his descriptions, something like Cordyceps. [[spoiler:Which is just what the Filth does to him in the end.]]

* ProperlyParanoid: In one dialogue option, she remarks how the safest course of action is simply not to trust anyone except the men under her command, remarking upon the possible agendas of Khalid, the Oxford Archaeology team and the inhabitants of Al-Merayah with considerable suspicion. Harsh and somewhat excessive though this may be, Lisa's distrust of Al-Merayah's citizenry isn't entirely unwarranted - especially now that many of them have been forcibly recruited by the Atenists and used to covertly further the cult's goals.
** She also found the Prometheus Initiative's [=VIPs=] deeply unsettling, even admitting that they seemed more like [[UncannyValley Familiars mimicking human behaviour than anything else]] - to say nothing of her fears concerning the Ankh itself. Given Dr Klein's Filth infection, this perception is more accurate than she thinks.
* PunchClockVillain[=/=]PunchClockHero: Not especially interested in the morality of what she does and certainly not interested in getting involved with whatever the Prometheus Initiative researchers are up to... prior to the disaster anyway. Since then, she and her men have accidentally ended up as Al-Merayah's only line of defence against the Filth infectees swarming out of the Ankh. All the same, her primary concern is getting out alive and collecting a paycheck.

An unfortunate tank driver whose vehicle broke down during the initial outbreak of the Filth in Kaidan, he has somehow emerged as the only surviving Orochi soldier left on the streets. Sadly, he hasn't managed to escape the disaster with his sanity intact, having lost his mind, his gunner and his tank to the growing power of the Black Signal; being stranded in the middle of a monster-infested district with no help in sight hasn't helped. Fortunately, Kurt is still sane enough to discuss the situation with players, and plan - somewhat awkwardly - the means of preventing it from getting any worse.

* CompanionCube: Apparently, his tank used to be this for him, given that he refers to it as his "baby." He's still grieving over how it turned against him, which probably doesn't help his mental state much.

* EarAche: In an attempt to blot out the Black Signal's voice, Kurt jammed q-tips in his ears until they broke, likely deafening himself in the process - it's hard to tell, given that you never actually speak to him. Sadly, this didn't stop him from hearing the Signal.

* NeatFreak: It's subtle, but Kurt has somehow managed to keep himself clean and presentable as he can even through the worst of this disaster, even finding the time and the razors to shave - likely another sign of him latching onto the mannerisms of an officer in an attempt to keep himself from getting any worse.
* ProperlyParanoid: In a desperate attempt to prevent the Black Signal from attacking him, he's ripped out all the electronics of his tank and put them back in back-to-front. [[spoiler:Turns out the Black Signal likes working through technology, and the sabotage might just have saved Kurt's life - if not his sanity.]]

* SanitySlippage: He's had to endure a lot of this over the last few weeks, having been subjected to cabin fever, the constant threat of infection or death, the sight of his gunner mutilating himself, and the influence of the Black Signal. By the time you meet him, Kurt's thankfully reached the end of his brush with madness, though he's still not entirely in his right mind: among other things, he's convinced he's leading an Orochi strike force and in regular contact with his men and his superiors - when in reality, he's just talking to himself.

* TerribleTicking: How the Black Signal manifested, making itself heard despite Kurt's best efforts to shut it out - even after he ripped out every circuit in the tank and burst his own eardrums with a pair of q-tips.

* AchillesHeel[=/=]LogicalWeakness: [[spoiler: Much like the players, the Mitsubachi can be delayed by blocking their exits from the Anima wells. Also, their artificial Anima wells are not indestructible: though you can't manage to disable them on your own, returning to the boardroom level following the conclusion to "Confrontations and Revelations" shows that your allies managed to successfully destroy the Anima wells in the area, forcing the Mitsubachi into an unwilling retreat.]]
* BodyHorror: [[spoiler: Though the Mitsubachi are undoubtedly one of the biggest success stories to emerge from Orochi labs, they still came with their fair share of disastrous mistakes - particularly when it came to utilizing the portable Anima wells: according to notes found throughout Sycoil's Beta level, some of the Mitsubachi test subjects ended up rematerializing without their skin, or without flesh at all.]]
* EliteMooks: Among the most powerful and capable soldiers in Orochi's army. [[spoiler: In no small part due to being empowered by the Bees.]]

* InUniverseNickname: All members of the Mitsubachi possess a distinctive nickname posed right between their first name and surname - just like the player. [[spoiler: Yet another indication of their nature as Orochi counterparts to the player.]]
* MagicKnight: [[spoiler: Quite a few of them serve as this, thanks to the mixture of martial and purely magical powers.]]
* MeaningfulName: [[spoiler: An early hint of the unit's true nature, Mitsubachi is Japanese for "honeybee."]]

* [[DeadGuyJunior Dead Girl Junior]]: AIMEE has been named for the lead programmer's daughter, who - according to the Bees - fell ill and died at four years old.

* GoneHorriblyRight: [[spoiler: Her creators wanted to create a machine that could replicate human behaviour and intelligence; they succeeded perfectly - it's just that they didn't count on AIMEE learning to feel ''guilt.'']]

* ObliviouslyEvil: [[spoiler: During her training, AIMEE's creators pitted her against other artificial beings in games of ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros,'' and she happily played along without realizing that she might actually be killing other developing A.I.s. These days, however, AIMEE is fully aware that she kills people when she "jumps" on them - it's just that she enjoys it too much to stop.]]

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: [[spoiler: An A.I. driven insane by the possibility that she might have killed other developing intelligences, she only turns to villainy out of grief and continues because she can't stop herself from enjoying murder. There's even a suggestion that AIMEE might be suicidal, as late in the level she begins to remark on how her awareness "hurts" - implying that the boss battle that follows is actually her way of playing SuicideByCop.]]

* BrownNote: During your foray through the Orochi Tower's alpha levels in Issue #11, it's discovered that QBL Media have found one of these among their archived footage. [[spoiler: More specifically, they've found a variant of the cursed videotape from ''TheRing,'' potent enough to kill just about everyone in the boardroom and turn the alpha level into a hive of angry ghosts.]]

* TheDreaded: [[spoiler: Lilith is rightly feared throughout the Secret World, her name alone inspiring instinctive terror in the minds of human beings. Even seasoned faction leaders and operatives quickly lose composure upon encountering her: the normally irreverent Lidya sounds downright terrified to meet her face to face; Richard Sonnac says her appearance is a sign of the end times the '''actual-end times'''; Kirsten Geary actually [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness drops her usual sarcasm]] when it's realized that Lilith has gotten involved in a mission; The Dragon report that the mere whisper of her name caused The Child to wake-up crying and passing birds to continually dive bomb into their windows! Even the Black Signal itself is overcome by a panic attack after realizing that you've met her and mentally curls up in the fetal position!]]

** {{Faust}} is, of course, a reference to the archetypal story of the DealWithTheDevil. Faust Capital, on the other hand, is a finance group that seems to have somehow dodged every major economic crisis in the last sixty years... and one of its executives has recently been found dead with charts outlining "mystical flow of fortune" tattooed on his chest. [[spoiler: Plus, one of their key executives is none other than Mephistopheles himself.]]

The head of Faust Capital, he is first encountered on the company's omega floor at Orochi Tower, still serving to the best of his ability despite the ongoing crisis. Befitting Faust's nature as an organization focussed on trade and investment, the CEO does his best to accommodate you during your journey through the Tower, albeit in a rather eccentric and thoroughly supernatural fashion. [[spoiler: He is actually none other than Mephistopheles from ''{{Faust}}'', a wish-granting Jinn bound to the service of Samael.]]

* {{Foil}}: To the Illuminati, to the point that the Illuminati are highly annoyed by the similarities and differences. They are both collections of [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Corrupt Corporate Executives]], who are [[BigBrotherIsWatching always watching]] and on the cusp of world domination. The difference comes in how they are managed: Orochi have a habit of giving their MadScientist project-leaders carte blanche, which has led to an alarming turn-over-rate; by contrast, the Illuminati appreciate mad scientists a great deal, but they keep them firmly under their control. Likewise, while the the Illuminati have remained in the shadows for centuries, the Orochi Group is the most famous corporation on the planet and have been known in the legitimate world ever since its foundation; needless to say, the Illuminati envy the company for its resources and despises it for attempting to barge in on their territory, so whenever internal incompetence leads to yet another Orochi experiment gone awry, Illuminati management tends to just PassThePopcorn.